I am no one, I'm nothing

Capitulo Viente

Pedro gripped Aldonza's shoulders as the two took slow, deliberate steps backwards. "This can all be explained." He murmured to the Sisters, who were advancing on them.

"I'm sure it can be." Sister Maria spoke with gentle viciousness. "Just as your actions can be explained and made up, so can ours."

"Pedro, get your hands off of me!" Aldonza shrieked, wide eyes staring helplessly down at his hands, which were strongly clenching onto her shoulders, holding her in place. She struggled against his form, arms and legs flailing, and yet she was unable to break free due to her own will, her own indecisiveness on whether they were acting the façade and playing fools or experiencing sheer reality.

"Give it up, Aldonza." Sister Julia commanded, retrieving a spade from the wall of the shadowed stable. "You aren't afraid of him and you know it. In fact," She tested the sharp point of the tool with her pointer finger, gauging its fatality. "You never were. You came here, a filthy bundle of shit, madly in love with him. Or at least what you might consider to be love. What are you, Aldonza? Tell us-did you really think you would be able to trick us-the Sisters of the Holy Catholic Church-into thinking that a good for nothing, useless whore would want to change her ways?" She scoffed loudly and spat on the young woman's bare feet.

"Si," Continued Sister Maria. "And then to go behind the Padre's back, only to be seduced by the only man around that would take you? How could you do such a thing in the holy offices of the Church? You call yourself Catholic, a Christian woman-well I, my dear, call you excommunicated." She nodded to Sister Julia, who brought the spade sharply down on Aldonza's bare feet. The young woman let out a sharp cry and struggled against Pedro's grip to instinctually grab her injured limb. Pedro, however, was unrelenting and held her to his chest, forcing her into stiff, pained position. Her eyes widened and her heart began to race as she wondered if he was still playing the ploy, or whether, in some sick, twisted sense of reverse psychology, Pedro was switching sides.

"Prison will not treat you kindly." Sister Julia told her, twisting the head of the spade into her wounded foot and grinning with disgusting pride as Aldonza cried out, the veins in her neck popping through the flesh as she titled her head back and pierced the nighttime air with a terrifying yowl. Sister Maria stepped to the side and grabbed a rake from the wall, keeping to herself. "But then again, maybe you're used to being treated like your nothing."

"You take that back!" Pedro cried out, clenching his fists and extending them through his hold on Aldonza to the frightening Sister. "She is worth a thousand of you!"

"Ahh, you want the same, eh?" Sister Julia scowled, finally removing the tool-turned-weapon from the young woman's paling foot. "We can arrange for that. All scum should be sent to prison-and you're no exception, you ungrateful bastard. Now, Maria!"

Maria extended the rake behind Pedro with the pointed edges sticking up, and he tripped backwards on it and landed with a surprised cry on the ground, the spears from the rake digging painfully into his bag. Aldonza landed forcibly on top of him with a soft "Oof!" Pedro finally released his grip on her to extend his hands underneath himself, scrambling backwards with the young woman still on top of him. He scuttled backwards in a panicked rush until he ran severely into a wooden stable post. Pedro glanced to the side and pushed himself up the wall, heaving Aldonza up with one hand and grabbing a whip with the other. He swung it wildly around his head as the livestock around him startled and shifted their weight through the humid air and hay, adding to the deadly soundtrack of the night.

"I would be careful with that if I were you." Sister Julia spoke with a calm, measured tone. "Prisoners who arrive awaiting the Inquisition are bad enough. But those who await the Inquisition after having beaten a woman? A Sister?" She clucked her tongue with a harsh, high-pitched laugh. "They're treated the worst of all."