Page 20 of Fear and Desire

A slap landed on her face and she yelped in pain and surprise.

“I’m Master 1 to you now. Don’t forget it. I’ll be back after breakfast to deliver your punishment.” His footsteps faded as he left her hanging and alone.

Oh, God, help me!Fear roared up and consumed her.

Atsomepoint,heroverstretched bladder let go, and she peed down her legs and onto the floor. Occasionally she would hear the squeaking of boards as someone came near to lift her numb fingers and examine them, and then she would be alone again.

The fourth or fifth time someone came close, she didn’t even bother lifting her head. This time, though, the tension in her arms loosened enough to get her feet flat on the ground, and her arms came down. She groaned in pain. Eventually, she stood unbound and on shaky legs. Her arms hung limply at her sides, unable to obey any commands.

The blindfold was yanked off and she squeezed her eyes shut against the light.

“Slave, look at me.” It was Master 2. His voice was loud and annoyed. She struggled to open her eyes, the light making them tear up as she brought his face into focus. “If you ever try something so stupid again, you’ll spenda lotmore time strung up.”

“Yes, sir,” she whispered. Suddenly, he winked. Her eyes widened in surprise. “If you ever need to get a message to Dan,” he whispered, “tell me. It’ll be easier to get to me than to him.”

“Yes, sir,” she mouthed in acknowledgment. She nearly cried with relief finding out she had another friend.

He pulled her wrists behind her and clipped them together with no gentleness. Then he grabbed her elbow and propelled her out into the yard. All the women were there, once more kneeling in the dirt, the men standing behind them. She was going to have an audience for her punishment.

The morning sun beat down upon them all as he propelled her to the center of the circle of watchers. She wanted to be good for Dan, but she was terrified and pulled back as Master 2 guided her towards what looked like a hitching post. His grip tightened and his fingers dug into her flesh. When he stopped, Master 4 came up, grabbed her ankles, and pulled her off her feet. She shrieked with fright, but Master 2 had a sure grip under her arms, and the two of them carried her the rest of the way. Master 4 place her ankles on the crosspiece, and Master 2 lowered her to the ground. Her feet were almost straight up as she lay on her back in the dirt, her bound arms trapped underneath her. The sun was directly in her eyes. Her feet were roughly bound to the horizontal pole until she cried out at the pain of her ankles being crushed against the wood.

A shadow fell over her and Dan spoke. “Master 3,” he said, in a reasonable voice, “if you tie her feet that tight, they go numb, and she won’t feel the punishment.”

There was a pause, and a grunt, and in a moment the bonds were loosened.

She took a deep breath to relax and prepare and immediately abandoned the attempt. Nothing would prepare her. She might as well accept that fact now. Dan’s shadow still fell over her so she opened her eyes and looked up. Though his expression was neutral, she knew him well enough to see the pain that hovered behind his gaze.

If she really thought Dan was a slaver, she’d be pleading for him to let her go. People probably expected it. It wasn’t hard for her to start, especially when she caught sight of the strip of leather in his hand.

“Please,” she whispered, “don’t. You don’t have to do this. I won’t try it again. I’m sorry. Please. Just let me go, please!”

He opened his mouth, then closed it and shook his head. He turned to the waiting crowd.

“This slave,” he began, “is a good friend of mine.” The crowd erupted in low voices. He waited until they quieted. “I’m not exactly sure how she ended up here, but it doesn’t matter. She belongs to Mr. DeLeo now, and how I feel about her isn’t important anymore. She tried to escape earlier. It’s my job to make sure that she never wants to try that again, and that all the slaves watching realize that theyneverwant to try it, either. Since she used her feet to run, it’s fitting to punish them enough that she has to crawl.”

The sun fell in her eyes again, so she squeezed them shut, and wasn’t prepared when the first blow of the strap fell across the soles of her feet. She grunted in surprise at the sting. He snapped the leather every few seconds, directing it mostly to the sole of her right foot. Though each blow wasn’t that bad, collectively they hurt, and the pain rose to an unbearable height with only a few blows. She tried desperately to pull her feet away, begging him to stop, but they were tied tight, and he ignored her cries.

He paused some minutes later, and she took a deep breath through her sobs as he changed positions. Now he assaulted her left foot. She tried to rub her feet together to ease the pain, but that meant that some blows wrapped around her soles and landed on the tops of her feet, which hurt even more.

“Please stop! Please! Oh, God, stop stop stop! Please!” It was a constant litany of begging, and it had no effect. Blow after blow landed until she was crying and writhing so much in the dirt she was sure she’d rubbed the skin on her back raw.

At last he stopped. She sobbed with relief that it was over. She waited for someone to untie her burning and swollen feet. She’d survived.

He stepped between her and the sun again. “Slave,” he called. She opened her eyes to look at him and froze in horror. He held a cane in his hand. “Five on each foot to finish.”

“No!” she screamed, terror taking over and turning her struggles frantic. “Stop! Oh, god! No!” She tried to sit up and twist away.

He said something, and suddenly Claire was at her head.

“Keep her still.”

Laura looked up into Claire’s face. “Claire, oh god, please don’t let him use that! Please!”

Claire lifted Laura’s head into her lap and wrapped her arms around Laura’s shoulders. “Honey,” she spoke softly, “you know I can’t stop him. But I’ll try to help you through this, okay?”

Before Laura could answer her, pain that felt like her feet had been thrust into a fire exploded across the soles. She opened her mouth and screamed.

Bythetimetheyreleased her, she was hoarse. Her feet were untied and placed back down on the ground by Master 2. She didn’t know where Dan was, but she didn’t really care right then. Claire helped her turn on her hands and knees, and she made a slow and painful crawl back to the cell, leading the other quiet slaves. Once she was there, she climbed onto her bed and lay on her side facing the wall, tears sliding silently sideways across her face and onto the mattress. Her feet throbbed in a painful rhythm with her heart.

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