Doctor Lauren Lewis woke up from an unconscious slumber. She tried to sit up, but her muscles were so stiff that it made it hard to move. She looked around and saw that she had been laying the ground, a pool of blood where her head had been just moments ago. Her teeth clattered and her entire body shivered. She wasn't sure if this was from shock or from the cold. She looked at the blood on the floor again. She knew that head wounds had a tendency to bleed more than other wounds, so she just quietly hoped that the wound was a small one. She pressed her fingers to her skull and winced. Dried blood clotted in her hair, along with a thin, fresh stream of blood that still continued to trickle down her neck. Her fingers found the wound and had it not been for her throat that felt like sandpaper, she would have cried out. The pain was blinding.

What had they done to me? she wondered.

Her teeth were clattering and her mouth felt like cotton. She licked her lips and immediately tasted the irony, salty taste of blood mixed with sweat. She knew that she had blood all over her face. She could feel the dried blood tugging at her skin each time that she moved a facial muscle.

She looked around and noticed that she was locked in one of the Ash's dungeons. The same mark that she wore around her neck was neatly and expertly carved into the large wooden doors that stood between her and her freedom. She suddenly felt sick. She reached up and yanked the pendant from her neck, attempting to toss it across the room. However, her muscles were too sore and it ended up just next to her outstretched legs.

Great. Even in here, I can't get rid of him. The irony was not lost on her and even in her beaten up state she rolled her eyes.

Suddenly her entire body yanked as she came to a realisation:

BO!

She suddenly struggled to fight the tears. She suddenly realised that the one person that she could always count on will not be coming to her rescue this time. Just last night she had broken things off with Bo. She had told Bo that she would never be able to fully accept the fact that Bo still had to sleep with other people in order to heal. She had asked for a break, saying that she needed time to think. The broken, defeated look on Bo's face haunted her for the rest of the night, but she really did have to think. She didn't want to rush blindly into an impossible situation, simply because the look on Bo's face had shattered her own heart into a million pieces. So instead, she just locked herself in her lab. She needed to keep busy, otherwise she would just have stormed back into Bo's arms.

In that moment, she cursed herself for her over-analytical nature. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than Bo's strong arms and the comfort they provided.

I love her. Why couldn't that be enough for me? she quietly scolded herself.

She heard a lock turn in the door and sat up straighter. Her muscles were killing her, but she didn't care. She still had some dignity left in her and she refused to let the Ash see her slouched over and defeated. She may be bloody and shivering, but she would still look him straight in the eye like the proud person that she knew was buried deep within herself.

The Ash entered the dungeon and looked down at her. He smirked when he saw her pendant on the floor. He slowly walked over to it and picked it up.

"Oh, it looks like the dog has lost its collar, doesn't it? Oh, well. We'll just have to make sure the dog can't ever lose it again." He smirked down at her. "Friedrich..." he said to one of his guards. The guard nodded and left, as if he understood the unspoken order all too well. "So, are you going to tell me what you were trying to do in the lab last night?"

"Nothing I shouldn't have been doing," Lauren bravely challenged. "I work there, remember? I was catching up on some work."

"Then why did you sneak into my private chambers and rummage through the herbs I keep locked in my cupboard?"

"I needed some parsley for my dinner. It was a bit bland." There was no mistaking the sarcasm dripping from Lauren's voice. She was defeated and something about that feeling was liberating. She figured that she had nothing left to lose. So why should she spend the last of her time on earth grovelling and begging? She had done enough kneeling and begging in front of the Ash. She would accept her fate with pride and dignity. Nothing less.

"Witty. I should remember to hire you as clown for the next party I host," the Ash dryly said. "Now, if I look at the ingredients stolen from my chamber and found in your lab, one could make the assumption that you're planning something very, very stupid."

"Assume away." Lauren wasn't going to cave this easily.

Friedrich, the guard, re-entered the dungeon and Lauren gasped when she looked at him. In his hand he held a branding iron, burning red-hot. It was the Ash's symbol.

"Ah, Friedrich. Please do me the honour of reminding the good doctor who her Master is," the Ash smugly instructed.

Friedrich nodded and a menacing smirk spread across his face. He grabbed the hem of Lauren's shirt and yanked her shirt over her head with one hand.

Just as quickly as Lauren's earlier bravado had started, it disappeared into thin air. As the scalding iron seared Lauren's skin on her shoulder blade, she lost all control. She screamed at the top of her lungs, started shivering and eventually just broke down into loud, hysterical sobs as the guard pulled the iron away from her skin. The red-hot burning on her shoulder was maddening.

The last thing Lauren remembered before the Ash left and the guard locked the door is the Ash's cocky voice, saying "I'll be back, Doctor. I want answers. Take the time to think carefully about what you want to say to me. If I'm not satisfied, we will repeat today's exercise until I am." After that, Lauren lost consciousness from all the pain.