****-if you're sensitive to things like torture and abuse, please skip the section marked with this symbol

Nya's POV

"You never told me Lloyd was hot," Juliet tells me as I'm sitting across from her. Skylor and Kai are in my room (I don't know how he got in but oh well) so I'm hanging out down in the lobby with Juliet. It's pretty late, but we're having a fun time.

"I didn't think Lloyd would be your type. You seem like you'd like a guy a bit more rough around the edges," I admit. She laughs.

"I'm a sucker for the good boys. They have a little soft spot in my heart," she informs me, taking a sip of the water in front of her. "What about you Nya? What's your type?"

"I don't really think I have a type," I tell her.

"Maybe guys with blue eyes? And auburn hair?" she asks, making me blush.

"Oh be quiet," I laugh. A guard from over by the door walks over to us.

"It's time for you ladies to go up to your rooms," he barks at us, making us wince.

"But it's only 8:50," I tell him. He glares at me.

"Excuse me," he spits.

"We still have ten minutes, and I'd like to spend them with my friend here," I inform him. His face is red as he grabs my wrist.

"You're coming with me. We need to teach you a lesson for talking back," he jerks me up from my seat and pulls my hands behind my back. Juliet looks terrified, and so am I. He drags me out the lobby and down a series of hallways. Every time I struggle, he kicks me in the back of the knees.

"Help! Help!" I scream, flailing my legs.

****

"The walls down here are soundproof. No one can hear you," he informs me spitefully, nudging me forward. We eventually reach a room, and it looks like a torture chamber. The table Jay was electrocuted on is pushed into the corner. There is an empty furnace, ceasing to burn. There's various whips, knives, and weapons against the wall. My blood turns cold.

"We've got some fresh meat!" a man in the corner yells. Suddenly, many guards flood the room.

"It's the master of water!" another one calls.

"I caught her, so I get to do the honors!" the man who caught me cheers. "Take off your shirt."

"What?" I quiver in my place.

"Take off your damn shirt and shorts woman!" a random guard commands. The tears start flowing down my face as I take them off. When I'm only left in my bra and underwear, the man who brought me here smirks. Various men around the room cat call me, and the tears start falling harder.

"Someone, bring me a whip!" he yells. Quickly, a man rushes over and brings him one while two more come and restrain my arms while two others hold my feet down. I try to escape, but they're too strong.

"This is what you get for talking back. Next time, you'll think twice," as he says that, the whip cracks down on my back. I let out a giant scream every time the whip hits me. I sob as the pain floods through me, and my knees give out. I fall to the ground, the whip causing me more physical pain than I've felt my entire life combined. Once the whip stops, my back still throbs, and it doesn't stop stinging. I continue to cry. All the men there laugh.

"Get up," one man says before dumping a bucket of steaming water on me. I let out yet another scream. Next, another man pours a bucket of ice water over my skin, which is also excruciating. I lie on the ground crying, just wanting to escape. The men force me up and in front of a huge water tank.

"Get in," the one who forced me into here tells me. Shakily, I comply to avoid more torture. Once I get in, I get pushed underwater. I struggle to reach the surface again, but the mans hands keep my trapped. I squirm around, but I can't make any progress. It's still excruciating to move, so moving puts me in more agony. I start to run out of air. The whole world starts to go black when I get pulled out. Automatically, I gasp for air. All of the men laugh. The tears start flowing out again as I try to get as much air in as possible.

"Here's a towel," the original man whips me with a towel then drops it on me then laughs. "Learn your lesson, little girl?" I sob and nod.

"Yes," I weakly croak. "Good, now my friend here will lead you out." Another man picks me up, and I'm too sore to move. He goes through the series of hallways before dropping me in the lobby where I collapse.

****

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Jay's POV

"So Nya, I know it's against the rules, but do you want be my girlfriend?" I practice into the mirror before groaning as I get ready for bed. I'm never going to be able to ask her. I'll chicken out before ever asking. Sighing, I switch into my pajamas, a t shirt with a pair of blue flannel pants. I brush my teeth, wash my face, then hop in bed.

I try to sleep, but I can't do it. My mind is racing. After about 20 minutes of so sleep, there's a knock on the door.

"Dang it Kai, always forgetting your keys," I whisper to myself. I stand up, turning on my bedside lamp, before going to the door. When I open the door, instead of Kai, I'm met with Nya. She has tears pouring down her face, and there's a pure look of pain on her face. She's shivering and wrapped in a towel.

"J-jay," she sobs. I let her into my room and close the door behind us.

"Oh my god Nya, what happened?" I ask, eyes wide. I gently hold the side of her face in my hand.

"The... the guards...," she starts bawling uncontrollably.

"Don't say anything else," I tell her. Quickly, I rush over to my closet and get a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. "Put these on." I hand them over to her, and then I turn around. I hear her cry as she moves, and it breaks my heart.

"Done," she says weakly. I turn around and hug her softly to avoid the bruises that are bound to be on her back.

"I'm so so sorry," I tell her. She cries into my chest, and I gently rub circles on her back.

"They whipped me, and poured steaming and freezing water on me, and nearly drowned me, just because I said that we still had ten minutes left in the lobby," she admits to me sadly. My heart drops.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I ask her.

"Stay here," is her only response. We stand there for a while as she sobs.

"Do you want to lie down? Lying down on your side makes the pain less," I tell her from experience. She nods. "The guards usually aren't around much after someone gets punished, so we don't have to worry about being caught."

"I want to break every damn rule in their stupid rule book just to spite them," she admits, looking at me as we lie down facing each other.

"What?"I ask her.

"Before we get out, I'm going to break all of their stupid rules," she announces. I smile softly at her.

"Well, we're breaking one and ten right now cause you aren't in your room. You already broke three. You cussed, so you broke four. We did five and six. We've lied about our friendship, so we have nine. We've also hugged before, which counts as 12, so you have 2, 7, 8, and 11 left," I list them off.

"What are the 4 I haven't done?" she asks.

"2: No dating or relationships, 7: no meeting in clubs, 8: only 5 elemental master can hang out at a time, and 11: no talking about the outside world," I explain. She smiles at me.

"Jay?"

"Yeah?"

"Considering I liked you before I thought of this plan, will you be my boyfriend?" she asks me, and the butterflies flood my stomach.

"Of course," I smile at her, and she smiles back.

"Can we break rule 12 again?" she asks. At first, I'm confused by what she means, but once I realize what she's saying, I nod. She leans in, and so do I. Our lips meet, and it's unlike anything I've ever felt before. It sends a shock through me. It's quick, but it's great. It's obvious neither of us have any experience. She smiles at me.

"Are you going to end up going back to your room tonight?" I ask her. She shakes her head.

"Can I stay with you please?"

"Of course, I'll just text Kai to stay over there," I pull out my phone, sending Kai a quick text. By the time I look back at Nya, she's already asleep. I smile, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Goodnight Nya."

A/N so that was intense

But Jaya is finally together so whoooo victory

Thoughts on this chapter?

People commented last chapter and it made me really happy so thank you for that

I think once this book is wrapping up (there's 15 chapters left including the epilogue) I might post my new story and a snippet (I'm hoping to get to 18 on this one by the end of the break)

Thank you guys for reading