Choice of Punishment: Genre Undetermined

The scream bit into her like a knife, and she flinched away from it. The knife in her own hand hesitated for a minute, hovering over the carrot on her chopping board. Then she bit her lip and tried to block her hearing from the scream that came again from the upper room of the house. It was not her say how the disciplining went, and she knew some believed that a lecture or a beating or a mind-ban all served the same purpose. Some believed one or another was better, and some believed that it was a mercy to choose one over the other. She would never dare to say out loud that none were mercy, all were foolishness, and all were against the teachings of the old ones. That had caught her some fine beatings--

Inspiration: "No visible wounds : identifying nonphysical abuse of women by their men / Mary Susan Miller." - a book that I did not check out, but which is showing up on my library record
Story Potential: Meh. Low.
Notes: Meh.