Matched
Mila Hart did not believe in soulmates.
She especially did not believe in soulmates found on a sketchy dating app her best friend downloaded at two in the morning after three iced coffees and a mental breakdown.
“This is humiliating,” Mila muttered, glaring at the glowing screen shoved inches from her face.
Beside her, Nova grinned like a psychopath. “No, humiliating was when you cried over Harry Styles concert tickets for six hours.”
“I was sixteen.”
“You’re nineteen now and somehow worse.”
Mila snatched the phone.
The app icon was black with a neon pink heart… except the heart had little fangs.
Cute. Disturbing. Slightly concerning.
Across the top of the screen glowed one word:
MONSTER MATCH
Mila barked out a laugh. “Absolutely not. This looks like an app that steals kidneys.”
Nova flopped dramatically across Mila’s dorm bed. “Or husbands. Either one. Swipe.”
Mila narrowed her eyes.
“Why is it called Monster Match?”
“Because normal dating apps are full of monsters,” Nova said.
“That… is annoyingly fair.”
Rain tapped against the dorm window. Thunder rolled somewhere over campus. The room was lit only by fairy lights, Nova’s lava lamp, and the cursed glow of the phone currently ruining Mila’s peaceful Friday night.
She should have been studying.
Instead she was one bad decision away from internet dating.
Nova clasped her hands together. “Please. You haven’t been on a date in eleven months.”
“Because men are exhausting.”
“So date women.”
“I’m exhausted by everyone.”
Nova gasped. “Then date a cryptid. Be open-minded.”
Mila threw a pillow at her.
Nova dodged it and cackled.
“Fine,” Mila sighed. “One profile. Then I’m deleting this demonic thing.”
She clicked Create Account.
Name?
“Mila.”
Age?
“Nineteen.”
Looking for?
Mila squinted. “Why are there so many options?”
Nova leaned over.
The choices read:
MenWomenBothIt’s ComplicatedPrefer Not To Die Alone
Nova immediately clicked the last one.
Mila snorted. “Okay, that’s mildly funny.”
“See? The app has personality.”
The next question appeared.
Biggest Red Flag In A Partner?
Bad texterEmotionally unavailableSerial killerClingySecretive
Mila hesitated.
“Secretive,” she answered.
Nova raised a brow. “Interesting.”
“I hate people who act like they have things to hide.”
If only she knew.
The profile was finished with one terrible selfie Nova forced her to upload.
Mila looked exhausted, annoyed, and halfway murderous.
“Perfect,” Nova declared.
The screen loaded.
Then—
MATCHES AVAILABLE IN YOUR AREA.
“Jesus,” Mila whispered.
Profile One slid onto the screen.
A ridiculously gorgeous dark-haired guy stared at the camera like he personally hated everyone alive.
His eyes were almost black.
Bio:
Kai, 21
I bite when provoked.
Mila blinked.
Nova screamed. “OH MY GOD HE’S HOT.”
“He also sounds like he has seven restraining orders.”
“Swipe right.”
Mila swiped left.
Next.
A blond boy with a wolfish grin standing in the woods.
Ryder, 22
Loyal. Protective. Territorial.
Mila stared. “Territorial? Is he a dog?”
Nova nearly fell off the bed laughing.
Left.
Next.
A girl underwater, silver hair floating around her like moonlight.
No joke—underwater.
Selene, 20
I like deep conversations.
“…how did she take this picture?” Mila asked.
Nova blinked. “That’s actually terrifying.”
Right.
Next.
A guy wearing all black, face half hidden.
Lucian, 23
Tell me a secret. I’ll tell you one worse.
Mila’s stomach did a weird little flip.
Nova saw it instantly.
“Oho.”
“No.”
“You liked him.”
“I did not.”
“You did the face.”
“I have no face.”
“You have many faces and that was the horny one.”
Mila shoved Nova away with a horrified noise.
Before she could swipe—
The phone buzzed violently.
Not a normal notification buzz.
A full-body, electric shudder that made the screen flash crimson.
Mila frowned.
“Uh… Nova?”
Nova leaned closer.
Words appeared across the app.
CONGRATULATIONS. YOU’VE BEEN CHOSEN.
Silence.
Mila laughed once. “Haha. Nope.”
More words typed themselves.
YOUR FIRST MATCH IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK.
The dorm lights went out.
Pitch black swallowed the room.
Nova shrieked.
“What the hell?!”
Thunder cracked so loudly the windows shook.
Mila’s heartbeat slammed against her ribs.
The only light now came from the phone.
Red.
Glowing.
Pulsing.
Another message appeared.
TURN AROUND, MILA.
Mila stopped breathing.
Very slowly…
she turned toward the darkened dorm window.
And saw the silhouette of someone standing outside on the fire escape.
Watching her.
With glowing red eyes. For one suspended, impossible second, Mila’s brain refused to process what she was seeing.
Because that was not possible.
Their dorm was on the third floor.
There was no balcony.
No ledge wide enough to stand on.
Just slick black metal bars from the fire escape drenched in rain and a figure standing as still as death itself.
Nova made a choking noise behind her.
“Mila…” she whispered. “Tell me you see that too.”
Mila’s fingers tightened around the phone so hard her knuckles burned white.
“I see it.”
Lightning cracked across the sky.
The room flashed bright.
And for the split second the world lit up, Mila saw him clearly.
A boy.
No—man.
Young. Maybe early twenties.
Tall.
Dressed completely in black, rainwater dripping from broad shoulders.
Dark hair plastered messily across his forehead.
One pale hand curled around the fire escape rail like he belonged there.
Like scaling three stories in a thunderstorm was a casual evening hobby.
But it was his face that made Mila’s stomach twist.
He was beautiful in a way that felt deeply unfair.
Sharp jaw.
High cheekbones.
Mouth slightly parted.
Eyes—
God.
His eyes glowed a violent crimson.
Not reflection.
Not lightning.
They glowed.
The lights cut out again, plunging him back into shadow.
Nova screamed.
Mila stumbled backward so fast she slammed into her desk.
“Oh my God—oh my God—”
“Who is that?!” Nova shrieked.
“I don’t know!”
The phone buzzed in Mila’s hand.
She looked down.
Another message typed across the app.
KAI HAS FOUND YOU.
Mila’s heart dropped into her stomach.
Kai.
The first profile.
I bite when provoked.
“Nope,” Mila said immediately. “Nope nope nope absolutely not—”
The figure outside tilted his head.
Almost amused.
As if he could hear her panic through the glass.
Mila’s entire body went cold.
Nova grabbed Mila’s arm with painful force. “CALL SOMEONE.”
“Yes. Yes. Right.”
Mila fumbled for her own phone on the desk.
Her hands were shaking so badly she knocked over a pen cup.
Pens scattered everywhere.
She snatched the phone.
No signal.
“What?” Mila stared. “No no no—”
Nova looked at hers.
“Mine too.”
Another buzz.
Mila looked down against her will.
DON’T PANIC.
“Oh, that is psychotic,” Nova breathed.
Mila took another step back.
Outside, Kai lifted one hand.
And tapped once against the glass.
Mila yelped.
Nova nearly climbed onto Mila’s back.
The tap should not have been audible through the storm.
But it was.
Soft.
Precise.
Patient.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Mila shook her head violently. “Nope. We are not doing haunted Tinder tonight.”
Kai smiled.
A slow, lazy curve of his mouth.
Not friendly.
Not human.
Something predatory flashed in those red eyes.
The phone buzzed again.
HE LIKES YOU.
Mila made a strangled noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
“WHY IS THE APP NARRATING THIS?!”
Nova was fully hyperventilating now. “Throw the phone!”
Mila threw the phone.
It hit the carpet.
The screen didn’t crack.
Instead, the display flashed bright red.
RUDE.
Nova stared.
Mila stared.
“Did…” Nova swallowed. “Did the app just call you rude?”
Mila was seconds away from blacking out.
Outside, Kai’s smile widened.
Then—
he disappeared.
Mila blinked.
One second he was there.
The next the fire escape was empty.
Rain lashed against the window.
Nothing else.
No glowing eyes.
No black silhouette.
No impossible stranger.
Just darkness.
Silence swallowed the room.
Nova’s grip on Mila’s arm trembled.
“Tell me he jumped down.”
Mila stepped forward carefully, every muscle locked.
She reached the window.
Pressed shaking fingers against the glass.
Looked down.
Three stories to soaked pavement.
No body.
No running figure.
No one.
“He’s gone,” Mila whispered.
Nova let out a hysterical laugh. “Okay. Cool. Great. Love that. I’m dying.”
Mila spun around.
“Resident hall office,” she said. “We go now.”
“Yes.”
Mila bent to grab the cursed phone from the carpet.
The second her fingers touched it—
a cold breath brushed the back of her neck.
Mila froze.
Every hair on her body stood up.
Nova’s eyes lifted over Mila’s shoulder.
And all the color drained from her face.
Very slowly, Nova pointed behind her.
“Mila…”
Mila did not want to turn around.
Everything in her body screamed not to turn around.
But she did.
And found Kai standing inside the room.
