The park opened up before her—a collection of stone benches and scraggly trees under scattered pools of amber light. Most of the benches sat empty. But one, near the far edge of a streetlight’s reach, held a figure.

A young man in his early twenties hunched forward on the stone seat, dressed in a thin jacket inadequate for the November chill. An earbud glinted in one ear. He bit into a sunflower seed, extracted the kernel with his tongue, and spat the shell onto the ground where dozens of others already lay scattered around his feet. His gaze seemed fixed on nothing in particular, somewhere past the pavement.

The woman approached, her footsteps audible on the path. She stopped at the edge of the bench’s light.

“Hey,” she said. “Mind if I sit?”

The young man’s head lifted. His eyes tracked to her face—pale skin, red eyes, features half-obscured by the hood. He held her gaze for a moment before she looked away.

“Sitting down next to a sketchy guy at 3 a.m., huh?” He cracked another seed between his teeth. “You got some guts.”

The woman sat down on the opposite end of the bench, maintaining space between them. She pulled her hood back slightly, revealing more of her face to the streetlight.

“Yeah, well, I’m sketchy too,” she said. “We’ll make a matching set.”

The young man leaned back against the bench, his shoulders settling against the stone. He cracked another sunflower seed between his teeth and spat the shell onto the growing pile at his feet. His gaze stayed on her face, lingering on her red eyes.

“I don’t know whether to tell you that I don’t deal,” he said, “or tell you that I don’t have any money.”

The woman’s expression didn’t change. She pulled her hands from her hoodie pocket and rested them on her knees.

“Relax, I don’t need a dealer and your wallet’s safe,” she said. “Just looking for a place to sit that isn’t completely soaked.”

His gaze shifted away from her, scanning the darkness beyond the bench. The earbud caught the light as he turned his head.

“Well… I guess you don’t want to sit in silence. What’s your deal? 3 a.m., a young woman alone. Are you nuts?”

She looked toward the darkness beyond the streetlight’s circle, then back at him. A small exhale, visible in the November air.

“Maybe a little nuts, yeah. But it’s 3 a.m. and you’re here too, so I figure we’ve both got our reasons for being awake when normal people are sleeping.” Her hand lifted, indicating the darkness. “Besides, sitting alone in my place was getting old. At least out here there’s… I don’t know, other people existing. Even if they’re strangers eating sunflower seeds in empty parks.”

He extracted another seed from the bag in his jacket pocket. His jaw worked around it before he spoke.

“The biological urge, right?” He spat the shell. “Talking to some meat sack that will speak back, even if you likely won’t ever see them again. Hell, maybe even better if you won’t ever see them again.” He paused, rolling the next seed between his fingers. “Don’t you hate it? That it came programmed in? I don’t like people. It’s not that I actively dislike them. More like… They make my skin crawl.”

The woman’s posture shifted slightly forward. Her eyes tracked to him, held there for several seconds.

“Yeah. The biological urge. It’s fucked up, isn’t it? That we’re hardwired to need connection even when we don’t want it, even when it makes everything harder. Like our bodies didn’t get the memo that we’re better off alone.” She pulled her hood down an inch. “And you’re right—sometimes it’s easier when you know you’ll never see them again. No follow-up, no accountability, just… a moment of existing with someone else and then it’s done.”

The young man bit into another seed. His eyes remained on the pavement ahead, but his head tilted slightly toward her voice.

“We’re better off alone. You got that right.” He reached into his pocket for another seed. “But you can’t choose to do that. Even if you headed to the woods, you’d be squatting on someone else’s property. I didn’t opt into this shit, this…” His hand made a sharp gesture toward the empty park. “…society. But we have to deal with it if only because some day we’ll catch some disease.”

The woman’s head turned toward him. She watched him crack another seed, the small sound distinct in the quiet.

“You’re right that we didn’t opt in,” she said. “But even if you go to the woods, you’re still operating within the system—squatting on someone’s property, like you said, or eventually needing medicine or…” Her shoulders lifted slightly. “…I don’t know, human contact that you hate but can’t escape. The trap isn’t just society, it’s that our bodies won’t let us actually leave. We’re wired to need things we’d rather not need. And that’s… that’s the real prison, isn’t it? Not the rules or the property or the people, but the fact that we can’t choose to stop needing any of it.”

He shook his head slowly, his gaze still fixed ahead.

“Pee. Shit. Eat three meals a day. Talk to other sentient apes so you don’t feel lonely. Seek a warm body in which to cum lest your chemical makeup penalizes you for refusing your imperative.” Another shell hit the pile at his feet. “We are imprisoned. We’re thinking clouds inside a convolution of matter, and we spend most of the day tending to this meat puppet we didn’t choose. A meat puppet that will decay and kill us along with it.”

The woman leaned forward, her forearms resting on her knees. Several seconds passed before she spoke.

“That’s exactly it. And the worst part? Even when you see it clearly, when you understand the trap, you still can’t escape it. You still need to eat. Still need to talk to someone at 3 a.m. so you don’t lose your mind. Still need to…” She gestured vaguely toward the darkness. “…participate in all this shit we never opted into. The body demands it even when the thinking part of you would rather not.”

The young man’s head turned. He looked straight into the night beyond the streetlight’s circle, his profile sharp in the amber glow.

“Wouldn’t it be better for it all to… cease?” His voice delivered the words flatly. “You know it in your bones, don’t you? It’s not going to get any better.”

The woman went still. Her breathing remained visible in the cold air, small clouds forming and dissipating. She stared into the same darkness he faced. The silence stretched between them—five seconds, ten. A car passed somewhere on a distant street, its engine fading.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe it would be better if it all just… ceased.” Her head turned toward him briefly, then away. “But I can’t answer that honestly. Because if I really believed it, I wouldn’t be here. I’d have ended it already. And I haven’t. So what does that make me? Someone who sees the trap clearly but keeps participating anyway? Someone too scared to actually commit to the logic of their own philosophy?” She lifted one hand and rubbed it across her face. The motion pulled her hood back further. “I think the worst part isn’t that it won’t get better. It’s that I keep hoping it might, even when I know better. That biological urge again—not just for connection, but for meaning. For something that makes the meat puppet maintenance worth it.” Her hand dropped back to her knee. “And I can’t tell if that’s human resilience or just… pathetic delusion.”

The young man cracked another seed between his teeth. He spat the shell onto the pile at his feet, his gaze fixed on the wet cobblestones.

“It is delusion. If we didn’t come in with built-in delusion, who would have opted to endure it? We would have gone extinct long ago.” He reached into his pocket for another seed. “Sure, cats, dogs, they don’t know any better. For anything sentient, they would have to choose correctly.” The seed cracked between his teeth. “We keep existing because some part of our brains is dedicated to lying to ourselves, or to itself perhaps, that its continuation is worth the pain. Not even for its own sake. But to create more versions of the instructions that built it.”

The woman looked at him for a long moment. Her eyes stayed on his profile, watching him crack another seed. Then she turned her gaze back to the darkness beyond the streetlight.

“I think you’re right about the delusion,” she said. “About the brain lying to itself to keep the machinery running. But here’s the thing—” She shifted slightly on the bench. “I don’t know if recognizing the delusion actually changes anything. Like, I can see it clearly, I can articulate it the same way you just did, and I’m still… here. Still participating. Still eating and talking and maintaining this meat puppet I didn’t choose. So what does that make the recognition worth? Just another layer of awareness that doesn’t lead anywhere?” She exhaled slowly, the breath visible in the November air. “Maybe the real trap isn’t the biological imperatives themselves. It’s that even when you see through them completely, you still can’t stop performing them. The insight doesn’t grant freedom—it just makes you more conscious of your own imprisonment.”

He leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees. The earbud glinted as his head tilted downward.

“It is a mockery. We, what we believe ourselves to be, aren’t worrying or despairing about the lack of meaning. Our brain is keeping us deluded so we continue operating it. But our brain is also the one who makes us recognize the absurdity of it.” His hand gestured vaguely toward his head. “The fact that we believe there is an ‘I’ that somehow looks at this from an elevated position is a delusion.” He extracted another seed from the bag. “You know about that guy, a couple hundred years ago maybe, that laid railroad tracks, right? Had something to do with trains anyway. One spike blew straight through his fucking frontal lobe. Didn’t kill him. Just changed who he was.” The seed cracked. “You take out one part of your brain and you’re no longer you. A stroke kills part of your brain and you’re no longer you.” The shell hit the pile at his feet. “That’s because the brain is making itself believe that it has choices.”

The woman went quiet. She stared at the wet cobblestones reflecting the amber streetlight, her posture still, her breathing visible in small clouds.

“You’re talking about the railroad spike guy,” she said finally. “Phineas Gage. And yeah, you’re right—take out one chunk of brain tissue and the whole ‘I’ thing collapses. Different person, same meat puppet. But here’s what fucks me up about that example. It’s not just that we’re not in control. It’s that there never was an ‘I’ making choices in the first place. Just…” Her hand lifted, fingers spreading. “…neurochemistry pretending to be agency, brain states pretending to be decisions.”

The young man turned his head to look at her directly. She kept her gaze on the cobblestones.

“And we can see it, articulate it, understand it completely—and it doesn’t change anything,” she continued. “I’m still sitting here at 3 a.m. talking to you like this conversation matters, like these words mean something, even though we both know it’s just… what? Electrical impulses in meat that’s lying to itself about being conscious?” She glanced at him, then back to the pavement. “The recognition doesn’t grant freedom. It just makes you more aware of the cage while you keep performing the same biological routines. Eating. Talking. Surviving. All of it automated, all of it predetermined by brain architecture we didn’t choose.” She pulled her hands from her knees and wrapped her arms around herself against the cold. “And the worst part? Even knowing that, I can’t stop hoping there’s something more. That’s the real mockery, isn’t it? The brain’s so good at lying to itself that even when you see through the delusion, you still participate in it.”

The young man leaned back against the bench. He cracked another seed, spat the shell, and looked up at the black sky beyond the streetlight’s circle. Several seconds passed. A breeze moved through the park, rustling the scraggly trees.

“I suppose we’re both beyond questioning what’s the point of it,” he said. His voice carried no particular weight. “Its existence is the point. Its own sake. Even if it’s meaningless. Even if it hurts.”

The woman’s eyes remained fixed on the wet cobblestones reflecting the streetlight’s amber glow. The silence extended. The young man cracked another seed. She glanced at him.

“I think that’s what fucks me up the most—not that we can’t find meaning, but that we keep looking for it anyway. Keep participating in all this biological bullshit even when we’ve articulated every reason not to. Like we’re hardwired to hope for something we can’t even name, and recognizing that doesn’t let us stop.” She exhaled slowly, the breath visible in the air. “So here we are. 3 a.m. in an empty park, two people who see the trap clearly, eating sunflower seeds and talking philosophy like it matters. And maybe it does. Or maybe we’re just… doing what the meat puppet demands. Connection, conversation, the illusion that this moment registers as something more than neurochemistry pretending to be consciousness.” Her gaze returned to the darkness beyond the streetlight’s circle. Several seconds passed without speech. “I don’t know which it is. But I’m glad you’re here anyway.”

The young man turned his head. His eyes—tired, heavy-lidded—settled on her face. The earbud caught the light as he moved.

“Are you?” His voice carried the same flat delivery. “Glad, I mean. I know what you are, what you came here to do. You can’t control it for much longer, can you?”

The woman went very still. Her red eyes locked on him, her body frozen in place. The only movement was her breathing, small clouds forming and dissipating in the cold air. She didn’t blink.

“Yeah. I know what I am.” Her voice remained steady. “And you’re right—I can’t control it for much longer. Three days, like clockwork.” She exhaled slowly, her shoulders lowering slightly. “But here’s the fucked up part. I came here to feed. That’s what I do—find someone isolated, someone vulnerable, and I… take what I need. But you started talking about meat puppets and biological imprisonment and the brain lying to itself about continuation, and suddenly I didn’t want to be a predator anymore. I wanted to be a person having a conversation with another person who sees the same trap I do.” She looked away, turning her gaze toward the darkness beyond the streetlight’s reach. “So yeah. I’m glad you’re here. Not because you’re a feeding target, but because for the last however many minutes, I got to pretend I’m something other than what my biology demands I be. That probably doesn’t make sense. Or maybe it makes perfect sense and that’s the real mockery—that even when you know exactly what you are and what you’re going to do, you still reach for moments that make you feel less monstrous. Even when they’re temporary. Even when they don’t change anything.”

The young man remained motionless on the bench. His eyes stayed on her profile, watching her stare into the darkness. The earbud in his ear caught the amber light, a small point of reflection in the November night. He extracted another seed from his bag and cracked it between his teeth.

“Well, at least you work for what you consume, don’t you?” He spat the shell onto the pile at his feet. “I see animal carcasses at a butcher shop and I wish to look away. Those things just wanted to live, and we kill them by the millions.” Another seed cracked. “I’m not a vegetarian. I eat animals while the thought runs through my mind that I’m having other living things killed for my sake even though I don’t want to live.”

The woman’s gaze stayed fixed on the wet cobblestones. Several seconds passed. Her breath formed small clouds in the cold air, visible in the amber streetlight. When she spoke, her voice carried the same flat quality his had.

“Yeah. I work for it.” She paused. “That’s… that’s exactly what it is, isn’t it? You eat animals while thinking they just wanted to live, while you don’t even want to be alive yourself. I feed on people while knowing it violates them, while wishing I could opt out of the whole biological countdown.” Her hand lifted slightly, then dropped back to her knee. “We both keep participating in harm we can articulate but can’t escape.”

The young man cracked another seed. The earbud glinted as he turned his head slightly toward her.

“The worst part isn’t the harm itself,” she continued. “It’s that recognizing it doesn’t change anything. You still need to eat. I still need to feed. The insight doesn’t grant freedom—it just makes you more conscious of being a mechanism acting out its programming. And we keep going anyway because… what? The brain’s too good at lying to itself about continuation mattering?” Her shoulders shifted slightly under the hoodie. “I don’t know if that’s tragic or just… the way meat puppets work.”

The young man’s head turned, his gaze fixed straight into the darkness beyond the streetlight’s circle. He reached down and set the packet of sunflower seeds on the stone bench beside him. His hand lifted to his neck, index finger extended, pointing to the pale skin below his jaw.

“Well, meat puppet, go ahead.” His voice carried the same flat delivery as before. “You know what you have to do.”

The woman went very still. Her red eyes fixed on the finger pointing to his neck, tracked the line from his hand to the exposed skin. Several seconds passed without movement from either of them. The only sound was the distant hum of a streetlight and their breathing visible in the cold air.

She shifted closer on the bench, the movement slow and deliberate. The space between them decreased. Her body angled toward him, shoulders turning.

“You understand what this is.” Her voice came out quiet, almost uncertain. “What I’ll take from you. Not just blood—the violation, the trauma, all of it. And you’re still offering.” She paused, her eyes searching his profile. “I don’t know if that makes you the most compassionate person I’ve met in forty years or the most self-destructive. Maybe both.”

Her hand lifted from her knee, reaching up slowly. She gave him time before her palm settled gently on his opposite shoulder. The contact steadied him, anchored him in place on the stone bench.

“This is going to hurt,” she said. “And you’re going to remember it. And I’m…” Her voice caught slightly. “I’m sorry that this is what I am.”

She leaned in. Her mouth opened, revealing elongated canines that caught the amber streetlight. Her head tilted, angling toward the spot where his finger had pointed. Then her fangs sank into his flesh.

His body jerked—a sharp inhale, a gasp that broke the quiet of the empty park. A tremor ran through him, visible in the way his shoulders shook, the way his free hand clenched against his thigh. But he remained seated, didn’t pull away, didn’t fight. His head tilted further to the side, exposing more of his neck to her mouth.

The ragged quality of his voice vibrated against her fangs, the words formed through controlled breaths.

“One of your kind got me a year ago,” he said. The tremor continued through his frame, small shakes that traveled from his shoulders down to his hands. “Just as I was walking home from one of my night outings to figure out if I was still alive.” He exhaled shakily. “Then he or she abandoned me on the grass with a burning wound in my neck.” Another breath, catching slightly. “And as I lay there, I thought, ‘They should have fucking drained me.'”

The woman’s hand tightened slightly on his shoulder. Her other hand came up to brace against his upper arm, steadying both him and herself. She remained there, feeding, her mouth pressed against the wound in his neck. The movement was slow, controlled, despite the visible tension in her shoulders. Her breath came in measured intervals between draws. The young man’s tremors persisted, traveling through his frame where her hands braced him.

Her voice emerged muffled against his skin, trembling slightly around the words.

“They should have drained you. You wanted them to kill you.” She paused, her fangs still embedded in the flesh of his neck. “Is that what you’re offering me now? Feeding, or an exit? Because I need to know which one you’re asking for before I decide how much to take.”

The young man’s breathing had grown shallow, rapid. Another tremor ran through him, stronger than the previous ones. His head remained tilted to the side, exposing the wound and the blood seeping around her mouth.

“I don’t know.” His voice came out strained. “I don’t know if I care. If feeding from me gives you something of value, I guess that’s good. And if you kill me, I guess that’s fine too.” The tremor intensified for a moment, then settled into the same persistent shake. “The same thing is waiting for me at the end of either route.”

The woman remained there, drinking. Her hands on his shoulder and arm maintained their pressure, steadying him as his breathing grew more ragged. The pile of sunflower seed shells lay scattered at their feet, undisturbed. The distant hum of the streetlight continued. Her shoulders rose and fell with each controlled breath between draws.

Then she stopped. Her fangs withdrew slowly from the wound, the movement deliberate and careful. Blood remained wet on her lips, dark in the amber streetlight. She pulled back slightly, creating space between them on the bench. Her hands dropped from his shoulder and arm. Her red eyes lifted to meet his face.

“I’m not going to kill you.” Her voice carried clearly now. “You said ‘fine either way,’ but fine isn’t consent. Fine is resignation. And I’m not going to be the mechanism of your death wish just because you won’t stop me.” She reached up and wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand. Her gaze remained on his face, on his tired, heavy-lidded eyes. “I took what I needed. The countdown resets. You get to keep existing whether you want to or not.” Her hand dropped back to her lap. “And maybe that makes me a bigger monster—taking your choice away by refusing to kill you—but I can’t…” She paused, her shoulders shifting slightly under the hoodie. “I won’t cross that line. Not tonight.”

His jaw clenched, teeth grinding together. He lifted his hand slowly to his neck, fingers pressing against the wound. A drop of blood slid down the pale skin, darkening his fingertips red. His head turned slightly toward her, not fully facing her, just enough to bring her into his peripheral vision.

“I’m already woozy. It comes with the territory, I guess. Well, what did your meat puppet tell you now that you have obeyed? Good job?”

The woman raised the back of her hand to her mouth, wiping away the remaining blood from her lips. The motion was slow, deliberate. Then she looked at him for a long moment, her red eyes steady on his face.

“My meat puppet told me I get to exist for another three days. That I successfully completed the biological countdown without killing the person who offered me permission to.” She went quiet, her gaze dropping to the wound on his neck. “You’re woozy because I just took about a pint of your blood. You should sit still for a few minutes, let your body compensate. Drink something with sugar when you get home.” She exhaled slowly, the breath visible. “And yeah. Good job, I guess. I proved I can still choose restraint when someone won’t stop me. That I’m something slightly more than just appetite with fangs.” Her eyes lifted to meet his. “That’s what my meat puppet told me. What did yours tell you? Because you’re still here too, even though you wanted that other vampire to drain you. Even though you said the same thing is waiting either way. So what does that make us? Two biological machines that can see the programming clearly but can’t stop executing it?”

The young man’s hand remained pressed to his neck, blood seeping between his fingers. His head turned more fully toward her, his tired eyes locking onto her red ones.

“Even those that see the programming clearly and do stop executing it, let’s say by jumping off a fucking bridge, were still acting on their programming. It just wasn’t very good programming. Or it was, depending on what you believe the main objective to be.” His gaze held steady on her face. “I look at you and at what you have done to me and I don’t have a single thought in my mind. Not any that I don’t need to force myself to scoop out of my brain. What does that mean?”

The woman went still. Her eyes remained on his face, searching. Several seconds passed without either of them moving. The distant hum of the streetlight continued.

“I don’t know what it means.” She reached up slowly, her hand moving toward his face. Her thumb extended, making contact with his cheek. She wiped across the skin with her thumb in a single, tender stroke. “Maybe it means your brain’s protecting you from processing what just happened. Maybe it means you’ve already processed so much shit that this doesn’t register anymore. Or maybe…” She paused, her thumb still resting against his cheek. “…maybe it means exactly what you said earlier. That we’re thinking clouds trapped in meat puppets, and sometimes the machinery just… doesn’t generate the response we expect it to. The emotional operating system looks for a reaction and finds nothing, and that absence is just as real as feeling would be.”

Her hand dropped away from his face, returning to her lap. She remained facing him, her posture open, waiting.

He sat there, his gaze shifting away from her toward the darkness beyond the streetlight’s circle. His hand stayed pressed to the wound on his neck. His chest rose and fell with steady breathing, the visible clouds forming and dissipating in the cold air. Five seconds passed. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty. The park remained empty except for the two of them on the stone bench.

“Do you also wake up from dreams,” he asked, “even nightmares at times, to see your ceiling, or I guess in your case some random ceiling, and think, ‘Why did I have to spend about eight hours hallucinating stuff that even at its worst is much better than my life?'”

The woman’s gaze lifted from the wet cobblestones to the darkness beyond the streetlight’s circle. Her shoulders rose slightly with an inhale, then fell.

“Yeah. Every fucking night.” She paused, her eyes tracking across the empty park. “I used to dream about—doesn’t matter what. Point is, even the worst nightmare was better than waking up to this. At least in dreams you get narrative, right? Cause and effect, some kind of structure. Even if it’s terrifying, it follows its own logic. But then you wake up and it’s just… this. The same biological countdown, the same empty hours, no plot development. Just maintenance and survival on loop.” She exhaled slowly. “Sometimes I think the brain generates dreams to remind us what meaning used to feel like. Or what we imagine it felt like. Then we wake up and remember that was the delusion, and this—” Her hand lifted, gesturing vaguely at the empty park, the wet cobblestones, the darkness pressing in around them. “—this is what’s real.”

The young man’s head shook slowly.

“Or maybe dreams provide a respite in which meaning returns. Otherwise we would exist in a single-threaded succession of meaninglessness that would inevitably lead us to despair. Maybe that’s why people who can’t sleep eventually die. Their very organism can no longer take it.” He shook his head again. “You know, for a while I thought that you had it better than me, but…” He paused, his gaze shifting to her face. “You can’t feel the sun on your skin, can you? The very thing that gives life to everything else would burn it out of you. And yet you keep going.”

The woman went quiet. Her eyes remained fixed on the darkness beyond the streetlight’s circle. Several seconds passed without speech, without movement except for her breathing visible in the cold air.

“Yeah. I can’t feel the sun on my skin. Haven’t felt it in forty years.” Her voice carried the same flat quality. “Sometimes I dream about it—standing in daylight, feeling warmth instead of terror. Then I wake up and remember that’s the one thing I can never have again. The thing that gives life to everything else would burn me alive in minutes.” She exhaled slowly. “But you’re right. I keep going anyway. Even knowing what I’ve lost, what I do to survive, all the biological maintenance and violation and emptiness… I keep participating. Maybe that’s the real mockery—not that we’re trapped in meat puppets, but that even when we see the cage completely, when we’ve articulated every reason to stop, we still can’t make ourselves quit.” She paused, her shoulders shifting slightly under the hoodie. “So here we are. Two people who know exactly what continuation costs, sitting in an empty park at 3 a.m., still breathing. Still existing despite everything.”

She leaned toward him. Her head came to rest against his shoulder, the weight settling there. Her hood slipped back further, revealing more of her pale face to the amber streetlight. She remained there, still, her breathing visible in small clouds that formed and dissipated.

The young man’s arm extended along the back of the bench. His hand reached her head. He patted her twice, the motion gentle, then let his hand rest there. The pile of sunflower seed shells remained scattered at their feet. A breeze moved through the scraggly trees.

Time passed—a minute, two. Her head remained on his shoulder. His hand stayed on her head. Their breathing continued to form small clouds in the cold air.

The young man’s voice broke the silence.

“So, what do you usually do after you pull your fangs out of someone’s neck? Run?”

The woman’s head lifted slightly from his shoulder, then settled back down. Several seconds passed before she spoke.

“Yeah. Usually I run. Feed, pull out, disappear before they can process what happened or I have to see what I’ve done to them. That’s the pattern—forty years of it.” She went quiet for a moment. “But right now I don’t want to. Don’t know if that means anything, or if I’m just… delaying the inevitable. But sitting here with you after everything we just talked about, after you offered your neck knowing what I am—I don’t want to perform the disappearing act yet. Even though I probably will eventually. Because that’s what I do.”

“A hit-it-and-quit-it kind of gal, aren’t you?” He paused. “Well, you can’t help it. You’ll move out somewhere else until the heat goes down. Maybe I’ll catch a glimpse of you in the shadows during one of these 3 a.m. strolls. Maybe I’ll grow to be seventy and still see your young self prowling about.”

He went quiet. The distant hum of the streetlight continued. His breathing remained visible in the cold air, small clouds forming and dissipating.

“There’s something down there,” he said. “Something for which… I don’t have words. A sense of meaning at the bottom. Too far away for recognition. For attaching labels to it. Somewhere in that vast darkness. Like a fish barely seen under the water.”

The woman remained still against his shoulder. Several seconds passed before she spoke.

“That fish you’re talking about, I see it too. Or maybe I want to see it. I don’t know if that’s the same thing.” She exhaled slowly. “You said you might catch glimpses of me in forty years, still looking twenty-five while you’re seventy. That’s… fuck, that’s the first time anyone’s… Not ‘see you around’ like a polite lie, but actual recognition that I exist across time even when I’m not visible. That I might matter enough to register as a recurring presence in someone’s life instead of just… a bad thing that happened once.”

The young man’s voice emerged tired, dry.

“Don’t get me wrong. You’ll show up in my brain as a bad thing that happened to me once. In the company of everything else that appears from the past. Not the years I’ve lived. Just still photos, two-or-three-second clips of what I supposedly existed through. The feeling of your fangs piercing through my flesh. Your red eyes staring back at me. Reminders that I was here, in this park, at 3 a.m. I guess that will do.”

The woman went quiet. Her head remained resting against his shoulder, her breathing visible in the November air. When she spoke, her voice came out softer than before.

“You’re right. I’ll show up as a bad thing that happened. That’s what I am to people—a trauma they carry, a two-or-three-second clip that resurfaces at 3 a.m. But you said ‘I guess that will do.’ Like being remembered as something bad is still… something. Like existing in someone’s memory, even as a wound, still counts as having been here.” She exhaled slowly. “I don’t know if that’s bleak or if it’s the closest thing to comfort I’ve had in forty years. Maybe both. But yeah. That’ll do.”

THE END

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Haritz stops at a point on the sidewalk, and I stop with him. The tall, older man looks up at a clean-looking apartment building—five stories high, probably built about a decade ago. So much nicer than my shithole. Then he looks down at me with that kindness in his eyes, the same gentleness that’s been unraveling me all afternoon.

“This is it, Ane. Where I live,” he says. “If you prefer, we can go up right now, so you can explore my apartment and see if you feel safe. Otherwise, I guess this would be where we part ways, and you’ll call or text me when you want to visit my place.”

My heart hammers against my ribs. This is it. Haritz’s apartment. Where he lives. He’s offering to let me see it right now—to explore it, to see if I feel safe. And fuck, I want to feel safe so badly it physically hurts.

This whole afternoon has been… God, it’s been everything I’ve fantasized about. A strong, protective man who sees past the whore everyone else sees. Who called me beautiful, who held me while I cried, who made me feel like I matter. Like I’m worth something beyond what my mouth can do.

Part of me is screaming that this is stupid, that I’m being reckless, that I don’t actually know this man. But… I’ve gotten pretty good at reading men, haven’t I? That’s my gift. And Haritz… he feels different. The way he touched my hair, kissed my forehead, the gentleness in his voice when he called me “baby girl.” That wasn’t a client’s manipulation. That was real tenderness. Real care.

And he’s giving me a choice. He’s not pressuring me. He’s saying I can go up now or wait, that I can call or text later. He’s respecting my agency in a way almost no man ever has. That… that means something, doesn’t it?

I want to see where he lives. I want to walk into his space and feel what it’s like to be somewhere that isn’t my mother’s hellhole. Somewhere clean and safe and… his. I want to see if this feeling—this warmth, this hope—can exist beyond this sidewalk. If it’s real enough to survive inside four walls.

I’m scared. Of course I’m scared. But I’m more scared of letting this slip away. Of going back home tonight and realizing I just walked away from the one genuine connection I’ve ever had. The one man who might actually be what I’ve been waiting for.

I look up at him, feeling my big brown eyes search his face, nervousness and hope flickering through me like competing flames.

“I… I want to see it. Your place. Right now, if that’s okay.” My fingers fidget with the hem of my pink crop top. “I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to go back home yet and… and I want to know what it feels like. To be somewhere safe with you.”

Minutes later, I’m standing in Haritz’s living room and it’s… it’s so clean. So normal. The kind of place where people have lives that don’t revolve around survival. White bookshelves, a comfortable sofa with throw cushions, natural light pouring in. This is what safety looks like. This is what I’ve been dreaming about every time I walked past nice apartments on my way home to that hellhole.

And Haritz brought me here. He’s letting me see his space, his world.

I need to… I need to take this in. To see if this feeling can exist here. If I sit down on that sofa, will it feel like I belong? Or will I just feel like the dirty little whore from the shithole part of town who’s contaminating something clean?

I walk slowly to the comfortable gray sofa, my eyes taking in every detail of the clean, warm living room. I reach out to touch one of the beige cushions gently—it’s soft, real—before lowering myself onto the sofa. I sit with my legs together and my hands folded in my lap, trying to make myself small enough to deserve this.

“This is… your place is really nice, Haritz. It’s so clean and warm and…” My voice softens, becomes almost vulnerable. “It feels safe here.”

Haritz looks at me with such tenderness. “You don’t have to sit so formally, you know?” His voice is gentle, reassuring. “It’s a very comfortable sofa. It will be ready to hold you whenever you need to escape from your bad situation.”

My chest tightens at those words. Whenever you need to escape. Like this could be real. Like this could be mine. Like I could actually—

The doorbell rings.

Haritz’s expression shifts instantly—confusion, maybe even alarm. He stops mid-step and turns toward the front door. “What’s this? I’m not waiting for any package, and I don’t tend to receive visits. So soon after we just got in, too…”

My stomach flips. Not the good kind. The nervous kind. Like when a client’s vibe suddenly shifts and you realize you might have misjudged the situation.

But Haritz looks genuinely confused. He’s not expecting this either. So it’s probably nothing. Maybe a neighbor? Someone selling something? Just… random timing. Bad timing. I was just starting to let myself relax into this space, to feel like maybe I could belong here, and now there’s an interruption. Someone from the outside world crashing into this fragile bubble we’ve created.

I watch Haritz walk toward the door, my brown eyes tracking his movement with a flicker of uncertainty. “Who… who could that be? You said you weren’t expecting anyone…”

He doesn’t answer, just heads for the door. I sit frozen on the sofa, my hands still folded in my lap, trying to make myself smaller. Invisible. There’s this little voice whispering that maybe I shouldn’t be here. That maybe whoever’s on the other side of that door will look at me and know exactly what I am. The whore from the shithole part of town contaminating this clean, safe space.

Haritz opens the door. And then I hear it. That voice. Slurred, nasty, venomous.

Haritz’s face twists with barely contained disgust as he looks at whoever’s there. “I’m not even black, madame.” His voice is cold, controlled. “So, you’re Ane’s mother?”

That voice. I know that slurred, aggressive tone anywhere. It’s burned into my fucking brain from a thousand nights of lying awake with earplugs shoved in too deep, trying not to hear it.

That’s Marisa. My mother.

The drunk bitch who makes my life hell just found out where I am. How? How the fuck did she track me here? Did she follow us? Was she watching when Haritz and I walked into this building together?

Oh God, oh God, this is a nightmare.

Haritz just asked if she’s my mother and I can hear the disgust in his voice—barely contained disgust. He can tell just from looking at her what kind of disaster she is. And now she’s here, at his door, about to contaminate this beautiful, safe space with her toxic presence. She’s going to scream at me, call me names, maybe try to drag me home. She’s going to show Haritz exactly where I come from, exactly what kind of garbage produced me.

He’ll see me differently. He’ll realize I’m not investment quality, I’m just… her daughter. The product of that drunk, stumbling mess at his door.

This was supposed to be my escape. My one chance at something real and safe and good. And she’s about to destroy it like she destroys everything.

I need to… I don’t know what I need to do. Face her? Hide? Run? My legs are shaking and I feel like I might throw up. But I can’t just sit here on his sofa like a coward while she’s out there making a scene.

I rise slowly from the comfortable sofa, my brown eyes wide with a dawning horror. “That’s… that’s my mother’s voice.” The words come out strangled. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She… how did she even…” My voice drops to almost a whisper, trembling. “Haritz, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think… I didn’t know she would… Oh God, she’s going to ruin everything. She ruins everything.”

Before Haritz can respond, she pushes past him, barreling into the apartment. And there she is—disheveled red hair, tired eyes, her beer gut prominent in her stained T-shirt. She looks around with reddened eyes as Haritz steps toward her with a serious look I haven’t seen before.

“Ane’s mother.” His voice is cold, controlled. “The same mother that has given such grief to a sweet girl. To be honest, I can see it from merely looking at you.” He gestures firmly toward the door. “I didn’t invite you in. If you want to talk, go back out and we’ll talk at the doorway.”

I need to get to Haritz. I need to be near him, close to him. He’s the safe thing in this room right now. Marisa is here—that toxic fucking disaster who birthed me—and she’s about to poison everything like she always does. But if I can just… if I can position myself near Haritz, show him that I’m with him, that I’m on his side, that I’m not her… maybe he won’t see me as contaminated. Maybe he’ll still see me as the girl he held in the park. The one who deserves kindness.

God, my legs are shaking but I have to move. I have to get close to the one person in this room who makes me feel safe.

My voice comes out small and trembling as I move toward Haritz. “Haritz… I’m so sorry. I didn’t know she would… I didn’t think…” My brown eyes are wide with a mix of fear and humiliation. “Please don’t… please don’t let her ruin this. She ruins everything but I need… I need this to be different.”

I reach his side, standing close to him, and that’s when she focuses on me. Her bloodshot eyes lock onto mine and she points a trembling finger at me.

“There you are!” she slurs, her words wet and sloppy. “I went out earlier to see where you had escaped to, and I saw you at the park with this man, this… nigger! Perverted nigger!”

She spits the words at Haritz, and I see actual spittle spray from her mouth. My stomach turns.

“Hugging my daughter and kissing her forehead… You have no right, you pig!” Her glare shifts to me. “And you! You are dressed like a whore! What’s with that flared pink skirt, those thigh-high socks with heart prints! You want perverted grown men to fuck you, don’t you? And now you’ve followed this… this fucking nigger here, into his apartment! No shame, god damn it… No wonder your father left us!”

The words hit me like fists. Each one designed to hurt, to humiliate, to destroy. This is what she does. This is who she is.

But then Haritz moves. He crosses an arm in front of my torso, shielding me from her, and nails her with a stern look.

“As I’ve told you before, I’m not black,” he says, his voice cold and controlled. “And you’re not going to stand here, in my apartment, insulting your daughter and me for much longer. You’re clearly unwell, clearly abusive. You’ve terrorized your daughter.”

She’s here. The drunk bitch who ruins everything is standing in Haritz’s clean, safe apartment, spewing her racist venom and calling me a whore in front of the one man who might actually save me. Haritz is defending me—he’s shielding me with his arm, calling her out for being abusive—but I can see it happening. I can see the contamination spreading. She’s showing him exactly where I come from, exactly what kind of garbage produced me. In a few more seconds, he’s going to realize I’m not investment quality at all. I’m just the daughter of that drunk, racist mess screaming slurs in his living room.

I move closer to Haritz, my voice small and trembling. “Haritz… please don’t let her… please don’t let her ruin this. I’m not… I’m not like her. I’m not.”

My fingers find his arm and I link myself to him—a physical connection, a claim. I’m choosing him. I’m choosing safety over the toxic disaster screaming in his living room. If I can just show him that I belong with him and not her, maybe he won’t see me as contaminated. Maybe he’ll keep shielding me.

But Marisa’s eyes lock onto the gesture. Her eyelids twitch with rage as she watches me cling to Haritz, and her whole face contorts.

“You… fucking little whore.” The words come out wet and venomous. “I’ve done everything. EVERYTHING. To ensure you had a roof over your head. Cleaning shit off toilets. So many fucking toilets. And for what…? For my daughter to turn out to be this… this filthy whore!”

My stomach drops.

“I’ve heard the rumors,” she continues, her voice rising. “Neighbor women saying they saw you in the bushes blowing some men, having their disgusting cocks in your mouth, and then giving you money… It’s true, isn’t it…?”

Oh God. Oh God, she knows. She fucking knows. And now Haritz knows—she just told him exactly what I am in the most disgusting way possible.

“Of course it’s fucking true, I didn’t buy you those clothes…” She wipes her eyes, but then glares back with renewed fury. “God damn it. Your father knew you were cursed. He knew you were going to turn out rotten. That’s why he abandoned me. I’ve been so lonely…”

The words hit like physical blows. Then she turns that rage fully on Haritz. “And you! She’s not even an adult. I’ll call the police if you don’t let her go right this instant and never see her again. You know what they do in prison to child rapists, right? I’ll make sure everybody knows you’re a rapist! Fucking nigger. All of you, you should have stayed in Africa. I can’t take all these fucking niggers raping my daughter.”

And then she lunges forward and slaps Haritz hard across the face.

The sound echoes through the living room. A reddened imprint starts appearing on his cheek. But Haritz looks otherwise unfazed—just that stern expression I saw when she first barged in. He slowly returns his gaze to Marisa and speaks carefully in that deep voice.

“Ane’s mother, I’ll repeat for the third time that I’m not black. In addition, you deserve to be slapped back real hard, both for your actions and for the pain you’re causing your sweet angel of a daughter. If I’m not slapping you it’s because I can tell you’re in deep pain. You took your husband’s abandonment the wrong way, and you’ve proceeded to go down the darkest paths. That would be your burden to bear, if it weren’t because you’re ruining your daughter’s life. You need to take a good look in the mirror and see what you’ve become.”

She just slapped him. That drunk bitch just put her hands on Haritz—the one man who’s shown me genuine kindness, who called me a sweet girl, who offered me safety. In his own home. After barging in uninvited, screaming her racist poison and calling me a whore. And he took it. He stood there, unfazed, and spoke to her with this careful restraint about her pain instead of hitting her back like she deserves.

But I can’t just stand here clinging to his arm like some helpless damsel while she assaults him. I can’t let her get away with that. She’s ruined everything else in my life—my childhood, my home, my reputation, my sense of self-worth—but she’s not going to ruin THIS. She’s not going to poison the one relationship that might actually save me.

My hand is already tingling with the memory of slapping that college kid who mocked me with his crude poem. This is different though. This is my mother. The woman who birthed me, who—despite all her failures and abuse—did keep a roof over my head.

But she also blamed me for my father leaving. She called me a whore in front of the man I need to see me as investment quality. She put her hands on Haritz.

Fuck her.

“You don’t get to touch him!” The words rip out of me, shrill and fierce, trembling with rage. “You don’t get to come into his home and put your hands on him after everything—after all the poison you’ve spewed! He’s been kinder to me in one afternoon than you’ve been in my entire fucking life!”

My hand moves before I can think about it. The slap connects with her cheek, sharp and satisfying.

Marisa stumbles back, astonishment flooding her face as my handprint blooms red on her cheek. Tears spring from her eyes, but then her expression twists into something enraged, and spittle flies from her mouth.

“H-how… dare you?!” she screams. “Your own mother, you put your hands on me…! On me, who fed you milk from my tits, who sang to you lullabies so you would fall asleep…” Her voice cracks. “B-but if I had known, if I had known… you would turn out into this… rotten cocksucker… Oh god, I would have killed myself. I want to die so bad. Nobody loves me. My daughter is getting filled with cum from all the men in town, apparently, and I… I have become this… this… filthy nigger form.”

She turns her maddened gaze to Haritz, who watches her with what looks like a mixture of disgust and fascination.

“And you, big man who wants to rape my daughter…” Her hands move to the hem of her stained T-shirt. “My tits are real big. Not the tiny mosquito bites of that whore. Look.”

She yanks the shirt over her head, and her G-cup breasts wobble and hang freely. No bra. Of course no bra. She stands there half-naked in Haritz’s clean living room, her saggy tits on full display.

“Wouldn’t you rather suck on these…?” Her voice takes on this desperate, wheedling quality. “I am better than my whore of a daughter, right…?”

My stomach turns violently. This is what I came from. This drunk, topless mess begging a man to fuck her instead of me—competing with her own daughter like we’re both whores undercutting each other’s prices. She’s standing there, degrading herself, trying to destroy the one good thing I’ve found.

Haritz’s stern look briefly glances down at her breasts, then back up to her face.

“Ane’s mother…” His voice is carefully controlled. “I feel sorry for you. You need a lot of help, but I suspect it has been too late for a long time. And now you’re making a spectacle of yourself.”

His voice softens as he looks down at me, and then I feel his strong arm wrap around my bare waist. Warm. Protective.

“You’re not safe,” Haritz continues, addressing my mother. “Your apartment is not safe. I will contact the authorities to ensure they declare you not fit for guardianship of your daughter.”

The words land like a bomb. He’s… he’s going to try to take me away from her. Legally. Permanently. To save me.

But she’s still here, still contaminating his space with her racist bile and her exposed flesh and her pathetic attempts to compete with me. My hand is already tingling from the first slap, but I don’t care. She deserves worse. For all the years of abuse, for tracking me here, for assaulting Haritz, for standing there topless trying to seduce him away from me. For blaming me for Dad leaving. For calling me a whore in front of the one man who might see me as something more.

“You disgusting bitch!” The words rip out of me, my voice cracking with fury and tears. “You stand there topless, offering yourself to him like… like some desperate street whore, and you call ME filthy?! You blame ME for Dad leaving?! You’ve ruined everything good that ever tried to come into my life, but you’re NOT ruining this! Haritz sees you for what you are—a pathetic, broken drunk who destroyed her own daughter! And I’m done. I’m DONE letting you poison me!”

My hand swings before I can think about it. The slap connects hard.

The impact sends her hurtling backwards, her breasts swinging wildly, until she collides with the wall. As she recovers, blood glistens in her mouth. Tears stream down her face. She lifts her drunken, tired gaze to me and widens a crazed smile.

“Ah… so this is it, right…?” Her laugh is wet and broken. “You’ve found yourself a nigger that you believe will… what? Take you away from me, from your own mother? Someone who will put a roof over your head and pay for your stuff and fill your pussy with filthy nigger cum.”

She bursts out laughing as she stumbles closer to Haritz.

“Aah… God damn it. H-hey, you big nigger, if you think you can take care of my whore of a daughter, maybe you can take care of me too. Okay? I need help. At least a big dick in me, someone who will make me feel for a moment that I’m not this… fat pig. I want to die. Please fuck me. Please save me.”

Haritz looks down at her with a mixture of pity and disgust. “Saying ‘You’re a mess’ wouldn’t begin to cover it. You need serious psychiatric help. But first of all, you need to leave the apartment and leave Ane alone. Look at her, how you’re making her feel. If you’ve ever loved your daughter, you need to leave her be.”

I can’t… I can’t keep looking at her. Can’t keep seeing those saggy tits hanging out, those tears streaming down her face as she begs the man I need—the man who might actually save me—to fuck her instead of me. She’s reducing this—reducing us—to a competition about tit size. Like that’s all that matters. Like Haritz is just another john who’ll go for whoever has the biggest rack.

And the worst part? She’s still calling him racial slurs. Still spewing that poison even while begging him to save her. “Please fuck me, you filthy nigger.” God, I want to vomit.

This is what I came from. This drunk, racist, topless disaster is my MOTHER. The woman who birthed me, who I share DNA with. No wonder I’m so fucked up.

I can’t look at her anymore. If I keep looking at her, I’m going to lose it completely. I’m going to start screaming or crying or both, and then Haritz will see me as just another hysterical girl from a fucked-up family, not worth the trouble.

I need to turn away. Show her—show both of them—that I’m not engaging with her poison anymore. That I’m done letting her control me, done letting her ruin everything. Haritz told her to leave me alone, and I need to show him I’m listening to him, not to her. That I’m choosing him over her.

“I can’t even look at you anymore. You’re disgusting.” I turn sharply, presenting my back to her while staying close to Haritz. “Haritz, please… just make her leave. I can’t… I can’t do this anymore.”

Behind me, I hear her voice shift—trying to sound seductive, like she’s ever been capable of anything but toxic poison.

“That’s alright, my daughter don’t need to see.” Her slurred words make my stomach turn. Then I hear movement, fabric rustling, and Haritz’s sharp intake of breath. “I knew it. I knew you had a big cock. Ditch that little whore and let’s go to your bedroom, okay, big nigger?”

Oh God. Oh God, she’s touching him. She’s actually putting her hands on him, groping him while her tits hang out in his living room. My mother is sexually assaulting the one man who might save me, trying to seduce him away from me like we’re competing whores on a street corner.

“God, I need so bad for a nice cock to fill me up until I can’t think anymore. I’ll let you do me anywhere: ass, mouth, ears if you want. But please don’t call me a fatty or anything like that.”

The disgust rises so sharp in my throat I might actually vomit. This is what I came from. This drunk, topless disaster grabbing Haritz’s dick and begging him to fuck her instead of her daughter. Offering up every hole in her body like some kind of desperate bargain.

Haritz’s voice cuts through, stern and controlled. “Woman, you need to let go of my penis.”

I hear him step back, hear her stumble as she loses her grip on him.

“You’ve made a mess of everything and proven your point, don’t you think?” Haritz continues, that careful restraint still in his voice. “Whatever point you believe it might be. Please turn around and leave. Your daughter needs to rest from this insanity.”

I just need to hold it together a little longer. Don’t cry. Don’t scream. Don’t turn around and look at her sagging tits and her pathetic tears. Just… wait. Let Haritz handle it. Trust him to handle it.

That’s what I’m doing now—trusting him. Showing him I can be the kind of girl who doesn’t engage with toxic shit, who can walk away from poison. Investment quality. That’s what I am. Not her daughter.

“She’s pathetic. She’s disgusting. And she’s nothing to do with me anymore.” My voice comes out quieter, steadier, directed at Haritz without looking back at Marisa. “I can’t be in the same room as her right now. I just… I can’t. Please make her leave. Please.”

Behind me, I hear her wobble in place, and then that slurred, teary voice—hateful even now.

“I… I see how it is. You don’t respect me anymore, huh…? After everything…” She burps loudly. “After everything I’ve sacrificed. A-alright then, I can tell when I’m not wanted. I’ll… I need a dick.” Stumbling sounds—backward, then sideways, toward the door. “A drink. Where’s the door…”

Then she suddenly turns over her shoulder to speak to me, and I can feel her toxic gaze on my back.

“Let me tell you, whore: this disrespect… is unbecoming. Don’t bother returning home. And good luck…” She laughs that mad, broken laugh. “Ah, yeah, good luck with this nigger man. You know he’ll leave! They all leave. They abandon you in the dirt, alone… I shouldn’t have been born…”

I feel Haritz return to my side, his warm presence hovering protectively.

“Yes, just leave, please,” he says to her, his deep voice firm. “And know that from now on, if you intend to abuse your daughter again, you’ll need to deal with me first.”

She’s leaving. Marisa is finally stumbling toward the door, throwing those last toxic words over her shoulder. Part of me wants to scream back at her, to tell her she’s right about one thing: she shouldn’t have fucking had me if all she was going to do was poison my entire existence.

But the bigger part—the part that Haritz just defended so fiercely, the part that just watched this man reject her advances and maintain his boundaries and promise to help me legally—that part knows I don’t need to say anything else to her. She’s done. She’s leaving. And I’m staying here, in this clean, safe space with the man who might actually save me.

Haritz just said if Marisa intends to abuse me again, she’ll have to deal with him first. He’s… he’s claiming me. Protecting me. Making it clear that I’m under his care now, that he won’t let her touch me anymore.

And I need to show him what that means to me. How much I appreciate it. How grateful I am. How completely I’m choosing him over her.

I turn toward him, and before I can think about it, I close my arms around him tenderly, hugging him tight. Pressing myself against his solid warmth, feeling safe for the first time since that drunk bitch barged in here.

“Thank you.” My voice comes out thick with emotion. “Thank you for… for defending me. For not letting her… for seeing what she is and still…” I squeeze tighter. “You didn’t have to do any of this. You could have just let her drag me back to that hell, but you stood up for me. You actually stood up for me.”

Marisa swings the door open so forcefully that she nearly falls. She pauses there, turning to take one long, hateful look at me hugging Haritz. Then she faces the open doorway and screams into the hallway.

“Hey, a nigger lives here! Just so you know! They take all of your daughters… no matter what you do for them…”

Her voice breaks, wet with tears and rage and whatever poison is eating her from the inside. She stumbles out into the hallway, reaching clumsily for the door handle.

“I’m wet and ready! I can do it better than that little whore!”

The door slams behind her. But I can still hear her—stumbling down the stairs, still shouting her madness to anyone who’ll listen. The sound gets fainter, more distant, until finally it’s gone.

That toxic disaster who birthed me is actually gone. And I’m still here. In Haritz’s clean, safe apartment. With his strong arms wrapped around me, holding me tight against his chest. I can feel his heartbeat—steady, calm—so different from my own frantic pulse hammering against my ribs.

Haritz pulls back just enough to look down into my eyes. His hand stays on the back of my head, gentle and protective.

“Well, I see now. She’s gone. And she’s done. Which means it’s in the past.” His deep voice is soft but certain. “You understand what’s going to happen from now on, right?”

I do. I think I do. He’s claiming me. Taking responsibility for me. Offering to save me from her, permanently. This is it. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for—the man who might actually be worth everything, who might actually see my value beyond what I can do with my mouth. And I need to show him—right now, while my mother’s insane screaming is still echoing in the stairwell—that I’m choosing him. That I’m grateful. That I understand what he’s offering and I want it, I need it, I’m his if he’ll have me.

My arms ache to wrap around him, to press myself against that strong, protective body and feel safe again after the chaos Marisa just unleashed. To thank him for not flinching when she slapped him, for not being tempted when she exposed herself, for seeing through all her poison to the truth underneath—that I’m the one worth saving. This hug needs to be tight, desperate, grateful. It needs to show him that I’m clinging to this safety he’s offering with everything I have.

THE END

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The Deep Dive couple had some interesting things to say about this insanity.