the pull she cannot ignore
444 Words
Tuzi tried to pretend nothing was wrong the next morning. She tried to pretend the mansion wasn’t colder, the shadows weren’t darker, and the forest wasn’t watching her. But the hardest thing to ignore was him.
Every time she stepped inside the mansion, she felt it — a shift in the air, a tightening in her chest, a strange awareness that told her exactly where Matthias was even when she couldn’t see him. She hated it. She didn’t understand it. But she couldn’t stop feeling it.
The woman handed her a new list of tasks.
“Second floor today. And stay away from the east wing.”
Always the east wing.
Tuzi climbed the stairs, trying to focus on her work. But the moment she reached the landing, she felt it — that pull. Like an invisible thread tugging her forward. Like her body recognized something her mind didn’t.
She shook her head and forced herself into the nearest room. Dusting. Straightening. Polishing. Normal tasks. But her hands trembled every time she sensed him nearby.
And then she heard footsteps.
Slow. Controlled. Familiar.
Her breath caught before she even turned.
Matthias stood in the doorway, watching her with that unreadable expression he always wore. But today, something flickered behind his eyes — something he tried to hide.
“You shouldn’t be up here alone,” he said.
Tuzi swallowed.
“You keep saying that. But you never tell me why.”
Matthias stepped inside the room, and the temperature dropped instantly. The cold rolled off him like a warning, but the pull she felt toward him only grew stronger.
“There are things in this house that react to you,” he said quietly.
“Things I can’t control.”
Tuzi’s heart thudded.
“React to me? Why me?”
He hesitated — and that hesitation scared her more than anything.
“I don’t know yet,” he said.
“But I feel it too.”
Her breath caught.
“What do you feel?”
Matthias looked away, jaw tight.
“Something I shouldn’t.”
The air between them thickened, charged with something she didn’t have a name for. Something warm and cold at the same time. Something that made her want to step closer even though every instinct told her to run.
Matthias finally forced himself back toward the door.
“Finish your work,” he said.
“And leave before sunset.”
But as he walked away, Tuzi felt it again — that invisible thread pulling her toward him, binding them in a way she couldn’t explain.
And she knew, deep down, that whatever was happening between them…
was only getting stronger.
- Writer
