How to Make a Slave | Aiden

For the moment, he had to bide his time and wait. Struggling for hours, nursing his raspy voice, and fighting the bonds that tied him down with all his might for hours on end. He barely contemplated defeat, even though his situation now seemed far more dire than he had thought. How could he have missed everything and been so arrogant?

There was darkness all around him. The stench in the air carried ill hints mold spores; he guessed there was water somewhere nearby. He sniffed harder, trying to pick up more information about their location. Beyond the scent of mold, he could detect something else in the draft coming from somewhere above. It reeked of disease and unclean waste.

His body was strapped and bound, but he could still do a bit of movement and he decided to test it out. With an experimental kick, Aiden lifted himself up and tried to lean against a nearby wall. There had to be a way to escape. There had to be something.

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Note: Aiden is blindfolded and bound with handcuffs. I kinda just wanted to have that. Let me know if there is anything you want me to change.

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Aiden heard them enter the room and the direction of the door. Took in the creaking sound of the footfalls, but not the exact distance. His body grew tense as a pair grabbed him by the arms and he had to fight himself not to struggle against them just yet. As eager as he was for a chance to escape, he decided for the time being he needed to gather himself while he had chances to be alone.

That thought though didn't do enough to suppress him entirely and the words from the woman were met with a snide smirk and a particularly snarky tone, "Go ahead and try you little bitch. I've dealt with more pain for the past 8 years then you could ever hope to dish out so don't waste your breathe. I don't trust a single word coming out of that pretty little mouth of yours and once I get these bonds off me, I promise that I'm going to rip it off along with the little forked piece of flesh you use for a tongue before strangling my hands around your neck." he taunted before he kicked his bound feet to the side just to smart one of the pair carrying him off with a bruise for treating him like a piece of luggage.

Throughout the years, Aiden had dealt with many situations and each time he had come out. In his mind, so long as he stayed observant and waited for the opportune moment he could make things work. There were bound to be dead bodies nearby, judging from the sounds. He had worked a bit on his necromancy powers and honed them, though he had never been in this kind of situation. He tried to concentrate and reach out to dead bodies nearby that he might be able to manipulate at some point in time. At this point though, he could find none and any that were near-dying were not going to be of any aid to him right now.

The sounds of screams became more audible as they moved about toward their final destination. It made him cringe, feeling the agony of all those around him through the tortured sounds they elicited. The raw, unfiltered emotion was palpable in this place, even if he could not see the sorrow. It etched upon him like a thick, black shroud burning itself into his mind. Even if he tried, it would be hard to forget such screams.

At last, he sensed the nearest room was their destination and the groans and yells for attention seemed to subside when they passed. His captors joked and laughed, but he was quick to tune them out. Soon, Aiden felt the door open and admitted them entry to whatever hell the woman had in store.

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Note: XXXX

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His body shivered unconsciously from the way her fingers traipsed across his flesh and it killed him having no sight at all. Fighting his own impulses in order stay calm was getting harder, though he managed it for now. The struggle became more intense with his arms raised over his head, listening to the woman speak and tracking her position around him through the subtle, anticipating foot fall. This woman reminded him more and more of snake with a forked tongue, coiling and wrapping around him while not just yet squeezing.

Her words were laced with venomous intent and this time it wasn't in him to stay complacent. As soon as he detected that she was close by, he spat in her general direction. The chains that bound him were strong and wouldn't come about very easily. They were strapped firmly around his wrists. His prosthetic arm was also restrained and seemed like it wouldn't come unhinged that easily. That didn't mean though that he couldn't detach it if he pleased though and failing to keep his ankles in place was already a tip in his favor.

With the shape the ex-hunter was in, he could at least flip up and then release his prosthetic arm. That would just leave his real arm in place. He kept that to himself though, leaving his lower body down and not fighting too much just yet. He had no trouble acting defiant however and this woman was about to learn just how nasty he could be. "Well my dear, you should maybe go find yourself a husband and see how long it takes for you to go insane. My guess is it won't take very long; you already sound like you're halfway there on the train to the nuthouse."

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Note: XXXX

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The whipping reverberated throughout his entire body, searing white and hot into the tender area on his lower back. The chains cackled as he writhed from pain and the force of being whipped. Mouth bursting open, he let out a wordless gasp as the enchantment seeped into the wounds and poisoned the veins in his body. Hands clenched into fists, struggling brutally against the restraints with the air rushing out of his lungs.

He had to endure it by whatever means he could muster. There was no doubt that this woman had intentions of doing this for as long as needed from just judging the tone of her voice, but he could take it. His ego was bound to not give her the pleasure of breaking him easily. The sting of red slicked from the welts over his skin and then all the way to the hem of his pants and then probably a few drops for the ground. Aiden was resolute in remaining defiant, although he had begun to fear the next swish of the air that accompanied a crack and further pain.

How long could he resist? Hours? Days? For an ordinary someone, how long did it take for her to break a person without all the mental fortitude that he had accumulated over the years? Even then though, the torture of being flogged like a beast on a leash or a piece of meat on a rack was degrading and humiliating. His muscles tensed and the cold sweat now drenched his forehead and seeped into his bones like a venom. The oncoming fear touched his deepest core where he was there to reject it or at least put up enough of a fight to keep it from infecting him for now.

Aiden closed his eyes beneath the leather and mentally steeled himself for what could be long hours of being this woman's torture toy. "Go to hell and rot there you bitch." The words dripped from his tongue just as the whip curled again he braced for more whippings.

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Note: XXXX

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"I'm NO ONE'S slave." he mouthed off through guttural gasps of pain. His voice strained and beads of sweat started to pour over his forehead. Moments went by and Aiden was feeling the physical exertion. The stinging sensations rinsed against his consciousness, preventing him from forming coherent thoughts and all mental energy was bottled up in preparation for the the next lash of her whip.

The way she touched him sent a cold, unfeeling sensation up his spine where the blood had pooled. The mounting injuries reinforced the message that he was a toy, an effort he fought against with every fiber of his being. He was no one's toy. It had been many years since he was the guild's pet hunter and he would not serve another. The more she tried to drive home the reality of the situation, the more his mind reacted with disgust out of reflex. How long would it continue to occur? Even Aiden had no concept of how long his resistance could be sustained with the kind of energy he possessed. Elise would have to wait and see.

"I... will never... break."

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Since then, all sense of time and feeling in his bones violently receded like a gust of wind blowing across fields of leaves and sending them hurdling across the ground before being torn to shreds. One day passed and then a second. Hours became months and minutes became hours. And in that time, Aiden's body had begun its sterling change.

For Aiden, those five days felt more like seven years. The 'sessions' with the crazed woman and the astute emptiness of the prison she sheltered in deprived him of almost everything that he was. He had never been tortured like this before. He'd had endurance training and exercises that had brought him to the brink of physical hell, but never like this. He'd fought through years of living on the outermost ridges of the woods, hunting and fishing had given him a solemn peace to look forward to. There was nothing to look forward to.

The welts and bruises on his body had festered and grooved until they were infected. Elise's methodical and calculated dissection of his mind had done its work and Aiden felt like he was barely keeping himself together. The first three days, he had fought as hard as he could, but the surroundings and the days of whippings and torture had allowed the forthcoming of despair to happen just at the beginning of the 4th day.

He was beginning to feel the creeping shadows of hopelessness dredge along his back and wrap around him. His body had been decimated and it really felt like he had no room to move. No chance to tear away and escape, though he was still desperately searching for one like a madman. Near-terror was becoming a constant in his state of mind. He would struggle and search around, analyzing and planning in a frenzy.

At the end of the 4th day, he was still looking while outwardly trying to keep himself from falling apart. As he was chained up again, his hair grown a bit and now was just far enough to cover his eyes as Elise circled him and asked another question he couldn't hear, but responded for the first time like his spirit had finally began to have enough, "Yes.... ma'am."

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Note: Let me know if I need to elaborate or change anything. Aiden's escape begins next post.

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The exhaustion was all-encompassing and relentless. Could he have held out another day, week, or month? He tried to tell himself that he could, despite the creaks of his bones and the sharp intake of pain whenever he twisted or moved in a way that made the welts on his flesh tear apart. The woman picked and plucked at it whenever his weakness fell over his shoulders. At the last thin drop of a pin inside of his brain, he sighed and took a slow breath of stinging, cold air. He needed reprieve. The healers were neutral to him and the medicine stung his injuries, but the tending soothed his body and offered a shelter to regain his conscious thought away from having that woman scar him even more.

When it was over, he was carried back to his cell like a piece of meat and thrown down into the ground with shaggy hair obscuring the look in his eye and the thin crook of his neck. His body felt like hell and his thoughts came in jagged rushes. Was he broken? It felt like it. With that one admission of words, it felt like she now owned him in full. It was repulsive and made him want to bang his head and fingers up against the wall again. Blood was still staining the walls of his cell from the last time, coated with the remnants of his own as well as the tantrums of those he'd angered.

He was sweated, eyes following the buzzing of a fly as it hovered to-and-fro over a prisoner that was huddled up in the cell adjacent. He had angered that man too. Two days ago they had been angry with each other and spent their frustrations on beating against each other; a pastime that earned him more ire and drained him of his stamina. The clothes he wore were drenched with dirt and cracked, dry blood.

Hazy and dehydrated as he was, thinking became a chore he could hardly muster the strength for. When he did, the cell confining him and the guards passing by or the far-away mutterings of other prisoners caused him to lose focus from time to time. Malnourished, his vision dimmed and sometimes in the deep of night he was able to become lucidly aware of his own pounding heartbeat 'lub-dub....lub-dub.....lub-dub....'

Pulling himself up with what strength he could gather in his arms, the ex-hunter managed to drag himself over to the opening of the cage and tried to peer sideways between the bars at a sudden light that happened to appear down the hallway as the strolling guards came passing by. They held themselves up with imposing strength that was intimidating for many of their charges. Aiden watched, apathy and a sore lack of energy plain in his eyes as they passed by. The cell right beside Aiden's rang out with a 'cling' and a 'clang' from the cell door guarding the prisoner space just beside his own. Only a few moans could be heard as they strung up the man whom he had been neighbors with.

When they were gone, the light went with them. "No signs... nothing." He tried to listen in when others spoke out of just a thin hope that he would hear something that could help him escape. The last few days he had at least ironed out the layout of the prison, mentally taking notes in preparation. His hopes had dimmed in recent days from uptick in Elise's torture, but he hadn't completely given up on making every effort he could to escape.

With a half-hearted sigh, he took his face away from the cage and leaned up against the wall before beginning to pace around the small space. Once, he found himself repeatedly kicking the wall out of utter frustration. Nothing he had gotten in the past few days had yielded any opportunities for escape. He'd tried to pick the pockets of some of the guards, but that yielded little. This woman... this slaver... she was either wary of prisoners trying to pick pockets or her top commanders were well-experienced in keeping escape attempts from happening. The guards were tight-lipped too, not discussing anything out in the open and keenly aware of things when they passed by his cell. Lips quieted before his ears could even perk up.

His prosthetic arm was rendered useless and nearly inert and the bars to his cell were a bit rusted, but not enough that he could consider breaking through them. He began to kick at the corner of the bloodstained wall again, maybe just hoping in vain that it would collapse from the force he exerted on it. It rattled and the stone seemed to give just a little bit, but didn't give way. Exhausting his resources for the time being, Aiden sat back down against the back corner. Sleep was an appealing prospect for him, but he resisted it in favor of more desperation. How much longer did he have? Were they going to be sold anytime soon? What was the time frame?

When his eyes began to become cloudy, Aiden heavily decided that he couldn't fight it for much longer. "Just for a little. I'll sleep... and maybe find my strength again. Then I'll.. find a way..."

'Creak' The sound caused him to suddenly lose his support and nearly drop down to the ground. He had just placed his head against the wall, about to doze off when one of the bricks he had been leaning against suddenly groaned and creaked forward. It was loose. Hope started to bubble up in his stomach, despite having been mostly empty. Reaching for the brick and prying it free, the other side was clearly visible, along with the fact that the guards who had grabbed his neighbor had forgotten to completely lock and close the cell door. Upon closer inspection, some of the other bricks had also been loosened, maybe by his neighbor who had been planning this for the past few days.

Now it was his turn and it would take no longer than a few minutes for him to quickly break through and dislodge the remaining bricks and clear a path for him to crawl under. "Bingo!"

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Note: Aiden is Free! GO!!

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The damages of his body would not make running an easy task, much less allow him to put up a decent fight. His legs and thighs ached, but the welts, sores, cuts, and bruises had taken their sullen toll on his muscles. Right now, the best he could manage was a steady jog. Pain coursed through the most heavily damaged portions of his body as he stumbled once while turning around a dark bend. His eyes and brain were running on adrenaline, searching for a way out while keeping his senses sharpened for the typical footsteps that signaled encroaching bodies ahead.

It was difficult thing to do, but luckily he was well-aware of himself and possessed just the mental acuity necessary for the task ahead. The injured man hurried along the winding stone corridors, tracking the signs and few noticeable distinctions he had noticed while being carted around the place. There were few of those, noting that many of the guardsmen had been careful around him to limit the amount of information he could gather. Astutely, he had at least picked up the general layout from other guards coming, going, and passing them by. They had been paranoid with their shifts and identities in case the prisoners tried to impersonate them, but Aiden had just managed to figure out the pattern a few days ago.

Salted sweat drenched the medial clothing he wore, stinging against his already-agitated wounds. Being down in this place for several days had done a number on him to be sure. Thinking clearly became a bit more of a chore as his head started to throb and ache, most likely from the days and days of little to no meaningful rest. Nevertheless, he steeled himself and soldiered on to the best of his ability. He passed by a couple cell cages, glancing at the occupants before resuming onward. They were broken though and without the keys or the power to do anything, he was forced to push them to the back of his mind. All he had now was the hope of escape and none of the prisoners yelled or did anything to protest.

At last, he arrived at what must have been the first staircase, rounding about a poorly-lit corner. In a moment, he was forced to slip himself back around as about 3 guards were also coming around the corner across from him. Heart beating rapidly for a few moments, a swell of relief fell upon him when no cry for aid came out. He was safe for the moment, but quietly started to walk along the edges to where he was out of sight. There was little activity along this stretch for the moments in which he was motionless and coldly nervous in a slight corner by an unoccupied cell. He laid prone in the darkness, hoping they would not look too hard at the shadows as they passed by. This place was probably bad for the eyes of these men and women, an observation that the ex-hunter had experienced.

Moments as he waited, he started to hear a flurry of activity. Voices began to ring out and the guards in his view listened as what looked to be a messenger frantically pulled up close and whispered in one of their ears. That gave him the clue that he'd been found out and his time was running short. With so few options, he needed to stay hidden and make the next move. The guards stayed by the staircase, forcing Aiden to cross around and try to find another way out. There had to be a bathroom somewhere or a place where the ones on trash duty threw out all the shit on a daily basis. "It shouldn't be too far from here... maybe just a bit down the corridor."

That would have to be his ticket out of here. Moving stealthily, Aiden crossed the darkness and made his way quietly on foot. His injuries still troubled him and it took all he could not to wince or groan when a spike of pain hit from all the movement he needed to do. After only a couple minutes, he did manage to find what he assumed to be a waste room. If the catacombs had a link to the sewers, he could find it and maybe crawl out. It wouldn't be pleasant or clean and might infect his wounds, but that was a small complaint compared to surviving this ordeal.

The door thankfully wasn't too creaky and could easily be mistaken for a mouse or something moving about in the pipes above or below. Inside was a smelly waste room, about as unpleasant as anything he could have described. He had to move lightly, stepping over water where it appeared that the cleaners had scrubbed down. No sooner did he manage to reach an understanding of the rooms contents, he heard a growing cacophony of voices from outside and heard the door burst open just as quickly as it took his heart to sink.

"He's in here!!!! I FOUND HIM!" was yelled aloud, carried throughout the corridor before Aiden had thrust himself into panicked action and silenced it. He whipped around, dashing as fast as he could to make a frantic break for it. The room was about the same shape as a bathroom, only Aiden could also hear the distant sound of running water. Quicker than he had anticipated, the silhouette behind him had reacted and locked his arms up and around his. Weakened as he was, he felt his strength fade and the cuts exacerbated from having his neck and lower back stretched by the nelson lock.

Vision darkened for a moment as the pain flourished anew and delayed his reaction. He reached back and tried to hoist the other off of him, but it was too much for him to do before his arms and legs gave out and he fell to the ground and was subdued by the entering guards. Subdued, he could only wretch slightly as he was carried and carted off again like a piece of luggage. The wounds stung. The iron-like taste of blood in his mouth was dejecting. More than that though... the bitter swallowing of defeat once again was what hurt the most. Pathetic. Weak.

His heart throbbed in his stomach, forging him to hold back tears and translucent moments of regret. He had wasted the one and only opportunity he would be granted. There would not be another. Even as he tried to keep it at bay this time, the pill of failure forced another emotion upon him. More than any other time in his life, the feeling that bubbled up inside him now was: despair. When the next time he would turn his gaze, he feared having to see that woman gazing at him again and have to bear the brunt of what she had in store.

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Note: Wow. Long Post. Enjoy!!!

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