“How does he eat?” Suzanne blurted, pointing to his hands.

“We-” Joan started before the man cut her off with a raise of his hand.

“Allow me.” He said, flashing an almost charming smile. He pulled at his restraints, the sound of gears turning echoed through the cell and chains clicked as he pulled them through the slot in the wall. He plowed forward easily, putting enough slack between himself and the wall that he could gesture freely. He wrapped the chains around his hands and pulled them along the side of the wall to show the slot it slid along in its entirety. Suzanne recognized that it wasn’t a friendly gesture. It was one of power, that he was the one in charge.

He stuck his hand through the grate and Joan held the bar up to strike him. He sneered at her, his other hand ready to deter any blows.

“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you. I am Drake.” He said sweetly, his eyes hard and unmoving. Blood caked the side of one of his fingers, the nail of it chopped at an odd angle. The corner of it still pooled with blood, yet he seemed to not notice it at all.

“Suzanne…” She said slowly, staring at his hand as it bled. The deep red made his skin look even paler around the wound. Had he never been outside before?

“What?” He asked, cocking his head to the side, “Not a handshake person?” He shrugged and licked his bloody finger, slurping at the open wound. He turned to walk away and shot back around, clattering his chains loudly. “SUZANNE!” He yelled, throwing himself into the door in an attempt to grab her. His teeth were tainted with blood.

She screamed, hurling herself away from him. Joan smashed the bar into the grate, striking him in the face. He staggered back a few steps holding his jaw in pain. His jaw cracked as he rubbed it. He spat blood at Joan and turned his attention to Suzanne again. His smile was disturbing, almost sadistic in its inappropriateness.

She pressed her back into the wall in terror, his face swelling and fresh blood spilling from his lips.

“You saw her, didn’t you? My work! I was going to do the other side of her face too but she had one of those DAMNED STICKS.” He laughed, his voice vicious and humorless.

“W-why?” She stammered, tears beginning to run down her face. In spite of his small stature it felt as if she were staring a giant in the face. His charcoal horns were swollen, begging to burst into the full size of the monstrous reptile trapped inside his veins. He was a real dragon.

“Suzanne!” Joan reprimanded, “He is just toying with you!”

“Why?” he scoffed, “Why not? She deserved it. The gossip rag was asking for a beating with the things she was saying.”

Suzanne felt like a deer staring down the barrel of a hunter’s gun, there was nothing she could do to escape him.

Joan slammed the bar into the door harder, sending him reeling into the wall. She hauled Suzanne away by the arm.

Suzanne collapsed against the wall of the women’s wing. Her heart exploded in her chest, her hands shaking as she failed to keep herself upright. Tears burned her eyes, distorting the world that had already been broken only moments earlier. Joan gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, unsure of how to calm her.

“My apologize. I should have never let you go near that monster.” She seethed.

Drake’s laughter still rang in Suzanne’s ears. Her hands reacted on their own, covering her ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise. She sobbed as the image of his smile filled her mind with its false kindness, sending her to the floor as it tried to drown her.