shuhaige
Chapter Twenty: Who is in there?
The feeling came, the one the other slave in the dungeon had talked about. The instinct to take some with me rose. I had become greedy. I was quick to find a bag as I began taking in the food as much as I could. I knew now that the little lunch time was up and they would probably be looking out for me now but at that point, I didn’t care. All I wanted was to fill the bag then every other thing would come next. Somehow I have found a way to deal and cope with the harshness I had been faced with.
Just then as I turned to leave I heard the creak from the door, I snuck underneath the workable but was not fast enough to carry the sack of food along with me.
I only heard footsteps walking around. It seemed to be multiple footsteps as my heart rose. The thought of what Ryan would do to me when he finds out about it only made my heart beat even faster causing sweat to drop from my forehead. I held my lips to avoid any audible breath escaping from it.
“There is no one here.”
No one said a word for a while and then I heard footsteps approaching the workable taking up the sack of food behind the workable where I hid. My hands began to tremble and tears hid behind the sides of my eyes but for every reason I knew I had to remain silent.
“There is definitely someone here. A petty food thief.”
The voice was familiar, the same voice that had been my tormentor ever since I had arrived in that part of the world. The same voice I heard in my sleep whenever I tried to close my eyes to sleep. The one that was the church bell that tolled incessantly slapping the peace that sleep brings away, reminding me of all my worries and pain.
“The person might have heard us coming and had taken another route of escape.”
“Find whoever did this! I don’t condone thieves here.”
His voice sounded like a roar.
In a short while two people walked out leaving just Ryan for a while until I saw him walk out just like the others. The tension suddenly evaporated and I was able to breathe again. I hurried out from the work table. Just as I dashed out I met him right there smiling back at me with the guards and the slave that had told me about the food. It was glaring now what it was but what I was not sure of was who would want to set up a slave like me.
“I didn’t doubt it when I was told that you had gone rogue.”
“Gone rogue?”NôvelDrama.Org content.
“Yes, only one who has gone rogue would want to steal from me.”
“What would you have me do?”
“I give direct orders to serve food to the slaves twice a day. Tell me, which master would give his slave that much food? But you still weren’t satisfied and had the mind to want to steal my food.”
“Please don’t patronise yourself. You give rat food to us, you have stolen their freedom away from them and you seem to be generous?”
“You are a thief and you would face the consequence of stealing from me like everyone else would.”
“I am not trying to justify my actions but I needed food to help myself and my child. Well, I guess you would not understand, you probably haven’t had a child before and I don’t think you would. You are so ruthless to have anyone call you father. I don’t think any woman would willingly want to lay with someone like you. How many people do you know? You claim to be strong and powerful but a slave girl sneaked into your heavily guarded kitchen to refill her stomach. If not for a little snitch standing beside you, perhaps I would have gotten away with my sack of food. Or don’t you think so?” I chuckled.
“You are on the floor to be dragged away and you still have the guts to talk back to me. You do not care that I can have you killed?”
“If you wanted me dead, you would have killed me a long time ago. But something tells me that you don’t want that.”
“You speak rubbish. You are just a crazy desperate bitch. Seize her! Take her to the darkest room and make sure she doesn’t see the lights again.”
“That’s the only thing you can do. Order your guards around. If you are so strong and powerful why don’t you do it all yourself?”
I asked as the first guard grabbed me pulling me out towards a direction I had never been before.
“Let go of me!” I struggled but their grip was firm on my arms as they pulled me away.
I laid still on the bare ground with my eyes shut, my breathing had become stable and the tranquilliser had finally worn off completely. Gradually, I opened my eyes and looked ahead although I could not see anything. The room was like a black box with no trail of light. I felt blind as if the walls could come crashing down on me. The pains underneath my abdomen had become intensified as I held my hands over it slowly moved my palms to reduce the growing pains.
Nothing seemed right with me as I struggled to get off the ground but only ended up crashing back down on the ground. I needed a ray of light to rest my eyes on. The void was suddenly beginning to mess with my head as figures appeared within the gloomy rooms. . There wasn’t any visible arch or corners as the darkness of the room made it impossible to find anything, not even the walls. My hands hauled along the ground, fingertips carefully searching for the wall until they hit upon the rugged exterior of the surface.
The rough edges met my touch, guiding me towards the dimly lit area. The cool, unyielding surface beneath my fingertips became a source of ease in the darkness that connected me to my surroundings. I kept moving my hands, trailing them on.
The door had a little open patch on it where the tiny ray of light oozed from outside. In this process, I positioned myself as I searched through the door for any opening. It was an old and worn out door, there must be a crack somewhere. And just as I predicted, I found it. I peeked through a thin gap with one eye, my senses became more sensitive as I surveyed the surroundings. The atmosphere hung with a kind of pressure, and I could almost feel the weight of the moment.
I counted every footsteps that passed and how long it took for another footstep to pass by. Each thumping footsteps signified the guess which was my utmost concern. It demanded my undivided attention as I leaned closely.