Changing Oneself (Entangled side story)

3, Attempting Rebellion

I managed to get a few hours of sleep in, and woke in the afternoon. After stretching, my attention immediately turned to the leash attached to the hook in the wall. I furrowed my brows as I remembered the weird incantation Yenthyr murmured. 

There was nothing physically stopping me from simply unwrapping the leash from the hook, so I tried it out. Once my fingertips came into contact with it, though, a sudden bolt of electricity shocked me enough that I could feel it all the way up my arm. I gasped and snatched my hand back, rubbing my arm as the unpleasant and vaguely painful sensation faded. 

"Fuck..." I swore. I tried unlatching the clip that attached the leash to the leather collar around my neck, and the same thing happened. I growled in frustration. I got up onto my knees, since that was as high as the leash allowed me to go, and peered out of the narrow windows. 

Now that it was day, I could clearly see what laid outside the castle. On this side, it looked as though they had an extravagant garden, way down below, that stretched out to a tall wall of hedges at the edge of the property. There were stone pathways cutting through and around large sections of various plant life; flowers, shrubs, ferns, and small fruit trees. There were also a couple little ponds, with lilypads and shadows of fish swimming beneath the water. The entire garden had to be roughly the size of two football fields. 

Beyond the tall hedges, I could see trees, spanning as far as I could see. The sight of them teased the idea of freedom. I could easily navigate that forest. I could easily lose the vampires in its depths. 

I eyed the mount on the wall that the leash was attached to. I couldn't touch it, but maybe I could pull it off by sheer strength alone. I sat down and planted my feet on the wall on either side of the hook's mount, and pushed myself back, straining as the leash pulled taut on the leather collar around my neck. I groaned as it dug into my skin, but kept pushing against the wall. I gritted my teeth, my muscles trembling and neck aching. 

With the amount of strength I was putting into it, either the leash itself or the mount on the wall should've broken by now. But neither budged. I don't think the metal or the wall had even strained a little from my pulling. 

I released a breath and slumped down onto the big cushion. Fuck... 

My neck ached, and I glared up at the ceiling in response. Stupid vampires and their stupid magic.

I sighed in frustration and turned over onto my side, reaching over and grasping the pillows from beside the cushion and bunching them up around me, then grabbing another blanket and draping it over myself. Chances were, I was stuck here, and wouldn't be able to get a chance to try and escape until they took this leash off the wall. So I settled in and tried to ignore the aching in my neck. 

After a while, I tried picking at the leather collar, hoping to tear it, but I felt the faint beginnings of an electric shock, warning that if I didn't stop messing with the collar, I'd get shocked again. Rolling my eyes, I left it alone. 

For most of the day, I drifted in and out of sleep, glancing at the windows between each nap to see the sky slightly darker than before. Eventually, I was waking up to someone pushing at my shoulder with their foot.

"Wakey wakey," Ieli's voice pushed through my sleepy haze, and I growled as I rose up to a sitting position. He chuckled in response. "Such a grumpy-pants."

I watched as he crouched down and unwrapped the leash from around the hook, and from there he tugged on it to make me stand. As he led me out of the small room, he began talking. "Normally we eat breakfast in our quarters, so that's what we're going to start off doing today. Afterwards, you're going to go down with the other servants and start learning how to do your duties. Most of which will involve cleaning and preparing food and drinks for us. After that, you'll come back here and we'll do a little training session."