"I'm fascinated by everything you do. Your smile, your touch, your laughter. Believe me or not, I have spent my entire life waiting for this moment."
"Was I in your dreams?"
"I rarely sleep. My mind has this scary capability of being dark and twiste...
"I was as pure as a river but now I think I'm possessed."
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"Valerie? Taehyung?!"
My mother gaped at me, face ashen and trembling lips almost blue. My mind shut down, unwilling to think. She stared straight at me vacantly, like she was looking at me but not really. Her eyes and her mouth were frozen open in an expression of stunned horror. As if she was unable to comprehend what her eyes were telling her.
Then she somehow regained her senses and her face fell. She started shaking her head in disbelief, turning around but too slowly to be normal. Her shoulders hunched like she was trying to disappear inside herself.
Hands over her mouth, she leapt to the side and dashed for the staircase as if a firecracker had gone off.
"Mom, wait!" I shouted after her, finally breaking through my own transitory paralysis.
I glanced over my shoulder to catch a glimpse of Taehyung sitting on the bed, bare-chested, his gaze wide and unblinking and face stuck in an incredulous expression.
He jumped from the bed immediately, scrambling to find his clothes, while I ran off after my mother as fast as I could. Hopelessness was gnawing at my insides and my brain struggled to function properly like in some kind of emergency shut down.
My feet slipped on the polished floor as I sprinted down the stairs, my eyes restlessly searching the carnivorous hallway for my mother's silk crimson night robe.
I managed to catch a glimpse of her rounding the corner and running off towards what I presumed was Julian's study. My heart jumped in my mouth as I realized what she was about to do, and I picked up my pace, adrenaline pumping in my veins like I was in some kind of hot pursuit. I had to stop her at all costs. My brain partly registered a swoosh of air somehow behind me and what I assumed to be Taehyung running after us as well.
The ear-splitting bang of a door being flung open reached my ears and I realized I was too late. I already felt sick, my heart thudding lightly inside my rib cage. I dashed inside the dark narrow corridor leading to Julian's study, halting at the door frame.
My mother was wrestling with one of the cupboards, finally cracking it open and rummaging through it frantically. She staggered backwards and scrambled on the floor desperately before jumping to her feet, her pale trembling fingers wrapped around a handgun that was shaking violently in the air.
"Where is he?!" she roared, paler than snow, her breathing furious.
"Mom, don't!" I bellowed on the top of my lungs, clutching on the door frame.
Her wild eyes snapped to something behind me and I swung around when I felt soft but hurried footsteps landing on the carpet behind me.
"You!" she spat out, clumsily hoisting the gun up and directing it at Taehyung.
