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Calarogu Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Romance Weekly and
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Halloween Possession. This is episode three, White Noise. My sister
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could tell something was wrong with me. You're glowing, she said,
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over breakfast at the Hawthorn Inn, and your hair keeps
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standing up. I laughed it off, but I knew she
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was right. He was changing me on a molecular level.
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It had been a week since that night in the
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museum basement. Seven days of careful distance, of never being
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alone together, of touches limited to accidental brushes that sent
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electricity shooting through my entire body. Seven nights of dreams
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that weren't entirely my own, where I couldn't tell if
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I was experiencing my phantasies or his. The electromagnetic connection
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was getting stronger. I could feel Ethan from across Salem
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now a constant pulse at the edge of my consciousness
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when he was upset. My chest tightened when he was aroused,
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which was disturbingly Often I'd find myself pressing my thighs
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together in the middle of interviewing witnesses, my body responding
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to desires he was trying to suppress three miles away.
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Earth Ta Mara, Lily waved a hand in front of
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my face. You're doing it again, that thing where you
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stop mid sentence and your pupils dilate. I'm not He's
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thinking about you, isn't he? She grinned. God, that's hot. Inconvenient,
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but hot. It was more than inconvenient. It was maddening.
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I'd conducted three interviews about the missing women, and each
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time I'd had to excuse myself because Ethan's hunger had
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bled through our connection at the worst possible moment. Do
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you know how hard it is to ask serious questions
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about someone's disappeared daughter when you can feel phantom hands
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on your skin. How are things with Marcus? I asked,
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desperate to change the subject. Lily's smile softened into something
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I'd never seen on her before. He's teaching me to
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control it, the static thing. Yesterday I lit a candle
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with my fingertips. That's dangerous, I know, But Mara, for
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the first time in my life, I feel like I
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make sense, Like all the weird things about me, the
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way electronics die around me, how I always know when
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someone's lying. The dreams that come true, they're not flaws,
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They're just me. I reached across the table and squeezed
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her hand. The spark between us was gentle, now controlled.
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I'm glad you found him. Have you noticed they never
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touch each other, Ethan and Marcus. I hadn't, but now
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that she mentioned it, maybe they're not. They're both straight,
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Marcus told me. But their electromagnetic signatures are oppositional. They
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can't touch without creating a kind of repulsion. It's why
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they work well together. They literally can't get too close.
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Must be lonely, Lily studied me. Is that why you
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won't sleep with e because you're afraid of being lonely? After?
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I won't sleep with Ethan because it's dangerous. The connection
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makes you a target. I know. But Mara, she leaned forward,
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You're already glowing like a nuclear reactor. How much more
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obvious could you be? My phone buzzed, Ethan kneed you
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at the witch house. Found something about Rebecca. My body's
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reaction was immediate and embarrassing. Just seeing his name made
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heat pool between my legs. Lily laughed, Your face, oh
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my god, your face right now. Shut up. Use protection,
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she called, as I grabbed my jacket. Electromagnetic protection, I
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mean the witch house was Salem's most famous haunted building,
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all dramatic angles and dark history. Ethan was waiting in
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the garden, and my breath caught, like it always did.
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He wore a black henley that clung to his chest,
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worn jeans that hung low on his hips. His hair
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was messier than usual, like he'd been running his hands
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through it. You look tired, I said, haven't been sleeping.
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His eyes met mine, and I felt the truth through
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our connection. He'd been dreaming of me, dreams so vivid
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they felt like memories, dreams that left him aching and
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hard and desperate. I forced myself to focus. What did
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you find? He led me inside, careful not to touch me.
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The house was closed to tourists today, and our footsteps
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echoed in the empty rooms. Rebecca left something hidden in
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the walls. In the upstairs bedroom, he showed me where
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a pane had been pried loose. Inside was a journal,
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water damaged but readable. October fifteenth, I read aloud. The
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connection is getting stronger. I can feel him all the
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time now, when he breathes, I breathe when he wants.
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I want. I'm losing myself, but I can't stop. It
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feels too good to stop. My voice faltered. I was
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reading my own experience in a dead woman's words. Keep going,
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Ethan said quietly, October eighteenth. Something's wrong. There's another presence
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in the connection, Ancient hungry. It's using our bond like
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a bridge. He thinks if we stop touching, it'll go away,
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but it's too late. I can feel it in my
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bones now, in my electromagnetic field. It's rewriting me from
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the inside out. I looked up at Ethan, E that's you.
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I tried to save her. His voice was raw. I thought,
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if we broke the connection October twentieth, last entry, my
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hands shook as I read. It's in me now. I
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can feel myself coming apart, one electron at a time.
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He says he can stop it, but he'd have to
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the rest is too damaged to read. He'd have to
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completely merge electromagnetic fields. Ethan finished, create a circuit so
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strong it could burn out the parasitic presence. But but
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the merger would be permanent, two electromagnetic signatures becoming one.
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We'd never be able to separate. We'd feel everything the
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other feels forever, every emotion, every sensation, every thought. I
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set the journal down carefully. Rebecca said no. She said no.
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He paused. The night she disappeared, she came to me.
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The thing was already pulling her apart. She begged me
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to save her, but when I told her what it
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would mean, she chose dissolution over permanent connection. That's horrible,
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is it? He moved closer, and my skin prickled with static.
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Would you want that to be permanently linked to someone?
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Never have a private thought again, never be able to
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leave the space between us? Crackled, I don't know, Liar.
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He was close enough now that I could feel his heat.
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You're terrified of it. I can feel your terror from here.
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Stop breeding me, I can't. His hand came up, hovering
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near my cheek. That's the point. I already can't stop
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feeling you, and an even haven't even what you know?
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What I did the one thing we'd been avoiding, the
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thing that would take our connection from manageable to consuming,
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The thing my body had been screaming for since the
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moment we met. Show me, I whispered, Show me what
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happened with Rebecca, All of it, Mara, I need to
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understand for the investigation. We both knew. I was lying,
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but he raised his hand anyway, palm toward me. I
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matched him, our hands an inch apart. The air between
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them shimmered, and then I was in his memory. Rebecca,
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beautiful and terrified in this same room. Her electromagnetic field
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was different from mine, cooler, more controlled. She was saying
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she loved him. But I could feel through Ethan's memory
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that it wasn't real. It was the connection talking, the
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electromagnetic pull masquerading is emotion, but with me, I felt
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his comparison, couldn't help but feel it. With me, it
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was different. The pull was there, yes, but underneath it
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was something else, something that had started the moment I'd
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walked into that Victorian house before we'd ever touched, a
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recognition that went beyond electromagnetic signatures. The memory shifted. Rebecca
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was dissolving, her body becoming static, reaching for him. He
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tried to save her, pouring his own energy into her field,
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but without the full merger, without her consent, he could
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only watch as she came apart. I gasped and pulled
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back to the present. Ethan's face was inches from mine.
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That's why you won't tell me, I said, You're afraid
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you'll have to watch me disappear too. I'm afraid, he said, roughly,
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that I won't give you the choice that if you
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start to disappear, I'll force the merger. I'll make you stay,
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regardless of what you want. You wouldn't, wouldn't I His
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hand dropped to my throat, not touching, but so close.
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I could feel the heat. Do you have any idea
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what it's like feeling you every moment, knowing exactly how
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wet you are right now, how much you want me
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to stop? Yesterday when you were in the shower, I
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felt it what you were thinking about what you were doing.
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My face burned. I'd touched myself thinking about him, not
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realizing he could feel it through our connection. I had
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to leave the house. He continued walk into the ocean,
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just to shock my system with cold. And it didn't help,
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because I could still feel you coming, could feel you
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thinking about me while you I kissed him. I knew
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it was stupid, dangerous, exactly what we'd been avoiding, but
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I couldn't stand the space between us for another second.
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The moment our lips touched, the world exploded. Not like
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before with the handholding. This was deeper, more intimate. I
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could taste what he tasted, feel what he felt. The
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kiss existed in multiple dimensions, the physical pressure of mouths
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and tongues and the electromagnetic merge that made me feel
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like I was kissing myself and being kissed at the
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same time. His hands tangled in my hair, and everywhere
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he touched my skin lit up. I could feel his
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desire like a living thing wrapping around me, pulling me under,
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but I could also feel his his desperate need to
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protect me warring with his need to possess me. Mara.
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He gasped against my mouth, and I felt how my
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name moved through him, the way it had become a prayer,
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he said in the dark. I pressed closer, my body
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fitting against his, like we were made for each other,
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and maybe we were. Maybe this was what electromagnetic compatibility
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really meant, not just attraction, but recognition, every cell in
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my body singing yes, this him, now please. His hand
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slid down to my waist, and I could feel both sensations,
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his palms on me and my body under his palms.
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It was dizzying, intoxicating. I wanted more, I wanted everything.
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We can't, he said, But he was walking me backward
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toward the bed. If we do this, I know the
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connection will solidify. You'll never be free of me. I
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know the thing that took Rebecca will lock onto us.
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I know we fell onto the bed and the contact
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sent shock waves through both of us. I could feel
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his heart racing against mine, or maybe it was mine
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against his. The boundaries were dissolving. His hands were under
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my sweater, and the skin to skin contact created feedback
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loops of sensation. I felt what he felt when he
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touched me, which made me feel more, which he then felt,
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an endless spiral of pleasure. God Mara, He breathed against
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my throat. You're like touching lightning. I arched against him,
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and through our connection, I felt his control shutter. His
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mouth was on my throat, my collar bone, the swell
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of my breasts, every kiss existed twice, the sensation on
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my skin, and the taste of me on his tongue.
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I was drowning in it, in him, in us. His
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hand slid between my thighs, over my jeans, and the
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pressure made me cry out. But I also felt his palm,
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felt the heat of me through the denim, felt his
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desperate need to remove every barrier between us. Please, I gasped,
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not sure what I was begging for, everything, nothing him.
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That's when the windows shattered, not broke, shattered. Every window
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in the witch House exploded inwards, simultaneously, showering us with glass.
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Ethan rolled us off the bed, shielding me with his
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body as the room filled with wind that shouldn't exist
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through our connection. I felt it the thing Rebecca had
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written about, ancient hungry and focused entirely on us. Finally,
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a voice that wasn't a voice whispered through the electromagnetic field.
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Too ready to become nune, run, Ethan said, pulling me
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to my feet. We ran, our hands clasped the connection
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between us, singing with terror and arousal and power. Behind us,
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I could feel the entity following, drinking in our combined
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electromagnetic signature like it was ambrosia. We burst out of
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the witch House to find Lily and Marcus waiting with
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a car running get in. Marcus shouted the grid's failing
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all over Salem. As we dove into the back seat,
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I realized we were still holding hands. Ethan's fingers were
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interlaced with mine, and breaking the connection felt impossible. The
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entity had done. Something welded us together somehow. I can't
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let go, I said, I know. Ethan replied, it's feeding
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on the connection, using it as a conduit. Lily turned
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from the front seat, her face pale. There's something else.
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Three more women have been reported missing, not dead, just gone.
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All in the last hour. It's accelerating, Marcus said, speeding
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through Salem's narrow streets. Halloween's still a week away, but
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it's not waiting anymore. I looked at Ethan, our hands
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fused together by something beyond electromagnetic attraction, and realized we'd
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crossed a line we couldn't uncross. The entity had us.
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Now we were marked, claimed, connected in a way that
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would either save us or destroy us. What do we do?
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I asked. Ethan's thumb stroked over my knuckles, and even
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that small gesture sent waves of heat through me. We
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figure out how to kill it, or we become its
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next meal through our joined hands. I felt the truth
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he wasn't saying. We were already being consumed. Every moment
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we stayed connected, it fed on us, but breaking the
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connection might scatter us like it had scattered Rebecca. We
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were trapped together, and despite the terror, despite the danger,
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part of me was glad. How's that for losing myself
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in October