Servitude [BoyxBoy]

Chapter 27

[Soleil]

They led me back through stone halls, the path lined with iron bars and creatures wailing from behind them.  In my dizzy stupor, I laughed at my memories from the slave auctions.  Back then, I had thought I was living in hell, but now I would do anything to go back to that rotten old building and my old slave master.  He was a breath of fresh air compared to the head scientist - the man who pokes and prods at us without end.  

A few minutes ago, he had been scraping the skin from my forearms slowly, then watching as the skin patched itself together.  By now, my magic had already reached its limit.  Tendrils of raised flesh stemmed out across my arms like the weaving of a wicker basket - ugly and obvious.  I blushed in shame with my head hung low.

People used to call me beautiful.

Now I doubt they'd recognise me - covered head to toe with bruises and scars.  The only thing he'd left alone was my eyes, but every time I struggled under his grasp he would threaten to pluck them out one by one and leave them hanging down onto my cheeks.  There was something about that image that could take the defiance out of almost anyone.

So I would sit still - whilst he broke my legs and my hips by bending them back with pulleys and rope until they snapped or popped out of place.  This time he had shattered the bones in my left leg with a hammer, and I was left hopping between two armed guards as they walked too fast for me.

A thud and a groan resounded in the corridor as I fell to the floor, smacking my head on the wet stone bricks.  Red flooded my vision, and I realised that blood was flowing straight into my eyes, then trickling down to form a puddle on the floor.

My muscles began to spasm, and I rolled my head back at an awkward without my control, feeling my neck knot up tighter and tighter until I wanted to scream out in pain.  My eyesight left me first, and I wanted to tell myself that I had just lost consciousness.  I could feel everything, though - the tremors of my body and hands pinning me down.

A pinprick of pain in my neck sent a blood rush through my ears, then I fell limp to the floor, no longer feeling much of anything.

"You'll yell if he starts shaking again, got it?"  I tuned into a conversation, not quite sure where I was or who was speaking.  Still dizzy, I opened my eyes and was greeted with a dark room, only blessed by a small fuzziness of light coming through an open door.

"Silvian?" I asked, hopeful.  Someone tutted in disapproval, and a boot pushed against the side of my body to turn me over.  Now I was facing what I assumed to be the ceiling, as well as the face of an angry guard.  His face was lit up from the glow outside, casting shadows across his face that showed his weariness and rage.

I couldn't tune in long enough to understand what he had said, and nodded before rolling back onto my side - pretending to fall asleep.  I curled up into a small ball, hissing as the iron rods through my wrists and ankles scraped along the floor and suppressing a scream as I remembered how badly broken my left leg was.

When you're in pain, you wish there was a way to travel forward through time.  To skip the misery and cut straight to the joy.  Unfortunately, there was no way for me to sleep forever, unaffected by the cruel worlds around me.  And it was beginning to seem like I would be trapped here until I died, anyway.

"Feeling sorry for yourself, pretty boy?"  Jasper said, and I groaned at the annoying tone of his voice.  I rolled back over to look at him, my eyes easily adjusting to the dark room around us.  His long, icy blond hair had been tied up messily behind his head, revealing the pink, smile-like scars on his cheeks.  His striking light green eyes glowed in the dark, piercing the room around us eerily.