My body felt heavy and sluggish. It was a beautiful sight, those green waves of grass caused by the deceptively chilly, midday wind.

There was a man about my age in the distance, he chased after a bird with shiny, white feathers and the bird flew in my direction.

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply.

My body felt light and responsive. It was a dreadful sight, those dark red waves caused by a deceptively warm evening wind.

There was a child much younger than me in the distance, he chased after a bird with crude, pitch black feathers and the bird flew away from him.

I blinked once again and the bloody image of a faceless child laying at my feet appeared before me.

My body was numb. It was just another sight.

The sky was grey and the grass was gone.

A crow drank the boy’s blood before jumping on top of my head and trickling it onto my face.

I opened my eyes to see water trickling down from my hair, my body was bound by a rope and my face was throbbing. I wasn’t entirely sure if I was dreaming before but now It was obvious I woke up, mainly due to the blonde guy that was standing in front of me while pouring water on my head.

“Finally awake are we? Been out for 4 hours now.” He emptied the cup of water and walked away. I took the time to examine the surroundings, it seemed like a run down dorm that fell victim to the forces of nature…

“So, did you have a good nightmare?”

I wanted to retort but my voice came out all cracked due to how perched I was.

Thompson poured more water into the cup and helped me drink it before he said that I need to stay awake and healthy as we have a long night ahead of us.

I looked around and realized that it was just the 2 of us now, I could probably escape easily enough if I wanted to.

“Your little boyfriends aren’t around to keep you safe, you sure it’s wise to push your luck with a guy like me?” I asked.

“A guy like you? You mean a murderer? A piece of trash with no regard to human life?” I clicked my tongue and averted my eyes. “Or, wait, is that too hard for you to listen to?” His retort was straight to the point.

“Don’t worry, tonight we’re going to cleanse you! I’ll finish my father’s work.

You will pay for your sins and you will thank me for it.” He added.

I gritted my teeth as I struggled with the thought of running away, something was holding me back. It wasn’t the slavery Seal either.

I need this to be over, let this guy get his revenge so I don’t have to look over my shoulder all the time, is that really it…?

But why should he be allowed to take revenge? It’s all his brother’s fault! That’s not the reason… Something else is keeping me from escaping.

My stomach started turning the more I thought about it.

My thoughts went back to the beating from a few hours ago. The dream afterwards too. There’s something I’m missing here. Almost as if I need him to get revenge…

“All of you people keep calling me a murderer, you guys don’t know anything, you all think you’re so much better then me but you can’t even see how disgusting and hypocritical you all are.” I said to the guy as he was rubbing some kind of liquid on a pair of very small clamps.

He ignored me and kept fiddling with his torture devices so I kept going “You want revenge for your brother but how many people did he hurt before trying to assault me? Did other student’s brothers come for revenge?”

The blonde turned to face me and slowly walked as he picked another pair of metal clamps from the fiery pit he put it in.

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He walked closer to me and without saying anything, knelt down to eye level with my hands that were tied to the chair’s handles.

Thompson grabbed my index finger and let the hot metal of the clamps snap on it.

“Mhm, just like I thought…” He said as he went to grab another pair of clamps from the fire. “When the guards brought you to our house that day, your body seemed a little too clean to me. I wanted to test my theory by ambushing you, we forced you to take a punch to the face and you were so surprised by the damage.” He snapped the second pair on my middle finger and went to bring another hot pair of clamps.

“Now, riddle me this, why would someone be surprised at taking damage from a punch?” He squatted next to my hand again and looked me in the eyes.

“My theory was that your Syphon control is just so good that you’re not used to taking any damage at all.” Thompson playfully smiled at me and snapped another pair of hot metal clutches on my thumb.

He started whistling to himself as he hummed a song.

“Let’s see how many of these you can take, Lifes the murderer, ironic, isn’t it?” and with that he put a piece of cloth over my mouth and tied it tightly.

“You know, what you said earlier really pissed me off, my brother hurt many other students? Why the fuck do you think I care? He was MY brother, they weren’t.” He said before slapping my face lightly.

I guess it really is that simple.

“But I’ll let it slide cause I’m happy that I get to torture you tonight, nobody is coming to save you!” The blonde guy started laughing loudly.

I can already guess his plan, he’s going to force me into spreading my Sy too thin throughout my entire body to protect myself.

Smart… I guess.

The only problem is that it takes a while to achieve the results he’s looking for and the metal is going to cool down over time. Is that not too simple?

I think he’s heavily underestimating my Sy control.

I can make it easier for him though.

***

“Pahahaha, squeal piggy! Squeal louder!” My deranged tormentor yelled as he watched my body twitch from the pain.

He freed my mouth and said he wanted to hear me scream.

“Is this really all you can muster? Are you Slayer scumbags that weak? It took just 12 clamps for your Syphon to give in!”

Most of my body was now covered in those hot clamps, it seems I was wrong about the metal cooling down too quickly as he just replaced them every so often…

Compelled by something I can’t comprehend, I chose to just let him inflict me with some pain.

It made me feel better in a weird way.

“Are you enjoying your punishment?! Fucking freak, maybe now you’ll learn your place. A slave that has no future other than dying for the sake of someone else! Murderer scum.” With those words, Thompson has decided to leave me tied to a chair, mostly naked except for a pair of underwear and a bunch of metal clamps “See you tomorrow, loser.”

Even after he left, I didn’t really use my Sy to protect myself. How pathetic and disgusting am I?

I went on and on about the weakness of the people I met, yet here I am… Accepting the revenge of some piece of shit noble rich boy that has no business even taking revenge on me in the first place.

Truly just pathetic.

I sat there with my head hanging powerlessly “I’m so tired… What am I even doing…?”

Ostel’s bloodied face from our last mission suddenly popped into my head.

First it was Ostel, then Snoopsi had to run away. Dawn probably got in trouble because of my fight with Zick…

Of course there’s my mother, she died to protect me, my father spiraled into a miserable existence of distracting himself from the grief of his loss in whatever way possible.

The area above my stomach felt as if it was stabbed by a warm, poisoned dagger. My heart felt like it was melting.

My master’s figure sitting at my bedside and reading the story of Frail the Strong appeared before me as if to remind me of another person that needs to be thrown into the equation.

Now that I think about it, Frail reminds me a lot of Niya. She also did her best to help the people around her.

Her body was made of a lot of straws, so many that it made her really strong and resilient. However every time one of her friends or the people she loved ran into a problem, Frail would break a few straws to help them solve the problem.

Soon enough, much like Niya, Frail had nothing left to give, her body was… Frail.

Ironically enough, I’m like the exact opposite of Frail.

What was the name for the number that could be divided with different fractions for the same result again?

“Common denominator” Snoopsi’s voice whispered from in front of me.

“Yes!” I lifted my head to look at him.

“Haha…” A small smile formed on my face as I looked into the empty, dark space around me.

I felt a warm liquid rolling down my cheek.

“Oh yeah… I’m all alone. It’s probably for the best.”