FRAGILE

Chapter 5: The Road to Ruin

"You are no longer Levi. You are slave 2197. A slave for your eventual master's enjoyment. A pet. A toy. Nothing more."

The words echoed endlessly in Levi's mind, relentless and inescapable, like poison slowly corroding every part of him. They weren't just words anymore; they had become a part of him, engraved into the very core of his existence. Thomas had spoken them with the cold, detached authority of someone who believed they held the keys to another's soul, and over time, Levi had come to believe him too.

The first time Thomas had uttered those words, Levi had felt the world shift beneath him, as if the ground was being pulled out from under his feet. It had been delivered with such clinical precision, devoid of any feeling, as though Thomas was simply stating an irrefutable fact. And in time, it became exactly that. A fact.

"You will not speak unless told. You will live to serve."

And Levi had. He had no choice. Service, obedience, silence—those were the pillars that held up the fragile shell of his existence now. The name Levi no longer meant anything. It had been stripped away, buried under years of relentless conditioning, beatings, and lessons designed to obliterate any semblance of the person he once was. There was no room for rebellion, no space for hope. Levi had been broken.

He couldn't even pinpoint the exact moment when that part of him—the part that still clung to the name Levi—had died. It had happened gradually, worn away piece by piece until there was nothing left. His memories of who he had been felt distant, like the faint whispers of a forgotten dream. Now, he was simply slave 2197, an object molded and shaped into whatever Thomas wanted him to be.

At first, Levi had fought. There had been a flicker of resistance deep inside him, a desperate clinging to his identity, to his name, and to the connection he had with his wolf. He had tried to hold onto that bond, to the small part of him that still felt like a wolf—wild, free, something beyond what Thomas could control. But it hadn't taken long for that resistance to erode under the weight of relentless punishment and control.

The pain, both physical and emotional, had been a constant companion. Thomas had been merciless, making sure Levi understood his place, repeating the words over and over until they became Levi's reality. There had been no escape from it.

"You are no longer a person. You are an animal. Do you understand, 2197?"

Levi had nodded, his voice barely a whisper, his words hollow. "Yes, sir."

It was the only safe response. Anything else would have resulted in more punishment. More pain. By the time the first year had passed, Levi had been reduced to nothing more than a shadow of the boy he once was. The Correctional Unit had finished the job. It had been a place of endless torment—days where ice water rained down on him without respite, the constant punishment positions, the harsh commands that never ceased.

The lessons were pounded into him, repeated over and over until he no longer knew where they ended and he began. The mantra of obedience had drowned out his own thoughts. His will had been eroded, and it had worked.

His wolf—once the source of his strength—had retreated. In the beginning, his wolf had fought alongside him, pushing back against the pain, offering the faintest glimmer of hope. But as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, even his wolf had gone silent. The bond between them had grown thin, fragile, until it was almost severed entirely. Now, his wolf was just a distant presence, a caged animal locked away in the darkest corners of his mind.

Three years had passed since that initial breaking, three years of being reshaped into the perfect slave.  Three years that he had walked on the road to ruin.