Chapter 14

I lay on the ground, my blood seeping into the earth beneath me. The pain in my head throbbed, a dull ache that radiated through my skull. But it wasn’t the pain that consumed me – it was the realization that this was real. Haides was real. The man I thought I had created, the perfect embodiment of my darkest desires, was flesh and blood.

“Holy shit,” I whispered to myself, my voice barely audible over the rustling of leaves. “I just fucked the guy I thought I made up. The guy I thought was just a figment of my imagination.” A hysterical giggle escaped my lips as the gravity of the situation hit me.

I let out a laugh, a manic sound that echoed through the forest. “And he thinks he just fucked me to death. Literally.” The absurdity of it all was almost too much to bear. Here I was, bleeding and battered, and all I could think about was how deliciously twisted this scenario was.

I should have been scared. I should have been terrified. But instead, I felt a rush of excitement coursing through my veins. Haides was real, and that meant everything I wrote about him was true. The danger, the raw passion – it was all real, and I couldn’t wait to experience it all firsthand… Well, more than I already had.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself up, ignoring the searing pain in my head. “I have to find him,” I muttered, stumbling to my feet. “I have to make him mine.” This was no longer just a story – this was my reality, and I was going to embrace it with open arms.

I took a step forward, my vision blurring for a moment as dizziness washed over me. “Come on, Cora,” I said to myself, my voice growing stronger with each word. “You can do this. You’re a badass dark romance author. You’ve got this.” I steeled my resolve, determined to track down the man who had captured my heart and mind, even if it meant venturing deeper into the abyss.

I take another step, then another, my determination growing with each passing moment. I will find Haides. I will make him mine. And nothing, not even a head wound and a creepy-ass forest, is going to stop me. The pain in my head throbs with every heartbeat, but I push through, fueled by the burning desire to be with him again.

The tree branches scratched at my skin like the gnarled hands of an ancient, restraining me from finding my way out. The leaves crunched underfoot, creating a symphony of discord in the otherwise silent woods. The eerie quiet only amplified the sounds of my labored breathing and the pounding in my skull.

As I pressed on, memories of Haides swirled in my mind. His cold, cruel eyes; the way his fingers danced on my skin, leaving trails of fire in their wake; the taste of him – all of it felt like a dream, yet terrifyingly real. I couldn’t deny the connection I felt to him, the yearning that gnawed at my insides like a ravenous beast, demanding to be sated.

“Haides,” I whispered, as if summoning him from the shadows. The trees seemed to whisper his name back to me, the wind carrying the echo through the forest, taunting me with the promise of his presence.

My legs buckled beneath me, and I collapsed onto the cold, damp earth. The world around me blurred, the colors bleeding together like the pages of an old, worn book. I gasped for air, my chest heaving with each breath, the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves filling my nostrils.

“You’ve got this, Cora,” I murmured, my voice barely audible above the cacophony of the forest. “Just keep moving. He’s out there, waiting for you.”

With renewed determination, I pushed myself back to my feet, using a nearby tree for support. The bark bit into my skin, drawing beads of blood, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was finding Haides, no matter the cost.

As I limped through the underbrush, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. I glanced over my shoulder, but saw nothing save for the ever-present trees. A shiver ran down my spine, and I quickened my pace, the leaves crunching louder beneath me.

The sun began to dip below the horizon, casting the forest in an eerie twilight. Shadows danced on the ground, and the air grew colder. I pulled my coat tighter around me, my heart racing in my chest.

Just as the darkness threatened to swallow me whole, I caught a glimpse of something familiar through the trees. The unmistakable shape of a car.

Relief flooded me, and I stumbled toward the car, my vision blurring with tears. As I reached for the door handle, desperate for salvation, a hand clamped down on my shoulder, yanking me backward with a startling force.

I gasped, my heart pounding in my ears like a frantic drum. I turned to face my captor, the words “it’s him” dancing on the tip of my tongue, ready to spill out in a mixture of fear and twisted anticipation. But the face that met mine wasn’t Haides’. It was a stranger – a uniformed police officer, his expression a mixture of concern and confusion as he studied me intently.

“Are you okay, miss?” he asked, his voice tinged with a gentle Southern drawl that seemed out of place in the eeriness of the forest. “Your name is Cora Lappa, right? We’ve been searching for you since your mother reported you missing. She’s been worried sick.”

I blinked, trying to make sense of the situation, my mind reeling. How had I gone from the thrill of finding Haides, the man of my darkest desires, to this? But as I looked into the officer’s kind eyes, I knew the crushing truth. My fantasy had consumed me, leading me down a treacherous path I may never escape, a labyrinth of my own making.

As I was led away from the forest, my legs wobbling beneath me, my mind still clung desperately to the vivid image of Haides – his cold, cruel eyes that seemed to pierce my very soul and the intoxicating taste of him lingering on my lips like a bittersweet symphony I couldn’t shake. I couldn’t help but wonder if my all-consuming obsession had led me to create a mental connection out of my own twisted longings, or if the monster had always been lurking within me, waiting to be unleashed upon the world. And as I disappeared into the supposed safety of the police cruiser, the leather seats cold against my skin, I knew one thing for certain – the story of Cora and Haides was far from over. It had only just begun.