The Tyrant's Pet

"Come back to me, my love."

Aries's brows creased while her smile lines faded. "What do you mean?" she whispered, staring deep into the eyes hovering over her.

"This... isn't real, darling," came out a low and airy voice. "Everything... this bed, this dress, this tent, everything darling... isn't real."

"It's real," she argued weakly, cupping his jaw and feeling his faint warmth. "You are. I can feel you."

A shallow breath slipped past his lips. "But I can't." Abel brushed her jaw with his fingertips, eyes scrutinizing each of her features.

"I can't feel your warmth, your body, or your touches... and it's killing me." He grazed her lips with his thumb. "It's fine with me if I can — I would stay here with you to keep you all for myself. But I hate the time and the notion of its limitations because it never applied to me."

"What... what do you mean by that?"

"Darling, you can't die here." His eyes fell soft as his hand crawled to hers that was cupping his jaw. "Because if you do, I can't bring you back to live with me for eternity. Forever is my plan."

"I'm not... dying, Abel," Aries laughed weakly and awkwardly. She couldn't understand him. But somehow... her heart does. A part of her believed what he was saying was true, but Aries was stubborn. She simply didn't want to believe it.

"You're scaring me, Abel," she confessed under her breath. "Stop talking like this. We will not part. I won't leave you."

There was a moment of silence between them, eyes fixed on each other. In the end, Abel simply nodded and adjusted his position until he was lying beside her. As if on cue, Aries squeezed herself to him with her head on his shoulder, arm over his torso, hand on his tatted back.

He gazed down as her embrace was tighter than usual. "I'm not going anywhere, darling. Unless you chase me out."

"That will not happen," came out a muffled reply, burying her face in his inked chest. "You stay."

"And if your husband comes?"

"I don't care." Her eyelids drooped until they were partially closed, pulling his firm body against her. "Don't leave."

Abel massaged her head, his fingers through her hair. "Still scared?" he asked. It took a full minute before she nodded, pulling him once more as if the nonexistent gap between their bodies was still too wide for her.

"I'm here now," he said under his breath. "No one will hurt you. Even I am not allowed to lay a finger on you."

"I'm still scared," she whispered, muscles trembling at the thought of that winter. "It's cold... it reminds me of that winter."

Silence once again fell on them as Abel casually rubbed her back to ease her fear.

"It was one cold winter night when Javier and Inez wanted to hunt and chose me as their prey," she explained after a moment of silence. "I know it's pathetic to even run, knowing I will only make a fool out of myself. But I still did."

She paused as she recounted the events she had almost forgotten among the many horrific things she went through.

"That's where I met her," she continued, gripping his back tightly. "I'm scared of her, Abel."

Abel remained silent, listening, patting her back gently.

"I was damned," she added under her breath. "I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"Mhm."

Aries mustered her courage and raised her head to look at him. Much to her dismay, he didn't have any strong reaction to it.

"You don't believe me?" she asked with a shaking voice.

"I do."

"Your tone tells me otherwise."

She heard his quiet sigh. "Because I don't care if you are damned, darling."

"You're not scared?"

"And why would I fear you?" he asked as he lowered his head, poking the point of her nose. "Just because you can kill me?"

Aries frowned, not knowing where this conversation would head once again. Yet, there was this part of her who understood it perfectly. Strange how she could and could not understand them at the same time.

"I'm a monster," she repeated, stressing it as if she was convinced he didn't believe her the first and second time.

"Mhm." He smiled subtly, leaning forward until his forehead was against hers.

"I'm not beautiful."

"You are."

Aries pushed his chest lightly to create distance between them. "You don't understand."

"I do, darling," came out a low voice. "You are a monster… a beautiful one."

Abel tucked a portion of her hair behind her ear affectionately. "Even if your skin was wrinkly and your nose was pointy; even if your hair isn't as silky or your complexion isn't as fair… your eyes will always be the same, darling." His lips curled up as he cupped her jaw.

"Rest for now," he added.

Aries pursed her lips and smiled in reassurance, nodding before melting into his embrace. There was just something in his faint warmth and the sound of his voice and the look in his eyes that soothed her. Her arms around him tightened, feeling his body to make sure he was there with her.

But for reasons unknown, she raised her hand from his back and caught some anomaly from the corner of her eyes. When she moved her gaze to take a look at it, her eyes dilated seeing long, dirty, and thick nails; her skin was wrinkly as if they were a hand of an elderly. That second, her breath hitched as realization dawned on her. But before she could talk, Abel spoke.

"Darling," he called, lowering his head on her frizzy crimped hair. "When you wake up from here, you won't remember it."

"Huh?" Aries raised her brows while he drew away from her slightly.

In his eyes, she was just as beautiful even though her nose was long and pointy, wrinkles and warts across her face, and her teeth were yellowish with brown plague. His affection for her remained the same.

"That is why, darling, don't call yourself a monster, nor think you aren't beautiful." His lips stretched wider, leaning forward, and whispered into her mouth. "In my eyes, heart, and soul, no matter what form you appear even in a form of a potato, I will... love you the same."