I'd just like to say how really sorry I am for the slow updates on practically all of my stories, I feel so bad! But good news is that I've got a week off, so i'll be spending it all on updating my stories and working on my art for poison study.

In my haste to update this as soon as poss, my beta hasn't edited this yet, so there will most likely be loads of mistakes, but please don't be too harsh! xD I'll put the beta'd version up sometime next week :)

I hope you like this, it went very differently to what I first predicted then I started this story, but I like how it's turned out. Please review and let me know what you think!

Harlequin x

As I predicted, Reyad and Brazell were furious. So much in fact, that Brazell disowned me, letting Reyad do whatever he wanted with me.

Fear shot down my spine like fire. I knew Reyad had been holding back the past few weeks due to Brazell, and even then, the torture was almost unbearable. Now it will be much worse.

I could almost feel the cold steel of the chains digging into my wrists as hot blades cut into my skin. I shuddered as Reyad dragged me to his suite where I have been living the past year and a half.

Surprisingly, Reyad just shoved me into my small dark room and slammed the door shut. The soft click of the lock ringing through my "room," it didn't take me long to realise that he was making me sweat it out, prolonging the torture to make my fear increase and the punishment worse.

As I thought over the past few hours, I realised that even if I knew that I would get caught and what Brazell would do, I still would have gone to the fire festival. Swirling through the air as I worked through my routine, I felt alive for the first time in years. And even though I now face an uncertain future, I still wouldn't change what I did.

Alone in the darkness, my thoughts flashed back to the man at the fire festival. Even in the dim light of the festival. Why did he follow me out of the tent? And why was he so interested in what I had said?

As millions of questions swirled through my mind, I fell into a restless sleep, only to be woken up an hour before dawn by Reyad slamming me against the wall.

In the two years that I have been taking part in Brazell's "Experiments," and how torture, I rarely got any sleep, and when I did I was always woken up in the most painful of ways. Reyad didn't like it if I was asleep when he was awake, saying I was lazy and I would be punished for sleeping on the "job."

As my back ached from the force of being slammed against the hard wall, I knew what was coming next. Often when Brazell was away Reyad would do whatever he pleased, often resulting in my chained and naked performing acrobatic routines in front of his friends. I don't know how or why they were amused by it but their deep laughter bellowed long after Reyad had whipped me. I could still feel the stinging pain as the whip cut into my back.

I was forced back to the present as Reyad slapped me hard across the face. Dragging me into his room by my hair, he pushed me onto his bed and stripped me of my clothes.

I knew what was coming next, even though he had never done this before. Fear flooded through my body at the unknown pain I was going to face. I had heard stories from Kayla, a girl from the orphanage when she was raped by one of Brazell's blacksmiths, she had told me how painful and horrible it was. And even though Brazell claimed to have sent him to the dungeons, I'm sure now that he just transferred him to another district.

Reyad shoved a thick black book into my hands and told me to read it. As I flicked through the pages I saw that every page was full, recording every single accusation he had against me and how I would be punished for them.

I had never seen this book before, usually, he would tell me my punishments. But after reading the first page I knew that he had planned it from the very first day he had met me, two whole years ago.

As I looked up at him, he smirked when seeing fear uncontrollably spread across my face. No matter how hard I tried to mask my emotions, he always read me like an open book.

"We'll start with the punishment on page one tonight," he purred with anticipation as he walked eagerly to his "toy" chest, pulling out chains and other weapons of torture.

His "journal" described how I had failed to call him 'sir' the first time we met, so I would assume a submissive position on my hands and knees and when I would be whipped, with each lash I would respond with "More, sir, please." And during the following rape, I would address him as sir, and beg him to continue my punishment.

I didn't even dare to read the next page as his journal slipped from my paralyzed hands. I flung myself over the bed, intent on finding the knife I had hidden there months ago but have been too afraid to use it. But Reyad, assuming that I was trying to escape, forced to the ground and chained my hands behind my neck.

The anticipation was worse than the actual punishment. But I played my part, knowing that if I refused, I would only enrage him further.

When the horror finally ceased, blood covered my back and stung from the lacerations from the whip, and blood coated the inside of my legs and was soaking into the sheets below me. Reyad remained hovering over me. His hands either side of my head, preventing my escape. I remembered that the knife is now within my reach, and although I considered suicide, Reyad's words quickly changed my mind.

"I guess I'll have to start a new journal. We'll be training a new girl now that you've failed."

I saw red, I couldn't let him torture another girl from the orphanage, I didn't want them to suffer like I did.

"Up on your knees. Time to page two." He sat up, giving me space to move, however I shouted out "No! I won't!" My sudden outburst stunned him for a moment, giving me the opportunity to reach behind me for the knife, however before I could dig it into his skin like he often did to me, he collapsed onto the bed next to me, almost falling on top of me. I saw blood quickly soaking me and the sheets. A knife dug into his back.

Realising my knife was still in my hand. I snapped my head up and saw the man from the fire festival.

Even though his face and body resembled a stone statue, his eyes showed his fury. The flashing blue eyes I saw at the festival were replaced by molten lava beneath an icy crust.

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