Slave to Destiny

Chapter 5

“Pathetic,” the man grumbled glancing inside the room of the girl next to me. She was literally shaking with fear at her current situation. I wanted to reach out and comfort her, but the man, Master Henry, stood too close. His face as vacant as stone. There was no good in his eyes. Perhaps that was just my perspective considering I’m the slave and he’s the punisher, but then again I doubt he does anything without cruelty laced into it.

My room was the last one checked. So far only one of the girl’s rooms had passed, and highly suspect hers was the least damaged of them all. I felt sorry for the girl next to me, her room was smothered in blood. Evidently someone had a late night feast in there. My heart thumped as Henry reached out and pushed the door open revealing a fairly clean room inside.

“It passes, barely,” he mumbled. I thanked Maddie for showing me how to clean. It was how we would spend time together oddly enough. Of course the Dark Mother probably had a role in this as well. “You three,” he barked, “Come with me.”

They looked as though they’d been kicked in the stomach. “The rest of you go to slave quarters. Dana will be waiting.” I watched as the innocent girls followed Henry away. I didn’t know where they were going, but I had feeling that when they got back there would no longer be an innocent look in their eyes.

“That’s rough,” a girl whispered beside me, “My name is Tina.” I glanced down at her. She was about a head shorter than me and had bright red hair with deep emerald eyes. In some ways she almost reminded me of a pixie. Judging by a lack of collar it was safe to assume she was a human. It sickened me to know we have humans intermixed in this mess. They were at the bottom end of the food chain in this world, but we were only making it worse by mistreating them.

“I’m Gabby. How long have you been a slave?” I asked as we ambled down the halls side by side trying to find the supposed slave quarters that Henry had spoken of.

She bit her lip as she thought about my question, “Probably two years, I’m not really sure. Time doesn’t pass the same here. It always feels so dark.” Pity was etched across my face as I wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder.

We walked together in silence until we came across Dana standing in the front hallway like a statue. She was an odd girl. It was hard to detect if she was even breathing. “There you are,” she muttered turning around to see us ambling down the stairs. “I’d hoped more of you would listen to me when I said be done in two hours. This will be an unpleasant first night for them.” She said it like it was no big deal. Like being pushed around and punished is nothing. Does being a slave really harden you this much? Do you no longer feel pity for those forced through misery?

“Well,” she clapped her hands and grinned, “I guess I’ll be showing you to your rooms.” The slave quarters were nothing special. There was a small dining hall with beaten and battered chairs, nearly fifty rooms lining the hallways, and a pathetic excuse of an entertainment room. “All five of you will be in room forty-seven. Expect another to join you eventually,” Dana explained, before depositing us in front of our room.

I was nervous to go inside. How disgusting was it going to be? Would there even be a bed? The longer I was in this place the more pathetic I felt. Tina took the first step and pushed the door open. The room was small as I expected, but at least it was fairly clean. All the room contained was three bunk beds that were missing mattresses and two chests pushed up against the wall. It was cramped, and not what I was used to in the least.

“You take top, I take bottom?” Tina asked ushering towards one of the bunk beds. I nodded grinning at her, before heaving myself up to my new found home. This place was going to severely change the way I see things.

Hours had passed. The only way to deflect the excruciating boredom was talk, so that’s exactly what we did. “So how did you get here?” Tina finally asked. I’d been attempting to dodge the question to the best of my ability. Should I tell her? How do I know I can trust her? What if they find out it’s me?

I lied. I couldn’t risk it. “I was a servant at The Dark Moon Castle,” I told her.

“Like the werewolf castle?” Tina cut in.

I nodded before continuing, “Anyway they were attacked during the princess’s birthday party. It was horrible. They killed everybody. I ran for it. I guess I thought I was heading in the right direction, but then I got caught by some slave traders. That was a couple days ago. Now I’m here.”

Tina was frowning as she sat on top of her bed swinging her legs back and forth. “That must have been horrible. Did they destroy the royal family? I hadn’t heard of any of this. Slaves usually share information about the war. Everyone thought peace was coming.”

The lies slid out of my mouth with ease. This was the way it was going to be. No one would know who I was until I made my move. I’d hide myself from the world. “I think they probably all died,” I whispered. My father had been killed. It hurt to admit it to myself. He had been a good man. Of course he’d been oblivious to how the world really worked. He didn’t understand that the bloodsuckers didn’t want peace. They wanted to make slaves of us all, but no matter what he was a good man.