D'kazi walked the darkened streets, his hands in the pockets of his jacket, his thoughts a storm he couldn't escape. 

The night air was cool, crisp against his skin, but it did little to ground him. His mind was still tangled in the past, the weight of old scars pressing against his ribs, suffocating in their silence. 

He hated this time of year. 

No matter how much time passed, it always pulled him back. 

The scent of cake. The sound of his mother's voice. The sharp, metallic tang of blood in the air. 

D'kazi clenched his jaw, his pace slowing as he reached a familiar spot—a place he had stood many times before. 

Sariyah's apartment. 

The window was dark. She had gone to bed. 

He didn't know why he had come here. 

Habit, maybe. 

Or maybe it was something else. 

Something he didn't want to name. 

For years, he had watched her from the shadows, his presence unseen, unknown. He had memorized every detail of her life, the way she moved, the way she smiled, the way her brow furrowed when she was lost in thought. 

She had always felt... distant. Like something untouchable. 

But now— 

Now she wasn't just a distant obsession. 

She was real. 

And she knew him. 

Not all of him. Not yet. 

But she saw more than anyone else ever had. 

And she hadn't run. 

Not yet. 

D'kazi let out a slow breath, stepping back into the shadows. 

For now, he would leave. 

But he would return. 

He always did. 

---

Sariyah stared at her phone screen, her mind still lingering on last night's conversation. 

D'kazi's reaction to his birthday wasn't just avoidance—it was pain. A deep, unspoken kind of pain that she recognized but couldn't quite grasp. 

She wanted to push, to ask. 

But something told her he wasn't ready. 

And Sariyah... she wasn't sure she was ready either. 

Her feelings toward D'kazi were complicated. 

He had started as a threat, a dark figure lurking in the corners of her life, someone she should have feared. And she had feared him—at first. 

But now? 

Now, when she looked at him, she didn't just see the stalker. 

She saw the man who struggled to speak in public but was learning for her. 

She saw the man who had spent years in silence but had let her hear his voice. 

She saw the pain he carried, the weight he never spoke of. 

And worst of all... 

She cared. 

Sariyah exhaled, rubbing her temple. 

She was crazy for feeling this way. 

But it was too late to stop now. 

Her phone buzzed. 

She glanced at the screen. 

A message. 

Not from D'kazi. 

From her best friend, Ayana. 

Ayana: Girl, tell me why I just ran into Justin at the store?

Sariyah's stomach twisted. 

Justin. 

Her ex. 

The one person she never wanted to see again. 

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before she finally typed back. 

Sariyah: Did he say anything?* 

Ayana: No, but he definitely saw me. He looked like he wanted to ask about you.* 

Sariyah clenched her jaw. 

She hadn't thought about Justin in a long time. She had made sure of that. 

Their breakup had been ugly, violent. He had never put his hands on her, but the threat had always been there, simmering beneath the surface of his anger. 

She had gotten away. 

She had escaped. 

And she wasn't about to let him back into her life. 

Her phone buzzed again. 

Ayana: You okay?

Sariyah hesitated before typing: 

Sariyah: Yeah. I'll be fine.

But she wasn't sure if that was true. 

---

D'kazi had felt something was off the moment he saw her. 

Sariyah wasn't herself today. 

She was tense, her movements stiff, her expression guarded. 

She hadn't told him why. 

But he knew. 

Someone had upset her. 

And D'kazi didn't like that. 

They were in her apartment again, a space that had become theirs in an unspoken way. He was sitting on her couch, watching her as she absentmindedly stirred a cup of tea she wasn't drinking. 

She was thinking. 

Worrying. 

D'kazi's fingers twitched. 

His mind whispered dark things—things he had spent years acting on. 

Who hurt you?

Do you want them gone?

The old instinct clawed at him, demanding action. 

But Sariyah didn't know that side of him. 

And if she did— 

She might never look at him the same way again. 

So he forced himself to be still. 

To wait. 

And when she finally spoke, her voice was quiet. 

"I saw someone today," she said, not looking at him. 

D'kazi's jaw tensed. "Who?" 

She hesitated. "My ex." 

His grip on the couch tightened. 

Sariyah let out a slow breath. "He didn't talk to me. But knowing he's around again..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "It's not a good thing." 

D'kazi knew what that meant. 

It wasn't hard to piece together. 

Justin. A man from her past. A man who had hurt her in some way. 

His fingers curled into fists. 

She didn't need to say more. 

Because he would handle it. 

No matter what it took. 

Sariyah didn't notice the shift in his expression. She was too lost in her own thoughts. 

And D'kazi? 

He was already planning.

———

I'm sorry yall I been busy.

Nd I love yall comments yall be having me dead