Mary

As soon as we exited the King’s room the servant, Elizabeth looked at me with content in her eyes. “I don’t see what’s so special about you,” Elizabeth snarled, “But know this, his special treatment wont get you anywhere. If anything it means you’ll die quicker.”

I narrowed my eyes, at her trying to figure out why she was being so mean. We continued to walk down the long corridor, walking all the way to the end. Elizabeth pressed against a panel on the side on the door, and the door opened, I realized it was an handprint scanner, one of the first things I realized was that everything in this castle was so high tech, almost futuristic compared to how things were back at my village. It made me feel even more out of place, than I already was.

“Don’t lag behind.” Elizabeth called out already a few steps ahead of me, “There’s bigger monsters in the castle besides the king.” Her eyes flashed a lighter shade of red.

I took a small step back, her warning making me shiver. It wasn’t a good attention warning, it was a get in my way warning, and I’ll destroy you.

“Hurry along,” she called back, the smile back on her face, “ I don’t have all day.”

Was this woman psychotic? One minute she was so cold, and the next moment she acted like the sweetest person in this castle. We continued to walk down another long corridor, until we came across a set of stairs, Elizabeth leapt down the stairwell, causing me to have to run down them to keep up with her. At the bottom of the stairs, there was two doors, one marked females, the other marked males.

“There are male blood slaves too?” I asked the confusion showing clearly on my face. I had always been told that only females were blood slaves.

“Here in the palace, some vampires, have different tastes.” Elizabeth replied, a hint of amusement on her face from my obvious naivety.

“Wh..what do you mean by different tastes?” I asked.

“Blood slaves, aren’t only meant for feeding on.” Elizabeth responded, it was obvious she wasn’t going to be sharing any other information with me.

Elizabeth opened the door labeled female, and walked in. I followed closely behind her, and was surprised to find the room mostly empty, except for maybe twenty women at most. With as many vampires as I had seen already, I figured they’d need a greater supply. A sudden horrid thought came to mind, was there only twenty women here because, the fed on us until we died. I needed to find a way to get out of here, if I died at the hands of a vampire, I wouldn’t be able avenge Anya.

“Katrina,” Elizabeth called out, startling me. A brunette woman, with hazel eyes came forward, she looked slightly older than me, she had to be in her twenties at least.

“Yes ma’am,” Katrina replied, stopping a few feet away, starring down at the ground.

“This is Mary,” Elizabeth said, “She’s the King’s newest blood slave.” The way she said newest made my skin crawl. “Make sure she’s well acquainted with the ways of being a blood slave.”

“Yes ma’am.” Katrina replied, her eyes still cast downward.

Elizabeth started walking towards the door, but I reached out grabbing her arm, stopping her.

She turned towards me, hissing, her eyes flashing that same pale red. Her fangs partially showing.

“S..s..sorry.” I stuttered. “It’s just about my sleeping arrangements, I..i..don’t want to sleep in the room next to the king’s.”

Elizabeth cackled. “Feel free to defy the King’s wishes, let hellfire rain down on you…. And if you ever dare to touch me again, I will snap your neck, Kings slave our not, you’re still just a blood slave.”

Before I had a chance to respond she stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

I turned to face Katrina, gone was the timid look on her face, now it was filled with disgust.

“I don’t see why the King chose you, there’s nothing special about you,” She spat,

“Excuse me?” I said giving her a look like she was ridiculous, “What is so special about being chosen by the King, I didn’t chose this life, my choices were taken from me. I don’t want this.”

“Then you’re a damn fool.” Katrina said laughing manically. “We’re treated better in here, than we ever will be outside this castle. And to be bitten, especially, by the King, is orgasmic, a sensation that you’ll never want to be rid of. Unfortunately you’re too dumb to realize how good you have it.”

“If you want it so bad, then you take my place.” I screamed at her, “I don’t want this!.”

Katrina reached forward and slapped me across the face, causing the other girls to gasp with shock. “Don’t disrespect me,” Katrina hissed. “I am the Head Blood Slave. I’m in charge here. You’re in my domain now little girl.”

Her slap startled me for a second, but after I realized what she’d done, I lunged at her, ready to attack, what I had expected was for the other girls, to side with Katrina, they grabbed me by my arms before I could reach her.

“What do you want us to do with her?” Asked one of the woman with a nasally voice.

“Lock her in the wet room and strip her of her clothes. Make sure to spray her down with a hose first. That should teach her a lesson.” Katrina snapped, her voice laced with venom.

“No. Let me go!” I yelled. “How can you treat another human like this.” I cried out, trying to reach out to the two women that were dragging me into a back room.

“You’ll soon find out dearie, that it’s cutthroat down here. You either join the pack, or you die alone.” The other woman spoke. “Now strip.”

“No.” I said defiantly. I was not going to let them break me.

“Fine then, we will will do it ourselves.” The nasally one said. “Beatrice, help me tie her up.

I tried my best to fight them, but they were stronger than me. The woman named Beatrice slammed my head against the wall, causing me to stumble forward. I could feel a warm hot liquid pouring from the wound on my head, and I knew I was bleeding. Beatrice and the other woman overpowered me shortly thereafter, tightly tying my wrists together with a coarse rope, then they bound my ankles with the same rope. The nasally one stepped away for a moment, leaving me alone with Beatrice. She didn’t say anything at all, her piercing blue eyes just starred straight at me, and I knew she felt not an ounce of remorse. The door creaked letting a small amount of light in, and I took a look at my surroundings, I was in a concrete room, it had a small washing machine and a dryer, I had never seen one of the machines in real life, we chose to do our clothes by hand in the village, taking a more naturalistic approach to living. If my circumstances were different, I might have admired the machines. To the left of the machine was a a tall faucet, that had a detachable head and a basin underneath, I suppose this is where they scrubbed the garments that wouldn’t come clean. I glanced down towards my feet and noticed the small drain on the floor, other than the few items the room was bare.

I looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching me. It was the nasally one, and she had a pair of scissors in her hand.

“Since you decided not to undress, we will just cut you out of your pretty little dress.”

“N..No.” I stuttered. “It’s the only thing I have to wear.”

The nasally one laughed. “Should’ve thought of that earlier. She took the scissors to the dress and cut started to cut it, cutting right down the middle, leaving the garment irreparable. She then did the same to the bikini top and bottoms, exposing me and my locket.

“Ooo what is this,” she asked grabbing ahold of my locket and tearing it from my neck.

“No, give that back… please,” I begged. “It’s the only thing I have left of my family.”

“Annie,” Beatrice said, looking at the nasally one, “Maybe we should leave the locket.”

“Beatrice don’t go soft on me now.” Annie sneered. “Don’t you know how much a gold locket would fetch us at the market. We need to plan for our future.”

Beatrice didn’t attempt to stop Annie again. Instead she walked over to the faucet, turning it on full blast, grabbed the hose, and sprayed me with ice cold water.

“Don’t ever accuse me of going soft Annie,” she said her voice laced with anger. “Or I’ll be forced to prove to you, just how hard I really am.”

By the time she finally turned off the water, I was drenched from head to toe, and shivering for the cold.

“You’re pathetic.” Annie sneered.

“We will break you.” Beatrice said. “You might as well stop fighting now.

And with that they left me alone, in the freezing dark room, closing the door behind them. Once I knew they were gone and that they weren’t coming back, I allowed myself to cry.