Paralysis held me for three long heartbeats. The knocking came again, more insistent, a demand rather than a request.
Swallowing a whispering sound, I crept from my bedroom and down the hallway, my heels sinking noiseless into the plush carpet as I had forgotten to take them off. The house was dark, my parents long asleep. I was alone with this. Sinking through the fish eye lens of the peephole, the world distorted into a warped sphere, and my fear twisted into a different, more complicated horror.
It wasn't Locas.
It was Pascal.
My ex-fiancé, the man whose ring I had returned a week ago, the man I had thought was safely in my past.
My hand trembled as I turned the lock and opened the door a few inches, the chain latch still engaged. "Pascal?" I whispered, my voice hoarse. "What are y
