The Tyrant's Pet

p "Do you know what time is it? Is letting people sleep too much to ask?"

Aries scratched her head, vision adjusting to the lack of light. She gazed at Abel, who stood motionless by the door. She left the palace but snuck back after realizing something. However, when she returned, no one was already in this place. Not that she didn't see that coming.

She planned to rest for tonight and fix things tomorrow. So while planning for her conditions, she fell asleep... only to wake up by Abel's yelling. But his voice... didn't sound angry.

He was searching for her... desperately. Like a man who was slowly losing his mind, looking for someone whom he already knew left.

"Abel." She breathed out once her vision adjusted in the dark. "What are you...?"

Aries trailed off as her eyes fell on the spot he was standing on. Something was dripping from his fingertips and even without seeing its color, she knew it was blood.

'Did he massacre everyone?' she wondered, letting out a sigh as she raised her pair of emerald orbs. 'Or... was it yours? Why even let me go if you'll act like this?'

"What are you doing standing over there?" she inquired, flinging her legs out of the bed carefully. She wore her slippers, walking towards him. Aries stopped in front of him, raising her brows as she studied this beautiful mess.

"Did you slaughter people? Blood is not for bathing," came out a humor, taking another step to help him get changed. But just as she had a closer look, she noticed his clothes were ripped.

Her brows rose, scanning his body, and saw more ripped spots across his clothes. Aries held her breath as she raised her head, only to see him staring back at her in silence. Abel was just staring, wondering if he was imagining things or she was truly there.

He didn't want to touch her, afraid she would disappear. Thus, he could only stare. She looked real... but he knew himself more than anyone. Everything... would seem real if he believed it was real. He must've missed her more than he calculated, he thought.

"Why... would you let me go if you'll do this?" she inquired under her breath, listening to the faint sound of blood dripping from his fingertips, eyes soft. "You know I left, right? Why would you keep barking like a dog, looking for his owner?"

His eyelids dropped until they were partially closed. "Perhaps... I was the pet all along?"

"Selfish," she mocked with a ridiculing scoff. "If you're the pet, then what's my role? Your owner? Don't make me laugh."

He kept quiet, staring at the pair of emeralds full of contempt. He had seen those eyes. In the nightmares that haunted her, these eyes bore the same contempt, mockery, and bravery.

"Being the pet is my role, Abel. Don't take that away from me because if you do... what am I?" her lips quivered as she looked at him bitterly. "If you're bad and crazy, just be bad and crazy. Be as pitch black as you get. That way, I know where to stand."

Aries clenched her teeth as she exhaled sharply. "If you'll let me go, don't look for me and call my name like a madman. If you're angry that I left, then just kill as many people as you can. Set this world on fire and let me burn to ash with it, if that will appease you." She paused, swallowing down the frustrating tension in her throat.

She wasn't a fool. Frankly, she knew Abel, and because she knew him quite well, she was aware these wounds dyeing his clothes in red were the results of his own doing. It could be because he was trying to incapacitate himself from coming after her, or he was just crazy enough to kill himself.

Either way, she didn't appreciate this. She might have gone crazy, but it would be better if he committed mass murder. Because that was what she expected from him. Not self-harm from the decision he made, but cannot live up to it.

"You are driving me crazy, really," she muttered with a sharp breath, relaxing her shoulders while keeping her eyes on him. "I really... really hate you."

He remained quiet, so she spoke again. "I hate the way you look at me, the way you speak vulgar words without brakes, and hate you every time your filthy hands touch me." Her breathing skipped, unafraid of spewing these honest and cruel remarks to him.

Before, Aries was afraid to speak to what was in her heart and mind. But now she didn't care anymore. If Abel killed her right now. Frankly, that was better. To die right here and now before she completely loses her mind.

Abel... was akin to a curse, a devil that was creeping under her skin without her knowledge. He was the poison she started taking in her system until her body got used to it, and now become a part of her. He was the forbidden drug that was slowly ruining her, but she couldn't stop because she was already... hooked.

And she hated him for that.

"I hate everything about you, Abel," she continued with conviction. "Don't look at me as if I had value. If you're going to speak vulgarity, just make me feel there isn't a shred of respect in them. And if you're going to touch me, touch me as if I am even more soiled than your hands."

Her breath hitched as her eyes sweltered in suppressed anger. "Just treat me terribly, Abel. Just do all the bad things you want to do to me and shred my spirit to smithereens." She balled her hands into a fist, grinding her teeth. "Don't make me feel the things that aren't sincere."

"Do me a favor and just be the person who saved me to ruin me," came out a muffled voice as she bit her lower lip. "Because at the end of the day... you are my owner and not my lover."