I come to my senses - someone's poured water on my face. My vision is blurred. I discern I am in a grey room with no furniture, tied to a single chair with strong chains. Some voices are talking. I can make out tall silhouettes before me. Gradually, my vision sharpens, and I notice those silhouettes are feline administrators. Bob is here too and appears quite pissed off. 

It all comes back to me - we had arranged a massive break-out, I helped the fairies escape and the administrators caught me. I wonder if everyone is okay. Goodness, let them only be safe!

"You were the start of it all, weren't you, Theo Sinclaire?" Bob's growl reaches my ears. "I should've suspected it! You always were sniffing around!"

His hand slaps me and his claws scratch my cheek. I want to wince in pain, but I don't - I won't appear like some weakling in his hands.

"Spill it - where are they?"

Bob's green eye glares at me. I can tell he's beyond mad. That's good - it seems they have no idea where my friends have gone. Well, I won't be changing that. I only chuckle and spit into Bob's face, as I've always wanted. 

"Ugh! You wench!"

He wipes my spit off his cheek and grabs my neck, with the intention to suffocate me. 

"If you don't say where they are right now, I'm going to torture you to death, you slut!"

"Go ahead. Then I'll die in your hands... and won't say a thing anyway," I mutter as I can, for I'm already losing air.

Bob snarls. He lets go of my neck. Instead, he places a claw right under my left eye.

"There was once a time when Lord Warden gave me a special lesson," he grins, "but yours, Theo Sinclaire, is going to be slower, and a lot more painful."

I let out a horrendous scream - he's stabbing his claw right under my eye! Damn, this bastard wants to cut my eye out!

But no, I was wrong - he takes the claw out just when he's halfway through. Blood cascades down my eye while I squeal in a ravenous voice since it stings and hurts like hell. Bob begins to laugh, apparently finding pleasure in my torment. I struggle, but to no avail - I'm tightly chained to the chair. Ugh, I wish so greatly, to strangle this bastard in my arms! 

My other eye sheds tears - a reflex against the pain I'm suffering. It causes all these heartless felines to crack smiles. Ugh, I'd kill them all if only I could!

"Where are the runaways headed?" 

Bob repeats the question. I sense his claw touch my sore part again. If I don't tell him, he'll most likely cut my eye out with another move. This torturous pain... It hurts so much!

"Answer!"

"No."

I glare at him, with the killing intent in my eye. No matter how they hurt me, I'm not planning to yield. 

"Well then, have it your way."

Bob wants to stab his claw into my wound again when the door bangs open and a thunderous voice sounds:

"Halt!"

Bob stops his claw in mid-air and turns back, to bow to the entered man. The other felines too, bend before him. It's the warden - he's wearing the same coat and has covered his face with a hood. Now, however, his hands are covered in terrible burns, like those of Dagur. Has he punished someone recently? But no, those are scars... What is going on? He didn't have those before when I met him.

"Young Lord? Why are you here?" Bob asks in clear surprise.

"Well, all the prisoners have fled while I was asleep, along with my very own brother who's stabbed me right in the back after all these years, that girl is the only lead, and you're the one guilty since it was your responsibility to keep them locked up for the night. So, do you really want to ask why I am here, now?"

The warden's voice is calm, but one can hear the entire fury hidden within if one listens closely. That's what makes this man all the more terrifying, as I've once mentioned - he seems harmless, but that's just a facade. He's a heartless butcherer of innocent lives, and it is evident by the way he looks down on all of us, including his very uncle and the other inborn deviant subordinates.

Bob shivers before his presence. He bends even lower, and utters in a trembling voice:

"Y... Young Lord, I know of my mistakes, and I vow I shall correct them! I've just been torturing this wench so that she'd tell me of the runaways' whereabouts."

"I don't give second chances. You're no longer needed. Leave, all of you."

"Huh?" Bob is astonished.

"I'll bestow my punishment upon you later. You all are dismissed. I shall take care of this prisoner, alone. Apart from the prisoners' running away, I have a far greater issue to discuss with her - the betrayal of my little brother, who's apparently chosen her over me."

His voice gives out the wrath, fully well now - he's snarling from beneath his hood. I can't see his face, the way my eye is injured and the room has scarce lights, but I bet his eyes are sparkling like those of a wrathful leopard.

Bob and his retinues perfectly seem to know the warden's disposition, for they immediately leave and shut the door behind. When the warden gets assured they all have gone, his voice changes its tone - it becomes softer and tenderer. He strokes my cheek beneath the wound Bob's inflicted upon me.

"Oh, you poor little thing... I'm sorry I'm late, Theo. Thankfully they all are safe."

I can't believe what I'm hearing - he's on our side?! Since when? How?

As if he has guessed about the questions in my head, he pushes his hood off. The face I see, petrifies me - it is not the one of that handsome warden I saw all those weeks ago, yet the eyes and the smile are quite familiar. The face is terribly burnt, covered in scars of ages before, and the smile is the one of Gwynplaine, so well-known to me.

Before me, stands Dagur, in the warden's clothes.

Just then, it dawns on me - a horrible realisation: that Dagur and the warden have never been two different people, but the same person, all along.

Dagur, the one who's helped me organize the break, who knows all about it and is perfectly aware of where my friends are hiding, is the highest official of this prison, the reason for all our sufferings - the warden!