I gasp as the spiked whip hits my back, blinding me with pain.

But as I'm laying there, my brain floods with questions.

The most prominent one...

"**_Why_**?"

Why have we been abandoned on this planet?

Why am I in so much _pain_?

Why...

Another lash makes me cry out, sobbing.

"Come on, Casper, beg your god to make it stop... is he not saving you?"

The voice is distorted and garbled, and I don't know if it's because I'm losing a lot of blood, or because that's just how it sounds.

I'm scared.

God isn't going to save me... because he doesn't exist.

That's what scares me the most.