Cage of Endless Night

After my parents passed away, I was taken in by that man. His name was Aldric Vale. He was impossibly young, yet his eyes always held the weariness of someone who had seen too much of the world. He was once the only person I could rely on, but as I entered adolescence, his protection gradually took on a different flavor—like a sheet of rice paper soaked in water, wrapping me gently, air-tight, until I was on the verge of suffocation. I wanted to escape, move out, date boys, do all the things a girl my age should be doing. Yet every act of rebellion only made it clearer—that under the thin layer of ice in his eyes surged a bottomless, dark possessiveness. That rainy night, as I lay feverish and half-conscious in my apartment, he...