Pain

Tyler groaned slightly and woke up slowly, his vision not yet clear. He was cold, too cold for it to be his dorm room. But then, where was he...? The last thing that he could remember was... was Chase... Chase! Suddenly the boy was wide awake, thinking quickly. He tried to move, but quickly realized that his arms where shackled together, a long thick chain connecting the shackles around his sore wrists to the wall that he was leaning against. They gave him some mobility, but only to a certain degree. He tried to take them off, using his minimal powers, but found that he was completely drained of energy. Realizing that there was nothing he could do, he decided to take a look at the room around him. Caleb, Pogue, and Reid where also in the room with him, and all three of them where still unconscious.

Caleb was kneeling against the wall. His arms were outstretched as far as they could go, and metal bands were clamped around his wrists, binding his arms to the wall. His shirt was shredded, with long strips of the thin fabric hanging from it. He had dirt stains across his face and arms, and thin scratch marks ran down his arms. Small spots of blood had dried on his skin, cracking and flaking as his pulse pumped through him, hard and fast. It was unclear what had caused them, only adding to the air of uneasiness and confusion that had already surrounded them.

Pouge was standing, his arms were twisted behind his back and handcuffed, trapping him in his place. His wrists were connected to the wall by a short chain, and an old, rusted metal collar was clamped around his neck, with the same thick chain securing it to the wall. His hair was wet, and dripping water down the back and sides of his neck. He was shirtless, his muscular tanned skin still damp and shiny, as though he had just been swimming or showering. His long black pants were ripped at the knees, with oil and grease stains from the many long hard hours spent working on his bike.

Lastly Reid's arms were held up above his head and bent at the the elbows. He had on a dirty old white-grey wife beater, with sweat stains around the neck, still damp. He had probably been at the bar dancing with some random new girl he had found before coming back to find Chase in his room. He was sitting against the wall, his head resting on a well toned shoulder. Tyler sighed with relief, seeing that the cuts from earlier disappeared, but felt a quiet rage forming again in him. Light scars were beginning to appear where the cuts had been.

A quiet moan came from across the room, as Caleb began to wake up. Tyler hadn't noticed the dark bruise forming around his now well swollen eye, or the blood caked on his bottom lip. Caleb blinked in the low light, probably finding it hard to see. Tyler tried to say something to him, but found that his voice was completely gone. He began to hyperventilate, trying desperately to make any sort of sound, but nothing would happen.

"Calm down already Tyler," came Pogue's voice, "he hit you across the throat, you'll probably be unable to speak for a couple of hours." Tyler looked over to him, seeing that his eyes were still closed. Had he been awake all this time? Why hadn't he said anything then though...

"What the hell happened.." said Caleb, his voice hoarse and dry. He looked like his neck was stiff, and his movements were somewhat stuttered. He was trying to get up, but to no avail. "Why can't I use... can you two use? Goddamnit what the hell's going on..."

"GEAH!" shouted Reid on Tyler's other side. He was jumpy, trying to get up, but he too quickly found that the wall didn't want him to move very far. "What the fuck man! Whats happening? Why cant I fuckin use? Where the fuck are we?!"

"And you too Reid," Pogue said, his eyes still closed, "calm the fuck down. I've got a splitting headache..." Reid stopped his movements, and slowed his breathing to a normal pace. "Look," said Pogue to the group, "no one knows where we are, what happened, why we can't use, or how we got here. Now everyone just friggin shut up before I find some way to use and MAKE you be quiet."

"Yeah, you should really calm down. Its not like you're going anywhere anytime soon anyway." came Chase's mocking voice from the other side of the room. All but Pogue turned to look at him as he strode into view. Pogue's eyes remained firmly shut against the low lighting, but his face seemed tense now, more alert of his surroundings.

Chase stopped walking once he was in front of the four of them, looking at them each in turn. His eyes lingered for a moment on Tyler before snapping back to the group as a whole. "So how are my guests holding up tonight?" said Chase in his usual sarcastically degrading tone, the same smirk crawling onto his face once again. He took a few steps towards Caleb, looking down at him. He lifted up his head, his hand roughly grabbing his chin and pulling it upward, tilting it side to side. Caleb grimaced in pain, his neck obviously bothering him. Chase scoffed at him, then brought his fist back and down against his cheek, a trickle of blood forming again and Caleb hissed.

Chase dropped Calebs head again, letting it fall back sharply as he turned and walked over to Pogue. His eyes were still closed, blocking out all light. There was a dignified silence about him, allowing no pain to show on his face, whether he felt it or not. Chase smiled at him, looking up and down at the muscles in his powerful body, taking it all in. He really did keep good care of himself, never letting one muscle fall out of shape. Chase ran his hand down the side of the man's face, and down his neck, playing with the collar that sat there. It was tight against his throat, almost too small for him, the muscles in his neck making it harder for him to breathe. Chase ran his fingers along the rusted metal surface, then brought his hands down onto his skin, letting his fingernails scrape down his neck and chest quickly. He stopped and smiled even more when he heard Pogue's sharp intake of breath, then backed off, moving on to Reid.

With every step that Chase took toward him, Reid seemed to back farther and farther into the wall. "Don't fuckin' touch me you gay fag! Keep your fuckin hands off of me!" Chase stopped his advance for a moment, then continued, kneeling down in front of him. A look of fake sympathy came onto his face as he put his hands on Reid's shoulders. "I think you'll live through it" Chase said, a hint of an evil grin coming onto his face. He dragged one of his hands down across the newly formed scars that now stretched across his once perfect and unmarred chest. A low growl formed in Reids throat, but Chase merely smiled, patted his head saying "good boy," then finally moved on to Tyler.

When he reached the fourth and youngest of the Covenant, the evil that had been steadily growing on his face faded somewhat, into a small amount of sincerity. He reached out to him, running a hand through his hair gently, almost apologetically. He brought his hand down onto his face, letting his thumb stroke his cheek softly for a moment. There was almost a mild sorrow in his eyes, just for a second, but as quickly as it had appeared, it went. Chase quickly got up and turned away from him, leaving Tyler in a total state of confusion.

Chase took several steps away from them, until he was in total darkness again, but did not leave. Instead, he began to speak. "You will have noticed by now that your powers do not work. I would be stupid to have not made it this way, and you know that, so dont be so surprised about it. I would tell you where you are, but that would spoil the fun now wouldn't it?" Tyler could sense that smirk of his from all the way across the room. "And Tyler... you should be able to talk again in a short while... that was.... unintentional... You however, Caleb, you will be feeling pretty horrible for quite some time..." Chase laughed, slowly, then faster, until he was in a full blown fit of hysterics. Once he calmed down a bit, he said "Well," still choking on a few laughs, "well... I'll leave you all... all for a while now, I have things to do... don't miss me too much though... you'll see me again soon, I promise!" He laughed a bit more, but it slowly faded into the distance until suddenly all became quiet.

Reid was still panting, his head turning from side to side. "I'm gonna fuckin' kill him as soon as I get the chance... I swear it, he's fuckin gay, its gonna kill me! I can't fuckin stand it! I don't mind if he's a fuckin fag, but if he comes near me like that..."

"Oh come on Reid, you know that its just scaring you that you don't mind it." Caleb said, cutting him off. They all knew that Reid had a touch of curiosity to him, but he seemed to be the only one that had a problem with it.

"Yo, shut the fuck up! You know I'm not like that..." Reid said, getting shifty again.

"Relax man, you know he was only kidding," said Pogue, "now everyone shut up... my head's killing me..."

"Look, why do you always have to get in the middle of shit Pogue?! You're always holdin me back, not lettin me defend myself, it's fuckin bull shit. You dont see me tryin to keep you and Kate quiet, do you?"

"Dude... chill. Just shut up, you're not even making any sense anymore. He's probably drugged us you know... I'm gonna keep quiet now, at least you guys aren't standing... and fuck this thing is making it almost impossible to breathe. I don't mind that we got captured by some mildly insane sadistic bastard with the same powers as us, but can't he be not so fuckin kinky damnit..." said Pogue, his voice quiet.

Caleb chuckled quietly, the others made no sound. Tyler did nothing but observe; he usually tried not to get involved, tried not to interfere with these things. Whenever he did, they just said things like "be quiet baby-boy." Generally he was never really taken seriously, always being made fun of for being the youngest in the group, even though it was only by a few months.

His head began to loll from side to side, a sudden exhaustion overtaking him. His eyes went in and out of focus, and he closed them to keep from getting a headache. Within moments, he had drifted off to sleep, letting the blackness overtake him once more...