The Bastard Girl (The Bastard Girl Series, Book #1)

Chapter 16~ The Whipping Boy

Chapter 16~ The Whipping Boy

"EDMUND!!"

Nothing could've prepared me for any of this. I was supposed to be the one to get the torture. And Edmund's job was to fix me up again for the next one. My body would eventually give out and the pain would no longer feel so repellent. Life would be frivolous.

But, the roles had been reversed. I could do nothing but watch and scream and bawl.

I found myself begging to be released and shouting his name like a Christian threatened at hell's gate. Luckily, I could hardly see the monstrosity before me through the mounds of tears collecting up in my eyes.

A spark had been lit in my chest and was smoking me out of my own body.

Not even losing my father had had such an effect on me. I had only felt such a way the day Mother's curls flew in the winds and finally settled into the earth forever. It was not like depression or grief. No, this was terror—the panic of knowing there is nothing left to fix or to save but still wishing to God that you could've held their hand one last time.

"EDMUND!!! Please, don't hurt him!!"

Thomas Tew reared his head back like a bull and seethed, "It's over, bastard girl! It's all over for you...and for him!"

He laid down another painful lash. And I felt it tight across my breast. Edmund and I both screamed madly.

I closed my eyes, praying for some escape if only for a second. But the dark of my consciousness returned red colors and images of the horror. The curtain could not be closed.

"He never hurt a soul! Kill me instead! Get what you've always wanted!!"

The man convulsed a sick type of laughter that shook the whip and splattered blood. Edmund sunk lower towards the floor.

"Oh, but I have gotten what I've always wanted!" sneered the beast, "And your little righteous knight shall pay for his mercy towards you! You both shall die together!!"

"No!!"

When Tew cracked the whip against the flesh once again, a pirate's hand shot out and muffled my screams. I writhed frantically and wildly, leaving my arms with claw marks from the men. The Cabin Boy, drained entirely, used any last remains of energy he had to just look at me. And that in itself was when my heart shattered.

Dark rings hung around Edmund's eyes. The caramel swirls of his pupils no longer brought me comfort and tranquility. Instead, they hung like weeping willows and turned me to absolute stone.

I'd quieted my screams and stared, conveying a message that Edmund already knew.

But, Tew was already raising the whip again. Hurriedly, I bit down hard onto the hand over my mouth. The hand's master howled in distress and clutched his bloody wound. But I had no time to have second thoughts anymore.

"Please!" I tried, once more with persistence, "I...I love him!"

And we'd reached the eye of the hurricane. Movement froze and heads turned to me. The whip dripped its blood and dared others to make a single movement. Even I was motionless, stuck in my place with my gaze still tied to Edmund. Then his eyes changed.

The emptiness had been filled with something glorious. And the woe, though still leaving its shadow, had left his wonderful eyes.

I heard Edmund say in the faintest whisper, "What?"

Then all at once, the entire crew of the Amity fell into horrendous laughter that sounded like cannonballs pounding in my head. They roared and spat and pushed each other as if I'd just told them the funniest story in all of mankind.