The tail of the black whip shot from the darkness and struck its mark: my chest. Its coils and their thousand tiny fingernails wrapped around me from mid-rib to shoulder blade. I screamed in horrific pain, sucking air as another bend of the weapon approached fast. With a searing tear and a thunderous CRACK, it struck me again.

My mind detached. I watched the surrealist image of my own skin hang upon the teeth of the whip’s tail until the arrival of the next curved bend released it to the floor in floating sheets of my flesh.

I pleaded, “Stop!”

The voice in the dark replied, “I will not.”

Whimpering and prostrated, I offered what supplication I could muster. “The pain…please…”

Silence.

The tail’s tip began to retreat, then quickened and my heart raced while my mind scrambled to sever itself from my body.

CRAAACK!

Throat gurgles; spurted gasps; gobs of escaped spit and bulging eyes accompanied the sleeve of skin that tore away from my arm. My screams only heard by creatures with higher hearing while I clawed through pools of blood and spittle to escape to anywhere else.

FWACK!

Up the leg; flesh slashed away in a sheet.

THWACK!

Back bones laid bare. 

There was no escape.

Pain consumed comprehension. Tears were empty and consciousness went no farther than my face.

Through a wavering eye-slit I saw my piled flesh. I crawled towards it, desperate for it to return to me while cold, definitive footsteps approached.

I pawed at the pile and their touch replenished my tears. In slobbering gibberish, “Thlet me…half flem,” I begged for them.

The darkened silhouette stood over me. I hobbled to my knees to plead for pity.

I dared not look at him. I had reclaimed what he’d taken. Yet standing near me, I could see his feet and found my posture stiffening.

Before him, without reason or direction, my hands betrayed me and let loose what I had suffered to lose, then turned upwards.

“Who commands you?!” I begged.

The whip’s tail answered. It moved away and my eyes followed it to the dark figure’s hand. He didn’t ready for a strike but pointed a stalwart finger directly at me.

From the quietest place within me a vibration rose. What was it? It tasted of salvation but ushered something else.

With unknown faith, I ran my hand across my face and felt the final piece of flesh that remained then permitted myself to speak my deepest need: “Again.”

The tail slithered back, then quickened to a whistle. The figure withdrew into the shadow and I waited with mortal fear and imperceptible courage.

THWAAACK!

In a flash of heat, the last vestige was seared away. But I didn’t scream. The pain…there was none. I searched my face for fear the strike might have missed. It didn’t.

The master’s tail withdrew with a steady hiss and the figure drew closer.

Looking down at the pile of flesh before me, I felt a growing resentment.

My teeth clenched and I eyed it with scornful rage. He stood next to me and dropped the whip beside my head. I turned to him and with sincere gratitude said, “Thank you.”