Torla's cries of pain echoed through the dungeon, the sound of his flesh being torn crushed our hearts. I was terrified. My stomach curdled as I heard his blood spatter over the walls below.

And then it was over. The trapdoor opened, and the weak Argonian was thrown up and out. With him kneeling over in pain, I saw the long, deep gashes down his back.

'Now what have you learnt today?' the torturer asked Torla as he came up through the trapdoor.

'That the law is evil.' Torla spat, despite all his agony.

'Wrong answer!' the torturer yelled in delight, as if he was hoping Torla would say some thing like that. He picked the Argonian up and stood him against the wall, then hammered him three times with his armoured fists.

My eyes watered as I saw the helpless soul smash into the wall repeatedly. The torturer then seemed satisfied, and shoved the Argonian back into its cell.

'Two a day, I think.' The torturer said. 'My victims die too early if I attack them every day. You get one day of rest.'

'Yippee…' Torla remarked.

'You, on the other hand, are stubborn.' The torturer said, turning to Torla. 'You can be hurt tomorrow as well. And the next day, for a matter of fact, because that is your original day. Then you can get back to the usual routine, if you behave.'

The Argonian hissed.

The torturer turned around in a circle, inspecting each of us, as if deciding which person would be next.

'What are your crimes?' he asked to us. 'And no lies, I can tell if you are or not.'

He pointed to Erin.

'I was caught giving my friend some skooma I had found from an outlaw's house.' She said, her head bowed as if in shame. 'The guards thought I was smuggling it.'

The torturer sniffed, and then turned to Vinziah.

'What about you?'

'I was captured by outlaws, and the guards thought I had taken part in their crimes.' Vinziah said, holding his head high.

The torturer stalled for a moment, wondering if Vinziah was telling the truth or not. Vinziah stared back at the torturer, his eyes flaming. The torturer nodded slowly.

'Alright.' He turned to me. 'And you?'

'I stood up against a rogue guard who had tried to kill me for no reason.' I said flatly.

'Nonsense. A guard would never do that.'

'Guards are people too.' I retorted. 'They also have feelings; I had annoyed him in the past. He was always tender around me. I did the right thing. Those guards who stood against me deserved to die.'

'Also stubborn.' The torturer told me. 'You're next.'

He placed a key in the lock, and threw open the door. Grabbing my shoulder, he started to pull me out of the cell, but before I had even gone through the door, I attempted to rip of his helmet and hit him in the face. As I gripped onto the helm, the torturer raised his hand, and everything went black.

-------------------------------

My mind awoke, but my eyes wouldn't open. As the numbness of my sleep wore off, I started to get my normal bodily feelings back, when it hit me.

An insane dizziness, washed through my head, driven by a blast of searing hot pain slashing through my back. I was surely going to die. Nothing would be able to stop me from dying. I couldn't think. Nothing was making sense. I was in such agony - my head was throbbing so much that I couldn't even yell. My heart beating in my throat, though it was hardly beating at all.

Then my eyes opened wide, and my breath left my body, disguised as a piercing scream. I fell to the cold floor, shaking uncontrollably.

'Did you enjoy that?' a voice said behind me. 'It's quite extraordinary, actually. I put you into a sleep, where you can feel no pain. And then I torture you. When you wake up, all the pain rushes to you at once.'

I looked around to see the speaker. It was the torturer.

'Although…' The torturer continued. 'I don't think that you have endured enough pain yet. He rushed up behind me and grabbed my back in a fierce pinch, then twisted. I gasped in pain, a voice hardly able to leave my mouth. And then I was being forced up a ladder, through a trapdoor, and back into my cell, where I fell to the ground, not even bothering to cover myself in my sack-blanket.

Hardly registering any of it, I heard the torturer leaving the prison, chuckling to himself.

'Jolin?' Vinziah whispered. 'Can you hear me?'

But I said nothing; just lay there in my agony, wondering if I would ever make it to finally kill Vanhil.

Yeah, I know that was a really short chapter, but who cares? I gave you a long one last time!