The sun beat down on the back of Gareth's neck, hot and unforgiving, but it was nothing compared to the fire burning on his ass cheeks.
'Damn that bastard! Damn that bitch! Damn this whole cursed house!'
Gareth ripped a handful of purple-tinged grass from the soil, his fingers trembling not from effort, but from the phantom sting that still throbbed with every beat of his heart.
He grit his teeth, the sound grinding in his skull as he tossed the weed into the growing pile.
'Two times! She hit me two times!'
He couldn't help it; his hand drifted back, gingerly rubbing the sore, throbbing flesh of his buttocks.
The humiliation was worse than the pain.
To be bent over a log like a naughty child and paddled with a thick wooden stick by a woman who used to bake bread... it was a nightmare.
A surreal, horrifying nightmare.
It was the first time he had been hit by a stick so hard that the stick itself had shattered. He could even feel that his butt had swollen due to the pain.
