They travelled for about 8 hours in the van, stopping four times to pick up other subs. Each time, after the half hour stop, the door would open allowing in a flood of light, blinding Blaine and his fellow occupants. Either one or two people were thrown into the space, the door then shutting again before Blaine’s eyes could adjust. He would help each of the fellow subs up, seeming to be the only one unbound, and guiding them to the small bench running around the edge of the van. He tried to make small talk with them, but only one girl would respond to him – called Brittany. She was a slightly odd character, but Blaine really liked her. It wasn’t long though before they ran out of non-depressing things to talk about, and the back of the van descended into silence once more.

When they finally reached the sub house, all 6 of the van’s occupants where yanked out one by one by their collars, proving to be as strong as Blaine suspected. Before he was able to get a proper look at the building, they were all hustled inside, each with a guard restraining them. They come to a large room filled with kneeling subs in neat lines. Blaine assumes these are all the older kids at the sub house, there are about 10 lines of 10 at his guess, and considering that he has been told the house tends to have around 120 subs, he thinks he isn’t too far off. His group joins 5 other kneeling people at the front, facing everyone else. From the nervous fidgeting, he assumes these are other subs from within the same month as him. He is forced to kneel by the guard, who then relocates his hand from Blaine’s collar to his hair, yanking his head up uncomfortably to see the rest of the room. Blaine counts 12 rows, each between 11 and 6 people long. He feels a small, strange, bit of pride at having guessed so close. He inwardly chuckles at that thought, who knew he would be reduced to feeling happy over such a small thing? He also counts 20 guards in his line of sight, as well as the 11 holding him and the others at the front. It feels even more intense than he would expect a prison to be, especially because it appears the other subs aren’t even making a noise just through breathing. Hunter strides into the room and faces Blaine’s group.

“Welcome July lot. This is your first opportunity to get told the rules, although you will get to join us each month when we welcome the new subs.” Hunter indicates the kneeling subs behind him, genetically less than a year older than Blaine, but physically they looked like they had been through years of neglect and torture. Blaine figures that isn’t far from the truth. “No eye contact. No answering back. No objections or complaining - you no longer have a right to your own bodies. When you are told to do something, you do it straight away. If I tell you to jump off a cliff, you better fucking jump. We do let you walk if you behave, but as soon as you are not moving you are to kneel. Your place is on the floor, you are not permitted to use any furniture unless explicitly told so. If you haven’t been given instructions to, you should assume you can’t. You may not ask for anything, unless you are told to beg.

“Your first month here is a kind of an adjustment period. We will teach you how to be a sub: basic kneeling, basic commands, and basic expectations. From there you will advance through training on different kinks, making sure you can please both sexes, and handyman skills. Your final month here will be preparing you for auction and your first master. In three days’ time you will get to experience what the auction will be like, as although it’s August and the returned subs that are for sale, we like to display our new stock to start getting interest in you. Within the next three days, you will already be obedient subs.” Hunter turns round to address the other subs, but Blaine has blanked out of what Hunter is saying.

In three days’ time the guards expect them to be perfect already, if that’s possible why is training a year long? And his place is on the floor? Plus, he is gay, so how was he meant to please both sexes? It’s not a thing he can just turn on and off. The role of a sub is starting to become too clear for Blaine. He hears Hunters final line.

“… And with that all said, you are dismissed.” He turns back to face the line Blaine is in, waiting for the other subs to leave before addressing them. “As for you lot, time to get you broken in!” He says excitedly. Hunter walks out, Blaine and his group are forced to follow by the guards who are once again leading them by their collars.

They had been led into an empty room, big enough for all 11 subs to cower on the floor, but there wouldn't have been enough space if there had been many more. The last sub had been pushed in, before they all heard the door lock.

Blaine was sat in one of the far corners, his back against the wall protectively. No one dared to say anything, not wanting to verbally ask the question they all wanted to ask, but none really wanted their suspicions confirmed

Blaine knew exactly what it meant. Rich hums didn't want to have to train subs. This laziness even overshadowed the desire to have an 'unused sub'. They were all sat here waiting to have their virginity stolen. It would probably be the best way to break all the subs initially, making them feel used and damaged, then chucked back into the house to be treated like all the other 'pieces of property'. Blaine knew it would be especially painful, he just hoped it wasn't Hunter who would be doing it. That man had took a special interest in Blaine, and he couldn't wait to be as far away from him as possible.

After a short amount of time, two guards in officer uniforms walk into the room and grab the two closest subs - one of them being Nick - before hauling them out. It happened so fast Blaine doesn't really know what happened until the door was locked once again and he could process it. He sees a girl with long blonde hair stands and walk over to him. A lot of people give her glares since she was the next closest to the door, but when she sits down next to Blaine they move to make room for her.

"What do you think will happen now?" She asks. Although Blaine didn't recognise what she looked like, having been in the pitch black van, he recognises her voice instantly.

"I'm not really sure Brittany." He says, not wanting to panic the innocent girl.

"I know they will have sex with us, but then what will happen in the future?" She asks, realising Blaine didn't know what she was referring to exactly.

"I'm just trying not to think about it." He replies solemnly.

"My Mom always told me to play a game when I need to take my mind off things. Do you want to play a game with me? I recommend pat-a-cake. It's from England, I learnt it when I lived there for a year." She says naïvely.

"What's that?"

"Well, there is this rhyme you say while clapping your hands in a routine. Would you like me to show you?" Deciding that he had nothing to lose, and he really does want to take his mind of everything, he decides to embrace the childish game. Surprisingly, Blaine really enjoys playing and finds it has helped dissipate the worry that was bubbling inside him.

The door is opened again, a guard giving Blaine and Brittany a hard glare causing them to stop playing and drop their heads guiltily, before grabbing another sub by his collar and yanking him out.

Once he is gone however, Blaine and Brittney burst out laughing, the guard not having effected their enjoyment. They resume playing.

Before long, Brittany relocates to another partner, all of the subs in the room having taken great interest in their game, which involved lots of fits of giggles when one of them missed the others hand. Blaine turns to the girl sat next to him, as Brittney starts playing with her new partner.

"Hi, I'm Blaine." He says, holding his hand out for the Asian girl to shake.

"T...T...Tina." She stutters, taking his hand.

"Do you want to play? I'm told it helps take your mind of everything!" He smiles.

"O...Okay." She replies, looking generally happy Blaine had asked. Blaine teaches her the hand movements; a simple repetition of an individual clap, then clapping together the diagonal hands of each party, before repeating again but this time with the other hand. They start playing, Blaine taking over Brittany's role of singing to produce the rhythm to clap to:

'pat-a-cake pat-a-cake, baker's man.

Bake me a cake as fast as you can.

Pat it and shape it and mark it with B.

And bake it in the oven for baby and me.

Pat-a-cake pat-a-cake, Bakers man.

Bake me a cake as fast as you can.

Roll it up, Roll it up.

And throw it in a pan.

Pat-a-cake pat-a-cake, bakers man'

He had been so absorbed in singing he hadn't noticed that everyone was watching him in awe until he came to the end of the repetitive song. He looks up, and also notices the guard watching him from the door. He freezes in fear, smile falling from his face.

"I want you. Now." He demands. Blaine is still frozen though. "Did you not hear me slut? Now!" He almost shouts, loud enough to wake Blaine into action, quickly getting up and making his way across the small room. The guard grabs his collar, and as had been done with all the other subs, he gets yanked out of the room by the guard, almost tripping. He muffles a scream at the added pressure on his still unhealed brand, the pain bringing him back to reality as though he has just ran head first into a wall.

As they walk away from the room he had felt so safe in, he hears several voices start singing the rhyme once again, slowly fading as he is led away.