Chapter 2 This can’t be happening.
I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t control the pain in my heart as I realised exactly what was going on.
This situation could only end one of two ways, my mother’s death or my removal. She would have no say in it of course, slaves rarely do.
That’s what we are, we are slaves to the vampires. They are naturally stronger, faster, more violent.
They know how to get what they want, and they take it without an ounce of guilt.
This was all my fathers fault, it was his choice to run away, it was his choice to defy our masters. Now mother and I will pay the ultimate price.
I would either be orphaned or forced into the work camps to pay off our debt. The debt that my father created.
Now that I was fully awake, I could grasp what was going on, but only just. I should have realised sooner who it was that was dragging me from my bed. I should have sensed it.
Yes, I was a young witch at only seventeen years old, but my mother had taught me better than that, she had tried to get me to understand. To grasp the reality I was born into. But I never could, it wasn’t so easy to accept the fact that I will never have a life of my own choosing.
I will never know what freedom is.
I needed my mother; I needed my father, but he was already gone. They had disposed of him two years ago when he tried to run with us, he wanted us to have a better life; not this one. Not the one they chose for us.
He thought we could make it to the rebels, he thought we’d be gone before they caught up to us. He thought a lot of things, all of them the reason he is dead.
“Don’t you dare run.” The vampire warned once more, his blue eyes made of ice.
I take another breath, knowing that if I refused to answer, I would feel the back of his hand. “I won't run sir.” I say in a soft voice. “So please, please allow me to see my mother. I need to say goodbye.”
My heart skips a beat, and my palms are slick with sweat, I shouldn’t have asked, I know better than to ask for anything from them. We have no rights, no voice, no body. They own it all, they own every inch of me.
I take a step back as his face darkens with rage, only the find the wall behind me, the coats that hung from hooks promising me no comfort.
Comfort was a luxury I was not allowed to know.
The vampire steps forward, placing his overly large hands at either side of my head, if my heart beats any harder, it’ll fly from my chest.
I think I’m going to pass out.
I needed to learn to keep my mouth shut, and I needed to do it fast. Mother always said I think before I speak. She was right, I do.
But I needed to get a hold of myself, I needed to control my urges, there would be no second chances where they take me, there would be no talking unless strictly given permission.
I wouldn’t even be able to use the bathroom until I have been given the go ahead. That’s the life that awaits me.
Suffering, pain, despair. I will know all of those things and more.
I lower my head in an open sign of submission, praying that it would spare me from whatever punishment was coming.
But I wasn’t that lucky.
His blue eyes pierced my soul, I could feel them watching me even as I clenched my eyes shut, his voice only adding my horror. “You think that you can demand something from me witch? Is that how you think this works?!” He bellows, punching the wall beside my head.
I shake my head, “No sir, I just meant that …”
“I am not interested in your excuses.” He interrupts, but they can do that, after all; we were lesser beings.
We were nothing but objects to them, something they could use for their own gain.
We weren’t allowed to feel.
We weren’t allowed to think for ourselves.
The second vampire descended the stairs and came to where we were stood by the front door, his voice less terrifying than the blue-eyed creature. “Stop scaring the girl, she is already afraid.” He pulls the big guys shoulder, pulling him away from me. “Of course, she will ask for her mother, have you never dealt with a minor before?”
“She must learn her place; her traitorous father is the reason we are here.” Said the blue eyes being as he took a step back, putting some distance between one another.
It looked like they were about to fight, if they did I’d have a chance to run, maybe the only chance I would ever have.
Maybe luck will come to my aid, maybe I could save myself.
I noticed that the second creature had eyes the shade of fire; three colours rolled into one. “That may be so, but the girl is afraid.” He glances in my direction, “I am sure that you can spare her this once.”
He was big, even for a vampire, but he wasn’t overly bulky like the first guy, I just wish I could see his face. I wish I knew who I was dealing with.
“Who are you to tell me what to do! I only answer to my king!” Bellowed the first vampire, squaring up to the other creature as he growled; challenging him.
He was asking for a fight.