I wake up chilled to the bone. As my senses return; I can feel the cold surface of the metal table under me.

My wrists are pulled out to either side and up as far as possible, it is then that I feel the thick leather of belts that is cutting into my soft skin. I can't yell there is something gross inside my mouth and there is another belt is holding the gag tightly inside.

I then notice my legs are numb; they are tied together with two belts, and hung about three inches off the table. I am covered in only a thin linen t-shirt and pant, not sure what happened to my clothing.

My eyes try to look beyond the area of light that is all around me; maybe only about three feet in all directions. Footsteps are heard heading my way, from the sounds they are making, the tapping sound of heals hitting upon the wooden floors.

~tap ... tap ... tap … tap~

Like someone walking slowly, taking their time to move around in the dark, even if they knew the place by heart. My mind starts running around, as I start to count the belts. One, two ... around my wrists, three ... around my mouth, four and five ... around my legs...

~a light is turned on, and I have
to close my eyes as the room becomes
way too bright for me to accept right now.~

The man appeared out of nowhere, standing by the wall, looking at me, like he is examining me.

"Time to end your life."His voice was both terrifying and powerful, from a man that knew just what he was doing.

I tried to move my head to see who he was as that voice sounded so familiar to me.

~tap.. tap... tap.. ~

His footsteps got closer and when he entered my point of sight, I could not believe my eyes. For the man that had me tied up with all this belt... was none other than my father the one in fact that had warned me about the killers.

"Ah, I see you recognized me. No worries, for you will not be leaving here alive."

With that he removed the belt from my mouth and the gag, then he used the same belt to place around my head to hold it down on the table. I couldn't move my head to the left or right now. All I could do was look up at the ceiling.

"This here belt I had specially made. You see how the holes go from the tip of the tongue all the way to the buckle. Isn't it beautiful?"He spoke the words in a loving way as he stroked the belt almost in a lovers caress.

I notice it was about two feet long, and the holes did go all the way down it, at about one inch apart.

"I call what is going to happen to you, the pain factor. I am just trying to findout how much pain the human body can take."His face was right above me and I looked into his eyes, they were glassy and had the look of a mad man to them.

"For each time you scream out, I will hook the belt up a hole.We start out with it just layingon your beautiful neck."

He turned and when he came back, there were two more belts in his hands.
One was thick leather with pieces of barbed wire sticking out of it. The other one was shiny and had what looked to be covered in something.

"This one I will use to cut your skin open wide, and then this here one, that is laced with poison, will be use right afterwards to fill your body with so much pain that it will drive you insane." His words were spoken as if he had repeated them so many time that they struck fear deep down inside of me.

~crack ... crack…crack… ~

As each strike of the first belt ripped into my soft flesh, I screamed so loud that I thought the heavens themselves should have heard me.

"That was three times you screamed.You are such a treat to me." He said as he tightens the belt up three holes ... one for each scream.

~snap... snap... snap..~

The second belt hit in the same location as the first, as if he was truly a master at this form of torture, and once again, I screamed with each snap of that belt. The pain was so over bearing that even when he stopped to tighten the belt once more, my body was feeling the crime against me, and I almost screamed again.

"That is six notches my boy,and I wonder how many more I can dobefore you start to turn blue from lack of air."

That fear had not entered my mind; the fact that as the belt got tighter it would start to shut off my oxygen. He was able to see that fear in my eyes. And all he did was smile; as if that too was part of what he did to all the others.

~crack...snap…crack ... snap~

Now he was moving them faster, and he did them in groupings of one barbed wire and one poison back and forth in a group of three. Each one that touched my skin made me screamed out in pain. So that when he stopped he walked over and kissed my forehead and smiled.

"You truly are the best one so far,another six notches my special one."

Now the belt was almost against my throat all the way around. I knew a few more screams and I would not be able to scream. But, I wondered, if that meant he would stop the belts from hitting me.

~crack… snap ... crack... snap...~

Again I could not help but scream, but now I felt a burning flowing through my whole body. The poison was flowing freely through me. I no longer felt my legs or my arms; numbness had entered them, my head started to cloud over.

"Four more my dear, let's see where that takes us on your throat, shall we."

One, two, three... now it was tight and when he went to do number four, I felt it cut into my skin some. So, I screamed once more.

"Ah, now for this one here."

This went dark for me then, but I started to fade from my body and float, next thing I knew I was looking down at myself. He did not stop the beatings with the two belts until there was nothing left that anyone w would be able to say was me. I floated around above the scene and notice that he was not there alone, there were five others in the room, and all were taking notes and smiling at the fact.

******

"Noah wake up"

Noah couldn't hold back the scream that filled his lungs with panic and pain, the dream had been so real, and it was like he could feel every beat.

He tried to sit up but something was holding him in place. Noah opened his eyes and to his own surprise he saw Luke sitting over him, holding his wrist down. As soon as Luke saw that he was awake he realised him.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked in a worried voice as he continued looking at him.

"I am fine" Noah mumbled as he tried to hold back the tears that were starting to flow. He didn't want to cry about the dream, and especially not in front of Luke.

"That must have been one hell of a nightmare"

Noah could only nod in reply, he wasn't sure if his voice would hold if he tried to speak.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Noah shook his head. "No not really" He defiantly did not want to talk about that.

How do I tell someone that my dreams, dreams about being tortured by my father were real?
How do I tell Luke that there was something in my head that told me that I deserved it, that I deserved to be told that I was worth nothing, that I deserved to be physically abused?"

"I'll guess I'll let you go back to sleep" Luke said quietly and started to rise of the bed.

But before Luke could get back to his own bed Noah quickly reached for his arm and pulled him in for a hug. "Thanks for waking me" He whispered in Luke's ear before realising him.

He watched as Luke crawled in bed again, throwing the cover over himself and after five minutes Luke was sleeping again.

Noah looked up in the sealing, he didn't want to go back to sleep, afraid that the nightmares would take over again and he wasn't sure if he would be able to survive the night if they did. Usually the nightmares would last the whole night and if they didn't, he always had something that would calm him down. But he hadn't anything with him, since it wasn't allowed.

Noah glanced at Luke; he was sound asleep looking peaceful.

"Do you have nightmare Luke? Nightmares that make you want to run and hide? That hunts you down until in one day will kill you?"

Noah reached for his journal and the pen that was on his night desk. He found his flashlight in one of his bags. Slowly he crawled back into bed, hoping that Luke would wake up and started writing.

Cold hard voices, ringing in my ears, I scream, so lost in terror. Torture, Torture me, pull my nails, I will not denymy faith in Love. Torture me, force-feed mewith hate, I will not beone of you, Torture me

Savage beatingswith tender words. You will not take my soul. Torture me, expose me to extreme conditionsI will notrenounce my faithin humanity

Torture me; Throw me in the water dungeonof black emotions. I will not forgetkindness.

Torture me,now you arean eyewitnessto my power. Torture me, I will not renounce my faith in lovekindnesshumanity

Torture meyou don'tknow any better than this.You are forgiven.

It always helped him to write down his thoughts. He used to do it back home to but by drawing instead and finally then he, like it or not, Noah was soon asleep.

The nightmares were there, waiting for him but this time he was able to fight. This time he had some control in them, but the same person was till there, hunting his dreams: his father and James.