Chapter Five

My right hand held my left hand as Aurora led me through long hallways, and I was sure that if I tried to find my way myself, I was most certainly going to get lost. My left hand had been scarred, and my new bracelet made it hard to carry. My face was still tear stained as I walked behind her.

The fresh scent of her shampoo waffled quietly into my nose, and jealousy seeped into my veins as I tried to keep up with her pace. I hadn’t even taken a proper bath in almost a week, and whoever had given a bath, or, in proper words, a scrub, had done a terrible job. I didn’t dare say a word. The iron sponge used to scrub my body was making my body ache terribly, but I didn’t dare voice out a word.

As I walked behind Aurora, I began to think. I had learnt her name after Jonathan had said something to her. She was the head slave, and for one, I already knew that she disliked her. That was already very clear.

As we kept walking, I could easily see the kind of looks other people gave me: hostile, unwelcoming, and snarky. They didn’t want me here. I wanted to swear and tell them that I didn’t want to be here either, but I did nothing, staring at Aurora’s back as she kept moving without any pause in her movements. She hadn’t even turned back even once to check if I was still following her.

We soon arrived at a large clearing, and seeing several people dressed in the same clothes as I was, I needed no one to tell me that they were at the slave area. The looks and glances sent my way had gotten hostile, and I could literally feel eyes boring into the back of my head.

Great, my fellow slaves already hate me.

Aurora walked towards a room and opened the room. The chattering slaves in the room immediately went quiet and stood up, bowing their heads in respect for Aurora. 

“This will be your room from now on. You will share with them,” she informed me without a change of expression, and I swallowed, taking a glance at my new roommates and seeing familiar hostile looks from them. I was sure of the amount of trouble I was going to get into.

I walked into the room under their hostile gazes, but the next minute, one of them shoved me backwards, and I staggered, my hands immediately finding something to hold onto to steady myself. I stared at the lady with surprise and shock.

“What was that for?” I asked, irritated, and the woman who had pushed me sneered at me.

“Nothing at all; my hands just lost control of themselves for a moment,” she replied, and the room roared with laughter. I found myself chuckling at her choice of words. She lost her use of hands? It would be better if she lost her use of legs too.

I glanced at Aurora from the corner of my eye, but she wasn’t even paying attention to us. “Please control...” another painful jab was sent to my stomach. I raised my head to the woman who had just punched me. She also wore a cynical smile, waving her hand in apology.

“Control, sorry,” she threw out, and I finally laughed. I was starting to lose my temper.

“You literally just punched me; what do you mean by you lost control of your hands? Do you think I’m stupid?” I asked in anger, and another person suddenly shoved me, and I staggered in surprise, turning to the woman who also had a frown on her face.

“Stop shouting, will you?” she asked as she shoved me again. The new shove made me realize what was going on. Whether they knew me or not, they didn’t care; I was a newbie slave, and the easiest thing that happened to newbies anywhere was happening to me. I was about to be beaten in submission; I was being bullied.

I glanced at Aurora again. Was she pretending not to see all of these?

Another shove of my shoulders brought my attention back to them, and I staggered again, anger already rising in my chest.

“What’s your problem?” I cried out in anger. The shoves were painful and hard, and I wasn’t fine with being shoved around in the name of losing control of their hands. The third woman shoved me again.

“What did I say about shouting?” She questioned, and it took another glance at Aurora for me to realize that she was seeing what was happening, but she wasn’t going to interfere. I laughed, turning to the bullies.

“I promise you people that you have the wrong person,” I declared with a smile. I wasn’t a pushover. “Stay away from me,” I added, and the first woman laughed, stretching out her hand to shove me again, but I stepped back, evading her skillfully. I eyed her with a displeased look “What part of staying away from me is hard for you to understand?” I asked and she looked taken aback but the next second, someone had grabbed my hair and I cried out in both surprise and pain.

“Haaaaa” I cried out as the latter bent my head backwards. “Be careful what you say, you know,” she said with a grin, and anger filled my chest to the brim. Ignoring the pain and the fact that I might have a large patch of hair removed from the middle of my head, I immediately twisted backwards, and the woman holding my hair cried out in terror as my move had twisted her arm. She immediately let go of my hair, staring at her dislocated hand.

“You bitch! Fuck! What did you do?” She kept screaming, and I chuckled, trying to comb my hair down. “I told you to stay away from me. I bet now you will,” I replied as the first woman shoved me again.

“What did you do?” She asked, and I laughed. “Don’t touch me,” I said, and she turned to her comrades with a surprised look before all of them burst into laughter.

She shoved me again, chuckling, “Don’t touch you? Is that a threat? Will you break my arm like you did hers?” She asked, and that was my cue to grab her repeatedly shoving arm and twist it in a likewise manner.

"Haaaaa!” she screamed, glaring at me. “Fuck you bastard!” I shrugged my shoulders. “But you asked for it.” I shot back at her nut the next second. I had no idea how it happened; another slave had shoved me and pushed me down, beating, punching, and trying to claw out my face.

I didn’t give in and immediately changed our positions, climbing over and beating the hell out of her. All of a sudden, I felt strong arms pulling me off the slave, and I turned to find Aurora staring hard at me.

“If you get into trouble one more time, I’m going to hand you back to the King,” she threatened, and I bit down on my lip.

She watched me get bullied, get shoved around and beaten, and move no muscle, and when I tried to defend myself, I caused trouble and was being threatened.

Aurora smiled at her threat. “We both know what will happen when I do that. He will most likely do away with you and your family so I’ll warn you for the very last time; do not cause trouble.”