Devil-ish

1

       "She's waking up", they were like whispers, penetrating the fog of darkness that surrounded her mind.
     

   'Who's waking up', she wanted to ask but she couldn't, the fog sealed her lips and paralysed her body. Slowly, the fog began to recede, her eyes gained focus until she could make out a sea of faces, pressing too close to hers, panic welled up inside her at the close proximity but she pushed it down, she needed to get a read of her situation and hold onto her bearings.
    

   Someone pressed a cup of stale-looking water to her lips. Not even sure if she had the right to be picky, she took a large swallow of water and nearly choked in protest, if possible, the water tasted dry but she swallowed to get rid of the cottony feeling in her mouth.
  

   "P..please, w..here am I?", she asked as she was gently pulled up to a sitting position by one of the oddly-dressed people surrounding her. She wasn't answered because just then, a middle-aged woman with plain, common features and a thick-set walked in. Frantic whispers of "Mrs Klenton" wafted through her ears as the people surrounding her edged away almost fearfully.
  

   "I leave you for only a minute and I come back to find all of you choking her with your foul odors, is that how much free time you have? Should I report this to the masters? Leave now, all of you!" Immediately, they all scrambled out of the room, leaving her with the frightening woman.
    

   "Sit up straight when I want to address you", the woman commanded. For some strange reason, she felt herself sitting up straighter, the level of authority in he woman's tone was astonishing. "I will be addressed as Mrs Klenton, you are?".
   

   "Camilla...Camilla Hurberts" she replied, her voice shaky.
  

   "How old are you?" Mrs klenton demanded again. 'Is this an interrogation' Camilla wondered, yet she didn't withhold her answer.

   "Seventeen", Camilla replied shakily.

   "You will address me as ma'am when I am speaking to you, understood?" Mrs Klenton ordered albeit harshly.

   "Y..yes Ma'am", Camilla stuttered. This was becoming too confusing. Why was she here? How did she get here? Who is this woman? Who were those people? Her head swam as her brain tried to come up with different answers to her questions.

   "Good, you're sharper than you look", Mrs Klenton said, sounding somewhat pleased. 'And how do I look' Camilla wondered.

   "A slave will direct you to the baths and give you your uniform so sit still", and with that, Mrs Klenton turned and walked out of the room. 'A slave?!' Camilla wondered, 'where the hell am I?'
  
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   A quiet auburn-haired girl wearing a white dress with a black apron, 'Camilla had decided she would not refer to them as slaves' directed her to the baths. The girl led her out of the long room, filled with beds, that she was in, then she just walked down what seemed to be a large hallway and opened a thick wooden door on their right with an old rusted key and motioned for camilla to step inside.

   The first thing she noticed was the size, it was the size of a normal bathroom, yet four very small shower stalls were fitted in it. It was too small and the grimace on her face showed as much.

   "You are required to spend less time, Mrs Klenton would be very angry if you overused this privilege and I do not wish to offend her, so please strip and take your bath quickly", the girl said calmly.

   'Privilege?' Camilla wondered. Then the urge to understand her situation held her again, she turned to the girl and calmly asked "Please where exactly are we?", she was taken aback when the girl looked at her like she was dim.

   "In the bathroom of course", the girl replied, her tone sounding incredulous.

   "I mean, where exactly is this place that we're in?", Camilla asked again, trying to keep the annoyance she felt out of her tone. The girl's eyes widened as understanding dawned on her, she leaned in to whisper almost as if someone could hear what they were saying, 'Who's acting dim now', Camilla thought to herself smugly.

   "I heard that we're actually in the middle of the woods or at the end of it but this place has been fortified in a cloaking and boundary spell by a very strong...", the girl stopped whispering when she heard Camilla's hiss of annoyance.

   "Look, I get I don't know anything about this place but I'm not that stupid, when you say cloaking spell, you mean witch and witches are not real, all that voodoo and charms are bloody fake so don't try to play me for a fool", Camilla said harshly, clearly annoyed.

   "Look, I'm not playing nothing with you, I learned the hard way, I...", her explanation was once again interrupted by Camilla.

   "Can you at least just tell me why I'm here?",Camilla asked, not bothering to keep her disdainful tone at bay.

   "Same reason why all of us her here, all of us are slaves but most of us are blood dispensers for the Masters and maids while the rest are presents from the werewolf Council for the Masters pleasure", the slave said, warily, trying to gage Camilla's reaction.

   'There's that word 'Masters' again' Camilla though to herself, "When you say blood dispensers, do you mean this is a black market operation or is this a m...mafia situation?", Camilla asked, she chose to completely ignore the 'werewolf' in the statement, she had already decided the girl was off her rocker.

   "I didn't say anything about a mafia, the Masters are not in any mafia, they are...", she leaned closer to whisper again "...vampires". Camilla huffed on annoyance, was the girl playing her or was the girl actually this dim?.

   "First witches, then werewolves, now vampires, how about leprechauns or goblins?", Camilla sneered her tone mocking. The girl bristled under the insult.

   "It's time you took your bath, I remember saying I didn't want to offend Mrs Klenton", the girl said curtly, all sense of familiarity gone. Camilla suddenly felt remorse, she shouldn't have reacted that way, she was new here and the girl was her only source of information, she mustn't screw this up even if her source of information seemed a little bit insane. Who knew if Patrick orchestrated the whole thing and she was currently in a mental institution, she wouldn't put it past the old bastard.

   "Look I'm sorry, this is all just a bit new to m, I may have come of as a condemning person but that's just because I'm trying to stay sane, please understand", Camilla said softly, giving what she hoped looked like an apologetic smile.

   "Yeah yeah, I understand you but I wouldn't be here, wearing this and bowing to anyone if I didn't know what was going on so you've got to trust me", the girl said, smiling now.

   "I do, I'm Camilla by the way", Camilla replied, smiling genuinely now.

   "I'm Heather, now please take your bath before Mrs Klenton decides to use me as demon chow", she sounded playful but her eyes held real fear.

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