I stopped breathing.
It wasn't real. Couldn't be real.
And yet, there he was.
The man who should have been nothing but a rotting corpse in the ground. The man I mourned, screamed for, begged to stay.
My father.
He stepped into the light, his face shifting between the past and present, between the man I remembered and the stranger who stood before me now. His suit was pristine, sharp as a blade, but his eyes-God, his eyes-were voids of madness. Black pits where something human once lived. White stubble and those unrecognisable eyes.
I wanted to run.
I wanted to vomit.
I wanted to believe this was just another nightmare.
Lucius chuckled beside me, shattering the silence like breaking glass. "Surprise."
My throat locked, my muscles coiling so tightly they burned. I didn't move. Couldn't.
He's dead. He's dead. He's dead.
But he wasn't.
He smiled, and it sent a shiver down my spine, the same way it used to when I was a child. When I'd wake up in the middle of the night to find him sitting at the edge of my bed, murmuring to himself, rocking back and forth, eyes gleaming with something I never understood. Did I ignore the signs abck then? I believed he was sane.
"Seraphina." His voice was silk. Soft. Loving. But too smooth, too controlled.
It was a trick.
A mask.
I knew that tone. Knew what came next.
Run.
I swallowed hard, keeping my expression blank even as every nerve in my body screamed. "You're supposed to be dead."
He sighed like I had disappointed him. "That's no way to greet your father, kitten."
Kitten.
That name. That goddamn name.
It yanked me backward in time.
"Cat got your tongue?" he asked, his head tilting in that eerie, bird-like way he always did when he was shifting. Slipping.
Lucius was enjoying this. I could feel his gaze flicking between us, drinking in my reaction like it was his favourite wine.
I refused to give him the satisfaction.
I forced my lips into a thin line. "You never visited."
His expression flickered. A crack in the porcelain.
And then-
Laughter. Sharp. Loud. Unhinged.
I clenched my fists as my father laughed like I had just told the funniest joke in the world.
Then-
Silence.
Instant. Violent.
His entire demeanour changed, like a puppet whose strings had just been severed. His shoulders stiffened, his head cocking to the side, eyes twitching as they darted over my face. His eyes were unfocused and red. Like he was high on something. He did look unhinged.
"Ah," he whispered scratching his neck harshly almost drawing the blood. "She's angry with me."
A shudder rolled through me, but I didn't move. Didn't breathe.
He took a step closer.
I held my ground.
"You think I left you," he murmured, nodding to himself as though answering an unspoken question. "Think I abandoned you. I did, I did, didn't I?"
His lips curled.
And he giggled.
A breathy, childlike sound that sent ice down my spine.
"Oh, kitten," he purred, his voice taking on a dreamy, sing-song quality. "It was fun."
My stomach twisted.
"Watching you cry. Watching you beg. God, it was fun," he sighed, closing his eyes as if reminiscing and clenched-unclenched his fists before his unforced eyes snapped to me. "But you know what was even better?"
He grinned.
"Watching her."
I didn't want to ask.
I didn't want to know.
But the words spilled from my lips before I could stop them. "Her?"
His grin stretched, splitting his face like something grotesque. He looked horrifying. His hands trembled when he reached for me and then suddenly stilled as if someone else was in control.
"Your mother," he whispered, eyes alight with something feverish. Mouth twitching into a grin mid-sentence. "Watching her scream, watching her sob. It was delicious."
My breath hitched.
He chuckled. "She thought she could fix me. Thought she could change me." His fingers twitched at his sides. "But she couldn't. No one can."
I wanted to vomit. And a choked sob erupted through me. I was hurting inside so badly I wanted everything to stop for a while. I couldn't process anything. How could he… how could I ignore the signs?
"Shhh, do you hear that? They're talking about me again." he pointed to his head and shook his head as if he was truly hearing things making me truly scared and then suddenly his eyes flicked over my face. "He's saying you were fun, kitten. Shut up!... Watching you stumble, watching you suffer. Watching, watching… hehe…" He let out a delighted hum. "That was my favourite part. Until, until, until-"
His expression darkened.
His fingers twitched again.
"Until someone else became your torment," his tone dipped into something cold and distant. "I hated it." His nose wrinkled in distaste. "It irked me."
He blinked.
Then-
A bright, eerie smile.
"But then I met a kind boy."
A pause.
A sick, sinking feeling settled in my gut and I looked at Lucius only to see straight amusement in his eyes. He planned it. Very meticulously.
"What was his name?" he mused taking my attention away and tapped his chin. Then- "Ah." A sharp snap of his fingers. "Ivan."
My entire body went cold.
He giggled again. "Oh, kitten, you have no idea, do you?" He leaned in, his breath ghosting over my ear. "He caught me stalking you."
I froze.
My father grinned, dragging out the silence like a blade against flesh.
He was stalking me. Just like Judas told me. So the man who was sending me those texts was him and not Judas. The man who chased me that day… when Ivan dropped me… was him. It made sense cause Judas was never hideous. He was always bold in his ways. And that goddamn golden watch.
I felt sick.
He had watched me suffer. And he had liked it.
Something inside me cracked. It wasn't just the horror-it was the betrayal. The realization that every moment I'd felt hunted, like prey, was orchestrated by the man who should've been my protector.
"But you know what he did?" he whispered, voice dripping with glee.
I couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
"He paid me." His voice was soaked in amusement, delight curling at the edges. "Paid me to stalk you."
I shook my head, lips parting, but no words came.
He sighed, almost wistfully. "I gave him information. Told him where you worked. Told him where you lived." His grin widened. "Fed him little crumbs about you, kitten. I did everything to pull you away from him but fuck that damn bastard… he was always there!"
I could feel Lucius watching. My father giggled again, a shiver of manic energy rippling through him.
"It was so much fun."
"Why would you do that?!" My voice cracked, shaking with something raw, something that tasted like betrayal and burned like acid. "You are my father!"
His head tilted again, that eerie, bird-like motion that always made my stomach churn.
He blinked. Once. Twice.
He laughed.
Soft at first. A chuckle. Then deeper. Louder. Until it bubbled up into something manic, something that sent ice racing through my veins.
"Your father?" he mused, tapping a finger against his lips, his eyes flickering with something unstable. "Oh… am I?"
I recoiled, but he stepped forward.
"A father is supposed to protect, is that it?" he asked, feigning curiosity. "Supposed to love?"
His grin split his face wide, a grotesque mimicry of affection.
"Kitten, I did love you."
I shook my head. "No, you-"
"I do love you," he corrected himself, and the way his voice softened sent a sickening chill through me. "But love… love is such a funny little thing, isn't it? It bends. It twists. It warps."
His fingers twitched again, his expression shifting like a mask slipping from his face.
"Love can be gentle…" he whispered, reaching out as if to cup my cheek, but stopping inches away. His fingers hovered in the air, trembling. "Or it can be cruel."
His lips parted, and something dark flickered in his gaze.
"I loved you enough to watch you break."
I stepped back, my breath catching in my throat.
"Because that's when you're the most beautiful, kitten." His voice dropped, dripping with something that made my stomach lurch. "When you're hurting. When you're clawing for air. When you look at me like that-"
He laughed again, breathless, shaking his head as if scolding himself.
"But then you found someone else to break you." His expression twisted, lips curling. "And I hated that. Oh, God, I hated that."
His teeth clenched.
"Lucius," he spat the name like poison, his eyes flicking past me to where Lucius still stood, silent, watching. Enjoying.
"I should have killed him first."
Lucius smirked. "Touching. But we both know you never had the balls."
A twitch.
A flicker of something violent behind my father's eyes.
"I wanted to," he murmured. "I wanted to rip him apart. Because you… you were mine to ruin. No one else's."
I shuddered.
"And then Ivan."
His lips curled again.
"Ah, sweet, naive Ivan."
He chuckled.
"He thought he was protecting you, you know? Thought paying me would keep you safe."
He leaned in, voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
"But all it did was feed me."
I shook my head. "You-You're lying."
He giggled.
"Oh, kitten… would I ever lie to you?"
His expression softened.
His fingers twitched again.
And then-
A whisper.
"It was fun, Seraphina."
His breath ghosted over my ear, sending a violent tremor through me.
"So much fun."