Chapter 24 Backtracking
Backtracking
The silence in the boiler room was deafening.
What the fuck did I just do?
The reality crashed over him in waves. He came. In his jeans. From Asher’s touch. The same Asher who killed him repeatedly, who violated every boundary, who was holding him captive in this nightmare.
And I liked it.
That was the worst part—not just that his body responded, but that for those few moments, he wanted it. He ground against Asher’s hand like a desperate animal, moaning into his palm like he was begging for more.
“Beautiful,” Asher whispered, his thumb still stroking across Levi’s cheekbone with devastating tenderness. “You’re so beautiful when you surrender.”
The words snapped Levi back to his body, shame burning through his chest like acid. He tried to push Asher away, but he didn’t budge.
“Get off me,” Levi said, his voice cracking.
“The creatures are gone,” Asher replied, as if he hadn’t heard the protest. “We should move.”
But he made no effort to step back. If anything, he seemed to be savoring the moment—the way Levi trembled, the confusion and shame written across his face, the obvious evidence of what had just happened.
“I said get off me.” This time Levi put more force behind it, shoving hard against Asher’s chest.
Asher retreated with obvious reluctance, his eyes bright with satisfaction. “Of course.”
He’s enjoying this. Asher wasn’t just pleased that he got what he wanted—he was delighting in Levi’s emotional chaos, feeding off the shame and confusion.
Levi looked down at himself, at the obvious wet spot on his jeans, and wanted to die. “This didn’t happen.”
“It did happen,” Asher said, reaching out to caress his face again. “And it was perfect. You’re face is so pretty when you cum.”
“Don’t touch me.” Levi jerked away from the contact, backing toward the door. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
“But you liked it when I touched you.” Asher’s voice held that same innocent confusion from before, as if he couldn’t understand Levi’s distress. “You responded so beautifully.”
The casual observation made rage flare in Levi’s chest, hot and cleansing. “You touched me without permission. Again.”
“I gave you pleasure,” Asher corrected. “I made you feel good when you were scared and upset.”
“I didn’t consent to that.”
“Your body did.”
The statement hung in the air between them like a bomb. Because it was true, wasn’t it? His body had consented, had participated, had begged for release.
But that doesn’t make it okay. The rational part of his mind knew that, understood the difference between physical response and actual consent. But the shame was still there, eating at him like poison.
“We need to find the others,” Levi said, desperate to change the subject, to focus on anything other than what had just happened.
“Do we?” Asher smiled. “I rather like having you to myself.”
The honesty in his voice was chilling. He really didn’t care about the NPCs or see them as anything more than obstacles to whatever twisted relationship he was trying to build.
“They’re people,” Levi said. “They could be lost down here and in danger too.”
“They don’t matter,” Asher replied with casual certainty. “But if pretending they do makes you feel better, then we’ll find them.”
Pretending they matter. The dismissive tone made something cold settle in Levi’s stomach. This was what Asher really thought—that everything and everyone was expendable except for his obsession.
“Let’s go,” Levi said, moving toward the door.
“Levi.” Asher’s voice stopped him. “What we just shared—”
“We didn’t share anything.” The words came out higher than intended, edged with panic.
“I think we did.” He moved closer and reached out, not quite making contact. “I think you’re starting to understand what I can give you.”
Like violation was a gift. Like forcing pleasure from his unwilling body was some kind of generous act.
“All I understand is that you’re a predator who can’t respect boundaries.”
Asher’s expression flickered—not with anger, but with something that looked almost like hurt. “I’m trying to follow your rules. But you make it so difficult.”
“By existing? By breathing? What am I doing that’s so fucking difficult?”
“By being perfect,” Asher said quietly. “By being everything I never knew I wanted.”
The sincerity in his voice was somehow worse than outright threats. This wasn’t calculated manipulation—this was an authentic feeling, twisted beyond recognition but real nonetheless.
He actually believes this. Asher thought what they had was special, that what he did was an act of affection.
“We’re leaving,” Levi said, reaching for the door handle.
“Of course.” Asher moved to follow him, but there was something in his posture—a satisfied relaxation, like a cat that caught its prey. “But Levi?”
“What?”
“This changes things between us. You felt it too.”
Levi’s hand stilled on the door handle. Because underneath all the shame and anger, there was a horrible kernel of truth in Asher’s words. He felt something—not just physical pleasure, but a moment of connection. Safety, even, in those strong arms.
Stockholm syndrome, he told himself. Trauma bonding. It doesn’t mean anything.
But his body still tingled where Asher caressed him, and part of him—a small, treacherous part—wanted to feel it again.
“It doesn’t change anything,” he said, but his voice lacked conviction.
Asher’s smile was soft and knowing. “We’ll see.”
They slipped out of the boiler room and back into the maintenance corridors. The creatures were gone, leaving only faint traces of their passage—smears of something dark on the floors and walls, scratches where metal scraped against stone.
The emergency lighting flickered weakly overhead, casting their shadows long and distorted. In the distance, they could hear the building’s mechanical systems humming with purpose, but no voices calling for help.
Where is everyone? The silence was unnerving after so much chaos.
“This way,” Asher said, choosing a corridor that led upward.
They walked in tense silence with Levi hyperaware of every sound Asher made behind him. The man moved like a predator—silent, controlled, ready to strike. But now there was something else in his presence, a satisfaction that made Levi’s skin crawl.
He thinks he’s won something. And maybe he had. Maybe the moment Levi had responded to his contact, some fundamental boundary had been crossed.
“You’re angry,” Asher observed after several minutes.
“I’m disgusted,” Levi replied without turning around.
“With me, or with yourself?”
The question hit too close to home. Levi was disgusted with both of them—Asher for what he’d done, but himself for how he responded.
“Both,” he admitted.
“There’s no shame in pleasure,” Asher said. “Even when it comes from unexpected sources.”
“There’s shame in taking pleasure by force.”
“I didn’t force you to enjoy it.”
Levi stopped walking and spun around, rage overriding his shame. “You held your hand over my mouth and touched me without permission while I was trapped and terrified! How is that not force?”
Asher’s mouth quirked as he considered the question. “You could have fought harder. You could have tried to get away.”
“I was pinned against a wall.”
“You could have bit my hand. Kneed me. You chose not to.”
Chose not to. As if his freeze response was a conscious decision. As if being too scared to fight back was the same as consent.
“That’s not how consent works,” Levi said through gritted teeth.
“Isn’t it? You responded to me. Your body wanted what I was giving you. How is that different from saying yes?”
The question was so fundamentally wrong that Levi didn’t know where to begin. But before he could formulate a response, a new sound echoed through the corridors.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow, deliberate applause coming from somewhere ahead of them.
They both froze, listening. The clapping continued, measured and mocking, echoing off the concrete walls.
“Someone’s alive,” Levi breathed.
But as they followed the sound through the corridor’s twists and turns, Levi couldn’t shake the feeling that they were walking into another trap.
The applause stopped abruptly, leaving only silence and the distant hum of the building’s mechanical heart.
What the hell is waiting for us?
Whatever they found ahead, Levi knew that everything had changed. The dynamic between them shifted in ways he didn’t fully understand, and the shame of his own response was eating him alive.
I came in his hand, he thought with renewed horror. I came while those things were hunting us.
And the worst part was, he wasn’t sure he’d have the strength to resist if Asher tried it again.