"Take off all your clothes… and clean my floors."
I prayed I had misheard him. But sadly I hadn't.
He really said it. My own uncle had just ordered me to strip naked and clean the floors. In front of everyone.
This was new.
My punishments were usually physical, sometimes emotional, but never like this.
Never this sick. Never this humiliating.
I didn't know what to do. My mind went blank. Did he truly expect me to obey?
I didn't move. I just knelt there, hands clenched on my thighs, my entire body trembling. My disobedience was obvious.
There was no way I was undressing.
"Didn't you hear me, filth?" he snarled, stalking toward me, his boots echoing against the floor. "Take off your clothes. I doubt there's anything worth seeing beneath them anyway. Right, fellas?"
The male vampires around him laughed mockingly but their eyes were gleaming hungrily like monsters.
Disgusting perverts.
"No!"
The word burst from my lips before I could stop it. In all my seventeen years of existence, I had never said no to my uncle. Not once.
I knew I had just signed my own death sentence.
"What did you just say to me?" His voice boomed like thunder across the room.
"You worthless waste of oxygen!"
For the first time, in a long time, I raised my head, meeting his gaze, and I don't know what gave me the courage, but I didn't look away.
"No!" I said again, louder this time. "I won't undress. Not in front of you disgusting, perverted, shameless, revolting pigs!"
My own voice echoed off the walls. I didn't even realize I was shouting until my hands flew to my mouth in horror.
Everyone present in the room looked absolutely shocked.
What had I just done?
My uncle's eyes turned blood-red.
His lips curled back into a snarl.
His fangs extracted like knives from his gums.
I couldn't breathe as fear gripped me tightly.
He took a first step toward me, I crawled backward without thinking.
"So little Diana isn't so little anymore," he drawls, taking another step toward me, then another. "She thinks she can talk back. Thinks she has a voice."
His boots stop just inches away from my knees. I'm already trembling at this point.
He grabs a fistful of my hair and jerks my head back so hard I cry out.
"I should rip your tongue out for this.." he hisses, his face inches from mine. His breath reeks of blood and wine. "But since you're all grown up now, I've got a better punishment in mind."
He releases my hair with a shove and rises to his feet.
"Olsen!" he calls out.
One of the vampires in the room steps forward. He was very tall with a huge frame.
"Ever fucked filth like this before?" my uncle sneers. "We all know you'll fuck anything. Why not give us a little show?"
My entire body went pale.
Olsen grins, flashing sharp, yellowed fangs as his eyes roam over me. "I don't know if she's quite my taste, My Lord." he murmurs cruelly.
"You won't know until you give her a try." My uncle grabs my arm and yanks me to my feet before shoving me toward him. "Go on."
I stumble.
Olsen catches me before I fall. His hands were rough, and his grip tightened around my shoulders. I tried running away, kicking him… but it was no use. I look around in fear and hope that someone else would stop this, but no one cared.
My uncle laughs like it's all a joke. "Go on then. Break her in."
Olsen swings me to the floor, his weight like iron on my already hurting body. Tears fill my eyes as he unbuckles his pants. Would this really happen… would God really abandon me once again?
I shut my eyes tightly, unable to fight anymore, hoping it will all be over soon.
"That's more than enough!" I suddenly hear my aunt say beside my uncle. She was addressing Olsen, and she sounded angry.
Olsen paused before looking up.
"Didn't you hear me, brute? Get off her this instant!" my aunt Hilda screamed, shocking everyone in the room...especially me.
Olsen clenched his jaw hard, but he knew he couldn't disobey my aunt. He slowly got off me, leaving me on the floor as I stared at my aunt. Who had just… saved me? This was too good to be true.
I watched her turn to look at my uncle… it was as if they were communicating telepathically. After a moment, my uncle turned to look at me.
"Get out of my sight," he ordered with a cold growl. I nodded, and this time I managed to scramble to my feet and finally leave the room. Finally…
Once outside, I couldn't help but wonder why my aunt had saved me. I knew very well that it wasn't because she cared about my dignity or feelings. She didn't. My aunt Hilda was a very self-serving person, so it makes no sense that she would publicly go against her husband to save me.
And if Uncle Darius was silent about it… it only meant that they were planning something far worse.
My heart pounded painfully in my chest. I slowly looked down at my hands; my cuts were slowly healing. Vampires could heal easily… but since I was only half-vampire, my wounds took slightly longer to heal.
I touched my face and winced.
Glass particles still poked out of it. I carefully removed as many pieces as I could before finally forcing myself to move. I made my way downstairs to the cold, rat-infested basement.
It had been my bedroom since my parents died over a decade ago. Although since it had no bed, I doubted it should be called a bedroom.
It was just a cold, empty room. With nothing inside… unless you counted the rats. No windows, no bed, no table or chairs. Nothing. Just the rats and me.
I laid on the cold, hard ground, curling into a ball as tears streamed down my face. I was so hungry, so tired, so dirty. I hadn't bathed in weeks, and I hadn't eaten in weeks either.
But I was used to it… My aunt and uncle said bathing and eating were luxuries I didn't deserve. I was only allowed to eat rotten leftovers every few weeks. Being half vampire I could naturally go without food for a while...but too long and I'd starve to death.
I had suffered so much at their hands… and I knew I couldn't keep living like this forever.
That's why I have a plan to escape when I turn eighteen, just three days from now.
The plan isn't exactly full proof, but it's all I have. I'll wait until everyone's asleep, then sneak out through the cellar doors. From there, I'll make my way to the docks. If I'm lucky, I can find a merchant ship headed toward the human kingdom.
I still have the moonstone necklace my mother gave me. I hide it inside a hole the rats use as a tunnel.
The necklace is rare and valuable enough to bribe a sailor to let me on board. Once I get to the human kingdom, I'll disappear forever. No more vampires. No more pain.
I suddenly hear the basement door creak open. I sit up fast, heart pounding.
No one ever comes down here...except the servants.
I watch in horror as my aunt slowly walks in, holding something in her hands.
And the moment I see what it is, my blood runs cold...