𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐞

11|| Tracing Old Scars

Celeste / January 24
•••

Her brother found out she was here.

That's the only explanation for the fucking circus playing out before me.

They'd woken me up with a pull on my hair and manhandled me until my wrist were above my head and chained to the ceiling. My ankles are chained to the ground and I stand on my tiptoes, which wouldn't have been such a struggle if it wasn't for the violent shaking in my body.

The chains are rattling, my skin is clammy from the thin layer of sweat, my heartbeat is pulsing and every being in my body is drawn to the cigarette before me.

Dante's sidekick is standing in front of me, he'd brought four men just to send them to each corner of my cell.

A faint smile touches his lips when seeing my reaction – or better said: my body's reaction, because my soul would never dare to be this desperate... or well, at least not in front of these men.

"Just give it to me," I hear myself plead.

And just like that, my soul had betrayed me as well.

It's pathetic, but at the moment I can't bring myself to care. At least not until I get that cigarette between my lips and that smoke inside my lungs.

"Out." A deep dominating voice echoes through the cellar and crawls right up my spine. "Everybody out."

The regular guards leave without a word, but the sidekick hands over a box of cigarettes and whispers something to Dante before he leaves my cell as well.

He makes his way into the cell and now that he's closer I see that his hair isn't styled like it normally is. His brown hair was usually styled back in controlled waves, but now they look rather messy.

He's wearing shiny black shoes, suit trousers and a white blouse that's been put in the waistband of his pants. The first few buttons are open, revealing some of the tattoos on his chest.

Two thin golden necklaces catch my attention when one reflects the light coming from the only lightbulb in the room. They look pretty against his tanned skin-

I almost curse out loud when I catch onto my thoughts. Why am I checking him out like he hasn't been torturing and starving me for days?

"My sister has done a lot of stupid things in her life," he says. "But I know she'd never be the type to pick up the habit of smoking."

He walks closer to me with an unreadable expression on his face. "So imagine my surprise when one of my men tells me she's trying to get her hands on a pack of cigarettes at midnight."

It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. He'd seen me smoking at Paradise and he probably took one look at Adriana's knuckles and sweaty face before concluding that she'd been up to something.

His eyes narrow ever so slightly before they go back to normal. "What has she been doing here?"

"I'm not a snitch."

"Yes," he says, opening the box in his hands. "You've been making that very clear for the past days."

I can't help the smile that appears on my face when I'm reminded of my loyalty. No matter how hard they hit me, no matter how much food they took away, I still didn't break. I'd rather die than betray Lester.

Ones again, a sharp pain strikes my brain. I flinch in surprise and hear the chains above my head rattle along with my movement, only worsening the pounding in my head.

When the pain lessens, I open my eyes to see Dante put a flame to the end of the cigarette. All my attention focusses on the stick between his tattooed fingers.