“Don’t you know? He’s going to get punished.” An older kid whispered to him. “Every time something like this happens, even if it isn’t his fault, he get’s blamed and comes back the next day with bruises and cuts on his head. I expect there’s more on his body too, but they make him cover that up.”

Marcus grabbed Ash under the armpit and pulled him towards the building. Ash already knew where they were going, and he screamed and struggled as he was pulled along.

Marcus almost felt bad when he through the kid into the nasty room, but that thought was replaced as soon as he left by the thought of what he’d eat for lunch.

“NO!” Ash screamed, pounding his fists against the door as he sank to the ground.

He didn’t make it very far as he was ripped from the ground by his hair. “So…” Said the torture master. “I heard that you tried to escape, almost succeeded, and disobeyed Marcus all in one day. We’re going to have a fun time.” He said, a devilish grin plastering onto his face.

He dragged the weak kid over to where chain hung from the ceiling, then he strapped him up by his wrists. He adjusted the height of the chains so that they pulled his arms up and left him dangling, his toes barely being able to brush the floor.

The torture master loved his job. He would be happy if he was even allowed to hurt people without being executed, but here, he could preform to his hearts desire and get paid for it. When they had offered him the job, it was a done deal from the moment the first word had left their lips.

Ash numbed himself as best he could. He went into his own mind to remember the only happy memory he seemed to have to keep from feeling the pain that the torture master inflicted.

He wasn’t really sure what the memory was of, or who it was about, the only thing he could remember was a woman with flaming red hair and white eyes that were similar to his. She would smile down at him and sometimes just talk to him or cuddle him. It might not seem that happy to anyone else, but compared to the rest of his memories, this was a step above all.