Tenant Six

The very act of you wanting is your assurance that you will not achieve it.

She's so pretty, the new woman who comes to the Crimson Hall. Her beauty strikes most of the men that look up as she comes in. With skin like crushed cherries and hair as black as the night, she slips through the dining hall with an ethereal presence that destroys all who set their eyes upon her.

The young man's eyes are equally as riveted on her form, on the way she flicks her eyes toward him and then away. A tease. A signal. She enjoys his eyes upon her.

So he looks, and then looks some more. He does not look away when she turns to meet his eyes. The women are for the taking here, so long as they're not already taken. He'll move fast. He'll claim her before someone else can.

He stands and strides through the hall the moment three others do. It becomes a mad dash as they all rush toward this woman none of them have a name for. Her vibrant maroon eyes should unnerve him, but it only makes him more feral. He dives and wraps his fingers around her wrist, snarling at the others when they very nearly claim her for themselves. The woman looks down at his hold, at the way he lays claim to her.

She doesn't fight it, but her eyes consume him. There's a promise there the young man doesn't have the experience to decipher.

Within the hour, the next sacrifice is announced when a merge appears in the forest.

The Luminary calls the young man's name.

The ethereal woman smiles as he's shoved inside. . .