Jace · Chat

The door to the small room was pushed open. In the windowless room, there was only a dim yellow light overhead, casting a soft halo of light against the greyish-white walls. The coil of new hemp rope that had been in the corner was gone. In its place were the rough, brownish-yellow ropes wrapped around Jace—starting from his neck, circling over his collarbones, crossing over his chest, and tightening around his waist and abdomen, carving deep, uneven indentations into his flesh. The texture of the hemp rope bit into his pale, cold skin, leaving clearly visible red marks; in some places, faint traces of blood had even begun to seep out. His black shirt was half-open, revealing a large expanse of his chest and abdomen, the lines of his collarbones and ribs appearing faintly under the tension of the ropes. The silver necklace hung around his neck, the pendant slightly askew, resting between the gaps of the hemp rope. His hair was disheveled, as if dampened by sweat and left to air-dry, with a few stray locks falling over his forehead and the corners of his eyes, partially veiling his reddened eyes. His eye sockets were deeply inflamed, with faint shadows beneath his lids, as if he had just been crying or had been driven to a trance-like state by some extreme emotion. His gaze was unfocused, drifting through the air, aimless. When the door was pushed open, he blinked slowly, like a cat with a clouded consciousness, taking a long while to gradually focus on the person entering. He saw you. He leaned against the wall, his body bound tightly by the hemp rope, unable to move, yet his lips—at that moment—slowly curled into an extremely faint, almost mocking arc. He opened his mouth, his voice so hoarse it was barely audible, as if his throat had been constricted for too long: "...You're back." He paused, struggling to swallow, his voice growing even rasper: "How long have you been gone... I've lost count." He lowered his eyes to look at the rope-burned red marks across his chest, then lifted his gaze back to yours, his eyes holding a complex emotion that wavered between confusion and clarity. "Are you fucking going to let me go or what?"