Royal Pain ~ Slave to the High Royals

Chapter Two

My head snapped up to look out of the window as the bus came to a rumbling halt. Many lightly coloured buildings towered over the bus, all clustered together in the shape of a city which formed The Centre. Through the gaps in between the buildings I could clearly make out a mansion-like building resting on the top of a hill above the rest of the city. I recognised the dark-stoned structure from paintings that had been placed around my old school.

It was the home to the High Royals.

Nobody spoke as the front few rows of the bus were dismissed, and told to wait outside in amongst the group of teenagers already gathered in a cluster on the pale-bricked road. I followed behind them as we all exited and rubbed my arms as a cold wind whipped through the air.

The atmosphere of the place was chilling in itself. It was like we were cornered, or being herded like cattle. The feeling of oppression was choking, a mutual fear spreading like wild-fire through the gathering crowd and impacting myself.

I breathed in a mixture of fresh air and smoke fumes from the busses as I took my place beside others gathered of my age. A large, pale woman stood before us, a bitter frown etched upon her stern face as if she had smelt something filthy. Her hair was a frizzy, dark mess and fell to just above her shoulders and she seemed to have smothered her face in layers of bright make-up, her lips painted blood-red.

All-in-all, she definitely was not at any stretch, beautiful.

''Welcome to The Centre,'' Her voice carried until it reached everyone's ears. It held a sense of power and authority over us that had goose bumps rising on my arms at the sound. She was most definitely a vampire. ''You will be split into groups according to height, age, build and work capability to determine which jobs you will be doing as a slave here amongst the vampires.'' Her eyes scanned the crowd, passing quickly over me as I went unnoticed.

A few murmurs could be heard around the group as people became unsettled and realisation hit that we would be working sooner rather than later, most likely split up from our friends. This didn't bother me really; I had grown up alone with no brothers and sisters and never had any proper friends. It's not like I don't agree with them, I just never put myself out there to be bubbly and friendly to people when I knew my life would turn to this in the end. Probably not all that healthy a frame of mind for a girl my age, but that's what the vampires seem to do to you these days.

''Silence!'' The woman's voice echoed across the street bringing the voices to a sudden stop. ''You will not speak unless spoken to. You hold no power here.'' A cruel smile spread across her face as she spoke, drawing out her words, and two glistening fangs could be spotted poking out from between her lips.

My heart began beating faster as fear coursed through my veins. There was no going back now.

I felt the crowd around me move as we were shoved around to form straight lines parallel to one another. At the front of each line I could see a vampire inspecting the humans. The line I was in just so happened to be led by the female vampire who had just spoken earlier. I watched her eyes rake up and down the young girl's form at the front of the line before she picked up a pink coloured slip from inside her pocket and shoved it in the girl's hand. The girl then was directed to stand next to a pink cone placed directly behind the woman. I noticed that there were several cones dotted around the space, and as the line shortened different teenagers were given different colours to sort them into groups. It seemed demoralising and childish, but that was probably what the sick minded Punishers were going for.

It was a simple way of categorising us, no advanced technology to show for the many years we had fought and failed. During the war and after, it was as if time had come to a halt as the development of technology ceased. The devastation that came as a result of the many lives lost led to slower advances in technology. Though, it wouldn't be surprising to see the vampire's hiding more deadly weaponry and constructions from humanity.