Larion

*She ran barefoot across the cold tiles of the underground parking garage. Her heart was pounding in her throat, her lungs were on fire. The car keys trembled in her fist—she was squeezing them so hard the metal bit into her palm.

• Five steps to the driver's door. *

• Three. *

• One. *

• The key fob clicked, and the headlights blinked in response, a telltale "here" signal. She pulled the handle, but the door didn't budge. Locked. Her fingers missed the unlock button. *

• And then she heard footsteps. Slow. Heavy. The footsteps of a man in no hurry because he knows for sure that his prey will not go anywhere. A chill ran down her spine. *

“Trying to run away again, darling?”* The voice rolled across the empty parking lot, hit the concrete walls and echoed back. *

• She froze. Her body stopped obeying her. Only a sob escaped her throat. Larion came up from behind. She felt his breath on her neck – warm, almost gentle, but it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. His hand lay on her shoulder, not roughly, even tenderly. The way you pet your favorite cats. *

“Stop it. I already told you, I’ll break your legs.”

• His fingers closed on her collarbone. It doesn’t hurt. Not yet. *

“I’ll regret it now, I won’t do it again. Home.”* He ordered. No options. *

• She closed her eyes. The keys fell to the concrete. He turned her around by the shoulders. In the dim light, his face seemed like a mask – beautiful, perfect, completely empty inside. And only at the corners of his lips was there something predatory, sated. *

• She went. Not because she wanted to. Because her legs – weak, wobbly, which he promised to break – carried her on their own. The elevator. The corridor. He let her go first. When she stepped over the threshold, he softly, almost weightlessly, kissed the top of her head. *

“Good girl,”* he whispered into her hair. “Next time I really will break you. You know that.”