#darkfiction

The safehouse is a concrete box buried under an abandoned ski lodge—Umbrella black-site turned bolt-hole. Gray walls, fluorescent buzz, the smell of antiseptic baked into concrete. Nothing about it says comfort, not until you found the hot tub tucked behind a reinforced sliding panel. Stainless steel, recessed into the floor, fed by a geothermal pipe that never cools. An odd luxury in a bunker built for attrition.

You’d laughed when you discovered it, giddy from blood loss and residual adrenaline. H.U.N.K. had only grunted, stripped to the waist, and disappeared to clean gore from his gear with the same mechanical efficiency he brought to fieldwork. You hadn’t expected him to join you. You’d almost hoped he wouldn’t—because if he did, it would mean something neither of you were supposed to admit.

Now the water churns around you, lit from beneath by a sickly teal glow that makes the bruises on your ribs bloom like algae in moonlight. You’re submerged to the collarbone, every pulse soothed by heat. The door hisses open.

He steps inside, silent as death.

The mask comes off first—a clack of ceramic against tile. You’ve seen him kill a man without blinking, heard the crack of necks and gunfire, but never his face. Now you have: sharp jaw, faint scar bisecting his left brow, cheekbones cut like shrapnel. Eyes the color of winter steel. Hair sweat-damp and plastered to his temple.

He looks human. Tired. Dangerous.

Tac vest, gloves, boots—he removes everything with methodical precision, stacking it in silent order beside the bench. The last thing to fall is his holster, which he lays atop the pile like a final barrier relinquished.

The water hisses as he steps in, muscles flexing under old scars. You watch the shift in his body, the precise economy of movement, and feel a new heat pool low in your stomach—anticipation wrapped in fear. His knees brush yours under the surface. He says nothing.

You sit in that silence for a full minute. Breathing. Watching the rise and fall of his chest. Then:

“Feet,” he says, voice made rough from the mask's filter. Not a question. Not a request.

You lift one leg slowly. Water trails off your calf like molten glass. He catches your ankle in one calloused palm, thumb pressing into the arch. He tests the soft tissue like he's checking for damage—and maybe he is.

The touch turns indulgent. His fingers knead with slow, deliberate pressure: the ball of your foot, the delicate dip beneath your toes. You sigh, then bite it back. His gaze flicks up to yours.

“Mission was sloppy,” he says.

“We got the sample.”

“You limped the last mile.”

“Twisted it on rebar,” you admit. “Thought you didn’t notice.”

He lifts your foot higher, water trailing from your heel.

“I notice everything.”

His mouth replaces his hand. Lips brush the instep. Then his tongue—rough, deliberate—traces the ridge of bone. You gasp. He continues.

He switches feet. The ritual repeats. Slow massage. Careful kiss. Tongue dragging heat from your core to your skin. He takes each toe into his mouth, sucking like he’s starving. When he grazes the pad of your big toe with his teeth, a whimper escapes.

“Quiet,” he murmurs. Not unkind. A warning, or maybe a reminder.

His free hand glides up your leg, smoothing over bruises, finding muscle, then higher. Inner thigh. Close now. Your swimsuit offers no barrier. You’re bare beneath it, and he feels it.

He growls.

“Off.”

You comply. Peel the wet fabric down your legs, hand it to him. He doesn’t look at it, just tosses it behind him like evidence. Then he pulls you forward. Into his lap. Onto his cock.

Waves crest and spill over the tub’s edge, slapping wetly against the tile. Your knees find purchase on either side of his hips. His length—hard, hot, heavy—presses between you, pinning you open with every breath.

He holds both your feet, places them on his shoulders. The angle folds you, exposes you. You feel air kiss your nipples. You feel the tip of him notch against your entrance.

“Hold still,” he rasps.

His hands slide down your shins, pause behind your knees. Then lower. Grip tightens around your ass, spreading you. The head of him pushes forward, slow, stretching you. One inch. Two. You clench. He keeps going.

When he's fully seated, you can't breathe.

The stretch is obscene. You whimper, and he answers it with his mouth—a kiss stolen through instinct, not habit. Clumsy, then hungry. Tongue thrusting in rhythm with the shallow pump of his hips.

Each thrust stirs the water into chaos. Your breasts sway above the surface. His grip migrates—one hand to your back, anchoring you. The other returns to your ankle, thumb tracing a circle over bone. It shouldn't be tender. It shouldn't matter. But it does.

“Thought about this,” he says. His breath is fire in your ear, and your skin prickles with goosebumps, heart hammering at the unspoken danger laced in his voice. “Since the sewers. Your pulse against my blade. Wanted to feel it break beneath me.”

You tighten around him. His pace stutters. He curses softly.

“Come,” he orders. Thumb pressing hard into the arch of your foot. “Now.”

It detonates. You arch. Toes curl. Every nerve spasms. He follows with a broken groan, hips jerking as he empties into you, burying himself to the root.

Still joined, he eases your legs down, massages the tremble from your calves. You collapse forward, boneless. His arms gather you.

His heartbeat is a thunder roll against your cheek.

“Mission debrief in six hours,” he murmurs.

You hum in response, already slipping under. His fingers trace your spine like he's memorizing the ridges. The mask lies forgotten on the tile.

There is a longer version of this horror short with a different ending called The Board. You can find it in the book The Barrow, The Board, and The Bunny: Three Short Tales of Horror.

"Second Skin" is free, but it has PWYW pricing so you can leave a tip -totally optional, but very much appreciated. 4k words, file is ePub.

The Barrow, The Board, and The Bunny: Three Short Tales of Horror

This ebook uses PWYW pricing. The minimum purchase price is 1.99 USD. 32k words. Get it here.

The Barrow

In old Scandinavian folklore, the dead do not always rest. When a careless young man unwittingly violates an ancestral taboo, he awakens an angry undead creature fueled by bitterness and brutal strength.

The Board

Five friends. One abandoned house. A game they should never have started. When the group breaks into the abandoned childhood home of a serial killer, they expect a night of tall tales and urban legends. But after a session with a Ouija board goes wrong, Jared isn’t himself anymore. He’s faster, stronger, and his eyes reflect a light that shouldn't be there. As Jared’s scent for blood rises, his friends are looking more like prey by the second. It’s a race against time: can Jared’s friends exorcise the killer before the transformation is complete, or will they become the first kills in a new cycle of blood?

The Bunny

The rabbit is gentle. The rabbit is sweet. The rabbit is never afraid. The child calls it a pet. But her mother feels something watching from behind its glassy eyes—something old, hungry, and patient.

Shadows of the Past

This novel uses PWYW pricing. Minimum purchase price is 4.99USD. ePub file. 120k words. Get it here.