There isn't as many guards in the exterior as there was inside the walls. Most of the ones on the outside were also pretty lazy and underpaid. So if a thug planned it right, or paid off a guard they could get away with alot. That must have been how it went down when those men came to the brothel. Kaya and I heard the commotion before turning onto the street so we picked up our pace to see what was going on. The sight we saw as it came into view wasn't expected.

     The lady who had a bad customer earlier today was lying on the ground, her clothes were a mess, and she had been beaten, I wasn't there long enough to find out if that was all. Lucielle was outside as well, she was yelling at the seven men, the leader seemed to be the man I had pulled out the brothel this morning. He had a knife with him, and his companions shared assorted clubs, hammers, and blades. Nothing crazy, just enough to hurt someone. When they saw us come around the corner they recognized and started yelling.

     "Ah so now you've come back. Come over here you little prick!" the leader screamed at us two buildings down. I looked at Kaya, she gave me scared look and we walked forward, listening to he man to try to avoid getting hurt. "You might as well drop that sword sonny, it won't do you any good against seven of us." I once again listened out of fear and leaned it against the the brothel's walls as the leader and two men gathered us. Lucielle was still yelling, hurling insults, and trying to defend us while one of the men held her. A man was now holding on to Kaya as two men placed me next to the unconscious lady.

     "You want to embarrass me, uh, you little prick"

     Seeing the lady like this made me feel bad, sad for her, angry and them. She always treated me good, all of them did.

     "Well, I can show you what happens to cunts who treat me that way!"

     I began feeling a pressure almost, pushing down on my scars it was uncomfortable. It was a familiar feeling but I couldn't tell. I looked up at Lucielle, She was still struggling and the man continuously pushed her back. I looked up at Kaya, she was uncomfortable, the man holding on to her was trying to get to close I would assume.

     "Well, you two boys can have him"

      The two men with clubs stepped forward, they gave me a quick smirk and began their work. Blow after blow they swung, like I had mentioned earlier, pain to me was never something to be scared of, to beg for mercy from, just something that happened. So I didn't ask for forgiveness, or curl up, or feint. I just took the blows, I could feel every drop of blood falling from my mouth and nose, every spot I would have a bad welt, I never fell to my knees as I listened  Lucielle and Kaya beg the men to stop. But the thing that bothered me the most, was my scars. The pressure had turned to an itch, as if someone laid poison ivy along them.

     I looked up once again to check on Lucielle and Kaya. The man guarding Lucielle had pushed her to the ground, he yelled at her to stay down, I could tell that woman, as scared as she was still defiant. Kaya's captor managed to shut her up. From what I saw the man now had his arms wrapped around her and was whispering something in her ear. She was now silenced in fear. The itch on my scars, I realized was a heat, it was very hot and began to burn through my scars.

     A scream distracted me as I saw that Lucielle had tried to leap towards me. Her captor stabbed her in the back in the process. I looked to Kaya, she was tearing up and quiet, this was from the fact that the man now had his hand in her shirt, moving around her chest. But the fear in her eyes was from something else. It was a dreading, loathing fear I had seen once before, the night Canicus went up in flames. That's how I realized why the burning was so familiar, it is from the fire that burnt these scars into my skin so many years before. The scars in my arms that I used everyday to eat, work, live, and fight. The scars across my chest where my beating heart lays. The scars on my face that everyone around me had to see, and now Kaya with all her terror saw the face and scars of the Beast.

     Then the flames building up in my scars consumed me.