Live Like Them *Book 1*

//2// Violet

Bile rose in my throat as they called us over, I was close to stumbling on my own feet but I forced myself to swallow hard. I could hear the cutlery banging against the sides of the plate as I walked out of the kitchen and to the two men who were sitting there, barely even talking and staring me down like I was their pray.

I could feet Freyas breath on my neck as she followed shortly behind me, her stare locked on the back of my head. I wobbled to the table, having to use the hard structure to prop me up and keep me from collapsing under pressure. It was like this every day and you would think that I would harden up, but I was just as scared as Freya. 

The bang of the plate onto the table caused me to jump, I could sense that Freya was getting worried because she had put her plate next to her master and rested her arm on my shoulder to keep me from having to face those monsters.

"DONT HELP HER!" Elijah boomed, he was close to smacking her across the face but if it hadn't been for the other brother who had got up out of his seat and yanked me from her grasp, then maybe she would be dealing with more than a smack across the face. 

"I am disappointed in you Freya." I heard the older, much taller brother say to her as she tried to unlock her gaze from his. I could tell she was trying to pull away but his strong grasp restrained her from escaping. He smacked her across the face, not showing any mercy. 

As the room went silent and the brothers began to dig into their food, I heard them say something along the lines of 'shoo'. I couldn't have been too sure since my ears were ringing from all the sudden shouting and my face was dripping with tears.

Freya grabbed me by the hand and we both made our way over to the laundry room, beginning to clean their clothes with a hand scrubber that they had found in some old warehouse a while ago. Since Freya and I have been here for a while, we know their routines like the back of our hand, remembering everything down to how many steps they take in each room to how many times we can see their chests rise up and down.

Escaping from here is a lot harder than it sounds, even though we know everything, the place is locked up like a prison and the only keys are somewhere in the house where we aren't even to look. We are stopped from staying in one room for too long and we are forced to stay in the one room that is completely stable; the bedroom. 

It is the only room in the house that has a total of at least 5 layers of protection, the walls were padded and the windows were boarded up with planks as well as metal bars. Only small cracks were able to be seen through the bars; making it our only ventilation system. Because of this, we are always so hot in the room, forcing ourselves to sleep naked with our masters. It is hell here.

In between all of this, a couple of screams were heard. On a regular basis, we would always have to clean their messes, sometimes even kill for them. No matter how hard we tried to fight back, it was impossible to get out of here. Trying for almost 2 years has done nothing in my favor, I was always praying that if there was a god out there, that they would give both Freya and I the strength to get out of here. I no longer wanted to be here and would choose the streets as my home over this. 

All was silent apart from the sound of Freya and I scrubbing their bloody clothes, the metallic smell of blood mixed with chemicals scorched my nose hairs. The first time I ever saw them kill, 10 months ago, I was still so naive. I was beginning to think that this place wasn't all that bad. At the time I was just happy to be fed and a roof over my head, previously I was homeless. 

Being a 16-year-old girl and living on the streets, it isn't all that safe, hell it isn't safe for anyone out there on the streets. I guess I was so broken that I didn't even mind all the pain I received, but lately I have become more and more fragile, like an antique statue that is on the edge of shattering. 

Despite all this, I stayed. It was a hell of a lot better than having to sleep in the rain and snow. It is a hell of a lot better than having to eat out of trash cans and eating leftovers from restaurants. Every night, I would have to wash up in bathroom sinks and sleep on park benches. When winter 2 years ago came around, I was lucky to even make it through that, the snow was so thick and I had as little as a hoodie and a pair of jeans to keep me warm.

Living conditions weren't all that great, instead of being a teenager, I was struggling to survive in the dodgiest parts of town, where people sold drugs and did human trafficking. I could see it all, I had already seen it before so when I arrived here, I just accepted it. 

Freya, on the other hand, had a home, lived with her family and she even told me she had a boyfriend. Even though she is about 2 years older than me, I could tell that she was a childish person for whenever we were left alone, she likes to lighten the mood.

When we had finished washing their clothes, we could hear their footsteps approach the laundry room and it drafted openly. They barked commands left and right, we didn't get much food the day before this one, we had to sleep on an empty stomach and despite Freya being previously thick and masculine, she has now become very petite and skinny.

We stood up to face the two tall men, they had already forced us into the bedroom, triggering our tears and our fights in an attempt to break free from their strong grasp. I was dragged by my hair, the feeling of my scalp wanting to break from my head made me shudder. When we had made it into the room, we were thrown onto the floor as they said we have 1 hour to clean the mess that was scattered.

The blood that stained the carpet was going to be a pain to clean, Freya and I looked at each other in a timid way, like we knew that if we didn't get this cleaned, then we would end up like them. A girl lay on her back, holes in her back and as she lay still, a pool of blood outlining her body. We instantly got to our knees and began to scrub the carpet, it wasn't an option to put no effort into it.

My elbows were already hurting and I was fighting back the tears, I could tell that Freya was too for I could see her staring at the blood and very slowly rubbing a sponge back and forwards across the carpet. By the time we had cleaned up, there were patches in the carpet that had been worn, we both held our breath as they came back into the room. 

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