CJ eased himself around the demon disguised as his friend, careful not to even brush against her and entered the dark, square stone room, where two chains bolted to the ceiling and two on the floor made an x formation, so that the small child that was shackled to them had his arms splayed up above his bowed, white-blond head.  His feet, touched the floor, but his buckled knees dangled above the pavement, keeping the unconscious kid semi-suspended by the old rusted metal cuffs.

            The air in CJ's repaired lungs was sucked from them faster than the demon's kiss had taken it, and the food from the feast began bubbling in his stomach again.

He could faintly remember it.  It hadn't been long ago.  Maybe a day, or it could have been a week or two when Etheldreda had used him to go kidnap Evabelle's little brother.  He could still remember seeing the haggard woman, waving him away from coming in.  She said she would go fetch whatever Etheldreda had made up as an excuse, and told him to wait.  At the time, CJ hadn't had a clue what they were doing there.  He hadn't been fighting particularly hard.  Admittedly, he'd more or less just sat back as his body went about to do whatever the witch wanted him to.  But the moment Etheldreda had focused his eyes on the small blond boy slouching on the couch watching cartoons, with a display of half-finished drawings in front of him (most of them of a pretty brunette girl) CJ's attention had perked up.

            "You're Thom, right?"  Etheldreda had asked, using his mouth.

            The kid rolled his head back and had stared at him with glazed eyes.  "Yeah, and you're CJ, Evabelle's boyfriend."

            Etheldreda smiled as CJ tensed inwardly.  "That's right,"  Etheldreda said, making the boy trapped under his own skin fidget as he again began to fight for control.  "Hey, Thom," Etheldreda glanced around the corner before stepping into the apartment.  CJ struggled harder, trying to move himself back out.  He didn't like where this was going.  "Can you come here for a moment?"

            Thom scrunched his eyebrows.  "Why?"  He scooted to the other end of the couch, away from CJ.  Good!  Don't trust me!  CJ thought.    

            "I have a secret," Etheldreda did not move further inside.  "It's one that's just for you.  I think you'll like it."

            Thom tilted his head.  "Okay, so just tell me,"

            "I can't tell you here,"  Etheldreda shook CJ's head.  "Just come out here in the hall and I'll explain."  Etheldreda smiled.  "You'll like this, I promise."

            Thom hesitated for a moment longer, but in the end he gave a little shrug and slid off the couch.

            No!  CJ screamed silently.  Don't listen!

            But the innocent little boy did not read minds.  He stepped out into the hall followed by Etheldreda/CJ, who quietly closed the door behind them.  Then the witch crouched down to the boy's height.  "You have to promise not to tell your mom, at least, not yet."

            Thom crossed his arms.  "Why?"

            "Because then you'll ruin the surprise."  Etheldreda grinned and leaned forward to whisper in Thom's ear.  "I know where Evabelle is,"

            Thom jerked back, his mouth falling open, light blooming in the cloudy round eyes.  "What?"  His small hands shook at their sides as he brought them up to cover his mouth.  "W-Where?"

            Etheldreda straightened up and held out a hand to the child.  "I'll take you to her."

            Thom's mouth split in the most heartbreaking smile as CJ clawed against his confines.  NO! 

            The boy leapt up with an energy that had not been there a moment before and grasped the witch's hand.  "Then I can bring her home!" 

            After that, things got a little fuzzy as they reached their magic portal and had put the kid under with the magic sleeping drug.  Then they had returned to their stronghold, when they then brought the boy down the corridor that lead to the cold stone door, but Etheldreda had just handed the boy to one of the creepy vagi guys, who'd then taken the boy inside.  That had to have been the last time CJ was used, but time had become so fluid and memories fluttered in and out of order that he'd already, almost forgotten.  The sight of the imprisoned child brought the recollection flooding back.

            Thom twitched as CJ's shoes echoed in the large empty room, making the chains clink, and groggily the child lifted his head, making CJ come to a dead halt.  Pale blue eyes squinted at the frozen reformed youth with the new clothes and repaired glasses.  "CJ?  Why...What...?" He moved his arms as he tried to stand, the little boy closed his eyes again.  "Ow, why does everything hurt?"  He blinked open and glanced up, back and forth between where his arms were raised.  Then he looked down at his feet.  Finally he returned his stare to CJ with a lost expression that had tinges of fear around the edges.  "What's goi--" He cut off and those big baby eyes grew to the size of apples.  His mouth practically fell to the floor.  Then the child, not caring about the kinks from sleeping in chains, began to pull against the manacles as if he'd completely forgotten about them.  His lips curved up and his shining eyes filled with tears.  "Evabelle!  Evabelle!  Evabelle!"

            A sickening horror-struck wave bashed against CJ as he whirled around to see the demon that had silently followed behind him into the room, and that had not returned to her normal form.  She was smiling with Evabelle's lips in the way that reached her eyes like they always did.  Without a single word, she paced over to Thom's ecstatic, wriggling form where she raised her hand and brought it swinging around and smacked the boy hard across the cheek.

            The loud clap echoed in the stone chamber, ringing in CJ's head like a fog-horn.  The elated babbling of Thom had been silenced as his neck jerked to the side.  Slowly, he turned back to face his sister, his cheek already dark red, his eye watering.  He blinked in astonishment up at her. 

            CJ tried to open his mouth to shout that that wasn't his sister, but now instead of Etheldreda's inward magic shutting him down, he sensed an outward kind that must be coming from the demon.

            "You've been a very bad boy, Thom," Evabelle shook her head, her voice colder than the air in the frigid room.      

            Thom's mouth was opening and closing as a single tear raced down his cheek.  "W-what?"

            The Evabelle demon backhanded Thom on the other side, making the boy cry out as his head was flung the opposite way.  Again trapped within himself, CJ flinched, his heart feeling as though someone had swung a pickax into it.  Stop it!

            "You've been looking for me.  You've been trying to find me."  Evabelle shook her head.

            Thom's lip trembled.  "I-I-I just asked a few people if they'd s-seen y-you.  Mom's b-been so scared and I-I-I was so s-scared--"

            "You should be more scared now," Evabelle cut him off.  "You don't go looking for people that don't want to be found.  I ran away for a reason."

            Thom blinked very fast.  "I-I don't--"

            "Did you really think I loved you?"  Evabelle gave the kid a pitying look that made CJ want to pull his own hair out.  "You and that woman were so dreadfully dull, I just had to get away from all your blah,"

            "B-but Evabelle--" Thom started again, the tears, no longer just from the physical pain.

            Evabelle snatched the hair from the top of his head, yanking it hard, and made him stare straight up at her.  The child gasped, as Evabelle spat, "You know all the movies have actors in them that pretend to be people they're not?  Well, that's exactly what I was doing with you.  I played the part of a pathetic girl that loved you, but now I'm free to be me, only until you decided you wanted to find me and bring me back to Hell."

            This was Hell.  CJ writhed from the inside.  No!  That's not Evabelle!  That's the actor right there!

            Thom tried to wiggle free, but Evabelle pulled harder.  "You have to be punished for trying to find me, but I can't give you the right kind of punishment alone."

            Evabelle then released the sniveling boy and snapped her fingers.  The great stone door opened, causing light to spill in.  CJ was shocked to discover, he could move his body just enough to see who entered.

            A scraggly, mangy man with a lopsided grin slouched in.  His long arm swung low, but CJ caught sight of the hairy hands and long pointed nails.  On seeing little Thom watching him, the smirk widened and he gave a gut-wrenching chuckle.  His knobbly fingers danced, and his claws lengthened as if he couldn't wait to get started.

            After him came another thin man, this one blank-faced and as pale as a ghost.  He pushing a doctor's cart, covered in cold steel intricate instruments on the top level, that certainly included multiple long needled syringes, what looked like an oxygen mask, and possibly a catheter.  On the lower levels of the cart, CJ saw varying vials of multi-colored liquids.  Some of them bubbled like it was boiling within the bottle, others remained placid, while others fogged up with condensation.  A dark moldy green one, slid around like it was filled with thick mud.  The pallid figure also dragged in a IV bag on one of those stands. 

            CJ really had the urge to hurl now.  He swiveled back to face the young boy and the demon.  Again, CJ desperately tried to open his mouth, but that was something the evil Evabelle refused to budge on.

            The scruffy werewolf man rolled his shoulders.  "So how many do I get to do?"  His yellow eyes raked over Thom, like he was a piece of steak.

            Evabelle gave an apathetic wave as she started to walk back over to CJ.  "I told you already, Kenneth.  Mom always put him time out for as many years as he was.  He's eight years old, so eight is the beginning of the punishment."  She stopped next to the internally screaming, bespectacled boy. 

            Kenneth gave an annoyed growl.  "Only eight?"

            Evabelle shrugged.  "He's tiny.  And remember to pause between each one for a good minute.  Too much at once would kill him.  And we wouldn't want that."

            Thom was shaking his head back and forth.  "Evabelle p-please!  Why are you doing this?"  His gaze went up to the messy knarred man that neared him and shrunk back.  "What are you going to do?"  He squeaked.

            Kenneth licked his lips as CJ thrashed out with his mind.  MOVE!  DO SOMETHING!  He urged his body to run forward, but his feet remained firmly planted.

            The werewolf paced around, ducking under the chain, so that he now stood behind Thom, who craned his neck to keep his shining light blue eyes on the guy.  Kenneth snatched the collar on the back of Thom's t-shirt and pulled.  Thom reared up and gasped as the fabric twisted tight around his neck.  He struggled and fought.  The shirt started to rip a little, but apparently not fast enough as Kenneth gave an impatient grunt and reached over the kid's shoulder and let his claws slice through it the rest of the way, also cutting Thom's chest, creating faint shallow red lines that oozed out blood.  Thom fell forward, shuddering and wheezing.  Salty tears streamlined his puffy face. 

            CJ stared at the kid and felt like crying himself, but his eyes didn't burn, his lip didn't tremble, because that would break the illusion of the demon's ploy.

            Kenneth grabbed what looked like a rope at his right hip.  He let the thing uncurl, and CJ's soul fractured a little more as he realized it was a dark snake whip.  He raised it up and brought it down against the cement floor with an earsplitting crack!  Thom yelled even though, he hadn't been hit, but he obviously knew what was coming.

            "It's only eight, kid," Kenneth sneered and without a beat between he lifted and swung down again, this time slashing the hard leather against Thom's back.  The child arched up and howled.  He yanked hard on his chains as if he could rip them out of the ceiling.  He stepped as far as they would allow, as far as he could get, away from the sadistically beaming man.

            "EVABELLE!"  Thom sobbed out.  "Why are you doing this to me?!"

            From beside CJ, fake Evabelle put her hands on her hips.  "I already told you, you stupid little bastard.  I hate you, so I left.  You tried to find me, so I deserve retribution."

            Thom tossed his head from side to side, his eyes so wide, shining with pain, fear, and so much confusion.  CJ could practically hear the words that were flying through the boy's head.  How is this Evabelle?  She's nothing like my sister.  She can't really hate me.  Why would she say that?  But she's doing this to me.  Perhaps it's true.  I've never known Evabelle at all. 

            CJ hated magic.  He used to love Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.  The thought of having super powers had always been a dream to him, but ever since discovering that magic was real, he truly longed for it to have stayed in the books.  Now though, all he desired was to cry out to the boy that magic was very much real and that it was all being used against him.

             "I d-didn't!  I d-didn't!"  Thom sobbed as Kenneth raised the weapon again and snapped it down a second time. 

            Thom thrashed wildly.  "PLEASE!"

            As the kid tossed himself back and forth, CJ caught sight of the back where the lashes had struck and saw, not only the instantaneous bruising where the skin was rapidly changing from red, to purple, to black and yellow, but there were tiny abrasive cuts littering his pale flesh with little red dots as the drops of blood slipped out.

            What was that whip made of?

            A small, soft hand curled around CJ's and he nearly leapt out of his own skin as he felt power over his muscles return.  Demon Evabelle smiled softly up at him as she started to lead him to the corner of the room, furthest away from the wailing child and the whipping wolf.

            CJ's wrenched his hand away from hers once, he felt the control and glared down at her.  He was finally able to open his mouth of his own accord, but his voice was a mere whisper, so that it wouldn't carry, which did not surprise him.  "Stop this!  You can't do this!"  His voice strained in his throat as he used the strength of a shout, but it only came out a garbled hiss.

            Evabelle tapped her chin.  "I never really understood why people say that.  'You can't do this' as they are in fact doing it.  You have this natural sense to humanize things that are not.  The fact that the word is 'humanize' also seems invalid to me, considering humans are the most corruptible and have done just as cruel things to others."

            "He's just a kid!"  CJ clenched his shaking hands into fists.  He winced harshly as he heard another snap of the whip and the scream of the child.

            Evabelle glanced over at the sound too.  "It's a demon skin whip," She explained.  "It burns like acid against the flesh of angels, but I didn't know what it would do to a human.  It looks like it's imbedding the fragments into his own skin.  I do wonder if the bruises will be permanent."  She shrugged.  "Well, there will definitely be a fair few scars."

            CJ took a step forward and raised his hands to wrap his fingers around her throat, but froze.

            Evabelle glanced back at him.  "Well, are you going to do it?"

            "You're using your magic on me," CJ grunted.

            Evabelle shook her head, smile widening.  "The only thing I'm doing right now is keeping your voice down.  You're the one who doesn't have the balls."

            CJ grit his teeth so hard, that it sent a painful jolt through his skull.  He knew she was right.  The problem wasn't that the Mistress held the face of Evabelle, it was...

            "You know what I could do to you.  You know that I'm much more than Etheldreda."  The Mistress turned to face Thom and Kenneth, her hands held behind her back.  

            The child was now swinging limply in the chains, whimpering and trembling, making the shackles rattle.

            CJ slowly lowered his hands and hung his head.  Though, his movements were free, his heart felt confined in a cell of its own, that was far too small, that squeezed around it, tighter and tighter.

            "Are you not going to ask me about the second man?"  Evabelle's voice asked.

            CJ glowered at her through a furrowed brow.  His eyes blazed as tears raced to the corners of them.  He'd nearly forgotten about the ghostly man.  CJ shifted his gaze over to him and gave him a once over.

            He was thin and tall as a rod.  Unlike Kenneth, he was clean, and had a refined look about him.  He wore a black suit that starkly stood out against the ice white skin and slick-back white hair.  His irises around the pupil also had a washed out look.  He reminded CJ of the man that was at Etheldreda's sister's place.  The vampire, CJ remembered.

            Mr. White was standing a little ways from Thom and the wolf.  He was messing with the different bottles of liquid and the needles, filling the syringes to a precise amount before moving on to another.  His face was also different than Kenneth's, whose was filled with a vicious glee as he tortured the child, while this one had a rather bored expression.  He wasn't appalled by this, he just accepted as his everyday life. 

            CJ wasn't sure if that was worse.

            "The firstborn," Evabelle nodded at him.  "Is a part of Kruor's clan that he sent to us.  He was once a human too.  He was a devoted scientist and doctor.  He knows the anatomy well.  He also understands chemistry, so he was the perfect candidate for this job."

            "What is he doing?"  CJ whispered, his eyes narrowing as the vampire lifted the boiling red potion up to his face.

            "He's preparing for his turn, obviously."  Evabelle replied.  "You see, our current distributer is a bit of an experimenter.  He likes to put things together to see what will happen, so he has a fair amount of intriguing concoctions.  After our dear vampire friend examined them, he told us which ones would be the most interesting to try on a human.  He also says that some would burn with such fiery agony, twist the veins around tendons, be like sending needles through the bloodstream, cleave muscle from bone."

            CJ stumbled backward, blood drained from his face, sound started to cloud out as dark shadows appeared around the edges of his vision.  "The p-pain would k-kill--"  He stammered, but Evabelle's shoulders bounced as she laughed.

            "That's the beauty of it." the Mistress sighed happily.  "He won't.  The firstborn knows the right amounts to give, and the IV you see keeps him from getting too much at once as well, while keeping him awake to experience it all."  Evabelle stretched her arms over her head.  "I have no doubt that he'll be driven mad by it.  The important part is that he stays alive."

            The blood roared in CJ's ears.  His legs were shaking so back, he thought he might collapse.  He took a few more steps away from Evabelle, and his back hit the wall, which he used to keep himself upright.  "Why?"  He breathed, a hot tear steaming down his cheek.  He closed his eyes as the whip cracked again.

                "You know better than anyone, Christopher."  Evabelle cooed softly, and CJ cringed as his mind's eye shifted back where he could see it all so clearly.  He was back at his apartment, staring down at the faint white lines all down his arms.  He'd torn off his glasses by the bathroom sink as tears had rained down from him for hours, now dried and sticky on his face.  His body had shuddered and gasped and retched, but then it had all stopped.  His arms were still braced against the counter as he starred at the bottle of his dad's narcotics.  It would be so easy. 

            Evabelle's voice hauled him back.  "It is worse to live in endless pain than to die and escape from it."

            CJ's eyes fluttered open.  "Go to Hell," he muttered.

            Evabelle rolled her eyes as Thom shrieked another cry as the whip came down again.  "Look, Christopher.  I'm going to make a deal with you, because you see, I'm really not that bad."

            CJ exhaled loudly and shook his head.

            Evabelle walked closer to him and CJ wished he could put more space between them.  "Trust me, what I'm about to offer is very kind."  When she was right up in front of him again, once more close enough to kiss him she whispered, "I'll let the boy go."

            The fists as CJ's side twitched.

            "I'll release Thomas Jackson Danes, I'll heal every last injury on his body, and I'll erase his memory of this hellish place and that it was his sister that harmed him."  Evabelle tilted her head innocuously.  "You know I can do it."

            The healing on CJ's own injuries told him that she certainly could, but the question was would she really do it?  This was a demon, a lying, cheating, manipulative demon.

            "There is only one condition for this, though," the Mistress said.

            CJ had been waiting for that.

            "All that needs to be done for me to do this is for you to take his place."

            He should have expected that, but it still felt like he'd been thrown off guard.  It felt like a succor punch to the stomach.  He couldn't speak.

            Evabelle waved a hand in front of his face, smiling sweetly.  "Well, I'll give you one minute to take it or leave it.  If you don't give a response within that time, I will take it as a no."  Then she turned back to the bawling Thom and the leering Kenneth and started back over to them.  It seemed like she was walking away from CJ through a dark tunnel as his surroundings started to sway around him.

            It was a simple requirement.  Take his place.  Be whipped by an excruciating demon skin whip.  CJ's eyes shifted back to the vampire scientist.  Have so many unbearable experimental potions ricochet through his veins, having him conscious through it all, driving him to utter insanity by all the pain.

            The food in his stomach churned and he was amazed that it didn't all come up in one.  Why was this even a question.  He'd been going through hell with Etheldreda, being her filthy, malnourished, beaten three times a week, slave.  But even as much as he despised the witch, there was still a sliver of humanity in her.  It was a twisted, nearly unrecognizable sliver, but he knew it was there through the tearful kisses as she begged for love.

            The Mistress knew him too well.  Her words about living and dying had been a part of him for a long time several years ago.  He'd managed to climb his way out of that hole, but now...  It was just pain or pain.  Etheldreda's torture usually lead to unconsciousness, and though it was not death, it was an escape.  This was worse and there was no escape.

            CJ shook his head.  He had to stop thinking about himself.  This was Thom, an eight-year-old kid or him.  He wanted to shove himself off the wall, stand tall, and say "take me".  Because that's what heroes do.  Practically every comic book he owned had the hero bravely standing up and willingly sacrificing their own happiness or even their own life for the good of another because that was the right thing to do.

            CJ's sweaty hands slipped against the cold cement, but there was not strength in his legs to hold him, and his arms, though no magic held them back, did not push himself up as he desired them to.  His voice, now free of constriction died in his throat.  More tears rolled down his cheeks.  Why couldn't he do it?  Why couldn't he say it?

            Words from a distant time rose from the back of CJ's mind.  "Shut up you freak!  Shut up, and set him free!  Do whatever the hell you want to me, just don't hurt him!  Stop hurting my friends and just take me!" 

            It was when Etheldreda had forced CJ into taking the drug that had brought back his worst memories, including that bathroom scene.  It was the daze he had come out of when the witch had told him that she had used him to pass the drug on to Aza by kissing her.  But those words.  He remembered reliving being beaten down by Lewis Anthony, and then having those words cut through his hell like a knife.  It had been disorienting, but he had then briefly remembered what was going on.  He wasn't fourteen-years-old being hammered by a bully.  He was a familiar to a psycho witch.  He was an imprisoned tool for monsters.  But Aza's voice, her words.  Somehow he knew she was talking about him.  She was so willing to take his place. "Do whatever the hell you want to me, just don't hurt him!  Stop hurting my friends and just take me!"  It wasn't a question for her.  But why was a it a question for him?  How could he hesitate at the chance to save a little kid's life?

            Time was running out.  He had to say it.  He had to run forward and be a man, but every muscle in his body was screaming against it.  His mind whirled like a speeding merry-go-round.  An agonizing screech built in the back of his throat.  If he could just form into the words, 'take me!'

            The whip came down again and snapped CJ up as Thom wailed.

            "Time's up."  Evabelle was back at his side, making him flinch.  He hadn't even seen her move.  "That deal it done."

            CJ's insides shriveled.  "No!  I..."  His voice trailed away.

            Evabelle put her hands on her hips.  "Can't even say it now, can you," she smirked. 

            CJ shook his head violently and ripped his glasses off his face to dig the heels of his hands into his eyes.  "No, no, no, no, no," he repeated over and over again.  His body shook as he rocked away from the wall on trembling knees.  "No, no, no, no, no, no!"  How could he?  How could he have done that?

            Evabelle's hand touched the small of his back and gently lead him from the corner.  CJ was too distraught to notice. 

            Thom was a kid, an innocent child and CJ had damned him, instead of being the hero he always wished he could be.  When faced with his opportunity, he had failed.

            Removing his hands from his eyes, he aggressively shoved his fingers through his hair.  He shakily replaced his glasses onto his face, a cold numbness starting to take hold.  One hand pressed over his mouth while the other fell to his side.  Please let this be over.  He thought.  Take me back to that damn witch.  

            Something warm and smooth slipped into his hand, stirring CJ from his anguished haze.  He glanced down and saw Evabelle closing his fingers around the handle of the whip.  He jerked back, about to fling the black death cord away from him, but the demon kept a firm grip.  She yanked his wrist, pulling him down so his ear was by her mouth.  "I know what you really want," she murmured.  "This is the last deal I'm going to offer you, Christopher Johnson.  You took the food and denied the power.  You didn't agree to the terms to save the boy, but perhaps you shall for this contract."  Her lips brushed against his hair and all he wanted to do was wrangle away from her, but everything iced over at her next words.  "I. Will. Free. You."

            Each word was enunciated in a crisp formal tone, that seemed to slow down in CJ's brain.  Slowly, he turned his head and locked eyes with the demon wearing the beautiful lie.  She smiled.  "I will free you," she repeated.  "I will break the bond between you and Etheldreda.  I will insure every last injury is healed.  I will erase your memories of the time you've been with us, so that you never have to think about any of this again."

            CJ held his breath, ready to fall to his knees, to laugh and cry at the thought of her offer actually coming to fruition, but he knew that wasn't all.

            "There is only one task that you must do first."  There it was.  "All you have to do is finish Thom's lashings."

            It was as though CJ was the one slapped this time.  A wave of cold rippled through his blood.

            Evabelle turned to Kenneth, who was leaning against the wall behind them, his arms crossed.  He seemed disgruntled that his toy had been taken away from him.  "How many lashes have you done?"

            "Five," The werewolf grunted.

            Evabelle beamed back at CJ.  "So three.  That's not very many at all.  You only have to whip him three times, and I will insure your freedom."

            "What?!"  CJ staggered, but Evabelle slowly turned him toward Thom's purple and black back, blood beading down it all over.  The kid would have deep inescapable scars for the rest of his life if he even had the rest of a life.  The beating he'd had in the past five minutes had to be equivalent to what a prisoner of war took on, in a week or more.  The boy wouldn't need all the experiments to completely devastate the rest of his being.  This pounding alone would take its toll.  CJ marveled at how short a time it took to utterly destroy a life.

            The kid hung like a true marionette with no one pulling the strings, but his arms were still held up, waiting for someone to take the reins.  His head was flopped over on his thin, slow-rising chest. 

            CJ tentatively leaned forward and looked around to see that Thom's normally fluffy light blond hair was plastered to his sweaty, sticky, tearstained, snot-ridden face.  Those round eyes were half-closed as a bit of drool, tinged pink, leaked from the corner of his mouth.  CJ realized that he must have passed out.

            CJ glanced over to the vampire still measuring out doses.  The IV sat candidly beside the pale man.  That was going to wake Evabelle's brother back up just for him to experience more horrendous, intolerable pain.

            CJ bowed his head, slammed his eyes shut, and wrapped his arms around himself, shaking. 

            "He's unconscious anyway," Evabelle's voice made him clench his teeth.  "He won't even know it."

            "THEN WHY MAKE ME DO IT?"  CJ screamed. His voice, finally at full volume, clanged around the hollow room.

            "Because I'm a woman of my word.  I told the boy that he would get eight lashes.  He's only had five.  I will follow through with my side of the bargain, Christopher.  This is the only thing you have to do."

            Three lashes.  All he had to do was raise the whip three times and bring it down three times.  Three minutes and he'd be free.  CJ choked as silent sobs rent his body.  Home.  He thought of Camdyn, his older sister.  He thought of her experimental recipes that usually ended up as disasters.  He thought of his parents, even though they often stood on different grounds than him, they did want the best for him.  They wouldn't want him to be a prisoner of the devil.  They would want him home.

            His eyes fluttered open to where he saw the small discolored, lump-covered skin.  CJ bit his lip harder than he meant as he tasted the salt in his blood.  Just three strikes, and the kid wouldn't even feel it...not really. 

            Hot tears continued to cascade down CJ's cheeks.  He unfolded his arms and started to raise his hand, holding the weapon, but then he froze again.  How could he possibly be doing this?  How could he even consider this?  Moments ago, he'd been on the edge of taking the child's place.  He'd wanted to save him, but he hadn't found the strength, now he had suddenly decided to totally jump ship and assist in the torture?

            But...

            Home.  Freedom.  Words that normally brought a sense of peace and safety, were now wrenching CJ apart.  Yet, how could he go back with the thought of him beating a helpless child?  How could he ever let that stand in his conscience.  "I will erase your memories of the time you've been with us, so that you never have to think about any of this again."  He wouldn't remember.  It would be as though he had never done it.

            CJ's eyes flashed over to Evabelle, who gave a small nod as if reading his mind and giving him the reassurance.  Returning his attention to the task at hand, he lifted his trembling, white-knuckled fist holding the whip above his head.  That's a lie.  A terrible little voice inside his head prodded.  You're lying to yourself.  Whether or not your remember, it does not mean that it did not happen, that you did not beat an already ruined child.  Blood will be on your hands.

            CJ's grip shook so badly he nearly dropped the whip.  He teeth were clamped together so hard, one would need pliers to pry them apart.  Sweat and tears dampened most of his face.  He realized what this was.  It was a choice.  The choice was either to live in Hell or to be of it.  It was more of the demon's damn poetry.

            An infuriated beast awoke inside CJ that set a fire inside of him, sparking a brief sense of sheer madness as his hold on the whip steadied.  He poured all of his strength into swinging the black rope down, an inhuman shriek bursting from the back of his throat as it struck the floor right where Evabelle had stood.  

            The demon had vanished and CJ stared at the empty space, breathing hard.  A cold scaly hand wrapped around his neck from behind, tossing him around to see the ashy face, with flickering orange-yellow snake eyes. 

            With the force of adrenaline still in his veins, CJ gave an insane smile at the demon's true face, feeling relief that it no longer was of the girl he loved.  Her long sharp fingers still held his throat as she dragged his face down to hers.  He could barely speak, but with what little air he had, he whispered.  "Screw poetry."

            The Mistress's eyes narrowed, but she didn't look as angry as CJ would have thought.  Instead she gave an annoyed hiss.  "How disappointing."  Her nails penetrated the back of CJ's neck, digging into his spine, sending lightning flashes up into his brain and down his back, spreading though his body instantly.  He arched back and let out a silent scream and she flung him to the floor, where his head cracked against the cold cement. 

            Peace was the last thing he experienced as he embraced his escape.

~(A/N: Looks like @ClearlyAGenius was 'clearly a genius' ;) I'm sorry, I had to... They were worried about precious baby Thom, and I'd say they were right to be. I know it was ages ago, but I did say that chapter 17 would be a dark one. I knew that I would be showing torture, to not just a teenager, but a little kid (which in my book is very twisted and dark). I do hope it came across as such. I wanted to show what was going on with the villains a bit more as well as people to get a different perspective through CJ's eyes. We didn't get to know him enough in book one (which I also hope to improve on through editing a bit).

But what did you think of CJ's pov?? What did you think of everything going on? What are your thoughts on a few of the villains you've gotten a glimpse of here? I'm REALLY curious to know how this chapter went over...also do you think CJ is dead???? Death was very much aligned to an escape so....

Going back to part 1, what are your thoughts on Evabelle's reaction finding out about her brother? What do you think of her plan?? Do you think it will work?

As always I want to know your thoughts on E V E R Y T H I N G ! ! !

Well, I don't really have a challenge this time. Sorry about that. And I'm soooooo sorry about taking forever getting this story updated. I don't know when the next chapter will be up, and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up. Life is life and mines been making sure I don't get to write as much as I would like. Either way, I hope all those in the US have a Happy Thanksgiving and those of you from everywhere else have an awesome day anyway!!! :D)~