Ch 09

It was pitch dark as I descended the stairs to return to the basement room where master Silvan’s slaves spent their nights. I kept my left hand along the wall as I went down the stairs and extended my right hand in front of me to prevent myself from running face first into the second door that prevented light from entering the basement from outside even if the door atop the stairs were opened.

            When I reached the door, I pulled it open by the metal handle and as it scraped along the floor my eyes began to adjust to the extremely dim light of the single candle burning in the center of the room. After a minute or two I was able to see Beetle already curled up on his nest of rags and facing the wall away from the entrance. Teka is sitting in a corner near his pile of rags and also staring at the wall. Neither person looks up as I enter the room, so I move to an unoccupied section that is furthest away from the other three’s sleeping spots and tried to make myself comfortable by leaning against a wall. Despite my physical exhaustion and full stomach, I was not ready to sleep.

            After a while I began to wonder where the girl called Minge was and at what time our master would come to lock us in. As they said back on earth, speak of the devil and he shall appear. No sooner had I thought about these things than I heard a door slam at the top of the stairs, a few moments later the lower door scraped across the stone floor once more and there was Minge. She had dried tears running down her face and the remains of some white fluid was in her hair. It seemed like she had tried to wipe it off but had only managed to grind it in deeper into her unwashed hair.

            As her eyes adjusted, she saw me looking at her and gave me an angry look before stalking to her pile of rags and sinking to the floor. She also faced away from the main room and did not try to initiate conversation. As time passed and the candle burned lower I began to feel sleepy so I repositioned myself against the wall on which I was leaning. I supposed I could have stretched out on the floor but without any rags like the others had it would only be hard and cold and this way I could keep the rest of the room in front of me. None here had taken any action to harm me but this was still only my second night here and I was wary that more unpleasantness would find it’s way to me.

            After I had gotten a little more comfortable and closed my eyes, I heard the sound of soft weeping in the darkness. It seemed that Minge was also having trouble with her role as a slave to the elf Silvan. “Are you alright?” I called out softly into the dimness towards the barely distinguishable lump on the floor that was Minge in her pile of rags. The sound of the crying stopped and she did not respond for a moment. When I had decided that she wasn’t going to answer she finally did, but after hearing what she had to say I wished she had remained quiet. “Fuck you fresh meat! I’ve been here six months already. SIX MONTHS OF BEING VIOLATED DAILY!”

            Her voice had suddenly grown quite loud and I was worried that our master would hear and come to investigate but apparently I needn’t have worried as he did not come. Likely the amount of earth in between us and the main house was enough that even if we screamed it would not disturb his rest. I tried to talk to her again and comfort her but after she threatened to violate me with a tree branch I decided to leave her alone. I doubted she had the strength to follow through with the threat but I also decided that there would be no talking to her tonight. Perhaps it would be quite a while before she warmed up to me which was a shame because the only other company was an old man and a mute one and one would not speak once in the cellar and the other could not speak at all. Pondering over this, sleep overtook me and once again I had nightmares although this time instead of my master I dreamed about chopping down a tree that I never made any progress on.

*****

            This time I did not awake early but instead my exhausted body slept through until I was awakened by the tell-tale bang that signaled the beginning of our day as our master violently threw open the door at the top of the stairs before coming down. Once again Beetle and Teka and I rose to our feet and dropped to a low bow facing the door with our eyes firmly on the floor. Similarly, Minge once again defiantly faced the wall and refused to get up. When the second door was flung open she began to shake, tears already forming in her eyes. Smiling cruelly upon seeing his slave still lying on the floor he began to speak softly. “Stubborn again today Minge? Every morning we go through this and every morning I make you submit to my will. Would your life not be better if you stopped fighting your fate?” With that the scene from the previous morning repeated with Minge taking a whipping followed by crawling on her hands and knees to where Silva stood so that he could violate her mouth. This appeared to be a morning ritual for them.

            Once he had finished and she once again lay coughing on the floor he deposited a bucket of gruel in the center of the room and left the room again and the rest of us were able to start our days. Teka reached the pail first and scooped gruel out with his hands, eating greedily until he was finished, after he was done, I thought Beetle was the next up, but he only ate a moderate amount. Looking towards Minge on the floor I cautiously approached the pail and saw that there wasn’t much left. Pushing it towards Minge I decided to forego breakfast since I had eaten meat the night before. Afterwards Beetle and I took up the laundry from the side of the house as before and Beetle had me draw water from the well. The bucket was just as heavy as before and I struggled to haul it out of the well in order to fill the trough. On top of this, every muscle in my body ached from the exertions of the day before.

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