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.