Greg's fingers slowed and he found himself holding his breath. This was a different response than he'd expected from Theo; it was on clearly emotion, and not good. But instead of stopping, Greg kept going, slowly.
"Theo," he said clearly, "Who did this to you before? Who punished you like this?" Greg asked, catching on that something big was happening that he needed to find out. He was afraid of what Theo would say but Greg needed to know, having been given a chance to understand something really important.