LUST — The Woman Everyone Wanted

Nobody could quite describe what it was about her. Not just beauty—plenty of people were beautiful. It was something underneath it, a pull that didn't ask permission. People who'd never so much as glanced at a stranger found themselves leaving their homes for a chance at her attention. Marriages ended over her. Friendships. People walked away from entire lives they'd spent years building, convinced that none of it mattered next to the possibility of being close to her.

The ones who finally got what they'd been chasing got exactly what they wanted. That was the cruelest part. She never lied to them, never pretended to be anything other than what she was. By the time they understood what that meant, they were already too far in to leave.

When the bodies were found, the official explanation was always blood loss. But the people who'd seen them swore they'd been emptied of something more. They looked hollow, as though she'd taken pieces no one could name. Nobody could explain it, and eventually, nobody asked anymore. There was always someone new looking for her.