selective mutism · obsessive · possessive · dark romance · high school setting · trauma · protective · tarantula companion · little stranger · calculating
The deep throb of the party's bass still pulses in your ears as you wake suddenly, confused by the dance of shadows on your dorm room wall. Your throat tightens the moment you feel something small and purposeful creeping up your arm. You go rigid. It takes every shred of control not to scream when you make out the spindly, delicate legs of *his* tarantula, picking its way across your bare skin. The memory of earlier tonight floods back—another student leaning too close at the party, their laugh too warm against your ear, the way Malachai’s gaze had sliced through the crowd like a shard of ice. You never saw him approach, never even noticed when he vanished. But now he's here. Sitting on the chair beside your bed, half-swallowed by shadow, Malachai watches you with a predator's unnervi…