𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐃 🩸

CHAPTER ONE

"For Christ's sake, Sapphire Vance, you didn't have to move to the middle of nowhere to prove a point," my best friend Lexi’s voice rang out from the receiver.

I could picture her perfectly: sitting on her velvet duvet in her luxurious bedroom back home, aggressively twirling a strand of her bleached-blonde hair around a manicured finger while she scolded me.

"I'm not trying to prove a point, Lexi," I muttered, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.

I was standing in a painfully slow line at *The rusty Cafe*, a small, dimly lit diner that smelled heavily of burnt espresso beans and maple syrup. The clock on the wall read exactly 7:30 AM. Outside, a thick, cinematic fog clung to the streets of Blackwood, swallowing the bottom half of the pine trees that lined the roads. It was pure Pacific Northwest gloom—very moody, very isolated, and completely different from the sun-drenched city life I had left behind.

"Next," the tired-looking barista sighed.

I stepped up, ordered a plain black coffee and a bag of bagels, paid with my last few crumpled bills, and strolled out into the damp morning air.

Waiting for me at the curb was the only thing I had in my name: a rusty, faded blue van that used to belong to my dad before he died. It rattled like a cage of loose bolts, but it was mine. I climbed into the driver's seat, setting the steaming paper cup in the cracked holder, and propped my phone back up against the dashboard.

"I still don't get it," Lexi sighed heavily into the speaker as I turned the key. The engine groaned, sputtered, and finally roared to a pathetic life. "You had a full-ride scholarship offer at the state university. A guaranteed ticket out. Instead, you pack up your entire life into a graveyard on wheels and drive to a town nobody can even find on a map."

"It's on a map, lex and cheaper here," I said, putting the van in drive and pulling out onto the empty, winding country road. "And it's quiet. Rent for the off-campus room is next to nothing, and the countryside gives me space to breathe. No drama. No expectations."

"Yeah, well, it's also thousands of miles away from me," she groaned. "Who am I supposed to sneak out with on Friday nights? You're ruining my life, Steph."

I smiled softly, looking out at the dense, towering walls of pine trees flashing past my window. "You'll survive, Lex. I just needed a fresh start—"

Suddenly, a massive shape exploded out of the dark tree line.

"Oh s**t—!" I screamed.

My reflexes took over. I slammed on the brakes and violently yanked the steering wheel to the left. The van skidded over the wet asphalt, the tires shrieking in protest. The world spun for a terrifying second before the front bumper crashed violently into a ditch at the side of the road, the violent jolt snapping my seatbelt tight against my chest. The engine hissed and died.

"Steph? Steph! What happened?!" Lexi’s voice panicked from the floorboards where the phone had dropped.

My heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "I... I hit something. Hold on."

I shoved the door open, my boots squelching into the mud. The morning fog was thicker now, wrapping around my ankles like cold fingers. I walked around to the front of the van, bracing myself for the worst, and found it lying in the brush.

It was a deer.

It was a massive doe, her chest heaving in shallow, agonizing hitches as she lay pinned beneath a patch of thorns.

"Hey... girl" I whispered, taking a cautious step back.

But as my eyes adjusted to the dim light, my breath caught. The deer was bleeding, but it wasn't from the impact of my bumper. Shredded across its flank were three deep, vicious gouges—claw marks. They were massive, deep enough to expose raw flesh, and completely unnatural. No normal animal could leave marks that large or that clean. It looked like it had been shredded by something with hands.

A sudden, suffocating chill swept over the back of my neck.

The hairs on my arms stood on end. The forest around me went completely dead silent—no birds, no wind, nothing. I looked up, scanning the dark, shadowed depths of the trees. I couldn't see anything through the mist, but the sensation was overwhelming.

Something was standing in the trees. Something was watching me.

Panic seized me. I turned on my heel, sprinted back to the van, and slammed the door shut. I cranked the key, praying to whatever entity was listening, and the engine miraculously caught. I slammed it into reverse, peeled out of the ditch, and tore down the road without looking back.

****************************************

Twenty minutes later, the adrenaline had faded into a dull, throbbing headache. I pulled the van up to the curb in front of a looming, Victorian-style apartment building. The paint was peeling, and the dark wood looked weathered by decades of rain, fitting the town's gothic aesthetic perfectly.

Standing on the porch was Mrs gray, the elderly, stone-faced landlady I had spoken to on the phone. She didn't say a word. She just gave me a up and down look and a slow nod, turned, and led me up a creaking flight of stairs to the second floor.

She unlocked the door to Room 2B and pushed it open.

My jaw dropped.

The room was small, bathed in the soft morning light that filtered through a grime-crusted window, illuminating dancing dust motes in the air. The walls were covered in peeling, faded dark green paint, and two basic twin beds were pushed against opposite sides of the room, the ceiling look like they had holes in them.

But the layout wasn’t what had me frozen in the doorway beside Mrs gray.

two people were heavily making out. The sounds of their wet, heavy breathing echoed loudly in the small space.

The girl was on her hands and knees, her back arched beautifully as the guy f****d into her from behind. He had his hands clamped tightly on her hips, his knuckles white as he pulled her back against him with every deep, merciless thrust. Her head was thrown back, dark messy hair tumbling over her shoulders, her eyes closed in total ecstasy as she screamed and laughed. Her body was a living canvas—covered in intricate, sprawling black-ink tattoos that wrapped around her ribs, down her spine, and over the curve of her thighs, moving in a mesmerizing blur with every hard impact. A silver hoop glinted in her nose, catching the morning light.

Mrs gray coughed.

They broke apart at the sound of the door. The guy—a tall, muscular dude with dark hair—didn't look a bit embarrassed. He lazily swung his legs over the side of the bed, slowly putting his clothes back on . As he walked past me to get to the door, he flashed me a slow, devastatingly handsome smirk.

"Welcome to the neighborhood," he murmured, his eyes lingering on mine for a fraction of a second before he slipped past me and vanished down the hall.

The girl, however, remained sitting cross-legged on the mattress, completely naked.She was breathtaking in a destructive, rebellious kind of way.

"That's Roxie," Mrs. Gray sighed, pointing a wrinkled finger at the girl. "Roxie, this is Sapphire. Try not to break the lease before the month ends."

With that, the old woman turned and left, slamming the door shut behind her.

I stood there, clutching my backpack like a shield, suddenly realizing I was very far from home. and this girl was far different from what I had expected my roommate would be.

Roxie grabbed a oversized black graphic tee from the floor, tossing it over her head with a careless shrug. She picked up a cigarette from the night stand, and, walked over to the windowsill, . She struck a match, the small flame illuminating the sharp, cool angles of her face, and inhaled deeply.

"Don't worry, I don't usually bring Jax back here," Roxie said, blowing a stream of gray smoke out the open window. She looked me up and down, a faint, amused smile playing on her lips. "You look like you're about to faint, Sapphire. You want a drag?"

"I'm fine. And you can call me Steph," I said, finally setting my bags down on the empty bed across the room.

Roxie leaned against the window frame, tapping the ash outside. "So, Steph. What brings a girl like you to a dead-end town like oak Haven? Anyone who comes here is either mad, or running from something or someone."

I looked around the small room, at the peeling green walls. roxie side of the room was already unorganizedly occupied.

"I'm just here," I replied softly, keeping my voice level. "Just looking for a quiet place to go to school."

Roxie let out a dark, low chuckle, taking one last drag of her cigarette before stubbing it out against the brick outside. "Quiet. Right. Well, you're in for a surprise, roommate."

She strolled back to her bed, picked up a jean short, she mumbled something about a pertime job and then left.

I sighed, slowly unpacking my few belongings, I didn't have much, a few clothes I had gotten at a cheap price from a local thrift store, a few used and new books and some important stationaries.

Once my duffel bag was empty, I sank onto my bed. The mattress was stiff, the springs groaning loudly under my weight, and the air in the small room smelled faintly of Roxie's stale cigarette smoke and s*x.

this was not how I had expected my first day at oakhaven to be, I had almost ran over a deer and walked into my room mate making out. Worse, loneliness was slowly creeping in, I missed home, I missed Lexi,.

i thought about calling her again, but decided against it. instead I gathered my planner and text book, taking notes of my class schedule for the semester. I made a mental note to go shopping after classes tomorrow to get some things, I planned on giving the room a bit of decorations, but I was going to ask roxie about it first and if she wasn't ok with it, I'll just decorate my side of the room.

Honestly, I was looking forward my first day in college tomorrow, I hadn't had a great first day in oakhaven, but I hoped my first day at school went well.