《Daniel Nicholas Castello》

Four of the guards lead me out of the room, and I quickly glance at Selena before she disappears from view. She looks terrified. I know that she's trying to hide her emotions, but she couldn't- at least not from me.

I look at the guards surrounding me, and they don't seem that impressive. If Selena weren't in danger, I could have easily escaped. But they are, so I need to find another way.

I try and focus to see if I hear footsteps behind us, but there are none, so they probably took Selena somewhere else- somewhere I would have trouble getting to even if I did escape. So I can't risk it. I would never be able to forgive myself if she got hurt or worse, died, because of me.

The guards lead me to a room which, unsurprisingly, isn't that different from any other rooms here. The room is dimly lit, and the walls are made of some kind of stone and concrete, so it's probably soundproof. The room's right wall makes this room a little different from other rooms in this place- it's lined with a bunch of torture equipment.

The guards that guided me to this room look at me like they expect me to be scared of the torture instruments. Any normal person would be afraid, but I'm not. What's the worse they can do to me? Scar me? Make me bleed? Kill me? I don't honestly care much for it. It's not like I haven't been tortured before. On the other hand, dying would be a new experience- one that I'm not entirely opposed to. At least if I'm dead, I won't be in this world anymore- and that is a morbidly comforting thought.

I shake my head. Jesus, I'm fucked up.

The one thing that does scare me, though, is the thought of Selena's situation. She has never experienced anything close to this, and I don't know how she will get through this. My only hope right now is that Lucien Marcello takes all his anger out on me and spares her. I deserve this, but she does not. I've killed, tortured, and then many other terrible deeds so this is my karma. But she hasn't done anything close to the things I have. She does not deserve this.

One of the guards pushes me further into the room, and I turn around to glare at him. Does he have a death wish?

I almost smile when I see him back away in fear when he notices my glare. Good, at least he knows what I can do to him.

"Hello, Daniel," Lucien Marcello says, entering the room. He looks at me and smiles. "We have a lot to talk about."

"We really don't," I reply in a bored tone, and he raises his eyebrow.

"I see that your arrogance is still intact."

I smile sarcastically. "Did you really think that kidnapping me or threatening to torture me would suddenly scare the arrogance out of me? I thought you a better judge of character than that," I say, trying to provoke him, but he simply smiles in return. Motherfucker.

"You still haven't realised who is really in power here. Once you do, you won't be so arrogant," he replies calmly.

I scoff. "Torturing me will not have any effect on me. I'm not nine anymore."

"No, you're not. I know you think that you probably won't care much if I do anything to you, but the truth is you will. It will take away what sense of power you think you have. Let's not forget that there is another person you seem to have affections for that I will torture. That will certainly have an effect on you."

I take a deep breath in an attempt to stay calm, so I don't attack the motherfucker in front of me, but it's proving more difficult than I thought it would be. I don't like people threatening the people I love- those who do usually end up dead. Selena... well, I don't know what she is to me, but I feel strongly for her. I don't think I love her yet, but I do know that I feel protective of her, and that's enough to make me want to kill anyone who threatens her.

"I think that you have surprisingly misjudged the value I have for my emotional connections with people. If you hurt her, I will not be tamed. Instead, it will just fuel my urge to kill you and everyone you hold dear," I tell him point-blank.

He stares at me for a second before nodding at a guard behind me. "Injectez-lui la drogue, puis le menotter. Je reviendrai dans quelques heures."

Not fucking likely, I think as I quickly step forward and grab the guard closest to me.

"If you try and come closer to me, he's dead," I say, and everyone stays frozen for a second, even the guard I threatened to kill.

"You're outnumbered," Lucien reminds me.

"Yet I can kill everyone in this room before you can kill me," I reply, and Lucien's eyes flash in annoyance.

"You-" he starts, but he stops short when I snap the neck of the guard who I had captured before. I throw the guards limp, lifeless body aside and raise my eyebrow tauntingly.

I just proved my point. They didn't even start moving, and one out of four is dead.

Lucien glares at me. "You know you can't escape. Even if you could, you wouldn't because you'll know what will happen to that girl if you do."

I consider his words for a moment, knowing that he is right, but I'm not going to admit it aloud. I'm not going to go down without a fight. "My men are out there looking for me. They will find me and free us. Maybe not now, but soon and when that happens, I promise that I will not grant you a swift death."

A couple more guards burst into the room and point their guns at me. I catch a few of them looking at the dead body of their comrade and look at me with a hint of fear. I almost smile in satisfaction because even though they outnumber me by nearly a dozen to one, they are still afraid of me.

Now, I genuinely consider myself outnumbered, so I step back from the dead guard and hold my hands up in surrender. "You know I'm right," I tell Lucien before someone injects me with the drug, and I slip out of consciousness.

-

Fourteen Years Ago

I sat in the corner of the darkroom huddled in a ball. I was scared of everything: of the darkness in this strange place, of not being with my parents and most of all of the tall scary man that took me away from my parents.

The man had hurt me; before he locked me in the room, he hit me until I started bleeding. I didn't know why he hurt me. I hadn't done anything wrong, nor had I misbehaved.

Before the man kidnapped me, he was arguing about something with my parents- I knew it was something about money, but I didn't know more. I wish I had known more because maybe I could have used that to get out of here.

A tiny window on the ceiling helped me estimate how long I had been here. Right now, it had been less than a day since I was taken.

Mom and Dad are going to get me out of here soon. I told myself repeatedly because I knew it was true. My parents loved me more than anything and would do anything to get me out of danger.

The door opened again, and the man who kidnapped me came into the room.

"Your parents have given us what we needed, so I'll let you go soon," the man told me as he kneeled down next to me.

"Wh- When c-can I go?" I asked him. Even to myself, I sounded weak.

The man smiled wickedly when he heard the fear in my voice. "You need to be taught a lesson before I even think about giving you back to your parents."

I wrapped my arms around myself and blinked back the tears that were starting to form in my eyes. "Why?"

"So that you never repeat your parents' mistakes. So that one day, when you grow up, you know who really holds power in a situation."

"Entrez!" The man shouted, and two people came into the room. Both of them had masks on, so I could not see their faces. They walked over to me and grabbed me by my arms, forcing me to stand up.

"Please don't hurt me," I begged the man, but he just smiled.

"It's for your own good," he replied to me, then walked out of the room. The guards forced me to follow him.

-

My whole body hurt. The man punched me and kicked me again and again until I passed out. Sometimes when he was really angry, he stabbed me with his big sharp knife. I never did anything to make him angry- I always listened to him- so I don't know why he always hurt me when he was angry.

When he wasn't hurting me, he made me watch him hurt and kill other people. One time he made me kill someone too. He gave me a gun and told me to shoot a person with it and told me if I didn't, he would hurt my family, so I did. I missed the person. So the scary man told me to shoot until I hit the target. When I finally did, the bullet went into the person's head, and they died. My arms hurt so much after that. My head hurt too. I didn't know what was happening or why it was happening. I just wanted to be with my parents again.

I lay on the floor, staring at the small window, trying to ignore the pain in my body and my thoughts, but I can't. I killed someone, and I don't even know who- the person had a black cloth over their face, so I couldn't see them.

-

Present

I wake up with a start. What the fuck was that? I haven't had a calm dream like that in ages. Usually, my nightmares consist of a lot more violence, gore and death. How can I get such a relatively peaceful dream in a time like his?

I try to move my hand and rub my heavy eyes, but unsurprisingly, I cannot do so. I crane my neck to look back and my hands and see what I'm dealing with- handcuffs and chains. How fucking fantastic. There are chains that are tied around each of my wrists which are connected to this vertical bar. My hands are fixed close to each other by handcuffs. I try to stand up, but I can't because chains around my ankle make it impossible to stand up without using my hands.

I sigh in exasperation and close my eyes. I can't say that I don't blame them for ensuring that I can't free myself. I mean, I did kill one of their men, so they know how dangerous I am. They also know that I could have easily gotten out had they just used handcuffs, but chains make it almost impossible for me to do so. So, despite there being no one in the room but me, I don't try to free myself.

It's hard to sit here, with nothing to do, and not replay my dream in my head. I think everyone has their one turning point, that one moment where they change forever. For me, it was killing that person. After that, I became corrupted and evil. I don't think anyone would be surprised by what I did if I told them all that had happened to me when Lucien Marcello held me captive. Everything that he made me watch and do turned me into this monster that I am today. Of course, Nonno helped me develop those skills, but my journey to becoming a killer started here.

The saying, "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain", is perfect for me. Except in most instances, people don't become villains as early as I did. Lucien started my transition into a villain; Amara's and Damien's deaths just completed it.

The door opens, and Lucien comes waltzing in like he owns the place- which, to be fair, he does. "We can finally have a civil conversation."

I scoff indignantly. "How exactly is a conversation civil if one party is chained up and forced to listen to the nonsensical ramblings of the other?"

Lucien looks at me impassively. "None of your attempts to provoke me are going to work, so if I were you, I'd conserve my energy for what is to come."

"You're not going to get them. Ever," I tell him before he even strikes a conversation about it.

He smiles mirthlessly. "If you do not give me my property, I will kill Selena."

I look at him expressionlessly even though all I want to do is kill him or show him in any way how much I want to kill him for threatening someone that I care about.

"Fine, kill her," I say, calling his bluff, and he looks taken aback.

I know that he can't kill either of her yet- he's going lose any pull he has over Vincente and me, and so he'll never get what he wants.

"So you'll let an innocent person die for because of them?"

"Yes. I can't let dozens of people die just to save one- no matter how much I want to save her- I'm not that selfish yet."

"So you would let her die a terrible death?" He asks me, confused.

"She'll understand and agree with me if she knows why I'm letting her die. People who love you believe in your decisions even if they don't understand them. But, oh wait, my apologies, I forgot you don't have anyone who loves you, cuckold," I say, smiling mockingly.

He moves towards me, forces me to stand up. "You-"

"That struck a nerve, didn't it?" I say. Before I can continue, Lucien's fist makes contact with the side of my face.

Jesus, that hurt, but I'm not going to show him that, so I smile at him tauntingly.

"Shut the fuck up!" He yells, suddenly looking unhinged.

Well done, Castello. Why don't you make him angrier?

I continue taunting him despite knowing better. "But I thought you wanted to have a civil conversation with me?" Just as I finish talking, he punches the other side of my face. And then my stomach, repeatedly as if I'm his punching bag. As much as it hurts and knocks the wind out of me, I'm grateful that he isn't hitting my face anymore. As vain as it may sound, I happen to like my face quite a lot.

After what feels like forever, he stops and glares at me.

"Done so soon?" I ask him, breathing heavily. "Or are you scared that I may somehow get out of these chains and make this a fair fight? You're obviously not man enough-" Another series of punches- this time unfortunately on my face again- effectively stops me from talking.

"You're going to be sorry after I'm done with you," he says as he stops and starts walking over to the wall with all the torture weapons.

I spit the blood from my mouth onto the floor and laugh. "That's very unlikely."

I don't only say it to infuriate him but because I know it's true. Pain doesn't affect me like it does other people. It's not like I don't feel pain, I definitely do, but I don't much care for it. In fact, at times I embrace it.

The crack of a whip makes me look away from the floor. I'm not surprised that he's using one. Whips and daggers are usually his torture weapons of choice, as far as I remember- mine is whatever is in handy, I'm not very picky.

I remember the first time he whipped me- I cried, screamed and begged him to stop, but he didn't, so eventually, I just passed out from the pain. Eventually I got better at handling the pain and not reacting to it but still, I was weak then, with a very low pain tolerance compared to my pain tolerance now.

This time when he stands in front of me, I don't say a word. He's in his zone right now. Nothing I say will affect him in any way.

He cracks the whip again before raising it and slashing my chest with it, drawing some blood. I don't scream or shout or even flinch. I stare at him, unblinking. My reaction would give him the indication that I wasn't hurt at all, that his action caused me no pain- but that is far from the truth. It hurt a lot when he punched me before, but this is another level of pain. This is the type of pain that makes my vision turn dark. This type of pain makes me want to fall to the ground, but I don't because I don't want to give him the satisfaction he would get if he knew he was causing me immense pain. But, as sick as it sounds, it's also the type of pain that helps me feel at peace.

He looks at me frustrated before repeating his actions, but I don't react again. After this, he loses it, he whips me again and again till I feel my knees buckling, but I don't fall to the ground. As much as it pains me, I keep on standing.

Eventually, he gets tired and so frustrated that he drops the whip and kicks it away.

And he's out of his zone.

"Are you done?" I ask him in a bored tone, which is hard because the pain is so overwhelming. I can barely breathe at this point but I feel calm- if that makes it better. The hunger, pain and loss of blood have made my vision slightly darker.

Lucien looks like he's going to kill me, but he calls some guards forward to take me back to the room at the last second. I'm surprised he let me off so easy which just makes me fear what he would've done to Selena to compensate.

The guards take off the chains from my wrists and ankles but leave the handcuffs on. I almost laugh. It's not like the handcuffs will too much to restrain me- they're so easy to get out of.

This time, when they escort me back to the room, they don't come too close to me or try to touch me because they know I'll probably kill them if they do.

I look around when we're walking back to the room, trying to keep in mind which hallways lead where and where different doors are because information like that can come in handy later when we escape. Which we are going to. I don't know how long it will take, but we are eventually going to escape.

The guards in front of me stop at the door, I assume is the room, our room, and open the door with a bang.

I look inside and sigh in relief when I see Selena and sigh in relief. She is alive- I can't tell what condition she is in, but she is alive, and that's all that matters.

Before I can take a step forward, one of the guards pushes him into the room, probably as some form of revenge for killing his own. I try to keep my balance, but my knees are too weak, so I fall anyway. I manage to twist myself midway, so I don't fall on my face and damage it even more than Lucien already did. Even so, the impact with the ground knocks the air out of me.

I grind my teeth to distract myself from the shooting pain everywhere in my body.

I take a deep breath and sit up despite how much it hurts to do so. "I'm going to fucking end you," I threaten the guards. I catch a hint of fear in their eyes before they shut the door. They know that it wasn't an empty threat; it was a promise- how could they not know? I kill one of their comrades not too long ago.

After the guards close it, I stare at the door because I don't want to see what condition Selena is in. After all, she's in that condition because of me.

Selena calls out my name quietly, her voice full of pain, and I wince. It's because of me. I turn to look back at her, and my eyes widen.

Cazzo. Cazzo. Cazzo. She's in a much worse condition than I imagined her to be in. She is on the floor, covered in blood, looking ready to pass out. All of this is because of me. I did this to her.

I snap myself out of self-pity and take a deep breath to calm myself down a bit. Then bite my tongue to stop myself from screaming because of the pain, and crawl over to the wall. I lean against the wall and use it to help myself stand back up.

Okay, now for the hard part. I think as I close my eyes and start breathing through my nose. I bring my hands closer together behind my back and first feel my left hand. When I'm sure I've found the right joint, I press at it with all the strength I have left to dislocate it. Fortunately, and unfortunately for me, it works. Fortunately, because it helps me get out of the handcuffs. Unfortunately, because, well, it adds more pain to my ever-growing list of discomforts. I take my left hand out of the handcuff and pop my thumb back into its place- which hurts even more. I take a deep breath then repeat the process with my right hand, which is considerably more challenging because I am right-handed.

After I'm done, I toss the cuffs aside and walk over to Selena. I kneel down beside Selena and touch her face.

"The first-aid kit," she mumbles against my hand. I look around the room and see what she's talking about.

"Okay, I have to help you sit up first," I tell her when I fetch the first aid and the water.

She shakes her head. "You first."

"But-" I try to argue, but she squeezes my hand.

"You need more help," she manages to say before she starts coughing. I

"I don't give a fuck about myself," I tell her angrily. She looks like she's about to argue, but I give her a look that makes her stop. Thank fuck. I make her drink a bottle of water as I assess the damage caused to body. Her eyes are almost entirely closed now, and I fear it has more to do with the pain than her lack of sleep. I move over to her and help her sit so that I can address the wounds on her back. "I have to cut the back portion of your shirt away," I tell her.

"Okay," she replies, sounding more in pain than she did before.

I cut the back portion of her shirt away and close my eyes because of how much damage has been done to her back. I can't see one part that's not bleeding. I take a clean wet cloth and start wiping all the blood away- it's easier to wipe it now because it's all dry. Once I'm done, I clean and bandage her.

"It's your turn now," Selena tells me as soon as I'm done.

"Not right now. I'm fine. We need to have some food first so we can take some medication," I say and before she gets a chance to speak I add: "And I don't want to hear any arguments."

She turns around and looks at me.

"You're very annoying, bossy and stubborn," she says angrily, and I smile.

"I know."

-

Once the both of us have eaten and my wounds have been adequately treated, we sit huddled together at the corner of the room.

"It's my fault," I finally say to Selena, and she looks at me with a confused expression.

"What's your fault? You're the one who fixed me," she says, and I shake my head. She doesn't understand.

"No. It's my fault that you are in this mess."

"That's not true. He-" Selena starts, but I interrupt her. She needs to know. She needs to understand.

"It is true. Your father and I were working together, and we came across something of Lucien Marcello's. And we stole it from him so he is doing this to you. In retaliation and in the hope that we are going to give him what he wants if he hurts you."

Selena stares at me wide eyed. "What was the thing you stole?"

"I can't tell you that but I can tell you that dozens of lives would have been ruined if we didn't steel what we did."

"That thing must be very dangerous if it would have affected so many people then. You don't have to be sorry. It's okay. I understand that you are doing what you must."

I stare at the floor in shock. I don't understand her reaction. She doesn't know why she is being tortured, but for some reason, she trusts me enough to believe that I'm making the best decision that I can.

"Did you have any idea about this before?" I ask her, stunned by her calm response.

She smiles. "Yeah. I figured something was going on when you were cleaning yourself up. And I knew you would blame it all on yourself like the idiot you are, so I just, you know, thought of what I could say."

I blink. For some reason, I was not expecting either of her to have such deduction skills and figure out even a little of what's actually going on.

"To make me feel better?" I ask Selena the question that has been bothering me the most.

"No," she replies. "To tell you the truth about how I feel about it. At first, I was pretty mad at my father for what he did, then, well I figured my father couldn't possibly hate me so much that he would allow me to be tortured for no reason so I assumed it would be something serious." She sighs, resting her head on my shoulder. "And that's what I told you how I feel, not something to make you feel good."

I stay silent for a moment. "I don't know how to reply to that," I admit, and she laughs quietly then winces.

"You don't have to say anything," Selena says.

"You need to eat more," I say to her after a few moments of silence.

"I'm not hungry," she replies, and I narrow my eyes at her.

"You barely ate anything before. And this is your first meal in who knows how long."

"I can't eat. If I do, I'm just going to throw up," she tells me, and when I start to argue, she shakes her head. "You don't get it. I- I'm just so scared and anxious that even if I was feeling hungry, I wouldn't be able to eat."

"Then go to sleep. I'm awake. I'll tell you if I sense any danger."

"I'm not sleepy," she says, and I clench my jaw. Jesus, she's stubborn.

Before I can begin to scold her for her unhealthy habits, she slowly puts her hand on my cheek and softly draws circles on them. It feels so unbelievably nice that I forget my anger and close my eyes, leaning into her touch.

"You clench your jaw a lot," she notes, and I smile.

"That's because you're very stubborn and make me very angry. Clenching my jaw helps me control my anger."

She laughs lightly. "You're very stubborn too."

"Yeah, but I take care of myself."

"I do too," she argues, and I open my eyes and narrow them at her.

"Sure you do. Now, tell me, do you want to sleep or eat?"

She sighs. "I hate you."

"No, you don't."

She ignores my previous statement. "I guess sleeping is better than eating."

I smile and slowly and carefully pull her closer to me. She rests her head on my chest.

"You should sleep too," she tells me.

"We'll see about that."

- 

A/N

Literally spending most days rereading HoO and PJO these days because of the new TV show. 

This chapter was as hard to write as the last but this is the last chapter like this... I think. Haven't decided yet. 

Also just realised, I have been updating everyday since my exams started...  yeah I'm going to be failing.

Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. 

✌