“Rise and shine ladies!!”

My eyes snapped open upon hearing that voice, automatically knowing it was the voice of our guards. I quickly rose from my cot and tried my best to rub the sleep from my eyes. I glanced over at Blake’s cot and noticed that he was up as well, the swelling in his face had gone down dramatically.

“You.” one of the guards had pointed their stick at me. “You’re coming with us.”

Immediately my eyes darted over to Blake, and he remained emotionless, he simply gave me a little nod. As soon as I felt the two guards grab me, I began to panic. I was roughly tugged out of my cot and cell, and was practically dragged to wherever they were taking me. I tried to keep up with them, but it was as if my body was still half asleep and wasn’t quick enough to obey the instructions my brain was sending out. I tried struggling against them, but that only resulted in them wrenching my arms behind my back, shoving me forward.

“Is the pushing and shoving necessary?” I seethed out.

Before I knew it, I felt something slam into the back of my knees, causing my legs to buckle out from under me. Immediately I collapsed to the ground, crying out when I felt a throbbing pain course through both of my legs. I felt my head being pulled back, the guard pulling my head up towards him by tugging on my hair.

“You are no one to question our authorities, got it?”

When I didn’t give an answer, the other guard had walked in front of me and slapped me across the face with the butt of his rifle. “I asked you a question, and you better damn well answer me!”

“YES!” I screamed out, spitting out a pool of blood.

The guard that was holding me up by my hair smirked, seemingly satisfied that I was in agony and pain. I didn’t think I could get up, but those two guards surely thought I could, for they hauled me up and placed me right back on my feet. The lower half of my body was screaming and protesting in pain, weak and listless, ready to give out yet again, but I was forced to continue walking. Each step was painful, it felt as if I was walking on broken legs, and it probably was broken, but I kept it all in. I could feel my cheek swelling, could feel the blood oozing out of the broken skin and could taste it on my cracked lips.

We finally reached our destination, or what looked to be another interrogation room. They opened the door and tossed me in as if I was nothing but a rag doll. I grunted when I felt my body make contact with the hard floor, but did nothing to push myself up. I simply wanted to lay there and die, hopefully bleed to death from the wounds in my face or simply from the pain that were wracking numerous parts of my body.

A bright light blasted into the room from up above, causing me to immediately close my eyes and shy away from it’s intensity. I was picked up yet again from the ground and was shoved into a chair, my arms being twisted behind me and binded together while my legs were shackled to the chair. I let my head loll down, my chin resting on my chest. I could feel a my saliva, which was tainted with my blood, dribble down the corner of my mouth, and there was nothing I could do to get rid of it.

I heard the door open again, but didn’t raise my head to see who had walked in. Before me stood the two guards, but another man, who was a tall, slim man who looked to be in his late 30’s, decked out in a formal suit had joined them. He had a suitcase in hand and almost looked to be a business man or a lawyer, almost.

“Do you know who I am Mr. Carter?” he asked me.

I slowly lifted my head to look at him, but didn’t respond. The guard who had lectured me earlier was back in my face, grabbing me by my hair again and yanking my head up. “He asked you a fucking question!”

“Dean, let him go.” the other man warned.

So, the asshole’s name was Dean? I didn’t let my head loll back down, instead, I tried to keep it upright while I stared at the man in front of me through squinted eyes. The man slowly walked up to me, his dress shoes clanking rather hardly against the shiny tiled floor. He knelt down a bit so that he was eye leveled with me.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked again in a gentle voice.

If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought this man to be my savior, the one to save me and take me out of this god forsaken place, he seemed professional and gentle and looked as if… he really wanted to help me, as if he knew I was innocent.

“No.” I finally replied.

“Well Mr. Carter, I’m the warden of this here prison.”

Everything, from the color in my face to the thoughts in my mind, drained from me. My eyes were wide, my mouth falling agape; I couldn’t believe that for a moment I actually thought that this guy would help me.

He tilted his head to the side a bit and smirked, “What’s with the sudden change of expression? You didn’t think…” he paused for a moment, his smile growing bigger as if a light bulb had just went off in his head. “you don’t think I came here to set you free, did you?”

I didn’t reply, I honeslty couldn’t. The man rose to his feet again and walked away from me, walking towards a table that was a few feet away. “Yes Nickolas,” he began, placing his suitcase on the table, “I am the warden of this prison, hard to believe, I know… everyone here addresses me as Warden Samuel, but…” he paused, taking time to open his suitcase. “you can just call me Sam.”

He turned back towards me and my eyes had glazed over at his open suitcase. My eyes widen and my heart started poudning heavily within my chest when I saw instruments of torture laying in his suitcase. I glanced up at him and watched as he slowly walked towards me, slipping his hands into latex gloves.

“Wha… what are you doing?” I choked out, my body suddenly waking up and becoming fully aware of everything that was happening.

“Nickolas, I’m about to ask you a question… and I want the truth.” he said to me calmly as he turned back to his suitcase. “This doesn’t have to get messy, but I’m warning you it will if you don’t cooperate with us.”

“You guys are fucking crazy!” I screamed out, trying my best to get away from them, but not succeeding. I felt the cuffs beginning to tear into the flesh of my wrist, but I didn’t stop struggling.

I watched him as he pulled out what seemed to be a small razor, and he had turned back to face me. “What exactly has Blake told you?”

I was quivering now, remembering what Blake had told me last night, but not actually sure if I could do what he said. This guy was standing before me with a fucking razor in his hand, about to cut me up with it, that I’m sure. “He… he…”

“C’mon Nickolas, this isn’t a hard question.” He was slowly approaching me now.

It was suddenly getting harder to breathe, and I felt the pain of the razor ripping my flesh already. I wanted to pass out right then and there so I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this, but I remained sitting there, staring at Sam with wide eyes, my chest heaving.

“He didn’t tell me anything.” I finally answered.

“Wrong answer.” was all that he said before he made his way to my left arm and had brought the razor down to my skin.

He pulled the razor over my flesh, tearing it open slightly, causing me to scream out at the top of my lungs. This was the first slice he made, and I knew there was more to come, I just don’t think I’d be able to last.

“What did Blake tell you?” he asked again, his voice a little louder this time.”

“He didn’t tell me shit!” I screamed out as I felt him slice an opening on another part of my left arm.

For the next five minutes, it was an endless circle of him asking me what Blake had told me, me telling him that nothing was said, and him slicing small wounds into my arms. He finally backed away, leaving me crying out in pain. I glanced down at my arms, noticing that it was a bloody mess, I could no longer see my colored skin because it was drenched with my red blood. The cool air was hitting it, and the stinging and throbbing sensation seemed endless. Slowly, my arms began to grow numb to the pain that was coursing through me.

“I warned you that this could get messy if you didn’t cooperate with us Mr. Carter.” Sam told me as he took off his gloves, that were covered in my blood.

“I am fucking cooperating with you!” I spat back, my tears seemed like it didn’t want to stop flowing. “I’m tell you right now, he didn’t fucking tell me shit!”

“There’s really no need for the language.” he stated matter-of-factly. “And besides, you can sit here and tell us that Blake didn’t tell you anything till you’re blue in the face, it’ll only result in more suffering and maybe your untimely demise. Maybe you know this, but Blake has already been through what you’re going through, and believe me it took a lot to get out of him what we wanted to know, but he finally gave in and told us.” My eyes widen a bit upon hearing that. “And to think, he went through all that pain and suffering for nothing… if he would’ve simply told us what we wanted to know in the first place, none of this would’ve happened.”

There was no possible way Blake told them, no way in hell. He was the one telling me not to say anything, not to give in to them, no matter what they did to me. That’s when I realized that they were bluffing; telling me something false so they could get me to confess. “Yeah?” I scoffed out. “Well, just because he talked to you… doesn’t mean he talked to me.”

“Nickolas…” he chuckled, “we can go on and on and on about this if we wanted to, I mean really… we have all day… but don’t you think you’d be saving yourself the pain if you just told us? Blake has already told us that he has told you something… so give it up.”

“Well, seeing as how I don’t know shit, that would make Blake a liar, wouldn’t it?” I answered cockily. “Besides, if he told you guys what you wanted to know… why the hell are you asking me?”

Sam’s gentle face curved into a sinister one when he realized that I caught them in their bluff. He walked back to his suitcase and began rummaging through it. I couldn’t tell what he was looking for, and at that exact moment I didn’t really care. My body was so sore, that I became oblivious to the pain already.

“Okay Nickolas.” I heard Sam say as he kept his back facing me. He had something in his hands, and he was tapping it a bit, and when I saw the liquid squirt above his head, that’s when I realized what it was. “Have it your way.” he turned around to face me, syringe in hand.

I don’t know what it was, all I knew was that I didn’t want him to get anywhere near me with it. I began struggling again, causing my wounds to stretch open a little further and more blood to spurt out. I ignored the pain I was in and continued to try and get away from him. Dean had walked up behind me and had grabbed my head, tilting it painfully to the side, exposing my neck.

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!” I screamed out, spitting all the while.

Dean suddenly moved into a chokehold, keeping my head tilted to the side, cutting off my air supply. I felt myself choking, and I could no longer get words out or a breath in. Sam finally reached me and had jabbed the needle into my neck, painfully pushing the liquid in. I cried out, feeling a burning sensation course through me, but the sensation dulled quickly. He ripped the needle out of my neck harshly, and Dean had released me from the chokehold. I looked around the room, everything seemed to be slowing down and… spinning.

Sam knelt down in front of me again, and he was nothing but a blurry image in front of me. “Now Nick…” he started, and his voice for some reason echoed. “I’m gonna ask you this again, and this time you will answer me with the truth and nothing but the truth.” when I didn’t say anything in reply, he continued on. “You and Blake were in the cell, were you not?”

Without thinking twice, I answered him. “Yes.”

He smirked, “You and Blake had a discussion yesterday, did you not?”

“Yes.” I answered yet again, in a monotone voice. I don’t know why, but the answers came so quickly and freely, and I found myself not so defiant. I felt weak, but at the same time I didn’t.

“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.” he said with a big smile. “Now, what did Blake tell you?”

Through my cloudy mind, I could hear what the question was, and the answer was right there for me say. “Blake told me…” I stopped mid-sentence. The answer was right there for me to say… I just realized that I was about to tell him what he what he wanted to know, and there was no way I could do that. “Blake told me that… life is never fair.”

I heard him sigh heavily, “Let me ask you this… has Blake… told you anything… about the prison?”

Right there and again, I found myself ready and willing to answer his question truthfully. “Yes.” It just came out, there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“What has he told you?”

I had to fix this somehow, I couldn’t possibly tell him the truth. I had to literally bite my tongue to keep myself from spilling everything out and had to buy myself some time to think of something. “He… he told me that I was just like every other prisoner and that there was no way I’d be set free.”

“Was there anything else he told you?”

“He asked me if I was paying you guys off to set me free. I told him no and he said that I’d be stuck in this prison just like the rest of them.”

“Was that all he said?”

“Yes.”

He just stared at me for the longest while I stared back. My vision was slowly but surely becoming normal once again, but everything was still spinning and I could still hearing the echoing.

“Dean and Harry.” he said as he rose up. “Get him out of here.”

I sighed heavily, hoping that the interrogation was over. I felt them release my hands and legs from the shackles that bounded them and they carelessly hauled me up from the chair. They dragged me out of the room and instead of bringing me back to my cell, they brought me over the showers instead. They shoved me into the stall and I simply stumbled forward and landed on the ground.

“Strip.” was all that Dean said.

By now, my vision had came back to me and the echoing had ceased. Whatever they had injected me with was quickly leaving my body, returning me to be on my guard and ready to fight. “Fuck that.” I spat out.

Briskly, they both walked up to me, Harry pinning me down to the shower ground while Dean bent down in front of me, smiling all the while. “You know what the problem with you is?” he asked me as he grasped my left arm and yanked it up roughly towards him. “You’ve got a fucking cocky ass mouth on you and you just don’t know when to shut the hell up. But…” he fingers began to trace over the slices that decorated my arm. “maybe this will get you to think twice before you open that fucking mouth of yours.”

I released a blood curling scream as he began to pry each and every small slice I had on my arm open. Tears ran carelessly down my face while my screams dulled out to nothing but hoarse whimpering. I felt my blood spew from the reopened wounds and it felt as if he made the slices deeper than they really were. Once he was complete, they both brought me back up onto my feet and had forced me to stand there in the middle of the shower. I stood on wobbly legs, feeling like I was going to pass out from the immense pain coursing through my body, but they weren’t through with their torturing.

Instead of taking a normal shower, they shot me down with a pressure washer. I was blown back by the force and ended up crying out in pain when I felt the water blast into my reopened cuts. I felt my back hit the shower wall and I simply collapsed to the ground, cowering over to the corner. They counted to wash me down, and every now and again my head was blasted back into the tiled wall due to the force of the water. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally cut the water off and before I knew it I blacked out.