He was gone and she was numb. She didn't let herself feel the loss, the emptiness at losing the one person who had been a constant for her in the last year. And, as much as she didn't want to admit it, she had loved him.
In the week following Aulus's death, she had been sold to someone else, a new master. But she told herself that he was nothing, and she could never love him. Her new master was much crueler than her first, the one who Katya had fallen in love with. Her new master beat her for nothing. He wasn't gentle when he used her. And he had horrible parties where Katya was tied up and his friends could use her as they pleased.
Katya wanted to die.
The days were monotonous. She had her chores – cleaning, cooking breakfast, things like that. She did her chores every day in the same order, and then she would spend the nights with her new master. She hated it, she felt like she was betraying the one person she loved. She did not want to spend half the night getting beaten and the other half getting unceremoniously fucked.
Two months after her new master bought her, Katya discovered she was pregnant. She had started showing. She tried to keep it a secret. She was afraid of what her master might do if he knew.
He found out one night when she had come to his room for her nightly duties. She stripped, trying to inconspicuously hide the small bump to no avail. Her master yanked her braid. "What is that on your belly, slave?" he growled in her ear.
She froze. "I … I don't know, Master," she whispered.
He wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Don't lie to me, slave. You haven't been here long enough for that to be my baby." He gave her a look that struck fear into her heart. "Now, how can we teach you not to lie…" He grabbed her by the arm and took her out to the yard, where he tied her up.
"M-master! Please! I didn't do anything!" she cried, trying to twist free. She tried to make sense of what he was going to do to her, but nothing made sense until he pushed her down onto the ground.
He glared at her. "You lied to me. You are not to carry the child of another when you belong to me." Her master gave her a final look before kicking her hard in the stomach.
She screamed. "Stop! Please! You're killing him!" Katya tried to twist away from him, tried to shield her child, but her master turned her back and kicked her once, twice, over and over. "Stop … please…" she whispered, tears budding in her eyes. But he kicked her again and again until he was sure the child was dead.
"That's what you get for lying to me, whore," he snarled, and kicked her once again for good measure before untying her and going inside and back to bed.
She made up her mind then and there: she had to get out.
