Blaine woke up the next day to the sound of someone banging against the bars of his cage. "Wake up, time for your workout." Blaine crawled out of the cage and stood up, averting his eyes. The subs didn't usually have someone who followed them around, but when you were in solitary confinement you got… special privileges. The school called them nurses, but Blaine saw them more as prison guards. The school used them to escort subs on punishment around. They were mostly switches, people who were born without a mark on their arm, and most of them were relatively civil to their charges. But there were a few Doms who worked as "nurses" for the school and they could get quite handsy with the subs there.
Today his guard was Ryan, a young switch who was known for being kind to the subs he guarded. "Yes, Sir," Blaine said, making sure to keep his eyes down. He knew Ryan wouldn't punish him for not showing respect, but if someone saw him being disrespectful to someone better then him he'd be in even more trouble than he already was.
This entire section of the school they were in was designated for those who had a solitary punishment. The section was equipped with sleeping areas, cages really, bathrooms, and exercise rooms. Ryan led him to a solitary exercise room and Blaine couldn't help but look around, even though he knew he wasn't going to find Sebastian. Blaine and Sebastian usually spent most of their time together. Today, however, they were both in trouble and were supposed to be kept in solitary confinement, except for their guard, until they received their big punishment later today at the Witness Ceremony.
Blaine began his daily workout. It was a few minutes before he got up the courage to ask Ryan something. If his guard wasn't Ryan, there was no way he would have gotten up the courage to speak. "Sir, forgive my asking, but where's Sebastian?"
Ryan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "The headmaster thinks it's better to keep you two apart, given the… circumstances."
Blaine felt his heart skip a beat and he stopped his workout. The way Ryan was talking you'd think he meant they were keeping them apart permanently. They wouldn't do that to them. The school knew how important Sebastian was to him, the strange bond they shared that no one could explain. "But we didn't do anything, we didn't do anything."
Ryan sighed and stepped up to Blaine, resting a gentle hand on his cheek, trying to provide him with as much comfort as possible. The touch was equal parts comforting and dominating, and Blaine couldn't help but relax against his hand. The school administrators wouldn't be happy if they knew he did, especially considering the fact that Blaine was on punishment, but Ryan didn't care. The thing about Ryan was he knew exactly what the subs he was in charge of needed, and he never took advantage of them. He didn't believe in the things the school taught, but he was there to lend a comforting hand to the subs he was in charge of. Most of the students didn't know what it felt like to be taken care of by someone who cared about them, and Ryan tried to provide all of them with as much comfort he could while still performing his duties.
"You broke the rules Blaine, I know, I know," he soothed at Blaine's protests. "It's a stupid rule, but it is a rule, and you two broke it. You know what happens when you break a rule, you get punished. And part of your punishment is to keep you separate from Sebastian. You'll just have to accept that."
When the subs first arrive at Dalton, a school administrator makes note of the name inked into their wrist. Afterwards, the name is covered up and the subs are forbidden to show anyone who their soulmate is. Because of this, Blaine does not understand the reason why he's so drawn to Sebastian. He doesn't understand, even though the school knows full well Sebastian and Blaine are part of a soulbond because they share the same Dom, why he can't stand to be away from Sebastian. Why his heart hurts every time he sees a bruise or a hickey left behind by one of the school officials. Why he wants nothing more than to protect him from everything. It's completely natural that they're drawn to each other, but the school refuses to acknowledge the idea or tell them about it. Ryan would never understand why they insist on keeping them apart.
Blaine clenched his jaw but nodded. He knew arguing would be useless, especially since he was talking to Ryan who didn't have any say in their training, he was just there to make sure they did what they were told by the training Doms. Ryan smiled slightly and removed his hand from Blaine's face. That was the most comforting contact he could risk for today.
He sat back down in the chair against the wall and watched as Blaine continued his workout. Blaine sighed and put himself through his sets. He missed Sebastian, and not knowing what he was doing at the moment was driving him crazy.
A little over an hour later Blaine finished and Ryan led him over to the shower in the back of the room. He was allowed a five minute cold shower to quickly cleanse himself before being handed the typical sub uniform. Afterwards, Ryan led him back to the cage he had slept in last night. Once he was inside he shut and locked the door, giving Blaine a sympathetic look.
"Someone will come by to collect you when it's time for your punishment. Hey," Ryan said at Blaine's dejected look. "At least you'll be in solitary tonight when the McKinley kids get run of the school."
Blaine shrugged and turned over. He heard Ryan's retreating footsteps and finally let his guard down enough to let his mind wander. He was worried about who Sebastian was being guarded by. Sebastian was tall, muscular, and beautiful. His parents never knew how to show him proper affection, and he showed up at Dalton a touch starved, terrified, sub who craved affection more than anything. That was part of the reason why Blaine had first felt connected to him. He recognized himself inside of Sebastian and he knew he needed to help him.
Sebastian hated the touch of anyone who wasn't Blaine, but his body craved dominance more than anyone he knew. That made him a huge target for the workers here. There was a strict no contact rule between any of the staff and the subs that worked there, unless it was during a punishment or training session, but that never stopped any of them. And to be completely honest, the school administration didn't care about what happened to its subs. They never could seem to keep their hands off of him. There were several guards in the punishment block who'd jump at the chance to get their hands on Sebastian, and even though he didn't want it, he wouldn't say a word.
That's what was wrong with this institution. They beat the subs down until they believed they were worthless, useless, tools to be used and abused. Blaine knew better. He had seen the beauty in the art of submission. He'd seen Doms who treated their subs like they were their entire world. He knew the system wasn't flawed, it was the people; the Doms who abused their subs like they were nothing but tools. He'd seen both sides of the system, and he fully believed the man who was his soulmate was the type of Dom who would take care of him, who would love him, who would dominate him in all the ways he craved.
Sebastian had never seen that. He'd never seen the gentle reassurance a strong hand could give to a quivering sub. Blaine had been to New York, he'd seen the system at its finest. And as soon as he was able to, Blaine was going to leave. He was going to leave Ohio behind and flee to the intoxicating city, and he was going to take Sebastian with him. He was going to show Sebastian how real Doms treated their subs. There was nothing Blaine wanted more than to find his soulmate, but there was no way he was going to leave Sebastian behind to rot in a school that would ruin all of his hard work. He'd spent months getting Sebastian to trust him, to believe that one day they'd both find happiness, and he wasn't going to let anyone ruin that for him.
Subs weren't supposed to have special connections with anyone but their intended Dom, that was just how it was. But the bond he felt with Sebastian was stronger than anything he had felt before. He had an intense desire to protect him, to take care of him, and he wasn't going to let anything take that away from him. He just hoped Sebastian wasn't being taken advantage of.
"I see you've been avoiding Rachel," Mercedes said as she and Kurt walked into the opening foyer of Dalton Academy. It was just after 9 am and the subs classes had already started. Kurt had made a point of avoiding Rachel at every chance he got, clinging tight to Mercedes, Santana, and Nick from the moment they had left McKinley. Rachel wouldn't dare open her mouth in front of Santana.
"Can you blame me?" he said as they followed the hoard of excited students through the halls. As soon as they arrived they were split into groups of twenty. Rachel, praise the Lord, had been sorted into a different group. They'd take turns rotating through the different areas of the school, before gathering in the large atrium where today's big punishment would happen.
A couple of jocks had been grouped up with them and they were obnoxiously talking about the things they were going to do to the subs they chose tonight. Santana discreetly stuck out her foot and they all fell like a stack of dominoes. Santana may have been a bitch but she hated the idea of Doms talking advantage of the subs housed here.
"Honestly? No. If she actually believes in the nonsense this school spits out then she's just as stupid as I thought," Santana said. Santana was a switch who leaned more towards the dominance side of the system so she was allowed to attend McKinley. She was a Latin firecracker who's bark was just as fierce as her bite.
Santana was one of the lucky ones. She had met her soulmate not long after she had first presented. She was an amazing Dom who loved her sub Brittany more than anything and was quick to defend her. Though Brittany hadn't attended Dalton, her parents had tried to home train her and almost ended up ruining the fragile girl.
"I still can't stand to be here," Nick said, looking around the halls in disgust. "This place nearly ruined Jeff, it disgusts me." Though Nick and Santana were both Doms who had met their soulmates, they were still required to attend. The school said it was to be fair, but honestly, Kurt believed it was because they wanted to show the bonded Doms how a "true Dom" treated their subs.
"The entire school should be disbanded," Kurt said as their group came to their first stop. In front of them was a window that showed a perfect view of a small class full of subs. They were all kneeling in neat rows, wearing almost nothing. They had a specific uniform they were required to wear on Witness Ceremonies. It was designed to show off their assets and make them more desirable for the visiting Doms. There was a woman dressed in leather standing in front of the classroom by a chalkboard. A man, probably one of the many "nurses" the school hired to keep order, walked up and down the rows striking the subs with a wooden pole every so often. The purpose was for him to correct their posture, but after he smacked a girl who was kneeling in perfect position Kurt came to the realization that he just wanted something to hit.
There was a set of speakers outside the room set up so they could hear what was going on inside the room. The woman at the front of the room seemed to be leading the group through several repetitions of the same phrase. "We are subs. We are worthless. We live to serve our Dom." Over and over again the kneeling students repeated the same phrase, receiving a smack for any sort of mistake. Kurt felt like he was going to be sick.
"How is that teaching them?" Kurt said in anger. "Smacking someone who's performing an order perfectly is wrong. They'll never know if they're behaving correctly if you only punish them."
The man who was leading their group, a switch by the name of Ryan, smiled sadly at Kurt. It was clear to him that he agreed with Kurt's statement, but he wouldst show it, too afraid to be reprimanded. He may have been a nurse at the school, but he was still a switch. In today's society, most people believed they weren't much better then subs and still had to show respect to their "higher ups." "I can't speak ill of Master Dylan," he said, his tone clearly showing that that was exactly what he wanted to do. "He's the head trainer, he knows what he's doing."
"They're subs," one person called out. Kurt realized it was one of the jocks that Santana had tripped earlier. "It's not like they have a say in what happens to them anyway. He's a Dom, by law he can do whatever he sees necessary to train them."
Ryan's mouth twitched and Kurt swore he was about to say something but suddenly there was a hand clamped down on his shoulder. Ryan relaxed almost instantly without even having to turn around, and Kurt could just tell that the man standing behind Ryan was his Dom. "Master," he said breathlessly, wrapping an arm around his waist. The man smiled and bent down to press a chaste kiss against the side of the man's temple, causing him to relax even further.
That, Kurt thought to himself, is the true persona of the perfect Dom. Someone who was kind, gentle and reassuring while still emitting pure dominance. "Why don't you go check on Justine, you know how she gets on this day?" The request seems like it was spur of the moment, but Kurt figured it was probably already planned out.
Ryan nodded and ran his hand down his Dom's side. "Yes, Sir," he said, voice strong but with a hint of submission. He glanced back at Kurt and winked, before heading down the hall without another word.
"My name is Miles," the man said, addressing the group of students. "I don't usually work here, but I'll be taking Ryan's place for the day. Something personal has come up and I feel it's best that I step in and lead you on this tour while he handles it. Now I know you all have done this many times but I feel like I need to go over the rules.
"You are not allowed to stray from the group until the start of tonight's claiming hour which will begin later than usual on account of the punishment," Miles began. There were a couple of excited whispers but they quickly died down. Kurt watched the man's eyes flash for a nanosecond at the word punishment before they returned to normal. "You are not allowed to have any contact whatsoever with the students here until the beginning of the claiming hour," he continued, looking pointedly at the jocks in the back of the group. "You are here to observe, not partake or get in the way of the specific training schedule the students have. If you try to interfere in any way you will be thrown out immediately and banned from the next three Witness Ceremonies.
"Do not forget you are guests here and any violation of the rules I have just stated or any of the withstanding rules you've already agreed upon will result in immediate expulsion from today's Witness Ceremony. I may be a stand in but I will not tolerate anyone breaking the rules and the second I see that someone has crossed the line I will perform immediate action," he said, looking around at the small group of Doms. If Ryan had said that, a lot of the people in front of Kurt would have just laughed. But Miles oozed dominance, and his words had even the rowdiest of students nodding their heads.
"Good. Now this room right here is the first lesson any of the students here learn," he said. "It is vital the subs learn their place as soon as they are admitted, otherwise it may result in disobedience in their later lessons. We call this stage rewiring," he said. Though his voice suggested he believed in everything he was saying, Kurt could tell by his facial and bodily expressions that it was anything but.
"Brainwashing," Nick said under his breath and Kurt couldn't help but agree. To think that that was the first thing sweet innocent Jeff had heard when he arrived, broke his heart. He couldn't imagine what it was doing to Nick to witness this. Miles looked directly at Nick but didn't act like he heard anything.
"Alright," Miles said, clapping his hands together. "Let's move onto the next stage shall we?"
At one the group headed towards the lunchroom to meet up with the rest of the McKinley kids. The lunchroom was split in two by a glass wall, one side for the Dalton kids and the other for the McKinley. The glass wall was put into place so the McKinley kids could observe what an average lunch day was like. The split was partially to keep the Doms from mingling with the subs and ruining their everyday routine and partially to make it easier to serve the McKinley kids.
The Doms were served food similar to what they received at McKinley, just better quality, while the subs were served a specially designed meal of fruits, vegetables, and something that looked like oatmeal but Kurt was almost positive wasn't. There meals were specifically chosen to keep up the subs strength. They weren't allowed any sort of junk food and if they were caught cheating on their diet by attempting to eat something that wasn't approved they were severely punished.
Kurt glanced over at the other side of the lunchroom and frowned. Watching the subs eat was always something that disturbed Kurt. Many of them were kneeling on the floor instead of sitting in the provided chairs, Kurt figured they had probably been denied the right to sit as some sort of punishment. Almost half of them weren't eating at all and that made Kurt clench his fists in disgust. Food deprivation should never be issued as a punishment. Miles rested his hand on Kurt's shoulder gently and a look of understanding passed between them.
Miles gathered their group at one large table after they got their food. Kurt was sitting in-between Santana and Nick. He watched as Nick glared at the other side of the lunchroom, probably thinking of Jeff being in the same situation only months before. He rested a hand on his knee and squeezed gently, snapping him out of it. "Jeff's okay," Kurt said softly so only Nick could hear him. "He's at home, safe, waiting for you. Just a few more hours and you'll be with him."
Nick rested a hand on top of Kurt's and squeezed, whispering a thank you. Kurt picked at his food, not having much of an appetite. All he could think of were the subs sitting in the room next to him, starving, while he stuffed his face. Santana, Mercedes, and Nick, as well as a few others must have felt the same way because they hardly touched their food.
Miles gave the four of them a sympathetic look before continuing to eat. He checked his phone every so often, probably making sure Ryan and whoever Justine was were okay. Kurt had watched Miles a lot today. He could tell just by looking at him how much the man loved his sub. He was the type of Dom Kurt aspired to be. Someday, he'd have his boys at his feet and he swore right then and there that he would show both of them just as much love and devotion as Miles showed Ryan.
Once lunch was over, Kurt got up with the rest of his group to continue their tour. He glanced at his watch and sighed. Just a few more hours and his day in this hell hole would be over.
At four-thirty all the McKinley kids filed into the largest atrium and found seats. Kurt sat with Santana, Mercedes and Nick. He hadn't seen Rachel at all since they'd arrived at Dalton and he was glad for that. Kurt wasn't sure he could handle being forced to listen to her opinions on how the school doing an open punishment was the best for the subs. Kurt knew it wasn't. It was humiliating, degrading, and probably not even justified.
Once everyone was settled Dylan, the head trainer they had seen earlier today, came out carrying a whip. There was a bench with restraints connected to it in the middle of the stage and Kurt could barely stand to look at it. Dylan started a speech thanking everyone for coming and explaining why open punishments were the best training method. Kurt could see a lot of kids nodding in agreement, but it looked like most of them just wanted him to shut up and get on with the punishment. Whether or not it was because they were excited to witness a punishment or just wanted to get to the claiming hour Kurt didn't know.
Kurt glanced over at Jeff and noticed he was white as a sheet. He took his hands gently in his as reassurance. Dylan was the head trainer, he was sure Jeff had told Nick many horror stories about what he had done to him and it had to be hard to sit still and just watch. Santana was pale as a ghost, her red fingernails gripping the arm rests of her theater chair. Mercedes had her gaze fixed on her cellphone, refusing to look up for even a second. Kurt looked around and saw some of the same reaction. Some of the kids here had subs that had been put into similar situations and he knew it was hard for them to handle, others just didn't agree with the type of training the school supported.
Kurt felt a weird sensation spread through him, like something incredibly important was about to happen. Suddenly Dylan finished his long speech and two nurses came out onto the stage, leading two boys. Both of them were completely naked. The boy on the left had short brown hair and he was shivering. His neck was covered in teeth marks and his body showed obvious signs of abuse. He looked like he was about to pass out. The other boy was in similar shape, but not as severe. He had short black curly hair and was obviously concerned for the other boy. He opened his mouth to speak but was slapped by the man who was gripping his neck tightly.
Kurt wasn't sure why but a sudden burst of rage filled him and it took every ounce of his will not to jump to his feet. The other brown haired boy looked like he was about to speak out against slapping the black haired boy but the girl who had a hand in his hair covered his mouth with a well-manicured hand, successfully stopping any protest from exiting his mouth.
Dylan laughed like their antics were the butt of his next joke. "So," he said, stepping up to the black haired boy. He rested a boot on top of the kneeling boy's crotch and pressed down, squishing his balls. It was obvious from the look on his face that he was in pain, but he didn't make a sound. Kurt hated to think about what he was probably subjected to to build up that kind of resistance.
"These two sluts were caught in bed together," Dylan said, applying even more pressure to the black haired boy's crotch. The other boy tried to lung at Dylan but the woman just tightened her grip and pulled him back. "If you're going to act like whores in this school," he said, leaning down so he was right in the black haired boy's face. "You're going to get punished like one."
Dylan stepped back and addressed the audience. "Now, who wants to see two slutty skanks get the punishment they deserve?"
The crowd cheered their agreement while Kurt closed his eyes. He had never been so angry in his life and he didn't know why. His entire body was thrumming with coiled rage and he suddenly found himself the one struggling to stay seated.
Dylan stepped up to the black haired boy and gripped a handful of his hair, wrenching his hand back so far his back was arched in a painful curve. He hocked a loogie and spit it on the black haired boys face, rubbing it in with the hand that wasn't gripping his hair. "Let's start with you, you fucking whore."
