Chapter 29

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Dadand his partner started setting the coals up and putting the iron rods in thecoals, so I still couldn't see what was on the other end. They waited for a fewminutes before taking one out. They both looked at the other end and lookedaround us looking for someone specific. They finally locked eyes with me. Ihardened my glare, and dad's partner walked forward and grabbed my wrist topull me to my feet. Izzy and the others tried to fight him back, but it didn'treally do anything. He pulled me over to a wall opposite away from the others.He slammed me face first into the wall and held me there. I turned my head towhere I could see dad out of the corner of my eye. He was walking towards mewith the branding rod. He stopped to let me see what was on the other end ofthe rod. It was the fire symbol from the show (top left image) . When I saw the symbol, dad went behind my back and out of my view. I couldn't tell what dad was doing, but all I knew was the guy holding me against the wall tightened his grip on my shoulders. All of a sudden, I felt blazing hot pain in the base of my neck. I gritted my teeth in pain and screamed into my teeth. I could hear my siblings moving behind dad. My vision was getting blurry from the pain. Dad held the branding iron to my neck for a few seconds, and finally he took it away. When dad took the branding rod away from my neck, his partner threw me back over to my siblings, and I landed on my side laying down, but I didn't make an effort to get up.

"Jess!" Izzy said. It looked like I had new nickname.

"I'm fine." I replied weakly.

Suddenly Izzy was grabbedand shoved towards dad. Dad's partner pinned Izzy to the wall, like he did me.Dad picked up a different branding iron but didn't show Izzy the design he wasabout to burn into the base of her neck. It was the water symbol from the show (top right image) . Izzy knew what was coming, and she braced herself for it. I layed there trying to watch, but my vision was giving way to the pain. Then dad placed the hot iron against Izzy's neck, and Izzy let out a blood curdling cry from the pain. All I could do was listen to Izzy scream. When suddenly, I blacked out.

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