Salvation [manxman]

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I quickly learned that offense was better than defense. Offense kept people from coming close to you before they could try something while defense just stopped them from hurting you if you were strong enough to fend them off. I developed quite the foul mouth over the following months and most of the time people just stayed away from me but sometimes they weren't having it and then we got into fights. Nolan on the other hand found it very amusing.

Once my hip had mostly healed and I was able to walk without a crutch again, Nolan took me to the market in Styx and I kept looking for the old vampire lady but I couldn't find her, so we kept looking for the ingredients we were supposed to buy for Koa. Nyx's birthday was coming up and he was basically chained to the kitchen, so we had to help out. A couple of humans were coming towards us and one of them purposefully smacked his shoulder into me as they passed, making me collide with Nolan.

"Watch were you are going, asshole." I hissed and tried tp push past them.

"Get out of my way, low blood and take your faggot friend with you." He smirked, seeking the confrontation.

Nolan put his hand on my arm to drag me with him but I wasn't having it. I saw Nolan as my friend and I wasn't letting this asshole insult him just because he thought he was half a step higher on the food chain than me. I turned around and put a hand on my hip, glaring at him. He just smirked back at me while the other's who were with him eyed me amused. They probably thought I would never stand a chance.

"What did you just say?" I snarled, glaring at him.

"I told you to get out of my way and back to sucking your master's cock." He grinned, provoking me further.

I just snapped and started going at him, trying to scratch his  eyes out. I had caught him off guard because he didn't seem to think I'd actually try to fight back and managed to make him stumble and fall on his back. Within seconds I was on top of him, clawing at his face and trying to beat the panic that was still storming inside of me. I wasn't able to do as much damage as I hoped for before someone grabbed me by the back of my Chiton and lifted me up in the air so I couldn't reach the asshole anymore.

"That's enough." A voice boomed and I stopped struggling.

The events after that all blurred together but they restrained me which made me even more agitated and I was fighting back with everything that I had. I hated being restrained and I was a crying, pathetic mess after that who wouldn't calm down, no matter what they tried. Nolan and I ended up in a cell and Erebus had to come and had to have us released back into his custody. 

The master of the other servant was livid and demanded I'd get a hundred whipping strokes publically to demonstrate that this kind of behavior wasn't being tolerated. Apparently I had lowered his servant's value by leaving nasty scars on his face. Erebus managed to negotiate with him and get it down to thirty in a private setting while the owner didn't budge on administering them himself. I was furious that the other one involved was getting away without punishment and Nolan had to spent a few hours calming me down.

The punishment was supposed to take place the following day and after I had stopped freaking out over the lack of punishment for the other guy I continued with freaking out over my punishment. I had received a total of five whipping strokes so far because I had eaten a piece of pastry that didn't belong to me as a child and still didn't know how I managed to get through that. It had ripped the skin apart, exposing the sensitive flesh underneath. I had cried for hours and everytime it had managed to scab I moved and it ripped right open again. It needed weeks to fully heal. I didn't know how I was supposed to survive thirty.