I tried to run, of course, but he caught me around the waist and gagged me with one of his slippery appendages. He pulls me away from the rift in the air and loosens the tentacle gag a little further. “Explain.” One thing led to another, and now I have a tentacle beast in my room who knows exactly how to make me moan.

Dating apps are okay, but most of the guys there are either players, time-wasters, or catfishers. And then there are scammers like the Tinder Swindler. Every nerve ending on that side of my body tingles in anticipation of those tentacles. I can already imagine what he’ll do with them—the hours of endless pleasure he’ll give every part of me that needed his touch. But a few minutes ago, I would have said that monsters were figments of overactive imaginations. Now, I’m suspended three feet off the wooden floorboards by a creature of shadow and tentacles.I tried to run, but he caught me around the waist and gagged me with one of his slippery appendages. The monster’s tentacles are everywhere—around my waist, between my thighs, and circling my breasts. The pulse between my ears pounds so hard that it muffles all sound, including the meditation I’d stupidly played to attract a soul mate. Had I heard him right? He can’t be taking me to his dimension. Dimensions are a thing of science fiction. They don’t even exist.

I woke up in the middle of the night to find a dark figure standing at the foot of my bed, claiming to be my soul mate. The monster raises his arm in a slicing motion that causes the sound of tearing. My breath catches as a rip forms in the air. Shit. I’d heard of the fabric of time, but this is ridiculous. The clouds concealing the moon part, flooding the room with silver light. I follow the tentacle to find his shadowy outline. I’m human,” I say through panting breaths. “There’s no way a person like me could breathe, let alone survive in an atmosphere that toxic.” Heat floods the room, explaining why I’d woken up feeling too hot. He must have brought it with him when he entered through the portal. The air becomes acrid with a suffocating scent of sulfur. My eyes itch, then they water, then it feels like tiny claws are scratching my throat. I blink over and over, coughing, choking, gasping for air.I woke up in the middle of the night to find a dark figure standing at the foot of my bed. He claimed to be my soul mate, but I’m calling BS.When I told him to get out, he sprouted tentacles.I tried to run, of course, but he caught me around the w...