Steam still clung to my skin when I finished my shower.
I called Mira and told her everything.
She scolded me first, the way only she could.
"Elina, stop panicking. He's just some online creep.
That guy at the club was an accident..if it were serious, it'd be all over the news. Change your lock code and forget it."
Maybe she was right.
I changed the password, brewed weak coffee, and tried to pretend the world was ordinary again.
The night dragged.
My previous menstrual symptoms were starting .. my stomach hated food.
I settled for instant noodles, then curled up craving chocolate I didn't have.
Delivery apps all said closed.
Somewhere between scrolling and sighing, sleep caught me.
---
A soft sound pulled me awake.
Moonlight spilled through the curtains.
Someone was standing near the balcony
tall, still, wearing a half-mask that ended just above his mouth.
My first thought: dream.
Then he moved, and the air changed
thick, electric, familiar.
He came closer.
The scent of lilies and something darkly sweet filled the room.
My breath trembled.
He tilted his head, eyes glinting through the mask.
For a heartbeat we just watched each other
fear, curiosity, and something deeper twisting together.
His fingers brushed a strand of hair behind my ear.
A single touch, but the world tilted with it.
When he leaned closer, his voice slid through the quiet.
"Always my ruin."
The whisper burned against my skin.
Heat and cold tangled inside me, and the rest blurred
only fragments remained:
the weight of his presence,
the taste of his lips,
the ache of wanting and terror colliding.
Then the light flickered.
The balcony curtains lifted in the wind.
He was gone.
I turned on the lamp with shaking hands.
Marks glimmered faintly on my shoulder, soft as bruised petals.
And on the table, neatly stacked
a pile of chocolates tied with a white ribbon.
My phone buzzed.
A: Your body confessed long before you did. Don't blame me for listening.
A chill ran through me, followed by a heat I couldn't name.
He made it sound like a joke..like I'd somehow betrayed myself.
Before I could even breathe, another message appeared.
A: Craving chocolate again, sweetheart? I told you...your cravings are mine too.
My throat closed. He'd been here.
He knew.
And the worst part wasn't fear
it was the way my heart raced at the thought the way of him saying my name again.
For a moment I wanted to blame hormones, my pre-menstrual fog,
anything that made this madness sound clinical.
But when I touched the side of my neck, the warmth there was real.
A ghost couldn't leave that heat behind.
I gave a shaky laugh.
"Perfect. Now I'm terrified and turned on...what a medical marvel."
The phone vibrated again.
A: Relax... sweetheart ! You think too much. Maybe I'm just your favourite dream with better Wi-Fi.
A strangled sound escaped my throat half-laugh, half-groan.
How could fear and wanting feel so tangled?
Every time I remembered his voice, my pulse betrayed me.
It wasn't supposed to feel like this.
A: Miss me again? I do spoil my ruin.
I should've screamed. I didn't.
Instead, my lips curved the smallest bit, hating myself for it.
Whatever last night had been
hallucination, nightmare, or truth..it had left a mark deeper than skin.
And the worst part wasn't the terror.
It was the quiet whisper in me that wanted him back.
----
I woke late, sunlight spilling across the floor.
Sunday.
The air felt still, quiet almost peaceful.
Whatever had happened last night blurred at the edges of memory, like a dream that refused to stay gone.
Sleep had come late but heavy, the kind that pulls you under until the world forgets you.
My body felt… rested, as if it had already taken everything it needed.
I stretched, half expecting pain or bruises, but there was only that strange warmth under my skin.
It didn't feel like fear anymore
just a hush, the kind that follows a storm.
The chocolates still sat on the table, ribbon loosened.
I couldn't remember opening any of them, yet the faint scent of cocoa filled the room.
For a heartbeat, I wondered if he'd been here again.
I pushed the thought away and dragged myself up.
Coffee first.... Sanity later.
Steam curled from the mug as I leaned against the counter, watching the city outside wake up.
Maybe it was over.
Maybe he'd had his fun and left.
But when my phone buzzed, that fragile calm cracked.
A: Morning, my ruin. Sleep well? You looked peaceful.
The cup slipped from my hand, coffee splashing across the tiles.
He'd seen me.
He'd been close enough to watch me sleep.
I searched every corner of the room again
under the bed, the balcony, even behind the curtains.
Nothing.
No footprints, no marks, no proof.
My hands were shaking when I finally grabbed my phone and called Mira.
She answered half-asleep, voice rough.
"Elina, it's Sunday… why do you sound like you saw a ghost?"
"I think someone was in my room," I said, pacing.
"It wasn't a hallucination this time. My body...."
I stopped, voice catching.
"It reacted....And he left marks. It's real, Mira. All of it."
She groaned.
"You've lost it. You're blaming your cycle again? Maybe it's just stress."
"Mira, listen to me. It wasn't just that."
There was a pause, then a teasing tone.
"Wait...! You're telling me some masked man broke in, you… reacted, and now you're calling it betrayal by hormones? Girl..! you're insane."
I could almost hear her smirk.
"Not funny," I muttered. "He's real...I felt him."
Mira sighed, now awake.
"Alright..! Give me his number. I have a friend who can track it."
"I would," I said, collapsing onto the couch, "but his number's gone. ..Again...Every message disappears after he sends it."
"Then next time, memorize it," she said. "And stop scaring me at nine in the morning."
The call ended, but my chest felt tighter than before.
My thoughts drifted to the guy from the club, his bleeding hand, the clean cut.
I whispered into the empty room,
"Mr. Psycho A...umm..whoever you are… I need to talk to you."
My phone buzzed instantly.
A: Craving for me?
My throat went dry.
I typed fast, fingers trembling.
Me: No...Whatever happened last night was my hormones acting up. And that Bar..that night was just my one-night stand. Don't think more.
Three dots blinked. Then his reply came, smooth and mocking.
A: Don't lie.. sweetheart. If you want to blame your hormones, do that.
And I'm not a psycho but if that's what your lips want to call me, I don't mind.
They always make the word sound sweet.
My heart stuttered.
He'd turned my denial into a game.
And the worst part
a tiny, traitorous part of me didn't want to stop playing.
Me: The guy at the club… his arm was cut. You didn't..
The typing dots appeared, disappeared, came back.
A: You mean the one who touched you?
Me: Answer me. Was that you?
A: Don't sound so shocked, sweetheart. You asked me to come in front of you, remember?
That asshole reached for what's mine. I reminded him not to.
My hands shook around the phone.
I tried again.
Me: You hurt him.
A: Correction..! I protected you. You think I'd let a stranger's hands stay where they don't belong?
A pause....
A: Don't worry. I was careful.
Clean cut. No damage that can't heal.
The words made my stomach twist.
A: Consider it a warning for anyone else who forgets whose ruin you are.
Me: You're a stranger too, aren't you? What makes you any different?
The typing dots appeared again, slow, deliberate.
A: Different? You felt it, Elina. That night at the club..you marked me as yours, and I marked you. We made it real, whether you admit it or not.
My throat tightened.
Me: You talk like it was some kind of ritual.
A: Call it whatever you want. You don't meet someone like me twice. You found me once and tried to forget but your body remembered.
I swallowed hard, trying to steady my breath.
Me: Stop pretending this is fate. You're just a man who can't take rejection.
A pause. Then the reply appeared, every word colder than the last:
A: If I were only a man, you could have forgotten me by now.
Tell me, sweetheart..! why do you still feel me when no one's there?
The room felt smaller, the air thicker.
I dropped the phone onto the couch, heart pounding, the screen still glowing with his last message.
The question hung there, poisonous and true.
Because somewhere deep inside, I didn't have an answer.