Chapter 79:Unraveled Obsession

Dimitri swallowed hard, the weight of Lucas's cold gaze pressing on him like a vice. The silence between them was unbearable, every second stretching longer than the last. Lucas's blue eyes were unblinking, his grip firm but disturbingly calm, as if waiting to see how Dimitri would unravel.

And unravel he did.

"I kept it because it's real," Dimitri blurted out, the words spilling out in a torrent, uncontrolled and frantic. His breath hitched as his mind spiraled, the thoughts tumbling faster than he could process them. "That smile… it's the only time you weren't pretending. The only time you weren't wearing that—" he gestured weakly with his hands, shaking, "—that mask. You don't even know how rare it is, do you? Do you have any idea what it's like to *finally* see something real from you?"

His voice cracked, the obsession bleeding through with every word. "You walk around like nothing matters, like no one gets to know you—*really* know you. But that smile... I got to see it. I kept it because—" He faltered, his chest rising and falling too quickly. "Because it felt like the only piece of you I could hold onto. Something honest. Something *mine*."

Lucas stood unmoving, his gaze colder than ice. There was no flicker of emotion in his expression, no anger, no amusement—just an eerie stillness that made Dimitri's stomach churn. Yet the silence only made Dimitri spiral further.

"I collected everything because I had to understand!" His voice shook, barely restrained, teetering on the edge of hysteria. "I needed to know—why them? Why him? Why not me?" His breath hitched, his words laced with bitterness. "I saw you... I saw the way you looked at him, the way you kissed him like it was nothing. Like it didn't mean anything. And it killed me—it kills me—because you let him have you in ways you never let me in. Never even looked at me like that."

His hands twitched, clenching into white-knuckled fists as though he was holding himself back from tearing the world apart. "And I kept thinking, maybe if I had the right pieces—maybe if I could collect enough of you—I'd find the part of you that should have been mine. The part that would finally see me." His voice cracked, a wretched sound filled with resentment and longing. "But instead, I had to stand there, knowing you kissed someone else, knowing that every time I thought I had you figured out, you were somewhere else—doing that with someone else."

Dimitri's eyes were wide, wild with jealousy, and his breath came in short, sharp bursts. "So I kept everything I could—your scent on an old shirt, a candy wrapper, even the towel you wiped your hands on once, like some pathetic shrine." His voice dropped to a low, dangerous whisper, vibrating with anger. "Because if I could just piece it all together, I could figure out why you touched him like that... why you didn't even think about me when you did it."

He let out a choked, humorless laugh, running his hands through his hair, tugging as though trying to pull himself back from the edge. "Why I still care... when I know you don't. When you never did."

The confession hung heavy in the air, thick and suffocating. Dimitri could feel the weight of his words crashing down on him, exposing every raw nerve he had tried to bury deep inside.

"And Annabeth..." He hesitated, his voice lowering to a strained whisper. "I didn't mean to... I just... I thought that maybe, through her, I'd understand *you*. She was the only one you cared about . I thought—if I could understand that—then maybe I could understand the rest of you."

His breathing grew ragged, and he tried to step back, but Lucas's hand tightened ever so slightly around the back of his neck, pinning him in place.

"All I ever wanted," Dimitri whispered, his voice breaking completely now, "was to see the real you."

The room fell into a suffocating silence. Dimitri's words lingered in the air, their weight pressing down on both of them. He had bared himself completely, and the vulnerability felt like an exposed wound.

Lucas's cold gaze never wavered. He watched Dimitri unravel without a word, without a twitch of emotion, his hand still resting firmly on Dimitri's neck. There was no fury, no affection—just cold detachment, as if Dimitri's desperate confession was nothing more than a mildly interesting experiment.

Then, slowly, Lucas glanced down at his hand hidden in the hoodie.He was holding a small knife he'd taken from the kitchen.

For a moment, the room held its breath. Dimitri tensed, feeling the edge of his life teetering dangerously close to the blade. But Lucas did nothing.

Without a word, Lucas released the knife, letting it drop back deeper into the pocket. His hand slid away from Dimitri's neck, leaving behind the ghost of his touch, cold and weightless.

Lucas stepped back, his expression unreadable. He stared at Dimitri for a moment longer, as if evaluating whether the outburst had meant anything at all.

And then, as if nothing had happened, Lucas turned away, leaving Dimitri trembling in the aftermath of his own shattered obsession.

Dimitri hesitated only a second before following Lucas, his legs moving on their own accord as if pulled by some invisible thread. Lucas's silence, his cold detachment—it gnawed at Dimitri's insides like a slow-burning fever. He couldn't let him just walk away, not after everything he had spilled.

He climbed the stairs with a mix of dread and compulsion, every creak of the wooden steps amplifying the pounding in his chest. When he reached the top, the hallway stretched out before him, dim and oppressive. The door to Dimitri's room stood slightly ajar, and without thinking, Dimitri slipped inside, the door clicking softly shut behind him.

The room was still. Too still.

Dimitri stepped further inside, his eyes scanning the dim space, searching for any sign of Lucas. But the bed was untouched, and the shadows loomed heavy in the corners. Confusion pricked at the edges of his mind. Where had he gone?

Before he could take another step, a presence closed in behind him. Dimitri's breath hitched, and before he could react, arms wrapped tightly around his waist, pulling him against a cold, solid frame.

Lucas.

Dimitri stiffened, his heart slamming against his ribcage. The grip around him was firm, almost possessive, pressing him into Lucas's body with an unsettling familiarity. His mind scrambled for a response, a reason, but the sensation of being held—*really* held—erased all coherent thought.

At first, he fought the instinct to squirm, his muscles rigid from the unexpected contact. But Lucas's arms didn't waver, holding him in place as if daring him to pull away. Slowly, the resistance drained from Dimitri's body, replaced by an overwhelming, disorienting heat that spread from the pit of his stomach. His breath quickened, the pressure of Lucas's chest against his back making every exhale feel impossibly loud in the silent room.

The longer Lucas held him, the more Dimitri's senses spiraled out of control. His face flushed a deep red, the heat creeping up his neck and settling high in his cheeks. His hands hovered awkwardly at his sides, unsure whether to push Lucas away or pull him closer.

"You're burning up," Lucas whispered, his voice low and amused, right next to Dimitri's ear and he clenched his fists to stop himself from trembling.

Dimitri opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out—just a ragged, uneven breath. He could feel every detail of Lucas behind him: the steady rise and fall of his chest, the cool brush of his damp hair against Dimitri's neck, and the unsettling stillness that radiated from him, like a predator toying with its prey.

Lucas's hands remained locked around Dimitri's waist, holding him close, the contact teetering between intimacy and control. There was no softness in the gesture—only a cold, deliberate possession that made Dimitri's pulse race faster.

Time seemed to slow, the moment stretching unbearably. Dimitri's skin burned under the weight of his own embarrassment, his heart pounding so loud he was certain Lucas could hear it. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying and failing to steady his breath. The sheer proximity was maddening, overwhelming his every thought.

Lucas leaned closer, his chin brushing against Dimitri's shoulder. "You're not going anywhere, are you?" he murmured softly, as if the question were a statement, a fact already written.

And the worst part was, Dimitri knew he wouldn't—move, even if Lucas wanted him too.He wanted to be completely attached to Lucas body.

Dimitri's breath faltered as he stared into the dim reflection before him. A mirror stood on the opposite wall, cracked along one edge, distorting their figures like a twisted portrait. He could see himself there—tense, flushed, caught between fear and something far more dangerous he tried to reign in ,in fear he would scare Lucas. But his gaze drifted to Lucas, standing just behind him, half-hidden in shadow.

Lucas's face was partially obscured, only one sharp eye visible through the veil of darkness. It gleamed, predatory and cold, watching Dimitri with an unsettling stillness. The absence of emotion in that gaze made Dimitri's skin crawl and yet—somehow—his heart race harder.

The silence between them stretched, unbearably taut, until something inside Dimitri snapped.

"I noticed you long before we ever met," Dimitri whispered, the confession spilling out before he could even fully register, as if one glance from Lucas could make him unwind at the snap of a finger. His voice was shaky, breathless, but he couldn't stop now. Lucas's presence behind him demanded truth, stripped raw and ugly. "I used to see you... everywhere. At first, it felt like coincidence, but it wasn't. I knew where you'd be. I made sure of it."

He glanced at Lucas's reflection, hoping for a reaction—anger, disgust, anything. But Lucas only stared, unreadable, his hidden expression more terrifying than rage.

"I took pictures," Dimitri admitted, his voice dropping to a near-whisper, as if saying it any louder would make it worse. "At first, I just wanted to remember how you looked when you weren't watching. But it wasn't enough." He clenched his fists at his sides, trying to keep his trembling hands from giving him away.

"I followed you," he continued, the weight of his obsession crashing down on him, the truth searing his throat as it escaped. "Everywhere. I told myself it was harmless, that if I just stayed close, I could understand why I couldn't—" His breath hitched, and his reflection stared back at him, pale and desperate. "Why I couldn't *stay away.*"

Dimitri swallowed hard, his pulse roaring in his ears. "Even when you ignored me. Even when you pushed me away. It didn't matter. I always came back."

He looked down at his hands as though they belonged to someone else, as though the secrets they had carried were someone else's burden. "It got worse. I thought... If I could keep something of you, even just a piece, maybe it would stop. Maybe I'd feel normal again."

His gaze drifted to the mirror once more. Lucas's face was still half-hidden in the shadows, his eye gleaming with that same cold, detached curiosity, as if Dimitri's unraveling was nothing more than a passing amusement.

"You were everywhere," Dimitri breathed, his voice cracking and an obsessive smile began overtaking his features. "In my head. In everything I did. Even when, I was mas—" He cut himself off, clamping his mouth shut before the last, damning truth could slip free.

The air felt too thick, pressing against his chest like a suffocating weight. His reflection stared back at him, a stranger consumed by madness.

He swallowed hard, forcing himself to meet Lucas's gaze in the mirror again. The way Lucas watched him—half his face hidden, only that sharp, icy eye visible—made Dimitri's stomach churn with equal parts shame and longing.

Lucas didn't speak. He didn't need to. The silence between them was more damning than any words could have been.

And just when Dimitri thought he couldn't take the weight of it any longer, Lucas's grip around his waist tightened slightly.

Dimitri felt like everything was clicking in place at that moment. He could feel Lucas arm, compared to his heated body Lucas felt cool and he liked it more than he thought he would.