4 | captivity

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"Lily, look, there's honeysuckles!"

With the turn of her head, her platinum hair whipped across her torso in shimmering waves. She looked across the field where Jasmine stood at a brush of trees where specks of white and yellow were sprinkled across the middle of it like glitter.

Holding the wicker basket full of wild blackberries she had been picking, she wiped her purple-stained fingers on her jeans before making her way across the overgrown patch of land. She hissed as she stepped past a thicket of briar, the sharp thorns scraping her even through her denim pants. She made sure to keep a lookout for snakes, especially the expertly camouflaged copperheads, as she neared Jasmine who was bent in front of the brush of honeysuckle.

"They came late this year," Lily said as she bent down next to the girl, setting the basket down on the ground next to her. "I was beginning to think the storms killed them."

"They're fresh," Jasmine told her as she let the dewy end of the honeysuckle calyx rest on her tongue, closing her eyes at its sweetness.

"Mother would kill me if she knew we were eating honeysuckles," Lily said as she carefully picked a yellow one from a branch. "She always thinks they're poisoned."

"They're a gift from Mother Nature," Jasmine chuckled as she turned to sit on her bottom on the grass, facing the blonde. "Being out picking wild berries in the middle of summer is exhausting."

Lily sat down on her bottom, focused on gently pulling the calyx out from the stem of the flower. She watched in delight as the calyx was extra packed with liquid, bringing it to her mouth as soon as she freed it from its stem so that none of it would drip away. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she rested the end of the calyx on her tongue, the sweet nectar invading her taste buds. "Mm," she hummed, licking the end before tossing it to the grass. "Imagine being a bird and doing nothing but eating sugar all day."

Jasmine laughed as she put another honeysuckle in her mouth, the evening sun lowering in the sky and cooling the little meadow they sat in.

Lily watched her, the way she stole a berry or two between every honeysuckle, the way she would chuckle every time the blonde cracked a joke, and she would slowly lean into Lily's shoulder as she did so. It felt like she had the weight of everything good in the world resting upon her shoulder, but she could endure it. It was worth getting a whiff of her sweet scent and hearing her velvety laughter right in her ear.

Chains rattled, but they did not wake her from her dreamlike slumber. Pain struck in her throbbing and nearly numb wrists, but her eyelids stayed shut like a clam unwilling to give up its pearl. Hands grabbed her elbows and more hands grabbed her ankles, but she did not and could not awaken. She was stuck, whether by force or by choice, in that dream where it was just her and Jasmine. She wanted to stay there forever—she assumed that's what heaven would be. It would be her and her love in a field of golden and pink wildflowers, popping berries and honeysuckles in their mouths, bathing in the sun until they could watch the sunset together. She missed that feeling of admiring the way the sky burned orange and magenta and then a brilliant violet, all while she laid her head in Jasmine's lap and felt her gentle fingers stroke through her soft blonde hair.

Soon enough she was brought out of that state. As much as she wanted to stay sedated and unaware of the horror that would soon be inflicted on her, she felt herself being carried and felt the cold humidity of that dark dungeon leave her. There was a brilliance of light seeping through her eyelids, and as consciousness enveloped her more tightly, she could feel the sway of the people carrying her and their thudding footsteps on the ground on which they walked. The aroma of dried blood and body odor left her nostrils and was replaced with a cleaner smell, and she knew she was no longer in that dungeon.

A part of her was excited, but the other part of her, the more humanly sensible one, reprimanded her for feeling any kind of excitement at leaving that safe haven of a dungeon. Sure, it was disgusting and cold and she was starving and dehydrated, but she was alive and untouched. Now she was being carried to whoever called for her, which was probably the Queen, so that she can be fed on like a buffet for a horribly long time. That Peter boy was right—the sweeter her blood, the more it would get drank.

She wanted to open her eyes, to struggle in the cold grip of the monsters that carried her, but her body had no energy left in it. She was as good as a vegetable at that point, a worthless carrot with no say in what was happening to it. It seemed as if they carried her for hours, although realistically she knew it was probably only a few minutes.

Either way, she could no longer count the time because she felt herself falling back into an exhaustion- and dehydration-induced slumber. But this one would not be comprised of dreams with her lovely Jasmine. It would be comprised of nightmares, ones about horrible pain, suffering, murder, and an absolute drainage of what it is to be alive.

Unfortunately for her, her nightmares would soon become reality.

Something softer than anything she had ever felt seemingly melted between her fingertips and gently caressed her cheek. She wondered if her body had finally given out and her soul had left it, ascending up into heaven where she was then resting upon angelic clouds in an infinite state of peaceful slumber.

But as she felt her heart thudding anxiously in her chest, as if it was aware of something she wasn't, she was reminded of her unfortunately mortal state. Dread washed over her like a cold sea, causing her to shudder against whatever it was she was laying upon. Her heart pounded even harder, knocking upon the door of her conscience in demand for it to be opened, and she remembered exactly where she was.

Slowly opening her eyes, she was not met with the darkness of the dungeon. Instead, she was met with a soft, white pillow against which her face was smushed. Slowly casting her eyes downwards, she saw that her hand was entangled with silky sheets of a rose gold color, their texture softer than any material she had felt. She moved her eyes further, her vision taking its precious time in focusing on the room around her.

But when it did, she realized that she was in the castle—a bedroom of the castle, more specifically. The walls were an off-white with patterned columns built into them raising up to the high ceiling. It looked like something out of the Greek mythology textbook that her mother kept around from her college days. The girl momentarily remembered looking upon those big words and pretty pictures even at a young age, being entirely captivated by the magical feeling it gave her. Now there she was, as if she had teleported right into that alternate dimension, but she felt everything but magical.

Her heart finally awakened her adrenaline, and that toxic hormone burst into her bloodstream so fast that she shot straight up out of the bed and onto her feet. Unfortunately, she had failed to realize that she had done nothing but sit in a dungeon for four days, so once her weight was shifted onto her feet, her knees buckled and she went tumbling onto the hard marble floor.

She let out a painful groan when the crest of her cheekbone hit the hard floor, and for a second she thought the bone had broke. Hissing, she turned over onto her back and gently touched her throbbing cheek, leaning up weakly until she was sitting up on her bottom.

"That's gonna be a shiner," spoke a low voice from somewhere in the room without warning.

Lily gasped, fearfully grabbing onto the edge of the bed, glancing around the room as she still held her cheek. "Who's there?!" she croaked, her voice scratchy from its disuse.

"Your fairy godmother," said the voice in a high tone, but it was obvious the pitch was forced and that the voice belonged to a male.

Her chest heaving, Lily paused her breaths and threaded her eyebrows, glancing towards the corner of the room to her right, noticing that the room went further in behind the large, wooden vanity that sat near her against the wall. Upon hearing some sort of girlish giggle, she leaned forward slowly until she could see past the edge of the vanity and saw a dark figure standing in front of two large doors. He was shadowed by the corner of the room.

"I'm not Cinderella so stay the fuck away from me," Lily demanded firmly, putting both her arms on the edge of the bed and attempting to pull herself up off the floor without getting distracted by the throbbing wounds on her wrists and the dried blood all over her arms. She suddenly remembered how her mother had warned her that the vampire castle was not like a Cinderella castle, and her heart clenched at the memory.

"You know that story?" the figure asked in his regular voice, parting from his impishness and sounding genuinely surprised.

Lily managed to boost herself up onto her feet, still having to lean against the bed for support. Breathless from her plight, she glanced down to her feet and began flexing every muscle from her toe up so that she could regain autonomy in her legs. "Who doesn't know that fucking story," she said through clenched teeth, resisting the urge to pass out on the floor.

"Um, humans," the voice said sassily. "Uneducated swine have difficulty understanding classic film."

Rolling her eyes, Lily turned so that her back was against the bed. Holding onto the bedpost, she slowly took a step forward, trying to rid her muscles of that awful, paralyzed feeling. "I actually have read—" She took another step forward, focusing on keeping herself balanced. "The original story it's derived from." Another step, and she could finally take her hand off the bedpost. "It's called Cendrillon." She glanced upwards carefully, still only being able to see half of the shadowed figure past the vanity. "It was by Charles Perrault."

She took a couple hops until she was right against the vanity, her back pressed against it so that the figure could not see her. Looking down, she noticed a small handheld mirror, a golden one with beautiful patterns around its edge.

Taking the mirror in her hand, she inched herself along the vanity and prepared herself to lunge. "It's French, y'know." She gripped the mirror's handle in her hand, taking a deep breath before shouting, "Published in 1697!" and leaping out from behind the vanity, coming face to face with the figure and bashing the mirror right across his head.

All the racket of her heavy breathing, loud heartbeat, thundering footsteps, and the smash of the glass shattering across the vampire's head all came to a halting silence when she watched the vampire standing in front of her not flinch a single bit. Shards of glass fell from his large head of curly black hair, the small cuts that formed on his tan forehead disappearing within seconds. His eyes, as black as coal, as if he was born without pupils, contrasted the whites of his eyes that seemed to glow in the shadows.

The vampire took a step forward, causing Lily to step backwards. This pattern continued, slowly, until the light from the main part of the room slowly spread across his face. Then he stopped, his fists balled at his sides, and raised his chin slowly to look down upon the trembling blonde in front of him.

"Make one more move like that, again, blondie," he grinned, his fangs showing over his lip, "and I will disobey the Queen's orders and murder you on sight." The last word of his sentence slipped through his teeth like a swift bullet going straight to Lily's confidence and causing it to explode into oblivion.

She said nothing; she only looked at him with her challenging stare that caused him to chuckle, which caused her cheeks to burn in embarrassed anger.

"The Queen is gonna love you," he said before laughing caustically, backing away until he was back to standing at the door. Lily assumed he was being sarcastic and that the Queen would definitely not love her.

Eyeing him suspiciously, Lily backed away until she was leaning against the bed, feeling faint yet again. She looked at his long-sleeved, button-up black shirt and his black pants. He even wore a belt and dress shoes. "What are you? Some kind of guard?"

"Get undressed."

Her blue eyes popped open. "Excuse me?"

"Dear God," the vampire said as he rolled his eyes to the back of his skull, throwing his head back in thorough agitation. "Not like that, dumbass. Go into the bathroom, get undressed, and take a shower to rid yourself of your horrible stench. Or do I need to print you out a step-by-step guide?"

Ignoring his malicious words, Lily glanced around the room in confusion. She saw a door adjacent to the bed, but she wasn't sure if that was the bathroom. She hadn't actually used an indoor bathroom since the invasion, which was several years ago.

"Look, I know they don't have bathrooms where you're from, but I'm seriously beginning to think you're one of those intellectually disadvantaged ones."

"Shut the fuck up before I make you genitally disadvantaged!" Lily screamed back at him as soon as his own words left his mouth, her sudden rage throwing him off guard. Never had he seen a human so fiery and so unhesitant to rattle off to her most known predator.

The vampire simply blinked, his black curls falling over his face. He was extravagantly beautiful, which was probably the reason he was serving as a royal guard.

"Look, human, I'm not going to stand here and waste my time arguing with the inferior. Go take a motherfucking shower and then put on the clothes laid out for you."

Glancing around herself, Lily noticed a pair of clothes sitting on the bed that she had not noticed before. It was a white dress, a silky one that cinched at the waist and flowed outwards. It looked like one that belonged on a porcelain doll, with its lacy designs at the chest and the ruffles towards the end.

"Why do I have to put this on?" she asked as she stroked the fabric, not being able to deny its softness. It was a nice dress, although more fitting for a child, but there was no way she was going to be ordered to put clothes on.

"Queen's orders."

Her head turned towards him, her raggedy blonde hair falling over her dirty face. "You the Queen's little helper elf or some shit?"

The vampire's lips formed into a scowl, the bridge of his freckled nose tightening. It was obvious that it was taking everything in him to not lash out at her like vampires usually did with noncomplying humans. Maybe it was a good thing that the girl had a sense of immunity due to the Queen thinking her blood was "sweet."

Upon his forced silence, she continued to pry, "Why am I even in this room, anyways?" She looked around, noticing yet again how exquisite it was. There was even a glitteringly gold chandelier above them, illuminating the gold curtains that dressed the large window above her bed.

"Let's just say it's a pit stop between the dungeon and then spending the rest of your miserable life getting your veins sucked on," he spat, avoiding her gaze and instead locking it on the opposite wall.

The thought of his words made her visibly cringe. She walked across the room slowly, feeling her head pound even harder, but she chose to ignore it. She made her way back to the bed and climbed up it, which took a lot of physical effort for her drained self, and to the large window above it. Standing on her knees, she placed her hands on the windowsill and peered out.

It looked nothing like home. The castle was seated in the middle of snowy mountains, a blizzard storming outside so hard that she could barely even see through the glass. She had no utter clue where in the world they were, but she knew it was the middle of spring back where she lived; so she figured they must have been in a whole different meteorological area.

Her heart ached at the fact that she was so far from home. A lump formed in her throat at the fact that if she were to somehow escape the castle, she would never again be able to find her way back home. Even with a map, it would be utterly impossible since she was most likely a whole ocean away.

She thought about her mother and her worried crease above her eyebrow, and she thought about her father and his joyous guitar. She thought about their little cabin in the community of cabins, about their farm animals and their crops, their occasional bonfires and music. She remembered eating honeysuckles with Jasmine and then deeply kissing each other just to taste it on the other's lips.

Her eyes brimmed with tears, but she dared not to cry in front of an enemy. She blinked, letting her eyes dry as she pulled herself together. She had to focus and be strategical, which meant focusing on each step before the next. The first step was to shower and get some water in her system. She could feel that her body was one step away from death, but unfortunately, she figured she would be feeling that feeling for a while.

After she showered, she would begin musing on how to find Jasmine and then get out of there. Then maybe they would try to trek across the world to find their families, but she doubted it. She needed to focus on just getting them out of there first.

Turning around, she slowly slid herself off the bed and grabbed the dress, eyeing the vampire with a hard stare that he only found amusing. Once in the bathroom, she made sure to slam the door extra hard although actions like that did nothing but make vampires like him laugh.

The bathroom was soothingly cold. It wasn't cold like the dungeon, and it wasn't cold like trying to sleep at night in the middle of winter, but it was a type of relieving cold. It was clean and organized, the entire space white and gold and even more luxurious than the bedroom it was attached to.

She didn't know quite what to think. She'd been so focused on getting her legs to walk again, antagonizing the vampire guard, and thinking about escaping that she didn't realize what he had said when he said this was a "pit stop" between the dungeon she just spent four days in and the next stop which would be "getting fed on."

The past few days had been her first experiences with vampires at all, and she hadn't even fully come to terms with it. Lily always had that ability of being able to be completely aloof from reality. She could always detach herself from emotions and from bad things, which was maybe why she was so dumbly fearless—she didn't understand danger because she refused to believe it.

But she was right when she said she wasn't Cinderella—life was no fairy tale, especially the life she was about to be living.

Along with not realizing the danger, she had also never imagined what it would be like to be bitten. She had heard before that it would hurt at first but then eventually the human would become numb and black out. But she only wondered if the human could really feel the blood being drained from them, sucked right from their veins. She wondered what it felt like to be under the complete control of a monster who had to make a voluntary decision whether or not to kill their prey.

Her body could shudder or cringe no longer, or else she would vomit right there in that marble sink.

Sink.

Finally realizing that she was in the presence of infinitely available water, she

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