The Demon's Child and the Phantom

Chapter 3

Rosella's POV:

When I finally felt my eyes begin to open again I realized I was lying on my back yet it seemed not to hurt as much as I expected it to. It doesn't take long for me to realize that I'm not in hay or on cold stone as I usually am when I wake. I'm on a bed, an actual bed, and wearing a nightgown with a robe as well. I turn over until I'm on my side and I see I'm in a room I've never seen before. I start to get nervous wondering what my new owner has planned for me if he's left me in a bedroom.

I have yet to be used in that way by any of my previous masters, many of them assuming that I had already been used by previous masters of all of the gypsies that I first started with. That assumption has since kept me safe from my masters in that aspect, but that doesn't mean it will now. Perhaps this owner doesn't care and wants to add more hell to my life. The cruelty and lack of compassion of people no longer surprises me anymore.

I sit up slowly on the side of the bed before I feel bandages on my back and my legs, wincing slightly at the pain that rushes through my body. I feel my brow furrow as I realize what someone did for my wounds, as they seem to be properly bandaged by a professional of some sort. No one's ever cared about my wounds, not since Florica anyway. I stand up from the bed and walk slowly over to the window. I see the sun just starting to rise, casting it's soft rays on a well-kept flower garden with rose bushes all along one wall.

I felt a smile start to form on my face as I looked at the beautiful flowers, until I heard footsteps in the hall. I blanked my face as I moved to stand at the foot of the bed, remembering all my training and following through with it. I stand with my hands folded and my head down, focused on the dark wood of the floor. I listen to the music in my head to drown out the pain for a while, until I hear the door open and close the music stopping as soon as the door shut.
I see a pair of black leather shoes, that same pair I saw in the barn, walk towards me a bit as I hear a slight gasp. I feel my body tense in preparation for my punishment for whatever it is that caused the gasp, wondering if I was not permitted to get out of the bed yet, but I know better than to look up without permission. This is not the first time awaking at a new owner's house, and I have learned well from my past mistakes.

"Mademoiselle you should not be standing yet. You've been asleep for the better part of two days and I imagine the pain will cause you to faint again."

I don't say anything in return as the confusion officially sets in. His voice is deep and smooth with a thick accent surrounding it. I was expecting punishment for something I had or had not done and to not receive any surprises me, but what surprises me more is that he sounds genuinely concerned about me. That's not right nor is it normal for someone like me. I'm a demon's child. I keep my face as blank as possible, just in case this is a trick to illicit a new form of punishment onto me.

"Mademoiselle, are you alright?"

I simply nod as I watch him take a few steps closer to me. I don't move, nor I do I look up to see him better. I know better than to do that. Moving away without being told means a beating, looking up without being told means a beating, speaking when not told means a beating, not already knowing these as rules with a new owner means a beating. This is what I have been taught since before I could remember, and every owner since the gypsies has kept the same rules in place. I watch as he stops a few feet from me and I tense again as I try to prepare myself both physically and mentally for whatever form of torture is to happen to me.

"Mademoiselle, would you like to sit back down on the bed while we talk?"

I nod again, more slowly this time, prepared for this to be only a cruel trick. But he doesn't move any closer to me, instead I watch as his feet move away from me as I walk back to the side of the bed. I sit down slowly, letting my body adjust to the pain that rushes through it again, and watch as he sits in the chair across from me. I hear him sigh and I wonder if he's trying to think of what to do with me. That's always been the question really, what to do with me or what to do to me rather.

"Mademoiselle I do not wish to sound mean or rude but would you mind speaking with me and looking up from the floor for once. I know it's pretty but I wouldn't mind you looking up from it once and a while. Especially since you have been asleep since you arrived here."

I feel the confusion build but I do as my new owner asks and I slowly look up from the floor. He let me sleep since yesterday and I am not being beaten for it? I see him looking at me with what looks like concern as I stare at him. I get a better look at him than I did in the barn and I see that he's older than me by several years, at least his 40s if not more.
His green eyes remind me of Florica's, not the color as she had brown eyes, but the kindness that she had in hers. But can kindness like she had can be faked as easily as every other emotion, as many of my previous owners have proved to me in the most spiteful and malicious ways. I let none of my guard down towards him even as I take in the rest of his appearance. He has a nicely trimmed mustache that like his hair is beginning to grey some, and is wearing a fancy suit of grey with a red vest that seems to fit his darker complexion perfectly.

"Mademoiselle can you speak?"

"Yes Monsieur."

"You have a beautiful voice Mademoiselle. My name is Nadir Khan, but my friends call me Daroga, as you may as well."

I simply nod to him in return burning now with questions and confusion that I dare not ask aloud for fear of retribution for speaking. How can he allow me to stare at him and even stare back at me with my demon eyes pointed towards him? What does he have planned for me? Where is he from? Where are we now? Who tended my wounds and why did they care enough to?

"Mademoiselle if you have questions for me I want you to ask them. You are not a prisoner here, nor are you a slave or a servant. You're free. What is your name Mademoiselle?"

"My name is Rosella, Monsieur Khan."

"No last name Rosella?"

"No Monsieur Khan."

"Please dear, it's simply Daroga."

I can't help but stare at him in confusion before I remembered to make my face remain neutral while looking at my new master. He said I was free, but he did not say what that meant. Surely not freedom in the normal sense, after all he did pay for me. Every past experience with owners is reminding me that this could all be a new form of trickery and that I shouldn't trust him at all, and yet his eyes and his kind smile don't say that at all.

"What did you mean when you said I am free Monsieur Khan?"

"Just Daroga dear, please. I bought you to free you. Nothing more, nothing less. You are free and as soon as you are healed you are free to leave here if you wish, or you may stay here."

Another flicker of surprise crossed my face before I reclaimed the neutral mask that I wear. Surely this man is an angel of sorts if that is all true, or he is insane as no sane man would spend so much money and time on caring for a demon's child just to free them. Unless this is a twisted game he is playing with me, earning my trust to then attempt to fully destroy me by betraying me.

"Why spend so much money only to free me? And why care for my wounds?"

"I have never condoned slavery of any kind, especially for reasons as petty as appearances, you cannot and should not put a price on human life. I had a doctor care for your wounds because it was the right thing to do my dear."

I don't say anything in reply to him as I stare. He is the first person since Florica to treat me like a human being instead of the demon's child that I am. Maybe he isn't as cruel as all my previous owners or perhaps he is lying and simply wants me at my best before he tries to break me. I can't be sure, yet he seems so kind right now. It doesn't make any sense to me right now. How? Why does he care at all?

"But Monsieur Khan, I'm a Demon's Child, a witch. Why save me at all?"

"Dear Mademoiselle, surely you do not believe that?"

"Monsieur, the signs have been clear since I was born that I was nothing but a Demon's Child, an evil creature sent from the devil to plague the world with my very existence."

"Because of your eyes?"

"Yes Monsieur, both my hell touched hair and eyes prove it to more than enough people that see me."

"Well believe me, I have seen demons in real life back in Persia where I'm from. You my dear are not a demon nor one of their offspring I can promise you that."

I don't say anything back but take note that he said he was from Persia. It explains the tan complexation and his accent. I have to keep forcing myself to look at him instead of the floor and I find it harder than I first realized. Years of never being allowed to look at someone have paid off in changing my posture and manners towards people.

"Mademoiselle where are you from if I may ask? I would hazard a guess that you are not French."

"No Monsieur, I am not French. I was told I was born in England but I grew up mostly in Germany and Romania. I have only been in France for a few years, mostly in the southern part of the country, near Lyon."

"Well I suppose you must be wondering which part of France you are in now Rosella. You were unconscious for most of our journey. You are in Paris, in my simple home. My work is here, so I thought it best that you should stay here until you were well enough to leave if you wanted too."