Beneath his steps the floor gave in as if it didn´t want to touch that person. It cracked and moaned, like it was feeling pain from every strife of his polished shoes. I could relate, and if I would have been able to I would have done the same. But this room full of darkness... it was my prison and my burden to take. Including the demon inside.

Every sound, every rustle of fabric stated a threat. And as he stopped and finally spoke I was - like always - surprised. His voice, not the hissing of a snake, not the shriek of some apoplectic monster, but smooth like velvet. Seducing the whole town in believing that he was a perfectly normal citizen.

What a fraud.

"You woke up."

One step closer. The rare beams of light that dared to enter this godforsaken room started to caress the tips of his shoes.

"Good~"

The way his voice shifted and how his face split with a grin, made my body shiver from reflex. He leaned down to me, his oh so blue eyes glowing in the light now.

"You will regret that you ever opened your eyes."

I already did.

4:55 am

I am sitting in my "prison cell" - there is no other way to describe it. A small room, walls, floor and ceiling from stone, thick layers of dust and dirt everywhere. Not even a small window or any source of light.

Doomed to wait in the dark I sat awake the whole short night. Too painful it was, to lay down on the hard ground with all my bruises and wounds but it was also too exhausting to stay awake… Time ticked away so slow in here and sometimes I even wished for the day to come again, just to regret the thought as soon as the heavy door unlocked and opened.

Mabel Gleeful.

All brown, long coils of hair, an unpredictable temperament and more than just a hint of sadism. She was the one I feared the most in this wicked place. But she was the first face I saw every morning at exactly 5 o´clock. And it was her, who decided if this day would be only a painful farce or hell itself.

"Good morning, my little wimp!"

The woman in blue stepped inside. The sound of her high heels echoing loud from my tomb´s walls.

"Let´s get you ready for another nice day~"

She giggled and uncurled a leash in her right hand. No dog could ever feel more miserable than me right now. But at least the "Fury", how I used to call her, seemed to have a good day. Normally she loved to wake me from my rare sleeps with a stab in my shoulder.

Today she just attached the leash to my collar and pulled me on my wobbly feet. My ripped, dirty clothes hang from my peaky body and I probably looked like a ghost. Well… A ghost that was wrapped into bloodstained bandages.

That didn´t mean, that Mabel would show mercy. Oh no. The moment I would show any pain, she would start to increase it. Like a shark that smells blood and gets eager for more. So I just hold my breath and try to not stumble each time she pulls at my collar. The fact that I lost my tongue to one of her tantrums made at least that a little easier.

"Get that clothes off."

We were standing in a cold room plastered with white floor tiles now. I was shivering. Oddly enough that the Fury did not. Yet we had this ritual every day over the last couple of years and so I just did what she wanted till I stood in front of her split naked – only covered by the bandages, the collar and my arms wrapped around myself to keep the last bit of warmth inside my body.

The brown-haired grinned slightly and let her blue eyes travel over my broken-down vessel those two bastards hat forced me into.

"What a pitiable sight you are. I get sick from you. Tha! And you claim to be a demon? Pathetic."

She stepped closer and pulled harsh on the leash. A tormented sound escaped my tightly sealed lips as my knees hit the hard floor and a second one as she grabbed into my messy, blue hair and pulled my head back till I thought my spine must be breaking any second.

"Do you hear me, William?! You are a little coward and should be glad, that we don´t just leave you to rot in that damn cell! You are not good for anything! Maybe I should just kill you right here and summon a REAL demon! Not such a wimp like you!"

I clinched my teeth and closed my eyes as she pushed me back even more and I swear, I heard my back crack.
"Pathetic!"

The Fury hissed snidely and pushed me over. My head hit the ground with a nasty sound and white stars exploded in front of my eyes. Pain shot through my whole body. The world spun around me. But there was the shark again – biting at the injured pray once more:

Mabel clutched me at my throat and pulled me up – her blue eyes glowing.

"You filthy creature."

She started to grin again and some part of me told me, that that spark in her eyes was not the light… but pure insanity as she chocked me harsher.

"Yes. You are a creature. Not even a dog anymore!"
She lowered her face to mine, while I fought against her grip although I knew I had no chance.

"You haven't earned the ground you are laying on. But you will. You will pay it with your blood!"

Mabel giggled and pulled a knife from her belt. Fear took me over. In panic I clawed at her hand around my neck and scratched some bloody lines into her skin which didn't seem to bother her.

The blade stroke over my shoulder and then started to cut. Deeper… Deeper. Blood was oozing out of me once more and I gave off a moan. I couldn't even beg her to stop… I couldn't…

As she had cut my tongue out that day, she had held the bloody muscle in her hand and her eyes were cold as ice as she had said: "What a pity… now I can´t hear your beautiful words anymore that tell me to stop~" Then she had laughed…

Like she was right now as she let the blade hover over my tearstained face. Over my eye. No. No no no no! Please don't! I was fighting for my life now, tried to back off. Why was her grip that strong?! Slowly, incredibly slowly the knife lowered down – ready to take another of my senses away. I tried to scream, call for help that would never come.

"You know that our uncles will go nuts again when you do that."

There…. The knife stopped.

"Tse. What do I care about them?!"

Mabel turned her head angrily to look at her brother, my savior … (or just another monster luring in the shadows), which leaned in the door casually.

"They will punish you again."

"Get lost brother. What are you doing down here anyway?!"

Dipper sighed, pushed himself off the doorframe and stepped into the room. His eyes were the same as hers but in all this years I had been trapped with this family I had never seen a spark of passion in them. Not like in his sisters eyes right now.

"You can do with him as you please as long as he is still able to do his work properly, Mabel. Bad enough, that you cut his tongue out."

Dippers gaze travelled unmoved to the knife still directly over one of my eyes and then back to his sister, which had a cocky grin over her face again.

"Naww~ Is my little brother afraid, that I could hurt his toy~?" She giggled and shot me one last look before she simply let go off my neck, making me crash down on the floor once again, and stood up – standing face to face with her brother, "You two better get yourselves a room~"

Silence spread, I didn't even dare to cough while the two siblings stared at each other like they would kill the other one every second now. The tension in the room grew and grew, till it was nearly unbearable. I was sure, if I would now make a sound, someone would die. Probably me. So I lay there: Cheek pressed on the floor, breath held, supressing any shiver and hoping that not a single drop of blood would decide to fall on the floor.

Dipper and Mabel hated each other. Everyone knew that in here…. And that they were both using magic, like the rest of the family, didn't make their fights any less scary….. or deadly.

Suddenly there was a call from up above, breaking the silence. Stan was once again in a bad mood as it seemed.

Dipper stepped back, his face still a mask of emotionlessness: "Haven´t you promised to help Stan, sister? You are already running late as it seems."

Mabel rolled her eyes and hissed quietly, like a snake, that had to let go of her pray.

"You are just as useless as that wimp. Maybe you fit quite nicely to him." She leaned forward till their faces nearly met and grinned even wider "We will settle this one day, brother-heart~ And then you will lay in the dirt, like that wimp you really are."

"We will see."

Mabel flicked her tongue abusive and rushed by her brother into the darkness of the hallway.

I still didn't dare to move. Mabel and her sadism might had left the room, but she had been replaced by her brother, the "Iceberg" as I called him in my mind. Dipper was always very quiet, he never lost many words and never showed any emotion, what made it quite exhausting for everyone to deal with him, including me.

But Dipper could be cruel too. In a more subtle way than his sister, yet even more effective. He was not someone who liked to leave marks, but he knew how to create and use fear as his weapon.

Right now though, I was just glad, that he had come by.

The brown-haired male turned his gaze away from the door and fixed it on me, who slowly tried to get back on his feet.

"Get dressed."

His voice sounded dark and monotone, but his gaze was the one thing, that made me twitch together. Deep lakes of glowing blue. Merciless blue.

With blowing cloak Dipper left the shower room, leaving me alone.

It was only 5:28 o´clock.