Alice wasn't sure if she was supposed to be afraid or not. Pain had always been a state of being for varying moments in time, and it wasn't something that she'd ever feared. Laura was with her as well, a presence to comfort her should she start to fear the pain once it came. She looked down at her thigh, noting the fingertips as they stroked it. It was gentle gesture in contrast to the one that was coming. The girl bit down on the belt hard in preparation, though her eyes never left the brand, not even when it was pressed into her thigh.
Alice had never cried, not once in her life, but it was impossible not to make sort of strangled cry rise from her throat as the brand seared her flesh. Her teeth bit down on the belt hard enough that they would ache for days, and her entire body tensed up. Save for that, she didn't move, and though tears welled up in her eyes, none of them spilled out. The pain was a moment in time. Everything eventually ended.