Taken | h.s + bey ✔️

and finally...

I just want to say thank you so much to everyone whose read/votes/commented/enjoyed this story. Special thanks to everyone that encouraged me to keep writing, you don't know you did that but still.... if you ever once gave positive and encouraging feedback, you kept this book alive and good karma is COMING FOR YOU!

To clear some things up:

• This book was originally going to be about Stockholm Syndrome and it was going to be that generic plot of "he kidnapped me and I want to get away from him but I think I'm starting to love him? He's actually a good person blah blah blah" but somehow still with the undertone that the main character wanted to get away? Then I realized that's bullshit, unrealistic and stupid because how often does that even happen? Especially not in the sense of being randomly kidnapped by a sick murderer. Which is why it made more sense to have that characteristic with Rose....

• Rose was the one that had Stockholm Syndrome, guys! She was the one that loved Harry and stayed even though she could've left previously but she allowed herself to be stuck there after letting him grow older (and more aggressive) and then putting herself under Manon's watch(?). So yeah, it made more sense with Rose because she wasn't kidnapped and ultimately had a choice for years and didn't choose to leave because she loved him and she made excuses as to why she couldn't financially break away, etc. but eventually, it went away when things got from bad to horrible but it was kind of too late to try and leave when she did, as you saw.

• The black box was emphasized a lot throughout the beginning/middle of the story but it only held significance in the relationship between Kim/Rose/Josephine+Manon. It held no significance in the plot between Kim and Harry and Imma tell you why...

• Josephine and Manon hates the Thibodeaux Family. With reason. They were both slaves and at some point brutally murdered and harmed by the family (whole family is sick) so as vengeful souls, they've been trying to kill them. But not directly, because they're ghosts not demons so they have little power. They try to do it with every AA woman brought into that house (as you can take from all the different women Kim saw, there's been a lot). So like, all the girls Harry kidnapped, Rose and Kim. It would've gotten somewhere with Rose but Manon had to spare Harry for Rose's sake and she spared the dad because.... she was getting some ‪¯\_(ツ)_/¯‬. But then since Harry killed his parents, that killed Manon [again] as well since she inhabited Mrs. Thibodeauxs body. So Manon hates Harry, she doesn't help him in any way, and wants him dead. She wanted Rose to open the black box and cooperate with HER way of wanting to kill Harry— which would've been through red magic. IT DIDNT WORK OUT THAT WAY BUT KIM KILLED HARRY ANYWAYS SO THEYRE SATISFIED REGARDLESS.

• I'm sorry if you felt like I was bouncing all over the place and being inconsistent 😭 I truly had this whole book planned out I promise but literally throughout the entire thing I was like "ooohh I wanna add this and do this and that" so new shit kept popping up. Josephine/Manon was spontaneous, Rose's ghost was too. All the creepy aspects, the history of the house, Glen, the existence of the lake were all spontaneous ideas. I had many others that I didn't put in.

• I hope my plan to display Harry as a damaged/sad person worked and in a way that you still didn't fuck with him and feel too sorry for him... because he's a sick piece of shit and I didn't want him romanticized. I also promised that the main girl wouldn't be stupid and I hoped that worked out as well. She couldn't be like a super tough genius and I didn't want it to be like "girl just hit him and run" because the story would've been over like 5 chapters in lol. So in order for her stay with Harry to elongate and not make her look stupid, I tried to emphasize how all the obvious "Just fight him" "just bust out the window" "just run" WOULDNT have worked.

• I highkey was going to end this horribly. Like with Kim not getting away and being killed and Harry's sick cycle continuing or just killing them both but I figured I wouldn't do y'all like that lol. I still put the semi-good / semi-bad alternative ending in though because I literally can't resist from making bad endings. I love shattering hopes and dreams.