Valerie
I was dragged by the chains bonded to my waist, eyes covered with a think blinder.
It was the first time I was allowed to leave the cell ever since I got here five years ago. I had nearly forgotten the views of the outside world, like how blue the sky was or how warm the sunshine could be. The place I stayed was forever dark and cold. Sometimes, I even started to think if my old house was just my imagination and this slave cell was the actual place where I was born in.
Perhaps if the old memories were unreal, my life could be less miserable. But every time I closed my eyes, the image of that night would be replayed vividly in front of me. Blood soaked table cover, desperate eyes and Mathilda’s scream.
They were undeniably real.
"Keep moving!" A deep voice forced me back to reality as I felt a sting on my hip.
I tried to walk faster to avoid another whip, but in frog-marching posture and bare feet, my sores were burning with every step I moved.
I wondered where we were going today. It’s not ordinary for two guards to take a slave outside of the cell on such a long walk. If they wanted to torture me, they would just do it in the ward.
“It’s your lucky day bitch.” I felt a hot breath on my skin while someone was whispering to my ear.
It was Dawson, one of the guards. He’s a disgusting asshole, who caught every single opportunity to harass slave girls and took advantages of them.
“I’ll miss you little thing…” His voice sounded evil with lusts. The feel of his hand squeezing my waist made me sick. I did my utmost to move faster to get away from this assault. But then he started to trace his fingers around my neck and slowly move down.
“I know you feel it,” He teased as I shivered.
"What the fuck are you doing?" A yell halted his movement.
I recognized it from the typical emotionlessness in the tone that he was the other guard David, who’s the opposite of Dawson. David seemed always to be stern and honest, never being interested in abusing slaves to fulfil his personal needs.
Nonetheless, that didn’t make him a good guy. For me, he was just another evil creature whose hands stained with human bloods.
"None of your fucking business." Dawson spat back, "Just a bit fun before we say goodbye to her."
"You know she's going to be the one tonight. And she's not supposed to carry anyone’s marks." David stated.
I wasn’t sure if Dawson retorted back then as my mind was preoccupied with what just been said.
“What did it mean by ‘the one’?” I blurted out.
Then I realized it was a mistake. Slaves were never allowed to raise questions. And if we did, we would have to take the consequences.
I flinched back, expecting a severe pain on my legs. But they didn’t, nor did they answered my questions. We kept moving in complete silence.
David’s warning did seem to work. For the rest of the journey, Dawson didn’t even lay a finger on me again.
When we finally reached the destiny, my thoughts were still overwhelmed by the intention of this journey. I was frustrated.
I was commanded to wait before they led me onto another direction. Then I heard a creaking sound like a heavy wooden door was opening.
When the blinder was removed from my eyes, I could hardly adapted to the strong lights.
As I squinted to get a view of the place, I was astonished.
It was a fairly large room, not the kind I used to live in before the war, but rather an extravagant one you’d only see in regency movies. It was illuminated by a large chandelier with diamonds glinting from all directions. Red curtains hanging over the windows were made from velvet and draped to the floor elegantly.
"Get in." David's commanded.
I followed him until we stopped at a golden-colored dressing table placed in the middle of this room. He suddenly turned to stare at me with his intimidating eyes.
I stepped back out of fear, my heart pounding drastically.
Like all werewolf shifters, he’s tall, huge and intimidating.
The cell we lived in used to be a basement of their Alpha’s castle, where I had once seen on my ride to grandparents’ house on summer vacation. It was the most glamourous building I had ever seen in my life and I dreamt of living somewhere like that then.
But I never meant in the cell.
I used to think good of werewolves. When the world was in peace, mom and dad would sometimes bring me to visit their wolf friends. They lived with other pack members in the vicinity of a forest which took us almost three hours to drive there. They looked exactly the same with us in their human forms except being much taller and stronger.
Mom told me the wolves were always faithful and trustworthy, which now seemed to be a complete irony. When the squads came to ruin my family, they were led by wolves.
Ava was the only one who agreed on my view of werewolves and she told me that the romantic legends about werewolves were merely evil propagandas. She had once seen a werewolf in shifting. And she claimed that’s the most horrible thing she had ever watched.
Ava was an orphan. She was sent here threes months after my arrival and lived in the same ward as mine. No like me, she wasn’t actually captured to be a slave.
She chose it for herself.
“The orphanages were all closed after the war. I had no place to go and no food to eat. So I came here. At least I didn’t have to die.” When she told me about her experiences, she always said with a cavalier attitude.
It’s very true that they wouldn’t let us die, because they wanted to sell us at a good price when we reached 18.
Ava seemed always to be oddly optimistic and cheerful. “Val, I knew it’s hard.” Ava had consoled me like that, “you had a sweet family and suddenly all gone… but things will get better. You know, I’m an orphan so I might not know what the feeling was to have a dad and mom. But I believe they would want you to live and keep hopes. Trust me, there’s always a hope.”
The hope she kept with was a place called Lost Land. She told me about that place when she started to consider me as her best-friend.
“Some say it was a rumor but I believe it’s true.” She said. And she insisted that it was the paradise where democracy and human rights still existed.
“That’s possible, Val. The wolves are in full control now and they stopped killing humans who vowed to serve them at commands. The rich survived by giving over their fortune and teaching wolves how to run business. It’s possible to retrieve the old days.”
I would believe her if I hadn’t witnessed the demoralization of humanities.
“Your hands.” David’s suddenly raised his voice, stopping me being engulfed by memories.
Not understanding his intention, I lifted both hands hesitatingly.
To my great surprise, he grabbed my wrists and unlocked the cuffs.
"If you dare escape, I will slit your throat." He warned. Then he also unlocked the collar on my neck and took the heavy chains way, fettering my feet.
Fingers brushing the light bruise on my wrists, I looked at him obtusely. I was baffled.
"Slut, I told you it’s your lucky day." Dawson leaned against the door and smirked to me.
“Get yourself prepared.” David ordered as he strode to the door.
“…for what?” I hesitated before getting the courage to raise my question.
“The auction.” They answered without looking at me and left after locking the door.
Valerie Auction? My brain went blank for a second. Then I realized what that meant. I was the one who’s going to be auctioned tonight. As a sex slave. How’s that possible? Slaves had been discussing it the whole day yesterday. They said it was going to be a special one. But I had never paid attention to that. The first time Ava talked about auctions, she told me they were looking for girls with flawless beauty, which obviously excluded me for my peculiar birth mark on lower belly. So how is it possible that they chose me? The auctions were usually held at the end of each month, where they would pick a virgin female slave for the rich to bid on with other gems or jewelries. Slaves had debates on that. Some believed it was an evil ritual of monsters. But most thought it’s a chance to seek new lives. “You don’t have to stay at those filthy slave stalls for weeks until someone
Valerie “Oh you must be Val!” Mrs. Johnson crouched down and gently touched my hair, “nice to meet you!” I followed Mrs. John with my parents and walked into the living room. The decoration here was simple and warm. A three seater sofa in blue velvet was placed near the window sill, allowing the sweet sunlight to sneak in between curtains and to form different shapes on our shoulders. A large vintage rug lying flatly on the floor that was comfortable to walk on with bare feet. “Here you are. Hope you like it.” Mrs. Johnson put a plate of cookies on the coffee table and handed me a glass of orange juice, I guessed. I looked at mom in hesitation. “That’s fine, Val. You can drink it.” Mom nodded to me. Mrs. Johnson laughed, “Oh dear. Wolves drink orange juice just like you humans.” I forced a smile and felt embarrassed about myself. “That’s fine. Just get yourself comfortable darling.” Mrs. Johnson s
Valerie I had never known why Mrs. Johnson would be there in my nightmare. We lost her contact since the war began and when my parents were looking for a shelter, they tried best to reconnect her. But we never succeeded. The summer we spent at Mrs. Johnson’s holiday house near a seashore was the best one I’d ever had. My parents went there for doing some research related to their work and they brought me with them. I was lucky. Because they considered that I was too young to be left behind at grandparent’s house like Mathilda. We indulged ourselves in sun’s nourishment and strolled leisurely along the beach while mom and dad were off-work. Mrs. Johnson showed great hospitality to our visit. She volunteered to help look after me while mom and dad were busy with their works. She brought me to a small amusement park in vicinity and we had a lot of fun there. Mrs. Johnson was a widow. Her husband died many years ago and left her with no k
Valerie The peculiar mark on my lower belly, for what I had been told, was a birth mark. It had been there since I was born, as my mom said so. But it’s very odd to have such a birth mark which was shaped as a solid cross. I had once observed it careful through mirror and I was surprised to find that the two intersecting lines were exactly at the same length. I raised my doubts to mom but she told me that might be God’s bless because I was an angel to them. Well, they never believed in God. The truth was that I couldn’t remember if it had always been there since my birth. Literally, I didn’t have any memories before the age of 5. That used to confuse me a lot. When my friends were chatting about some funny stupid mischiefs they did in kindergartens, I would be the one who lost speech. They always consoled me. They said it was normal, that I might have a slight childhood amnesia but that’s not big deal. I didn’t conside
Valerie “Happy birthday! Val!” Whenever we had my birthday celebrations, mom, dad and Mathilda would give me a big hug before I blew out the candle light. On occasions, if I had invited a few friends to the party, mom would looked at us in a distance with an assuring smile. “My little girl was growing up into a beautiful lady.” She would say something like this, while my dad, on the other hand, would say, “No matter where you go, Val. You’ll always be our little girl.” Whatever wishes they blessed with me counted for a naught now. I sat on bed, staring numbly at the closed door where the master had left. It was until tears fell onto my laps that I realized I was crying. I hadn’t shed a single tear after being captured, even when I was brutally whipped by the guards. But now, I felt like suddenly being caught in the tide of pains that I had buried deeply into my heart. The tide pulled me out to the sea of sorrow, where
Xavier Pain. Pain was the only emotion I saw in her eyes. The way she looked at anything remained the same. She might sometimes appeared to be timid or scared, but that’s not her true feelings. I knew it as I used to see the same countenance on mother’s face before she perished. It was a face with hopelessness that they believed the rest of their lives had stretched out as a dead loop with no exit. It wasn’t quite a pleasant feeling to be reminded of my mother. But Valerie did resembled her quite a lot. My mother, the former Luna of Red Moon Pack, was born to be the only child of an Alpha’s, from whom my father took the crown. Despite being mated to my father, she never seemed to love him. And in the same way, as she had told me so, my father didn’t want her either. They were forced together by the responsibilities for their pack and sacrificed their own wills. My father Caser Murphy, growing up in a warrior’s fa
Valerie My stay at the castle, though with a harsh beginning, turned out not to be as bad as it was in the cell, actually, much better. After blending in with the other slaves, I was completely forgotten by the tormenters as I learnt how to be invisible. But the start was indeed very tough. Mrs. Manson, the head maid, had sought every opportunities to make me since my arrival. I woke up at 3:30 the next morning as she warned me to be present at 4am and I stood there alone waiting for her until she finally strolled downstairs at 6 o’clock. For the entire two hours, I didn’t even dare to sit down or leave the spot in case that she might suddenly appear. My back and legs were hurting. I was pretty sure that Mrs. Manson did it deliberately because very soon after she came down, the servants and slave all gathered downstairs, being prepared to embark on their duties. She gave me the wrong time. Mrs. Manson shot me a glance
Valerie My only encounter with a vampire before the auction was a very short one. It could hardly be described as an “encounter” because it happened so fast that I hadn’t even been able to see his face. But I can still recall the harsh squawks he made after being shot down. It was on a private after party of a wedding where mom and dad brought us to attend. The bride was my mother’s childhood bestie and she was very fond of Mathilda and me. She invited us to visit her newly decorated yard where the roses she planted was blossoming glamorously. We were stunned by the beauty of nature. She looked contented with our reactions and she asked us if we’d like to see her cute little puppy Betty. She told us that her loving husband had just build a new wooden kennel for Betty, which was placed in the backyard and definitely worth a visit. Of course we were delighted to. Mathilda and I both desired to raise a dog in our own family but mom never