College Campus – Late Afternoon
The corridors were buzzing with laughter, half-done assignments, and the usual careless chatter about parties and professors. Rihanna walked through it all like a ghost draped in denim. She barely responded to the familiar greetings anymore, offering only a slight nod or a tight-lipped smile.
She sat through her literature lecture like she always did—in the back, near the window, hoodie drawn low. Today's discussion was about morality in classical heroes. The professor talked passionately about virtue, sacrifice, redemption.
Rihanna only stared at the line in her book she'd underlined three times:
"A man becomes a monster when the world gives him no other choice."
She closed the book, her thoughts already elsewhere.
The world had stopped giving her choices a long time ago.
Hostel Room – Night
The door clicked shut behind her. She dropped her bag, peeled off her jacket, and locked the bolt.
The room was small. Sterile. Cream-colored walls and a twin bed. But when the lights were off, it belonged to another world. Her world.
She pulled the curtains tight. Plugged in her earphones. Opened her laptop.
Netflix. YouTube. Forums. E-books. Anything that fed the craving.
Mafia romances. Crime thrillers. Possessive anti-heroes with unshakable obsessions. Girls who walked into fire thinking it was warmth.
She devoured it all.
The patterns became familiar. The glint in the villain's eye when he first saw her. The slow unraveling. The control disguised as protection. The promises of ruin spoken in silk-soft voices.
It was never just about love.It was about power. Pain. Addiction.
It was about being chosen. Chased. Worshipped in a way that felt like danger.
Rihanna's fingers hovered over her keyboard. She scrolled through another thread titled: "Why we fall for morally grey characters." She wasn't even reading it. She was searching for that one quote. The one that would click with the ache she was feeling tonight.
Then she found it:
Some girls don't want safety. They want someone dangerous who chooses not to hurt them."
She read it three times.
Yes. That was it.
She closed her eyes and imagined faceless men in black suits. Hands stained with blood, yet soft when they held her. Eyes that saw through lies and still stayed. Hearts that didn't know peace unless she was near.
It wasn't real.But it felt more real than anything she'd ever lived.
In this world, no one left you behind.They followed. Even into madness.
Back on Campus – The Next Day
Zoya noticed the dark circles. Again.
"You're up all night watching those things, aren't you?" she whispered during lunch.
Rihanna shrugged. "It's not just watching. I… study them."
"Study?"
"Yeah. Their motives. Their love. The way they protect. Even if it's cruel."
Zoya blinked. "You know it's fiction, right?"
Rihanna smiled, eyes distant. "Doesn't mean it's not true."
She excused herself early that day. Not because she had something urgent.
But because the thought of returning to her dark room, her glowing screen, and the promises whispered through scripted dialogues felt more alive than anything this campus had to offer.
Hostel Room – That Night
Another story. Another man with a scar over his heart and a pistol in his glovebox.
Rihanna bit her lip as the screen lit up with the scene—he was dragging her out of a burning building, jaw clenched, eyes wild.
"If you die, I die with you. Don't you get it?"
Rihanna exhaled. She touched her neck lightly. As if those words had left bruises.
It was 2:41 AM.
Her roommate had fallen asleep early. Rihanna stayed curled under her blanket, one earbud in, watching shadows kiss the walls.
A whisper escaped her mouth before she even realized it:
"I want that kind of love."
And the world—somewhere—shifted.