Sinful Obsession

10. 10 – Ewan

10 – Ewan

M y mind is a mass of chaos as I head for our room just after dinner, Kaua a few steps behind me. The faint hum of the crackling fluorescent lights above us flicker incessantly, an annoying hum accompanied by the sudden bouts of darkness. Briarwood has always felt lifeless. I’ve seen the strongest minds break and crack beneath the gaslighting that the doctors subject us to everyday. They go from believing in who they are, to following whatever the orderlies require them to do. But that’s what they want.

To break us.

For me, Death is all I have.

And then there’s her.

I can’t stop thinking about her.

Most new patients crumble by the time they’re brought to their rooms. The doctors make sure of it. Orderlies bombard them with an onslaught of confusion—papers to sign, questions to answer, rules to think about. Then new orderlies take over, enforcing their brand of cruelty, until the patient is too exhausted or scared to resist. By the time the doctor delivers the final blow—the news that there’s no way out, that someone out there wanted them gone for good—it’s usually too late for them to fight back.

Not to mention the pills they offer during dinner. Patients, at that point, willingly take them, no longer wanting to push against the inevitable.

Maybe the girl is different. Maybe she hasn’t broken yet. Maybe she’s curled up in bed right now, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out her next move.

Or maybe I’m giving her too much credit.

Kaua steps into the room behind me, shutting the door with a quiet click. The air between us feels heavy, like it always does when I can’t focus, when my thoughts are spinning too fast for me to catch hold of them. I toss my jacket onto the edge of the bed and start poking around, searching for something to ground me.

“Ewan.”

Kaua’s voice is low and steady, a sound that rumbles through me and brings me back to reality. I glance over my shoulder to see him standing there, his broad frame silhouetted against the dim light. His arms are crossed, but his expression is soft, concerned, worried. I hate that look on him.

“It’s not usually this bad. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” I lie, turning back to the bed. The downside of being Death is the curiosities. The need to understand how things work. How they are put together. Why they act like they do. My ultimate goal is to take that bit of life but in order to do so, I have to know how the wheels and cogs work in tandem. And when I can’t tinker or figure it out, the chaos becomes just a little too loud.

It’ll be a long night if I don’t get to see the new girl.

The floor creaks as Kaua steps closer, his presence suddenly behind me. I stand up straight, one of his thick arms wrapping around my stomach and pulling me back into his chest. “You’re a terrible liar, Death .” His chuckle rumbles through his chest and down my spine, making a beeline for my cock. He slowly walks me toward the wall before turning me around and casing me in. Kaua is one of the only people who can do this to me—disarm me, strip me of my defenses with nothing more than a touch.

He reaches up to caress my cheek, his thumb running across my lips as he waits for me to speak. “I can’t focus,” I finally admit.

“Because of the new girl?”

I don’t respond right away, but that’s answer enough. Kaua sighs, his hands falling to my waist with a firm grip. “You can’t figure out everyone, Ewan.”

“I’m not,” my words are far from convincing as I sag back against the wall. “Fuck, I’m just curious. I need to understand her and nothing makes sense. She came in here with a smile. Determination. Who does that? Finding out where she was going and then the ride over couldn’t have been pleasant but she… there…”

Kaua presses his forehead against mine, quieting my anxieties. “You don’t have to understand everything in the world, regardless if she becomes your next project.” He waits for me to give in, his fingers digging into my waist until my lips part in silent agony.

I relish in the pain he offers, Kaua grinning just before he kisses me. It brings me back to the present, away from the chaos in my head even if I won’t let this curiosity rest. “Kaua—”

“Shh,” he murmurs, his lips ghosting over my jawline. “Stop thinking for once.”

Easier said than done. My thoughts are a storm, a chaotic mess of curiosity, frustration, and something I don’t want to name. But Kaua doesn’t give me the chance to overthink. His hands are firm as they grip my waist tighter, the man pressing against me until I feel the outline of his cock against my upper thigh.

The contrast of the cold against my skin and the heat of Kaua’s body is dizzying. His lips capture mine again, his kisses a strange mix of tenderness and hunger, like he’s trying to remind me that I’m not alone while also claiming me as his.

“You’re always in your head,” Kaua mutters against my lips, his voice low and teasing. “Always thinking, always analyzing.”

He continues to taste me, both of us content in this embrace as we wait for the rest of our quad to show. My mind is still on that girl but I can breathe again for the first time in a few hours, heavy footsteps causing me to glance at the entrance to our room.

A wild smile is plastered on Vito’s face, his blonde hair mussed and hanging over his eyes as Nevan dangles from his shoulder. I laugh at their boyish antics, both of them sharing a love far different than mine and Kaua’s. Nevan’s a brat through and through, Vito enjoying the chase. After all, he is conquest. Nevan—famine—enjoys egging people until they crack and fall apart, his constant games pushing Vito over the edge. It isn’t uncommon to find them lip locked in the hallways, Vito enjoying the spoils of his win.

Nevan easily slides to the ground, patting Vito’s chest before turning to us and wiggling his eyebrows at me in jest. “Got lost in your head again, didn’t you? What’s the new curiosity? The girl still?”

I nod, Kaua stepping away from me to sit on the edge of the bed. He pulls me down to sit beside him, placing a firm hand on my back to ground me. Vito takes up the bed across from us, Nevan staying perched by the door, a smirk tugging at his lips, drinking in the tension like it’s some kind of delicacy.

“It’s not just us, right?” Vito mutters, glaring at me. “You all feel it too. I mean, you don’t get distracted by new patients unless something’s off. Unless something is different.”

I nod, rubbing the back of my neck as the unease settles deeper into my bones. “They’re setting her up today so no one’s seen her just yet.”

Nevan chuckles, a low, unsettling sound that reminds me just how strange his gift is. “Maybe the new girl is the source of it. A little disruption in the precious order of Briarwood would be nice..”

Vito, however, isn’t as sure. “Ewan mentioned she was just a mere human. She can’t do anything to disrupt the balance but I’m nearly as curious as Death here to find out what it is.”

“They wouldn’t have brought her here if it wasn’t something important,” I say. “Human or not, she believes in something or believes she is someone that the doctors want to keep locked up. Whatever that belief is has caused everything to shift. Everyone’s been on edge all day.”

A dark smile spreads across Nevan’s face as he leans back against the edge of the bed. “It smells like fear.”

Intrigued by that, I push myself to my feet, needing to explore. Staying any longer in our room will only agitate me further until Kaua or Vito fucks me to sleep. Hell, at this point, I would be open to fucking Nevan until I can’t move any longer. Unfortunately, even if I wear out my body, the chaos in my mind will continue to churn. The other three don’t even question me as we step out into the hallway, each of us instinctively taking our roles in the silent formation.

I lead, with Kaua flanking me, his imposing presence like a shield, while Vito prowls beside him, and Nevan takes up the rear, his gaze shifting from shadow to shadow, watching for any sign of movement.

The dimly lit corridors and the heavy silence that follows our footsteps is only broken by the quiet hum hidden deep within the walls. Each step deeper into the darkness brings us closer to a foreign sensation, the air thick and charged as if the darkness is more of a thing and less of an idea. And then I hear it. At first, it’s soft, almost nonexistent and then it happens again.

An almost playful giggle that sends a shiver down my spine.

Vito’s eyes gleam with a dangerous excitement. “That’s her, isn’t it?” he says, his voice barely a whisper. “The new girl.”

I nod, feeling the strange energy intensify with each step.

The sound of her laughter grows louder as I push through the darkness, heading toward a corridor that has been off limits since I first stepped inside Briarwood. It isn’t like I haven’t tried to venture down here but there’s always someone guarding the door at the end, a door I soon found out guards an entrance to hell.

The walls here seem to press in around us, as if they’re alive, breathing, pulsing with an energy that feels both ancient and malevolent. And then I see it—the door at the end of the hall, the heavy wood almost vibrating from the darkness within.

A door that shouldn’t be open.

Each of us stand inches from it, caught in a mixture of awe and confusion. We’ve heard the stories over the years, whispered tales from other patients about how the door has never been opened. How the portal has been locked away with several fail safes that everyone has been caught at least once trying to undo.

Every attempt has ended the same way—solitary confinement, locked away for days, maybe weeks, as a reminder of our limits. Patients, including ourselves, stopped trying after a while, content to let the door remain a mystery.

But now, here it is, cracked open, a faint heat radiating from the darkness beyond.

And that adorable giggle coming from inside.

“Impossible,” Vito breathes, his eyes wide with something between fear and excitement. “None of us could open that door. Not even all four of us together.”

“Then how did she do it?” Kaua mutters, his jaw pulled tight as his gaze fixes on the door handle. “She’s just a human.”

“Maybe she’s more than that,” Nevan sing songs. “Or maybe whoever she believes is real is behind this.”

Carefully, I pull the handle, the door moving freely with the motion. The creak echoes in the darkness, inviting us to see truly what lies inside. I don’t expect to see the heated stones, almost alive as they shift and breathe with the energy of hell itself. And there she is, the new girl.

She’s lying on the floor just inside the doorway, her body relaxed, her eyes closed as if in sleep. Her clothes are strewn around her, leaving her bare and vulnerable, her skin bathed in the faint glow of the heat emanating from the open doorway.

For a moment, I can’t move, caught in the strange beauty of the sight before me.

Her skin is flushed, a faint sheen of sweat glistening in the dim light, and there’s a strange serenity on her face, a peaceful smile curving her lips as if she’s found something that none of us could ever understand. Her short hair fans out around her, framing her face, and her lashes rest against her cheeks, giving her an almost ethereal quality, like she’s something out of a dream.

A mere human shouldn’t be able to open that door. She shouldn’t even be able to get this close to the portal without burning up, without her very soul being torn apart. And yet here she is, untouched, unscathed, lying across the portal as if she belongs there, as if she’s part of it.

It feels wrong to watch her like this and yet I can’t seem to look away. Her eyes open slowly, wide brown eyes locking on mine as she slowly sits up. A faint smile plays on her lips as she reaches for her white scrubs, not at all ashamed of being naked in front of us.

“Hi,” she mumbles, stuffing herself into her pants and then the shirt.

There’s a strange pull toward her, something I can’t explain and I’m not sure I want to. This curiosity is one I don’t think I’ll be able to fully dissect but she’s about to become my new obsession. I stare down at her, caught in the intensity of her gaze, something so different than the other patients dropped off here. There’s no flicker of fear, no terror wafting off of her, just a resilience that makes no sense in the current circumstances.

Vito steps forward, his eyes narrowed as he studies her, his expression a mixture of suspicion and intrigue. “Who are you?” he demands. “How did you open that door?”

Her smile doesn’t shift as she addresses him with the same resolve she did me. Most people are terrified of Vito and Kaua’s size but nothing in her gaze reflects that. “I just… turned the knob? Was I not supposed to?”

Nevan’s grin widens, his eyes gleaming with something dark and twisted. “I like her.”

Kaua watches her in silence, as if he’s weighing her every word, every movement, trying to make sense of what she is, of why she’s here.

I step forward, my hand hovering just above her shoulder, unsure whether I should touch her, whether I even have the right to. “What are you?”

“I think I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

The others shift behind me, a mixture of confusion and unease filling the air and I know they’re just as captivated and drawn to her as I am. She’s something different, something… dangerous . And I can’t shake the feeling that whatever she is, whatever power brought her here, it’s only just beginning.