3 His slaves

I opened my eyes lazily and winced at the pain in my head. Sitting up on a bed, I hissed and placed my hand on the back of my head.

"Are you okay?" I heard a woman's voice and looked back to see a girl, around my age, maybe older, wearing a choker like mine, walking towards me. That's when I realized I was on a bed in a big bedroom, another single bed at a distance from the one I was on.

The girl came and sat on the bed, she had brown hair and fair skin, her eyes filled with worry.

"I'm fine. I think." I sighed, "What happened? How did I end up here?" I looked around the room, it had a bookshelf, a window, a dressing table, everything was neatly arranged, "Who are you?"

"Nora. Nora siegfeild." As she said her name my eyes grew wide and I stared at her, "I know what you're thinking, but just like you I was living with a distant relative quietly till the time Arius found out."

I took a deep breath, "I see..." That damn demon, what does he want from us? So what if we survived? We were living a quiet life. "I'm Azalea."

She nodded at me, telling me she knows.

"And," She started, "Since you were resisting too much, they knocked you out and brought you here."

"Those bastards hit me too hard." I clicked my tongue and rubbed the back of my head.

"Well, no one's going to be a gentleman in this place."

"Yea..." I stood up and walked around the room. It was round shaped, with a small rectangular corridor that lead to the main door, there was an attached bathroom on the opposite side with no window.

I then walked to the window of the room and tried rattling it open.

"It's no use. It won't open." I looked outside, we must be on the third floor.

"We can break it." I looked at Nora.

"No use. I tried. It's not glass."

"We have to get out of here somehow." I slumped on the bed next to Nora.

"Well I haven't figured out a way."

I looked at her, "How long have you been here."

"Like, 9 days? And believe me, I tried every method I could to escape, but here I am. Still here."

I sighed again, then shot back up, "Wait! Is there anyone else beside you here? I clearly heard Arius say, 'slaves'."

She looked at me, her gaze wavering a bit, "I know, about a boy."

"A boy?"

"Ayaan. He's a lot younger than us and can't speak."

"Oh…"

"And…"

"And?"

"I saw something, a crack, on his neck. A nicely sewn line around the front." I searched her eyes for answers.

I blinked in confusion, "Wait! So what are you-" I gulped, "Implying?"

She shrugged and shook her head, "Even I don't know, just saying that, It was newly done."

I dropped back onto the bed as I felt my knees get weak, "So, " I started, "What did you do here for the past 9 days?"

"5 actually. I was knocked out with a drug for 4 days since I was creating too much trouble for the first two days.' she got up and walked to the bookshelf, "When I woke up, that's when I saw Ayan, he was quietly sitting in the corner for about an hour. Caesar then came and took him away."

"Caesar?"

"Arius's bodyguard or something." She sighed." And!! I read these books here." She slid her finger across the nicely arranged books and picked out one to show me, "Good novels really, Especially this one." She waved it between her hands, a book called 'Sold?'

"What about food?"

She placed the book back and pointed across the corridor at the main door, "See a tiny slot, like the one they have in prison. They slide it through there."

I was dumbfounded, "What are we? Dogs?"

"Yeah. I was really angry too and tried stabbing the hand of the person sliding it in." She made a strange face, "And then I slept for four days."

I chuckled.

"So, now what?"

"... I don't know."

"Any idea what they plan to do to us here?"

She shook her head, "No idea."

We both spent a few minutes talking about the Alucard family. Their long history of power and how they have always gotten whatever they wanted.

"All these years and suddenly he wanted the survivors? Did he not know before?" Nora asked.

"I really don't know. Maybe he has too much time on his hand now."

"Could be."

The doorknob clicked and we both shot our heads towards the main door. The door opened to reveal a tall guy, with black hair and eyes, but the most distinguished thing about him was what he was carrying.

A sword.

He had it on his back, hanging there with the help of a red rope around his torso.

"That's Caesar." Nora whispered to me.

"Come." Caesar said and turned around.

Nora and I just looked at each other when Caesar spared us a glare. His narrow eyes were menacing, sending a fear signal to our brains and we both automatically started following him.

***

He brought us to a gym? I think. It had a wrestling stage, surrounded by a net grill, as well. There was only one way in.

I glanced at Nora who was as confused as me.

Caesar didn't wait for us. He entered the stage and stood in the middle, then looked at us both.

"Come." He pointed his finger down.

"Why?" I asked.

"..." Caesar didn't speak.

"God! He's really bad at this." A voice from behind startled us both, we jolted and turned back to see Arius, who had somehow made his way right behind us without making a sound. "I'll explain." He walked by us, "Caesar is bad with words you see." He stood outside the stage, "You both want to leave here right?" He smiled his venomous smile.

"..." Neither me, nor Nora answered him. We both were on guard.

He sighed at our response, "Oh well. I'll let you go free." He said and we both exchanged a confused look with each other, then looked back at Arius, "It's simple. All you have to do is defeat Caesar in hand to hand combat. You win. You're free."

"It can't be that simple." Nora said.

"It is that simple." Arius kept smiling.

"I heard Caesar is really strong." Nora whispered, loud enough that only I could hear her.

I thought about it for a moment, then Looked at Arius.

"Why him!?" I yelled, "Why not you?"

All three of them looked at me and Nora shook her head, "That's not gonna make a difference!" She whisper yelled at me.

Ah… Shit?

"Me?" Arius thought about it for a moment, then smiled back at me, "Fine then. Let's do it like this. I'll fight you baby. Dora here with fight with Caesar."

"Excuse me? Baby?!"

"My name is Nora!!!"

Me and Nora both shouted together but neither of them cared.

Arius walked in the ring and Caesar walked out.

"Come on. I don't have much time." He invited me in. "Let's get this over with."

I walked to the ring, but stopped before entering, "What if we lose?"

"You'll be my slaves of course." He gestured me to come inside, "You'll have to do whatever I tell you to."

I walked inside, a bit nervous. "I win, I can leave?"

"If, you win."

He took his battle stance quite beautifully, one leg behind the other, hands in proper stance, like he had been taught by a kung-fu master.

I took my stance like a street bully and gulped.

"Fight" Caesar said from outside the ring and before I knew it, Arius was right in front of me. He almost landed his hit on me but I somehow ducked down to dodge, yet still he was quick.

He kicked me off my feet and I fell face flat on the ground.

I tried getting up immediately but I felt something hit my the back of my neck and I blacked out.

***

I woke up with a groan and found myself in my room, Nora on the other bed, completely blacked out. I picked up the tissue box on the side table next to my bed and threw it at her.

It landed on her head and she jolted up, then frantically looked around.

"Took you both long enough." The familiar voice made us both look at the person sitting on the stool by the bookshelf.

"Arius." I hissed his name.

"You both lost." He clapped for us, "Wow. Such expected results." He smirked.

"What do you want!" I glared at him.

"What I want?" He pretended to think about it, "Everything." He walked up to my bed and grabbed my face in his hand, I was going to push him away but even before I could make the attempt, he caught my wrists in his other hand. "You'll do whatever I want." His golden eyes stared into mine."Whenever I want."

"..." I gulped, so much hatred filled his eyes.

"I like it, when you don't speak back." He pecked my lips out of nowhere, then released me.

I looked at him, dumbfounded.

"You both will be starting your training tomorrow morning." He turned to leave, "Try to go against me and I won't hesitate to shock you."

Before shutting the door behind him he looked back at us, "And don't ever forget." He grinned,

"I own you."