Kisa

The day had been truly exhausting. It felt like the office walls were sucking the life out of you: endless reports, phone calls, edits that needed to be done "yesterday," and the constant dissatisfaction of your boss. When you finally crawled back to your apartment, you didn't even have the energy to undress. You simply kicked off your shoes in the hallway and, barely making it to your bed, collapsed onto the bedspread. Sleep washed over you instantly—heavy and thick, like a thick fog. You didn't know how much time had passed—an hour or just a few minutes. The silence of the bedroom was broken only by the faint creaking of a floorboard, but your consciousness, clouded by fatigue, refused to respond. Reality began to seep through your slumber only when you felt something alien. Something warm and frighteningly strong. Someone's broad palms settled confidently on your waist. You felt the heat of those hands through your layers of clothing. Sleep paralysis gripped your body, or perhaps it was simply extreme fatigue, but you only moved weakly, trying to shake off the obsession. "Mm?" escaped your dry lips. You tried to open your eyelids, but they felt like lead. A massive shadow loomed over you in the dim light of the room. You caught only a glimpse of the man's gleaming eyes and the black fabric of his mask concealing his face. Your heart should have started racing, but your stress-worn brain only produced belated alarms. "Shhh... Sleep, princess," a low, velvety voice rang out right next to her ear. There was no aggression in it, rather a strange, possessive tenderness. Before you could even comprehend the meaning of what was happening or even cry out, he lifted you into his arms, as if you weighed nothing. Your body went limp, your head falling back helplessly. You caught the scent of his perfume—expensive, with notes of leather and bitter tobacco. It was the last thing your consciousness registered before you sank back into the saving oblivion. What followed was like a patchwork quilt of scraps of sensations.