The Dream

Late Again...

  I wake up the next morning bright and early to get to town early enough to get there just as the shops open. I creep out of the bedroom before anyone else awakens and sneak out the servant's hall door. It's a cold crisp morning and its starting to snow lightly as I get my bicycle out of the storage shed and ride down the drive. I'm still sore from what took place two nights ago and I don't think I could take that again. He hit me so hard and so fast I still can't shake the eerie feeling that he'll do it again when I least expect it. I found it hard to sleep because of this feeling. As I ride through the streets, my mind wanders and soon before I know it, I'm in town infront of the draper's shop. Oh, how I wish I had the money for such luxurious clothing, but alas I'm a servant and have no use for any of it.
   I dismount from my bicycle and hook my basket on my arm. Walking down the sidewalk I see and stop to talk to many other servants and maids out and about for their masters. I stop and talk to a few of them and bit by bit time slips away and it's half past eleven. By the time I realize this I'm to late and the shops are closing for lunch. I race back to my bicycle in somewhat of an unladylike manner, and madly race off to the mansion only to be greeted by a terribly cross, and pale head mistress who insists I go to the cellar at once. I tense up knowing what that means for my already bruised and beaten body.
   I slowly start to walk down the cellar staircase when I stop. I hear chains rattling and footsteps coming closer to the staircase. It was Master looking to see if I had come back yet. He seemed even more cross than the head mistress was.

"I told you that if you were ever late again I would thrash the living daylight out of you, did I not!?"

"You did, sir, yes." I say in a quiet tone.

"And yet you still have the audacity to disobey my order to be on time from now on?"

"Yes, I guess I do, sir."

"You know what to do." He says pointing at the chains.

  I walk over to him and nod, tears blurring my vision. He grabs my hand and squeezes it. He leads me over to the chains once again and ties me up. I hear him take a few steps away from me and grab something. There is silence and then a sharp inhale. Time seems to slow down as Master lands the first hard blow to my broken body. It burns for a few minutes and then stings as he lands another blow immediately after. This went on for about an hour, but I don't remember most of it because I finally passed out at about the thirtieth hard whack. He lets me rest for a few minutes before untying me. I collapse onto the cold cement floor unable to move. I feel him scoop up and carry me to the servants bedroom. As he lays me in the bed he whispers in my ear, "One more mistake and you won't ever wake up again." After he left I just laid there. I couldn't get those words out of my head. I venture I fell asleep because I was woken up by a fellow servant and told that today I was to take the day off and recover. Boy was I glad of that.