Matthew saw bare feet. Bare legs. A bare arse. He looked up.

It was Rodney.

Rodney walked around and stood in front of him. He shook his hair out of his eyes and stared at Matthew. He was naked, apart from a large leather pouch that was covering his groin. It was hard, like moulded plastic, moulded into the shape of a cock and balls, and it was attached to a leather belt running around Rodney’s hips, simply hanging there. Rodney’s arse was bare.

Had Rodney been put down here too? Had someone dressed him up like that and locked him in here with Matthew.

‘Rodney!’ Matthew said, exhaling with relief.

Rodney smiled.

He had his hands held loosely by his sides, a water bottle in one hand, and the other clenched loosely, like a fist.

‘Can you get these straps off?’ Matthew said, nodding at the straps on his arms and thighs.

Rodney smiled again, a little wider.

There was something in his eyes, that cracked look, something in the corners of his mouth, and his pupils were almost black, that narrow band of tropical blue being barely visible.

‘We had some requests for a uniform,’ Rodney said, motioning at what he was wearing.

Matthew nodded, staring at Rodney. He felt the first tinglings of an erection, but ignored it.

‘Here,’ Rodney said. He took a step forward and opened his hand.

In his palm he held a whole lot of tablets - the tablets, the ones that Matthew had taken, about ten of them, though there were some others as well, two large white ones, and a small, green, shiny one, like polished jade.

‘What’s this?’ Matthew said.

‘Put your head back.’

Slowly Matthew shook his head. He wanted the tablets. He wanted to taste them again, but he couldn’t take that many.

‘I can’t take all of those. You’ve got to get me out of here, Rodney. I’ve got to get to a hospital, see my father. You can’t…’ He stopped. Rodney was smiling.

‘You ought to think yourself lucky,’ Rodney said. ‘If it was up to me, you wouldn’t be getting anything. I had to do fucking Turner on my own. All those weak fucks ran away. Couldn’t handle the pain. They left me there, with a kitchen knife in his hand, and I had to finish the job, flush everything, and phone him an ambulance.’

Matthew said nothing.

‘I was on my own,’ Rodney said, almost shouting it.

Matthew swallowed.

‘So when they asked for a volunteer, well, why wouldn’t I say yes. It wasn’t like I wanted to be on that side of things. I knew what it was like with Lukas, and I’d done it with Turner’s hand. No way, I want to be in charge.’

Matthew swallowed again.

‘You’ve got more than a hundred people with you, Matto. People from all over the world. It’s not like you’re alone.’

They stared at each other for a moment.

‘I didn’t mean to…That day, Rodney. I wasn’t going to…’

Rodney smiled.

There was silence.

‘Well it won’t be happening again,’ he said.

Matthew shook his head.

‘Here,’ Rodney said. He set the water bottle down and stepped close to Matthew. He pushed his body up against Matthew’s and took a handful of Matthew’s hair. He pulled his head back. ‘Open your mouth,’ he said, and yanked hard.

Matthew couldn’t do anything else.

Rodney tipped the tablets into the back of Matthew’s throat. Matthew gagged, trying to swallow, so he could breath, but there were tablets stuck in his throat. Rodney let go of his hair and picked up the water bottle. He pulled Matthew’s hair back again, pushing his body up against Matthew’s, and poured water into his throat. Matthew swallowed, but the water flowed out of his mouth, over his chin and throat, and cascaded between their bodies, cool and slippery. He could feel the hard leather pouch pressed into his abs, and when Rodney stepped back, his body was glistening in the flame light, his chest and abs and thighs slippery with water.

Matthew breathed and let his head hang for a moment. He had swallowed ten of the tablets, twice as many as he had ever swallowed before, along with two white tablets and a green one he didn’t recognise. He stared at the ground for a moment, and then was aware of his cock, absurdly long, hanging underneath him, full with blood as it almost always was. There was water dripping from the end of it, and it tickled.

He lifted his head up.

Rodney was standing there, looking at him. He stared for a moment, letting his eyes play up and down Matthew’s body.

‘Nobody would of thought you’d be the kind of guy who’d want to be a eunuch.’

‘I don’t,’ Matthew said.

Rodney threw his head back and took a swig of the water bottle. He screwed the cap on, smiling to himself. And then he walked past Matthew, and behind him, to where the long table with the implements on it was.

Matthew turned his head. He could barely see Rodney. He was almost directly behind him.

‘Can you let me undone now,’ he said. ‘I took the tablets. You’ve got me doped up.’

Rodney didn’t answer.

Matthew turned his head again, and strained a little more. He started to rock again, thinking he could break the machine. He got it into a swing, heard it creaking, but then, after a minute or so, exhausted, he gave up, his cock and balls swinging underneath him.

He closed his eyes and let his head hang. When he opened them again, Rodney was standing in front of him. He had his hands behind his back.

‘Now,’ Rodney said, ‘if you can tell me what this is, I might not use it on you.’

As he said this, he pulled a little card from behind his back. Matthew recognised it as one of the cards that were laid out along the table of implements.

‘This pear-shaped instrument was inserted into the victim’s anus. It consists of four leaves that slowly separate from each other as the torturer turns the screw at the top. The pear expands, widening the cavity until the pain is unbearable. Used to its fullest extent, the pear would mutilate a victim.’

Matthew stared at Rodney. There wasn’t any way Rodney was going to do that to him. He knew that. Rodney was just playing some fucked up, stupid game.

‘Do you remember what it’s called?’

Matthew said nothing.

‘You know, that’s funny,’ Rodney said, taking a step forward, ‘because we’ve been searching through your memories, and in your favourite, best, most wonderful way of doing Lukas, we found this room, along with the memory a few special implements that you would very much have liked to wield.’

Someone laughed. Matthew heard it clearly. Someone laughed, and then a few people. And then he heard a voice, very distinctly, and alone somewhere, say, ‘Is he a real person?’

But all of this was in Matthew’s mind.

Matthew swallowed.

‘It’s the Pear of Anguish,’ he said.

Rodney brought the pear out from behind his back with a smile, as though he was revealing a Christmas present to a child. It was silver and gold and had a detailed ironwork handle, looking more like a Faberge egg than an instrument of torture. He held it up, after flicking the card away, so that Matthew could see it properly.

‘Dude, this is going up your arse,’ Rodney said.