3 years 1 day (part 2)

I was frozen in shock, staring at the incomprehensible scene in front of me. I didn’t really understand what was going on. Just that all the difficult words the woman read had to be bad for Fern and Magnolia.

I tried asking our new nurse, but she hushed me. I needed to know, but…

Helplessly looking around my eyes found White Ash’s. She seemed equally puzzled and a bit scared, but she was wrinkling her brows too. She was really smart and often found interesting solutions for difficult problems when she did that.

This time she could only shrug and shake her head.

I decided to remain quiet until I understood better what was going on, but Azalea was different.

She tried rushing forward to do something, maybe protect Magnolia, who was our sister even if we were angry with her.

Willow caught the back of her tunic and held on tightly.

Before Azalea could do anything else our nurse lifter her to her hip and held her tightly there, trying to calm her down.

Loud noises diverted my attention from my identical sister and I turned towards the middle of the room.

Someone had brought a thick stick and a whip. Now one strong looking woman held the club while the other one unwound the whip. Fern was screaming for mercy, but neither woman seemed to care.

I almost tried to run forward too when they brought a kind of paddle and tied Magnolia to a chair, her chubby little face paper white.

And then it started. Everything grew blurry around me when I saw the blood fly through half the room, dripping off the whip that turned Fern’s back into a bloody mass of wounds. Her screaming grew louder for a while as I grew numb.

It was as if things were spinning around yet standing still, while I was caught behind an invisible barrier. I could only watch as the woman counted five hundred lashes and a hundred hits with the club. Fern grew very quiet and motionless after the first few dozen lashes.

I thought she was dead. The blood flowing from her back was no longer welling up. It only flowed out slowly, as if it was merely leaking. The whip sent drops of blood all over the room and most of us had specks in our faces, in our hair and on our clothes.

Magnolia had grown very quiet a long time ago.

When the last lash was finished they hit her bottom five times with the paddle, but she didn’t even cry, just stared at Fern’s corpse quietly as it was beaten by the club 100 times.

In the end the woman with the paper stepped forward again. She spoke to Magnolia this time. “Child formerly known as Magnolia, daughter of the Lady Orchid. For conduct unbecoming of a high daughter of the house you are erased from the family line. Your name henceforth shall be Yellow Carnation. For failing the Test of your third birthday you are removed from the Crib. As a child with no standing you shall be considered an orphan henceforth.”

The woman folded the piece of paper and left the room with sharp, clicking steps.

I wanted to run to Magnolia, but our Nurse caught me. Other nurses came and forced us all to return to our room.