TORN BY ECSTASY BY Vail blackRose

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Zara

"I don't want anything from you. I want you."

His words echoed in my mind, an endless loop that my brain refused to break. It was as if every other thought had been drowned out, leaving only his voice, low and commanding. The warning signs had been there from the start, like blaring sirens in the back of my mind, but I had ignored them, letting myself get swept up in the whirlwind of his attention—indulging in the illusion that this was like the romance novels I used to lose myself in.

But sitting here now, the car thick with his presence and the lingering scent of his cologne, I felt suffocated. I want you.

What did that even mean? Did he want me like a person—or like something to possess, to control?

"You belongs to me" he think I belong to him. But I am not. I have not belonged to anybody. That 'I am taken' thing was a lie. To escape the situation but his reaction.........

My heart raced as the memory of his earlier threats cut through the fog. Adrian was dangerous. I had known that from the moment I saw him snap a man's wrist as easily as if it were a twig. But this... this felt like something darker, something that went beyond just violence. He didn't respect boundaries. When I told him not to touch me, he had ignored my words, his hands still finding their way to my skin, his eyes dark with intent.

Why don't men understand? Why doesn't he understand? We can't just be touched like this. He doesn't care. His words played over and over in my head, like a twisted lullaby, growing louder with each passing moment.

"Be a bad girl, and you'll end up where I want you to be."

Panic began to claw at the edges of my mind, creeping up from deep within my chest, tightening its grip around my throat. My hands started to tremble, fingers shaking uncontrollably in my lap. No, no—not again. I knew this feeling all too well. I'd felt it the night my parents died, right after their car hit that tanker, when my entire world had shattered in a single heartbeat.

And now, it was happening again. Adrian had triggered it—this feeling of helplessness, of being trapped with no way out.

O Allah, please, just let me make it to the dormitory, I silently begged. Let me get away from him.

The car jerked to a sudden halt, and my heart jumped into my throat. We were outside my dormitory. For a split second, I felt the rush of freedom, but his gaze was on me, heavy and suffocating. His eyes followed my every move, his words still cutting through the air like a knife.

I fumbled for the door handle, my shaking hands barely able to grasp it. The panic was roaring now, a deafening rush in my ears as I shoved the door open and bolted from the car. I ran, my feet pounding against the pavement as I headed for the gate of the dormitory, but I could still feel him watching me. His presence seemed to wrap around me even as I fled, like invisible chains pulling me back.

His words rang in my ears. "I want you."

My body was trembling uncontrollably by the time I reached the gate, but just as I reached for it, my legs gave out, and I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Pain stabbed at my stomach, twisting and hollowing me out. My vision blurred as memories surged forward, crashing over me like waves, pulling me under.

The screech of metal, the sound of an oil tanker slamming into our car... the blood, so much blood. Ami and Papa's pale faces beneath the white sheets at the hospital, lifeless, still.

I heard the doctors say they were gone, but I couldn't understand. They couldn't be gone. Not them.

Uncle's house. The belt cracking through the air, Muzammil's sickening stare, the violence that became my new reality.