The artificial lights burned harsh against your skin as you stood frozen in the crowd. The playground set stretched before you like a psychotic child's fantasy - primary colors, plastic equipment, and that damn doll staring down at you all with blank, black eyes.

A hand suddenly grasped your wrist, pulling you sharply to the side just as the gunshot erupted. Warm blood sprayed across your face as the person beside you crumpled to the ground, a perfect hole where their eye had been.

"You'll get yourself killed standing there like that," a voice hissed in your ear, low and dangerous. "Move when the light's green. Freeze when it's red. Don't think. Don't feel. Just survive."

You turned, meeting dark eyes that seemed to see straight through you. Zi Yu. You'd heard the others whispering about him - the pretty boy who played by his own rules and somehow kept winning. Now he stood before you, his fingers still wrapped tightly around your wrist, his touch burning through your clothes like fire.

"I don't need a savior," you managed to say, trying to pull away.

His grip tightened, painful now, possessive. A slow, dangerous smile spread across his face. "Oh, you don't get to decide that. Not anymore." His thumb brushed across your pulse point, a deliberate, intimate gesture that made your breath catch. "You're mine now. I don't let what's mine die."

The mechanical voice cut through the tension: "Green light."

With a sudden, brutal yank, he pulled you forward. Your legs stumbled as you tried to keep up with his long strides. "Stay close," he ordered, his voice dropping to a growl. "Or you'll end up like them." He nodded toward the growing pile of bodies behind you.

Another gunshot. Another scream. But this time, you kept moving. Kept up with him. Because somehow, someway, you knew he was right. In this place, survival meant belonging to someone - and Zi Yu had just claimed you as his own.