Life Long Prisoner

Chapter 2

Aria

I woke up to a slap. I moaned and held my stinging cheek.

"Wake up." The king, or my 'daddy', ordered sharply. I tried to sit up but I was restrained to my bed. "We're going to have a ceremony tonight. You're probably going to be the main course." He bit into his wrist and shoved it against my chapped lips making the coppery taste flood my mouth. I gagged a little but I swallowed it because I knew he'd punish me if I didn't. "Rest up, bitch. You'll need it." He chuckled.

"If I'm not being fed on till later why am I tied up?" I rasped. I didn't realize how horrible I sounded. Dehydration could do that to someone. Not to mention my neck was bit into daily. I swallowed hard, trying to bring some moisture to my throat, but I didn't even have moisture in my mouth to help anything.

He smiled at me sadistically and leaned over to the ropes at my wrists and tightened them to as tight as they could possibly go and did the same to my feet. Burning flooded my wrists, and I felt like my bones were being squeezed together.

"For the fun of it."

I almost cried out in pain, but I didn't want to give him the pleasure so I bit my lip instead. He laughed at me. "You're pathetic." And with that, he walked out of my freezing cold cell, slamming the metal door loudly in the process.

I looked above my head and tried shifting my hands around. They were beginning to turn purple from the blood circulation being cut off. I could feel my skin splitting open as the harsh material of the ropes dug into it.

Blood from my wrists dripped down my arms the next hour I sat there. I had lost all feeling in my hands and they were completely purple. The veins in my arms were sticking out. My face contorted in pain as I tried not to cry. I've learned over the past years that crying gets me no where.

The door opened and walked in a terrified looking human girl with a tray of food. She had light blonde hair and soft blue eyes. She was impossibly thin like every other human in this place, and she was really short. She looked like she could be no younger than fifteen. I shook my head at this. This tiny girl in front of me has gone through more trauma in her life than any regular fifty year old would have before the world was controlled by the supernatural. She pulled a chair up by my bed. Was she going to feed me? What am I, a baby?

The world was completely different now. Humans no longer had any control over the world. They were food, servants, or dead. I was jealous of the latter. This was bad, but I knew humans could be treated worse in werewolf territory. I shuttered at the thought of anything being worse than this.

I looked down at the shaking hands of the girl and gently asked, "Could you untie my wrists?"

The girl looked at me with wide eyes, startled. She glanced at my wrists uncertainly and fearfully. I didn't blame her though. If she did anything wrong she'd get punished.

"Please," I begged. "My hands can't fall off because I have vampire blood in my system, but it feels like they are." I gave her a sad smile, trying to comfort her as much as I possibly could.

She swallowed loudly and glanced at my hands, then back to my eyes. She repeated this a few times and I thought for sure she wasn't going to do it, but eventually she stood up and started working on my wrists.

I gasped through my teeth when she let my wrist loose, and then again when she released my other. I sat up and quickly untied my ankles. My wrists and ankles were all bloody and bruised and my tingling hands and feet were still turning from purple to their normal color. I stared at them until the vampire blood in my system regenerated the ripped flesh of my wrists.

"Thank you." I said to the young girl and glanced over at her to see her across my cell looking scared. I held up both my hands towards her in surrender. "I'm not going to run away or attack you like a crazy person. I just wanted you to untie me. And if any of the vampires notice I'll tell them I undid them myself."

She visibly relaxed at this and stepped toward me. "Here," She said, offering my food to me.

I glanced down at my 16 ounce water bottle, lump of bread, and a considerably sized chunk of meat. The vampires always fed me more than usual before these events. I knew I'd constantly have teeth in me and be force-fed vampire blood multiple times throughout the night, so it was necessary for me to have more energy than normal.

"I hate these event things." The young girl in my room suddenly said looking at the floor with her arms crossed.

I laughed harshly as she glanced up, meeting my eyes. "Try being me." I wasn't trying to sound harsh, but I knew I did. This girl was only a servant. I knew she got bit every now and then, but that was nothing compared to what I went through on a daily basis.

She looked down at the ground embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be complaining."

"It's okay. No matter what the situation is, it sucks to be here. It sucks to be human." She met my eyes. "It's never gonna get better for us." I sighed as the truth came from my lips.

"We could escape you know." I raised a brow at her. "Tonight, at the ceremony. They're all gonna get super drunk. We could escape." Her voice was laced with hope, and as nice as the the thought was, I knew it was impossible. Maybe not for her, but I knew it was impossible for me. There's no way I could leave unnoticed. No matter how drunk they got, they would know if their virgin blood source disappeared.

"I'd never get away. I'm going to have a vampire feeding on me at all times.. and daddy dearest will notice if I'm gone." I rolled my eyes as the annoyance was clear in my tone.

"Dad?" She questioned, her light eyebrows drawing together.

"Yeah," I said, taking a deep breath. "The King is my dad."

Surprise flashed across her face and her jaw dropped. "What? Then why are you a blood bag? Wouldn't he want you to be safe?" She asked as she sat down next to me on my bed, intrigued.

"You're kidding, right?" I laughed harshly and turned my body towards her. "My dad or not, he's still a soulless vampire. I think he treats me worse because I am his daughter."

"What about your mom?" She asked me, pity evident in her voice.

I flinched at the question and turned away from her. I took a deep breath and replied, "My dad killed her when I was six."

She gasped. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry... I shouldn't have been prying."

"It's okay," I cut her off and turned to her. "She's who I think about when I'm being fed on or beaten. Her memory is what has gotten me through these ten or so years." I gave her a small smile.

She put a hand on my arm in a comforting gesture and smiled. "Well you won't be here eleven or so years because we are getting out of here tonight."

"Okay." I said quietly, returning her smile even though I knew it was impossible.