Real by Choice

Night had settled over the neighborhood without Lukas noticing when it happened. Now the house sat wrapped in silence.

He stood alone in the kitchen with his hands locked together hard enough to stop the shaking. Silence had never bothered him before. Most of his life, he’d preferred it. Silence meant privacy. No witnesses. But tonight, the silence pressed in on him from every corner of the house like a ghost, waiting for him to lose control.

Outside the windows, the yard had dissolved into shadow. His reflection stared back at him from the dark glass.

Hannah’s coffee cup still sat abandoned on the table.

Such a stupid little object. And yet somehow it felt dangerous. Proof she was still here somewhere inside the house.

The thought sent warmth through him before he could stop it. Some of the tension drained from his shoulders. Lukas lowered his head and exhaled slowly.

He could fix this.

He still had the ability.

One thought. One push. No uncertainty anymore. No fear of losing her.

The temptation waited patiently inside him like it always did. Quiet. Calm. Certain he would eventually give in.

Control had become instinct for him years ago. Easier than conversation. Easier than trust. Hell, easier than just asking someone not to leave.

In the blurred reflection, Lukas barely recognized himself. He was searching for a name for what he perceived.

Monster felt about right.

He could make people do almost anything. Shape them into whatever version suited him best. And somehow, despite all that power, he had never learned how to simply be with another human being.

A bitter smile flickered briefly across his face.

That was the joke, wasn’t it?

He could control everything except the one thing that actually mattered.

Certainty.

Would Hannah have come here tonight if he’d never touched her mind?

Would she have stayed?

Would she still choose him if choosing were truly hers?

Other faces drifted through his memory then. Other women. Other apartments. Other cities he’d vanished from before sunrise.

Back then he never questioned himself. Never wondered whether any of it had been wrong.

Hannah ruined that certainty for him.

His eyes burned unexpectedly. Lukas shut them and leaned back against the kitchen counter, breathing slowly through parted lips.

A floorboard creaked behind him.

He turned instantly.

Hannah stood quietly in the kitchen doorway.

And immediately the temptation returned.

One thought.

That was all it would take to guarantee she never left him.

Hannah must’ve sensed the war happening inside him because she didn’t speak right away. She simply stood there watching him.

Not leaving.

Lukas looked at her for a long moment.

Almost absentmindedly, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I can’t do this,” he whispered finally, the words rough enough to sound almost painful.

A small crease formed between her brows. “Do what?”

“Keep you here while pretending you’d stay willingly.”

For a second she just stared at him. Then Hannah smiled softly and shook her head. One hand lifted to the strap of her dress and slid it slowly from her shoulder.

Then the other.

The fabric slipped soundlessly to the floor.

Lukas swallowed hard.

She was beautiful.

Not perfect.

Really beautiful.