"Kneel," he tells Pandora without so much as looking at her. "Get that robe off and wait."
Her shaky hands push the smooth silk of her robe down her shoulders, pooling on the floor. My teeth grit together as I watch her, naked and exposed, while her prick of a father picks out his torture weapon. The room is deathly silent. There must be at least fifty people watching this, and none of them will speak out for her.
Emilian picks out a long, sturdy whip and lays it across his daughter's lap. Pandora sobs openly, breaking down for everyone to see. Any other day I would've thought it beautiful, but not today. Today I'm sick at the thought of her getting hurt at anyone's hand but mine.
Oakes raises the whip. It's about to crack across her naked back when I stand up. All eyes go to me, but my attention is solely on the man who killed my parents.
"Stop it." My voice booms and echoes in the room. Everyone is staring. "Don't fucking hurt her."
Oakes laughs out loud at me, and before I can do anything, he hits Pandora's back with the whip, hard.
No one could hold me back at that moment. It takes me a split second to reach the stage and start strangling the bastard while she whimpers on the floor. I'm ready to kill him. Ready to end this right the fuck now. But someone pulls me off, and I turn my crazed eyes to Lai's. He merely shakes his head before stepping back down.
"You've interrupted... a-a formal w-whipping." Oakes is trying to catch his breath, pulling at the collar of his crisp white shirt as he glares at me. "You know what the punishment for that is, Booth?"
"I do," I grind out.
"Why don't you tell everyone?"
"Taking her place." My voice is a hiss, and Emilian smirks at me as I help Pandora to her feet and whisper in her ear that everything's going to be okay. I allow one of the employees of the town hall to lead her away while I turn to face her father. "You're a fucking monster."
"Takes one to know one." He taps the whip against his palm. "Take her place."
I kneel in front of him, with my back turned to face him. My heart is pounding. I can't imagine what being whipped feels like. What shocks me is that I'm willing to endure it all... just so Pandora doesn't have to.
Before I can have another moment, the whip cracks against my back, hard and unforgiving. I swallow the groan on my lips and brace myself against the floor. Another slashing sound slices through the air and the whip hits me again, then again and again. At some point, I can't hold myself up anymore. I collapse on the ground, and Emilian just keeps going and going.
"That's enough," I finally hear through the fog in my mind, somehow turning around to see Lai leading Oakes off. He's wearing a self-satisfied expression I want to fucking erase off his face. That son of a bitch is sicker than any of us.
The pain is almost unbearable. The room empties slowly, hushed voices and whispers accompanying people as they slowly trickle out. Not even Audra stops to speak to me. The room stinks of shame.
After a couple agonizing moments, I realize there are only two people left in the room. Lai, and myself.
"You should go," I groan, somehow picking myself up and wincing as I wipe the blood off my back with my shirt.
"I can't leave you like this." He approaches, taking my shirt from my hands and putting it over my open wounds. It hurts so much I'm convinced I'm going to lose consciousness, but I grit my teeth and allow him to help me get up. "I called a doctor to your house. He'll sort you out."
I nod as a sign of gratitude. I can't offer him much more. He's my oldest friend and he's let me down too much with what he's done to Pandora.
"Are you going to be okay?" Lai asks.
"What the fuck do you think?" I stumble out of the room. "Look what all this shit has gotten me into. I've lost everything. Every-fucking-thing."
"You haven't," he says lamely.
"Thanks for the reassurance." I glare at him. "If only I could trust you with anything."
He stays stubbornly quiet, but the devil on my shoulder won't shut up. He wants to add more fuel to the fire.
"I hope it was fucking worth it, betraying me."
He stares me down, not saying a word. His mouth opens and closes but nothing comes out. There's nothing to say, nothing to add. He knows just how fucked up all of this is.
"Let me help you get home," he offers, not unkindly.
"Oh, just fuck off," I hiss. "I don't want or need anything from you. Just get the hell away from me."
"Calm down." Lai holds his hands up. "I don't want to fuck things up more."
"More? More?" I advance on him, grabbing the front of his shirt. "Look where your fuck-up brought us. An innocent girl getting hurt multiple times."
Lai raises his eyebrows at me. "Since when do you have a problem with that?"
His words render me speechless, and I stare him down before groaning and pushing him aside. "Forget it."
"I mean it," he speaks up again. "That pussy may be tight, but it sure as hell ain't magic. What's got you so fucking whipped for Pandora Oakes?"
I wish I could answer his question, but my silence says everything. Without saying another word to him, I walk away, wincing with every step.
It takes weeks for the wounds to hell. By then, Anders is back at work, but has also officially handed me his notice. Soon enough, I won't have anyone to help me with the situation at home. I'm going to need to find a different solution.
Over the past month, I've been wondering whether I still love Lily Anna. The affection is still there. The need to take care of her. But there's no passion, no lust, no deep love anymore. She isn't the girl I fell in love with. Maybe she never was.
At school, things have started running smoother, though not being at the top of the food chain has proven to be a problem for me. Easton runs Prep now. I'm just a bystander to his actions.
Lily Anna grows wilder by the day, making me miss day after day of school. Audra never stops hurting my toy, practically following her around with humiliating tasks. Pandora spent weeks being Audra's maid, for lack of a better word, because the blonde took offense to one of her answers in class. There's no way for my toy to fight it now. She just has to take what's doled out to her, grit her teeth, and pray she gets through it okay.
By the time I return to school, my back is scarred and my head is filled with ideas of revenge. I'm not only going to take down Brantley and Oakes, I'm going to bring this whole damn town down. And there's only one person I want by my side.
I pull Pandora aside in the hallway. She's wearing a thick black choker - a sign of the town that signifies she's disrespected someone above her in status. She looks beaten down, tired and pissed off.
"Where were you?" Her first words to me are accusatory. "Where have you been, Dexter? Do you see what they're doing to me?"
"Remember what I did for you," I grind out. "I had to heal. Get better."
"I don't think that's the whole truth," she mutters, and I can't even argue with her. She knows something's up. She may not figure out the Lily Anna situation, but she can sense my lies. "I think you're avoiding me."