Friends, Slaves, and Nightmares

23: Guilt Trip

Damion grinned as he watched Pitch go over to David and Mina, who were still chained to the cave wall. Mina was slapped and yelled at by Pitch for holding hands with the other slave and her hand released David's. He chuckled slightly. Pitch was going to have his fun.

He turned and faced Katey as she groaned, her head lolling to one side as she sluggishly began to awake. Her eyes peeled open slightly and flitted around the room a moment. Her blues eyes turned red with anger as she registered what was going on around her. Her eyes flew open wider and Katey began to yank against her holy chains, which burned her wrists every time they made contact with her skin.

"Hello slave." Damion greeted his guest properly and slowly uncoiled his leather whip. "I'm going to teach you a few things now..."

She resisted the urge to flash her fangs and hiss at Damion. Instead she glared at him with her crimson eyes. "I refuse to do what you say." She stated coldly and yanked against her chains towards Damion. He frowned, this was odd. Most slaves struggle against the chains to get away from their masters, not towards their masters. Katey thrashed and pulled at her restraints in frustration. That was another odd thing. This slave was angry, not scared. It didn't take long for Damion to realize that training this vampire would be difficult, more of a devious task than he had previously expected.

So he began to train her. Damion let his leather whip fly and struck Katey across the stomach three times. "You will obey me! Now stop your struggling!"

Not even a yelp or grunt in response to the pain. Just a wince. Damion only received a wince from the lashes he had delivered. "NO!" Katey yelled out and continued to struggle towards Damion. The look on her face was that of someone who would rip your throat out. She was so enraged, all she wanted was to harm Damion.

Damion sighed and whipped Katey several more times. "Enough slave!!"

Katey only winced and let out a very faint grunt of pain. It was in that moment that Damion realized physical pain east going to do much to affect her. He thought several moments then looked towards Axel with a grin. That's it. He needed to try mental suffering! This was be different... and fun.

Suddenly a rock slammed into Damion's forehead. He yelped loudly and stumbled back. He looked towards the source of the rock to see Katey, readying her leg to kick yet another stone at him. This time it was Damion who was enraged as the second stone hit his forehead again and he released another yelp of pain.

"Enough! If pain won't stop you, maybe guilt can!" He walked towards Axel, letting his whip fly as the small boy cried out in fear. Then he began to shout in pain. The boy tried to stifle his cries of pain to little success.

Katey's eyes went wide. "No! Stop hurting him! I-I'll listen..." She says with complete honesty, but her eyes still red and filed with rage. She slowly stopped pulling on her restraints.

Damion stopped his whip and turned to Katey. "Good." He grinned at his success and then glanced over to see how Pitch was handling Mina and David.

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Mina was too afraid to move. What if she made it worse? But then again, what if she didn't do anything and David was killed because she didn't try anything? She didn't know what to do. Pitch was still approaching David with the knife, grabbing the back of his shirt he lifted it up to reveal David's mark spelling out the word SLAVE. David remained completely still. He was finally able to get a general idea of where everything was as his whiplash cleared up some.

Mina slowly and hesitantly spoke up, asking, "What are you going to do to David?.."

Pitch glanced over at Mina and raised up his knife, as if he was offering it out to her. "I'm going to re-mark him," He explained, "Unless, you want you want to do it?.."

Mina's eyes widened and she shook her head rapidly, stepping back from Pitch in fear.

He let out a chuckle and flipped the knife around in his hand to face David's back, placing the tip of his knife on the S in SLAVE. "I thought so.. Now go over there against the wall, I'll mark you later." He indicated the spot against the wall with flick of his hand.

Mina's eyes widened more along with David's. Neither of them wanted Mina to be marked. She fearfully and slowly began to comply and go against the wall to wait. She didn't see any other options.

"Master, no. I won't allow you to hurt Mina!" David shouted and hooked his leg around Pitch's leg. In a swift motion he pulled Pitch forward and grabbed his head in both of his chained hands before shoving his face, hard, into the ground. There was a loud thunk then Pitch went limp, out cold.

Mina was shocked at what she saw. It only took a moment for her to run over to David and try to help him up to his feet.

"No!" David shook his head and looked towards Mina. "You need to run. You can get help. I can't go with you, I'll slow you down if I come, but if I stay I can buy you some time!"

Mina shook her head, torn. There was one side filled with fear. She could run and never turn back. She could go get help and be relieved of all this fear and pain. It would stop. Her suffering would stop. Then there was her guilty and sad side. How could she leave her best friend? He undoubtedly woukd be punished for this. Mina didn't want to leave him behind to suffer either. There was a selfish and selfless decision. Except, if she saved herself, maybe she could rescue the rest. But then again, maybe she could get herself and David free. Her thoughts continued to race, she would have to make a decision, and soon.