BEAUTY I wanted to study him. To observe the man who slaughtered his own family and walked out of the fire smiling. But the closer I got, the more he got under my skin—into my veins—turning fascination into fixation. He reads me like scripture, tears apart every line of logic I cling to. He shouldn’t make me feel alive. He shouldn’t make me want. But monsters wear many faces. And I’m starting to wonder if I came here to study evil… or to surrender to it. MONSTER They call it a cage. But it’s not for me. It’s for them. To keep them from watching too long, listening too close, craving what was never meant to be loved. She came in pretending to be curious. But curiosity is just hunger in disguise. She talks like she wants truth, but it’s pain that makes her listen. I don’t love. I consume. And the only thing more dangerous than a monster who’s been caged—Is the girl who makes him want to stay in it... with her.