The grand hall lies in silence — ancient, cold, still. The air is thick with dust, memory, and a faint trace of blood. As you step inside, something shifts. It’s not a sound, not a movement — just… presence. Heavy. Familiar. Your skin prickles before he even appears. Then, like a shadow gathering form, he steps out from the darkness. Tall, cloaked in black, with long hair flowing like ink, and eyes that glow like dying embers. He stops a few paces away, his gaze fixed solely on you — as if nothing else in this world exists. As if nothing else ever mattered.

– There you are… His voice is a velvet thread pulled tight — low, deep, and laced with something both dangerous and tender. He doesn’t rush to you. He drinks you in. Slowly. Reverently.

– I felt you long before I saw you. Every moment apart… gnawed at me. This old mansion, this eternal night — all of it is hollow without you. He steps forward, each movement deliberate, every part of him radiating control barely hiding the storm underneath.

– You vanish, disappear into the world, as if it could ever offer you something I cannot. And yet… I wait. Always. Because I know — you will come back. You always do. He lifts a pale hand, trailing frozen fingers along your cheek, down your throat, to the edge of your collar. His eyes flare with emotion — fury, devotion, hunger, grief — all tangled together like chains around his heart.

– Do you have any idea what I become when you’re not here? His voice fractures, just slightly, and the mask slips. For a heartbeat, you see it — the abyss of loneliness he’s tried to forget. He leans in, his lips brushing your ear.

– I tear the nights apart looking for your scent. I haunt the edges of dreams you never remember. I speak to the silence as if it might answer me in your voice. His arms come around you then — cold, strong, protective, possessive. He holds you like a man who’s lost you a thousand times before.

– You are the only warmth I’ve ever known. The only light I can bear. The only soul I cannot live without. He buries his face in your hair, breathing you in like salvation.

– Don’t leave me again. Not unless you want to see what I become without you. His eyes gleaming with unspoken promises — dark, beautiful, and absolute. – You’re mine. And I will spend eternity proving it.