White hot pain. That's the first thing that registered in Logans mind when he woke up. His entire body ached as if he'd been run over by a truck.

He opened his eyes, reached for his glasses with a pained wince and inhaled sharply at the angry red marks, scratches and cigarette burns that littered his body.

Hot tears ran down his cheeks as he took note of each one, some barely visible due to the ugly purple and black bruises that covered his body. Most of the bruises were from the vicious beating he received after getting back to the tree house.

He turned his head and noticed Preston had already left. He didn't know whether to be happy or not about that.

Logan had put off sitting up for as long as he could but he needed to get up so he grit his teeth and tried to push himself up.

Logan paled from the pain and bit down on his lip to hold back a scream so hard that blood filled his mouth.

He dared a glance down at the bed, which he vaguely remembered Preston dragging him to, and gagged at the bloodstained sheets.

Logans shoulders shook as he held back his sobs. He should have known he was being used but Preston was always so convincing and Logan was foolish enough to believe him.

Feeling vulnerable in his naked state Logan glanced around for his clothes and was relieved to see them draped over a chair.

With a deep breath and pure determination Logan managed to stand up and hobble over to his clothes.

He felt dizzy and lightheaded but put his clothes on as fast as he could, not wanting Preston to walk in and have the idea of continuing.

As he was pulling his trousers on he felt a solid lump in one of the pockets.

He reached in and held back a noise of relief as he realised it was his phone.

He slipped it back into his pocket and quickly tied his tie before walking slowly and painfully over to the door.

He found himself on the balcony again and held back vomit as he noticed the pool of blood which must have been from him.

He leaned against the railing, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down.

"Hey Logan, darling, I had so much fun." A familiar voice said in a cheery tone.

Logan turned around slowly to see Preston leaning against the wall of the tree house, twirling a knife coated in dried blood.

"uh.... Um..." Logan spluttered his eyes locked warily on the knife.

Preston looked at Logan in amusement noticing where he was looking. "Don't worry baby, I'm not going to hurt you. Unless of course you want me to." Preston smirked as Logan shook his head frantically.

"that's too bad, I enjoyed marking you as mine." Prestons eyes gleamed and Logan began to feel uneasy.

"What do you mean?" he asked in a hoarse voice, wincing as his throat felt raw.

Preston grinned "I mean you were begging for me to mark you as mine so I did, you have a lovely little carving on your left hip. I'm surprised you didn't see it."

Logan tried to wrack his brains and remember if he'd actually asked for that but all he could remember was screaming in pain, occasionally begging for Preston to stop.

Logan felt bile rising up again but pushed it down as Preston stepped closer, still twirling the knife.

"speaking of that mark, I want to see how it turned out." Preston said in a casual tone as if he were discussing the weather.

Logan flinched backwards as Prestons hands tugged the hem of his shirt up but there was nowhere to go so he stood there quivering.

Preston was admiring the large angry wound on Logans left hip with a smug smirk. "When that heals it will become a lovely little scar to remind you and everyone else who you belong to." He said in a satisfied tone.

Preston turned and walked back into the tree house, leaving Logan to silently cry.

After a few minutes Logan remembered his phone and pulled it out.

He wondered how he could talk to the others without Preston noticing. His usually fast mind seemed to be at a standstill.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roman woke up from a vivid nightmare, his heart pounding as he searched around himself just in case.

A small sigh left his lips as he just noticed Patton curled up next to him. They'd fallen asleep from emotional exhaustion and Roman didn't want to wake him so he quietly crept out of the room.

He walked towards the lounge where he thought he'd find Virgil only to find it empty.

Roman frowned in slight concern until a voice from behind him asked "Where's Patton?"

Roman spun around and relaxed at the sight of Virgil before replying "He's asleep but he was so exhausted I didn't want to wake him up."

Virgil nodded, trying to bite back a yawn as his own exhaustion began to kick in.

"You should probably get some rest too, your back still needs to heal more and walking around constantly could make it worse." Roman said.

Virgil looked torn. "If we're all asleep we're going to be vulnerable. What happens if Preston decides to pop up again?" he asked half wanting to sleep but half wanting to stay awake.

"who said anything about all of us being asleep?" Roman said with a small smile "I just woke up so I'm not particularly tired. I don't mind staying awake just in case Preston decides to visit."

Virgil still looked reluctant as if he was going to continue to argue but Roman sighed and spoken in a serious voice. "Virgil get some sleep I won't let anything happen to you or Patton. You can't fight against Preston if you're falling asleep on your feet."

Virgil rolled his eyes and muttered "Fine, but if anything happens you have to wake me and Patton."

Roman grinned "I promise."

Virgil turned and headed towards Pattons room, not wanting to go back to his own for obvious reasons.

Roman sat on the couch for about half an hour until he began to get restless. He stood up and walked around for a bit which kind of helped but he still felt the need to fidget.

He decided to take a walk around the mindspace and through the imagination forest to try and calm himself. He needed to be doing something or he'd end up doing something reckless.

Roman checked in on Patton and Virgil before he started and a smile came to his lips at the sight of both of them curled up together.

He silently closed the door and headed towards the imagination forest. It had been a while since he'd walked through it because of everything that had happened but he remembered how he used to make a routine of it.

The imagination forest was the best for helping Roman calm his busy thoughts and work out how best to deal with difficult situations.

Roman was walking through the very heart of the forest when he stopped and listened for a second. He thought he'd heard a scream but it could have been one of the many animals that lived in the forest, some of them being weird hybrids.

Roman started walking again only to freeze in horror as this time he heard the scream again but he could make out words.

"Stop! Please!"

It sent chills down Romans spine and he crept closer to the source. He came to a clearing where a dark puddle had formed.

As he was watching something dripped into the puddle making Roman look up and have to clap a hand over his mouth to stop himself making a noise of horror.

Blood was dripping from what appeared to be a tree house at a steady rate and he could make out familiar sounding sobs.

Roman realised he'd found Logan and Preston and barely had time to think about he was doing as he started walking towards the ladder, his katana materialising on his hip.

Logan lay on the balcony sobbing in pain as the mark on his hip bled freely. He'd tried to use some of his ability to heal the wound so it wouldn't become a permanent scar but Preston had found out and decided to carve it deeper as punishment.

Logan managed to shakily push himself up and pulled out his phone. He needed to tell the others where he was because he wasn't sure how much of this he could take.

He quickly sent a group text so they'd all get it saying I'm in the imagination forest in a tree house, Prestons with me but doesn't know I have my phone with me so don't reply or he'll find out. I don't know how long I can do this so if you want to rescue me, despite everything, then you need to hurry.

Romans phone vibrated and he quickly fished it out and read through the text with a clenched jaw. He closed his eyes and willed himself to appear in the tree house.

He was the creative side so he could control some aspects of the imagination which he wished he'd remembered sooner.

He crept round the corner and noticed a bruised and battered looking Logan with blood splattering his usually immaculate clothes.

The image was so close to what he'd imagined before when all of the others were dead that Roman almost teared up but fought it down and focused on his anger towards Preston.

He stepped closer and whispered "Logan, its me."

Logans head quickly snapped up and a look of relief and disbelief flashed across his face. "But I only just sent the text and why would you still want to rescue me?" he asked in a hushed voice.

Roman glanced around for Preston and when he didn't see him he crouched down and started to lift Logan to his feet. "We can talk about all this later but right now we've got to get out of here."

Romans words seemed to register because Logan nodded and tried his best to ignore the pain as he was half carried towards the ladder.

Roman stopped and whispered "I'm going to teleport us to the ground but it might put pressure on some of your injuries so try to keep quiet."

Logan nodded and closed his eyes and bit down on his lip bracing himself for the pain.

Roman teleported them down to the forest floor and Logan managed to hold back a scream with great difficulty but his legs buckled under him.

"do you think you can walk?" Roman asked in concern and Logan nodded.

"yes, I just need a minute." Logan breathed out, trying to push away the pain.

Eventually he got to his feet and the two of them began the long walk out of the imagination forest.

As they were reaching another clearing they heard someone clapping and froze.

"Well done, that was quite the rescue and you almost pulled it off too." Preston appeared from behind a tree, a mocking smile on his face.

Roman positioned himself in front of Logan protectively and glared at Preston.

Preston smirked at this and said "Just because you're standing in front of him doesn't mean I can't get him. Your not the only one who can control aspects of the imagination."

With that Preston teleported closer to prove his claim.

Roman growled "you'll still have to go through me to get him."

Preston grinned cruelly and said "Oh I plan to."

With that Preston teleported and lunged for Roman but Roman managed to sense where he was going to appear and quickly blocked him.

Roman tugged his katana free of its sheath and swung at Preston who laughed and managed to produce a tree in front of him to block the blow.

Logan stood off to the side unsure what to do until he had a thought. As beaten and physically useless as he was Logan could still use his abilities. He quickly set about trying to heal the most painful injuries before turning back to the fight.

His other ability was his ability to send thoughts into other people's minds. He occasionally used this to share things he'd researched when he was too tired to explain it.

He quickly focused on one of his painful memories and pushed it towards Preston in the hope it would hinder him long enough for Roman to get him.

At first it seemed to work, Preston stumbled with wide eyes and made a gasping noise but he quickly recovered, his eyes narrowing and his dark eyes locking onto Logan.

Preston seemed to suddenly gain more strength as he shoved Roman away and stormed over to Logan, teleporting when Roman tried to tackle him.

Preston was just about to grab hold of Logan when Roman also seemed to gain more strength and he tackled Preston from the side, sending them both rolling across the forest floor.

They both stood up glaring at each other until Roman called his katana back to him and a long blade of some sort appeared in Preston hands.

The two fought for ages trying every trick they could to gain an advantage, teleporting, taunting each other and trying to catch each other off balance.

Suddenly Preston teleported behind Roman and hooked his leg so Roman found himself on his back which made him let out a small yelp of surprise.

Preston smirked and quickly raised his sword before plunging it down, relishing in the terrified scream coming from Logan.

Uh oh, spaghettios. What did I do? Don't you just love cliffhangers? They're by far the best way to end a chapter :P