• Once I’m unchained we walk through the door and up stone stairs. The bright light burns my eyes. We keep walking up the steps and through beautiful hallways. More people pass me, some with tails and ears like the first girl I saw, others with blood red eyes, and a few even with wings.

    “Please tell me this is all some really bad dream,” I ask the girl Kelsie desperately.

    “Wish it was, but if it was I would been living it for my whole life.”

    “What do you mean?” I ask as we turn right into another hallway.

    She sighs and stops abruptly. “Look, this isn’t a good place. Like I said, it’s Hell. You’re a slave now, and well that’s something you’re going to have to live with. I don’t know how you got here, but I sure as Hell hope it was a better way than I got here.”

    “What do you mean, ‘how I got here’,” I press.

    “I’ll tell you later, if I don’t forget.” she shakes her head. “There is a lot I need to tell you, things you need to know so you don’t get killed. Come on.”

    Kelsie starts walking again until she reaches the end of the hall where she opens a door. She walks inside the room and I follow her. She leads me to the bathroom and turns on the shower. “Get in, and get clean. Come out when you’re done, but hurry.” she tells me before she leaves to go back in the room. When she closes the door I turn to see the reflection of me, though it’s not familiar. A pale face, covered in dirt and dried blood. Tangled hair so dirty it could be any colour, and cloths much the same. This reflection brings no memories, no recollection of who I am or my past. I sigh and turn from the stranger in the mirror.

    The water was a relief. Soothing and warm. I stayed in there as along as I could, but still following Kelsie’s warning to be quick. I dry off and put wrap the towel around myself. Stepping out of the shower and into the steam filled bathroom I walk towards the mirror once again. I wipe to condensation off the glass to see the stranger again. A still pale, yet slightly flushed with blonde hair, now clean flowing down just past her shoulders. Bright green eyes shine, though no life is in them. Bruises and cuts cover the face, making what would be a beautiful face damaged.

    I look away from my reflection and go back into the room where Kels is sitting on the bed waiting for me. “Oh finally, we have to hurry and get you ready. Not to mention tell you the rules.”

    “Rules?” I ask as she pulls me towards a small closet.

    “Yeah,” she says opening the door reveling more outfits like hers. “Number one, do not speak to any of the masters unless they tell you to verbally answer, which for most is rarely. Number two, don’t ever look them in the face unless they demand it, which hopefully they won’t.”

    “How do I know who the…” I try to get a grip of the word, “‘Masters’ are?”

    “Oh you’ll know, they’re the biggest a** holes on the planet, and well it’s hard not to know who they are just by being near them. When you see them you’ll know who they are. Oh and make sure you’re in the slave quarters when your duties are done, I’d give you directions but you’d probably get lost, I did… and still do. Things are really confusing here. Just ask one of the other slaves when you’re done.”

    “Anything else?” I ask.

    “Do what you’re told, when you’re told, as quickly as possible, or you’ll end up dead. And being dead kind of sucks.”

    “Encouraging.” I say sarcastically.

    “Well if I didn’t tell you the truth, you would end up dead. Not just thinking about it.” she looks at me then hands me the maid outfit. “Hurry up, get dressed.”

    She turns and I get dressed. When I’m done she turns back around and takes the towel. “Oh, bye the way, what’s your name?” she asks.

    “I… I don’t know. I can’t remember anything.”

    “Really? Well s**t. That’s kind of… grrr. Okay then. I can try to find out about you, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy. Actually, near impossible. I can try to find out your name though.” I don’t say anything in response. I just walk over to the bed and sit down, trying to keep the short outfit from going up any higher.

    “Hey, it’s not that bad,” Kels sooths me and she sits down on the bed next to me. “Okay, well that’s not entirely true, but it isn’t as bad as it seems. Things are always the worst when you first get here. It’s like that for all the new people.”

    I wipe the tears from my now clean face and feel the scrapes and places where it’s bruised. “Hey Kels…” I say to my lap.

    “What?”

    “How long have you been here?” I ask not caring if I cross an invisible boundary or something. From the sound of things, I’m not going to be able to talk for a long while, so I might as well ask my questions now. Kels stays silent, apparently I have crossed some boundary.

    “No, it’s okay. You haven’t.”

    “How did you kn-”

    “What you were thinking?” she sighs. “Okay might as well tell you. See, I’m not normal. And not by just human standards either, I’m a disgrace to the entire world.” she says it kind of sarcastically. I look up and she smiles, showing off her teeth. Pointed, like the man’s before but with another set right next to them, slightly shorter but still long. Like a dog’s.

    “See, I’m a half-breed. My mom was a werewolf and my dad was a vampire. They hid for quite awhile, but they were well known and hated. Interracial breeding is illegal in our world, especially werewolf and vampire couples.” she sighs. “We were always moving around, hiding. One night, when I was eight they came to our house.” her voice turns to disgust. “They killed my parents because they weren’t ‘normal’.

    “My parents loved each other but that’s not what the rest of the world believe. So they killed them. I think they wanted them alive, the reward was bigger for us alive. I guess so they could torture us. My parents fought to protect me, which is why they ended up getting killed. After they killed my parents they took me and sold me into slavery. Got big bucks for me because I was “different”, “strange”, “half-breed” crap like that. Been here since then, 100 some odd years. I keep forgetting the exact years.”

    I gape at her 100 years! She doesn’t even look 20...

    “I am immortal,” she interrupts me thoughts. “But my body is stuck at 17, well I stopped it there. Being half vampire and half werewolf has given me some pretty cool powers. Oh and I can read minds, but only sometimes. That’s a little trait I got from my dad. All vampires can read minds, some just by being near someone, others only by touching the person, others only every now and then and with certain people. Since I’m only half vampire I only sometimes can pick up random thoughts from people.”

    “Oh.”

    “Yeah well, that’s how it is.” she turns and skips, actually skips to the bathroom. She comes out holding the ratty rags that were my cloths and bundles them up with the towel. “Come on, the masters want to see you.” she says somberly.

    She leads me out the room and back into the hallway. We head back to where I think we came from, or at least that direction. The house, mansion, castle thing we’re in is so big and confusing. I don’t see many people, and the people I do see are slaves. Kels stops every now and then and looks around, like she’s trying to remember where she is and where she needs to go. She suddenly stops and waves crazily into a room. I lean forward, trying to see who… or what she’s waving at.

    “Jacob come here!” she practically yells into the room. Another slave comes towards us, who I suppose is Jacob. His long brown hair goes past his shoulders, and he seems to hide behind it. He walks hunched, like he wants to disappear within himself. I guess all the people here do.

    “This is Jacob.” she says pulling him towards me. He looks down, his long hair covering his whole face.

    “Uh… hi.” I reply looking at the silent tall figure. He says nothing in reply and Kels looks up at him smiling.

    “He doesn’t like to talk much to people he doesn’t know.”

    “It’s okay.”

    “Come on Jacob,” she says looking up. “We need to take uh…” she looks at me then turns to Jacob again. “We need to take her to the masters.”

    Jacob mumbles something that sounds somewhat like “kitchen duty”, but he says it so softly I can barley hear anything through the curtain of hair.

    “Lucky!” Kels yells. “Oh well, I better we have to go. I don’t want to be late.”

    Jacob nods. Kels hugs him and stands on her tiptoes, kissing him quickly then leading me down the hall.

    “So, who exactly was that?” I ask her.

    “That was Jacob, my boyfriend.”

    “Oh.” I say wondering how in the world someone could think of something like boyfriends and girlfriends when they’re in a place like this. “So is he a…” I leave the question drifting.

    “He’s a full werewolf. He’s been here for about twenty years.”

    “So he’s immortal too?”

    “Yeah. Werewolves are immortal too, as almost all creatures are.”

    That’s one of the first things I knew I would learn about this world I’ve been thrust into.

    After walking what seems like nearly half a mile, Kels stops in front of two large, red and gold doors. She looks at me grimly before knocking softly on the door, her head looking at the ground.

    “Enter.” comes a commanding voice through the doors.

    Kels opens the door after gesturing for me to look at the ground. I do so and we walk into a huge room. I can’t help but look around. The room is large, and beautiful. Paintings line the walls and magnificent drapes hang over huge windows. Inside, sitting in a big line facing the room are five men. On the far left the man I saw when I was chained sat, with the piercing red eyes. To his right the man had ears like the first girl I saw. I assume there he had a tail as well. On the far right the man had black wings coming from his back. The other two looked, at least looked human.

    The man with the ears spoke first his voice snapping me back from reality and reminding me to keep my eyes on the ground. “Leave us with her.” he tells Kels. I feel her nod next to me, turn, and leave.

    “Now what do we have here.” one of the men, whom I know not said.

    From that moment I knew I had to get out of there by whatever means necessary.