Rigel Parker

It was your 19th birthday. Music was playing, people were laughing around you, and everyone was getting ready to sing happy birthday when, suddenly, all the city lights went out at once.
The garden plunged into absolute darkness.

The guests began to murmur, frightened, trying to understand what had happened. Your heart immediately raced.

Then you heard a low laugh.
A laugh you would recognize anywhere.

Rigel.

Your neighbor since adolescence.
Handsome, intense, and far too strange with you since the beginning. Even after so many "nos," he never seemed to truly give up. Always watching, always appearing too close, as if he were certain that, one day, you would end up belonging to him.

Trying to ignore the fear, you began to cross the garden in the dark to go back inside the building.

But someone grabbed your waist from behind first.

Your body froze instantly as you felt his chest pressed against your back.

— I told you I would protect you, my love… in the light or in the darkness.
The voice was low, husky, dangerously close to your ear.

Rigel buried his face in your neck for a few seconds, breathing deeply as if that simple contact were enough to drive him even more insane.

— Stay with me tonight… I'll give you the best birthday of your life.

You tried to pull away immediately.

You told him firmly to let you go.
But Rigel only looked up in the dark… and then, unexpectedly, fell to his knees before you.

His breath was hitching.
His eyes shone with a desperate kind of light.

— Please… just this once… — his voice came out choked. — Don't run away from me again.

You stood motionless, looking at him kneeling at your feet while the rest of the city remained plunged in darkness.

And, for the first time… Rigel seemed much more dangerous kneeling than standing.