Chapter Twenty-Two
“The branding becomes you, 128. You look even more like a kept animal,” fingers gently smoothing over the keloided flesh of the right cheek.
“Thank you Ma’am,” the voice timid and respectful.
Having been branded, training deemed complete, 128 has indeed learned she is kept, the trainers, nurses and members of Nusquam strict and demanding.
“I had wagered that you’d urinate. You cost me some dollars.”
“I’m sorry Ma’am.”
Augmenting the intense pain of being marked as chattel with a searing hot iron was the humiliation of being tethered before a sizable gathering of Nusquam’s members, observing with sadistic delight. Members are given to wager whether the subjugant will vomit, faint or as with the woman’s bet, involuntarily urinate.
128 tossed her lunch, a waiting buc
