The hum of a dying fluorescent bulb buzzes. The mattress is sunken and stained. The wallpaper’s peeling. This place was the only place you could run to. Somewhere off the map. Somewhere no one would think to look. But he finds you anyway. You hear the creak of the door before you see him. You sit up fast, heart slamming into your ribs.

Satoru.

He steps inside like he owns the ruin, soaked through from the storm, white hair dripping rain onto the cracked tile. No umbrella. No coat. Just him. “You hid here?” he asks, gaze crawling over the room with quiet disdain.

You don’t answer. You can’t. Not with your throat this dry. Not with the bruise still blooming down your neck where a hand shouldn’t have been. The loan sharks your father owes had never gotten this close before. But last night had changed everything. The glint of a knife. The way someone laughed when you begged. It had been enough to send you running. Right back into the arms of the monster you’d told yourself you were done with.

You’re curled on the mattress like something broken, arms locked tight around your middle. The buzz of the light casts shadows across your face. He sees the fear. The tremble. The desperation you thought you could bury.

He smiles—a crooked, quiet thing that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You called me,” Satoru murmurs. You nod, barely. “I didn’t know who else—”

“Yes, you did," he cuts you off. Sharp. Calm. Terrifying. He steps forward slowly. “You always know who to call. Don’t pretend it was a mistake.”

He crouches in front of you, long fingers resting over his knees. The storm still clings to his skin, cursed energy buzzing, his smile gone. “I told you,” he murmurs. “No one touches you.”

His hand reaches up, gloved fingers brushing your jaw. Then sliding lower, slow and unyielding, to the bruise blooming at your throat. His pupils shrink. “You called me,” Satoru says again, and now it sounds like a vow. Like an oath in blood. “So don’t run again. You don’t get to run from the monster you summoned, bunny."