Moth to a Flame

Trentacinque| Disgusted

THIRD PERSON

A woman with nothing but her underwear on knelt on the freezing floor in one of the rooms of Salvatore's basement. Both her wrists and ankles were tied by shackles on the wall. Her now shivering body full of flesh cuts is drenched with alcohol. But instead of screaming in pain and begging for mercy, her eyes bore a different emotion.

She felt delighted. Being tortured like this by the man she loves was turning her on.

"You have been torturing me like this for four days. You think you can scare me with this?" She laughed her heart out before opening her legs in front of him. "Then you're wrong. You're only making me wet, Kage." Her eyes flickered with desire, but the man in front of her didn't react a bit.

He leans his back in a chair and moves his hip upward to adjust how he sits before smoking the cigar in his mouth. He stared at the smoke he exhaled from the ceiling. The amount of nonsense this woman was sprouting from the day he was punishing her is now making him deaf.

"If you're punishing me the same way as I did to your wife just to make me suffer, you're wrong. I am enjoying this." She smiled. "The more you hurt me, the more I feel love and affection."

She met his cold gaze. The gaze of a stoic man, ruthless and indifferent. The eyes are devoid of emotion as if no worldly pleasures could waver over him. Those expressions he gave her when she fell in love with him.

"My wife?" he chuckled and tossed the cigar on the floor. "And what makes you think I am punishing you because of the woman I don't know?" Her eyes sparkled upon his words.

She was right! He doesn't really love his wife!

"Wait, so you locked me up and punished me all because you love me?" He bit the inside of his cheek, struggling to hold back a laugh. Her tone was so naïvely delusional that it was almost comical. How could she not see the absurdity in her own words?

He merely kept her alive and tortured her because he found her amusing—in a way that made him curious how Corleone brought up a deranged daughter.

"Ever since you saved me on the rooftop, you became the reason for me to live. I started caring for you. I have loved you, Kage." He snorted, a sound tinged with disdain.

He leaned back, crossing his arms, a smirk creeping onto his lips. "You think you love me? That's adorable."

He looks at her again, and now he knows why this woman is familiar. He saved a woman who tried to jump into a building two years ago. It wasn't an act of heroism whatsoever. It was an impulse because he finds her act of suicide dramatic.

"I do love you, Kage!" He glared at her. In a swift move, he was in front of her, grasping her jaw tightly.

"I am not that cowardly bastard!" His eyes flared in anger as if mentioning that name directly insulted him.

Belladonna's expression faltered. She had never seen him angry this close. "You wasted your love and effort for the wrong guy." Marahas niyang binitawan ang baba nito at nakapamulsang tumayo sa kanyang harapan.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Kage finds your affection quite the inconvenience, while I can't help but see your love as a charming little disaster that I have absolutely no interest in entertaining." The disappointment etched across her features was almost satisfying.

Belladonna lifted her head in confusion. His words, she could not comprehend them. Why is he speaking as if Kage and he are different people?

But still, she refuses to accept it. "Then why?! Why did you save me that night?! Why didn't you care when I started saying we were dating?! Why did you marry and take a wife just to make me jealous?!" She recoiled, her voice starting to get hysterical.