The whip falls.
She doesn’t protest the punishment. If she did, maybe someone would take pity. Someone might find it an injustice, to harm such a vulnerable, helpless thing.
If she pleads and cries and begs, she might fool the people watching. Might convince them that this is wrong, that she could not possibly deserve this.
She is guilty.
She deserves this. This is the truth. She knows it, deep in her shriveled soul, and she wants them to know, too.
It’s hard not to cry. It feels dishonest, in a way, to hold back the pain screaming through her body, the guilt burning up her cold heart.
But it would be so much worse to deceive her audience. They deserve to know the truth. She deserves to be punished.
So she does not sob. She does not plead or beg for mercy. She narrows her eyes and shows no fear. She snarls and spits curses and glares daggers, letting herself become the monster she has always known herself to be.
She puts on a show for her audience, letting them know exactly what she is. None of them will offer her a shred of mercy again, she makes sure of it.
It’s almost a relief, to have the truth revealed.
The whip falls again.