I Will Die for You, My Darling! - Chapter 14
Chapter 14
“I failed to stop her on the stairs… I allowed her to go up… If… if I had stopped her, this wouldn’t have happened.” She beat her forehead against the floor, her apologies choked with desperation. If only she could erase the encounter on the stairs. But a footman, witnessing Arietta’s fall and subsequent outburst, had reported it to Isaac.
The footman had been handsomely rewarded for his information: a bottle of whiskey and an apple. He’d devoured the apple the moment Isaac turned away. Fresh fruit was a rare luxury, easily lost to his colleagues if not consumed immediately.
The head maid’s position was now precarious because of a bottle of whiskey and an apple. She’d thought Arietta would come back down the stairs. How could she have predicted the mad girl would choose the window as her ‘way down’?
Tears of frustration welled in her eyes, but protesting would be like walking into hell.
Isaac stared down at her back. An image flashed through his mind: a humiliating night from twenty years ago. The memory rose like bile in his throat.
“Remove your clothes,” he commanded.
***
“Aagh!” A searing pain ripped through her back, accompanied by a flash of white-hot light.
The whip’s impact felt like a brand. Her skin turned white, then flared red and began to swell. Each subsequent lash across the raw, sensitive flesh made the simple act of maintaining consciousness a monumental struggle.
Isaac showed no mercy. His jaw clenched tight, he brought the whip down again and again.
Crack! The sound of the whip splitting the air echoed through the room.
Thwack!
“Haaagh!” The head maid’s body convulsed in agony.
Isaac brushed his hair back from his forehead, pausing to survey the ruined flesh of her back before raising the whip once more.
“Aagh!” The head maid cried out, tears, saliva, and blood mingling on her face.
Isaac delivered precisely twenty lashes. From the first to the last, the speed and force of each strike were chillingly consistent.
A pool of blood spread across the floor. He dropped the whip, its leather now slick with blood and bits of flesh. The head maid lay crumpled on the floor, whimpering and twitching.
It was a gruesome tableau, one that a morbid artist might have applauded before rushing to capture it on canvas.
“Ugh… huh…” Even through her delirious whimpers, the head maid managed to mumble words of gratitude. Gratitude that he had chosen the whip instead of ending her life.
Isaac looked down at her impassively, then turned and left the room. Gamon, his loyal lieutenant, waited in the hallway.
“Clean this up.”
“Yes, sir. What are your instructions regarding her… disposal?”
Isaac glanced back at the open door. He had no intention of reinstating the head maid. Forgiving such a monumental failure would shatter the order of the Glass Dome Estate. More importantly, he could no longer trust her.
“She’s no longer of use.”
“I agree.” Gamon bowed his head.
“Then… shall we expel her?”
“….” Isaac stroked his chin thoughtfully. His deliberation was brief.
“Let’s give her an opportunity.”
“An opportunity…?”
“Yes. The Sky City delegation arrives soon.”
“Ah… you mean to include her… as a prisoner in the exchange?”
“Precisely.” Thirteen prisoners were scheduled to be sent to Sky City. Downstream prisoners were a valuable commodity, highly sought after by the city in the clouds.
“Tell her to consider it an opportunity. If she survives up there, she might live.” Isaac’s voice dripped with sarcasm. Gamon nodded, though inwardly, he was skeptical. He’d heard whispers from the last Remains Retrieval team about the fate of prisoners in Sky City. It was a horrific existence, perhaps worse than life in the Downstream back alleys outside the Glass Dome.
“How fitting. She always held such open admiration for Sky City.” Isaac knew everything, even the head maid’s private conversations with her confidantes. He offered one last, mocking glance in her direction before continuing down the hallway.
“Confine her to the dungeons until the airship arrives.”
Gamon bowed deeply.
“Your will be done.”
