That night Hunter returned once more, as well as two other guards at separate occasions. They brutally beat into him, leaving bruises and cuts behind. Surprisingly Hunter had been the kindest, treating Blaine almost like a human, whereas the guards had just fucked him as though he was a human fleshlight, like the object he now is considered to be. Once the last guard had finished with him, he was unchained and carried out of the room, too broken and sore to support his own weight on his legs. When the guard told him to latch his cuffs together, he did it without thinking or questioning.

He had been taken to a room filled with steal cages like that in a homeless animal shelter, a solid floor and sides round the cage, with the door formed of vertical bars. Each cage was the height of half the room, one on top of the other. In total there were 16 of these cages, 8 along one wall and 8 on the other, facing each other with a narrow gap for a walk way. At the end of the walkway there was another door, snuggly fitting between the two rows of cages. Blaine was thrown into the first cage in the top row, the ones opposite and below him having been filled already. Nick was in the cage directly opposite him, which was comforting yet agitating, seeing his friend so close yet out of reach. Neither of them in the mood to acknowledge the other, they both stay silent.

The flooring of the cage is slightly padded. He looks down out of interest and sees it is some kind of spongey material. Recognition dawns on him, it’s the same type of material his mother used to put on his mattress when he was young and wet the bed; waterproof bed pads. Blaine hopes this doesn’t mean what he thinks it means – he will be expected to go to the toilet like an animal, and then to sleep in his filth. He must be looking into it wrong.

He looks around his cage. It’s tall enough to sit upright, and even just tall enough for him to crouch, but not tall enough for him to stand. For once he is happy about his mere height. The cage is not very deep; laying at the back on his side, his linked arms can just reach the metal door. As for the width of the cage, Blaine would fit if he cut his knees off; instead he pulls them up towards his chest. It’s not the most comfortable of positions, but after his treatment that evening, he falls asleep almost instantly, not disturbed even when the other remaining subs are brought into the room.

Blaine is woken up by a loud commotion. He shoots up into a sitting position defensively, unsure of what’s going on. He sees Nick being restrained by a short woman with black hair, wearing a dress similar to those in hospitals. The most noticeable thing about her is the collar, exactly like his. However she must be something different to him, none of the subs he saw yesterday had a shred of clothing on. Although Nick was kicking and shouting, this girl – he notices she can’t be much older than him – didn’t seem to be having any trouble keeping Nick pressed forwards into the cages. In fact, she was using her forearm to hold Nick while picking at her nails with both hands. Blaine tries to guess what has happened, but is saved from guessing as Hunter appears.

“Thanks. What’s your name again girl?” He says to the collared woman.

“Santana, master.” She replies, looking down. Hunter clears his throat. “I mean, I mean 9273 master. Sorry master.” She hastily corrects.

“I will let that slip past this once. Good girl.” Hunter praises. He grabs hold of Nick’s arm, but Santana doesn’t let go until Hunter nods to her. “You may go, I will finish in here. You and the other one can go to the station, and I will send someone down to give a reward as soon as I have a chance.” She almost runs from the room. Hunter turns back to Nick, and starts growling into his ear. “What was your goal slut? What did you think you would accomplish trying to beat up one of my older subs? Or are you simply turning on your own now? You won’t have many allies left in this world, and yet you turn on those who are. Have you not understood anything you have been told already? Let me say it in simpler words: You, Do, As, You, Are, Told. When you are told to remain in the cage, you do not get out of the cage. Understood?” Nick nods. “I want to hear you slut.”

“Y…Yes m…master.” He stutters. Hunter pulls a lead from his pocket, and hooks Nick to one of the bars on his cage door.

“You are going to stay this time. As for the rest of you, since you are all now awake-” Blaine looks around and realises that some of the other subs from yesterday are also in cages opposite him, and assumes the rest are in the same row as he is, out of his sight. “-I am going to unlock your doors. You stay in there until I tell you to leave. First lesson of today, you all get to see what happens to subs who don’t do as they are told.” Hunter slowly works his way around the room, unlocking Blaine last. He walks back to Nick, and unhooks the lead from the cage before issuing one command and dragging Nick out. “Follow.”

During the walk through various corridors, Brittany makes her way to Blaine’s side. They don’t say anything, but Blaine finds comfort in just having the girl next to him. A friendly face among the mass of nameless naked bodies. And that’s all they are as they walk to an unknown destination, following Hunter, all of them too nervous to express much emotion or personality. They have no idea where they are going or what is in store, only that they themselves are glad they are not Nick. Blaine feels very sorry for his friend.

Finally they walk into a large open space, almost like a canteen but without tables. There are lots of subs either kneeling and eating, or walking with a purpose, but none of them appear to notice the new arrivals. Either that or they chose to ignore them. Blaine spots several people in a similar dress to Santana, but not as many as there are naked. In the middle of the room are several long poles sticking up from the floor. Hunter drags Nick towards the centre one, before grabbing his linked wrists and attaching them to the pole above his head. Hunter turns towards the rest of them, crossing his arms and waiting. Blaine realises that they had come to a stop, but none of them had kneeled like they are meant to. He hates being the first to move, but given Hunters mood already, he doesn’t want to test his patience. Despite the awkwardness his linked wrists, he drops to his knees. Shortly after everyone has followed his lead.

“Well done everyone. I knew you would be quicker learns than this one here. We always seem to have more trouble with those who had to be tested twice. Now,” Hunter looks at Nick’s brand, peeking out from under his collar, “9103 here needs to be taught a lesson. Something like the stunt he pulled – trying to run away – would normally end in a much harsher punishment, but since it is only your second day here, he is only going to get 20 lashes. You are all to watch 9103, and to not forget this.” Without another word Hunter turns to Nick and picks up a large, narrow whip.

With the first lash, Nick lets out a horrific scream. Blaine can almost feel the pain himself. As the whip is removed, there is already a red line from the impact. The whip is back on Nick without a pause, the second lash coming down with more force than the first. Nick lets out another shout, and as the whip is pulled back Blaine can see that this one has broken the skin. There are still 18 more to go, but he is unsure how Nick will be able to take them all. Blaine want’s to look away, but worries he will receive the same fate for disobeying, several guards having joined the group to watch the other 10 subs. After the 7th strike, there is no scream, and Blaine realises that Nick has passed out. Blaine watches the final 13 hits, grateful Nick isn’t able to feel them. At least, he won’t feel them until he regains consciousness. Finally, Hunter puts down the whip and turns to address the rest of them.

“Now, let us continue the day like we were meant to. Follow.” He commands, walking out the room the same way they entered. Turning back he instructs, “Make sure you pay attention to where we walk, you won’t have a guide after tomorrow.”

Blaine takes one final look at the unconscious, beaten body of one of his closest friends, before following Hunter with the rest of the subs.

Throughout the rest of the day, Brittany remains glued to his side. They still don’t talk – one of the many rules they were told harshly without room for debate. Before he knows it they are lead back into the canteen room for their one meal of the day, a large lunch of processed roast beef and packet vegetables. Although it wasn’t anywhere near his normal standard, it was surprisingly better than he was expecting. But then again, they wouldn’t want to completely destroy their looks; Blaine knows that healthy subs will sell for more money.

Nick is still tied to the pole in the centre, seemingly unmoved from earlier, but at least now conscious. Blaine starts walking in his direction, wanting to comfort his friend, but is quickly directed back to the rest of the subs by a guard before he is even half way there. Blaine doesn’t fight, instead hoping he can catch Nick’s eyes at some point and send a supportive smile. However they are directed out of the canteen area before Nick looks their way. Blaine suspects it was with purpose.

The afternoon contains more teaching. How to kneel correctly, how to predict what your master wants, knowing when a question requires a verbal answer or when to keep silent. Everyone seemed to pick it up quickly, all in a daze from the earlier events. For Blaine it was all a bit of a blur, his mind on Nick, but fortunately enough of it sticks so that he doesn’t get in trouble. After being told more rules and expectations, eventually the day draws to a close and they are once again led back to their room with the cages. Blaine expected to see Nick in his own cage, but when they arrive it is empty still. Instead the only difference from the way they left it in the morning was the laminated card, cable tied to the cage doors. They each have 4 numbers on. Blaine looks at the cage he was in the previous night, and sees the paper say 5226. These are obviously tags to identify who is in each cage when they can’t see their brand.

They are informed that every evening they will be allowed a bit of downtime in their ‘room’, able to chat and relax a bit, clean themselves up with a shower (which Blaine discovers are located behind the other door in the room), before one of the trained subs – the ones allowed clothing, having been returned from previous owners and waiting to be resold at the next auction – will come and lock them away in the cages for the night.

However, even though they are allowed to do pretty much anything they want within the locked room, that night no one talks. When two trained subs – one of them the girl from the morning – come an hour later to lock them in the cages, they all climb in before latching their cuffs like instructed. All in all, everyone was still very shook up by the whole Nick event and the sudden slap in the face by their new reality. Blaine knew it was going to be bad, but he thinks nothing could have broken them faster than watching the morning event.

Nick eventually is returned to his cage sometime during the night. Although he isn’t fighting the trained sub who brings him back, they still make enough noise to wake Blaine and a few of the others. After being instructed to lock his wrists and being thrown into his cage, the sub leaves without a word to the others, relocking the door to the cell on their way out. Once Blaine thinks the trained sub is out of ear shot, he speaks up.

“Nick! How are you?” He hears stiff movement before a reply, Nick moving so he is facing Blaine despite being in the pitch black.

“Sore.” He chuckles. “I can’t take this. I wasn’t even trying to run away or attach the girl this morning like they thought, I was just getting out of the cage. It isn’t exactly comfortable in here, and they didn’t tell me not to. Heck, they had even locked the main door behind them so I knew I couldn’t run, and I assumed I was allowed out. But that girl had her head so far up her arse, she didn’t realise what I was doing. Instead she sent the other dude to fetch Hunter. You know the story from there. I bet she did it to get in Hunters good books, knowing there would be a reward for it.”

“I’m so sorry Nick.”

“It’s not your fault, you were still asleep. I think I was the only one awake, I didn’t feel safe enough to sleep like everyone else.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you in that holding centre, and that I didn’t agree with you. You were right, this isn’t the right way to spend your life, even if there may be a few ups, it isn’t worth it.” Blaine sighs.

“Don’t give up on me now Blainey. It was that little speech in the centre that has kept me sane all this time. All day I was in and out of consciousness. The only thought on my mind was ‘Blaine is normally right, maybe it will get better from here.’ I didn’t really believe myself, but it kept me sane when those awful hums came to talk and patronise me throughout the day.”

“So what did you do all day?” Blaine asks, curious.

“Nothing. I was left like that all day. Someone brought me a drink not long after you lot left at lunch. Then before I was brought back here that girl gave me a quick run through of everything I missed being taught, then I was dragged back here. Do you know who those people are, the ones in the dresses?” Nick asks, trying to change the topic slightly.

“From what I have gathered, they are subs at least a year older. It appears that when an owner no longer wants a sub, we get brought back here and then resold at the next auction. I don’t know what they do all day but it seems its work, the people in the kitchen all had collars on. I think they are left alone a lot more than we are, and have a bit more responsibility.”

“Great. So even when we do get out of here, we will soon end up back.” Nick huffs.

“Well, we could be stuck in Mrs Madril’s French class.” He grimaced, trying to lighten the mood but failing. Nick however appreciates the attempt, and laughs.

“Yes. No more French homework ever!” He replies jokingly. Blaine can hear all the meanings behind it, how there will be no more education, no need to know anything other than how to do as they are told, no need to be them, but he decides – like Nick – to take it at face value and make a laugh out of it.

They continue talking until way into the night, having not had any idea what time Nick had come back, he couldn’t even approximate what time it is when they start to fall asleep. They chatted as though they were not in this situation, instead it was almost as though they were having another one of many sleep overs round Nick’s, their friendship on the repair. Blaine hears a mumble from Nick he can only just make out.

“I want out of here Blaine. I don’t care how, but I want out.” However Blaine has fallen asleep before he can reply.