Slave to Destiny

Blood, bruises, and burns covered the girls from head to toe. It was impossible to imagine that these were the same girls I had met just hours before. Their clothes were torn and their bodies were shaking uncontrollably. “What happened?” Tina cried out running towards them. As I looked into their eyes I saw nothing staring back at me. They were vacant. They were walking corpses.

“I must obey Master and go to sleep,” one of the girls whispered. She was tiny and frail with light blond hair and dull brown eyes. Blood was smeared across her cheek, and a cut down her arm was openly pouring blood. She didn’t say anything else before crawling into bed and curling up in a sobbing ball.

The other two girls said nothing before climbing into their own beds. How could this happen to anyone? What was wrong with these people? I’d never been so horrified in my life. Tears were sliding down Tina’s face with ease as she sat on her bed staring off into the distance. “I have never seen anything like this,” she whispered, “None of my masters were ever this cruel.”

“It’s going to be okay,” I mumbled wrapping my arms around her tiny frame. The truth was I had no idea if it would be okay, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. Who would want to know that? By the time we fell asleep that night Tina and I were snuggled into the bottom bed of our bunk bed. Our faces were stained from tears.

The next morning I was awoken to sharp banging on the door. “You have five minutes to get to breakfast!” the voice screeched on the other side. After having seen what happened to the girls last night, I wasted no time in darting over to one of the trunks and pulling out one of the maid’s uniforms. Tina and I had dug through the trunks to find that they were full of uniforms. None of us bothered with modesty. We didn’t have time. We stripped and changed into our clothes without saying a word.

“Come on,” Tina told me grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of the room. I vaguely remembered where the slave dinning hall had been. Not that it mattered, all you had to do was follow crowd of slaves. They came in all shapes and sizes. There were men, women, and children. They were different races, even different species, but they all shared one thing. They all appeared completely exhausted. We joined the line of slaves waiting to be served.

“I’m so scared,” Tina whispered in my ear as she clutched onto me for dear life.

I was inclined to agree with her. “Gabby!” a deep voice called out. My head turned to see Roland standing a mere ten feet away from. Relief flooded through me. I had not realized how helpless I was feeling until I saw my old friend. He jogged up to me, and looked me over. “Are you? Did they hurt you?”

It saddened me to know that even where we are today Roland would do anything to protect me. “I’m okay,” I told him wrapping my arms around him in a hug. If it had been in my old life, I would have been told that what I was doing was incredibly out of place, but not anymore. Roland hugged me back tightly.

“Gabby who is this?” Tina asked me glancing up curiously at the muscled werewolf in front of her.

The words ‘This is my guard’ nearly came out of my mouth, before I could stop myself, but I quickly corrected it with, “This is my friend, Roland. Roland, this is Tina.” He shook her hand politely, before turning his attention back to me.

“I didn’t realize things were this bad here,” he mumbled glancing around in disgust. “We have to do something. This can’t go on.”

“We will my friend, we just need to buy time,” I told him reaching out to receive my breakfast from an elderly lady. She was slumped over with her dirty gray hair in complete disarray. The life had long sense left her body. I took great pity on her. Time had not been her friend.

“Thank you,” I told her smiling. Her lips twitched as she attempted to smile back. She had missing teeth.

Roland, Tina, and I found ourselves sitting around a table eating an unidentified substance. We tried to lighten our moods by speaking of less serious subjects. It worked to some extent, or at least it did until Master Henry sauntered inside looking grand and mighty as always. His face was cold and vacant. His eyes were the color of ice.

“Everyone get about their jobs!” he barked, “Mary, you will be in charge of coordinating the new slaves with their tasks. They screw up in any way, and it is on your shoulders.” With that note of support he walked away.

Mary was a middle-aged human with shoulder length blond hair, gray eyes, and a charming smile. It was so odd to have someone smiling in such a terrifying place. “Boys, you need to follow Viktor. He will show you how to work on the grounds.” I sent Roland a fleeting glance as were forced to separate. He didn’t look pleased in the least, but he never voiced his complaints. “Now you girls are quite lucky,” she told us in a perky voice.

“Why is that?” I asked confused. How could anyone be lucky being here? This place was hell.

Mary giggled, before turning on her heel, and leading us towards the stairs, “Well silly you get to work on top floor with me. People wait years to be able to clean the Master’s and King’s royal chambers. It’s so much nicer than cooking,” she explained shuddering at the thought. This place was so confusing. What the hell is wrong with these people?