Chapter 17

My cries ring through the walls of the study room, punctuated by whipping sound. Every time Ivan hits me, it feels like death, except that I don’t actually die. It only keeps hurting more and more, the blood tricking down my back and staining the floor. Will it ever end, I ask myself. My body stopped holding itself upward a long time ago. I lay on the ground and Ivan doesn’t stop hitting me until fifty lashes have been administrated. I whimper, unable to move a single muscle. The old master Whitlock stands and I hear him walk away with his cane in hand. “Make sure to clean before you leave, Catalina.” He says to me on his way out. “You stained my perfect marble floor with your filthy blood.” And then, there’s the heavy sound of the door opening and closing. I think I lose consciousness for a while because when I open my eyes again, it feels like an eternity has passed. Someone carries me in his arm and I cry again at the contact with my raw back. I don’t react when I look up and see th