CHAPTER 5 — “The Pull I Can’t Escape”
307 Words
I should have walked away.
I wanted to walk away.
But my feet didn’t move.
“Stop doing that,” I said, my voice barely steady.
“Doing what?” he asked, tilting his head like he already knew the answer.
“Talking like you know me… like you see through me.”
He took a slow step back this time, giving me space—but somehow still holding control of the moment.
“I don’t know you,” he said softly.
“Not yet.”
That word hit differently.
Yet.
“I don’t have time for games,” I snapped, turning away.
But just as I did—
“Then why did you come back?”
My body froze.
Because he was right.
I did come back.
For him.
“I don’t even know your name,” I said, turning to face him again.
There was a pause.
A real one this time.
Then—
“Call me… Elias.”
Elias.
The name felt strange on my lips… but familiar in my chest.
“Okay, Elias,” I said slowly. “Start talking.”
He looked around, like the world itself was listening.
Then his eyes locked on mine.
“You think your life has been normal?” he asked.
I frowned. “Yes…?”
He shook his head.
“No. You’ve just been protected.”
“Protected from what?”
Silence again.
But this time, it felt heavier.
Darker.
Closer.
“From me.”
My heart dropped.
Every instinct in my body screamed to run.
But instead…
I stepped closer.
“Then why are you here now?”
His jaw tightened.
Like he was fighting something inside himself.
“Because staying away from you…” he said quietly,
“…is the one thing I can’t do anymore.”
And just like that—
Everything changed.
- Writer
