After eating they all go back to the cell, not really sure where else they would be allowed to go. Although no one has come along to lock them in, all of Blaine’s fellow subs haven’t left the cell. When they arrive, a few of the subs Blaine is yet to introduce himself to, as well as Tina, head straight into the washroom. Blaine decides to occupy his usual space on the floor by Nick’s cage to wait his turn for the shower, and is shortly joined by both Brittany and Nick sitting in a three pointed circle. A triangle he corrects himself.

“Hey Nick,” he greats. “Are you ok, you seemed very introverted today?” Nick grunts in reply, clearly not wanting to talk about it. He instead turns to Brittany, coming up with a change of topic. “So where are you from Brittany?” He asks.

“I’m actually from Lima, Ohio. But I had my meeting in Wisconsin,” she replies.

“I was from Ohio too! Westerville. What school did you go to?” Blaine starts excitedly, slightly bouncing up and down. He notices a ghost of a smile on Nick’s lips, but not quite enough for it to travel to his eyes.

“Mckinely?” She responds, trying to work out what Blaine was getting at.

“We competed against you at sectionals! Show choir,” he adds as an afterthought.

“Dalton warblers?” Blaine nods. “Did you and Brad fall out? You didn’t have a band.” Brittany asks in what appears to be concern, however Blaine has no idea who ‘Brad’ is so doesn’t really know how to reply. Thankfully Brittany continues after a pause, despite Blaine’s lack of response. “You were the one Kurt pointed out, with the cemented gel on your head. Kurt said you were hot. Why a Katy Perry song? Roar really didn’t suit the Warblers image...” She questions, Blaine struggling to keep up with the girls train of thought and the questions she asks. He hears a quiet snicker and turns to jokingly glare at the offender.

“I’m sorry Blaine,” Nick responds, seeming to be slightly more cheerful than he was before. “But that is exactly what we tried to tell you. You are just deaf when it comes to any of her songs.” Nick chuckles again.

“I’m a Katy Perry and I’m proud of it!” Blaine argues, sticking his chin out in retaliation.

“I know you are.” Nick laughs, shaking his head. After noticing Brittany is also laughing, Blaine joins in, not really laughing at his comment like the others, but simply taking an opportunity to laugh. Laughing is much better than thinking about everything that they had been told earlier.

“So Britt, why was your appointment not in Ohio?” Blaine asks, half in attempt to rid the attention off him and half steer the conversation on, staying away from what he is sure is not only on his mind.

“Because that’s where my mom booked it.” She says as though it is blaringly obvious; which Blaine supposes it is. “Although it was a great day trip, Lord Tubbington hadn’t seen where I was born until then.”

“I hated my appointment.” Tina says on her way over, saving Blaine from puzzling over Brittany’s sentences. Her hair is dry, obviously having forgone the shower this time. “The place smelt like rotting flesh. Although that may have just been my imagination,” she adds as an afterthought, sitting down directly opposite him, in between Nick and Brittany.

“I didn’t think it was too bad where I went.” He continues after the pointed glare from the other three. “Well, the whole discovering ‘your life is now over’ part wasn’t exactly great, but at least I didn’t get bullied in there.” He aimed for it to be a jokey comment, but it came out sounding more resentful.

“I thought the place was awful. Come on, it was a prison cell, simple as. Just like here. And you can’t say you weren’t bullied, that guard was worse than you bullying before Dalton, surely!” Nick replies in a half question.

“What, Puck? The one with the mohawk?” At Nicks’ slightly confused nod he continues. “I really liked him. He was much nicer than that woman. And Puck was fairly kind considering he didn’t have to be.” Nick shakes his head in objection.

“He was evil reincarnated. A spawn of Satan himself. Worse than all the bullies I have ever encountered before!” Nick states, getting incredibly agitated.

“You did purposely irritate him though.” At Nick’s expression Blaine realises it was a mistake in mentioning it, and decides to quickly change topic to the first thing he can think of. “How long have you and Jeff been dating? None of the Warblers knew!” He says, remembering the exchange at the auction. He thinks back and realises that was only six days ago, even though it felt much longer! Just another 350 or so left to go; a depressing thought.

“Four months as of today,” that would explain the mood, “And we didn’t celebrate our third month either, since I was already in holding. He must have thought I had abandoned him, yet he is still trying to save me once he found out. I just wish I had been brave enough to tell him what was happening, rather than finding out through a chance meeting with a naked Blaine,” he replies sadly, but with a slight chuckle at the image of the encounter. Deciding that it probably wasn’t the best road to take, he tries to come up with something else to take the attention from Nick, but thankfully Tina speaks first.

“I regret not saying goodbye to all my friends as well.” At a prompting look from Blaine, she elaborates. “I was so certain I wouldn’t be a sub I didn’t see the need to. So few people are labelled, and I wasn’t exactly a push over; I know I scared the principle – “

“He thought she was a vampire.” Brittany interjects. At the boys confused looks, Tina explains.

“I always used to dress quite gothic – when I was allowed clothes and makeup - and he thought I was a vampire.” Blaine doesn’t really understand; who thought vampires were real anyway? “Although in fairness I did act the part at times. I threatened him a lot of the time, saying if he didn’t allow me to do something I would set the Asian vampire cult upon him.” Tina chuckles. Blaine tries to imagine it, but can’t picture this girl looking goth. Then again, he can’t picture anyone from this hell hole as having a life before it; exactly the purpose of the training.

“So did you two go to the same school?” Nick asks, picking up on something Blaine had missed – too focused on the vampire part of the discussion.

“Yup.” Brittany starts explaining. “Tina dated one of my boyfriends before I did, dumping him for Asian number two. But then I dumped Tina’s ex because he called me stupid, and that is really offensive. So I then dated Santana, but you can’t tell anyone as she is still hiding in the wardrobe.”

“Do you mean in the closet?” Nick asks. Brittany just shrugs her shoulders in response, clearly not fussed with what the true saying is.

“Is this the same Santana who lied about me escaping that first day?” Blaine knows it is a very long shot – everyone from America ends up at this place, the odds are against it being true, especially since that girl was at least a year older than them – although he couldn’t help but wonder if it is possible.

“That is her. We don’t date anymore, because she skived her appointment in protest and therefore got took ‘for her own good’.” Blaine can’t tell if Brittany believes what she is saying or not, speaking expressionlessly and in an impressive monotone manor. Blaine is still trying to understand the likelihood of so many people being from such a small area when he realises Brittany is still talking. “- and then I slept with Quinn, but turns out she doesn’t play for the winning team-“

“Bat for the other team?” Nick interrupts in question. Once again Brittany simply shrugs in nonchalance.

“I did make out with Kurt, but turns out he does play for the winning team. Although he had really nice baby hands.” Blaine smiles at Brittany in confusion, not really understanding what she is talking about anymore. “He was the kicker for the football team, and helped them win. But it was only a winning team because he danced to single ladies on the pitch.” Blaine chuckles at the image; a boy on the football team shacking his hips on the football field. At least he thinks that is what Brittany is trying to say. This Kurt sounds like something else.

“So what about you Blaine? Any good love life tales to tell?” Tina asks, Nick shorting in response. Blaine glares at his best friend, but decides to share anyway.

“Well last year the Warblers staged a ‘Gap attack’ at the local Gap. I had a huge crush on the junior manager there, but he didn’t have the same feelings. I may have accidentallygothimfired,” he says in a rush, guiltily. “Apart from that I haven’t got anything to tell. I’ve always known I was a sub so didn’t really go looking for any-“ Blaine stops suddenly at the three open mouthed people sat with him. “What?” He questions self consciously.

“You knew you were going to be a sub? How does that work? Did you just give up on living, or did you simply hand yourself over at sixteen? Don’t you like your parents?” Tina lists in curiosity.

“As for my parents, they were supportive and all that, but my Dad was never really comfortable after I had come out. He was still accepting, and didn’t stand for people bullying me, he was just more distant than before I came out. And as for how I knew, well I just had always known. Although I always looked like I was independent, everything I did was in aim for someone’s approval. I was very glad Dalton had a uniform as I struggled picking clothes. And when I did have to find an outfit I always chose some bright primary colours, something that was outrageous, in an attempt to discise the lack of fashion sense I had. I may be gay, but unfortunately it doesn’t automatically make me a fashionista.” Unconsciously he raises his hand to run along his collar, prompting another memory. “And I would always wear a bow tie as I loved the feeling of something round my neck, a comfort blanket.” At the continued confusion evident on his friends faces – and a few of the other subs who had clearly been earwigging – he gives up on his explanation. “Although I knew being a sub isn’t really a true life, not having any freedom for yourself, I just knew it would be my path. I still had dreams for my future, but I knew they were just dreams.” He looks up and notices another sub, looking like they wanted to talk.

“I always knew I would be too. For no reason I could really pin point, I just was expecting the words ‘Maxwell, you have scored over fifty points’, so I wasn’t too shocked. Although if I hear anyone call me Maxwell I will go all Texas heights on you, I go by Max,” he inputs. Blaine hasn’t paid much attention to the other subs, so unsurprisingly he didn’t really know much else about the short boy, but will defiantly have to remember his name; although the boy – Max he reminds himself - had at least appeared to be half joking. Looking round the room, Blaine spots at least 3 others – two girls and one other boy – also nodding. At least it appears he wasn’t the only one. He takes the awkward end of conversation as an opportunity to go shower.

Blaine takes his time in the washroom, using the cold shower to brainstorm ideas for a better descriptive word for the room itself. Washroom makes it sound much classier than it is. There are no baths to warrant the term bathroom, and there is more than just a toilet to use that term. It’s just another cell like room with no windows and a dim light, but also wet and damp. A wet cell. He chuckles, still not finding a word he likes, before taking his time to finish in the room.

Heading out, he notices another naked body sitting with his little group, currently facing away from him, sat between Nick and Tina. He recognises the hair as belonging to the boy who earned a punishment yesterday in the canteen area; another boy he had all but ignored before.

“Blaine, meet Jacob.” Nick introduces. Blaine smiles at Jacob before walking to the other side of the small circle to sit down in the spot he was in before, feeling incredibly exposed with his uncovered dick at eye level with this new stranger. Although, he reasons, it’s nothing the others haven’t seen before, he might as well start getting used to it. Jacob starts talking, obviously continuing the conversation from before Blaine arrived.

“I disagree Nick, I liked that room. Maybe it’s because you were the first to be took to be ‘broken’ you only saw it as a room to wait for your inevitable doom. However once just about less than half of you had been took – in fact, I think it was just after Blaine had been caught playing pat-a-cake and ordered to leave - we invented a game to pass the slow moving time.”

“Sorry, can you catch me up please?” Blaine asks, confused as to what was going on that involved him.

“We are just talking about that room we were put in before the guards raped us.” Jacob explains frankly, surprisingly showing no reaction to the thought of the rape unlike the rest of them – Blaine included. “I suppose it wasn’t as bad for me since I wasn’t a virgin in the first place. I had bottomed occasionally before with my girl friend. She would use a strap on and tie me up, and I would get of on the helplessness of it, which had given me a tiny-” he chuckled “-inkling that I was submissive, although I didn’t think I would be found out for it. But as awful as this sounds and as embarrassed this makes me feel, I kind of enjoyed the experience. I certainly got off on it anyway,” he adds shyly. Thinking back, Blaine recognises Jacob as being the other boy who nodded with Max.

Blaine is interrupted from the option of replying by the appearance of Slapper. He instantly shuts his mouth and drops his head in attempt to remove himself from her vision. Out of the corner of his eye he notices Nick doing the same.

“Here’s your cup.” She says to Tina, holding a small rubber looking object. “You are responsible for it’s usage, keeping it clean, and storing it when not in use. I suggest keeping it in your cage.” She turns to address the three other girls. “We will get one to the rest of you as well at some point, we just haven’t sorted it yet. Lights out in an hour.” Without another word or explanation she turns and leaves, locking the cell for the first time. It is a good job everyone did opt to stay rather than leaving, she didn’t take note of who was there. Hell, at least two people where out of her view in the washroom anyway! He can’t imagine what kind of punishment would have been in store if he had been locked outside.

Tina looks up at the ceiling and sighs, clearly over something he was imagining.

“A sigh makes babies cry.” Brittany says in panic. “What’s wrong.”

“I always wanted to be an actress. Now though I only have rape and servitude to look forwards to.” She sighs again.

“I had dreams to move to New York, despite knowing I would likely be a sub anyway. I was going to get a role on Broadway and give private music lessons in my spare time. I’m still hoping someone from New York will buy me, even if it isn’t the way I hoped to be going there.” Blaine shares his guilty pleasure. He hadn’t ever voiced it before.

“We are in New York now,” Brittany inputs.

“Really!” Nick exclaims. “How do you know that Britt?”

“I saw the birds flying east as we where led in, and it smelt like the last time I visited for nationals.”

“How on earth can you tell?” Tina asks, as interested as the rest of them.

“I just told you.” Brittany replies irritably.

“I really don’t get you at times, yet more often than not you tend to be right. So, New York. Wow.” Tina replies in a mixture of shock and amazement, clearly believing Brittany is correct.

The conversations continue easily, Max having also decided to join them. At one point Brittany and Tina disappear into the washroom– as well as the other two girls opting to go as well – so Brittany can help them with how to use the menstrual cup. Blaine obviously didn’t follow, not really wanting to know what the teaching would entail either. After what had obviously been an hour, Slapper returns, instructing them all to get into their cages for the night. Confusingly, she doesn’t unlock the cell and enter. She leaves without locking the individual cages, although no one dared to leave anyway, especially not in the pitch black running the risk of falling out.