A long, silver knife gleamed under a single fluorescent light. A girl lay facedown on a hard metal table, shivering under the taught leather straps that bound her in place. Her bare back was an unbroken plane of goose bumps.

The girl clenched her jaw when she felt the coolness of the blade drawing along her left side. It cut deep; the slash extending nearly a foot along her flesh. The knife was so slim and sharp that it took her rapidly beating heart several seconds to produce the first bead of blood, then the crimson flow thickened and spilled over onto the table, dripping to the floor…

A spasm of agony entered the girl's consciousness. She forced herself not to cry out, though a tiny whimper of pain escaped her lips. But she did not speak; she would not tell them what they wanted to know--

This time the girl let out a scream of pure agony as her torturer slammed a cruel blow onto her right shoulder blade. She could feel it splintering, and immediately it throbbed with pain; it felt like she had been struck with a crowbar.

But still, she would not talk. She would die a long, excruciating death before she betrayed her friends.

Of course, her torturer did not know this. He did not even know if she knew anything at all; he simply did as he was ordered. How long the beating continued, the girl didn't know. She cast her mind elsewhere, to happier times…happier feelings…

Finally, mercifully, the girl passed out from loss of blood. Her torturer congealed her wound with a jutsu that stopped the flow of blood. They did not want her to die--yet.

The poor girl was thrown roughly into a damp, dank cell. Her limp for disappeared into the shadows.

Some hours later, a watchman patrolled the stone hallway. He checked each cell with the aid of a flame held in his bare hand but extinguished it as he stopped before the girl's cell, smirking.

"This'll teach you not to attack one of ours, huh? Bitch." And he kicked the bars.

The watchman was turning to leave when he heard a low growl. Confused, he turned his back on the corridor and faced the dark room again. A pair of glowing, red eyes leered out of the shadow.

The full moon--!

The bars exploded outwards, and he had time to utter one, true scream of pure horror before he was silenced by a monstrous shape that leapt at his throat….