Red Feline twisted slowly until her back was in full view of the man torturing her. The man she was sure she had invented, or at least hoped she had invented, so impersonal and anonymous. She saw through his eyes, her naked back, so white and red and even blue... marked by hundreds of precious strokes. Something she could not do during her games, she could not see her body hanging from the tree, she could not see her back suffering her imaginary lash. Because when she hanged herself she invented imaginary situations. She would be whipped and burned. Even shot with arrows, sometimes burning arrows, like those that penetrated Piroska's mother as she hanged from the tree.

Red Feline read the man's mind. "She's not dead.", he was thinking, and she found in him the desire to whip off her panties. She knew this because he often directed the whip to her waist.

Her back received a few more lashes, "perhaps the last few lashes", she thought. The nail still dug into her tender flesh, its metal tip scoring her rib.

Piroska was facing up again, her body wrapped with the improvised bandages made out of her aunt's clothing. Time had passed in the cell and dawn was on its way. Piroska was not dead, as the Governor had demanded.

She opened her eyes, as her aunt made her drink some water mixed with a potion she prepared. One that would give her strength."I understand now.", the aunt whispered to Piroska. "This is your destiny and I will see you here again, to bring you back to life so you can complete your mission.". Piroska looked at her aunt as she drank the liquid, her lips trembling and eager to feel the coolness of the water. "You will understand it, too." The aunt told her. "But you will suffer more and it will be up to you to decide when to stop.".

Piroska smiled, she was done drinking, the vase was empty. She closed her eyes and shook in pain as the whip fell on Red Feline with such force that it made her complete a full 360 degree turn.

Red Feline was facing the man again, her eyes still shut, as if she wasn't there at all, she knew he was looking for a reaction, he didn't want to strip her while she was unconscious, he needed her to be aware that she was completely naked in front of him. He sent the lash to her, hoping to wake her.

Red Feline did not respond and he was tired so he directed the lash to he edge of her panties to finally get rid of them, hoping that she, in any form, would know that she was being stripped away of that final piece of intimacy.

The lash fell sharply on the edge of the panty cutting it along with some skin. The dark material that protected her fell down slowly, sliding down her leg, leaving her exposed.

Red Feline reacted at last. The air in the newly exposed area of her body did more than all the whipping. Sensing that the last piece of her dignity had been taken away from her made her move and shake. The pain returned to her body. Suddenly, her wrists were there again. She moaned, she was back. That made the Man in Black very happy. Red Feline knew that he had reached a special point in the whipping and that she had to prepare herself for what was to come.

Piroska reacted to the last lashes that Red Feline received, now totally naked. The day had made it's appearance in the cell through the many barred openings on the top of the wall. Not far from where she was, there were, what looked like, two large gates on top of a hole. One of them was open.

Piroska's aunt was lying by her side, her legs and waist exposed because of the pieces she had torn from her garments. She was sleeping after such a long night of working her healing powers on her young niece, so she did not hear the steps of the soldiers and the Governor who entered the cell.

Piroska opened her eyes to see them. She felt as if she could jump from where she was to attack the Governor, but her body was not responsive to her commands. She shook again as Red Feline received another lash across her legs.