I lost my balance and my knees buckled before I crashed onto the cold floor of the small, dimly lit cell they had thrown me into. They had just finished taking my blood again.
I looked at them angrily as I clenched my fist tightly.
I could no longer count how many days I had been trapped in this place. Time had blurred into an endless stretch of darkness and fear. But one thing was certain—only two possible endings awaited me here: either they would sell me, or they would use me as some kind of lab rat.
"Don't fight back, Lady… They'll only hurt you more!"
The faint, trembling voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned my head and saw a girl sitting against the wall of her own cell. Heavy chains locked her wrists and ankles, the metal biting into her thin skin. She looked frail—almost weightless—with tangled, unwashed hair falling messily over her shoulders. Her once-white dress was now stained and torn, clinging to her like a ghost of what she used to be.
When she noticed me studying her, she offered a weak smile, as if trying to reassure me despite her own suffering.
"How long have you been here?" I asked, unable to hide my curiosity and fear.
She leaned her head back against the wall and stared into nothingness. "I don't know anymore… Ever since they brought me here, I lost track of time." Her voice cracked, helplessness seeping through every word.
My legs trembled from the pain they had inflicted on me, but I forced myself closer to her cell until my back found the cold wall. Only a thick barrier of metal separated us, yet I felt strangely comforted by her presence.
Silence settled between us—heavy and suffocating—until she suddenly spoke again.
"You know… I have an older sister. She's beautiful… just like you." Her voice quivered, and soon a soft, broken sob escaped her. The sound was enough to make me look sharply in her direction.
I didn't know how to comfort her. I had spent my entire life alone; comforting others was something I had never learned to do. Still, I whispered, "Everything's going to be alright. Don't cry."
But instead of calming down, her sobs grew louder, echoing through the underground holding area. I noticed a few guards from the far side of the hallway turning their heads toward us. My heart dropped. This was bad. Noise always brought us punishment.
When she realized the fear on my face, she quickly lowered her head and covered her mouth with trembling hands, crying more quietly.
I bit my lower lip in frustration, hating how useless I felt. I couldn't help her… I couldn't even help myself.
"Lady…" she whispered between soft sobs, "Can I… ask you for a favor?"
My stomach twisted. I didn't want to agree. I didn't even know if I would make it out of this place alive. My family had already abandoned me and sold me off like I was nothing. I had no one left to rely on—not even myself.
Still, I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded slowly. "What is it?"
Her eyes lit up with a fragile, desperate kind of hope.
"If ever… somehow… you escape this place… can you find my sister? Tell her I'm okay… that she doesn't need to worry about me anymore."
My breath caught in my chest. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. She continued, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Tell her to live her life to the fullest… to forget about me."
Another wave of emotion surged through me, choking me. I couldn't say yes. I didn't want to. I didn't even know if I could survive long enough to deliver such a promise.
"Please… please…" she begged softly, her voice trembling like a candle about to go out.
I remained silent and didn't look at her. She knew that what she was asking for was impossible.
I swallowed the lump in my throat before finally looking at her. Her eyes were closed, yet the tears wouldn't stop falling.
Silently, she already knew what my answer would be.
--------
My eyes snapped open the moment I felt several unfamiliar presences surrounding me, followed by the distinct clinking of keys echoing in the dim corridor.
Instinctively, my gaze darted to the cell across from mine—where the young girl had been.
But she was gone.
In her place stood two women dressed in identical uniforms—black masks covering their faces, white gloves on their hands—as they scrubbed and cleaned the area with stiff, mechanical movements.
"Where did you take the girl?!" I shouted, my voice raw with panic.
Both of them paused momentarily, glancing at me with cold irritation before returning to their work as if I were nothing more than a buzzing insect.
I grabbed the thick metal bars and shook them violently. "Answer me! Where did you take her?!"
My voice cracked as desperation clawed up my throat.
No. This can't be happening. I never gave her an answer… I never got to promise anything.
Heat flooded my chest—anger, fear, frustration all twisting together. That child had suffered enough. How could they be so merciless? How could they just take her away—without a word, without a trace?
The two women whispered to each other, too quietly for me to hear, before one of them left the room.
I continued shaking the bars, refusing to stop, refusing to be ignored. The remaining woman clicked her tongue in annoyance. With a swift movement, she shoved me back using the mop handle she was gripping. The force was so sudden and strong that I lost my grip and stumbled.
My breath hitched. That strength… it wasn't normal.
When I looked up, her eyes were no longer dull. They glowed—an eerie, shimmering red that pierced through the shadows.
I stumbled back a step. She wasn't human.
She was one of them.
A vampire.
The door swung open again, and the other woman returned—trailing behind her a tall man dressed in black, casually twirling a ring of keys around his finger. A jagged scar ran across his left eye, giving him a permanently cruel expression.
When our gazes met, he smirked, lifting one corner of his lip.
"Feisty," he drawled. "I like that."
"Where is the girl?" I demanded, my voice trembling with rage.
He crouched in front of my cell, close enough for me to see the malicious gleam in his eyes. Then he grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head upward.
"Tell me…" he whispered mockingly, "where does trash belong?"
Pain shot through my scalp, and I instinctively raised a hand to swat his away—
but before I could, something cold and metallic pressed against the side of my neck.
My blood ran cold.
"Sleep well… princess," he murmured.
A sharp hiss sounded—then darkness rushed over me like a crashing wave.
_________
I woke with a jolt, my senses sluggish and spinning. A groan escaped my lips as I tried to shake off the haze clouding my mind. Slowly, I cracked my eyes open—only to flinch and shut them again when a blinding white light pierced my vision.
"She's a pureblooded she-wolf! We hit the jackpot!" an excited voice exclaimed somewhere near my head.
"But why?" another voice snapped back, this one tight with worry. "Her family sold that bitch to us insisting she wasn't a pureblood. You know the rules, dude! This is dangerous."
"We can hide it," the first man said, his tone turning sly. "We just say she died suddenly. They won't question us. She's just one girl out of hundreds. No one's gonna care."
Pureblooded?
She-wolf?
What are they talking about?
My foggy thoughts slowly began to clear, and shapes started forming in my vision. When I finally managed to fully open my eyes, my heart stopped.
There, on the bed beside mine, was the girl—the same girl from the cell. Her frail body was strapped down, motionless, as if she had been sedated or worse.
She's here… They took her too.
I tried to sit up, but the moment I moved, cold metal dug into my wrists and ankles. Chains. They had tied me down tightly, the restraints biting into my skin whenever I struggled.
Panic surged through me.
"She's awake," someone said sharply.
"Put her under again."
More voices layered over each other—commanding, irritated, impatient. Footsteps rushed toward me. I barely had time to gasp before something cold pressed against my neck.
The darkness swallowed me whole once more.
----------
"You need to stay alive!"
The image of the woman began to fade. I tried to run—or even walk—toward her, but my body wouldn't move.
I couldn't move!
I opened my eyes—only to squeeze them shut just as quickly. For a moment, my mind drifted somewhere between a fading dream and the lingering terror of whatever they had done to me… whatever they had forced into my body. My thoughts felt swollen and heavy, as if soaked in fog.
A dream?
Where am I?
Then the cold beneath my cheek reminded me where I truly was.
The metal floor.
The reek of damp stone.
The sour bite of fear that always clung to the air down here like rot.
I felt exhausted, as if every cell in my body were unraveling. My head spun violently, making the world tilt and sway even with my eyes closed.
Days passed—or maybe weeks—and I had long lost track of time. I could no longer count how many times I had woken up in this same place, in this same broken state, wondering if this time would be the last.
In the darkness, a face surfaced in my mind. His face.
Those dark eyes that glowed like a night sky, and that smile potent enough to melt even the coldest iceberg.
He is.
He is the very reason I was suffering.
"L–lady!!"
My eyes snapped open at the sound. The bars came into focus first—thin black lines crossing each other like the lattice of a spider's web. A pale bulb flickered overhead, its weak light scraping across my retinas, making me flinch.
I tried to move, but a violent tremor shot through my limbs, as if my muscles were remembering the pain before my mind even caught up.
"What… happened…" I croaked. The words scraped out of me like broken glass.
Images flickered in and out—
Hands gripping my arms.
A needle forced against my neck.
Muffled voices arguing behind masks.
"Hold her still."
"Her body is rejecting it."
"Increase the dose."
Fear twisted sharply in my gut, consuming the last scraps of hope and strength I had left.
With effort, I pushed myself upright, wincing as the bruises along my ribs pulsed like dull fire. My fingers wrapped around the bars; they felt colder than usual, as if they too remembered what was coming.
I glanced at the girl in the cage across from me. She was pale, trembling, breath hitching in shallow, desperate gasps.
Footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor—slow, unhurried, almost mocking.
I clenched my fists so tightly that my nails tore into my palms, drawing thin lines of blood.
"L–lady… I'm scared!" she sobbed, voice cracking.
A breath caught painfully in my throat.
I didn't know what to tell her. I didn't know what to do. I was too tired to think—too broken to pretend I was brave. And no matter how many times this happened, we couldn't deny that the moments before they arrived were always the worst.
The electric stillness in the air.
The cold bloom of dread spreading across my chest.
The whisper in my bones telling me I should have never woken up at all.
I pressed my forehead against the bars and shut my eyes, forcing my breathing to slow. Trying to pretend—just for a second—that I wasn't shaking.
Not again.
Please… not again.
The footsteps stopped.
A lock clicked.
To be continued...