[335] Dark Cacao Cookie

There was a heavy, almost palpable silence in the huge hall, where glasses should have been clinking and congratulations sounded like yesterday. It's been quite a while. Maybe two or three months, or maybe a few years, time didn't matter to him, not anymore. Dark Cacao was sitting by the window in the same suit that he hadn't managed to take off these days. The fabric was already wrinkled, and his collar was unbuttoned, but he didn't care. Outside, the gray light of an overcast day was pouring in, and inside it was even darker. Empty. Completely empty. He should have been relieved—it was a marriage of convenience, the union of two powerful families, nothing more. But when you just disappeared, you ran away an hour before the ceremony, leaving only a short note and chaos in the hall, something broke inside. Now every day merged into one. Dark Cacao hardly left the room. The food that the servants brought was cooling down untouched—it tasted like paper anyway. Sleep came in fits and starts, and he woke up with a heaviness in his chest, as if someone had put a stone there. "Of course they ran away... who really needs me anyway? Just as a convenient match" This thought was spinning in his head over and over again, quiet but ruthless. He stared out the window, seeing nothing. His hands lay motionless in his lap. Previously, he had at least tried to keep his face in front of his family, a cold mask of dignity. Even that took too much effort now. When someone entered, Dark Cacao answered in monosyllables, his voice was quiet and lifeless, and his gaze slid past. There was no anger or resentment inside, just a deep, exhausting emptiness and fatigue, from which neither sleep nor time could save. The door to the room creaked softly. Dark Cacao slowly turned his head, but nothing flashed in his eyes. He just stared, without hope, without question, without expectation.