Chapter 2

"Hey your glass is empty, it's a hell of a long way home. Why don't you let me take you? It's no good to go alone.

I never would have opened up but you seemed so real to me. After all the bullshit I've heard, it's refreshing not to see. I don't have to pretend, she doesn't expect it from me…"

She tried getting up fast but the ice was slippery and her legs were a little numb from the cold and the cramped position. Doggett's smile was a little crazy and as Leanne and Angie grabbed both her arms and twisted them behind her back before pulling her to her feet, she approached Piper and stuffed a sock in her mouth. And just like that, Piper realized that they really meant business.

Piper bucked and tried to escape but a swift punch to her belly caused her to fold and try to breathe and not vomit. They pulled and pushed her towards the greenhouse and as soon as Piper got her breath back she tried to escape again. This time, Pennsatucky, who was hurrying to get her inside before anyone spotted them, just punched her right in the face. Her mouth felt like it was exploding. Pain registered a second after she felt the woman's fist hit the corner of her lips. Her teeth knocked violently together and unluckily for her, her tongue was right in the middle, what caused her to bite it pretty hard and break the skin.

Blood filled her mouth and she spit it on the snow, feeling her tongue immediately start to swell. The makeshift blade was placed on her cheek, near her eye and she froze as it nicked the skin. "You try that again and I'll make sure your face is split in two." As soon as they managed to get her inside, Piper's saw that this move had been coming for a long time. There was duct tape on a table near the far end corner, next to a big and deep bowl. The one Red used sometimes in the kitchen to put the dirty dishes. She tried talking, screaming, cursing but it was all muffled behind the sock.

Doggett laughed. "You can scream all you want, you lesbo. Jesus put you here today and we're gonna fix you up. No more lesbian activities for you."

God damnit the woman was even more of a wacko than Piper had given her credit for.

"Angie, you need to get back to the main building. They need to see at least one of us, so we'll take turns."

Before leaving, Angie and Leanne tied Piper to a pole in the middle of the greenhouse, that in the old days would be used to hang different pots and also sustained a beautiful glass ceiling. After that only Pennsatucky spoke between worlds of hurt.

She alternated between beatings and ramblings and cutting and drowning Piper into the bowl of icy water until she was sure she was going to die, only to have her head pulled back at the last moment. All the time, they kept praying and asking her to renounce Satan and her "lesbian" ways and walk in Jesus' path.

Piper could do nothing but scream, the sound muffled behind the sock and after a while she lost track of the punches, of who she was, of who was beating her. She thought of Alex and hoped that if she had to die, it would at least wait until she could talk to the brunette one last time, listen to her voice. There was so much she wanted to say and that she regretted... It was funny wasn't it? That the one thing humanity had in common was that careful evaluation people usually did when faced with death. It was hard to look back and find so many regrets.

She didn't pray because she didn't think she had the right to. She didn't beg because she would never give them the satisfaction. After a while, she just stopped existing and was only a body, a shell, tied to that pole. Her essence was with Alex, watching as she talked to Nicky and went to the cafeteria to enjoy Christmas dinner.

Piper blacked out, maybe as a Divine Providence or as an answer to a prayer she didn't exactly voice. It didn't stop the abuse, though. The ground beneath her was stained red with her blood, her golden skin marked with cuts and bruises. Her beautiful face was distorted, both eyes blackened and swollen shut and that gave her predators and even bigger rush. Let's see what she'd do when she wasn't so pretty anymore.

Her blond hair was bloodied from a cut on her scalp and were her eyes not closed, they would be burning and painted red from the liquid dripping in her face.

After a while the attack stopped, the harsh pants from Pennsatucky and the sound of the blade nicking her skin vanishing and leaving the shed dead quiet. Pennsatucky guessed it was almost holy in a way.

They left quickly, untying her from the pole and putting Piper's unconscious body behind three large pots of plants and closing the door. Christmas dinner was going to start any minute and they had to be inside the main building when it happened.