A thin shaft of light creeps into the room and spreads over my face, hurting my eyes. I shut them tight and cover my face in my hands, shivering a little. There's silence for a moment, and then footsteps approach me. I can tell by smell that they're a human man, but I don't recognize them. They crouch down beside me.

"Are you okay?"

Am I hearing things? Is this another dream? It must be, because there's no way a guard just asked if I'm okay. I take my hands away from my face and squint up at him, not knowing what to say.

"I guess that's a stupid question?"

I nod slowly.

"You must be hungry, right?"

I nod again.

He bites his lip for a moment, and then reaches into his pocket.

"I know I shouldn't be doing this, but…"

He holds out a cereal bar. "Just don't tell anyone, okay?"

I snatch the snack out of his hands and tear it open. It's the first proper food I've eaten here, and it's gone far too quickly. I struggle to sit up.

"Is that blood on your hands? And your shoulder, and leg, and arm?"

"...I was in a fight."

"Oh, yeah, they told me. What's your name?"

I look at him, bewildered.

"Jana."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

He's silent for a moment.

"What happened to your shoes and jumper?"

"I, uh… shredd'd 'em."

"Ok… Anyway, I need to take you to the wadern."

He stands up, and I slowly get to my feet. He cuffs my hands behind my back, but doesn't tighten them enough to pinch my wrists like the other guards do.

"That's an old bloodstain on your ankle, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

He puts the cuffs onto my ankles and then picks up a muzzle. I step back.

"No way."

"I have to, Jana. Don't make it harder for yourself."

"It's 'orrible! 'Ow'w'd you like bein' muzzled?!"

"I don't want to do this either, but that's what I was told to do."

There's no getting out of this. I take a deep breath, and then lift my chin.

"Go on, then," I say quietly.

He carefully buckles it on, and I feel a few tears escape my eyes.

"It's alright, Jana, you'll be fine."

He locks a metal collar in place around my neck and leads me back through the narrow corridor away from solitary. I'm glad to be leaving that place, but going to the warden is never good. The man doesn't speak, and the only sounds are our footsteps and the rattle of my chains. Before long we've reached the wooden door. The guard knocks twice.

"Enter."

He leads me into the office and leaves me standing in front of the warden.

"Six thousand and seventy two. I've been expecting her here for…" (he checks his watch) "five minutes now."

He looks over at the guard. "I suspect that she protested the muzzle?"

"She did, Mr Hartington."

Hartington nods. "I've been looking into her file, and it turns out that she was born wild." He gives me a disdainful look. "The wild ones are always particularly tricky."

Once again, I hold his gaze. My eyes are burning yellow; I can't hold it back while I've got this horrible muzzle over my face.

"But anyway, I digress. Six thousand and seventy two, you know why you were sent to solitary, don't you?"

I don't move for a moment, and then nod.

"Have you learnt your lesson?"

I stare straight ahead. This is part of the punishment, admitting they've beaten you down.

"Answer me, girl."

I don't have a choice. I nod slowly.

"Good. What happened to her jumper?"

"It was torn up in her cell. Her shoes and socks, too. She says she shredded them herself."

"Is this true?"

I nod. There's no point denying it.

"Right. She'll have a dozen lashes for that."

I tense up in anticipation. Being hit is common. I can deal with that. But actually being taken aside and beaten…

"Take her to Officer Massey. I'll send her a memo."

The guard leads me to the door.

"Wait."

We stop short.

"There's blood on her back. Are her brands affected?"

Shit, I forgot about that. I wince when the guard touches my bloody back as he lifts my shirt to show him.

"Bring her back in front of the desk."

I'm lead back to the middle of the room.

"I assume that you did this yourself."

I nod.

"And that you did it deliberately."

I nod. He glares at me and I glare back.

"She'll have twenty more lashes for that, and be rebranded next dark moon if those wounds have healed enough."

There's still a two weeks until the next dark moon, I know that I'll have healed by then.

"Take her to Massey now."

The guard leads me out of the room and a short way down the corridor into another. Massey looks up.

"Sixty-seventy two, is it?"

Massey is probably the only guard that we all know by name. She is, in a word, a sadist. That's why Hartington trusts her to hand out the beatings.

She checks her computer monitor.

"Wracked up thirty-two strokes total. I'm almost impressed."

The guard holding me hands my chain over to her.

"I'll radio you to take her back to her cell when it's done."

He nods and leaves, guilt written all over his face. I try to resist as Massey drags me over to the pole in the middle of the room, but she's strong for a human and she's not afraid to use her shocker.

"Come on, you little shit, behave yourself! I've got every right to beat you longer if you keep this up."

She makes me kneel up facing the pole, uncuffs my wrists and pulls my hands up above my head. The pole is lined with holes up its side and she slides a bolt through the one nearest my hands and fastens a thick shackle to either end of it, locking them around my wrists. I tug against them, but there's no point. The chain between my ankles stops me from getting up. I turn my head to watch as she picks up the long, thin cane.

"Stay still."

The first blow lands across my shoulder blades and I inhale sharply, immediately cursing myself for making a noise. I manage to stay silent for the next ones, forbidding myself from crying, my eyes shut tight. But the tears find their way out anyway and before long I'm sobbing quietly into my elbow, hating myself for breaking down but at the same time pitying myself for the pain I'm in. I can smell my own fresh blood again.

"And that's thirty-two."

She releases my wrists, pulls me to my feet by the collar, chains me to a ring on the wall and cuffs my hands behind my back while she radios for me to be picked up. For about five minutes I stand there shaking, wiping my eyes on my shoulder, parched, starving, my back stinging from the beating and the scratches from my time in solitary.

When the guard returns to pick me up he doesn't say a word to Massey, just takes my chain down from the wall and leads me from the room. He only speaks once we're alone in the corridor.

"I seriously just have to take you back to your cell?"

I nod, a little confused as to what he means.

"They're honestly not going to treat those wounds?"

I shake my head.

"Oh shit, you're all bloody! Are you going to be alright?"

I nod. I have to deal with my injuries because no-one's going to heal them for me.

When I'm unchained and put back in my cell I immediately drop to the floor beside the water dish and feverishly shovel the stuff into my mouth.

"Jana!"

Maddy runs over to me and hugs me close. I yelp as she touches my back and she hastily releases me.

"They put ya in solitary, di'n't they? I figured, after ya di'n't come back…"

"Yeah. 'Ow long was I gone?"

"Two nights. We 'ad lunch a while ago."

I nod, rubbing my jaw where the muzzle was.

"Did they take yer jumper an' shoes too?"

"Oh, no, they di'n't. Solitary got to me head, ya know, an' I tore 'em up. An' I ripp'd up me brands too."

"You- You what?"

"Tore up me brands. I wasn't thinkin' straight. So I got a beatin' for that, an' they're doin' the brands again nex' dark moon."

We're quiet for a bit.

"I di'n't reco'nize the guard 'o brought me outta solitary. Is 'e new?"

"Same one 'o brought ya in jus' now? Yeah, I firs' saw 'im yesterday."

"Well, he… He isn't too bad. 'E gave me a cereal bar ev'n tho' he knew 'e wasn't meant to, an' 'e used me name, an 'e di'n't force the muzzle on me, an' he seemed concern'd 'bout the gashes I got from the beatin'."

She nods. "I notic'd he doesn't do the cuffs up too tight."

I get up and sit on my mat instead.

"So what did they do to the res' of ya?"

"We all got a pretty bad floggin', an' no food for the res' of the day. There was four of 'em who went after us, by the way."

"I'm guessin' that kid 'o was glarin' at us was one of 'em?"

"Yeah."

I shake my head.

"Some people jus' don't know 'ow stupid they're bein'. If we're gonna get through this, turnin' on each other ain't gonna help."

Maddy doesn't reply.

Author's note: Sorry if I overdo the accents at any point, they're just really fun to write! Thanks for reading!