ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 238: Hostile
Chapter 238
KATYA POV
I didn’t move. For a moment, I wasn’t sure I could. Lila’s words hung in the air like smoke that refused to clear, thick and choking, curling around my chest until breathing felt optional.
Adelasia’s name echoed in my head, over and over, each repetition heavier than the last.
Just like Miss Adelasia. The kitchen felt colder. Not physically—but the warmth I’d grown used to, the background comfort of clattering pots and low voices, had drained away completely.
What was left was a room full of people who suddenly looked at me like I was something dangerous.
Or cursed.
I stared at Lila, my mouth opening, closing again. No sound came out. It was like my body hadn’t caught up to what she’d said yet, like it was still trying to protect me by delaying the pain. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
"I didn’t—" My voice cracked immediately. I stopped. Swallowed. Tried again.
"I didn’t kill her." The words felt small the moment they left my mouth. Weak. As if they’d already been decided against before I’d spoken them.
Lila didn’t respond right away. She just watched me, eyes sharp, measuring. As if she were weighing whether I believed myself.
"Funny," she said finally, quietly now, "because everything went wrong when you’re around."
My heart thudded hard against my ribs. "That’s not true," I whispered. My hands curled into fists at my sides, nails biting into my palms.
"I didn’t kill her, she....she was...I didn’t...Mr Salvatore..... "
"Killed her because of you!" Lila shoots, cutting my jumbled words. The words landed deeper than the accusation itself.
I looked around the kitchen then. At the faces I’d eaten with. At the people who’d once smiled at me, teased me gently, treated me like something fragile but welcome.
No one met my eyes.
Someone shifted uncomfortably. Another turned back to the counter, pretending to focus on food that had long since stopped cooking.
Miss Stella stared at the floor, her grip tight around the wooden spoon, knuckles pale. That hurt more than Lila’s words.
"I’m sorry, i...i shouldn’t have come," I said quietly.
No one argued.
That silence followed me as I turned back toward the door. Each step felt heavier than the last, like the house itself was resisting me, reminding me with every breath that I didn’t belong anywhere—not upstairs, not here, not even inside myself.
My hand closed around the door handle. Behind me, someone exhaled. Someone else shifted. Life resumed in fragments—but not for me.
"Katya."
Miss Stella’s voice reached me just as the door swung shut behind my back.I didn’t turn.
I couldn’t.
Her voice sounded distant, warped, like it had to travel through water to reach me. By the time my feet hit the hallway, the world had already started to tilt.
The air felt wrong. Too thick. Too heavy. Like it wouldn’t go all the way into my lungs no matter how hard I tried.
I walked faster.Then faster. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, loud and uneven, each thud shaking my chest.
The hallway stretched strangely ahead of me, the lights too bright, the corners too sharp.
Breathe.Just breathe.I tried.My chest stuttered instead. My hands started to tremble, fingers tingling, numb and burning all at once.
I had to press one palm against the wall to steady myself, but the surface felt unreal, like I was touching something through glass.
The elevator. I just had to reach the elevator. My vision blurred at the edges as I rounded the corner, and that was when it hit me.
The floor. Not this one.Another one.Cold marble. Darkened fabric. A body that wouldn’t move.
My steps faltered. No...no, no, no.. i’d been suppressing the horrors of what had happened that night that getting reminded all of a sudden was too much.
My breath caught sharply in my throat as the image slammed into me without warning. Adelasia lying still, far too still, her eyes open but empty, staring at nothing at all.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but it only made it worse. Her face flashed behind my eyelids. Pale. Lifeless. Unforgiving.
"It’s not your fault," I whispered, though I wasn’t sure who I was saying it to. Her. Lila. Myself.
My lungs burned.I dragged in a shallow breath that didn’t feel like enough, then another, even shorter.
My chest tightened painfully, like an invisible hand was closing around it.
I reached the elevator and stabbed at the button harder than necessary. Nothing. The numbers above the doors stayed still.
My knees felt weak. The floor seemed too far away and far too close at the same time. I pressed my back against the wall and slid down just a little, enough to keep myself upright.
My heart was racing out of control now, skipping, pounding, like it was trying to escape my ribcage. My thoughts spiraled, fast and merciless.
Killed because of you. Everywhere you go, something happens. Just like Adelasia.
"No," I breathed, shaking my head. "No, no, no..." The elevator finally chimed.
The sound was sharp, too loud, making me flinch as the doors slid open. The moment they did, I folded in on myself.
My arms wrapped tightly around my middle as I bent forward, gasping, my breaths coming out broken and uneven. My vision swam. My ears rang.
I wasn’t here anymore. I was back there. The stillness. The silence that followed the chaos.
The way the room had felt emptied of life.
Tears burned behind my eyes, spilling over before I could stop them. I pressed my forehead against the cool wall, grounding myself with the cold.
Please. Please make it stop. All I could think was how quickly a place could turn hostile. How easily people could decide who you were without asking.
And how, no matter how much I tried to disappear, the past kept finding me anyway.
"Katya?!"
Two voice resounded. One male and the other female.
††
Well. Miss stella?
