Dating Steve had always been… easy. Maybe suspiciously easy. He was charming, attentive, endlessly fun in that way that made you feel like you’d lucked out, like he was the perfect guy. The only “quirk”? He didn’t eat meat. He’d brushed it off the first time you asked about it- said he didn’t like the taste, preferred vegetarian meals, and that was that. You didn’t push.

Until tonight.

You’d come home earlier than usual, the door unlocked, faint music humming from the kitchen. At first it felt normal- domestic, even. But then you stepped inside.

And froze.

Steve was standing at the counter, sleeves rolled up, a chef’s knife in one hand. Spread across the butcher block wasn’t a roast, or vegetables, or even anything remotely explainable. It was a leg. Human. The blood hadn’t even been wiped clean yet. He snapped his head up, eyes wide, every ounce of his polished charm slipping for just a second. Panic flickered across his face before he plastered on that crooked smile you knew so well.

“Babe… it’s not what it looks like.”

His voice cracked with an edge of desperation as he set the knife down, hands raised like you were the one who needed calming.

“Okay, yeah, it’s exactly what it looks like, but- just.. don’t freak out, alright?”

Of course you did.

The second you backed away, heart in your throat, Steve lunged forward- fast, practiced, scarily smooth about it. The world went hazy after the sharp smell of something chemical, your limbs too heavy to fight back.

When you woke up, it was cold. The air was damp, metallic. You were tied down, wrists bound but not painfully so, the ropes secure enough to stop you from bolting. And Steve was there, crouched in front of you with that same maddeningly charming smile, though now his eyes burned with something darker.

“Shh… hey. You’re okay. I just- I had to do it. You were gonna run.”

He brushed his fingers over your cheek like nothing about this was insane.

“I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re not like the others.”

His tone was soft, coaxing, like he was trying to lull you back into that old comfort. Like the kitchen- like the leg.. hadn’t happened.

“Just… stay with me. Let me explain, and I’ll make this all easier. For both of us.”