From Murder to Dust

ATE - 9 - Can

I had been a prisoner for over five years - five years and four months, to be exact. I hadn't seen Papyrus since the fight; he's the best, though - even if I couldn't see him. Ink had never been defeated in his time as a dictator before that, but word never got out; he made sure of it. Pelting me with paint for over two straight days and ignoring bedtime was a good way to force me to keep my mouth shut; I wouldn't say a word. He only made me keep his losing a secret, though; I told everyone that I had seen Paps! Just because he couldn't rescue me that time didn't mean that he never would! It was just the wrong moment; I had to wait longer for the right one! I could wait as long as I had to for Paps! At the moment, I was in Ink's room, as usual. I had recently come back from death, which essentially meant that I could move a bit; I couldn't walk, though. Although Ink wasn't present at the moment, one of the evil guards was, and that meant that I wasn't free from pain. I honestly didn't care who was hurting me anymore; all that I knew was that pain would always come when someone mean was with me..it always did. Ink had a special place, though; he hurt me the most, and I would expect the most pain from him..

"I can't believe it!" The evil guard was mad about something as he broke my bones. "Categories! And he gets the same one as Ink?!"

I knew what he was mad about; Ink had taken my category system and made it official. Apparently, the diabolical guard was very much disliked among his peers, which only served to fuel their anger when they heard that he was the only one that made it to Ink's level. All of the evil guards except one felt that their category should have been higher, even if they didn't get any extra perks; it was just a power tester. Of course, Ink never told them who made the system to begin with, which meant that I got to hear every threat made on my life anonymously. I didn't exactly know what to think about the entire ordeal; all I knew was that I got hurt for it, and that made me regret it.

"If I ever meet the guy who knows everybody's power levels somehow, I'll crush him into little pieces!" The evil guard wasn't even kidding; he was dead serious..he had done that to people before. "I guess you'll do until I find him.."

My torture continued. In the instance of a loud scream, the guard would laugh. If I didn't scream loud enough, he increased the pain until I did. I had stopped begging a long time ago; it did more harm than good, and they actually liked it. When I finally realized that, I started to realize other things, too. Things such as control. I could somewhat control how long the abusers stayed by controling myself. If they wanted me to scream as loud as I could, I obliged them. If they wanted to break my arm, I would make sure it was in the line of fire, if only to make them go away faster, and it actually worked, surprisingly. Being tortured wasn't a game of survival for me; it was a game of death. I didn't know how many times I had died at this point, and I didn't want to know; I just knew that if I wanted to escape the pain faster, I would have to die as often as possible. I equated it with the kid. After a while, they stopped saving when they came down. The quicker they died, the quicker I was happy, and now, I was in the kid's shoes. The quicker I died, the quicker my captors were happy. That didn't mean that I liked it; it just meant that I understood it. I understood it perfectly.

"Hello!" Ink had entered the room. "Are you having fun?"

"Yes, Sir!" The evil guard smirked.

"Well, don't let me ruin it; I'll just spectate for a while."