Faith in his timing

Music

"Stop, stop! Please"! Rio cried out in tears when Jude kept bringing the cane down on her, as the Monsignor watched her every move.

"That's enough, Jude. Now go to bed, Shelly needs a caning in the morning." Timothy instructed her and the nun nodded, giving Rio the glance over with a look of hate in her eyes.

"Good night, Monsignor."

Rio hid her face in her hands as she kept sobbing from pain. The Monsignor stood behind her and gently caressed her battered behind. Rio shuddered and hissed as it stung like mad.

"I told you not to go in there. Why are you not minding me?" He asked her casually, a hint of threat in his voice, as if he was punishing a child for stealing a piece of candy.

"I just want to go home...I miss Tony, I miss my own time!" Rio blubbered and Timothy let out a hum at hearing the name.

"Tony hm? And this is your husband?"

"No, I'd never marry him! Besides, he has a girl, Pepper. We just work together, were good friends. But he must miss me and..."

Then it dawned on her. Tony and JARVIS must know she was missing by now. And Tony would definitely find a way to get her back. All she had to do was wait and comb out the asylum for other ways out.

"Never mind, I'll behave from now." She whispered, and the Monsignor helped her up, moving her so that they were facing each other.

"So you learned your lesson?" He asked a tad too smug. Rio got pissed, so pissed. Her body was shaking from the impact and from the rage she felt on the inside.

"Yes." She replied, despite her anger. This was not a time for revenge. This was a time to be careful, to make sure she got out of here without further damage.

"Wonderful, then you may return to your room and go to sleep, we will find a chore for you in the morning to keep you busy."

For once Rio did as she was told, she didn't want anything else to happen to her. Or to Shelly. She felt bad that her friend was going to be caned in the morning. To sooth her guilt, Rio told herself that she would go in there with a wet cloth as soon as she could.

With this in mind, the girl drifted off into a restless sleep, full of scary dreams and terrors. At dawn, she finally decided to get out of bed since sleep wasn't doing her any good. Pacing around, she waited around for a guard to let her out of her room.

"The Monsignor wants to see you in half an hour." The guard told her and Rio nodded. She took a few minutes to freshen up and hurried off to Shelly first, snagging a washing cloth from a laundry cart first. Something told her that if the Monsignor was up, Jude would be up as well. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Jude come out of Shelly's room. The soft sobbing that Rio heard broke her heart. Making sure that Jude didn't see her, she sneaked into Shelly's room and broke into tears as soon as she saw her friend.

"Don't cry, Rio, please?" Shelly asked sadly as she tried to turn on her side. The poor girl was laying on her stomach, her bottom exposed and covered in welts from Jude's caning. Rio went over to the little sink in the corner of the room and wetted the wash cloth, still sniffling.

"I'm so sorry, I never wanted this." She told her in a raspy voice and gently dabbed the welts with the wash cloth. Shelly hissed at the pain at first but then moaned in appreciation of the soothing feeling.

"I'm not mad at you, I knew the risks. I heard that the ones that tried to escape are in worse trouble, so maybe we got lucky they didn't want our help." The girl assured her friend.