Hey guys! :) Sorry the uploads are so slow. Next week I have a Biology 120 test on Monday, a Biology 122 midterm on Wednesday, and a Spanish test on Friday. I may just disappear off of the face of the earth for a bit.

Anyway, my bf and I are doing fine. :) Seeing as how we've only known each other for two weeks, I'm a bit scared and unsure of what's going on, but hoping for the best. I mean, I'm the type of person that needs her personal space and plenty of time to herself, and what's cool is that he understands that, but most of the time I feel obligated to hang out with him and so I do, you know? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not very honest when I DO need some time for myself, but relationships don't work with honesty, so I'm slowly working on it.

Ahhh so stressed. *_* But I don't mean to rant about me. I have pilates in like, twenty minutes, so I'm gonna write as much as I can now and finish it tonight. (My boyfriend told me that tonight is my night and that if I want to read/write/study by myself, then that's perfectly fine with him and not to feel obligated at all. Isn't that super sweet?!)

But anyway. I gotta learn when to shut up. :) Don't worry; my mushy feelings won't affect my writing. From here on out, welcome to Gehenna.

Welcome to hell.

...

Rin POV

...

Once upon a time, Rin had missed the stars, his family, his old life.

Now he missed fresh air. Food. Water. A dry bed.

He raised his head towards the dank and dark ceiling. Grime caked his cheeks like a second skin, though thin tracks from tears of pain cut through the dirt and dried blood.

"Get up!" screamed a voice above him. Rin bit his lip and tried, tried so hard, but his arms wouldn't support him. The muscle beneath the tanned and bruised skin trembled with every faint movement, but that didn't matter. Nothing did. He took a deep breath - felt his lungs slowly and painfully expand as dust caked the inside of his throat - and tried again.

But this time, his arms wouldn't even respond.

So he just laid there. Laid there like a dead thing in the dirt and blood. The noises faded away, and even the repeated whip lashes to his back that usually served as motivation to get to his feet just seemed to disappear. Nothing existed, nothing matter, and Rin didn't care.

When he came to, someone had rolled him onto his back and was pouring something down his throat. Something cold, a liquid maybe, and before Rin knew what he was doing his hands flew up and he grabbed the cup of water with everything he had. His grip was feeble, pathetic like a child's, and when the last drop trickled down his throat all he could think of was more, more, more.

"And you'll get more," sneered a voice above him. Rin blinked his eyes open and pale blue eyes stared down at him. White hair framed a slender, pale face like a halo. "You just have to beat me first. Now -" Xavier raised his arm, " - get up."

Rin felt his body react before his mind caught up. First his hips twisted and his body soon followed up in a roll, and the pale thin blade of a dike plummeted into the ground. It seemed to cut the earth in half and Rin, vision hazy and world spinning, felt the world darken as his mind focused on one word, and one word only:

Survive.

Survive.

Rin pulled his knees in close in a hug. Something had changed; now instead of begging for death, his mind fully embraced the idea of living. He clung to it, clung to it with some primal desperation that refused to let himself die. Rin squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the outside world that seemed to be falling on top of him. He didn't understand; it wasn't as if he didn't want to die. He did. But . . . but he couldn't let himself.

He just couldn't.

Rin choked on the dust and slowly, slowly opened his eyes. His head ached and he knew immediately that he was hurt bad, real bad, so he stopped himself from moving. If Satan or Xavier wanted to kill him, now was their chance because, at this moment, he was utterly defenseless. He wouldn't even be able to scream for help.

Not that anyone would listen.

He closed his eyes and tried not to take deep breathes. Voices came in and out of focus, voices that whispered, "Progress hasn't improved. . .", ". . . new tactics . . ." , " . . ." , "Rin will be a weapon of Gehenna. . ." , " . . . destroy Assaih . . ."

Rin coughed, and the voices stopped. Slowly he opened his striking blue eyes, and suddenly a boot connected with his face. Rin, reeling, felt the bone and cartilage be crushed before he heard the snap. Blood splattered onto the ground, and the parched dirt drank it all up.

Rin looked about his room, his new room, his little hole-in-the-wall. The bed was rickety, the sheets moldy and perpetually damp, with probably enough bugs to eat him alive. Blood splattered the floor, old and new, and scarlet stained the covers. Chains hung from the ceiling, partially rusted, though he couldn't tell where the rust ended and the bloodstains began.

He shivered and sneezed. It was also cold in this room as well. It always seemed cold, and every day he got a little bit thinner. Once he found a bread crust on the floor when two of the guards were half escorting, half dragging him back to his room. Rin lunged, but the collar around his neck and chains around his wrists and ankles stopped him with his fingers just brushing against the stale crust. The guards brutally pulled him away, and all Rin remembered was licking the specks of bread off of his fingers and feeling too tired to cry.

He was so tried.

So, so tired, and yet he couldn't sleep. His dreams were almost as bad as his new reality. Death came in every shape in his lucid dreams, sometimes even worse than whatever Xavier or Satan could throw at him. Satan had hired Xavier a day ago; apparently, the lord of Gehenna was too busy to "train" his son, or more likely, beat him to death with knowledge, and since Xavier was a lesser general who had some free time, it worked out perfectly.

Not to mention that Xavier had offered in the first place. The lesser general seemed intent on killing Rin, or at least, killing the part of him that made him human. The first thing he clarified was that Raziele was dead and that he, Xavier, had burnt the dead body himself. The second was that Raziele deserved death and that he had killed Xavier's sister at one point, but Rin didn't believe that. Didn't believe any of that.

He couldn't.

Suddenly the door slammed open. Rin, his back to the door, involuntarily shuddered and hugged his legs a little tighter. Every nerve ending screamed as he squeezed his eyes shut and prayed that they weren't here for him.

But who else would they be here for?

"Up," one of the guards gruffly said. Spit dribbled out of his fleshy gums as, with one large, dark, scaled hand, grabbed Rin's arm and lifted him off the floor. Moments later a collar was clamped around his thin neck. It was heavy and dug into his collarbones, but Rin didn't allow himself to move. He didn't even make a sound. He had fought back once, and only once, because the moment he opened his mouth the guard hit him so hard across the face his cheek imploded and jaw dislocated at the same time. Or at least, it felt like the same time. There might have been a millisecond of difference between the two.

And so Rin simply closed his eyes and gave up. He felt the cold metal of chains bite against the bruised and bloodied skin of his wrists, and a sharp and painful tug meant that they were walking. The moment they entered the corridor the sudden light from mounted torches stung and burned his eyes. They watered slightly and Rin lowered his head so that no one would see.

The prison was shaped like an inverted cone; the bottom held the worst of the prisoners while the top held the less demonic of sinners, though they were still considered Assaih's worst. Cells lined the spiraling stone walls. Other demons and mortal souls screamed from their individual cells and rattled the black metal bars, shrieking and laughing in shrill voices as Rin walked past. Men chanted nonsense words in high voices, others giggled and waved with looks of murder in their eyes, while others moaned as they repeatedly slammed their body against the iron doors. Demons laughed and stretched their arms out the window, seeing if they could brush their slender fingers against Rin's hair. They called to him, called him names ranging from heaven to hell, and Rin kept his gaze low and tried not to listen.

Instead, he closed his eyes, his heart shaking. He couldn't deal with this right now, with the noise and the screams and the hate. He simply couldn't. He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't deserve to be here, not among the rapists and serial killers and violently insane.

But maybe being born was a dark enough sin.

Oooh. Dark chapter this time. Mostly flashbacks of what's up.

Basically, Since Xavier knows that Rin and Raziele became friends, he's going to beat the living crep out of Rin as revenge.

Anyway, next Gehenna chapter is an actual lesson instead of just snippets of Rin getting beat bloody. Maybe even a little bit of Raziele too - after all, who said he would just sit down quietly to recover? No worries - that kid has PLANS.

By the way you guys, we're only two follows away from 100! How exciting is that?! Thank you so much for the support (with this story and my personal life haha) aaaand thanks for being just the best group of readers ever! :) I tell you that every chapter (or at least, I try to) but seriously. You're all so awesome. Thanks for all of the reviews! :) :) :)

Stay awesome,

Rand0mSmil3z