Emperor's Pet

Plans of Escape

Cassandra's room compared to mine is much darker and ghoulish. She had her curtains shut only letting in a slit of light. Her bed was unmade with the sheets and blankets tangled together. Somehow, she had her old clothes on her bed wadded up. Besides all of that we had the same room having the same things.

"I'm exhausted", she whimpered, flopping onto her messy bed. I sat down in her vanity seat across from her. She forced her body upward to face me as well.

"First order of business, Akira. You have to do whatever I say. I haven't been here that long, but longer than you. I have gathered some useful information about the vampires' and the Empire. What would you like to know first?" She requested, crossing her legs. Sooner slouching while resting her cheek on her knuckles.

I thought back of what Samuel had said about the three symbols. Making me want to know more about it.

"What are the three symbols they worship?" I ask her.

"The three symbols aren't that important, but if you want to know so be it", she shrugged,"The three symbols are three groups of vampires that have mastered a skill related to that specific group and are categorized into one of them", she took a breathe,"Which the three symbols are a pentagram, two swords crossing, and a fleur de lis. The pentagon's skill is leadership, swords is combat, and fleur de lis is intelligence of its IQ"

Wow. That's a lot to take in as its being told to me right now. I think up more questions that could be important to know for myself.

"Oh yeah!" I chirped, excited I found another good question to ask her,"When do we ever eat?"

"Seriously?" She furrowed a brow at me. I nod my head really wanting to know. I'm starving so much that I could devour a whole elk by myself. Last time I ate was before I left to the Mate Race yesterday morning. My stomach grumbled daring to digest my insides.

"We get fed late at night by the night men. Only one meal a day every single night", she answered. I thought she was bluffing about the one meal, but she showed no sign of humor on her face. Do they really feed us once and expect us to have the energy to do so much work.

"That must be horrible", I say, shaking my head.

"Your stomach will get used to it, but we're not staying around for that to happen", she boasted, smirking. I smirk back and nodded. Can't wait to eat though and be fed by these Night Men. Who were these Night Men?

"Cassandra, you mentioned these 'Night Men'. Who exactly ate they?" I wondered. She thinks for awhile.

"Just like I said 'They come to feed us at night'. Simple as that", she quoted herself. But, something about this seemed like they did more than feed us. I don't know if it's the name or paranoia sinking in after Cassandra's pep talk on trust.

"Anything else?" She questioned. I thought long and hard but nothing came to mind. So there must be nothing more important to ask.

"Nope", I responded. Cassandra stands up and reaches under her bed.

"Good. Now onto the plan to escape", she pulls out a folder.

"We'll call the mission Escape from Prison", I insisted, enthusiastically. Maybe a little too happiness behind those words of mine.

"How about...no", she quipped, opening the folder. It held papers with writing on them. She pulled out a bundle of them together. I saw the first page at the top of the paper that read in bold letters 'Maps and Schedules'.

"What's that?" I hear myself ask. Cassandra didn't look up at me and kept digging through the folders.

"I stole these files from a White Rose vampire that had dropped one of his folders on his way to a trial today. Let me tell you he is such a lousy worker", she explains, proudly. She handed me the bundled of paper with maps and schedules.

"Look through that and see if you can find any highlighted areas. The highlighted ones usually means that all the vampires gather in one spot at one time for a celebration or something like that", she ordered, flipping through her own stack of papers. I open it up to the first page with a map of the Empire. It was pretty big and not very many buildings though. The garden was right in the middle of the map that took up most of the space. They must really like their roses.

"That's maps not schedules", Cassandra spoke, knowing I only turned one page. I skimmed through the pages looking for where the schedules start. Finally, I land on the first page of a schedule of guard rotations. Guards? I never seen one roaming around here at all.

"Hey, Cassandra, there is guards here?" I glance up at her. She kept on searching not meeting my eyes.

"Well yeah, duh. Why wouldn't there? If there wasn't it would be easy to escape this place. The reason you don't see them is that they guard the perimeter at night. During the day, vampires are all over the place, so you would get caught instantly", she fumbled with a wrinkled piece of paper.

"True", I agree, looking down at the page again.

It read:

First Shift: 8:00-8:30 pm

Second shift: 9:00-9:30 pm

Third shift: 10:00-10-30 pm

Fourth Shift: 11:00-11:30 pm

Fifth Shift: 12:00-12:30 am

Sixth Shift: 1:00-1:30 am

Seventh Shift: 2:00-2:30 am

Eighth Shift: 3:00-3:30 am

Nineth Shift: 4:00-4:30 am

Tenth Shift: 5:00-6:00 am

This is very helpful information to know. Thank goodness I befriended Cassandra to be my break out buddy. Tala had seemed to have given up, Jennete and Bridget didn't care because they were together. At least I met someone who believes there is escape to this dreadful place.

It seemed they rotated every thirty minutes except for the tenth shift. In that book I read in my room said that curfew is at 8 and wake up time is 6. So, the night is guarded by vampires all through the hours of the night just like day time. This might be harder than I thought it would be. But, I've got this far. What could go wrong?