A HEART AS DARK AS MINE caos caliban x oc

sunsets of hellfire and revenge (edited)

A LONG WHILE AGO, I ADORED THE SUNSET. Now I can hardly look at it without those memories flooding back to me. The sky burns in hues of ambers and crimson. Only the last time I watched the sky burn, it hadn't been with beautiful, magical colour. No. It'd burnt with ash and flame and screams.

Revenge. The sky had burnt with revenge. The blinding blue of hellfire and revenge.

I remember that day as though it were yesterday. How could I forget? It was the first time I had ever taken a life. And it had been... the bloodshed- it was more a massacre than a murder.

I had destroyed a city in my rage. A city home to millions.

It had been made of crystal. Everything there. Everything sparkling and gleaming and pure- pure. A horrible façade of innocence and beauty, a feeble attempt to hide the ugly, painful smear on their hearts. Perhaps they were worse than demons. At least the wicked did not pretend to be something that they weren't.

A quiet noise comes from the back of the room, sending me spinning on my heel and forgetting that pain before it can haunt me any longer.

I have a knife to his throat before I can even register who is behind me.

"Sera," He drawls my name with such a strange surprise, as though he has not knowingly wandered into my quarters. "A knife, really?" He arches a brow, that irritating smug surprise dancing at his face, "Are you flirting with me?"

I give him a quick once over. "Caliban," I say with a frown. "What're you doing here?"

My eyes are rimmed with red. I am thankful for the veil of darkness in my candleless room, I am grateful for the way it blurs my face, conceals my bloodshot eyes.

He pauses, and I can tell that he is assessing how best to answer my question. He settles on an answer. "Your father," He tells me, eyes still on the blade that I am yet to drop. "Do you really think it is wise to keep him here? Surrounded by people who would follow him blindly?"

"Any of them who still show loyalty to him will suffer the same fate as he." I snap back with a scowl.

Caliban smirks, "And you truly think that his court, these demons who worship him- who would willingly die for him, will heed your threats?"

"And what is it you want me to do?" I hiss with arched brows.

Caliban backs away smirking, his hands raised in silent surrender. "You can't scare them with death." He tells me, "You can't scare your father, you can't scare me with death. We are death, Sera. Don't kill him, make an example of him. Show them that even if they don't fear death or pain, you'll still find a way to make them hurt. And that will make them afraid."

I ponder his words for a moment. I am not foolish enough to accept his help, to put that trust in him. It is each for his own here, this is a brutal place of selfishness and manipulation. Of using an betraying. I'd be a fool to tell myself that this was any different, that he was any different. That there wasn't some ulterior motive.

"I don't need your help on how I take my revenge." I hiss.

He chuckles, dry, humourless, cold as the bleak night enveloping us. "You don't trust me,"

"Why should I? After everything?"

"You shouldn't." He says, "You shouldn't, Sera."

"I know," I tell him. "But I want to. I wish I could. I wish I could let myself trust you."

But we both know the words that I do not speak. I wish I could let myself love you.

"But we can't have anything without trust, Caliban. Not even whatever we have now."

"I know." He says, "But that's not what I want, Sera. I don't care about trust or rules or power. I want you."

I shake my head, forcing myself to tear my gaze back to the burning sky. "I can't do this, Caliban." I breathe, "You trapped me, you betrayed me, you destroyed my home, you are the reason we can't have this." I grind out every word, so full of raw emotion and anger, at him, at myself.

"I know," He says, drawing closer, "Let me make this right, let me fix it."

I shake my head again, blinking back tears. "You want me, Caliban, but you don't want me enough to be loyal to me. To love me more than you love power."

He begins to talk, but I cut him off.

"It's okay, don't deny it. I'm the same. We're both too selfish for..." for love. But I don't dare to even say the word.

I'm trembling, and he reaches over and touches me like a prayer for which no words exist. His touch takes my pain, my thoughts, my memories, and for a fleeting moment nothing else matters.

"Please," he whispers, lips hovering a hairs-width from mine. I can taste the quiet longing in his words. "Please, Sera."

I shake my head, not allowing myself that bliss, that blinding, desperate wanting for him, for his touch, for his embrace. "If you kiss me now, I'll never walk away."

"Is that such a bad thing?" He breathes.

I nod, eyes glassy in the darkness, "If I open my heart to you, it'll be yours to break again. Yours to do with as you will. Yours to leave chained underground, yours to betray, Caliban."

His hand, cupping my jaw, snakes to my chin, tilting it upwards, his thumb brushing my lower lip.

"Your heart is mine whether you leave now or not. Just as mine is yours."

This is a stupid idea.

I kiss him anyway.