Acacius shuddered as he watched Nicodème strike Caspian with the pipe; Caspian hardly even flinched. Again and again, over and over, Nicodème hit him, but Caspian refused to give him any sort of reaction.

“Bring me the bigger one!” Nicodème demanded.

A larger, heavier pipe was now acquainting itself with Caspian’s back, but he still wouldn’t move a muscle.

“You brat! You know it’s no fun when they don’t get all hurt!” Nicodème seemed more than frustrated. He paused, as if considering his options. As a realisation hit him, his eyes flickered to Acacius, and he started bolting towards him with the pole.

Acacius could only stare, petrified, knowing that he would not be able to handle such a large blow.

“Coward.” Caspian smirked, saying his statement loud enough to catch the attention of Nicodème. “Admit it, your dumb toys don’t work on me.”

“Oh really?” Nicodème turned around and walked slowly towards him, picking up the largest and heaviest pole there was on the way. “Try acting all tough and mighty through this then!”

The pole slammed against Caspian with such force that the sickening sound of impact rung throughout the whole room. His shriek of pain sent a deep shiver through Acacius, who had closed his eyes in refusal to witness such a thing. Nicodème laughed maniacally, basking in the sweet bliss of homemade pain and misery.

“Escort them to their chambers.” He ordered his guards as he waltzed happily out of the room, having had his fill of torture for the day.

The hairy guard spoke to the two boys first.

“We have to go check where the new kid’s going. Do as you wish but try to leave and we’ll kill you.”

“You can try.” Caspian teased them as they left the room, immediately turning his attention to Acacius. “So, who am I looking at?”

“Huh?”

“I just bit an absolute stranger; I’d like to at least know their name.”

“Oh, I’m Acacius. Uhm, thanks for saving me back there but I still don’t get why you bit me.”

“Cool name. Guess you already know mine.” He laughed softly.

“Caspian, is it? Nice to meet you.”

“Nice meeting you too.”

“Why didn’t you help me run away earlier?” It had been bugging Acacius for quite some time. Surely even running forever would be a hundred times better than any of this.

“Trust me, running isn’t an option.” Caspian tilted his gaze to the stone floor beneath him. He appeared to be gently nursing his back.

“Why didn’t you pretend it hurt? Then he might have only hit you once.”

“One hit isn’t enough for him. He’d want more.” He looked at Acacius, as if debating what to say. “And anyway, I enjoy annoying the shit out of him.”

“Thank you for doing that for me.”

“Hey, don’t act like I just did you some big favour; I did it because I wanted to. He was going to beat the soul out of me later anyway.”

“But you-”

“I’m going to stop you right there.” Caspian stopped smiling. “Whatever debt you think you owe me, forget it. I have no attachment to you whatsoever, you’re just someone I happened to bump into while searching for some food.”

“That’s kinda harsh don’t ya think?” Acacius’ heart plummeted. Here was someone kind enough to risk themselves for him and he meant absolutely nothing to them.

“Not at all.” Caspian stood up and held out his hand. “Now come on, time to say goodbyes.”

Acacius took his hand, rising to a stand beside him.

“Goodbye?”

“Goodbye.”

And with that, Caspian walked right out of the large steel door. I thought that was locked… Acacius attempted to follow him, but it was locked. Typical. The guards came back soon after, unfazed by the missing Caspian, and escorted Acacius to what looked like an abandoned school.

“What is this place?” Acacius asked nervously.

“You are extremely lucky, my friend. You have been chosen to be one of Nicodème’s personal hitmen!” The bald one sounded far too optimistic.

“Absolutely not! I’d rather die!”

“Here’s the thing kid, your other option IS to die. But if you take that route then for every day you stay dead that will count as an incomplete target (regardless of what your team does) and for every target you don’t complete, Nicodème kills a whole household of people.” The hairy one stated.

“You’re kidding.”

“Good luck, kid. Your roommates are just inside.” The bald one said. The two guards pushed him inside before he had the chance to try and escape, as if running would have solved anything.