Deprivation- The Feast and the Famine

Chapter 30- Full Circle

Unconsciousness was like a deep vast lake. Claudia floated at the center, cold water beneath her and the wind above her. If she could have remained there forever, she would have. But warm fingers kept intruding on her empty peace.

Her eyes opened, and she sat up on the carriage seat.

Two men sat across from her both dressed like gentlemen. They weren’t, she knew that now, they were demons.

“Victor,” she whispered. Her eyes chose him to fasten on over Roderick. During her break from this horror, a dark, vicious black eye had swollen Roderick’ right eye closed.

“I apologize for my compatriot,” Victor said. His eyes were like ice. “He has been reprimanded. We do not hurt women, Claudia. I would never hurt a woman. It is, however, my duty to see that wickedness is punished where it rears its ugly head. I believe you merit punishment. Don’t you agree?”

The carriage was moving, but that did not matter to Claudia’s panic filled mind. She threw herself at the door and tumbled out onto the road. Her body met the ground and rolled. Her head pounded, and everything was fuzzy but she found her feet somehow and she ran. Like the prey of any hunter, she ran with only fear as a guide. A blind hope of escape.

The forest at the side of the road offered some meager shelter. She glanced behind her and saw a short twisted man climbing down from the driver’s seat. Next to him on the seat, Bennett’s body was propped up. Victor was descending with an angelic smile on his face.

His stare froze her, stilled her limbs and bile rose up in her throat.  She forced it down. The two men approached her as she backed away her gaze torn between them and Bennett. It wasn’t until Roderick peered from the carriage that she managed to rip herself away from the thrall of her fear.

Claudia ran.

Thoughts did not intrude on her run. Her mind was numb, and the only things she knew were the impact of her feet on the ground and the branches that ripped at her as she bolted passed. Twigs snaps as her fingers forced branches from her path.

The rocks shifting under her feet were as loud as an avalanche to her primed ears. One step and then another.

Her feet ached, and her side was pinched by the time she heard the horse. It pressed its way to her, and she ran. Her feet did not give up and her mind remained blissfully blank. Away, away, was the only echoing cry inside her.

An arm encircled her waist and her feet departed from the ground. Victor lifted her onto the horse’s back with him. She struck at him with one balled fist, a maneuver he easily caught. The horse slowed to a halt and Claudia threw herself to the side content to bash her head in on the forest floor if it meant being away from the arms that held her. Victor only tightened his hold and pressed her to the horse’s neck.

It was Bennett’s horse, ridden without a saddle. Victor held her still as she struggled against the mane, and when the squat man pulled up next to them on the carriage’s other steed Claudia stopped struggling. Victor pressed a waterskin to her lips and after moving it insistently, he pried her lips open.

The water trickled into her throat, and she choked as her body accepted Victor’s offering.

“Claudia, you have let me down rather severely, I’m afraid,” Victor said.

“No, please, let me go,” Claudia said.

“You are mine, and I’m afraid that I must discipline what is mine. Only twice, have I deemed a woman worthy of better treatment than that I will provide you. Both of you failed to live up to expectations.”

“You’re scaring me.”

“I have not even begun to scare you, dear one,” Victor’s voice was already fading at the last word. She sank away from the forest and the men into it. The lake of unconsciousness welcomed her back like a long lost friend

When she woke she was sitting in a chair facing a bowl of fruit. On the ground, protruding from the floorboards was a hand.

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