#lycheexlime

“There was a man, I don’t know where he is,” She turned to look over her shoulder like she was terrified of what could be lurking in the snowy forest behind her. She wouldn’t survive out there in only her thin shirt and pants that didn’t even cover her ankles.

So, with a quivering breath, you unlocked and opened the door, everything in you screaming your village’s warning in your head.

Never let someone into your house after midnight, it is only pretending.

She was stepping over the threshold of your door, cold skin brushing past yours as she moved past you.

“Thank you,” She said and you felt your heartbeat jump in your throat as you locked the door back. God only knows where the man she mentioned was and you didn’t want to risk him coming across your lonely cabin unlocked.

The lock seemed to click loudly in your ears like you were the one trapped now.

“I– it’s no problem,” You forced a smile onto your face and looked now at the woman before you.

She shouldn’t be alive. Her clothes were too light for the snowstorm outside and her feet were bare. Yet she showed no signs of frostbite, she wasn’t even shivering anymore.

Dread pooled heavily in your belly but it was too late for regrets now, you’d made your bed and now you had to lie in it.

“We girls have to look out for each other right,” She nodded along, her eyes wide and unnerving as those big, blue hues seared into you.

“Yeah we do,” Her voice was quiet, like if she spoke any louder something else would come out.

“I’m Gojo Satoru, but you can call me Satoru if you want,” And had your nerves not been such a mess, you might’ve felt something other than sick at her sweet smile.

You never gave your name, you didn’t want her to remember you once she left.

You sat in front of the fireplace with Gojo at your side, pressing her side against yours no matter how much you scooted down the couch until you were boxed between her and the armrest. You tried to tell yourself it was only to warm up, she had to be freezing from being out there, afterall, her skin was freezing where it was pressed against what was bare of your skin.

She talked on and on and it seemed you couldn’t cling to anything she said, your head felt uncharacteristically slow, like trying to grasp onto every individual thought through honey.

Even so, you were on edge, especially from how hard Gojo was trying to weedle your name from you.

“It’s only right I know the name of my savior,” She spoke close to you and you could practically feel her breath on your neck. She was too close, far too close, but your body refused to move away from her.

“Once I get back to my home, I’ll ensure you want for nothing for the rest of your life.”

Finally, through the sludge of your thoughts, you gave her a fake name. She didn’t look as happy to finally know your ‘name’ as you thought she would. Her eyes burned through you, like she could see the way your heart sped up with your lie. You clenched your hands into fists and tried to reorient yourself. You needed to lie down.

“I’m gonna head to bed, Ms. Gojo,” You said, your voice coming out breathy and you cringed at how it sounded. She grabbed your hand and on reflex on contact with her frozen fingers, you jerked away.

“You can sleep here or the spare bedroom in the back.” You muttered, your head feeling too light to think about how rude you sounded.

Despite this, she followed you to your room, your heart beating painfully in your chest and you could practically feel it in your throat.

Her eyes never looked away from you.

Nausea tried to choke its way up your throat but you swallowed it down with burning eyes.

What have you done? You should’ve just listened to your village’s warnings, you should’ve listened when your mother said your soft heart would be the death of you.

You still haven’t heard footsteps leading away from your door.

You can practically see it, that woman standing there, her silky white hair flowing down her back as she stood outside your wooden door frame. You could nearly feel her piercing gaze still burning through you.

You slid down the door and laid your head in your hands, a migraine already forming above your eyebrows. You took steady breaths, in– out. In, – out.

Your hand slid to the cold floorboards beneath you and you could’ve screamed as you felt something silky slide beneath your hand. Your stomach lurched and you scrambled from the door just in time to see right below your door where it didn’t meet the floor– was a single blue eye staring right at you.

You really did scream then, a shriek tearing itself from your throat as you watched the blue eye pull away, taking with it the white hair that crept beneath your door. Your heartbeat hammered so hard it made you sick and even now you still couldn’t hear any damn footsteps. She was still there, it was still there.

She called your name, sweet and practically mocking. Your real name.

A sob tried to choke up from your stomach as you pressed yourself against your bed, the cold floorboards biting into your skin.

Then, there was scratching. Deep and grating as she scratched at the wood that separated the two of you.

“Go away!” You screamed, ears deafening with the rush of your blood through them.

“Go away,” Your voice trailed off, weak and terrified and a horrible cooing noise came from the other side, in no way muffled by the barrier. It was spoken like she was right beside you.

“Don’t be so scared, I won’t hurt you.” Then the nails came to drag down your door once again, this time they nearly seemed frantic– desperate to reach you.

“Open the door, baby,” She called again, voice dripping with honey and anger. She didn’t want to ask again. But you wouldn’t open that door if it was the last thing you did. Everything would be over if you gave into the demon’s persuasion.

A loud thud made you nearly jump out of your skin.

Bang!

Bang!

Each hit harder everytime until you could see tiny chunks of your door flying off the hinges. You wanted to cry and with every thud, you came closer and closer as the fear made you nauseous.

Your head felt murky and you could barely sift through what you should do before there was one last, final bang.

She stood in the darkness of your hallway, the fireplace evidently having gone out to leave the house in darkness.

“I’m sorry,” You cried, your eyes screwing shut as tears burned down your face and your bottom lip shook. You were going to die and it was your own damn fault. You and your soft heart.

Hands, cold and gentle, cradled your face like you were something fragile that would fall apart at the slightest pressure. Soft lips pressed against yours, gentle at first. But the longer you stayed still and didn’t reciprocate, the harder she pressed. It was only when a cry of pain escaped you did she pull away, face flushed and a horribly warm smile on her face as she looked at you.