Glimpse

Chapter 24: Courtney *MATURE*

WARNING: If you haven't guessed from the title, this chapter contains mature content, if you are not prepared for this, there will be a non-explicit summary next chapter as the mature themes are relevant to the plot and character development. Thank you.

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"What did it feel like when he started taking over?" Courtney asked, dangling toes dusting the carpet that bordered her bed.

A baby pink duvet billowed under her seated thighs, its folded fabric carding through her dainty fingers as they curled around the mattress' edge. Pillowed pink barred her hand from brushing against Shayne's as he sat next to her. His heat radiated through her arm despite their shoulders not even touching.

"His instincts, I mean," Courtney elaborated.

"Pins and needles. Except instead of pricking my skin, they lined my veins," Shayne said. Fabric twisting in his balled-up fists complemented his frustrated sigh.

"It's hard to explain. At first, it was this foreign tickle biting at my fingers, egging me into action. Sort of like muscle memory, except my muscles shouldn't have remembered what they ached to do. Now?" His audible sigh redirected focus from envisioning abstract doodles in her carpet to studying his face. Worried lips and tensed jaw, his Adam's apple bobbed. It strangled her stomach.

Silence clogging the room allowed his words to sink in, kickstarting her to cycle through the last twenty-four hours. Tunneling in on the immense heat she had felt at Ian's house, Courtney furrowed her brow. I don't remember it feeling foreign.

Shaking her confusion, Courtney weighed herself with air. Her delicate fingers scaled mountains of pink to find Shayne's hand.

"It's okay." Reassurance tugged on the corners of Courtney's mouth.

"Now, it's not so clear," Shayne said. Their hands combined in an unidentifiable mess of digits. "What used to convulse my insides now barely registers as a dull hum. The line separating what's mine from what's his" - He leaned into her. - "It's getting lost in the heat of things, erasing me."

Despite witnessing this firsthand, Shayne's narration solidified her fears.

Air whipped her unblinking eyes that she aimed at the wall, her breath hitching in her throat. Paralyzed. Heart surging to her throat. Emotions aggregated in its place, a cacophony too tangled to identify holding her hostage.

"You felt something, didn't you?" Shayne's concern-laced words roused Courtney from her trance.

"I think so? But maybe I'm just a hornier bitch than I thought." A single laugh sliced the air as Courtney's gaze lifted to the ceiling. "No, I think I felt her before I..." - Courtney clutched her now healed wound.- "I thought it was my body acting on its own accord, but maybe -"

"Courtney, you would know if it was her, trust me." Shayne squeezed her hand. She yearned to believe him; after all, he experienced this up close and personal. Still, the raw lust from earlier, the fact that something that usually repulsed her had turned her on. She needed to be certain. She needed answers.

"Last time, she popped in to stop me," Courtney said, standing up. "I want to try again. Lure her out or plunge right in, whatever it takes."

"What if you're right, and doing this just makes it worse? What if he takes over while you're unconscious?" His words collided into one another, panic sharpening his tone.

"I can't just sit idly by and wait for something to happen all because of some 'what-ifs', Shayne." Her abs tensed, stomach muscles inverting upon discerning the pain distorting his features. A heavy exhalation and a mere nod marked his acquiescence. It churned her stomach. "Tell me I don't have to do this alone, that you'll be here when I return."