A Way of Escape

The Queen's handmaidens gathered behind her, gently brushing her hair while some offered a cup filled with blood. The Queen took a sniff of the sweet scent and eyed Minister Rueben again, "Is the King still on the fence about making my soon-to-be-born son as the crown prince?"

With his head bowed, Minister Rueben spoke in great pity, "Unfortunately, Your Majesty. The King has decided that he wouldn't allow the crown prince's position to be replaced yet. However, he promised that he shall give the little prince the title of the crown prince after he has come to age."

"That is far too late, I cannot wait for so long," said the Queen with her sharp fangs clenching. Her blood red eyes were burning brighter as she stared at the cup of warmed blood on her teacup. "Find me a way," ordered the Queen without looking up, "Make sure that my step son would not survive."

Minister Rueben's work has always been to the court of the royal family. However, he was allowed to gain his title all because of Queen Morgana's support. He knows so well not to cross the woman, knowing that when he does so and when he upsets her, she won't hesitate to strip him of his title or behead him. The vampire knew better than making his mistake thus he promised to the Queen, "I shall find a foolproof way to make certain the Crown Prince's death wouldn't be on your hands."

"Great!" Queen Morgana clapped her hand, "I am now rest assured by your promise. You may go and rest tonight, Rueben. I shall look aside on your mistake tonight but remember this in your head: I don't give many chances to my servants. The more you disappoint me, the more close you are to the guillotine."

Then Minister Rueben bowed his head. He stepped out of the door and stared at the slaves that were already gone. He took one of the knights and ordered them with a grit of his teeth, "Find me one of the slaves with the brown red hair. Next morning, you have to make sure you bring her to the crown prince's bedroom— no," he stopped, "Bring her to my office first."

He would not let Bella die before punishing her first. The Vampires have always been the most haughty creatures who look down upon humans, it was extremely upsetting that this lowly human had dared to cause the Queen to wound him.

On the other side of the castle, Bella had been placed in one of the prison cells in the castle's basement. As they were mostly lowly slaves, the castle didn't allow them to set foot inside at all cost, unless it was needed. Back to the dirty prison that smelled both of rotten flesh and murky swamp, Arabella hugged her knees as she stayed in one darker corner of the cell.

There were other girls inside but most of them were quiet as if they had been conditioned to do so after the heinous punishments they had received. She didn't know what she should do now. While she had thought at first that she could find a way to escape, she found out later on that "escaping" a castle isn't as easy as she had imagined. There were hundreds— no perhaps— even thousands of knights surrounding the castle. Most of the servants are humans which didn't pose so much of a problem but the other higher orders of the castle were vampires. Vampires are so thirsty for blood and would hesitate no less when they speak about drinking a human until they were dry for their hunger to be satisfied, just like the blonde-haired vampiress who she had seen earlier.

She feared that once she left the prison cell she would be pushed to another vampire's fangs but her mind was too exhausted.

Bella began to stare at the light that had passed through the iron bar door that had locked her inside. Her feet were turning cold but her body was gradually turning warmer than before. She also felt dizzy and suspected that she was having a fever from the pain and stress that she had suffered the past three days.

"Are you alright?" Someone spoke up to her.

She missed her sister so much that a part of her thought it had been her sister who had talked but when she looked up, she found it was a girl with a black hair. Her lips were torn to the side, her smile small and her nose holding faint freckles that weren't too clear until she stood at the ray of light that came from the candles in front of their cell.

"A- Aah what a foolish question, of course we aren't alright," said the girl as Bella was studying her. "I was in the same wagon as you, do you remember?"

Bella shook her head. Her voice was sore when she spoke, "I'm sorry, I didn't see anyone's faces properly." She was far too stressed about her surroundings and her sister's safety that the face she recognized other than her sister was only of Courtez. She prayed that Courtez would fulfill her promise and take care of her sister as she had begged before they were separated.

"Don't worry, I don't mind. I understand, I remembered you because you were talking to that older woman inside the wagon. I thought you wouldn't be dragged to the castle," said the girl, "My name is Iliza by the way, what is yours?"

"Bella, Arabella," she answered and Iliza smiled in return. Bella felt a shiver and the girl came closer to offer warmth with her company. "Do you know what will happen to us after this?" She asked Iliza who shook her head in return.

"I never stepped to the castle, so I don't know," said Iliza as she looked on the ground, crestfallen, "I was sold by my siblings. I'm the weakest and I get ill easily. When I saw you protecting your sister, I realized that you are a kind soul. It made me want to talk to you, before... our last days."

Arabella realized that the girls were not silent by choice, they were simply enjoying this silence before their nightmares as they knew they were going to die. Vampires wouldn't let them leave the castle ground with their necks intact because it was simply unheard of for anyone to release their livestock to the wild when they were going to feast on it.

"Stop haunting us," said another girl with a snapped tone. She lifted her face, her expression wasn't meek but severe. There was anger in her eyes but more deeply was hopelessness. "We know we're gonna die alright? Stop repeating those words like a chant. It won't do us better knowing that we're gonna die."

"Calm down," Bella spoke up for the girl to snap her gaze toward her.

"You better watch out for yourself," said the other girl with the brighter hazelnut hair. "You seem to be some kind of a magnet that pulls troubles toward your side so heed to my warning. You better watch out or you're gonna suffer. Also, stop taking care of others when your wrist is broken."

Her eyes widened as she realized that this girl knew that her wrist was broken and the fact that Rueben was keeping an eye on her. The girl might speak very pointedly but she doubted that the girl's intention was anything ill toward her. She especially knew this as she could see that the gaze in her eyes was warm despite the deep crevices between her eyebrows that were lined with anger.

"Oh come on, Donna. Stop being so mean to her," said Iliza.

Bella returned to both Iliza and Donna, "You two know each other?"

"No, that girl just came all over me," Donna said before she shifted to lay her entire body on the cold ground, "Anyway shut up. No one here wants to hear you two talking. The last thing we want is to sleep while gritting our teeth in fear of death."

"I'm sorry," Bella apologized as she knew that everyone was in a sensitive situation and how one word could unknowingly cause them to be driven further on edge. "We will be quiet."

The hazelnut girl, Donna, turned her head briefly and muttered under her breath, "It's not that you have to apologize... anyway." She then went quiet and fell asleep.

"Don't worry about her," whispered Iliza, "She was sold by her mother and I saw how even after she was dragged by Anderickk and his men, she was crying out for her mother's help."

So all of them were abandoned. A bitter taste spread on Bella's tongue. She was usually quite sarcastic and cynical to her situations but now, Bella found herself too exhausted to make any comment about the doom that loomed over her head. She knew that it wasn't going to be easy being the vampire's toy, but she didn't expect it would be this frightening.

Her wrist was aching and Iliza had gone to sleep. Not long after, her thoughts drifted around from fear to the peace she dreamt she had when she was still with Ariel in her village. Though the village does not have so many great memories, she recalled only the times she spent with her sister, singing, playing, and running away in the meadow as children.

Who would have known growing up would be so... unfortunate.

Before long her eyes were closed and her head lulled to sleep. Arabella didn't know how long she had slept but she had just closed her eyes when she heard the loud clank of the cell's door being knocked by a wooden baton. A knight shoved his head forward and demanded, "Which one of you has brown red hair?"

Bella had just winked her drowsiness away and was on high alert again. She realized it was her who was being talked about and Iliza's face immediately turned toward her. She hoped that Iliza's reaction wouldn't be too obvious as in the dark, her hair wasn't too apparently different from other brown haired girls. Donna who was also woken up yawned, "Maybe on the other side of the cell."

The knight narrowed his eyes but he didn't feel like talking to a lowly slave. He turned away, deciding to look for the other cells.

"Thank you," Bella said sincerely but Donna sighed.

"It won't be for long. They'll come again and I can't hide you by then. You still have time to steel your heart and prepare for the worst."

Bella clenched her fists as she tried so hard not to let her fear overwhelm her. Donna was correct as the next few minutes, the knight came again. This time he was holding a lantern in his hand and placed it inside the cell to have its light cast inside the dark cell. Upon noticing Bella the man pointed his hand, "Come with me. How dare you try to hide!"

Bella felt her legs weak as the knight rushed inside and dragged her out. She didn't know what was going to happen after now but she knew that she was in a great predicament. What was going to happen to her now?

As she was dragged over the castle's ground, she passed by a tall man who was passing by the corridor. His eyes narrowed and the crimson gaze landed on the girl with brownish red hair who was dragged away. He was eyeing them carefully as though he was going to do something when someone circled his arms around his shoulder, "Brother what are you looking at?"

The vampire didn't reply as he removed the young man's hand. When he looked again, Arabella had been dragged away from the corridor, "None of your business. You should go back to your mother, Malvo. If you keep hanging around with me, she's going to go all crazy again."

"Bleh," Malvo, one of the princes of the castle wearing the red tunic scoff. Despite them being brothers, Malvo's eyes weren't as red as the man who he was so friendly with. "No. Think about it, if you were in my position would you even want to stay with your mother who keeps demanding you to become a vampire every single day? Unlike you brother, I'm not a pureblood vampire, I wasn't born a vampire, and I don't wish to be a vampire."

"Whatever," said the vampire in the black tunic with a red cape draped lazily over his left shoulder. Golden buttons and embroidery covered his tunic as he stepped away from the corridor.

"Wait! Wait! Brother— Brother Cassius!"