The guard behind the front counter raised his view from his magazine. He only required a swift half-glance to recognize the bottle cap glasses and ugly coat.

  'Evening Glynnes. Got some more for me?'

  'Just the one, Algie.' She approached the bench and slapped her satchel down upon it. Within the bag something was putting up an almighty struggle. bulging and twisting against the threaded confines.

  'looks like a feisty one.' Said Algie as he opened up a drawer beneath the counter. He pulled out a pair of heavy duty gloves designed to fit Keetan fingers. 'Okay, let's see then.'

  Glyness pulled the bottom of the satchel up off the counter, and Atilius spilled out onto the counter. He was cold, tired and half suffocated. his body was covered in cuts and bruises. As he tried to raise his body up, Algie's large gloved hand came down on him, pining him and dragged him across the hardwood counter like a bunch of coins.

  Atilius struggled even though it was futile. He tried to bite down but caught only the foul taste of leather in his mouth.

  Above him he saw Glyness and Algie chattering away in Keetan. Taking in his surroundings he saw the inside of the building was even more grim than what could be seen from the outside. Grey drab walls with paint that was peeling downwards in large clusters.

  There were no windows, the only light came down from above in the harsh radiance of fluorescent bulbs that hummed endlessly in a droning buzz. The air was stale with the stench of sweat and blood of the thousands of poor human souls that had entered those front doors before him.

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  Behind the counter, behind the Keetan guardsman who squashed him underhand, was another door. Altius peered at it. It looked incredibly heavy, almost immovable. He gathered a peculiar sense that whatever horrible things his now unpredictable life had in store for him, that they were waiting for him there; lingering just beyond that door.

  'Well, be seeing you Aglie.' Glynss looked down at Atilius one final time. Behind those bottle cap glasses, her eyes were wide with such malice and contempt. they spoke to him wordlessly 'Goodbye, you bastard. I hope you rot.' She looked as though she was enraptured with the thought of slamming her fist down on his helpless head and snuffing him out right there and now. Instead she simply smiled and left, murmuring to herself as she walked out he front door.

  Atilius felt the grip around him tighten.

  He was being carried through the air in the glove of the guardsman. he felt the weight of his captor shift has he heaved the heavy door of doom open. On the other side the thing that terrified him the most wasn't what he saw. Not or the horrible smells of excrement flung on walls, nor the rows of barred cages, from behind watched the glinting eyes of those who watched from the dark, eyeing off their newest member.

  No, It was the sound that frightened him most of all. It was the call of a hundred voices all suffering in unison. Some were wails of anguish, others were screams of furious rage, the sounds of fist against flesh, horrible unending sobbing. All of them raised up together to create a horrible chorus in a symphony of suffering. It hit Atilius like a wall of sounds that twisted in deep into his eardrums so loud that he thought they might burst.

  This was a house of pain, and Atiliuss was it's newest resident.