Red Feline Faces the Inquisition - Chapter Two

	Melissa's deep meditations are hardly interrupted as the man pulls her into postion for the first act of torture. She doesn't feel his breath on her as he hauls her body up onto her knees and stretches her hands high above her head. She isn't aware of what is happening to her body. But when the torturer circles to walk in front of her, she becomes aware of his presence and the event unfolding. Melissa watches as the man reaches for one of the whips hanging from hooks on a wall. Red Feline, from her small cage, watches intently as the torturer prepares.

	Melissa follows the torturer with fearful eyes. Perhaps she deserves what is happening, perhaps this punishment will free her. Her own flagellations and those of her sisters are often brutal, drawing blood. They must atone for their sins, their dark thoughts. The punishments must fit the gravity of their sins. She is willing to accept correction, but she will not confess to something she didn't do. She did not have contact with the devil. She is not a heretic, nor is she a witch. Perhaps the poor soul they caged just before is one. But not her. Not Melissa.

	The torturer is ready, he stands silently behind Melissa as she closes her eyes, expecting the sting of the lash. Suddenly there is silence, even Red Feline stops her protestations. The torturer selects a whip with many tails, each lash will feel like nine. Red Feline wonders what a nun would have to do to be in such a predicament, maybe she seduced a priest, maybe she was not what she seemed.

	"What are the woman's sins?", Red Feline asks herself, but she suspects that the poor nun is innocent, like herself. She is caged now because someone had falsely accused her of witchcraft, just because she found a way of preparing a beverage that stops the suffering of children when diarrhea attacks.. Was that sinful? She used plants to heal the body. When she tried to explain that to the priests they told her that only God has the power to heal and the only way to care for a child was to pray. The torturer walks to Melissa and grasps her dirty garment.

	Melissa feels the man's hands touching her bare back. The feeling is strange, this is the first time the hands of a man have touched her bare skin. She feels the heat emanating from his body. It engulfs her, she immediately feels oppressed by an uncomfortable warmth. The torturer opens her gown to expose her back as much as possible. She is naked under it, she is not permitted to wear anything else. It is part of the humiliating process. Men and women are stripped naked under torture.