Coulmier sat with his back to the wall. He felt so vulnerable. So angry
with Elise for asking him about, about the Marquis, and... Madeleine. She
couldn't possibly know, he scolded himself. She just merely overheard his
nightly taunt. Oh how God punished him for love. But the pain of speaking
of everything before brought tears to his eyes and anger to his lips. He
couldn't possibly tell things diplomatically should he decide to share his
tale with Elise. No, he mustn't ever speak of the past again.
A few days had passed. No words from Coulmier made Elise feels very terrible. She had never meant to hurt him. Apparently Madeleine was someone so close to his heart that to speak of her must unquestionably bring forth great painful memories, a wife perhaps? His lover of late?
And this Marquis fellow, surely he cannot be what Coulmier has described. The devil? It was blasphemous. She tried to imagine what the Marquis must look like but could only see the church fashioned image of Satan. A beast engraved with the number six-cent-soixante-six, 666.
A knock at her door roused Elise back into the present. She sat up and stared at her door. She could hear the clicking of the bolt unlocking her door and she watched to see who would enter. A man dressed in raggedy clothing stood before her and beckoned for her to stand.
Standing quietly, Elise unsure and afraid walked to the door of her room. She had not left her room for weeks. She was accustomed to her room and her room alone. Suddenly, her complex reared its head as it had been dormant for so many nights. She began to tremble as she envisioned the germs and bacteria on the floor around her. They crawled on the floor under her feet, in the walls near her body and on the man in front of her. She screamed and began to hop crazily on either foot. She cried out for her mother and pulled frantically at her clothes. The man tried grabbing at her flailing arms, but it was no use. He dashed off in search of the doctor. In her frenzy, she saw a man being led out of his room and down the corridor. The look in his eyes as he passed her room said it was her friend and neighbor Coulmier. She feared everything except her friend. She saw nothing on his clothes, no evil disease seeking to destroy her. She broke free of her room and sprang into the arms of her neighbor.
"Coulmier it's everywhere!" she cried into his shirt as she clawed to stay off the floor. "Its on the floor, on the guards, on the walls. I can't escape it."
Coulmier saw a flash of blue and dark hair as the girl climbed him. She had wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck screaming and crying. Her noise could be heard throughout the corridor. The guard had left him unbound as this one in particular was very lazy. He placed one hand on her back and whispered in her ear.
"It will be okay Elise. But you must get down. You will be okay."
The guard leading Coulmier pried the crying girl of the patient just as Collard and her escort rounded the door. Elise was still in a frenzy brushing off her clothes and pulling at her hair.
"What is going on here?" the doctor barked sharply. The cold tone made Elise stop fidgeting immediately. Her hands balled at her sides as she could still visibly see the dirt and grime calling to, her taunting to her.
The doctor saw Coulmier unchained and glared at the guard, who, realizing his mistake grabbed Coulmier and dragged him roughly down the stairs past Collard.
"What is going on here?" Royer repeated to Elise's escort.
"She went crazy sir. Started screaming and crying and clawing at her clothes. Then she ran and jumped up onto that Coulmier fellow. I don't see why she's being let out of her room!" he said astonished.
Collard walked up to Elise. He towered over her and as he looked into her eyes he saw an inexplicable fear. Good, he thought.
"You." He said to Elise. "What is your name?"
The girl stammered and fidgeted.
"WHAT IS YOUR NAME!" he shouted louder.
"E-El-Elise sir." She coughed out.
"What is the problem Elise?" he asked, his sudden snarl turned soothing and sweet.
"It... Its' everywhere." She whispered her head low.
"What is everywhere?" he asked.
"Disease, dirt. Filth. It's coming to fetch me. To take me away like it did my father." She moaned falling to her knees. Her previous rage had taken all her energy.
"Dear child. This is a cleanly place. Abbe Charles makes sure of that. Ssh. Be calm Elise. Everything will be okay. We'll make sure that the germs are taken care of." He said patting her back.
Turning to the man in rags, he said with his voice as cool as steel.
"Take her to the stall. 40 lashes should keep her complex down enough for her to work. What with Franz having sent his hand through the printer we're down one worker." He pushed the girl forward. Her tearstained face meaning nothing to him. She was just another patient. A beautiful, young patient for him to devastate.
A drumming filled Coulmier's ears as he was again plunged into the dirty, lukewarm water.
Air.
Water.
Air.
Water.
For an hour straight, Coulmier was dunked backwards into a tub. He had learned a breathing technique so that he did not splutter every time he was pulled from the abyss. He took in a deep breath slowly before he was even in the chair. Shallow, yet even breaths expanded his lungs and as he was dunked, he slowly expelled the air through his nostrils. Arriving in the air, he would take a deep breath with his mouth slightly closed and do it again.
The doctor had taken kindly to this torture as a way of showing Coulmier who was the reigning champion. A constant reminder to who beat the Marquis de Sade and who lost. Sometimes it was so much that Coulmier could not bear it. But those days were few and far between.
A few halls over, he heard a shrill scream and the snap of the whip. His old punishment. He wondered who was the unfortunate this time. A woman no doubt by the tone of the cry, but who? Suddenly, a face flashed through his mind. Elise. Her dark, choppy hair and her pale skin. Was it his fault? Why was she being punished?
"Oh Elise." He whispered. This lapse of collected thought would prove to cause him a moment of discomfort as he was thrust back into the water unprepared.
Elise stood stark naked chained to a wall. Her face was pressed tightly to the partition that divided up the torture chambers. She'd been standing for a good few minutes. Her back stung. She could feel the damp muggy breeze in the dungeon like setting creep across her screen. Had she not been gagged, she might have screamed in fear of all the germ and bacterial diseases that would surely take her now in her wounded state. Although, the gag proved useless only moments ago as the thick black whip raped her back, she couldn't help but let the hot wave of tears stream down her puffy face.
Before being strung up like a ham on Noel, the man gave Elise a swift kick in the face. She had fallen down going the stairs and in punishment for her clumsiness, a swelling and purpling bruise on her temple stretching across her forehead.
The man returned. The whip must be clean. He left to clean it as Elise counted 15 lashes. The pain was blinding as he continued with the downward stroke of the whip.
"So much blood from such a small person." He'd said coming much to close for comfort. His hand traced her rump and he nibbled on her ear. "Such a small, beautiful person."
Elise had begun to sob. She never asked for any of this. It wasn't her fault.
16
17
18
19
20 Only twenty more to go. If she learned nothing else from her father before he died, it was mathematics. She could complete a math question about as fast as it took for her father to rhyme one off. They'd spend days when she was child, walking around and adding this, subtracting that, multiplying this and dividing those. It was wonderful. All of Elise's questions could be answered with a simple mathematical equation. She loved it.
By reveling in this memories, Elise has managed to escape some of the pain. Yet as soon as the memories stopped, the pain returned. A shrill scream escaped her lips before she had time to cauterize it on the gag. For her exceptionally loud outburst, the man flick the long whip doubly hard.
As then, when Elise thought she could take no more, the beating stopped. The man was gone in a flash. Out of exhaustion from crying and the pain from her torture, Elise finally collapsed against the wall and out of her conscious mind.
The next morning, Elise woke to the Doctor peering over her wounds. She lay on her stomach, stark naked as the previous day. Her back stung like the dickens and she felt the doctors' warm breath oxidizing her skin as he breathed close to her wounds.
"She's not infected. Wrap her up, dress her, and send her down to the printing press. I'll have Gatineau explain to her what she is required to do." Collard said running a finger through one of the longer, deeper gashes.
"Yes sir, no problem sir. I'm all ready." A familiar female voice agreed. Elise registered the voice as the one belonging to the Laundress. As Elise groggily tried to turn and see her friend, the doctor pushed down on her back,
"Be still Elise. Lady LeClerc will help you." He hand lingered too, on her buttock, a little long. Elise flinched and felt the doctor step away.
She buried her face in her pillow and awaited for the Doctor to leave her quarters. Her wish was soon granted. As soon as the door was closed, the laundress scurried forward.
"Sh Lise dear. I've got some medicine that will make you feel much better."
The laundress applied a thick white paste to Elise's wounds and the girl immediately felt the burning sensation decrease. The woman hummed as she worked, a tune that Elise couldn't quite place, but sounded very similar.
"What of Coulmier?" she asked feebly. The laundress laid a strip of cloth over the healing cream to keep it in place as she applied the bandage. Pulling Elise into a sitting position, the laundress didn't utter a word. She motioned for Elise to raise her arms so she could wrap the bandage around her torso. Elise complied more out of calculation than desire.
"Lady, Lady LeClerc" she began again, "What of Coulmier. Is he alright. Where was he headed?"
The laundress smiled a weak smile.
"He was in the very same chamber as you, though I daresay you did not meet. He leaves his room every day for a dose of 'treatment' requested by the doctor. Treatment, BAH. That man is one of least likely men to be insane. It's the doctor who truly belongs in that room, not poor Coulmier."
"Treatment? You mean lashes?" Elise wondered, her eyes growing wide.
"No dear. His fate is a much more troubled one I'm afraid. He is given water treatment. An hour or so of constant dunking. Its supposed to relax the patient but all I've ever seen it do is cause a stir. We'd do best not to mention it. Coulmier chooses to bear his burdens alone, that's how it's been since Maddy died."
"Maddy?" Elise asked as the woman pulled her dress back over her head. "Madeleine? I've heard Coulmier whisper the name in his slumber. Is this the Maddy you speak of? She passed away? What happened?"
The woman's eyes gleamed with tears.
"My, you do ask a lot of questions." She whispered. "Yes, Maddy and Madeleine are one in the same. But I think you be getting the best answer out of Coulmier himself dear. Now, you're all patched up. Lets get you downstairs to the printing room. The doctor will be having a fit by now."
A few days had passed. No words from Coulmier made Elise feels very terrible. She had never meant to hurt him. Apparently Madeleine was someone so close to his heart that to speak of her must unquestionably bring forth great painful memories, a wife perhaps? His lover of late?
And this Marquis fellow, surely he cannot be what Coulmier has described. The devil? It was blasphemous. She tried to imagine what the Marquis must look like but could only see the church fashioned image of Satan. A beast engraved with the number six-cent-soixante-six, 666.
A knock at her door roused Elise back into the present. She sat up and stared at her door. She could hear the clicking of the bolt unlocking her door and she watched to see who would enter. A man dressed in raggedy clothing stood before her and beckoned for her to stand.
Standing quietly, Elise unsure and afraid walked to the door of her room. She had not left her room for weeks. She was accustomed to her room and her room alone. Suddenly, her complex reared its head as it had been dormant for so many nights. She began to tremble as she envisioned the germs and bacteria on the floor around her. They crawled on the floor under her feet, in the walls near her body and on the man in front of her. She screamed and began to hop crazily on either foot. She cried out for her mother and pulled frantically at her clothes. The man tried grabbing at her flailing arms, but it was no use. He dashed off in search of the doctor. In her frenzy, she saw a man being led out of his room and down the corridor. The look in his eyes as he passed her room said it was her friend and neighbor Coulmier. She feared everything except her friend. She saw nothing on his clothes, no evil disease seeking to destroy her. She broke free of her room and sprang into the arms of her neighbor.
"Coulmier it's everywhere!" she cried into his shirt as she clawed to stay off the floor. "Its on the floor, on the guards, on the walls. I can't escape it."
Coulmier saw a flash of blue and dark hair as the girl climbed him. She had wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck screaming and crying. Her noise could be heard throughout the corridor. The guard had left him unbound as this one in particular was very lazy. He placed one hand on her back and whispered in her ear.
"It will be okay Elise. But you must get down. You will be okay."
The guard leading Coulmier pried the crying girl of the patient just as Collard and her escort rounded the door. Elise was still in a frenzy brushing off her clothes and pulling at her hair.
"What is going on here?" the doctor barked sharply. The cold tone made Elise stop fidgeting immediately. Her hands balled at her sides as she could still visibly see the dirt and grime calling to, her taunting to her.
The doctor saw Coulmier unchained and glared at the guard, who, realizing his mistake grabbed Coulmier and dragged him roughly down the stairs past Collard.
"What is going on here?" Royer repeated to Elise's escort.
"She went crazy sir. Started screaming and crying and clawing at her clothes. Then she ran and jumped up onto that Coulmier fellow. I don't see why she's being let out of her room!" he said astonished.
Collard walked up to Elise. He towered over her and as he looked into her eyes he saw an inexplicable fear. Good, he thought.
"You." He said to Elise. "What is your name?"
The girl stammered and fidgeted.
"WHAT IS YOUR NAME!" he shouted louder.
"E-El-Elise sir." She coughed out.
"What is the problem Elise?" he asked, his sudden snarl turned soothing and sweet.
"It... Its' everywhere." She whispered her head low.
"What is everywhere?" he asked.
"Disease, dirt. Filth. It's coming to fetch me. To take me away like it did my father." She moaned falling to her knees. Her previous rage had taken all her energy.
"Dear child. This is a cleanly place. Abbe Charles makes sure of that. Ssh. Be calm Elise. Everything will be okay. We'll make sure that the germs are taken care of." He said patting her back.
Turning to the man in rags, he said with his voice as cool as steel.
"Take her to the stall. 40 lashes should keep her complex down enough for her to work. What with Franz having sent his hand through the printer we're down one worker." He pushed the girl forward. Her tearstained face meaning nothing to him. She was just another patient. A beautiful, young patient for him to devastate.
A drumming filled Coulmier's ears as he was again plunged into the dirty, lukewarm water.
Air.
Water.
Air.
Water.
For an hour straight, Coulmier was dunked backwards into a tub. He had learned a breathing technique so that he did not splutter every time he was pulled from the abyss. He took in a deep breath slowly before he was even in the chair. Shallow, yet even breaths expanded his lungs and as he was dunked, he slowly expelled the air through his nostrils. Arriving in the air, he would take a deep breath with his mouth slightly closed and do it again.
The doctor had taken kindly to this torture as a way of showing Coulmier who was the reigning champion. A constant reminder to who beat the Marquis de Sade and who lost. Sometimes it was so much that Coulmier could not bear it. But those days were few and far between.
A few halls over, he heard a shrill scream and the snap of the whip. His old punishment. He wondered who was the unfortunate this time. A woman no doubt by the tone of the cry, but who? Suddenly, a face flashed through his mind. Elise. Her dark, choppy hair and her pale skin. Was it his fault? Why was she being punished?
"Oh Elise." He whispered. This lapse of collected thought would prove to cause him a moment of discomfort as he was thrust back into the water unprepared.
Elise stood stark naked chained to a wall. Her face was pressed tightly to the partition that divided up the torture chambers. She'd been standing for a good few minutes. Her back stung. She could feel the damp muggy breeze in the dungeon like setting creep across her screen. Had she not been gagged, she might have screamed in fear of all the germ and bacterial diseases that would surely take her now in her wounded state. Although, the gag proved useless only moments ago as the thick black whip raped her back, she couldn't help but let the hot wave of tears stream down her puffy face.
Before being strung up like a ham on Noel, the man gave Elise a swift kick in the face. She had fallen down going the stairs and in punishment for her clumsiness, a swelling and purpling bruise on her temple stretching across her forehead.
The man returned. The whip must be clean. He left to clean it as Elise counted 15 lashes. The pain was blinding as he continued with the downward stroke of the whip.
"So much blood from such a small person." He'd said coming much to close for comfort. His hand traced her rump and he nibbled on her ear. "Such a small, beautiful person."
Elise had begun to sob. She never asked for any of this. It wasn't her fault.
16
17
18
19
20 Only twenty more to go. If she learned nothing else from her father before he died, it was mathematics. She could complete a math question about as fast as it took for her father to rhyme one off. They'd spend days when she was child, walking around and adding this, subtracting that, multiplying this and dividing those. It was wonderful. All of Elise's questions could be answered with a simple mathematical equation. She loved it.
By reveling in this memories, Elise has managed to escape some of the pain. Yet as soon as the memories stopped, the pain returned. A shrill scream escaped her lips before she had time to cauterize it on the gag. For her exceptionally loud outburst, the man flick the long whip doubly hard.
As then, when Elise thought she could take no more, the beating stopped. The man was gone in a flash. Out of exhaustion from crying and the pain from her torture, Elise finally collapsed against the wall and out of her conscious mind.
The next morning, Elise woke to the Doctor peering over her wounds. She lay on her stomach, stark naked as the previous day. Her back stung like the dickens and she felt the doctors' warm breath oxidizing her skin as he breathed close to her wounds.
"She's not infected. Wrap her up, dress her, and send her down to the printing press. I'll have Gatineau explain to her what she is required to do." Collard said running a finger through one of the longer, deeper gashes.
"Yes sir, no problem sir. I'm all ready." A familiar female voice agreed. Elise registered the voice as the one belonging to the Laundress. As Elise groggily tried to turn and see her friend, the doctor pushed down on her back,
"Be still Elise. Lady LeClerc will help you." He hand lingered too, on her buttock, a little long. Elise flinched and felt the doctor step away.
She buried her face in her pillow and awaited for the Doctor to leave her quarters. Her wish was soon granted. As soon as the door was closed, the laundress scurried forward.
"Sh Lise dear. I've got some medicine that will make you feel much better."
The laundress applied a thick white paste to Elise's wounds and the girl immediately felt the burning sensation decrease. The woman hummed as she worked, a tune that Elise couldn't quite place, but sounded very similar.
"What of Coulmier?" she asked feebly. The laundress laid a strip of cloth over the healing cream to keep it in place as she applied the bandage. Pulling Elise into a sitting position, the laundress didn't utter a word. She motioned for Elise to raise her arms so she could wrap the bandage around her torso. Elise complied more out of calculation than desire.
"Lady, Lady LeClerc" she began again, "What of Coulmier. Is he alright. Where was he headed?"
The laundress smiled a weak smile.
"He was in the very same chamber as you, though I daresay you did not meet. He leaves his room every day for a dose of 'treatment' requested by the doctor. Treatment, BAH. That man is one of least likely men to be insane. It's the doctor who truly belongs in that room, not poor Coulmier."
"Treatment? You mean lashes?" Elise wondered, her eyes growing wide.
"No dear. His fate is a much more troubled one I'm afraid. He is given water treatment. An hour or so of constant dunking. Its supposed to relax the patient but all I've ever seen it do is cause a stir. We'd do best not to mention it. Coulmier chooses to bear his burdens alone, that's how it's been since Maddy died."
"Maddy?" Elise asked as the woman pulled her dress back over her head. "Madeleine? I've heard Coulmier whisper the name in his slumber. Is this the Maddy you speak of? She passed away? What happened?"
The woman's eyes gleamed with tears.
"My, you do ask a lot of questions." She whispered. "Yes, Maddy and Madeleine are one in the same. But I think you be getting the best answer out of Coulmier himself dear. Now, you're all patched up. Lets get you downstairs to the printing room. The doctor will be having a fit by now."