Bound by Shadows

Prologue.

I often wondered what it would feel like to be someone else—someone bold, someone who lived life on the edge.  I'm just a girl stuck in a routine that feels as mundane as the gray Chicago skies. I wake up in the same small apartment, work a nine-to-five that barely pays the bills, and come home to binge-watch shows that whisk me away to worlds I'll never know.

But lately, there's been a shift, a flicker of something thrilling that I can't quite place. I catch glimpses of shadows where they shouldn't be—figures lurking just beyond my line of sight, eyes that seem to linger a second too long. I chalk it up to my overactive imagination, the side effect of too many late-night thrillers. Still, a part of me feels watched, as if someone were piecing together the fragments of my life.

I step out of my apartment, the chill of the evening air brushing against my skin. The streets buzz with the usual nightlife, yet I feel detached, floating in a world where I don't quite belong. I find comfort in the bustling crowd, lost among strangers who go about their lives, oblivious to the undercurrents swirling around me.

That's when I notice him—a tall figure across the street, the sharp outline of a leather jacket contrasted against the dim light. My heart races, and I instinctively glance away, pushing the thought aside. It's nothing, I tell myself, just a trick of the mind. Yet, when I look back, he's gone.

As I walk, a thrill courses through me. It's exhilarating, the idea that someone might be captivated by me, even if just in passing. Little do I know, the truth lurking in the shadows is far more dangerous than any fantasy I could conjure. In my quest for something more, I'm unwittingly stepping into a world where danger and desire intertwine, where the line between obsession and love blurs.

But tonight, I'm just Elora—a girl looking for excitement in a life that feels far too ordinary. What I don't know is that my life is about to change forever, entangled in the web of a dark romance I never saw coming.