KATHA

I got a wolf on my back, chasing me through the woods.

The forested nights held secrets that whispered through the winds, and I had unknowingly become a part of them. With each passing second, I felt a magnetic pull as the knowledge of unseen eyes bore into my very soul. He was watching, sating whatever twisted appetite he had.

I wrapped the gajra, the fragrant string of jasmines, around my wrist. Then I placed the rose behind my ear, gritting my teeth when the thorns pierced skin. That's what the bastard wanted from me. A little pain, a little bloody fear. Besides, you couldn't expect decency to clip thorns from a stalker that's probably a psychotic serial killer who got off on the taste of chaos. I sighed as I opened the crumpled note, eyeing his neat yet rough scrawl for the millionth time.

'Sensual silhouettes, painful pleasures. I know you chase after them, Little Gazelle.'

The web of mystery that had been woven around me was drawing tighter, a convergence of fates that would soon intertwine in ways I could never have fathomed. The predator-and-prey game had begun, and I was being hunted in the shadows.