#coliel

When Seliel wakes up, its like her head was full of stars and her mouth was filled with soft, fluffy cottonballs. Her brain was still blanketed by the confines of sleep, and she forces herself to swallow. Water would be nice, but for some reason her body hurt and she can’t really move her arms quite yet — they must still be asleep. 

Seliel wanted to fall back asleep into the comforting darkness behind her eyelids, but for some reason she stayed conscious. 

 Why was she so sore? And why were her arms not moving? Waking up has never felt so exhausting, even on her most strenuous days when she pushed her body to the limit when she trained. 

With a soft groan, Seliel opened her blue eyes, sight going hazy from being shut for so long. Then she stopped. Stiffened. 

Holy fuck. 

She’s been kidnapped. 

Seliel wasn’t in her comfortable room and in her bed. She wasn’t even passed out on a roof with bottles of alcohol and a hangover. 

No, she was in a cell. She was in a goddamn cell, stone-walled with no window in sight. She was strapped to a chair, and her arms were bound to the back of it while her ankles were tied to each leg. 

Her wrists ached from how tight the ropes were laced, and they screamed for help when Seliel tried to give an experimental tug. Whoever locked her up like this had clearly never tied up a human being before. 

Or they just simply didn’t care who she was. 

Memories resurfaced: there was a party, one of the big fancy ones with flutes of champagne and shaking hands with people who you pretended to know. Seliel was bored out of her mind and was looking for a way to escape when she saw him — Cole. 

He had intrigued her, and when they spoke he acted coy, charming, mysterious. Seliel hadn’t minded, she had always liked a good mystery, but there had been a delicious chemistry brewing between them, and Seliel had almost been hoping that her night would end better than she even anticipated. 

But then she had been whisked away, called to shake hands with people she could care less about. Cole was gone when she managed to escape, leaving nothing but a single note of where to find him the next day. 

Seliel violently strained her wrists against the scratchy material tying them behind her back. The pain does nothing to overshadow memories of what happened that next day: breaking out of the palace to find him, spending hours searching for him the next morning, and then — 

Fuck. 

Cole — that fucking asshole, Cole — and hers’ little escapade . She had found him, and then they were kissing, wildly and desperately, as Seliel’s hands traveled up his shirt and Cole pressed her in the wall. Thoughts of Cole’s body, Cole’s lips, leaving a mark against her throat and his quiet whisper of I’m sorry before his arms came crushing down her throat rushed in so fast Seliel felt like she’s gotten whiplash. 

Fuck. Fuck! 

All because she wanted to get laid, she was in this fucked up situation.

Without even realizing it, Seliel’s breathing had gotten ragged. She closed her eyes to try and calm down, but the darkness only made it easier to picture the way Cole had kissed down her neck one second then squeezed the life out of it the next. 

Her blood boiled. No doubt wherever she’s tied up is that jerk’s fault too. Seliel sucks a deep breath, trying to control her breathing into a more regular pace. 

She wouldn’t escape anything if she was panicking. She needed to get a grip or else she would fucking die here — wherever here was, anyway. Control and negotiations weren’t really her strong suit — she preferred to have her fists flying and her temper loose — but she need to play smart seeing as she was at a serious disadvantage here. 

Maybe — 

Her thoughts cut off when the metal door began screaming as it opened. Seliel’s heart stopped; she hated to admit it, but she was scared of what was about to come out of the door.  

She wasn’t ready. 

Shit. 

She should pretend to still be asleep, to see if the person said anything useful, but it’s already too late. Footsteps echoed, then —

“Oh, good. You’re awake.” 

That voice. 

Seliel’s lip curls. Adrenaline swiftly returns to her body as memories and emotions burst under her skin tenfold. 

“Cole.” She spat out the name like it was something vile. As soon as she speaks, the person in question steps into view. Unfortunately, he is still as annoyingly attractive as she recalled — but now that image is splattered with burning rage and hate; even the worried frown on Cole’s face as Seliel nearly tugs her arm out of its socket can’t change that. 

“Seliel, stop, you’re going to hurt yourself.” He steps forward worriedly, but pauses to peer at the ropes threatening to cut into her skin. His eyes grow dark. 

When he speaks again it was almost to himself. “Those idiot guards, I told them to treat you respectfully — ” 

“Why do you care?” Seliel sneered, and the suddenness of the question startles him. Seliel’s struggling made her breathing irregular again, and gulping down so much dry air only succeeded in fanning the fire in her throat. 

“You have —” Seliel coughed. “ — absolutely no right to say anything about me being disrespected.” Every angry emotion she’s ever felt is nothing compared to this; if she wasn’t strapped to a chair right now, Seliel would already have her fists flying. 

Over the past twenty-four hours she’s been betrayed, taken from her home, tied up like a dog, and has felt more powerless and weak than she has in her entire life. How dare Cole just stand there and talk about disrespect when he was the one who struck the first blow and where to hurt?

“You might have forgotten, so I’ll fucking remind you: you were the one who disrespected me first, Cole. You were the one who betrayed me, kidnapped me, tied me down like an animal in the middle of God-knows-where, and you think you have the right to tell people how I should be treated? If you’re the one giving orders here, I should be lucky I haven’t gotten my throat slit!” 

Seliel’s voice had risen into a shriek by the end of her rant, her screaming ringing through the air like a crack of lightning. Cole actually flinches back, stumbling around for a response, an excuse. 

Seliel sees his face and wants to scream and punch. Everything hurts, and her heart aches for reasons she doesn’t want to know, and the pain she feels fuels her anger beyond reason. Seliel’s eyes sting, but she grits her teeth. She’d never forgive herself if she started crying right now. 

“What? Can’t think of anything to say? How about, ‘I’m a lying, spineless coward who likes to takes advantage of people for fun’?” Seliel sneers cruelly.

“Watch your mouth,” Cole snapped. The demand carries the strength of somebody with years of experience in handling power. His own anger visibly flared at the words, and he shoots Seliel a sharpened look. “I have my reasons, and if you’d give me a chance to explain —” 

An incredulous scoff bursts from her mouth, and if Seliel was a smarter person, she would have just shut up and listened to the warning in Cole’s tone. But she wasn’t smart, and she never was good at listening. 

She was hurt and pissed off beyond belief, and she wanted Cole to feel that rage, that infuriating self-loathing that boiled under the skin and made nails dig into palms until they bled. To scream and scream until the throat was raw and realize that no one heard the whole time.

She wanted Cole to feel what she felt, and she would ruin all of her chances of escape just to see that.

“If you seriously think that I’m gonna believe a word you say to me then you’re not half as smart as you think you are.” Seliel spat. Her ferocity manifested itself in the form of words since action isn’t an option. She had a wicked tongue and an even more wicked temper, and if Seliel was going down she was damn sure she was going to drag Cole along with her. 

Cole bristles, and Seliel can feel the tension rising in the stone room. Nothing can escape here, not her or the emotions or Cole’s actions. There is enough intensity to send electricity flying in all directions. 

“I didn’t want to do any of this to you, Seliel, but I had to. I had no choice.” He looks a little desperate when he says that, but with all the emotion clouding the air Seliel can’t tell if it’s actual desperation or just an excuse. 

If it is an excuse, it’s a pretty shitty one. 

“And maybe you should be a little more cautious about meeting strange men in alleyways.” Cole adds defensively, and oh , what a shitty excuse. 

“Oh, fuck you , Cole.” 

“Yeah, well, yesterday it was ‘fuck me, Cole,’ so you better make up your damn mind.” 

Seliel’s jaw hung open. She can see that Cole regrets his words the moment they leave his mouth, but right now, Seliel could give less of a shit about Cole’s feelings. 

“How dare you,” Seliel hissed, and the venom in her tone is enough to make Cole flinch as she lunges forward. “Say that shit to me when I’m not tied up, and you’ll regret the day you were born.” 

“Seliel, please —” 

Cole cut himself off, looking like he wanted to reach out to her and withdraw in himself. His hands are clenched into tight fists at his sides. He looks exhausted, Seliel suddenly realized — he had dark circles under his eyes, and the way he was standing is different than the night of the gala; he’s curled in on himself, almost as if he’s afraid. 

Seliel shouldn’t notice these things, because they were making her anger swell down and leaving her with bone-deep exhaustion, and an ocean of hurt she isn’t ready to dive into. She just wants Cole to leave, to let her stew alone in regret, to wish that he really was just this man that drew her in like a moth to the flame, no ulterior motives. 

But she does, and when Seliel speaks next, it lacks the venom and hatred she was going for and leaves her voice empty and hollow. 

“Just screw off, Cole. Go stab some other naive girl in the back — I think I’ve had my fair share for today, thanks.” 

Cole’s expression splits in several different directions, and for a moment he looks absolutely crushed .  

But then he straightens, looks away from the defeated Seliel, and walks back towards the door. 

The door screams and creaks as it opens and closes, and the heavy clink as the lock sets echoes in her chest. Seliel is pretty sure that’s where her heart is. 

Seliel keeps quiet, making sure Cole is really gone as her own ragged breathing fills the space he was in.