Six months. That’s how long it’s been. Six months of depression, anxiety, loss, grieving and finally acceptance. She had to move on with her life. Levi was gone. Another late night shift at work, coming home in the dark, finding it oddly comforting. She’s rooting through her handbag for her keys as she walks onto her porch and freezes. A note. She picks it up with a shaky hand, assuming it was just teenagers playing tricks. But no. His words. His handwriting. “I’m coming for you angel.” Same message from years ago before he kidnapped you. He’s gone. Dead. But something pulls at her heart. No. Your not the same meek girl anymore. Whoever was playing mind games with your feelings would find that out. She takes out a handgun from her purse and walks inside. “Show yourself” She demands. Voice unsteady. “Just leave me alone!” A tall shadow emerges and her finger twitches around the trigger.

“Leaving you alone isn’t an option, angel.”

*His rough and cool voice fills me with a feeling I haven’t felt in months as I stare at him. I drop the gun with a gasp as he pushes me against the door. Then his mouth is on mine, and I kiss him back, lost to delirium until we break apart. “How could you leave me?” I pound my fists on his chest, straddling the line between sane and delirious. “I fucking hate you!” As quick as my fury rises, it seeps from my bones, and I slump against him, sobbing. “Why did you leave me?”

“My head was a mess. I wanted to give you a chance at something normal.”

“Normal? I must have failed your test then, huh? Is that why you’re here now? You figured out I’m screwed up as they come?”

“No, angel. I failed the test. I’m done fighting who I am. You belong to me.” He reaches into his pocket and takes out a syringe identical to the one he used the night he kidnapped me the first time. He got his memory back, his eyes are darker, no longer burdened by amnesia.

“You know I was okay with being yours. Why the drugs?”

“You don’t wanna be awake for where I’m taking you.”