The Seven Sons: The Slave

Chapter 5

Miranda

I can feel people’s eyes on me as I being pulled down the hallway, trying to get the tears to stop flowing, and I succeeded until I am sitting on the stool in a large bathroom and being tugged into a hug, that I didn’t return, by the little kid.

“Shh…Shhh…” he whispers into my ear, “Everything is okay, I’m sorry they embarrassed you like this and that he hit you, because I startled you.” The little kid whispered, it only made me pull back to look at him and give a slight smile for I had never had someone else try and take the blame for me, especially Collier.

“Its not your fault.” I whispered, looking down at the ground.

“No, it is.” He tells me again causing me again to look up at the little boy in front of me. His sweet little voice, slightly relieving me of the hurt I felt. “My names Zaire Noah Collier, what’s your name?” he asked me.

“Miranda.” I told knowing that I couldn’t possibly tell him my last name. When I told him that he cocked his head slightly, like he was thinking about something real hard, then all of sudden his head popped up and a huge grin spread across his little face.

“I’ll be right back” he said then rushed out of the room.

I wondered where he was going, but I figured that I should at least make myself look halfway presentable; knowing that I will have to go back and face the Princes. It made me cringe to think about the fact that they saw more emotion in me than just about anyone else I know. When I looked at myself in the mirror, it made me start crying because the bruise forming on my cheek had me remembering all of my bad past memories that I never got a chance to cry about because I was never alone long enough; my eyes were red and puffy and my cheeks were bright red also, from all the times that I had rubbed them. The make-up that I had wore, was also running down my face.

I was trying to get myself to stop crying when there was a knock on the door. I instantly jumped away from the sink hoping that nobody would come in and see me.

“Hey, it’s me Zaire.” I heard the little kid say from the other side of the door before he walked in, which didn’t surprise me, but what did surprise me was that he walked holding onto Talon’s hand and pulling him into the bathroom as well.

“Hey,” I whispered not sure that I could speak any louder and not break, but as it was I still broke down because Talon took one look at me at the bruise on my cheek and instantly went into defensive mode.

“Who did this to you?! If it was one of those idiotic princes, I swear that I will not stop myself from beating them!” he yelled, and I instantly cringed away from the yelling and because without realizing it he had raised his fist in the air as he had strode towards me.
Hurt flashed across his face when he saw me flinch away. I instantly felt guilty for flinching away; for I knew that he wasn’t going to hit and I had been hit quite a few times before by the guards, but Talon never would lay a hand on me. I knew that was because of the secret that we tried keeping from everyone. He lightly put his hand on my left cheek and turned my head to the side so that he could inspect the bruise that had been forming since I had been hit.

“Who did this?” he said his finger tenderly touched it and when I winced he immediately stepped away from me. When I looked him in the eyes I could see the anguish in his eyes, but it was also painfully clear in his voice. “Who did this?” it was so obvious, that I knew I had to tell him.

So I did. “It was Storm.” He face had instantly gone from a pained expression to blank, but his eyes showed a blazing anger. I hadn’t seen him this irritated in a long time. He turned towards the door and was about to pull it open, when I realized that I had to stop him before he did something that we would both regret. “Wait, Talon, stop please don’t do anything! Please, it’s not going to do anything but make things more complicated.” I said, trying to hold the tears back and for once that day I was successful in holding back the tears.

“I know, but he hurt you… and I promised.” He said barely loud enough for me to hear, but I did. I remembered his promise and I always will; it brought up dreadful memories for the both of us. I tried to hold back the tears that those memories brought on. Except, this time it didn’t work and I only ended whimpering and having the tears fall silently fall down my face.

When I felt a small child’s hand on my cheek I looked and realized that Zaire had been there throughout this whole exchange and that he was the one that had brought Talon in here in the first, which made me think that he knew something, though I wasn’t quite sure that I knew exactly what he knew.

When I looked into his big blue- green eyes, I completely broke down; sobbing so hard that my whole entire body was shaking. I still don’t know why I did exactly maybe because they were so innocent and caring or maybe it was the fact that the silver in his eyes reminded me of someone else or maybe it was just the plain fact that the first time in a while somebody was offering me a shoulder to cry on? I just didn’t know, but when he put his arms around me in a hug for once I actually hugged somebody back.

Through all these emotions that I felt, something made me feel like these are not the arms that I really want to be held by? This is not person that I should cry into? And when I allowed myself to actually think about who I thought it should be, only one name popped into my head.

Drake Collier.

Once I had collected myself and put back on the emotionless mask that was me I changed into the new clothes that Talon had brought into me.
The dress this time was a dark navy blue that reminded me of the incoming storm, which was closer now that you barely had to listen to hear the thunder. I had been given a pair of nude sandals. I brushed back out my hair then added the little bit of make- up back on that had been washed off because of the bucket of water that had been dumped on me by the princes little prank.
Zaire had explained to me that they always did that to the slaves to try to get them to do something that will stop being their slave and that the longer that it take for a slave to “quit”, since we can’t actually quit, then the worse the pranks that they play will get. He also said that depending on how long I last being the slave the pranks might almost become violent.
Once I had finished getting ready I walked slowly back to the lounge, knowing that I there was no way that I could possibly get out of not walking back to them. I was their slave. They did not hire me; they owned me. I hated thinking that I was not a person who could make their own decisions, but had to just follow orders. When in reality, I wasn’t even a girl of poverty, but at the same time if I wasn’t here I would still be with that man. If I was there my life would have been even more of a hell because he would have more control over me and would make me do things that make me cringe on the inside. I knew that if I was there I would probably always be black and blue all over, while here I at least knew why I was getting.
A loud clap of thunder pulled me from my thoughts right as I walked by a large window. I stopped and looked out at it. I watched as the lightning rapidly jumped from cloud to cloud and listened to the deep rumble of the thunder. When the rain started to fall, I noticed that it was very graceful in how every single drop formed together as one as if forming a blanket to thickly cover and hit the ground roughly as if attacking together as one to make sure that more damage one was done. I allowed my sight to follow down to the ground with rain, it surprised me to see a tall figure standing there with his face turned to the sky like I had expressed I would do to let out the pain. I watched as the figure just stood there not giving a care that they were soaking wet and violently getting slapped in the face by the rain.
I knew that I should probably get going, but some reason I couldn’t even move. This person had me riveted to my spot wonder who they were and why they were so hurt that they just stood there and took on the brunt of the storm. I realized I had been staring way to long for them not to realize that someone was watching them. So when the man slowly started to turn towards me, I found that I was still just standing there watching him, my curiosity keeping me there.
As soon as the man’s face was about to turn far enough that I could see it, I was being tugged down the hallway away from the window. I looked down to see Zaire had taken hold of my hand and was bringing me back to the lounge.
“Now why don’t you continue cleaning the rooms,” Zaire told me, as he pushed open the large door to the lounge.
“I will once I clean up their breakfast dishes.” I whispered as we walked in, nervous that one of the princes might have heard me refuse a request and just said what I was going to do and not just doing what I was told.
“I don’t think you have to,” he said as he pulled me into the room.
“But -,” I started to say but Zaire pointed to the table and I saw that it was perfectly clean. “Oh, ok. But who would do that?”
“I don’t know.” He said.
I started to walk to Tait’s room where I had left off, when I felt Zaire slip his hand into mine and skip along my side I wondered what he was doing. When I walked into the room, he ran and jumped onto the bed.
“So how old are you?” he asked me and I didn’t respond afraid that one of the princes were close by because I wasn’t suppose to take on conversation and get close to any of them, I was just supposed to what I was told. When he realized that I wasn’t going to answer he instantly ran over and grabbed the object that I had picked up off of the floor to put it away and he put it away for me. “Come on, why aren’t you going to answer me?” he said, making me look him directly in the face.
“I don’t want one of the princes to hear me and get in trouble, again.” I quietly told him then looked around the room not wanting to show any fear in front of them, but also not wanting any more trouble. Zaire didn’t say anything to me he just ran out of the room, ‘where is he going?’ I wondered but I honestly wasn’t going to worry about it but was going to do my work.
I had walked into the next bedroom and was working around the room, silently cleaning up, before Zaire came back in.
“It’s ok to talk, they all left,” he told me and I guess he expected me to answer his question now, but I just couldn’t. I can’t allow myself to get close to this boy because I had already cried when he hugged me and if I got any closer I know that I would start to care about him. Being a slave means that if you end up starting to care for someone you have a weakness that they can use against you or get you in trouble. “Come on, please talk to me,” he says as he pulls me towards the bed and we sit down. “Ok, then I’m seven years old, how old are you?” He gave me a smile hoping that since he gave me an answer I would be willing to tell him. His smile was so adorable that I felt my heart slowly starting to care about, that I had to answer him or I would feel really bad about being so cold towards him.
Even though I felt like I had to give him an answer I couldn’t stop myself from answering,
“I have to get back to work,” I told him.
“Come on, please.” He asked me again, I didn’t look at him but after a couple minutes of only the noise of me moving around and cleaning up the room I finally was annoyed of the complete silence so I looked over at him to see him giving me the cutest puppy dog face ever. I wouldn’t doubt it if anyone at all could ever deny him of anything when he gave them that face.
“Sixteen.” I told him because even someone like me, who tries to block out everyone and not allow the vulnerable side out, the way his large blue-green eyes got even bigger and made him look even more innocent. It completely made my walls crumble before this boy and in that moment I would have told him about anything he wanted to know, anything.
I had figured that he would press me for more answers, instead he just answered, didn’t ask me any other questions, “Wow almost the same age as, Drake.”
He didn’t say anything as I finished cleaning the room; he just sat or stood there watching the rain, silently keeping me company. I wondered why he wasn’t talking, though I didn’t ask him why. It’s not like it was an awkward silence, it was just silence.
I didn’t speak until we came to Soren’s room and he had sat down on the bed. “Can you please move so I can make the bed?” I asked him, and he got up and walked to the window, but he didn’t watch the storm outside, he just watched me. I wondered if he was going to say something or if was he going to just watch me.
It had been a while and I had just figured that he wasn’t going to say anything to me so it surprised me when he finally did. “Can I help you make that bed?” I was so surprised that he asked me that I didn’t answer him at first. “I have never got to do anything like that,” he told me looking directly into my eyes. “Momma, always says it is the job for our slaves to do, but she never tells me why? Why do they have to do everything, while we just – do nothing. I just don’t get it.” His wondering almost made me smile at how pure he was. That he didn’t know much about the world, despite the fact that he seemed to know more than most seven year olds that grew up like he did. “So can I please?”
I shook my head yes, he smiled and walked over to the other side of the bed to help me.
It almost made me want to laugh at the fact that he was happy about helping make a bed, but I didn’t for it also made me sad to find a kid that got just about everything he wanted, but had absolutely nothing to do.
We were in Drake’s room before another word was spoken, “Umm… Miranda I got to go.” He told me and once I nodded he ran out of the room. I heard a slight chuckle come from someone before I walked into Drake’s en suite.
When I was walking back out, I ran right into someone.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to.”I started apologizing, but was stopped before I could say any more by a hand that had fallen on my mouth. The feel of the person’s hand on my mouth sent a shock through my system, and then it was gone.
“There is no need to apologize when no one was harmed,” the person told me. Since I was looking at the floor I could see water dripping from his clothes, why is he soaking wet?
“Well I am sorry, sir. I’ll leave you alone.” I turned to walk around him, but he quickly reached out and grabbed hold of arm, pulling me back against him. I could hear him speaking, but was too distracted for when his hand came in contact with my arm it sent the same sparks straight up my arm and down my back; that was the only thing that I could focus on. So when he pulled his hand back, I was at lost because I missed the sensation.
“—have you heard anything I have said?” spoke the guy and I knew it was Drake from the tingly sensation, but I couldn’t allow myself to wonder why the skin to skin contact made me feel this way the only thought ran through my head was the fact that I could be punished for not listening. “You haven’t, have you?” he said, but I still wasn’t listening, so when I heard him chuckle it caught me by surprise.
“What did I tell before about when you are speaking to me?” he said and this time I was listening, but I didn’t answer him. “Tell me.”
“You told me to look at you if you are talking or if I am talking to you,” I said after a slight hesitation. Though I know that when I say this he would want me to look at him; I just couldn’t bring myself to look at him. So instead of looking at him I found myself looking down at the floor watching the puddle of water slowly form around his feet.
He chuckled, again. “If you know that so well then why aren’t looking at me?” when I didn’t look at him or answer him, he reached out with his hand and capture my chin tilting my head up towards his face. “From now --,” he didn’t get to finish because right when he started speaking our eyes connected.
In that moment, I could feel myself falling and the only thing that would keep me from completely falling down was the only thing that in that moment matter to me. The colored swirls from before were showing up again and surrounding his whole body. I noticed that the colors were not perfect, like there were blemishes on it showing where things were not perfect, but also not all of those colors were the bright beautiful colors but dark colors that could be really terrifying to anyone. To me though I could see those parts as being the parts that made him perfect.
I didn’t realize that in this moment that we were solely focused on each other, that I had actually fallen against his chest and he was holding me up; while he was using the wall to keep himself from falling to the floor. I was so close that I could feel his wet skin against mine.
I was so lost that when he started leaning down towards my lips; I couldn’t even think about the fact that I was a slave and he was a prince because in that moment it didn’t matter.
Then as right as lips were about to brush against mine one thought ran through my head, ‘Mine’ when that thought went through I pulled away and stepped back. It hurt, I just couldn’t allow myself to make that mistake and get myself hurt.
After I was a stepped away, it was silent for a couple minutes before we could even look at each other. I finally managed to pull away from him, trying to look like I was really interested with something that was on the floor. When I looked up at his face I saw hurt and confusion, along with many other emotions that I didn’t even want to think about break through his emotionless face; instead of just being in his eyes. It hurt me to see those emotions on his face but I’m not who he needs.
“Sir, I need to go back to work. Would like me to run a bath for you since your wet and cold?” I said, looking past his face.
“Yes.” He said, as he made his face return to the emotionless state as before.
I automatically went into his en-suite and started up the bath making sure it was just the right temperature. I pulled out some of the extra towels out of the cabinet and set them on the sink. I walked back out and this time I held up my head to make sure that I didn’t run into anyone.
“Thank you,” he said as he stepped in front of me, I looked up at him and felt my cheeks take on a deep blush as he was standing before me in only his jeans, with water dripping down from his hair and running down his very chiseled chest; he chuckled.
I quickly walked past him to the door the blush still creeping up, as I passed him for moment I thought I heard him whisper ‘so beautiful’ but that couldn’t even be possible. Once I got to the door I barely turned around calling back to him, “If you need anything else, come find me.”
Then I rushed out of the room, trying to calm my blush down by not thinking about what happened back there, but that only made me think of him.
What have you done to me Drake? I think trying to put on my emotionless mask; absolutely failing at doing so.