sweet venom

Isabelle threw her arms around her daughter the exact second she stumbled safely through the front door.

“What happened, honey?” she asked frantically, her voice laced with panic as she clutched Nyla's trembling shoulders.

But Nyla just coldly shook her mother off, her eyes vacant and fixed on the floor. “I… I don't remember.”

Vincent took a long, exhausted breath and shut the front door, locking it securely before plopping down heavily onto the sofa. He buried his face in his hands, his shoulders tense, before speaking in an unyielding tone. “I'm not sending you to that school again. Don't question me.”

Nyla's breath hitched painfully. She knew with absolute certainty that Damian was the monster behind the entire nightmare, but the terrifying truth was that she couldn't bear the thought of staying away from him.

“Dad, I'm sure it's not the school's fault—”

“No!” he thundered, refusing to listen.

Isabelle immediately pulled Nyla into a tight hug as the teenager began to have a complete mental breakdown right there in the living room, her tears spilling over onto her mother's shoulder.

“I'm not gonna leave the school!” Nyla sobbed out. “What about my bestie, Lily?”

“Honey, you can stay in contact with her outside of class,” Isabelle added gently, stroke her hair to try and soothe her.

“You know what? Even Damian texted me directly saying that this school isn't safe for you anymore,” Vincent revealed, rubbing his temples in frustration.

Nyla practically choked on her own spit, her head snapping up. “He... he did what?”

She could barely wrap her mind around it.

She couldn't believe Damian would go to such extreme lengths just to scrub her completely out of his life. A desperate fire ignited inside her. “Dad, can you give me his number?”

Vincent raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Why?”

Nyla let out a heavy, calculated sigh, forcing her voice to calm down. “I just want to discuss some school stuff.”

Despite her relentless begging, her father flatly refused.

Frustrated and suffocating, Nyla had no other choice but to sprint upstairs to her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her. “Why would you do this?!” she screamed into the empty room. In a fit of blind rage, she punched the sharp wooden edge of her bedframe so hard that a piercing pain shot up her arm, leaving her knuckles throbbing and raw. Heavy tears steamed down her face. She absolutely hated how completely, helplessly she loved him.

Pulling out her phone, her fingers flew across the screen as she texted Lily: Come over tomorrow. Tell my dad we're just going to hang out to clear my head so he lets us go. I need to talk to you.

The next afternoon, Lily arrived right on time to rescue her.

“Uhm, Uncle, if you don't mind, can me and Nyla hang out for a bit today?” Lily asked politely, offering Vincent a reassuring smile as they stood by the entryway.

Vincent paused, looking briefly over at Isabelle for silent approval before answering. “Sure. But I'll drop you both off and pick you up myself!”

“Sounds good, Dad,” Nyla quickly added, not wanting to risk him changing his mind.

Vincent dropped Nyla and Lily off at the grand stone entrance of the nearest public library, as the girls had requested they wanted to check out some books for a class project.

“Text me the second you need me,” he instructed, his eyes full of lingering worry.

Nyla waved him goodbye, waiting until his car finally pulled away from the curb. Lily was about to take a step inside the building, but Nyla suddenly grabbed her arm, stopping her dead in her tracks.

“Lily, do you have Damian's number?!” she pleaded, her eyes wide and desperate.

“Girl—”

“Do you have it or not?!” Nyla pressed, her grip tightening on Lily's sleeve.

Lily hesitantly pulled out her smartphone, unlocking the screen and letting Nyla dial the numbers. Nyla pressed the device to her ear, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. “It's ringing,” she whispered.

The line clicked open. “Hello?” Damian spoke from the other end, his tone completely normal and calm, as if he hadn't terrorized her just the night before.

“I hope you recognize my voice,” Nyla said flatly.

A brief pause stretched over the line. “Nyla?”

She hummed softly in confirmation. “Why did you ask my dad to get me transferred from this school? When exactly did you become my enemy? The kind of enemy who would do literally anything just to get rid of me?”

“Look, I don't want to argue over the phone,” Damian sighed, his voice tight.

“But I need an answer!” she demanded, her voice rising slightly.

“Where are you right now?” he asked abruptly. “I'll come meet you, and then we can talk face to face.”

Before she could even reply, he cut the call, leaving her listening to the dead tone.

“Girl, what are you doing?!” Lily hissed as she watched Nyla instantly open their chat and send him their live location.

“I need answers, Lily! I can't just stay quiet!”

“Well, what if he shows up with a bunch of serial killers and then you and I both die?!” Lily raised her eyebrow, looking at her friend like she had lost her mind.

Nyla gulped, a sudden pang of anxiety hitting her stomach at Lily's words. She quickly tapped the screen to delete the location message, but it was already too late. He had already seen the text.

A second later, a notification popped up on her screen: Coming. 10 minutes.

“Great!” Lily sighed dramatically, turning on her heel and heading straight inside the safety of the library.

“Hey, I'm sorry!” Nyla called out, rushing after her. In her haste, her foot caught on the stone steps, and she almost tripped face-first onto the stairs before recovering her balance to catch up to her friend in the quiet lobby.

Exactly ten minutes later, the heavy glass doors of the library slid open. Damian walked in, his sharp eyes instantly scanning the quiet rows of bookshelves, searching for her here and there among the tables.

Lily gently elbowed Nyla’s side, whispering sarcastically, “There's your precious kidnapper boy.”

Nyla gave her a sharp, questionable look, immediately hiding her face behind a thick hardcover book she pulled from the nearest shelf. “Hide yourself,” she whispered frantically to Lily.

“Too late,” Lily replied smoothly under her breath. “He's right behind you.”

Damian quietly pulled out the wooden chair right beside them and sat down, the chair legs scraping softly against the floor. He stared intently at Nyla, who was still desperately covering her face with the book.

“I'm sorry,” he murmured softly into the quiet space.

Just like that. A simple, quiet apology out of nowhere.

Sensing the thick tension, Lily quietly got up from the table to give them space. Nyla instantly tried to stand up and follow her, but before she could move, Damian shifted, trapping her chair firmly between his strong legs so she couldn't budge an inch.

Slowly, Nyla lowered the book just enough so that only her wide eyes were visible to him. As he stared directly into her gaze, a powerful rush of memories flooded her mind. Those were the exact same childhood eyes.

The same deep blue eyes that used to hold nothing but pure, unadulterated love for her.

“Why did you get me kidnapped, Damian?”

she whispered, her voice trembling.

“Why did you curse at me? Why did you challenge me?” he replied smoothly, countering her with a low, calm follow-up question.

Nyla's gaze dropped to the table, unable to hold his intense stare.

“Look... I'm just so used to having absolute power that I lost control,” Damian admitted, his voice dropping into an unusually warm, honest register.

“I just can't bear disrespect, Nyla. And at the time when I had that conversation with your dad, I was still completely consumed by my own ego.”

Lily stood a few paces away by the shelf, listening to every single word attentively.

“Ego is just a vessel to serve poison,” Nyla replied quietly, her voice laced with bitterness.

“Well... I had a crush on Chloé for so long, and because of what you did, she blocked me completely,” he said, shifting the blame back onto her. “You could have at least not made such a public scene.”

“And what about the crush I've had on you since we were literal kids?!” Nyla burst out, her emotions finally boiling over, her voice echoing in the quiet room.

“Nyla, listen to me,” Damian said softly. Reaching out, he physically gripped her chair and pulled it significantly closer to his own, echoing the exact dominant move she had pulled on him back at the café. He leaned in, his breath brushing her cheek. “Feelings change over time... and—”

“Don't say that!” she interjected, her voice cracking as she refused to hear the rejection.

Damian backed away slightly, giving a slow, resigned nod. “I'm sorry. I'll try to fix things with your dad so you don't have to leave the school, too.”

He stood up, turning to leave, but the sudden threat of his departure made Nyla completely snap. In a blind frenzy of desperation, she grabbed the books off the table and began throwing them violently here and there across the quiet room, the heavy paper slamming loudly against the floor.

“Woah, calm down!” Lily gasped, rushing forward to try and control her as the loud thuds echoed through the library.

The security guards and nearby library patrons immediately began to gather around their table, murmuring in anger and telling them to be quiet.

“Nyla, stop it!” Lily begged.

“Just say it, Damian!” Nyla screamed, ignoring the crowd as tears streamed down her face. “You lied the whole time! You never cared about me! You just liked the way I beautifully wasted my entire time on you!”

With a final surge of anger, she launched a heavy book directly at his chest. Damian’s reflexes kicked in, and he caught the flying novel perfectly in his hands, the impact making a dull thud.

“I'm so sorry!” Damian immediately began apologizing aloud to the furious onlookers and staff. He glanced at Lily, his tone urgent. "Call her dad right now."

Lily quickly pulled out her phone to dial Vincent. Meanwhile, Damian stepped right into Nyla's personal space, pulling her forcefully against his chest and wrapping his arms around her in a tight, inescapable hug.

“Shh, shh. We're all good,” he whispered into her hair. Nyla struggled violently against him, trying to push his chest away, but his grip only tightened, pinning her securely to him until her movements faded.

“We are best friends, Nyla,” Damian said softly, looking down at her.

Nyla stopped struggling entirely. She looked up at him through thick, dark eyelashes, innocently wiping a stray tear from her cheek with her sleeve. “That means... I'm still important to you?”

Damian offered her a gentle, comforting nod. “Of course.”

He gently guided her back into her seat and immediately began bending down, picking up every single book she had scattered and neatly placing them back onto the shelves. Lily was already at the main counter, profusely apologizing to the library staff.

More patrons gathered, whispering angrily that they were trying to read and that the teenagers were making far too much noise, but Damian somehow handled them all with smooth, effortless charm.

Once the crowd dispersed and things settled, Damian walked back over to Nyla. He slowly knelt down on the floor directly in front of her chair, looking up into her eyes with a breathtaking intensity.

“I'll love you so much, you'll forget what love even is,” he promised, his voice a mesmerizing whisper.

Nyla’s heart skipped a beat, her eyes widening with a sudden, overwhelming rush of hope. “Really?” she breathed.

She smiled softly, completely comforted by his words. Little did she know, it wasn't a promise at all—it was just another calculated, toxic tactic to keep her completely under his control.

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