Screaming and hurting - I

"Please!"

"No! It hurts!"

Joyce squeezed her eyes close.

"I—AH!" The first kick to the stomach almost knocked out everything inside her body.

An immediate excruciating, antagonizing feeling bubbled up inside her.

It knocked the breath out of her.

Joyce's immediate reaction was to curl into a ball protectively. She hit her stomach by rubbing her arms around herself, and then shielding it with her legs, bringing up to her chest from any more kicks that she was going to receive.

"Oi," Leon said, and she heard the discontent in his voice, "come on now. Don't hide yourself."

"Please," she rasped out, in between cries, " you have hit me once. No more." She wanted to screech in pain, but instead just reached her lips wide like she was screaming.

Anything to distract her from the pain that she was feeling.

"Naah, I need the money, Darlin. Nothing personal."