Tiger

Chapter 8

Seb woke up, sprawled on a soft, plush mattress. The room was extremely well furnished with a large bed draped in expensive looking sheets, a chandelier and...no door...

He rose his eyebrows,  he'd expected a cell at most.

Standing, swaying and feeling woozy , he tried to explore the room. He perched a hand on a painstakingly detailed bedpost with scenes of battle carved into it, and surveyed his surroundings.  A tattered, near-empty bookcase stood in the corner of the cream painted room. There's his door.

Taking a step to the bookcase, he finally registered why here. Jim. He had used him...and gave him away the next day. Like he was property.

Seb slumped to the floor with an umph and sat limply against the bed. He could probably get out if he really wanted to...but where would he be escaping to?

Back to..to...the name was like shit in his mouth. He spat. No. Going back to Moriarty was not an option. He had no family,  he had no life outside of him...he had loved him...and it made him want to die. He had taken everything Seb had, and he had burnt it, with the flames of his mind, of his words, of his actions. Seb was more than burned, more than scarred. He was incinerated. There was nothing left.

Seb could go and kill him. He wanted to right now. Wanted to snap his neck.

But more than that, he wished whoever he was here for would just get on with it and kill him. It'd save him a job...

As if on cue, the bookcase,  as expected, slid aside stiffly,  revealing the man he saw in the flat. His hair was greasy and slicked back, a stubbly beard adorned his saggy chin and a gritty smirk his lips.

"Clever, no? ".

He gestured to the bookcase, his voice as drawling as that of a drunk. 

"In my experience, bookcases to hide doors have always been to avoid entrance, not an escape."

The man nodded, "Is why it's clever, unexpected . Although only good for use once I suppose..."

Seb shrugged, "Cliché...posh room. "

"You like?"

"I'd feel more at home in a piss covered cell."

The man's eyebrows furrowed for a second, but he brushed it off.

"My name is Mika. And you are Sebastian Moran."

Mika Rosmenoff.  Mob boss. He knew enough about this man to talk for hours.

Seb rose his eyebrows sarcastically, "Am I? I never knew."

Mika sighed and pulled the bookcase shut again, a small click echoing through the room.

"No need for such sarcas-"

" Kill me. Kill me if that's what you're going to do. Stop the game."

That word. Game. Mika chuckled throatily, clutching his stomach with his hands like a fucked up Santa Claus.

"Mr.Moriarty did not hand you over to me just so I could kill you."

Seb looked over to Mika, confused.

"You are not here to settle blood lust, you're here for to replace the man killed." .

Seb clenched his fist. He was here to replace Alik? He assumed he meant Alik...

Seb stood, still shaky. They had definitely drugged him with something strong.  Stronger than the stuff Jim had used on him in the pas- shut up Seb, he stopped his train of thought before it ripped his heart any further.

"You're boss is a reasonable man, he gave me you, because he killed one of my men. You're a replacement, so to say."

Seb paced over to Mika, staring him in the eye, his face inches away from the taller man. He tried to look threatening, he clenched his jaw.

"Why would you need a sniper? "

Mika laughed, his bitter breath in Seb's nose. A nicotine stained hand reached up and touched Seb's face.  The assassin glared as the man he grew closer.

" It is not a sniper that I want..." and with that, Mika pushed his lips against Seb's, a strong arm wrapped around his back.

Seb struggled and pulled away, but another hand pushed onto the back of his head, , slamming his lips against Mika's again. The man was stronger than he looked, stronger than Seb, Seb kicked and punched but Mika just held tighter, his tounge invading Seb's mouth, the hand on his back moving lower. Mika slammed him into a wall, his hands on Seb's ribs, under his shirt, as Seb fought and bit down hard on his tounge.  He cried out and pulled back, Seb spat into his face.

"You can fuck off you greasy ba-"

Whack.

Mika punched him square on the nose as three men ran in from the bookcase doorway.

Nodding at the men, Mika turned to walk out, looking back over his shoulder. 

"You'll need to learn how to be more cooperative here." with that, he disapeered through the gap in the wall, leaving Seb, nose bleeding, with three smiling men.

Two of them grabbed his arms and held him back, the other punched him in the stomach, over and over. Then his face , his chest. They threw him to the floor as he dribbled blood from his mouth and threw kicks at his ribs until Seb finally slipped out of consciousness, his blood spreading in a pool around him.