After what seemed like an hour of waiting, listening to the sounds of twisted souls, the sound of heels clicking once again echoed through the room. I brought my knees to my chest, trying to make myself invisible. I didn’t want to see that devil woman again.

“Mistress.” The word was hissed softly from the cell on my left.

“Hello Hyukkie. Everyone, I’ve brought you dinner!” She made her way around the room slowly, sliding bowls into each of the cells. “My own special recipe you all love so much.” She smiled as she set a bowl at the front of my cell. I didn’t move. “Well, come on then. Come and eat.” When I still didn’t move, she reached for the beam between mine and Leo’s cell. “I said, come eat.” There was a soft click followed by a burning, tingling sensation ripping through my body. My muscles locked up and I started convulsing on the ground. With another click, it all stopped and I panted on the ground where I lay. Next to me, Leo whimpered quietly. “Don’t make me say it again, Angel.” With shaky arms, I dragged myself over to the bowl, looking to see what she had deemed good enough for us. With another smile, she continued her way around, dropping off food before taking a seat in the chair in the center of the room.

The bowl didn’t hold much, but what it did hold was a murky, yellowish broth with chunks of what looked to be meat and carrots. It smelt repulsive and was cold. I crinkled my nose at it and went to push the bowl away when I caught her watching me again. With my hands shaking, I slowly lifted the bowl to my lips and sipped the broth, nearly retching at the awful taste. It was bitter, like rosemary oil and the meat tasted rancid. There was another flavor too, one that I couldn’t place. I forced a few more mouthfuls of the soup down before crawling back over to my mattress. It took me a while, but I began to realize that the room was quite besides the buzzing of the lights overhead and the clinking of the metal that the woman was playing with. I looked around at the cells I could see. Every single one of them was sitting down, staring at her with this look of adoration. Soon, they began whispering.

“Mistress.”

“Pretty Mistress.”

“Kind Mistress.”

“My Mistress.”

Their whispers filled the hall with a gentle, unnerving hissing sound. I let out a small whimper and shrank back against the wall. What was happening? As I watched, my vision began to go fuzzy and my ears stared to ring like I was going to pass out. My thoughts became clouded as I watched the woman stand and move towards the front of my cell. She shined through the fuzz around me, completely clear. “Are you feeling dizzy, Angel?” She asked softly. I nodded. “I’ll make it go away. Come here.” I crawled over to the glass weakly and she placed her hand on my cheek. Almost instantly, my vision clear and one word echoed through my head.

“M…Mistress.” I whispered to her. She smiled and pinched my cheek before yanking one of the rings from my arm. I cried out in pain, but still, that one word stayed in my head. “My Mistress.” Why was I saying that? I didn’t want to say that. This woman was hurting me, and yet I was thanking her.

No. She makes the pain go away. Love her. She helps you. I slapped my hands over my ears, trying to make the voice that was talking to me go away. You must love her. I gritted my teeth.

“No,” I whimpered.

“There. You’ll feel better soon, lovely.” With that, the woman clicked over to Leo’s side of the cell. “Leo dear. It’s your turn.” She opened the front of his cell, a door I couldn’t even see until she opened it. Leo looked up at her with glazed eyes and reach out with shaky hands to her. She smiled and with a press of a button, the cords released from the wall. Leo stood, taking her hand and following her to the chair in the center of the room. She sat him down and moved to the various tools and piercings on the table next to it. “What to do today, hm?” The piercings clinked on the metal tray as she ran her fingers through them, settling on a long metal rod. She ran the rod over Leo’s cheeks, smiling that sick smile the whole time as she traced it down to his left forearm. She pinched the skin and slowly drove the rod through it. I covered my mouth to suppress the scream I felt bubbling in my throat.

“Mistress..” He moaned. She smiled wider, reaching for the large loop piercing. She threaded it through his flesh, locking it in place.

“Beautiful, darling.” With that, she lay the bar back on the tray and led him back to our cell. She attached Leo back to the wall and with a grin, yanked one of the piercings out of his back. He let out a loud cry and fell to his knees. “Now, I’ll see you later.” She shut and locked Leo’s door and moved to leave. I caught the most sinister glance from her as she passed by, if only for a moment. “Good night, loves. I’ll see you tomorrow.” The boys all growled and slammed on their cells as she left the room.

Lovely Mistress.

“No!” I pulled at my hair. “Get out of my head!” I let out a scream as I curled up on the ground. I could feel eyes on me again and looked up to see Leo and Ravi staring at me. Ravi tilted his head as he looked at me, as if he were seeing me for the first time. Leo’s eyes were still clouded from whatever it was that the witch had put in our food. I shivered under Leo’s gaze and shifted my attention back to Ravi.

“Who are you?” He asked quietly. So he could talk then.

“I can’t remember,” I whimpered. “But she calls me Angel.” Ravi nodded, sitting back on the desk, perched like an animal. “Why does she do this, Ravi?” Ravi tilted his head.

“Do what?”

“She tortures us.” You like it. She loves you. I flinched and dropped my head into my hands.

“She loves us. And we love her. That’s why we are here. We love her.” Ravi’s words were endearing. The way he spoke of the witch was the way someone would speak of a lover. How could someone speak of someone so cruel in such a way?

“How? Why?” Ravi let out a demented laugh.

“You’ll understand. You will love her soon enough.” With that, he jumped off the desk and began pacing his cell, constantly muttering under his breath. Every now and then he would scream or slam into the walls of his cell.

“Angel…” Leo whispered. I flinched and my eyes snapped to the boy next to me. His eyes were beginning to clear. “Angel…”

“Wh-What is it Leo?” He crawled as close to me as the cords would let him. He sat back and gestured for me to come towards him. I hesitated before moving to him. There was about a foot and a half of space between us as I sat across from him. “What?”

“Do you not love her?” He cocked his head to his side. My eyes widened.

“How…How could I? She hurts me. She put a voice in my head! Leo. I want to go home.” I felt the tears start to run down my cheeks.

“But, you are home. This is home. Home is with our mistress.”

“NO! Home is with family!” Leo looked out of his cell and gestured around the room.

“This is our family. We are all we have. Each other and Mistress.” He looked back at me. “And now we have you. She’ll love you as much as she loves us. She’s already giving you chords!” He pointed at the cables running from my back. I shook my head.

“No. No no no!” I tugged at my hair again, crying quietly.

“You’ll see. Things will get better.”

“I don’t want to hear anymore.” Without warning, a wave of exhaustion washed over me. “I’m going to try and sleep now.” I crawled away from Leo and over to my ratty mattress, laying down and trying to get comfortable around the piercings. I let my eyes slip closed as I attempted to sleep, the groans and growls becoming white noise as I slowly lost consciousness. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Whew! Okay, I know this is a little short, but I wanted to get a chapter up for you guys as a Christmas pressent! I'm kinda stuck on where to go with this, so it may be a while before I post on it again. If you all have any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

Anyways, Thank you all so much for your support on this young storie. I'll see you all again soon!

Thanks everyone!!!