The door groaned shut, the heavy click of the deadbolt echoing like a gunshot in the cramped, suffocating room. Sebastian was gone, leaving only the fading scent of smoke and the lingering pressure of his thumb on Jacob's lip.
Jacob sat in the dark, the ropes fraying his skin, but his mind was racing. He had felt it—that flicker of something human beneath Sebastian's jagged exterior. It wasn't just madness; it was a profound, aching loneliness. Sebastian was a man who had built his entire identity on being "better" than Alexander, only to be stripped down to a ghost.
If I can't break the ropes, I have to break the man, Jacob thought.
Twenty minutes later, the bolt slid back. Sebastian walked in, his eyes darting toward the window as the sound of a distant siren wailed through the night. He looked more frayed than before, his hands trembling slightly as he reached for another cigarette.
