The Prince and the Slave: Book Two

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Noah looked up as he heard the heavy bolt on the cell door being dragged across. The large door opened and a guard entered, leading Abey along with him. The slaves had all been returned from their valuations some time before - all except for Abey, who had been kept longer than the rest of them. Only the young man in the corner fully understood why, and he had spent the past few hours she had been gone even more withdrawn and silent, staring down at the floor beneath his knees.

But now she was being led back to the spot opposite him. He finally looked up and watched her, along with the other two captive slaves, as her ankle was once more fixed into its chain and the door locked behind them as the guard disappeared into the corridor. They continued to watch her in silence, the seconds slowly passing into minutes.

There was something different about Abey. Something had changed. Her face was blank and expressionless as she sat hunched against the wall. Her eyes, usually seeming to spark with surprising ferocity, were now dead and empty staring at the space on the floor two feet in front of her, but not really seeing anything.

Noah couldn't understand what could have caused this changed in his friend, and he and Number 9 couldn't think of anything to say, so both remained silent unable to look away from the empty girl next to them.

"Are you alright?" A deep, concerned voice came from the corner. Abey didn't react, but stayed as she was, continuing to stare at the ground. "Did they hurt you?" He continued, still getting no response.

"What do you mean? What have they been doing to her? Abey? What's happ-" Number 9 began tensely.

"No" The man said, making her stop short. "We don't ask. We don't need to know"

Number 9 opened her mouth as if to answer, but quickly closed it and turned her gaze back to Abey. It was the most she had ever heard the man speak, and there was an authority and care in his voice that made her do as he said.

Noah swallowed nervously and reached out his hand, gently taking Abey's in his own and giving it a gentle squeeze. But there was no reassuring squeeze back. Her hand was still and limp in his, and she still didn't take her gaze away from the floor.

Inside Abey's head, she could feel herself slowly fading away, becoming more and more of an empty shell as her humanity slipped away. It had almost happened once before, the lowest point of her life, a point she had hoped she would have to return to.

She had been with Atchiko at the time, the lowest point just a few weeks before she had been given to William. She had spent so long being told and treated like she was nothing, she had slowly started to believe it, and had nearly lost everything that had made her human. She had found her emotions dulled, making her unable to feel anything, and the days and people and places all blurred and were quickly forgotten. She had given up.

That had all changed when she had been given to William. He had made her a person once more, made her able to feel and experience things again, made her human. But now despite everything she had been through in the last year, how much she had grown and thrived, she was giving up again.

'He's not going to find you, not now.' The voice echoed round her empty mind. 'He won't even be looking anymore, if he ever was in the first place. He'll have someone else by now. Why would he want you? Look at what you are. This is what you're for. Nothing else. He's not going to find you.'

'William...' A second, feebler voice sounded in the back of her mind.

Abey didn't feel Noah giving her hand a second comforting squeeze as a tears slowly made their way down her face.