A Ballad of Snakes and Shadows // A Dark Sebastian Sallow Romance

Chapter Twenty Two: White Dove

((CW: Angst, trauma, yelling.))

After another couple of days had trickled by, I found myself seated at a table in the Room alone. Just as alone as I'd been the other day when Sebastian had surprised me on the shore, even.

Though this time I had the faux sun that peaked through the window next to me to keep me company. Its warmth did nothing to ease the uncertainty that was swimming in my gut, as I sat there. It only added to the heat of it, smelting it until it was heavy, solid iron.

Today the collar around my neck seemed to feel as equally heavy as that lead.

Sebastian hadn't been back to see me since that day.

I hated the fact that he never checked in with me after such explicit events. It was like I was only good for one use, and that was to entertain him when he was bored or seemed to be in a terrible mood.

What I despised even more was that I was even thinking about him at all. No matter what corner of my mind I tried to hide in, Sebastian seemed to fill every dark shadow inside of it. I could always see those dark eyes gazing at me, haunting me like my own personal poltergeist.

In that same gloominess, I could practically smell the carnality of what those eyes wanted from me. It was almost corporeal, the scent of it wafting into the crack until it had seeped through layers of membrane until I could think of nothing else.

All I knew was that the devil had played his hand well, and the debt he collected came in the form of me retaining the knowledge that he wanted to use my own body to break me.

With that winning hand, he'd laid out something very simple. I could fight him, but I would always be on the brink of losing the war.

When I thought I was two steps ahead, he doubled it in stride.

Though I had hoped to win that battle with Sebastian on my own, given the nature of it, I was never going to be able to jump ahead without help.

My friends were nowhere to be found as I drowned in Sebastian's antics. They'd both turned their noses up at the stench, as I flailed in its thick grasp. They'd chosen to ignore me altogether, holding onto their own rope together instead of casting me a lifeline.

Friends.

Could I have blamed them, though?

So it was not only Sebastian that plagued me, but that pair of friends who did as well. All of them seemed out to get me, and I wondered if for a moment Sebastian was in on their treatment of me.

Or if it had all been by his design.

If Sebastian had played a part in the We-Hate-Hattie Club, I would never have expected him to have asked me about Ominis the other day. Indeed, I would've expected that he had been keeping close tabs on whatever was causing me misery each day.

Why had he been so interested in Ominis at a time like that, anyway?

That growing list of things that did not add up, was the owl Natty had sent to me today.

Regardless of her treatment towards me until now, I wanted to believe in that glimmer of hope that owl gave me, I wanted to bask in that little ray of proof that I would not have to do this alone.

All it did was leave a bitter flavor in the back of my mouth.

It seemed now that a majority of the dust from that night had settled, and I wasn't so volatile, Natty had deemed it safe enough to acknowledge my existence again.