Chapter 2:

Audrey came late in the evening. The wicked sound of her heels upon the stone floors always signaled her arrival.

For the first time, I found myself pleading internally, "Pick me. Come to me. Leave him alone. He's had enough."

Like she could read my mind (and, as far as I knew of her abilities, she could), she walked to the door of my cell for a moment, before turning about on her heels.

"Alec, darling," She purred, her voice serpentine. The lock on his door clicked as she twisted a key in it. I pulled myself to my feet and moved as close as I could to the door. The chain around my ankle snatched me back before I could get very far. "I bet you've missed me."

"Of course, Audrey," He hissed. At least he still had some fight in him, "how could I not? Your presence is the highlight of my days."

I sank back down to the floor, head bowed as I focused on his voice. He sounded alright so far, but she hadn't done anything yet.

And she had been gone for a while. I expected she had thousands of new games to play with us. On the first few days, I expected to see her three of four times a day, now the days were broken up with Tamsin, a little bit of Eric, sometimes Kiersten. Audrey, as though she were the star of this whole operation, only made a "special" appearance once a day, if that.

Steadying my breathing, for my chest had started to become tight, I listened closely to every noise that came from his cell.

"Stand up." She snarled, and the sickly sweet tone that she had arrived with all but dripped out of her voice, like honey off of oil.

Chain scraping against the floor.

"Turn around, and stand facing the wall."

Whipping. That wasn't very creative of her.

"Count."

His voice came out strong at first, with perhaps the smallest bit of labor to it. "O-One….t-two…three…"

With every number, the sound of leather upon skin filled the air. Whips didn't do much to break a vampire's skin, but the pain was just as horrible.

"Twenty-seven….t-twenty-eight…" His voice started to falter now, and the sound of the strikes became louder, stronger,, with each second that passed. I leaned back against the stone. I wanted it to be over with already. He had been through enough.

But I wouldn't pray. There was nothing to pray to. God either didn't exist, or he didn't care.

"O-One hundred e-eighty seven…."

I wondered how much longer he would be able to hold on. With every strike, I heard the strength in his voice start to go out like the flame to a candle. By the time they had gotten into the three-hundreds, barely a quarter of the way through, all of the power, the fire had left his voice. I could hear the pain start to sink into it now.

I could do nothing. Not with this damned wall in between us. I couldn't get to him, I couldn't stop her. Even if I could get through the wall, Audrey had an entire coven on her side, and we only had one another. We would be dead before we even started to fight back.

"F-fuck… Au-drey…" I jerked at the sound of his voice. It was different, confused.

"Did I say to stop?" Audrey growled, "You still have six-hundred to go."

Without warning, the whips started up again, but something had changed. The tone of his voice changed from moderate discomfort to filled to the brim with agony.

With each strike, his voice broke. She must have done something. Changed the whip, I don't know. Whatever it was, a simple whipping session quickly turned more agonizing than it had been before.

And here I was, thinking that she hadn't thought of any new ideas for the evening. Never underestimate Audrey. I should have remembered that.

Just four-hundred more to go, I told myself, my fingers digging into the stone. I could barely stomach the sounds of his cries.

He could get through it. He would be fine. Whips can't kill a vampire, and Aro didn't seem to want either of us dead any time soon. Once he was done, Audrey would come to play with me, and after she was done, it would all be over- for a little while at least. There was never any way to tell how long it would be before one of the other's came in, or when Audrey would decide that she was bored and came back to try something new.

"Nine….n-nine-hundred forty-five… Nine-hundred forty-six…nine-nine….h-h-hundred forty-se-even…"

My stomach churned. She hadn't been able to break him so soon before. Usually, it wasn't until he was at the last hundred or so that his voice started to be punctured with sobs.

Almost done.

Almost done.

He'll be fine.

He'll be okay.

Both of you will be fine.

I repeated the mantra over and over again. I didn't want to listen to him anymore. I Just wanted it to be over, for her to leave him alone and come to me and be done with it for the day.

"O-One thous-sand… one-one-hundred…"

Despite my efforts to block him out, his voice still broke through. I should have expected it to. After all, my thoughts were silent and his cries were loud.

Only a hundred to go now. He was almost done. Maybe he would have enough time to heal before someone else came around.

A part of me doubted it. If we had time to recuperate in between torture, then there wouldn't be any point to it, really.

He was almost done. It was almost over. Everything would be fine, it just had to be.

But the question creeped into my mind before I had the chance to stop it: What if Aro did decide that he wanted either of us dead?

Being here, it was bad enough, but at least I had someone to talk to, something to override the pain with the smallest bit of happiness. If he were to be killed, then I would have nothing.

Just the walls and my mind. And nothing else.

I've heard of people going insane in places like this, where the mind is allowed to grow dull from lack of stimulation. I expect the process is even faster, when the only thing one has to look forward to is nothing but sheer agony.

He couldn't die. No matter what, he had to hold on, to fight back, and I would do the same for him.

Like a faint whisper, the flutter of a butterflies wings, he panted, "T-Twelve h-hundred…sixteen…"

A sound of metal clinking, then stone thumping against stone, and at last, the oh, so wonderful noise of her heels growing softer…softer…

I braced myself. I could not recall a time when she had come to "play" with him, that she had decided to leave me alone.

There she was, her lips curled into a devil-approved smile as she watched me through the tiny, barred window of the cell. Auburn hair fluttered down her back, darker than normal in the dim lighting. To a human, she would have been barely visible, but to me, her features stood out horrifically.

"Sao…Sao…Sao…" She sing-songed, moving to unlock the door. It swung open, and on instinct, I backed away from her as quickly as I could.

There was no point to it really. She could get to me. The cell was only six feet each way and I had a chain wrapped around my ankle.

"Awww, aren't you so pretty, sweetheart." She hummed, her eyes traveling up my body. I had scars everywhere and the carving on my face that she had induced last time she was here. I wasn't anything close to pretty, now.

Audrey thought things like that were pretty. The more someone was broken, the lovelier they were to her.

I pressed my lips into a tight line, eyes trailed on the ground in front of me. She took a tiny step closer to me, her lips parted in an almost curious fashion.

"You know…." She began, turning abruptly to walk to the rack of whips that I was lucky enough to have hanging on my own wall. It was quite an interesting selection. "It is wise, when you are complimented by someone, to say "thank you.""

"Thank. You."

Her fingers curled around a horrid thing that she hadn't used yet. Instead of one leather strap, I counted at least a dozen. At the end of them, there was a barbed-hook that dripped with a strange, black liquid that filled the air with smoke.

"I've thought long and hard about the games that we might play with one another, my sweetling." She himmed, her fingers running along one of the leather straps. Her eyes trailed up and down my body in a way that was almost lustful. I imagined that torture was almost like sex for her. "Take off your top, my love."

What was the point of that? It was nearly all ripped to shreds anyway.

But I didn't want to incur anymore of her wrath than I knew I would alredy, so I obeyed her orders. Fingers trembling, I buttoned my blouse and allowed it to drop down to the floor.

"Are you going to be a good girl, or am I going to have to lock you up against the wall?" She cooed. Her voice sent chills down my spine, and my stomach twisted with distaste. Everything she did made me feel dirty and violated.

With a heavy sigh, I nodded, "I will be good."

Her lips pulled back into a wide grin. "Excellent. Rise and stand against the wall in front of you."

My legs shook as I pulled myself up off of the ground, stepping towards the wall until I was all but nose to nose to it."

"You know the rules. Miss a number, or repeat the previous, and I'll start all over."

Gently, just so I could feel it, she allowed one of the hooks to graze my back. I jumped, teeth clenched together. The smallest touch burned something horrible.

"Y-yes…" I breathed, leaning my forehead against the wall in order to brace myself. "I r-remember."

She stepped back a few paces, giving the whip a few twirls upon the ground before striking my left shoulder. I grunted, barely managing to stifle a breathless gasp.

"One…on-one…"

She hadn't told me what number I was expected to last until. Typically, it was one last for every year of my life, but something told me she was not in such a lenient mood.

That liquid that had dripped from the spikes was like fire on my skin. I felt the skin of my back ripped away with every strike.

"For-ty… forty- n-nine…" I gasped, my nails digging into the wall as I struggled to stand upright. If I collapsed, she would just make me start over again.

"Who are you working with?" She demanded, her words punctuated with three whips.

I furrowed my brows. These sessions normally didn't include an interrogation. "Six-ty five…. Sixty-six….six…six-ty seven… No one. I don't have anyone I'm working with."

"Liar." A snarl. Another strike.

"Sixty e-eight…" I whimpered. To imagine that I had barely under four-hundred left to go. Alec must think me pathetic. "I'm not lying. I don't have anyone to work with. It's just me."

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" She laughed, the sound raw and dead. "My sweet, I do not believe you have it in you to plan a coup all by yourself. Did you have help on the inside?"

"No! I don't have any help. I don't trust anyone to help me, anyway. It's just me. I swear."

"Hmmm…. " She moved closer, and without warning, her nails dug into my bare arms. "I still think you're a disgusting little liar, Saoirse. Aro has read your mind, and he has seen other figures in it. And they are not from long ago. Do you care to explain that, my love?"

I felt my chest clench hard, and for a moment, the pain there was even greater than the burning that had spread across my back and upper ass (a few of her lashes had landed hard enough through the fabric of my cotton trousers).

"I…t-there was one other. A boy. He discussed helping me, but he turned his back at the last second. I went on alone."

Audrey tilted her head from one side, and then to the other, but her eyes never left my face. Why couldn't Aro just come down here and read my mind himself?

"Clever, Saoirse." She said, her tone impressed. "Given your reputation, I would have thought you more eager to give away a fellow traitor."

No. That was the last thing I would do. I would not betray someone who had earned my loyalty.

"N-no…" I stammered, my eyes falling to the ground as she motioned for me to turn around to face the wall again. Before I could suck in a breath, I felt the wrath of the whip against my back.

"S-Seventy…. Seventy-one…seventy-two…" I grunted, internally hoping that I had picked the right number to start back up on. I couldn't bleed, but my back felt wet and cold. An odd, metallic scent filled the air.

"How long have you been planning the attempted siege on the castle?" Her words came out sharp as the whip that punctured them. On the third strike of that set, a hook grabbed onto my skin, right at the shoulder, and ripped a chunk off.

"F-Five y-years…" I managed to breathe out, "Eighty-eight…eight-nine…ninety…"

"How many people were involved, originally?"

I chewed hard on my lip. I couldn't give names. I wouldn't stoop so low. "At our max, we had forty-one. When it came time for the coup, we were down to four. In the end, it was just me."

Audrey chuckled. My bones shook at the sound alone. "You must be quite the leader if you were able to disband a troupe of forty-one in only five years."

"They did not think the cause as worthy as I did." I muttered, my falling against the stone. The coolness felt wonderful.

"And is this…all you hoped for?" She inquired, gesturing around the cell. The darkness was my home now. I followed the movement of her arms. In the week I had been prisoner, I memorized every crack and crevice, every mark and divot of this place. The shadows were my friends. The crickets and the rats, my familiars.

I knew the sound of his voice. The tenor of his whispers. My world was very small, and some parts of it were sad and bleak, but there were somethings that made it more bearable.

More boldly than I wanted to admit, I turned to Audrey and nodded. "Yes, I think it is."