For some reason, I didn’t want him to hear me breathing. I took slow, small breaths as the captivating man holding my hand led me through the dark front hall.
“How rude of me, I forgot to ask your name love.” He asked me. Love?
“Um, i-it’s Y/N” I replied, letting out a shaky breath. I was more excited and curious than scared, but I couldn’t help but think what a risk this was.
“What a beautiful name..” his tone was silky as expensive coffee, echoing as he led me through a huge kitchen and down another hall.
“I’m Thomas.” he looked behind him to glance at my face as he said this.
After a few more moments, we came to a large oak door. Thomas pulled it open with ease, but I could tell it was heavy and would be a struggle for anyone that didn’t have his terribly defined and muscular physique. He stepped through the door for a second and flicked on a lightswitch on the wall to the left, and I saw a long flight of stairs going down to the bottom level of the house. My breath caught in my throat and half of my common sense woke up inside my swimming head.
“Y-you’re not gonna like, murder me or something are you? ‘Cause my sister is dating an FBI agent, and if anything happens to me they-” my words started calm and got more frantic as I started to come out of his trance, but he cut me off.
“Y/N” he said firmly, gently taking my hands in his. Damn, this guy was sure making himself comfortable despite the fact that we were total strangers. He spoke again.
“Of course I’m not going to hurt you, you’re my neighbor aren’t you? I want us to be friends.”
He smoothed his rough hand over my delicate skin, like a viper slithers around its innocent prey.
“And anyways, you said I was keeping you up all night..” he said with a smirk, “Don’t you want to see what all the fuss is about? I can tell you’re quite a curious girl.”
Dammit.
It was like he injected me with dreaming serum again, because I felt my body relax a little and when I didn’t respond, he took that as the go ahead to take me down the stairs.
The steps didn’t creak like you might think, they were steady and solid and I felt like a feather walking down them. There was a landing and then more stairs, and I noticed a door on the left.
“What’s in there?” I asked, like I was hypnotized.
“That’s just the garage, I’ll show you another time.” He said endearingly. For some reason he was speaking to me like I was his child or a beloved pet….but there was something else there too.
Finally, we came to another door despite the fact that by this point I was practically putty in his hands, I paused to admire the door.
It was large and heavy-looking like the others, and jet black. The design painted onto the smooth black was a blood-red heart, but not a sweet looking one like you see on shirts around Valentine’s Day. This one was sinister, regal, almost like a hieroglyphic that foretold what lied in the room it was concealing. It was long, from the top to the bottom of the door, and it seems like a design on a door wouldn’t be so interesting, but it make my heart do somersaults.
Ashton reached into the pocket of his sweatpants and pulled out a golden key, fitting it into the lock and turning it. the door creaked open, and the smell of cherries and vanilla creeped up to my nose. However, I couldn’t see a thing inside. It was pitch black.
“Wait here.” Ashton walked into the room for a moment, not turning any lights on. He came back not a minute later, holding a thick piece of red silk, the same color as the roses, his front door, and the painted heart.
