Yes, Master

Ch 5: Lord Petrovic

Lara

It was nightmare. And I could not wake up from it... It felt unreal. It gave me this unbelievable confusion and pressure. But, I was seeing it all. Vampires... No matter how hard I tried to deny it, they were vampires. On my right, on my left. Everywhere. And I was stuck. Attention on me, on all the girls, yet we were all stuck.

I didn't want to talk, I didn't want to draw attention to myself. But something inside me felt awfully weird. My stomach kept turning, and I found it hard to breathe, because I was gulping back all the questions I had on my mind.

Nathaniel left. And I met Ivan. Not a pleasant man. Not at all... The things that Nathaniel kept his silence about, Ivan punished. He didn't like talking back, and I didn't want to know what happened to the girls that did. Because, no matter how hard I tried, some words slipped, and I got a slap or two.

I wanted to fight back, but the way he grabbed me by my wrists to keep me in place left bruises. Ivan was the kind of monster with blonde hair, light blue eyes, yet I had never met such evil and darkness hidden behind that mask. He wore glasses for fun, and sold human girls for the same reason. Kept us in cages. For God knows how long now...

I sat in silence. I sat and waited for a miracle. I had never felt more helpless. I had never felt more confused. I thought, maybe I was losing my mind. Perhaps all of this was going on in my head. But I felt it. I felt it all. The pain, the pressure, the darkness... It was all around.

I popped my head on my palms, unable to keep it straight any longer. They gave me something that healed me. Stopped the tiredness. But everything started kicking back in again. After I met Ivan, my wrists were bruised again, and it felt as if I was yet about to see the real picture. The reality. How ironic.

"What now?" I heard myself ask the girl that was sitting beside me.

  There were three more, but they didn't seem interested in what I had to ask. Only the one with the golden blonde hair turned and looked.

When she looked at me, when her large eyes met mine, I felt chills crawl down the length of my spine. It was unbelievable how someone so pretty could look so.. Lost. Off. No emotions, no hope behind those large hazel eyes. Cold expression and not a single spark of life left on her face.

"You're new." I heard her say. Her tone seemed quiet, but there was something in her voice that had me confused. She sounded awfully calmed, considering the fact that we were locked in a cage and surrounded by bloodthirsty vampires. "And pretty.." She stopped for a second. "Best of luck."

She recognized that I was new, but by the way she spoke, it didn't take a genius to figure out that she had experience in this world. There was this melody in her voice, it was soothing, but the monotone showed how broken this girl was.

"What do you mean?"

"They always want the fresh and pretty ones."

I stared at her for a second. It scared me. It scared me seeing how this girl looked. So perfect yet so lifeless. And so I found myself asking..

"How long have you been here?"

  Once again, without looking at me, she just leaned on the bars behind, still sitting firmly on the bench beside me.

  "A year. Two.. You can't really keep track of time here."

I felt sort of bad for using this girl to find out what was coming next, but if she was there as long as she said she was, she probably knew how it all worked. I offered a smile, even though she stared before her.