Take me there

The boys didn’t stop him.

Somehow, they understood.

Maybe one of them had felt it too, once.
The quiet warmth of someone’s hand in a motel room. The unbearable sin of softness. The kind of fuck that rewires you.

He vanished into the trees, the acid wearing off, the woods breathing behind him like something disappointed.

He didn’t care.

Roberto was waiting.

Not with forgiveness.

Just with skin and a cigarette and a reason to stay human for one more night.
Chapter 14: Eden in a Bottle

The elevator shuddered beneath Levi’s hands, metal cold and unforgiving. Then the world slipped.

Steel walls dissolved, replaced by stone slick with moss and wet earth. The air thickened, tasting like burnt honey and old blood.

He blinked.
The cavern was alive.
A black tree rose before him—bark rippling like skin, silver leaves sharp as knives, and fruit hanging heavy, pulsing like a bleeding heart.

Roberto leaned against the tree, pale and unreadable, a bottle in hand.

“Drink,” Roberto said, voice low, sliding the bottle toward him like a promise or a dare.
“This isn’t poison. It’s everything we forgot how to swallow.”

Levi took the bottle, heart pounding, fingers trembling.
The liquid was fire in his veins—whiskey, ash, and something bitter, something old.

The world spun. The tree breathed.

Roberto stepped closer, breath warm against Levi’s neck.
“That fruit… it’s the same sin in every old story. Adam and Eve’s first bite—the one that made the world hungry. Eve’s curse, turned flesh. Our bodies, our hunger.”

Levi laughed—a cracked, bitter sound.
We drown in bottles and beds, he thought. Chasing ghosts wearing salvation’s face.

“You ever think maybe we’re just that fruit?” Levi said, voice hoarse.
“Forbidden and ripe, waiting to be picked, waiting to rot.”

Roberto’s hand cupped Levi’s jaw.
“When the moon is full, blood calls louder. Wolves howl. Vampires wake. We’re the chorus to their ancient hymn.”

Their mouths met—teeth sharp, lips soft, fire and ice tangled in a desperate dance.

The cavern walls began to drip—wine or blood or sin itself.

Levi pulled back, breath ragged.
“One more drink, one more touch… and we drown in ourselves.”

Roberto smiled, dark and tender, a promise and a threat.
“The only way out is through.”

Levi’s mind swirled.

The elevator, the tree, the fruit—it’s all the same story, over and over.

The Queen’s curse biting at his ribs, the silver bullet burning in his pocket.

But Roberto—his soft touch, his fierce light—was the wild hope in the dark.

Could he let go of the myth? Could he swallow the sin and still be whole?

The answer tasted like blood and fire and something dangerously like salvation.

Chapter 15: First Blood — Evelyn Walking After Midnight

She was walking after midnight, the city silent but for distant sirens and whispered sins.

Levi saw her in the alley, leaning against the cold brick, cigarette smoke trailing from her trembling lips.

Evelyn: “Just walking after midnight, trying to find some kind of peace.”

Levi: (lighting his own cigarette, voice low and smooth) “Midnight’s when the shadows get hungry.”

Evelyn: (laughs weakly) “Maybe that’s why I keep walking — ‘cause the dark knows all my secrets.”

Levi: (stepping closer, eyes flickering silver) “Secrets have a way of biting back.”

Evelyn: (softly, almost a whisper) “Maybe I’m ready to be bitten.”

He smiled, smoke curling around his words.

Levi: “It’s a long night ahead, Evelyn. But I can make it last forever.”

She looked up at him, fear and something darker shining in her eyes.

Evelyn: “Then don’t let me walk alone.”

His teeth found her neck, gentle and sharp — a lullaby sung in blood and shadows.
Chapter 15: First Blood — Evelyn’s Surrender

Levi’s teeth sank into her neck — sharp but careful, a cruel kindness.
Evelyn gasped, fingers clutching his jacket as if holding onto the last thread of something real.

The world around them blurred—
The distant jazz, the dripping rain, the broken streetlamp flickering like a heartbeat.

His hunger roared, a wild beast clawing to break free.
But beneath it was something else — a flicker of something broken, human.

Evelyn’s breath hitched.
Her pulse raced beneath his lips, a wild rhythm calling to the dark.

“Are you scared?” Levi whispered against her skin.

She shook her head, eyes wide but unflinching.

“I’m tired,” she said. “Tired of running. Tired of the dark chasing me.”

Levi pulled back just enough to look into her eyes — silver glinting with something fierce.

“Then stay with me,” he said. “Not because I want to kill you… but because maybe we can find something else in this night.”

Her fingers tangled in his hair, holding him like a lifeline.

The hunger was still there—
A silent scream beneath the surface.
But in that moment, beneath the bruised moonlight,
They were just two broken souls, trying to keep the night from swallowing them whole.

Chapter 15: First Blood — Evelyn’s Surrender (Extended)

Levi’s teeth pierced her neck with a careful cruelty, sharp enough to draw life, gentle enough not to shatter it completely. Evelyn gasped—a raw, ragged sound that mixed pain with something like relief. Her fingers clenched into the lapel of his jacket, grasping for something solid in a world unraveling at the edges.

Around them, the city’s pulse throbbed faintly—distant jazz leaking from a nearby speakeasy, the steady drip of rain from a cracked gutter, and the soft flicker of a dying streetlamp that painted their shadows long and dark.

His hunger roared beneath his skin, a wild, desperate beast clawing for release. But beneath that feral need, a fragile flicker remained—the ghost of the man Levi once was, tangled deep in his ribcage.

Evelyn’s breath hitched beneath his lips, her heartbeat thrumming like a frantic drum. It was the rhythm of fear, desire, and surrender all tangled together.

Levi pulled back just enough to meet her eyes, silver flames flickering in the depths. His voice was a whisper, rough and intimate.

“Are you scared?” he asked, voice raw.

She shook her head, swallowing hard, eyes wide but steady. “No. I’m tired. Tired of running from shadows that never let me go. Tired of the night swallowing me whole.”

Her words cracked something inside him—a fragile shard of empathy in the dark.

“Stay with me,” Levi said, voice softening, “not because I want to end you… but because maybe, just maybe, there’s something else in this darkness.”

Her fingers found their way into his hair, tugging him closer like a lifeline to a world she barely remembered.

For a moment, the hunger hushed.
The wild wolf retreated into the shadows, and what was left was just a man—broken, haunted, searching.

Levi tasted her skin—the sharp tang of fear, the faint trace of perfume mixed with rain. He drank it in like a prayer, a benediction from a world gone mad.

Evelyn’s lips parted, breath mingling with his in the cold night air.

“Will I change?” she whispered. “Will I lose myself in you?”

Levi hesitated, the weight of centuries pressing down like a stone in his chest.

“You won’t lose yourself,” he said finally, “but you’ll see the world differently. Darker, yes. But sharper, alive in ways you never imagined.”

She smiled then—small, brave, and sad.

“I want to live,” she said. “Even if it means living in the dark.”

Levi’s hands trembled as he pulled her close again, the hunger simmering just beneath the surface, a promise and a threat.

The city’s distant jazz swelled, a mournful horn crying into the night.

And in that alley—under the cracked streetlamp and the endless sky—two broken souls became one, bound by blood, shadow, and the fragile hope of something more.
The alley grew cold as Levi pulled away from Evelyn, the hunger still a quiet beast beneath his skin. He lit another cigarette, smoke curling like a serpent around his fingers.

The city felt different now — heavier, darker, but also alive with something ancient.

He walked out of the shadows and into a dimly lit parlor, the heavy scent of incense and old books thick in the air.

There, in a high-backed chair, sat a man whose eyes held the weight of a thousand secrets. His smile was a slow, knowing curl — equal parts charm and menace.

Aleister Crowley.

“Leviathan,” the man said softly, his voice like silk and smoke. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Levi’s silver eyes narrowed.

“Who sent you?” he asked, already knowing there was no simple answer.

Crowley chuckled, a sound both cruel and magnetic.

“No one sends me. I seek those who walk the edge between worlds. You, my friend, have just crossed the threshold.”

The candlelight flickered, casting twisted shadows that danced like spirits on the walls.

“Come,” Crowley said, standing and extending a hand. “Let me show you what it means to truly own the night.”

Levi hesitated — then took the hand.

The room seemed to shift, the air thickening with possibility and danger.

And as the door closed behind them, the night outside waited — endless, hungry, and ready.

Chapter 16: Crossroads in Smoke and Shadow

The city never truly slept, but tonight the streets felt colder, heavier — as if the night itself held its breath.

Levi moved through the haze of smoke and neon, his cane tapping softly on cracked pavement. The black suit and white tie felt heavier somehow, like armor he hadn’t asked for.

His throat burned — not from the cigarette he held between his fingers, but from the hunger inside, clawing, twisting. Evelyn’s blood was still on his lips, a bitter sweet poison that whispered of both power and damnation.

Crowley’s words echoed in his mind: “The only way out is through.”

Levi wasn’t sure if that meant salvation or ruin.

He ducked into a dim parlor, the air thick with incense and old secrets. Crowley was waiting, a silhouette framed by candlelight, eyes gleaming with dark promise.

“Welcome back,” Crowley said, voice a velvet command.
“You’ve crossed the first threshold. Now, the real work begins.”

Levi lit another cigarette, the smoke curling like a serpent in the stale air.
“I don’t know if I want the power,” Levi said, voice rough.
“I just want to stop being a monster.”

Crowley smiled—a slow, knowing smile.
“Monsters are just men who stopped hiding. Power isn’t a gift, Levi — it’s a burden. But it’s the only way to own your fate.”

Levi felt the weight of choice pressing down like the stones of the old woods.
To serve the Queen forever, or rise on his own terms.

The night stretched before him — endless, hungry, and waiting.

And Levi, the boy with the tattoo of a finger and thumb, was no longer running.

He was walking into the dark.

CHAPTER 18

She says she wants to get sober, and I nod like I believe her.
We both know it’s a lie.
Not the wanting — no, the wanting is real enough — but the scaffolding underneath her is already rotted through. She’s built her whole cathedral out of relapse.

She tells me these things in the half-light, legs crossed on the mattress, one heel still on like she forgot to finish undressing after the last trick. The sheets smell like cigarettes, sweat, and the kind of sex that leaves a bruise on the soul.
Her hair sticks to her lip gloss. She peels it away with a red-painted fingernail and keeps talking about “a new start,” about “getting clean,” about “changing.”

I’ve heard it before.
From her.
From Roberto.
From myself.
It’s all the same prayer — whispered to a god who has stopped answering.

She says she wants to get sober, and I picture her in some cold rehab bed, staring at the ceiling like it’s an enemy. No johns, no cash, no chemical choir singing in her veins — just the silence.
I know she’d last three days before the silence drove her back into the street, hunting for something to kill it.

She isn’t afraid of dying — she’s afraid of living without the anchor of her own ruin.
I get it.
It’s the same reason I keep her around.

Because she’s beautiful in the way falling buildings are beautiful — all dust and danger and the knowledge that no one’s coming to save you. Watching her is like watching a house burn from the inside out, and part of me wants to walk in just to feel the heat.

When she says “I want to get sober,” what I hear is “Hold me until I disappear.”
And I do.
Every time.

⸻

Do you want me to take it there?