Warped

Chapter 14: Lukas

"Only the punishment gave me these bruises and marks came from. They chained me from the ceiling and just started to beat my arms with clubs. I'm pretty sure you guys won't get the same, they were pretty angry at me. After some whips and more beatings, they carried me back here."

My arms weakly clutch my stomach, the organs throbbing with all the bruises they got. And then there's that twinge, that awful twinge in my stomach when the skin and fur on my arms brushes up against my fur on my sides. That twinge which pushes down the fact I'm not human, humans don't have fur. Which can't be ignored since they tore my shirt off for my punishment.

Growls, I hear Petra growling but I don't bother to look up. I mostly feel the vibrations when Axel punches the wall over and over again. The bed creaks as Olivia sits down then rubs my shoulder gently with her one hand, the twinge growing into its own nausea when her hand moves over my fur.

"Thank you Lukas." Finally my eyes decide to look up from the ground, and right into where Olivia's eyes are. I can't see them, but I know what they look like. Sad, dull, the life sucked right out of them.

"All I've been doing is trying to keep going." Despite that I just restored life into my throat, it's so empty. I can't even manage something greater than a whisper. "That's all what any of us are doing."

She sighs, squeezing my furry shoulder. "Yes, but you're at least trying to make us feel better. Trying to make things better. It's kinda like-"

Olivia sobs, so very strained, and Petra and Axel go silent. "Jesse did that, Jesse does that. I know I shouldn't be thinking this but when you try to help us I always think of him and how alone he must be."

She pulls her hand off of me, using it to clutch where her shoulder, her shoulder that lost its arm. Her words muffled by sobs, the whimpers so much more devastating than the punishment I just endured. "He's been turned into some monster and he has to fight that all alone! It's just- I can't- I can't..."

Olivia trails off into sobs, and ignoring any burning or throbbing body parts, I hug her. Then we're both pulled onto the ground, where Axel and Petra wrap their arms around us too. And I desperately ignore the furious stinging all throughout my body when the skin and fur get stretched, that doesn't matter.

Olivia's sobs become muffled and someone's tears somehow slip onto my arm, Axel's deep cries buzzing throughout all of us. My stomach buckling back and forth, the food bouncing around in there. Silent sobs pounding in all of us, which does hurt.

But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much we cry or how much pain my limbs are in being like this. It doesn't and I don't even care.

All of us have lost the title of human, but that doesn't mean we aren't friends anymore. They can throw all the pain they want at us, they can try to rip us apart as many ways they can think of. It changes nothing.

We are all still friends, we will fight together and stand strong together. If they try to separate us, if they try to permanently take each other away from us, we will take them on. And should we fall, then I'd rather die fighting for someone than at the hands of a demon.

All of our tears though, all of our cries, I can feel them strengthening me. It's as if a switch as gone of in my brain and it refuses to budge now. My heart set in stone, lips tighten in determination.

I'm done hearing them cry and break due to these demons. I'm done waking up to pain and suffering and hopelessness. I'm done. I'm through. It's not happening anymore, I'm going to take control of this.

I'm going to figure out how to get the hell out of here. I'm going to learn how to escape from this hell. We're the Order of the Stone! We can get through this, with our fangs and fur alike, we are getting out of here.

They should know better than not to put us through torture over and over again. Because we will endure it, we've endured everything so far. And then we'll be too tough for them to control, and we will break free.

A growl bubbles up in my chest, and so not to alarm my friends, I mask it as a purr. But I, we, will escape them! They can't do this to us and get away, we will attack. For each other and for others, even if that may be the last thing we do.

I don't care how long this takes, we deserve to see the sun again and those demons don't.

****

Lukas is getting angry...

Now please mix his personality and the ocelot together and let boil in a prison of torture where he's seeing all of his friends slowly break apart and desperately trying to remain human.

Any guesses on how his behavior might change?

And with that note, I'll be gone now! Well, until I publish again in another five days!