The harsh sound of a slamming door jerks me out of the deep slumber I didn't know I was in. My sore eyes pop open from the shock and I can hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears.
What under the moon is going on?
My foggy head aches from all the previous crying and I can barely articulate the situation as the palace guards march into my chambers.
“What's going on?” I ask, as they march closer not answering my question.
I crawl backwards to the edge of the bed in fear, soon realizing that they were not here for anything good.
My heart beat racing with every step they took and before I know it I'm being dragged with both arms towards the stairs as I kick, scream and wrestle my way out of their grip, but the more I try the weaker I become and I soon realized that it was pointless, accepting whatever my fate might be.
I'm pushed and dragged down the stairs and into the ballroom but unlike before there are no music playing, no giggling or chattering. Just a deafening silence that echoed in the room as every nobels watch me get dragged with looks I can not decipher.
I'm flung to the ground as my body makes a small thud on impact with the surface. I raise my head slowly only to come face to face with every noble in the room getting closer and closer as they make a wide circle around me. Their eyes crimson. My blood runs cold at the sight.
Someone grabs my hair from behind, yanking it aggressively as I scream in pain.
“What have you done you insolent child?”
“Enough!”
Master emerges from the crowd, his eyes just as red as his fangs glistened under the moonlight.
My mouth quiver, the man I once knew seemed so far away like he never existed. I crawl backwards away from him till I bump into a cold wall like surface. Everyone stared standing still, their expressions cold.
“Where is it?” He asks.
“Where is what?”
“I said, where is it?”
“M-master I don't know what you're talking about”
He laughs cynically as the crowd begins to close in on me and something grabs me from my shoulders, tossing me towards him as he grabs me by my neck.
He licks his lips slowly, his hands squeezing my neck till my lungs begins to beg for air while he lifts me off the ground.
The ballroom door shut close behind me and everything begins to spin.
“Well it seems like you'd be needing some assistance to refresh your memory”
He lifts me to a certain direction as the crowd gives way but I'm too busy struggling for air to see anything.
“See that little hole on the ground? That was where the blood orb was supposed to be” he says and I tilt my head and find a hole in the ground with a pillar in the center.
“But it seems like it's gone, and the only person who seems to have taken it is you” he continues
I shake my head frantically hoping he'd understand that I didn't steal anything nor do I understand what he's saying.
An old looking priest in a black robe pats master on the shoulder.
“Put her down” he says with finality
Master looks at him angrily but then lets me go, allowing me to drop to the floor exhausted as I pant and cough hysterically for air holding on to my throat like my life depended on it.
“I sense that she is not with the orb” he says, looking ahead.
“What do you mean she's not with the orb, then where is it?!” queen mother yells, her voice laced with hysteria
“I- I didn't take anything my lord, I don't know what that is, I've never laid eyes on it” I bladder, holding on to master's robe, hoping he'd look at me just once.
Just once. Please.
He looks away then pulls his robe out of my grip. He turns his back away.
“Then where is it?!”
The priest stays silent during all of this.
Master hisses, pacing with an agitated gait.
“Well since we can't find the orb we might as well use her as a substitute!” Says someone from the crowd getting closer as they licked their lips hungrily.
I gasp in horror, frozen where I was from head to toe.
The priest raises his staff, blocking their path.
“We can't do that” he says.
“Why?!”
“You know exactly why. What would the people think?! Once we start there's no going back”
“Oh please spare me the long talk, you old fool” the man replies, pushing his cane away as he takes a few steps towards me. The crowd roaring in support of him.
As soon as he takes the third step, the priest’s eyes turn completely black and strikes him with the staff. The man screams in pain, falling to the ground shaking, his eyes pop as he begins to hyperventilate and before I know it he begins to dry up and then he stops moving before my very eyes.
…Is he...dead?...But they're vampires, they can't die.Can they?!
The crowd goes silent, everyone's face etched with identical expressions of shock from the horror we just witnessed.
“Do not test my wrath” the priest says.
His eyes lowers down to my direction, slowly.
“The girl” he says “we will have a test trial for her by dawn. If she is found guilty, which I doubt she is, then she dies”
Die?! I don't want to die. There has to be a mistake!
“Why wait till dawn when we can do it now?”
His eyes turn lazily towards master.
“As you wish”
The priest begins to mumble words at lightning speed as the crowd takes elongated steps back. His eyes turn black again and other priests begin to surround me forming a semi circle.
One of them grabs me by the arm holding me still as they rip my upper dress leaving my breasts bare. Tears roll down my eyes in humiliation and my master looks away from me.
The priest comes closer and the priest pin me down on the ground and as soon as his staff makes contact with my back I feel an excruciating pain travel throughout my body and then the world goes black.
A sigh slips from my lips and my body begins to slowly regain consciousness.
I open my eyes to see the master looking down at me with dark eyes. The ballroom is completely empty, not a soul in sight, except for the two of us. I immediately feel a chill and I hug my bare chest in an attempt to keep myself warm. He throws a blanket on the ground next to me and I use it to wrap myself in shame.
“The mage said you were innocent since you didn't die” he says “but I can no longer trust you”
I keep my head down not knowing what to say.
He throws a bag on the ground.
“Those are supplies you'll be needing for your quest”
“Q-quest to wh-where?”
“The quest to find the blood orb, and don't bother saying no, the mark on your back has your days numbers. If you find it and bring it back to us you get to live but if you don't you die”
“But-”
“You'll leave at dawn” he says and walks to the door “You're going to die anyway so at least die trying” he says then leaves.
I let out a cry, allowing myself wail in pain but somehow with all that has happened I still can't bring myself to hate him. Every fiber of my being still yearned for his love and affection yet he treats me like I'm nothing.
I sniffled while dragging myself to my room. I caught my reflection in the mirror, my hair stood haphazardly on each side and my eyes looked tired but something else caught my attention. The tattoo on my back, just at the left corner, there was a notable scribble of writing in numerals.
“60” I read out loud.
What does this mean, is this the amount of time I have left?
Was it months?
Weeks?
Days?
Hours?
What does it mean?
“You're going to die anyway so at least die trying”
I exhale as a whiff of anger surges through me.
I only have a matter of time before I die and I will spend the remaining parts of it making him regret this humiliation, I'll make him beg for my love even if it's the last thing I do and by the time he'll realize his love for me it would be too late.
I swear on my last days. You will regret this. All of you.