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Chapter 29 "Week Five"

"No! Don't let them take me! PLEASE!" a man was being dragged past Severus' cell, the two dementors that flanked him gripping him tightly with rotting hands. Severus looked up from his corner and met the man's desperate eyes as he passed. Severus had to give him credit; usually when prisoners were dragged past him, they were too tired and depressed to fight anymore, but this man clearly had the strength to fight. He didn't have the under-fed pallid look of the other residents here; it was obvious he was a new arrival.

"They're gonna Kiss me! Help me! They're gonna take my soulll!" the man wailed as he was dragged away. Severus was too much concerned with his own wellbeing to care much for the man, but he felt pity course through him as the man's yells changed from desperate to terrified beyond belief. He knew the man must have done something terrible to be sentenced to a Dementor's Kiss, but he didn't feel like anyone deserved that punishment. The creatures would suck your soul out through your mouth, leaving your body an empty shell. Severus could think of no crime fitting that punishment; it would kinder to use Avada Kedavra.

Even though the man was being dragged towards the room on the other end on the prison, which Severus had dubbed the Kissing Chamber, it seemed like his screams were getting louder. Then it was cut short abruptly, and Severus knew the man had been taken into the Chamber. That was it for him; within a moment, only his body would be left, sucked dry of its soul.

Severus had had the terrible luck of witnessing a Kissing first-hand last week.

It was a situation similar to today, a victim being dragged away to be Kissed. He could hear the man's screams further down the aisle, and then suddenly a shout of triumph. He got up from his cot, curious to see what was happening, and saw the man running, having escaped from his dementor captives. But he tripped and slid, landing right in front of Severus' cell. He had fallen at a strange angle, and his leg was bent underneath him. Severus noticed a blood spot on his pant leg, growing larger by the moment. The man groaned and lifted the fabric up, revealing a sharp shard of bone poking out from his skin. Blood trickled from the wound and the man groaned in pain. The man looked desperately behind him, then up at Severus, who was staring at the man in horror.

"Help me, please," tears trickled from the man's eyes, making trails in the grime on his face. "Save me." He reached out a hand toward Severus, but Severus shied away. What was he supposed to do? The man's face dropped at Severus' reaction, and he lowered his hand, knowing it was hopeless.

Severus stared helplessly at the man as the dementors swooped upon him and lowered their hoods. Severus' eyes were glued to the horrible sight in front of him; it felt impossible to look away, just as one finds it hard not to gawk at the scene of an accident. He had never seen a Dementor's face and had never wanted to, but he was seeing it now.

There were no eyes, just empty gaping sockets and a grey scabby skin that stretched over the creature's entire head.A large gaping hole, which Severus supposed was the dementor's mouth, sucked in the air around it, creating a horrible, terrifying noise.

The first dementor leaned down, plastering its mouth over the victim's face, completely covering his mouth and nose. All Severus could see were the wide, frightened eyes, popping out in fear. The man flailed for a moment, before becoming limp as the dementor began to breathe in heavily. It stopped after a moment, and glided backwards to let its partner finish the job. Severus saw a faint blue light rising from the victim's open mouth as he lay on the floor, but before too much of it escaped, the second dementor swooped upon him, grasping the victims head and forcing its face upon his. When the dementor finished, it released the man, and his head thunked to the floor with a sickening cracking sound. the imprint of the dementors' mouth was left on the victim's face, and Severus hurried back to his cot so he wouldn't have to look at that gruesome sight anymore.

The dementors proceeded to haul the body away, dragging it along, and Severus closed his eyes, feeling sick.

Severus shuddered, and tried not to think about that anymore. It was bad enough seeing the dementors everyday, he didn't need to relive the moment when he saw their faces, too. Seeing the victims being dragged past was bad enough, too. It seemed to him that the dementors went out of their way to bring victims past his cage, but he knew it probably wasn't true. He just happened to be so unlucky as to be on the path to the Kissing Chamber.

Severus felt the restless tension that always followed a Kissing; the dementors who hadn't been able to feed were hungry with no souls to appease them. They almost oozed a...it was hard to describe but the best word he could think of was... fury, a cold fury that they hadn't been able to have some soul too. It was the worst when the dementors were like that. They were more terrifying somehow, and Severus was always afraid that one would lose it and come and take his soul. He knew they wouldn't send his body back to Lily, they never sent the bodies back.

Severus had wondered what they did with the soulless bodies, or the bodies of the people who went completely mad and died, and over the weeks he had been here, he thought he came up with an answer. He could hear the howls during the full moon, and he knew there were werewolves being kept somewhere in Azkaban. He had a terrible feeling that those bodies were being gotten rid of in a messy way; they were being fed to the werewolves during the full moon.

Severus shuddered and tried not to imagine his own body being ripped to shreds by a werewolf; his blood dripping from its mouth, strips of his flesh hanging from its teeth.

He felt that overwhelming feeling coming over him; his mind was becoming hazy, he wanted it to end, why couldn't he just die before the dementors got him...then Severus bit his knuckles so hard that he left teeth marks that welled with drops of blood. He must stay sane, because he was going to get out soon, there was a woman, what was her name? Lilah? Lillith? Something like that. And she loved him, and they were going to be together. She was waiting for him. That was right, wasn't it? Lilah loved him, and she was going to be with him when he got out. Wasn't she?

Was it intense? I hope it was! I am so bad, torturing Severus like this! *grins evilly* but he'll be back with Lily soon!

Love, Dementors