My Skin Needs Touch, Their Stomachs Turn novel Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The comments had already spoiled the entire plot for me.

In the original story, Silas was a tragic figure – a shattered past, completely isolated – until the female

lead saved him.

He was supposed to fall for Chloe. When Chloe chose the male leads instead of him, something inside Silas snapped, and he became the Big Bad who burned the whole world down.

Wait. Silas was supposed to fall for Chloe?

Which meant he’d eventually turn on me because of her, just like everyone else in this story.

A fresh wave of ice hit my veins, and I took a blind step back.

Silas caught me in less than a second, pulling me tight against him. “Hazel, don’t believe that. I won’t fall for her. I want you.”

I froze. Arthur and Felix froze.

The comments froze for exactly two seconds, then detonated.

[No way – THE VILLAIN CAN SEE US TOO?!]

[This world is glitching. We’re literally part of the plot now.]

[Forget the glitching – has anyone processed what’s happening?? Both male leads AND the Big Bad are all falling for the villainess now. What happens to Chloe??]

[This is the villainess’s fault. She’s ruining everything by making everyone obsessed with her.]

[Oh my god, ENOUGH. Name one bad thing the “villainess” has actually done. Go ahead. I’ll wait. You people have been calling her evil since chapter one and she hasn’t done a single thing wrong.]

[EXACTLY. She literally saved both male leads AND the Big Bad. If anything, they owe her their lives.]

The comments spiraled into an all-out war – half of them tearing me apart, the other half defending me for

the first time. Then something must have glitched, because the feed vanished. All of it. Gone,

The room went dead silent.

Silas spoke into the silence. “Hazel. I’m not going to turn into what they said. I’m not going to destroy anything.” His voice was raw, stripped of all the teasing I’d gotten used to. “I just want to be with you.”

His eyes were wet. Something in my chest cracked open.

“Okay.”

I turned to Arthur and Felix. My voice came out steady – flatter than I’d expected.

“I’ll find a new place and move out. I signed the termination papers while you were still on your mission.

Chapter 8

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This was over before you came back.”

“Take care of yourselves. We don’t need to see each other again.” I paused. “Whatever happens with you and Chloe – that’s your story. Not mine.”

I tipped my chin toward the door. “Now please leave.”

They stared at me, throats moving around words they couldn’t get out. Silas stepped forward, half a pace in front of me, and his presence pressed down on the room like gravity had shifted.

They had nothing left to fight me with. Their fists clenched at their sides, and they turned and walked out

without a word.

The moment the door clicked shut, Silas lowered his head and nuzzled my hair.

“Hazel – come with me to Frostpeak City.” His voice was soft; careful, like he was afraid of asking for too

much. “The fight shook something loose. I remember now – it’s where I came from. It’s far from the

capital. No Chloe. No comments. No story written for us.”

I looked up at him- at the steady certainty in his eyes, the stubborn set of his jaw.

I nodded.

Seventy-two hours later, on the morning we left, Silas and I carried our bags downstairs and found Arthur

and Felix already waiting at the bottom.

They were wearing matching leather jackets I’d scraped together my tips to buy them, back when I still believed gestures like that mattered. They’d always refused to wear them — said they were too plain, that

they didn’t fit their image.

Now they wore them like penance. Too late.

Felix saw me and dropped to his knees. “Master – don’t go. Stay. Please.”

“I thought I made myself clear.” I looked away.

–

His eyes brimmed with tears, the rims stark red. “I was wrong. Everything I said before I was wrong. I

didn’t mean it. I can’t lose you, Hazel. Just give me one more chance.”

“It’s over, Felix.”

I said it the way I’d said it before – quiet and final – and turned to take Silas’s hand.

I made it three steps before someone caught my wrist. I assumed Felix had chased me, but when I turned, it

was Arthur.

The sight stopped me cold.

His eyes were red. Wet. Wrecked. The man who never cracked – who wore that stone face through every crisis I’d ever seen him in – was crying.

“Hazel, don’t go.” His voice broke on my name. “I’ll never do this to you again. I’ll never leave you alone

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