Fallen

Kandace could hardly catch her breath. Her eyes darted to the doorway of the bathroom and quickly back to Jasper who moved toward her. She attempted to duck around him but, despite his size, he moved like lightning, going low and grasping her by the legs, hurling her up and over his shoulder. Kandace kicked at him and pounded at his chest, letting out an ear-shattering shriek directly into his ear.

Jasper flung her off his shoulder and her back hit the tile wall of the shower, sliding down the hard surface before her butt smacked into the floor. Kandace let out a choking scream. It felt like her tailbone had cracked in two.

“Careful now, dear, you’ll hurt yourself,” Ms. Wykes said in a calm, soft whisper, somehow all the more horrifying for the serenity in her tone.

Kandace moaned, her sobs echoing around the large, open room. The water pounded on the floor just in front of her where Kandace was curled against the wall, unwilling to move. Oh God, this hurt. Something was broken, it had to be. “Please,” she moaned. “Please.”

“That’s better,” Ms. Wykes said, steam curling around Kandace and wafting into the air where Ms. Wykes and Jasper stood staring mercilessly down at her. “Some obedience. That’s it. You want to be saved, don’t you, sinner? You want redemption from the Lord, you just don’t know how to achieve it. That’s why we’re here. To assist you. To help you atone. Jasper, the brush, please.” She put out her hand and Jasper handed her a pair of long, rubber yellow gloves and a scrub brush.

Kandace’s pulse leapt, fear drumming within to the same tempo as the pounding water on the tile floor. She brought her hand up, attempting to push off the wall as Ms. Wykes donned the gloves. Kandace’s lower back screamed in agony and she let out another sob, tears pouring down her cheeks. Ms. Wykes reached up and redirected the showerhead so the water was directly on Kandace. Kandace screamed again, raising her arms and turning her face from the scalding water that suddenly rained down over her mostly nude body. It burns, oh God, it burns. Somebody help me, help me. Pleasepleaseplease.

She flailed, then when more of the burning water hit her skin, she tried to roll into a ball, then push upward, using her hands for leverage against the wall, but Jasper pushed her back down. Ms. Wykes reached in with her bright yellow gloves and began scrubbing mercilessly at Kandace’s scalded skin.

It was agony, red-hot, indescribable agony.

Kandace screamed and thrashed, slipping and flailing as Jasper used his place of higher ground to keep her from gaining traction on the slippery tile while Ms. Wykes used the wire scrub brush to scour every inch of Kandace’s burned and blistered skin.

It lasted forever. Kandace drifted in and out of consciousness, the pain of what was happening to her never allowing her to escape for long. Just when she thought she might go crazy from the pain, from the cruelty these two monsters were inflicting on her, the scrub brush was suddenly lifted, the pounding noise of the water ceasing. Kandace dragged her shaking legs into her body, her arms coming around her legs, but yelping as soon as raw skin met raw skin. Her moans continued, one after the other, short pulses of sound that she couldn’t manage to stop.

Half-conscious, she was dragged upward, her moan erupting into a scream as some fabric was wrapped around her ruined skin.

Ms. Wykes’s voice sounded directly against her ear. “Now then, Ms. Thompson. There will be no more sneaking into my office? Will there?”

In response, Kandace could only manage another moan.

Jasper picked her up and, with the contact, Kandace sobbed brokenly. The world around her faded in, then out. She was being carried somewhere. Her bed? The infirmary? Home? Please, please let me go home. I’ll do better. I’ll do anything you want. Please, Mom. Mom. I just want to go home. I’ll be good. I’ll be so good.

The world went black.

She came to slowly, attempting to move her limbs. Her body burned. Oh God, it burned. And it ached. A shudder ran through her as she attempted to crack her eyes open, but it was too bright and she drew back, trying again. Reality swam in front of her and for a moment, she wondered if she was simply having a horrific nightmare. Her brain grasped to understand, to put her reality into context.

She was in the chapel, her arms strung up to each side of her, feet just touching the ground. Twelve students all sat in the pews in their red uniforms, heads bent. The teachers sat stoically in chairs against the opposite wall. Some stared at her nervously, others with contempt.

Her back burned so badly she didn’t think she could bear it, the light from the window behind her streaming in and heating her already scalded skin.