Chapter Twelve
Morning rituals
Allison woke with a start as the point of the pole ground into her back once more. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep before she was thrust back into semi-consciousness. The whole night blurred into a troubled mix of half-sleep and half-awake. Her neck ached from the way that her head pulled it back against the wood of the stocks whenever she did nod off. But that pain was only a minor annoyance compared to that which consumed the rest of her body. Every muscle from knee to neck was burning from the torture of the cruel position in which she had been left.
The pole against the small of her back was like a lance of lightning that sent shockwaves of pain directly to her spine. Once more, she stretched herself outward away from it. The muscles of her
