The Knights Pet

Chapter 22

Vicruls POV

I watched as the girl picked at her fingers, sitting alone in the common room in silence as the orange flame from the fire pit lit up the soft features of her face. She had become quiet, ever since the day Ren had informed us of what he had seen. It was almost like she knew, like she could since his betrayal despite none of us having the heart to tell her.

"I feel you staring." She quietly sighed, her tone making it clear the she wasn't saying it out of flirtation the way she usually spoke to me. "I feel your pity, I don't want it." Her eyes made there way up to mine, a look of sadness playing its way across her face despite her great effort to hide it. "I know not what you mean. I was only admiring you. Am I not allowed this simple pleasure anymore, pet?" Another sigh, this one accompany a by a defeated shoulder drop.

"Im sorry, Master. I didn't mean to be disrespectful." She spoke, her voice quivering ever so slightly, as if her own hostility towards me had brought her great displeasure. "You are free to speak your mind if it so pleases you, pet. I know you mean no harm." She stared up at me with wide innocent eyes as I approached, stopping in front of where she sat. There was a long pause, the girls eyebrows scrunched together in thought, contemplating her next words.

"I know Kylo told you. Trudgen isn't very good at keeping secrets." I rolled my eyes at this. Despite his rugged exterior and stone cold demeanor towards everyone else, the knight was weak for her, we all knew that simple fact. He would have told her whatever she wanted to know if she simply asked him sweetly. "Kylo was only doing what he thought best." She nodded lowly, she knew his intentions were pure, but that didn't make her any less upset with him.

"I didn't tell you for a reason, I don't want you to think differently of me. I didn't have a choice." Her face reddened, making her embarrassment apparent. Her words almost angered me, I hated that she felt that way, that she would even have the thought of us thinking badly of herself for any reason. "We do not think differently of you. What Kylo saw changes nothing." I didn't realize how angry I had become until I felt the tension in my balled up fists.

She shook her head, refusing to meet my eyes, fixated heavily on the flooring in front of her. "He didn't see everything." Her voice said barley above a mumble, her breathing shallow and nervous as the words made there way from her lips. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heartbeat before I spoke again, a new fit of rage bubbling within me at the thought of those men hurting her.

"What do you mean by that? What did he not see?" She immediately shook her head, as if she could sense my agitation. "I don't wish to upset you anymore, master. I shouldn't have even mentioned it." She was cowering, pressing herself further into the couch as if to avoid my wrath, but it was not towards her, never her. Slowly I moved closer, watching her flinch as she prepared herself for an impact that would never come. I sat myself beside her, pulling her into my lap, holding her against me protectively.

"You have not upset me. I hold no anger towards you. I would never hurt you, do you understand me?" I questioned, taking gentle hold of her jaw to make her look at me. She nodded against my grip, her hands finding their way to my wrist as she stared into my eyes. "Now tell me, what didn't Kylo see?" Her eyes began to well with tears, her lip pushing out ever so slightly as she tried to contain her emotions.

"They- they had other uses for us." She closed her eyes as she continued, like it was to terrifying to look upon my face while she said it. "They made us fight. People paid to watch. They threw us in the pit with the other girls and forced us to kill each other. They didn't even see us as people, we were only entertainment for them. They told us winner survives, and the only way to win..." she could no longer contain her tears, hiccups escaping her as she scrunched up her face in a pained expression, as if remembering it hurt.
"I killed so many. My own friends."

It was taking every piece of me to stay calm, to not fly into a fit of delirium. I wanted to go back to that club and slaughter the lot of those men, slimy twisted worm ridden filth. This explained her skills, her animalistic survival style way of fighting. It all made sense now. I inhaled deeply, doing all I could to relax the muscles in my body as not to frighten the girl. I took hold of her face, pressing her forehead to my own.

She was sobbing now, the sound tearing my heart into a billion pieces. She didn't deserve that life, that abuse, that cell. "I wish I could tell them how sorry I am. I never wanted to hurt them. They were kind to me. They were kind and I killed them, master." I shook my head, planting kisses against every inch of her face that I could, wanting more then anything to sooth her, to calm her.

"You did what you had to do to survive. I know you never wanted that. I know your heart, my pet. You are pure. Those men, they are monsters, and they will pay. I promise you this. They will pay."