Rey shifted a bit, blinking in confusion a moment, feeling a pillow underneath him and a blanket over him where he was, laying on his front with his arms beneath him. He must have fallen asleep while he was reading, but why did things seem-

There was the sudden sharp pain of something large, as though a vice had clasped around his head, and Rey gasped, then yelped when a heavy weight suddenly settled over him, crushing him down against the mattress. "What the hell-?" he grunted, squirming.

"Hell is exactly the right answer, Rey..." a deeply disturbing voice intoned behind him, and Rey froze, eyes going wide with terror when he realized everything in a burst...he was wearing his mask, the vice on his head was a giant hand, and Kane was over him, leering down at him.

The basement.

"GET OFF ME!" Rey screamed, starting to struggle and kick and flail and do anything he could to try and get away, but he became fast aware of one other new fact-that his hands were cuffed together. "What are you...no! No, no no no!"

Kane chuckled, just pressing his greater weight down on Rey, keeping him held in place despite his best efforts. "What's the matter, Rey? I thought you'd be happy to see me again. It almost hurts my feelings..." He laughed, a rough, terrifying noise that caught Rey's breath in his throat, making him feel as though he couldn't draw in any air.

"No...no no no..." Rey muttered, shaking his head. "This isn't real...it isn't real! This is a dream and you're not real!"

Kane's weight crushed down against him more, and Rey gasped when he felt a hand under him, grabbing his bound hands and yanking them out. "I'm not real? That's your only defense against this, Rey? To tell me...that I'm not real?" Kane laughed again, patting the back of his head. "That's...quaint."

Rey struggled and pulled against the cuffs Kane was holding, kicking his feet futilely. "I know you're not real! I know what's happening to me! This is just another of those stupid nightmares, another misfire from my brain! This isn't happening!"

There was no response for a minute, leaving Rey to wiggle and fight uselessly to try and escape. Then he sensed Kane nearer, and when the man spoke, Rey could feel his breath against his ear.

"If it's not happening, Rey...then why are you afraid?"

"I'm not afraid!" Rey shouted. "I'm not afraid of you because you aren't real!"

"Not real?" Kane suddenly shifted his weight, planting a knee in the small of Rey's back, then grabbing at his bound hands and wrenching them up and backwards, over Rey's head, bending his back hard and causing the smaller man to hiss in pain. "You still want to try and cling to your not really being here? You're still denying what your fate has become?"

"This is a dream!" Rey cried out, trying to get loose to relieve the pressure on his back and arms. "The doctors told me, Dave told me, this is all just a bad dream!"

"How do you know, Rey...?" Kane responded, letting go of his hands and letting him fall back against the bed. "How do you know this is the dream? You're experiencing two realities, why would you arbitrarily choose this one not to be your reality?"

"What are you talking about? Get off of me, let me go!"

Kane smirked somewhat, moving again to lay against his back, pressing Rey into the bed. "You can't deny it, can you? Some part of you realizes this is right. For all I know, you know entirely what's happening to you, and you're just making it...better...for me..." Kane laughed again, a low sound that chilled Rey's bones.

"I don't know what you're talking about! You aren't real! You can't be!"

The instant those words left his mouth, the weight on his back suddenly lifted, and Rey tried to take the chance to scramble away, but before he could, Kane grabbed his cuffed hands and threw him back against the bed, moving inhumanly fast to straddle Rey's waist and grab hold of both of his arms, one in either hand, glaring down at Rey with a look of what seemed mere annoyance. Even annoyance from Kane, though, was a devastating feature.

"Does this feel like it's not real, Rey? Does the fact that I'm able to do anything I want to you and you are completely powerless to stop it mean nothing to you?" Kane let go of one of his arms and grabbed Rey's face hard, squeezing and yanking him upright so they were eye to eye. "Are you so stupid that you can't figure this out?" Rey stared back at him, and Kane's annoyed look faded, the sadistic grin returning. "You are, aren't you? You have no idea. You're either so stupid or so self-deluded that you honestly can't figure out where you are."

"I'm in the hospital..." Rey stammered. "I'm in Essex County...I'm in bed right now. I fell asleep reading, I must have fallen asleep..."

He didn't get a chance to even try and protect himself. Kane released his face, and at the same time, slapped him so hard that his vision blacked, knocking him to the bed again. Rey wanted to grab at his now aching face, but Kane still held one of his arms, and with the cuffs in place he couldn't.

Kane was yelling now...bellowing right into Rey's face. "The hospital isn't real, you dumb little bastard! Get it through your thick skull! You're not in a hospital! You're here, you've been here, you will always be here!" He slapped Rey again, this time getting a scream of pain from the smaller man. He grabbed Rey by the throat, squeezing hard, seething down at him. "This is HELL, Rey! This is your eternal damnation! This was your judgement, your punishment for your sins! I've been chosen to make you suffer for all eternity and there isn't a goddamn thing you can do to change that!"

Rey whimpered unwillingly at the pain in his head from the hard slaps, staring up at Kane's enraged expression. "No...no, this isn't...this isn't hell, it's...it's...you're a dream...just a dream from my sick messed-up brain..."

Kane's expression melted easily back into the smirk. "Your brain must have been sick and messed up for you to end up here, Rey. I mean, I knew...I always knew I would...and I knew I would receive a hero's welcome when I got here." He yanked Rey up close again. "But I never imagined I would end up with a prize like you for all my eternity. A little noble bitch like you must have had all sorts of hidden vices for you to wind up being owned by me."

Rey shook his head hard, even though that made the pain worse. "No! That's not what's happening! It's not!"

"Really? You still don't want to believe your fate?" Kane shoved him against the bed hard, then stood. Rey moved again to try and escape, but Kane caught him by the waistband of his pants and pulled him up before he could even get off his back. He tossed Rey onto his front, then sat next to him, pressing one of his enormous hands against his back to hold him down, and snaking the other underneath him.

"What are you doing?" Rey cried, thrashing, trying to get up.

"I'm going to have to prove to you what's going on here, Rey..." Kane said, alarmingly calm for him. "It's not gonna be any fun for me until you really know and understand what's happened." With that, the hand underneath Rey moved up to pull the button of his jeans loose, then started to unzip them.

"What are you doing-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Rey shrieked, starting to kick and thrash again. "Stop it! STOP IT! NO!"

Kane grunted, as Rey was struggling enough to almost get away, but he shifted his weight and kept the smaller man down, getting the zipper pulled all the way down. He slid his hand up and to the waist of his pants again, starting to tug them down. "This is going to happen, Rey. It's what I WANT. You can't stop it no matter how hard you try...because this is Hell...and you are mine now...and you will always be mine."

"No, no! No no no!" Rey shook his head hard, still helplessly trying to pull away, unable to help tears welling out of his eyes. "Please don't, please! Please, don't do this, please, Kane, please, please, you don't want to do this, please!"

Kane stopped pulling at Rey's pants, laughing eerily again. "Of course I want to do this. I just told you that, you stupid little bitch." He let go of Rey's pants and slapped him hard in the back of the head again, then abruptly shifted his weight, moving to lay down on top of Rey, pressing against him from behind, almost enveloping his tiny form underneath him. Kane turned Rey's head forcefully so that he was looking to the left, then laid his cheek against Rey's in a perverse mockery of a loving cuddle. "I can feel you shivering under me..." he said softly, but with the same smug tone to his voice.

Rey was shivering, he knew it, he couldn't stop it. The words Kane had been pushing at him had finally broken their way through the mind-numbing fear of his situation and intruded furiously on his thoughts. This was Hell? This was his damnation? No, that didn't make sense, it couldn't make sense. He couldn't be in Hell. He was dreaming, he had to still be dreaming, this couldn't be real. He knew he wasn't a perfect being, but Hell? It couldn't be the truth. It just couldn't!

"No..." he whispered, voice cracking. "No, it's not true. It's not Hell...it can't be. I'm not dead! I'm not!"

Kane snorted. "And why not? Didn't you see the gift I left for you earlier? Didn't you enjoy watching him with them?"

Rey's eyes widened slightly. That video...

"He's not who I would have picked..." Kane continued, speaking as though they were discussing the weather or some kind of ball game on television. "Hardy's not exactly someone I consider good stepfather material. And his brother will make a downright horrible role model as an uncle to Dominik and Aalyah. But then again, you're here in Hell with me..." He laughed again. "Which goes to show that I must not be the best judge of character."

"No..." Rey didn't quite manage to shake his head...not really sure what he was denying, but denying it anyway.

"Oh, Rey..." Kane grinned, moving his arms to wrap them underneath Rey and hug him almost lovingly, in a sick sort of fashion. "Now I think I understand why they put me with you. It's a lot of fun watching you bash yourself against the brick wall of your new reality. I think it's going to be more fun waiting for you to finally realize the truth before I finally break you in." Kane shifted, moving his hands down lower, pressing them into Rey's belly. "But then again, it might not be as good if you don't fight...I want you to fight...that is what your dreams are for..."

"What...?"

"Your dreams, of course. The dream I give you of your little escape into that hospital. The way I'm keeping you off-balance, keeping you from coming to grips just yet." Kane lifted his head, kissing Rey's temple once. "It's going to make the moment when you finally accept your fate that much sweeter." He grinned widely, leaning closer and biting at the lobe of Rey's ear a moment. "And the best part is, Rey...after I've done that, given you your goodness and taken it away, then I can erase your mind like I did before...and I can do it all over again...I can keep ruining you over and over for the rest of existance. And there's not one damn thing you can do to stop me." He bit once more, then chuckled. "I have so many plans for your next escape world..."

Rey sniffed and gasped, breath hitching, feeling tears running down his face behind his mask, trying not to sob as Kane continued his attentions to his ear and moved down to his neck. "This isn't real..." he murmured. "This isn't real..."

"Keep telling yourself that as long as you can, Rey...I have all the time in the universe..."