SGE His Guarded Heart (Prequel to His Darkened Heart)

Chapter 6 To Be Human

"Was it humanity Krushem saw within those cracks or was it something more?"
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Chapter 6 To Be Human

A few weeks passed since Krushem had cut off poor Leroy's fingers.

Much had changed since then.

The teachers, who'd been under some sleeping spell, were miraculously awoken. Now, the school for boys felt like a school.

The teachers quickly established a class schedule and the typical school rules. But the teachers weren't happy with Tedros having lost the Storian somehow. So Tedros was removed from his position of power and now he was a student just like the rest of the boys.

Krushem had expected the teachers to remove Aric from power too. But they instead seemed perfectly fine with Aric running rampage through the school and punishing fellow boys as long as he attended classes like the other boys did.

Krushem was grateful for the class schedule he had. When he was in class, he had no time to clean the Doom Room or administer punishment to boys.

But since cutting off Leroy's fingers, Aric had had assigned Krushem to instill more punishments onto boys. The first few times were difficult. But Krushem had fallen into a routine of punishing boys at Aric's command without much protest.

Krushem's arms would hurt from whipping boys. It's not like he wanted to hurt them. He had to and so he followed Aric and stood at Aric's side in the Doom Room when boys needed to be punished.

It was odd—ludicrous even—but day after day, night after night, Krushem would watch Aric instill fear onto others and inflict unimaginable torture onto them, and somehow....somehow Krushem could see the cracks in Aric's tough facade.

It was only when Aric was at his worst, at his most sadistic side, that Krushem glimpsed what he perceived to be emotion.

Not just anger or pleasure at inflicting pain, but real emotion. Emotion that a sadist like Aric shouldn't be able to feel. Emotion that Aric himself insisted was a sign of weakness.

Krushem would watch Aric punish boys.

Aric's favorite weapon to use was his leather whip which he'd use to lash against the backs of boys. Their screams would echo in the Doom Room and their backs would be shredded, a mess of flesh and blood once Aric was done with them.

Krushem had somehow become used to seeing Aric in his element.

Somehow, Krushem even became entranced by the way Aric would use such fluid motions when whipping boys. His muscles would flex, veins straining against his skin as he threw back his arm before thrusting it forward and aiming the whip at his target. And when Aric's target would scream aloud, Aric only seemed to get more angry. The more the boys cried, the more angrier Aric became. An angrier Aric was equal to an Aric whose motions would become erratic, desperate even as if all he wanted was to keep whipping just to continue to hear the boys' screams.

Krushem realized Aric's torturous methods were compulsive. He wondered how Aric could even stop inflicting pain once he started torturing someone.

Krushem was sure it took all of Aric's willpower to stop punishing boys when he had to. Krushem was certain if Aric could, he would punish someone until he passed out from exhaustion.

Initially, Krushem had believed Aric's torturous methods were a way of establishing dominance, a way of being in control. But somehow, Krushem realized it was more than that.

Krushem had come to learn that that Aric's biggest goal was to destroy his mother, who happened to reside in the School for Girls. Aric had a deep resentment towards his mother for abandoning him, and he wished to kill her.