sold away :part2

Another guardsman stood at the cell door as he walked in, holding a whip in his left hand and a bloody cloth in the other. Zoe stared at the whip in Fear, 'what are they going to do with that!?… Why does he have a bloody cloth in his hands?', "Are you sure she's a good replacement? What if master Daron finds out about it... then what?", "*tch* he wouldn't mind if we took just one slave and besides madam Elisabeta paid for fifteen slaves to be sent to her, but you killed one out of your stupidity and if we decide to send fourteen slaves madam Elisabeta will complain to Daron and we'll lose our jobs, or even our heads for sure", "oh now I get it.. But why this slave?", "fool that is because She's little and the master wouldn't even notice that she's gone", "(sigh) I hope that you're correct", little Zoe was scared, she was stuck in the position of getting sold off without Daron's content, but in her situation anything was better than staying in the hands of Daron.

She was chained and brought out by the guards before they were led down the stairs, as they hooked the chains that were connected to her hands and legs to the shackle.

Reaching the last floor, another guardsman at the institution pulled the gateway open so that they could pass, Zoe's eyes fell on the vehicle that drove in, she thought that they were all going to be put in a truck, but it never occurred to her that they would be put in a carriage.

The carriage looked larger compared to that which she had seen passing by in the market of her town. It was black in color, the base was made of grey wood and the top looked similar to that of a dark rubicund vehicle.

Inside, she caught sight of other slaves who didn't look happy, most looked scared and some were crying. The slaves consisted of mostly young girls whom she guessed to be people at the age of eighteen to twenty-three and a woman in her thirties. It seemed like the institution found them to be useless which made her wonder what happened to the people who aged to the point they couldn't be sold to anyone.

There was one thing that Zoe noticed when she was thrown into the pit before she fainted again, there was an odd smell that made her stomach turn, and the smell was unbearable (the stench of dead bodies). Zoe didn't understand why it smelt so bad to the extent of killing a bird, but right now she didn't mind any of that, all her thoughts were still on avenging her mother's death, but was it still possible?.

Zoe was roughly pushed forward, "What are you doing standing there! Get inside and sit with the rest of them!" the guardsman pushed her again until she climbed and sat down with the other slaves 'rude'.

Though the carriage was spacious compared to the space of a normal carriage, it was still cramped up with a number of people in it.

The journey was long, it felt like more than an hour or two but it was a journey of four hours. The vehicle wasn't stopping anywhere and when it did, it was only when they had reached the part of the town where a slave/pet store was located. The store was a place where one could find pets (slaves) that were not sold out in the open.

Zoe and the other slaves couldn't see anything as when they were asked to step down from the carriage the guards blindfolded them. The guardsmen weren't gentle when it came to getting the slaves down from the carriage. After they stepped down everyone was pulled or dragged before being pushed to stand in the corner of the store.

"Madam Elisabeta we've got the slaves you asked for", Zoe could hear the guard walk in the opposite direction from where they stood, "I hope you have brought the exact number of girls I asked for", "of course madam Elisabeta we would never make a mistake or disappoint you, we even brought them in the best transportation we could offer, to make it up to your class of standard", her expression quickly formed into that of pure disgust, "you insignificant filthy refuse, how dare you compare me to those rotten slaves, you even had the audacity to compare my standard to that petty and foul conveyance of yours *tch* fools!!!!", the guard felt like he had been slapped in the face with the insults she had given to him.

"Oh!! And remember this, if you ever and I mean ever compare me to those dog's I'll have your tongue's for compensation and I mean both of you", "were very sorry madam Elisabeta we'll never make that same mistake again", "whatever, drop them in those cages", the woman pointed to the end of the store "yes madam Elisabeta".

All the slave eyes were untied and they were all put in cages that were large enough to fit them, but Zoe's cage was much smaller due to her size, her cage was left half open. All the slaves cages were lined up and the guards walked to one cage after another putting a collar on their neck, 'they treat us like animals' Zoe thought to herself.

All the slaves were each given a collar before their cages were locked up and when it got to Zoe's turn she glared at it in anger, she couldn't bear the thought of being humiliated like an animal, and she could handle the torture of work but…. Collars? 'How can they treat a human being so lowly'?

Zoe could feel the hard gaze of madam Elisabeta on her, looking up Zoe watched as she majestically approached her cage.

Madam Elisabeta looked like she belonged to a bloodline of great vampires. Her hair was fuchsia russet in color, and her emerald green eyes stood out beautifully to match her expensive ear rings.

Madam Elisabeta eye's looked cold and deceitful it had some kind of intimidating stare like she had power over everything, her lips were bloodshot red, like as if it was painted with real blood, she wore hand gloves that was the length of her elbows and a neoprene gown that was tightly wrapped around her body, with a side cut from the bottom of the dress up to her thigh showing of her bare legs. She had her dress show her skin and her chest tied loosely and opened showing her full breast 'shameless' Zoe thought to herself.

Noticing the movements of Madam Elisabeta towards her, Zoe immediately bow's her head very low pinning her eyes to the ground just to avoid trouble but now it was too late, and there was no way to avoid this approaching misfortune.

"Open her cage fully", madam Elisabeta said haughtily, 'gasp, she noticed that I was glaring at the collar, what's she going to do to me, is she going to punish me? Zoe why are you so stupid you couldn't just stop your glares for a little while. You had one thing to do, just one thing, to play innocent and you blew it (sigh) now you've done it. I'm doomed for sure', Zoe scolded herself mentally in knowing the trouble that approached her.

"AMBER!!!!!" madam Elisabeta shouted at the top of her voice making the whole room silent, a blond girl covering a veil that exposed only half of her face came running out of the door. The blond girl bowed her head on reaching where her master stood, "yes milady?", "Get me my whip" the two guard's stared at lady Elisabeta, eye wided.

The blond girl's gaze immediately fall's on Zoe as she stared at her in shock, 'why would madam want to use her iron whip on this little child. What did she do to upset milady?' [Amber thought to herself], slowly turning around the girl ran towards a different door which led to a different room. Zoe could see pity and confusion in the girls eyes as she stared at her before running to get what her master had sent her to bring, 'why would she pity me? What is this woman planning to do?'

Zoe didn't see it before but now that the girl had ran past her, she could see that below the veil the she wore, there was a cut scar on the side of her right cheek. Zoe felt fear rise in her at the thought of the punishment that was going to be given to her.

The woman's slave returned back with a whip in her hands, it looked like the same whip Daron used on her but this one was different and thick, it looked like it was made of flexible iron. The handle was made of silver, which made Zoe wonder if the whip was really made of iron, Zoe was immediately snapped out of her thought's when she heard the strict tone of madam Elisabeta, "put the collar on", 'what!?', "stop staring I said put the collar on!!!", Zoe felt paralyzed and speechless from the fear that flowed in her head, but she didn't let it overpower her.

Zoe stretched her hands in an attempt to take the collar but immediately jumped back when she felt the whip hit her face with force, just one hit was enough to make her cry in pain, 'OUCH!, what did I do wrong?'.

Zoe felt the side of her cheek burn in pain, "foolish slave!!!" the woman said through a gritted teeth.

Whipping Zoe again she did not allow her to speak or react before kicking her on her stomach. Madam Elisabeta then reached for the collar, grabbing it she tied it around Zoe's neck and pulled it with force. Madam Elisabeta made Zoe feel like a worthless junk that could be thrown away at any time, "(gasp) I- I …can't … breath", Zoe tried gasping for air but the collar was tied to tightly, "dogs in my shop aren't allowed to breathe unless their master tells them to", 'this time I can't escape it, I'm going to die for sure' Zoe thought to herself as the collar got tighter around her neck making it even harder for the little girl to breath.

Harshly kicking Zoe into her cage, she turned around and angrily stomped out of the room in frustration, the kick gave Zoe time to breath in some air that came into her throat "AMBER!!!", "Yes madam!", "I'm not in a good mood prepare me some hot tea to drink" "yes my lady" amber bowed and stared at Zoe before running out to answer her master's call.

Zoe rubbed her face in an effort to reduce the pain, but it seem to increase even more "now I know who to avoid… hot tempered witch" Zoe murmured under her breath, folding her kneels up to her chest, she sat down and tried to re think the whole scenario and how it could have gone wrong to the point of getting herself killed, Zoe could feel the itchiness of the collar around her neck and it felt unbearable but she endured it, scratching the back of her neck she tried to get the collar to loosen but it wasn't working because of the cage obstructed her from moving her hands(sigh). Zoe watched the two guards walk out of the store in joy with a sack of gold coins in their hands 'what will happen to me?'

~ ~ ~

Daron walked out of Kieran's office with a grin on his face and his shoulder's lifted high in pride, "I've finally found the vessel that will redeem the vampires reign and bloodline", reaching the stairs near the end of the exit he halted awaiting the arrival of his vehicle, minutes passed before a vehicle finally drove into the organization. In seeing the vehicle Daron quickly rushed down the stairs and walked towards the door. The butler stepped out and lowered his head while holding the door wide open to allow Daron to enter, closing the door the butler entered back in and started driving.

When he reached the slave institution, he walked straight into his office, then he unlocked the doors before going straight to his desk to unlock the lower drawers, shuffling through papers, he sat down carefully reading page by page to prepare document's that would allow him to transfer Zoe to the head agents so they can experiment more on her, "I can finally get promoted, after all my years of working, I'm finally there".