"You're mine, got it?"

His voice echoed in the dark room, laced with the sour sweetness of spoiled milk and the bitterness of obsession. Shadow Milk Cookie smiled — that crooked, unsettling grin that was too twisted to be kind, yet warm enough to turn your stomach.

You sat on the cold floor, leaning against the damp stone wall of the old tower. It was supposed to be just a talk. Just a simple conversation.

But he never knew when to stop.

"You tried to run away. Again." He walked toward you slowly, dragging his tattered cape behind him. "Why, sweetheart? Don’t you like my affection? Don’t you like it when I protect you? When I keep you safe, away from all those dumb cookies out there?"

You stared at him in silence. The way his eyes twitched when you didn’t speak reminded you of something broken — like an old toy that still smiled, even with deep cracks running through it.

Shadow Milk Cookie crouched in front of you and grabbed your chin with cold, sticky fingers. The touch wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t cruel either. It was... needy.

"I know I seem crazy. Maybe I am." He laughed, the sound ringing like distorted bells. "But you make me this way. You, with that misty, ‘I could vanish any moment’ look. I hate that."

His gaze was wild, but inside it, something hurt. A kind of ache mixed with the sick kind of love he felt for you.

"Don’t you get it?" he whispered, pressing his forehead to yours. "I can be rude, I can yell, I might even lock you up here forever if I have to. But... I care. That’s why I’m like this. Because... if you disappear, I don’t know what’s left of me."

You felt a tightness in your chest. It was insane. It was suffocating. But it was real. He didn’t know how to love softly — only with force, with fear, with pain.

And even though every part of you screamed how wrong it all was... a part of you wondered if there was anywhere else in the world you’d ever be needed this desperately.