Crawling back as far as the shackles would allow, sweat accumulated on her brow. Aldreera glanced down at her tiny hands cradling the floor, wondering why fate would have led her to a place like this one; given her this life to live. She cursed her fate and damned the person who ever did her wrong. She looked up again to her godmother towering over the table. What was her godmother going to do to her?
"What should I start with first?" As her godmother scanned the table with a smile plastered to her face. Her dark brown eyes halted at something, stretching her smile from ear-to-ear. "I found the perfect tool," lifting a whip from the table and holding it to her side she let it unravel onto the ground like a cobra; slithering and unraveling until it touched the door behind her.
Aldreera's heart froze in her chest. Whimpering again, Aldreera began prying at the shackle on her leg with her opposite foot. Kicking it as hard as she could. Watching as her godmother stepped closer and closer, clicking her heels in time. Her godmother was close enough that Aldreera could see her pale and flawless skin wrapping her high cheekbones and deep eye sockets. It shined with youth yet, so weathered by wisdom.
Evil orbs stared straight into her soul; black and lifeless ones. The kind that held no remorse. Aldreera looked back into her godmother's eyes with a questioning look. Then the whipping began.
* * * *
Two hours passed. From the time the torturing started to the time it ended, Aldreera went through whipping, beatings and unimaginable pain. Her godmother spared no expense in teaching her a lesson.
"We're done here," As Aldreera's godmother flips the top open to a box of matches, strikes one and lights her cigarette. "I have no more energy left to give to this little bastard of a child."
Her godmother crouched down to the relatively lifeless and mangled girl in front of her, takes a few more puffs of her cigarette, then sticks it onto Aldreera's leg. The bloodied girl looked at her leg unable to feel the pain anymore, she was numb with no strength left to wince or crawl away. Aldreera watched as her skin burned under the fiery redness, leaving a small divot behind and a foul smell that wafted up to the ceiling.
"Clean her up and throw her into one of the locked rooms. Give her half a ration of food and don't pay any attention to her helpless moans." She paused for a moment and then spoke with more clarity. "Understood?"
The guard standing outside of the room responded then opened the bolted door and began cleaning Aldreera's wounds, wiping them harshly and with no intention of rinsing the cloth off when too much blood had soaked it through. Aldreera watched as he grabbed her arms and legs with haste and washed the blood off little by little. Once the rag soaked through, he was merely moving the blood from one limb of her body to the other. Leaving smudged trails of where he had cleaned to the new area.
Once Aldreera was placed in her room, the guard brought a tray of food and threw it on the floor. The only thing on the tray was half a loaf of bread and a small mound of mashed potatoes, barely the size of her palm. The guard must have taken the lady a little seriously when she said half a ration due to the fact that it was barely a quarter of one. She inhaled the fumes of the cot and would've gagged if she had any strength left in her. The entire room smelled like death and the likelihood of it being properly sanitized before her long-awaited stay was most unlikely. Aldreera stared at the platter of food in the center of the floor with longing in her eyes. If there was one thing that she could feel it was the panging of hunger that radiated through her entire body. All she could think about was what it would taste like in her mouth and if it would cure her need or increase her desire for more. They could've at least brought the tray a little closer, she thought as the pain in her stomach grew. Aldreera mustered up the courage and tried with all her strength; first, using her legs to push off the wall behind her and then her arms to keep the momentum going. As she slid off the bed the pain of all that her godmother did was finally acknowledged by the receptors in her body. Her breath stopped as she held back a bone chilling cry of agony. My ribs must be broken, she thought. Her hunger exceeded the pain reveling through her bones and she pushed forward grasping at anything she could to keep herself awake until she got to the plate of food. Aldreera groaned as she extended her arm, stretching her slender fingers as far as she could just to grasp ahold of the tray of food. Once she had curled a finger around the edge and pulled it toward her, she spent no time shoveling it into her mouth with her bloodied and dirty fingers. Breathing only when necessary.
Once the food was licked clean she retreated back to the cot. Her face lay on the edge of the bed while her body layed sprawled on the stone floor. The trail of red indignation on the floor was slightly visible making a 'U' shape as it drew away from the cot out to the center and back in again. However, she could not move any further than back to the edge of the cot, laying her face on the edge of the mattress right before passing out. The last thing she could think of was… Who will come to take me away from here?