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wren-l-winter · 10 months ago

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“Abandoned again?” Those cool words slipped through the darkness like a serpent’s forked tongue.

The hero sat in the center of the chamber, bathed in moonlight from the hole in the ceiling. Chains glinted around her limbs, allowing her to kneel but restricting any further movement. She looked into the shadow, frantically trying to find the viper in the shadows. “My team will come back.” A laugh, sweet as poison, filled the high ceiling. “Like they did last time?” The villain stepped into the gentle lighting, basking in the way the hero recoiled at the sight of her.

“Last time was different.”

Were the villain capable of pity, the hero would have earned it. “Is that what they told you?”

Metal clinked together as the hero squirmed. “It’s true,” she insisted.

A hum filled the room, low and sensual. “Forgive me for not believing you.” The slow, elegant footsteps of the villain took her along the moonlight’s edge. Too close for comfort, and yet far enough to give a false sense of ease. “Why don’t we play a game, hm?” The dark silhouette of the villain continued to idly pace around the circle of moonlight. “Perhaps you aren’t lying and your team will come for you.” The villain paused behind her captured prey. The hero turned her head, startled by the sudden silence. Amusement played on the sharp line of the villain’s onyx lips. “Call for me when you’ve decided they’ve abandoned you.”

The hero’s silence was admirable but foolish. They both knew the hero’s supposed friends would never return. They expected the villain to let her go, as she had done time and time again, but what would they do when the hero realized they’d truly left her behind?

The villain left her alone in the chamber's silence.

The moon gave way to the scorching sun as the hero remained. Brilliant rays bit back the darkness and warmed her cold, stiff limbs. But as the day wore on, the chains grew hotter.

“Free me.” The hero’s voice rang in her ears like a murder of angry crows.

The villain appeared in front of her, delighted at the visage of the squirming, sweaty hero. “And why would I free you?” Gorgeous eyes, so soft and pained, looked up at her. “Have they abandoned you?”

“No.” The hero shifted, her skin red beneath the metal sitting on the flesh of her shoulders. “If you free me, they’ll show you mercy.” A bark of laughter burst from the villain. “Show me mercy? Me? Oh no, my dear, have they really convinced you they could beat me?” Her figure trembled with restrained laughter. “Sweet, delicate flower, they couldn’t kill me even in their dreams.”

“They could!”

“Then why haven’t they? Why do they keep leaving you like a sacrificial lamb? Hm?”

“They don’t.” The hero bowed her head, unable to look at the sneering villain.

“I see your delusions remain intact.” A harsh sigh left her. “Very well. Call for me when you’ve realized they won’t come for you.”

The sun loomed above her, slowly crossing the sky as it continued to scorn her beneath its brutal gaze. When dusk arrived, the door to the chamber groaned open. A silent servant shambled into the room with a bowl and a bucket. Calloused fingers pinched the hero’s nose until she was forced to open her mouth. Watery, cold porridge was forced down her throat—the villain already knew she’d resist any food or water offered to her. The chains were loosened enough to slide the bucket beneath the hero before the servant disappeared, offering her the illusion of privacy. Several minutes passed before they returned to fetch the bucket and tighten the chains. The hero had shifted onto her rear, allowing her to stretch her leg as much as her bindings would allow.

The heat of the day gave way to the prickling chill of night. Metal cooled, offering a reprieve from the angry throbbing along her shoulders. Relief turned into shivering. Alone, in the darkness of the chamber, she rocked from side to side, trying to do anything to keep herself warm. Fog swirled from her lips as she tried to blow warm air on her stiff, aching fingers. She remembered her team’s captain, how he’d gently cradled the hands of his lieutenant when she’d complained of the cold. The hero yearned for the care offered to each member of her team, and yet, she always found herself pulling her coat tighter, fighting the frigid night on her own.

Soft, clicking footsteps echoed around her. “How’s my darling hero?” Her words were sweet and soft, but they cracked against her nerves like a barbed whip.

“Cold.”

“I can see that.” Behind her, the hero felt her enemy close in. Warm, delicate hands brushed through her unkempt hair, sliding down to gently rub the tension along her stiff jaw. “You could come with me. There will be a warm bath waiting for you and you can sleep wherever you’d like. I even have your favorite blanket in my guest room.”

The aching fibers of her jaw relaxed beneath the villain’s painfully familiar touch. She closed her eyes, imagining the soft fur against her. The first time she had been left behind, she’d been offered a room instead of a dungeon. The villain, cruel and wicked, had offered her every luxury she possessed. The hero still didn’t understand why. “What do you want in return?”

“The same thing I always want—for you to be honest with yourself and me. They don’t care about you. They never have and never will. You’re expendable. Something to be left behind when you’re an inconvenience. Look at you.” The villain’s touch disappeared as she moved in front of the hero. “Caught in a trap they could have saved you from, but why would they sacrifice themselves for you? Hm?”

“They know you won’t hurt me,” the hero said. “You’ve let me go every time.��

“And what if I didn’t this time?” The villain crouched down, her features etched skillfully with neutrality. “Do you think they’d try to set you free?”

Uncomfortable silence fell over them. An entire day had passed since her team had disappeared. “They would come for me…”

“And how long do you think they’ll wait?”

The longest the villain had kept her for was three weeks before the hero had miraculously escaped. There had been no news of her team during her time with the villain, but when she’d returned, they’d said they’d searched for her. They wouldn’t lie to her. “I don’t know,” she said, though the words scraped against her heart with an iron claw.

The villain regarded her for a long moment before standing. “I will come when you call for me, even when they won’t.” She stepped into the shadows, letting them consume her.

Left only with the ache in her chest and the weight of the chains bearing down on her, the hero let the first of her silent tears fall.

When the darkness lifted, the servant came again—their treatment as harsh and swift as before.

The cycle continued for days. The hero’s skin, abused by the sun’s torment and the scorching metal, had blistered, and begun to ooze creamy puss. Discomfort had long since turned to incessant pain. Night and day offered her no reprieve from the isolation of the chamber. The villain had stopped visiting her, though the hero suspected she watched from the shadows. The phantom presence of her enemy offered the smallest comforts as she recalled the time spent with her team. They were always doting and caring when in need of her talents, but when there was nothing for her to do, they left her out of their conversations. At times, they were even annoyed when she spoke up. They’d never listened to her suggestions. She was an instrument for them to wield and discard until they needed her again. And now they’d left her behind. But they hadn’t just abandoned her. They’d left her helpless to the whims of their enemy—to suffer at the villain’s hand until she was released again. She was convenient to them. Something to swoop up when the villain was done with her and use again to their advantage. Had they ever truly needed her? Did they even like her? Did she mean anything to them?

Nine days passed before the weight of the chains and her team’s betrayal became too much.

The villain’s name had hardly left her tongue when she appeared from the shadows, as radiant as the sun and just as oppressively beautiful. “Why have you summoned me, little lamb?” There was no kindness in her smile, nor was there cruelty.

“Everything hurts.” The hero looked up, her eyes hollow and dark from lack of sleep. The villain said nothing. She bowed her head, the movement pulling painfully at her blistered skin. “Let me go,” she whispered.

“You know my price.”

The hero’s shoulders trembled, too tired to show any restraint. “I thought they’d come by now.”

“Disappointing, isn’t it?” There was no empathy in the villain’s words, only thinly veiled disdain.

“They should have come.” The hero’s lips trembled as she stared at the ground. “I would have come for them.” “You wouldn’t have left them behind.”

“I don’t understand” Her voice tightened, dancing on the edge of tears. “They said they would come back. Every time I disappeared, they said they did but I was gone. Why haven’t they come back yet?”

The villain lowered onto her knees, taking her sweaty head within her gentle grasp, coaxing her gaze up. “Because they do not see your value, sweet flower. They don’t see how hard you work or how much you care. All that matters to them is what they have to gain. You’re of no use to them when they have to save you.”

“I could do better,” the hero whispered. “I could train. Be more careful. They wouldn’t have to save me.”

A gentle thumb wiped away the hero’s tear, smudging the grime on her delicate features. “You know it would never be enough. They don’t see you as one of them.”

“They used to.” The hero’s hands clenched, her nails slicing open the tender flesh of her palms. “They used to care about me.”

“You don’t need them to care about you,” the villain said, her voice cool and calm. “Not when you have me.”

“You left me here to freeze and burn.” The hero yanked her head back with all the feeble strength she could muster.

“For good reason.” Gentle hands fell away and waved over the chains. The villain murmured and the heavy bindings fell away. “You needed to see the truth.” The hero slumped forward into the villain’s arms. “I just wanted to be good enough for them.”

“The problem was never your worth, lamb.” In one smooth motion, the villain swept the hero’s weakened body into her embrace, taking her away from the chamber.

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