Chapter one

The pain overwhelmed her, blotting out her awareness and dulling her common sense. Before the memory was knocked out of her a wave of senses flooded her mind, it was when he first beat her. The coruscating slap on the face or jar in the ribs was painless at times like these. Now he strung her up between trees and hit her with a baseball bat or a sack of bricks, just as he was doing now. The first it was to the ribs with the all too familiar sack of bricks. She had to bite her lips till they bled not to cry out, she wouldn't let herself for that was what he loved to make her beg for his mercy, to make her plead for the her life and the life of the ones she loved, like her dear Charley. The next hit was with the baseball bat to the head causing warm wet blood to cake up on his eyes blinding her from knowing where his next strike would land. Before she completely faded into unconsciousness she heard a voice but whose? "Stop you will kill her!" the mystery voice was gruff and yet gentle at the same time, so much like the man to which it belonged. Man that didn't exactly fit Charley was no man but a boy forced to grow up to soon by the cruelties of slavery. It was the same as every teen from the countries surrounding the gigantic powerful nation Eugoria, such as herself. Charley why did it have to be Charley she tried to keep him out of this as much as possible. All was silent as Master Aaron tried to decipher the slave behind the voice that had so fearfully challenged him. “Oh well!” his voice cracked like a whip in the night, a well-known sound.
"No....please...can't you see she is dying."
"Oh she is do you think this will help speed up the process" master Aaron said an evil grinned covered his face. He brought the baseball bat hard into her slender but muscular legs causing her to wince in pain but not a sound escaped her usually jabbering lips.
“Please...stop... I can't let her suffer that way, I love her more than life itself.” he said his voice filled with agony of the thought of going on without his beloved Ember.
“More than life, eh” Master Aaron said an idea beginning to form in his head, a way to cause the most pain possible for her appalling acts. She had been the reason for all his misery his suffering she was the destroyer of his family and she deserved the worst punishment imaginable for her deeds. Not only had she walked in on him and his lover but she had went as far as telling his wife, even though he had warned her not to speak a word of what she had seen to anyone ever. She had felt loyal to her Mistress and described the incident so well that anyone could picture the scene her beautiful voice created. His wife had been furious and had left him with nothing to show for the 11 years of marriage but in her violent rampage she had forgotten one thing her faithful slave. His thoughts returned to the present and he was angrier than ever “Then you would be willing to take her place to die for her?” all was silent “Yes” charley answered. “No” she screamed the first sound she had made all night. “Yes” Master Aaron said he was thrilled she was finally going to get what she deserved and it caused her so much pain that it brought tears to his eyes, tears of joy. “Don’t let him do it he doesn’t know what he is taking about he is just a love sick boy” she spat the words out immediately seeing the pain in her dearly loved Charley’s big brown eyes. “ To late” master Aaron said in overly happy voice as he turned around and cut the prickly robes that bound her not meeting her painful pleading big blue eyes. She fell to the ground unable to stand due to the force of the last hit that had crushed her legs. Charley heroically walked over to where she stood and bent down whispering “I LOVE YOU”. They were the last words he would ever utter.