Susan: I DO NOT OWN YU-GI-OH OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACTERS! I just own Adom and any other OC's that I have! Enjoy!

I threw two more sand bags over my shoulders. They were my last two of the day, and then I would be done, probably a few hours before anyone else. Being a slave isn't any fun, especially when you're a slave hauling heavy bags of sand and blocks of stone around, but it is better than making my family suffer. My family is entirely made up of slaves, but my sisters, younger brother and mother carry water and supplies while I move the heavy things. Though my brother should also be working with me, he is so delicate and small that the guards think that he is better suited for doing a woman's work.

As I trudge up the large hill, I pant slightly from the blistering heat. One of the guards watching us raises his whip for a moment, as if he is going to whip me, but then lowers it slowly when I straighten and place the sacks in the designated area. I roll my shoulders while I am moving towards the recorder who was really just a guard who writes down how many bags you have moved and what time you finished. Once he tallies up my bags and dismisses me, I start to head back home to see if Mother could use my help with making dinner when an older man drops his sand bag just a few meters from me.

I might as well help him, since I've already done all of my work and there isn't any rule saying that we can't help one-another. I pick up his bag and set it on his shoulders in an easier position before grabbing another sack of sand from his supply. We walk together up the hill and he talks while I stay silent. When I set the bag in the dumping area and the man goes to tell the recorder two, a few of the other guards come up and use their whips to trap my arms. The leather bites into my skin and I lower my head so that they can't see my face.

The guards don't punish the old man because they know that it was my idea. I always take the blame for things even when it isn't my fault just to make it easier for the other slaves. They drag me to the whipping post and I am chained there while the guards take turns whipping me. My mouth opens slightly but no sound escapes. They ask me questions, but when I don't reply, they use it as an excuse for more punishment. My body is covered in scars from the leather whips from when the guards use enough force to break my skin. Once cut, sand enters and they scar as it burns for days.

The sun is about to start to sink, but still the guards continue. I hear a chariot pull up near us, but I can't focus very well with the leather slicing through my flesh again and again with each fall of the instrument of torture. Feel the burn, Adom. Another painful sensation, and I felt blood slowly sliding down my back from below my right shoulder blade.

"Stop." the single command, though spoken quietly, held so much power that the guards stilled.

"Prince!" the four guards surrounding me instantly bowed, and I bowed my head since I couldn't move my body much while tied to the post.

"What is the slave's crime?" I could feel the eyes of the prince of Egypt on me as he circled me. Another man was standing quite close to him, shadowing his every move.

What does the Prince care about what happens to a slave? They just replace us when we die or are injured.

"He was working with another slave to finish their work early." The bravest guard tells the Prince.

"Is that a crime?" the Prince asks.

"N-"

"Not you. I want the slave to answer me." I shake my head which rolls slightly when I move. "Speak your answer, Slave."

I didn't answer and when the Prince asks me again, I still don't say anything. He backhands me before grabbing one of the whips and proceeding to cut through my flesh and muscle with the braided leather.

Hours pass and eventually the Prince leaves and the guards unchain me. It is very dark now, and as I walk home, I see my younger brother Yugi standing in front of me. I wave, and he smiles until he sees the fresh cuts and wounds on me.

I tell him I'm fine as he latches onto my stomach, careful about not hurting me. I carry him home like that, and he calms down by the time we walk through the door to our house. After setting Yugi on a chair at the table and getting dinner, we eat silently as to not wake our two younger sisters and mother. Yugi is 12, Shani 10 and Naeemah is 7. I am 17.

Yugi goes to bed after dinner, and I wash the dishes out before rinsing the new cuts and falling asleep on the ground under a few blankets.

The next few weeks pass in a blur of work, whippings, and sleep. Every once in a while, the Prince came by during my punishments. He would always order me to speak, and I just shake my head. Yugi comes and gets me afterwards, since I can't stand very well on my own when the guards turn their whips on my legs.

The Prince brought his own whip with him today. I hear it dragging on the ground next to me, and something is attatched to the whip. "Are you going to answer my questions today?" he asks me.

My head hangs low, and I mouth words to him which he doesn't see, just like all the other times.

"Fine then." The whip struck and I lurched as far forward as I could while chained. On the tip of the whip was a sharp, jagged piece of metal. Rough edges tear at my skin, and my mouth opens in a muted scream. Silent tears roll down my cheeks and land on the ground with barely a sound. After a good 50-something lashes, the Prince pauses, and I look up to see Yugi staring at the scene before him from the darkness of the night. Around the platform, torches were being lit so that the Prince could see his handy work. Yugi's face is one of terror as he looks at me.

I know what he sees. He sees his big brother chained to a post like an animal. He sees the Prince of Egypt whipping me till my back bleeds in rivits onto the stone platform. He sees me kneeling down as I am whipped, instead of standing like I usually do. I struggle to my feet, my legs barely supporting myself.

The Prince laughes as he sees me rise. "A strong one, aren't you? Are you finally going to answer my questions?"

Again, I am unable to answer how he wants me to. The Prince shoves me to the ground and he brought the whip down, the metal piercing my shoulder and ripping down to my stomach as I roll to avoid getting whipped in the face. "Answer me!" the Prince screams at me.

"He can't." Yugi's small and gentle voice carries over the talk of the guards and the crackle of the torches burning.

"What do you mean that he can't answer my questions!" the Prince growls at Yugi, and I try to get up only to be pushed back down by one of the three men accompanying the Prince today.

"I mean that Adom is unable to speak. No matter what you ask of him, no matter what you do to him, he won't answer because he is physically incapable of answering. Adom doesn't have a voice."

Susan: Please read & review!