Translucent (Solangelo AU)

3. I'm Drowning

The grip on my arm tightened as the door swung open, letting in an influx of cold. It felt almost as if the introduction of new air was strong enough to tighten my throat, or, perhaps it was the fact that I now stood in front of a tall blonde woman who, for some reason, seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn't tell why. Her hair was cropped short, framing her flawless face and accentuating her sharp features. Looking at her now, I knew that once she started talking, all hope would be lost. She was the type of person who had power and made sure you knew that she could slit your throat with her fingernails if you upset her in any way. It wasn't difficult deciphering her position and title, her eyes said it all. It took everything in me to look away, to pry my eyes away before she could notice me watching and discover that I knew as well as she did how overpowered and pathetic I was. I could almost feel the smirk growing on her perfect, pink lips. She had won over and over and she would continue winning because how could anyone possibly measure up to such coercion.

"What now, Jaffer?" the woman looked at the guard with unsubtle disinterest, not even bothering to acknowledge Bianca or me. That, or she didn't recognize me yet. Maybe I would be able to get out of this in one piece after all, but I figured better than to get my hopes up. The Creators didn't seem like a very forgiving people.

The guard—Jaffer—cleared his throat as he attempted to control his breathing (why did they keep people like this on their personnel? it was almost laughable). "This girl and her brother wish to see you," he informed her, his voice strong and calculated as it had been earlier, as if he had finally regained his senses. "They say they are here to make an exchange, one that you will hopefully take a liking to." He stayed monotone, as he was probably trained to, and I instinctively straightened my back, eyes still trained on the ugly white floor. I wanted absolutely nothing more than to just leave right then; the walls were tightening and I could feel them threatening to suffocate me, as if it was a fun game they got off on. I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand it.

The oligarch blinked several times, still going through reasons in her head as to why we were disturbing her and what she could possibly get out of a poor family from the villages with close to nothing valuable to offer. "Please tell me there's something more to it and you're not just wasting my time, Jaffer, because I swear—"

"Of course," he amended, then apologized for interrupting her. He yanked me forward, deepening my grimace as I was placed in front of the blonde lady. "My liege, I bring to you none other than Nico di Angelo himself. It seems that he has surrendered himself to you, seeing the compromising position he's been put in." I wanted to gag at the sound of their formal conversation, but promptly decided against it seeing that it probably wouldn't settle well with my "lovely hosts".

"'Compromising' is an understatement, don't you think?" I muttered, running my tongue over the backs of my teeth, forcing my anger down. I couldn't let them get to me, not like this, not in front of Bianca. I had to be strong for her, at least until she got Elin back.

"Oh don't act as if you're ungrateful. We're doing you a favour, boy," she addressed me directly, everything about her screaming mischief and lies, oh the lies. Neither Bianca nor Jaffer seemed to notice the cold look in the woman's expression, and that's what scared me the most. Could they not see the ever-lingering menace that coated her like a second skin? Was that what the manipulations did to them? It made them blind?

They were doing this for me? I wanted so badly to say, to tell her off. You think that by manipulating and brainwashing me into following your sick and twisted ways, you're helping me? You think I asked to be like this? If you wanted to really do me a favour, you'd walk yourself off the edge of a bridge. But I couldn't say any of that, I couldn't explain how I really felt and how I was slowly withering away on the inside and I still couldn't fathom why. I couldn't confess my deepest darkest secrets because, well, sometimes people don't appreciate the truth. They would chain me up for sure if they knew what kind of breakthrough I was really going through. So, I did the complete opposite. "Right," I did all I could not to smirk (no one said I couldn't still be sarcastic), "my bad. Do forgive me, honestly, I don't know what I was thinking."