"Look at yourself, Valentina," he commanded, tilting her chin up with the toe of his boot so she was forced to look up at him from her position of total exposure. "Look at what remains of the great headmaster."
"Naked, broken, and utterly owned..."
"You wanted to sacrifice yourself for them?"
"Congratulations. You've succeeded."
"But you didn't save them... You just became the first piece of flesh I claim in my new kingdom."
Valentina could only stare up at him through blurred, tear-filled eyes. Her mind had finally gone quiet, the screaming voices replaced by a hollow, echoing numbness.
She was no longer a person. She was exactly what he said she was: an object.
A toy waiting to be played with.
The humiliation was no longer a choice; it was a physical law. Valentina lay shivering on the marble, feeling the cold stone as a mockery of the warmth she once commanded.
