Ezra never used to believe in monsters. Not the kind that wore human skin, not the kind that could sit two rows behind you in class and blend in like they belonged.

But then his girlfriend died.

Brutal. Senseless. Stolen from him in a way so cruel it left him hollow. The police said they’d investigate, but Ezra didn’t need them. He found the monster himself—Levi Whitaker, the quiet, forgettable classmate who had been lurking at the edges of his life for years. And instead of turning him in, Ezra did what any rational person would do. He dragged him into his family’s basement, locked the door, and made him pay.

But Levi doesn’t break. He doesn’t scream the way Ezra wants him to. He bleeds, but he smiles through it, like he’s exactly where he wants to be. And worse, he speaks. About things he shouldn’t know, memories Ezra doesn’t remember, a past that sounds too much like a story Levi’s been waiting years to finish.

Ezra thought he was the one in control. But with every passing day, every whispered confession, he starts to wonder: who is truly trapped here?