In fact he couldn’t move at all!

Forcing his eyes open, everything that had happened came back to him in a pounding flash of pain as he realized that he was tied, hand and foot, to Joe’s desk chair. Glancing across the room, he saw William was just finishing securing Joe facedown to his bed.

Unlike Frank though, he hadn’t bound his legs, just his arms, one to each of the posts at the head of the bed. Joe had his face pressed into the mattress in an effort to keep from crying out very loud as William roughly finished binding him.

Anger seared thought Frank as he remembered the state that Joe’s wrists were in and he immediately started to try and loosen his hands only to discover to his despair that while William was using some sort of rope on Joe, he was wearing handcuffs!

William glanced up and saw Frank was awake. Smiling he stood over Joe and spread out his hands like someone waiting for a hug as he leered, "So what do you think of my prize? He’s a real piece of work isn’t he?" He cruelly ran his fingers across Joe’s abused back for emphasis.

Joe shuddered and stifled a gasp as Frank glared daggers at William, "Leave him alone! Hasn’t he been through enough already?"

William looked down at Joe for a few moments as if to consider that and then he shook his head, "Actually no. See here’s the deal Frankie…He's my copy...my own personal crash test dummy if you will...I can try out anything I want on myself...without so much as a scratch...Joe is nothing... just mine"

"You bastard", Frank spat and his rage seemed to humor the deranged teen.

Gracing his fury with a smile, William casually lifted one end of Joe’s mattress and took out his cigarettes and lighter. And then let it drop down, his action punctuated with a sharp intake of breath as Joe fought the wave of pain that came with any movement.

Frank watched in a numb shock as William then went on to light a cigarette and stood over Joe and smoked it, his cruel blue eyes never once leaving the brown ones almost black with smoldering anger.

Frank knew it was probably stupid baiting William but right now he wanted to do anything to draw his attention away from Joe, "What’s wrong Willie? Isn’t it any fun playing with people who can fight back?"

William inhaled deeply on his cigarette and regarded Frank with a cold look of contempt but instead of responding he lowered his cigarette towards Joe’s exposed back and before Frank even realized what he was going to do, he held it to the flesh and Joe started to scream before pushing his face so far into the mattress the sound was muffled.

"NOOO!" Frank screamed as he lunged forward with such momentum he capsized the chair and they ended up on the floor in a heap.

But still William burned his brother…his eyes locked on Frank’s as he did so relishing what he saw there. Horror…anger….fear…

The emotions fed some deep carnal desire and it was only when Joe’s cries were reduced to uncontrolled sobs, did he stop.

Walking over to where Frank was on the floor, William crouched down in front of him and smiled in deep satisfaction, "Now that did something for me…how about you."

"F**K you", Frank said coldly.

William gave him a smile and then as he pulled him back up and reset the chair he reached out and messed up Frank’s hair as he quipped, "No thanks…you’re not my type" and then he laughed as Frank pulled away from his touch.

"What happened to you face?" Frank asked when William turned back towards Joe. He had noticed the split lip and scratches on the side of his face and were hoping to divert Will’s attention again.

He saw the twin’s back stiffen and then he turned around very slowly and said, "Oh yeah…I almost forgot." He stopped in front of Frank and touched his lip as he regarded the older Hardy with the same look as a coyote in a chicken coop.

Raising his hand back William felt a thrill as Frank flinched, waiting for the blow to come…but it didn’t.

Instead William laughed, "I don’t think so Frankie…" and then in one fluid movement, he grabbed a large textbook from the desk and stalked back towards Joe.

"What…" Frank’s question was cut off in horror as William leaned down next to Joe and spoke to him. Frank couldn’t hear the words but he did see the fear course through his brother and struggled again to get free.

His wrists were raw and bloody from trying to get free, but he didn’t care, he needed to stop whatever the twin had planned.

One look from William froze Frank as he said in a voice that Joe called his "dangerous voice", "If you knock that chair over again… I will slit his throat." And then to Frank’s dread, William put down the book on the bed next to Joe and pulled out something small and familiar.

Frank’s own pocketknife! William must have taken it from him while he was unconscious.

The blade snapped open and William placed it flush against Joe’s throat and then openly challenged Frank, "Do we have an understanding or shall I give you a demonstration?"

"NOOO!" Frank yelled and started to struggle again but caught himself as he saw the blade bite into the soft flesh of his brother’s throat," Okay…Okay…just don’t!"

William saw him and then nodded in approval, "Good…now where we were?"

Closing up the knife again and slipping it back into his pocket, the demented teen pretended to give that question some serious though before he saw the book again, "Ah, now I remember…payback time!"

Picking up the book and holding it so the spine faced down, he whacked Joe, hard, on the arm and the sound that Joe made tore a hole through Frank’s soul.

"Joe", he sobbed unable to do anything.

* * *

Joe regained consciousness to a searing flash of pain and was unable to keep the cry from his lips when his wrist was pulled up and tied tightly to the post on one side.

Miserably he mashed his face into the bed to keep from screaming….his whole body was an intense field of varying pains…this new one being exquisite as he felt like someone had driven tiny shards of glass into his wrists…

He heard William’s voice above him and wondered if somehow his brother was floating before he shuddered and stifled a gasp when he felt fingers dragged across his back. He was having trouble holding his thoughts and vaguely wondered whether he had actually died and William had followed him to hell.

Joe heard someone else’s voice but it couldn’t cut through the fog that surrounded him.

His whole tormented world has been reduced to two things:

Pain and William.

Nothing else.

He wished desperately that Frank was here. And that he would take away the pain but then chastised himself for being so selfish. If Frank was here, then William would hurt him too and that was the last thing that Joe wanted.

No Frank was safe. He had left…

Joe felt himself being raised slowly and then gasped as he was jarred when the mattress was released.

…it’s okay…it’s okay…he tried to console himself even as he was kept fighting down panic…Frank had left him…he was gone…

And then Joe screamed as he felt the excruciating pain in his back.

William was burning him… again.

Pushing his face as far into the mattress as he could and still breathe, Joe writhed miserably as William continued to burn him with the cigarette. Around him he heard a noise and thought he heard someone screaming….and figured it must be his own.

And still the burning pain added to the fire in his back. Until finally there was nothing else. All he could do was sob miserably; the strength to scream had been charred away.

William stopped…for a moment anyway.

Joe took deep ragged breaths as he wondered how in the world he had any tears left…

And then William was leaning down next to him and he heard the whisper in his ears, "Biff was a very bad boy today…very bad for you anyway… because now I have to break your arm."

There was no way he could hide the fear as he feebly struggled with his bonds to get away but where he expected to feel pain, he felt something else…something cold, yet familiar, against his throat.

It gave him a horrible sense of déjà vu.

And then Joe gulped knowing what it was…the knife.

William was holding the knife to him again.

And then the knife was removed and before Joe could even give a relieved sigh, he felt fire in his elbow and tried to scream. But the best he could do was a strangled cross between a cry and a sob…and then the real beating began.

* * *

"STOP IT!" Frank was yelling as William continued hitting Joe with the heavy hard covered textbook. He concentrated his efforts on Joe’s arms mostly and Frank was terrified he wouldn’t stop until he’d broken one, "WHAT DID HE EVER DO TO YOU! LEAVE HIM ALONE! JOE!"

Breathing heavily from the force of the assault, William paused and stalked over to Frank standing in front of him and looking him directly in the face, "This? Oh this isn’t about Joe… or what he might have done. This is about your friends… and what they did."

"What? What are you talking about?" Frank shook his head wondering how someone as obviously mad as William had been able to keep his façade for so long.

"Oh Frankie", William chastised, "don’t play dumb with me…it really doesn’t look good on you. This is for what your good ole buddies, Chet and Biff, pulled on me at lunchtime." He got closer to Frank’s face for emphasis, "an eye for an eye… or in this case a broken arm… for a sore elbow."

"No", Frank’s voice was hoarse as an appalling realization settled on him.

William was going to break Joe’s arm…and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

If there was a living hell on earth…Frank had found it.

* * *

As William’s fervor increased so did his ‘strike zone’ until he had moved on from Joe’s arms and savagely struck at his legs. The only comfort Frank could see was that since Joe still has his jeans on; they afforded him some protection for the psychotic’s attack.

Some… but not much.

Finally, breathing heavily, William let the book drop and ran a hand over his sweaty fore head as he looked across at Frank. The older boy had gone from interesting shades of red to a very off shade of gray as he witnessed William’s brutality. And he was interested in just how many other colors of the rainbow he can make Frank turn.

Beneath him Joe had stopped crying out and was shaking uncontrollably and William picked up his discarded cigarette pack and pulled out another smoke as he sneered, "Well Joe, now look what you’ve gone and made me do? Now I need another smoke and I only got a couple left!"

Lighting up he stood next to the bed and as he puffed he leaned over and blew smoke into his brother’s face, enjoying the strangled coughing sound as Joe tried to twist his face away. But then William reached out, grabbed him, and held him so that his face was pressed firmly into the mattress.

"Stop moving." He commanded coldly as he continued holding Joe’s head down. The younger boy started struggling frantically but there was nothing he could…and there was no way he could breathe.

* * *

The blood drained from Frank’s face as he saw what was happening.

William was smothering Joe!

"HE CAN’T BREATHE…LET HIM GO…HE CAN’T BREATHE!" Tears sprang unbidden to his eyes as he was helpless to do anything.