A/N: This chapter is a bit violent. If you see any typos, feel free to comment on them- more than half of this was written on my phone. Enjoy!
The day after Donomeira, the slight say that the teachers had in the affairs of the school was gone. People were being dragged left and right to the Trouble Room and came back bleeding and bruised, covered in substances and too disturbed to talk about it. I knew that the Chaos members would be coming for Ella and possibly me very soon, and Kiara and Tessa had started to prevent us from leaving the dormitory. I was occasionally allowed to exit the room, but poor Ella was forced to stay inside all the time, eating food that we snuck up to the dorm for her. "It's not like the Trouble Room's gonna kill me," she'd snap, but I saw the worry in her eyes, and we'd all redouble our efforts to keep her out of harm's way. It was inevitable, though, that the day would come, and on December 29, a short, ratty man named Master Rodolphus knocked on our door.
"Miss Rowlinson and Miss Carelment. Come outside immediately," he said in a nasally voice. The four of us exchanged looks. Tessa looked outraged, Kiara horrified, and me and Ella terrified.
"Coming, Master Rodolphus," I responded, doing my best to keep the tremor out of my voice. I mentally steeled myself and got off the bed.
"Good luck," Kiara and Tessa whispered. I nodded and opened the door.
"You will be spending a few hours in the Trouble Room. Follow me. If you try to run, I will hear, and you will be subject to a few shocks," Master Rodolphus instructed, holding up a wicked-looking silver stick. Ella and I fell into step behind him. Anxiety gnawed at my insides. We tromped down the grand staircase to the main floor. Master Rodolphus led us down the hall to the headmaster's office, which was currently being occupied by Mistress. He placed his hand on a stone halfway down the doorframe and directly to the right of it. The wall melted away to reveal another flight of stairs, this one crooked and unlit, and Master Rodolphus turned to face us. "Ladies first," he grinned. Ella and I slowly started walking down the dark staircase. Rodolphus followed us and lit the torches with an eerie black flame that appeared out of nowhere as soon as the gap in the stone that we had come through had sealed up. His Exarae must be ghost flame, I thought. We reached the bottom of the stairs and emerged in the sublevels of the school. The carved walls and high ceiling were made of dark stone, but I didn't get to admire the scene. Rodolphus stepped in front of me and Ella as we reached a highly polished dark oak door. He pulled a black iron key from an inside coat pocket and unlocked the door.
The room was made of stone and the crude ceiling was arched. It had six inches of mud on the ground, with moving shapes in it. There must have been a magical barrier on the bottom of the door, because none of the mud was flowing out. Brown-flecked torture devices were scattered all over the room, including a whip, a mace, and a bench bristling with tiny nails. Rodolphus, wearing combat boots, guided us over to the bench and tied us to it. I tried not to scream as the sharp iron points punched through my skin. "You will each receive ten lashes," Rodolphus told us, fingering the whip with a loving expression on his face. "Then we will remotely control this room." I didn't like the sound of that. Rodolphus untied us and led us to a small chamber off of the main room. He gave us white cloth T-shirts to change into and left. Ella and I took our time changing, then, sick with dread, we walked back into the Trouble Room. Rodolphus tied me to the bench again and forced Ella to sit in the mud. Every once in a while, a lump in the mud would move closer to her and she'd shudder. After a few minutes, Rodolphus brought the whip down hard on Ella's back. She screamed, and I tried to block out the sounds. Then it was my turn.
I was untied, then I sat in the mud. Rodolphus raised the whip for the first strike and then slapped it to my back. A line of fire crossed my shoulders and I screamed. The whip cut into my skin like a knife into butter. I felt like I was going to die from the agony. Then the blinding pain was gone and decreased to just normal tortuous pain. Then it repeated nine more times, and by the time the final lash was delivered, I was ready to pass out. The back of my shirt was in tatters. I barely felt the pain of the nails as I was tied to the bench again. Rodolphus left the room, and for a few minutes, I thought the rest of our punishment was just to sit on the bench. But then the mud started to rise and I internally cursed myself for getting my hopes up. They won't suffocate us, will they? I thought, panicking. Meanwhile, the mud slowly but surely kept rising.
The mud was up to Ella's lower lip now. I was seriously freaking out when finally, the mud stopped rising. Then the lumps came, nibbling on my body parts and scaring the wits out of me. All rational thinking left me in those hours, and I hated every second of it.
Finally, finally, Rodolphus returned. Ella and I were untied. We changed back into our Viventi uniform shirts. Rodolphus led us to the foot of he grand staircase and left. It was past curfew, so nobody encountered us in the halls as we walked back to our dorms. Ella and I walked into the large bathtub in our mud-soaked clothes and stood under the warm stream of water for at least an hour, until we were both mostly free of mud and blood. I left the bathroom so Ella could take a proper shower, then ten minutes later I got my own turn. The whole time, Kiara and Tessa just watched. It was around eleven thirty by the time Ella and I were clean and had applied healing salve to our backs. We sat in a circle on the floor, silent, until finally, Ella spoke. "The whipping is the worst part."
"WHAT?" Tessa screamed.
"They WHIPPED you?" Kiara spluttered. "That's barbaric!"
"Well, we are talking about the Order of Chaos," I said glumly. "All that really happened was we got tied to a bench with a bunch of nails sticking out of it. Then they increased the amount of mud in the room until it was almost up to our noses. We got nibbled on a but by the creatures in the mud. Then they let us go. There were a bunch of other torture devices in there, but all they used on us was the bench and the whip."
Kiara and Tessa looked at us, horrified. "They can't do that to you!" Kiara exclaimed. "I swear-"
"Again, it's the ORDER OF CHAOS that we're talking about here," I reminded them
"We'll get them back later," Ella sighed wearily. "I'm tired."
"Same," I yawned. "I need to sleep."
Kiara and Tessa exchanged troubled looks. "Good night, guys," said Kiara. I crawled into my soft, comfortable bed and tried to fall asleep.
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for another truly crappy chapter. I do hope you enjoyed it, though. I'm SO glad that tomorrow's Friday. I'm so nervous- the grading period is almost over and we're going to have a bunch of tests on Friday that I can't make up. 😖😖😖 Anyways, a new update is coming soon! It's probably going to be today or tomorrow. Worst case scenario, I'll update on Sunday. Bye!
-Deepio the Slytherclaw
