I stare.

Every inch of my body screams at me to look away before she catches me, but it’s as though I’ve been seduced by the siren’s song.

She’s so beautiful it’s haunting, and yet there’s something wrong with her. She’s absolute physical perfection, and yet there’s something almost horrific about her that I can’t quite put my finger on…

I am far too enchanted to heed the nauseous dread that flails helplessly in my abdomen.

My fingers ache to thread their way through her glossy blue-black hair. My lips yearn to graze the alabaster of her cheeks. My eyes crave to—

She looks up from her text book and captures my gaze in hers.

I’m ensnared.
Fervid panic explodes through my every fragment.
I try to look away but I’m fixed. All around me time slows until it grinds to a trembling halt, and then it slows more still until, with a groan, it begins ticking backwards.

A smile dances across her mouth.

And I’m drowning in the penetrating, inky violet of her eyes.