Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
" Loneliness is something so easy to feel yet so hard to cure" Authoress Della.
He was beginning to get used to the disappointment that arose within him every time he stared into their eyes.
It was too hard to miss yet he did not notice it..the blinding fear in their eyes as he stared at them.
They were all nothing like her. None of them came close. He finally saw that maybe all this was hopeless. Perhaps he would never get her again.
" What do you want us to do with these ones?" the voice of his butler asked.
His head was banging. He could still hear her perfect voice in his head as she laughed or giggled at every little joke he made.
He looked at these ones. They were an anomaly in his sight.
" Kill them" he said, getting up to get himself a much needed cup of coffee.
Screams and pleas filled the air as they feared for their life, begging for a second chance at it..too bad, they would never get another chance.
Loraine's POV
I could feel my heart thudding under the blanket. I heard the footsteps approach heavily as I struggled to keep my eyes closed in pretend sleep.
The blanket was yanked off my body as a sneering man looked at me, his speech slurred, a tell tale sigh that he had spent too many hours at the local bar again.
" You heard me calling you didn't you? You little rat! Are you ignoring me now? Is that what this is? Oh, you are just like your useless mother. Both of you have absolutely no respect for me don't you." He was drawling out and just as I anticipated, his hands fell heavily on me, wiping out the fear from me and replacing it with dread.
Dread for the fact that In this mood, he might actually kill me. I could not feel my bones and my back ached in ways that could not be comprehended.
At this rate, I might actually die today, just like my mother.
The beatings did not stop with just that one slap. It never did. It continued, each one hurting more than the first.
When I could finally see the light, he stopped.
" That should teach you to come the next time I call you". He spat, leaving the room to probably go and throw up in the toilet.
I got up, bones aching and heart numb.
I covered my small body with the blanket and closed my eyes, willing myself to go to sleep.
I was used to all this by now. I probably took it as my fate when I watched him beat my mother to death and cover up the murder. I watched them say that my mother had fallen off the stairs, hence the bruises.
I had watched him put on his uniform and give a speech, about just how perfect she was and how her death would leave a lingering feeling in his heart. He was worse than the devil.
The little town I grew up in was not much. As I walked into the auditorium, body covered with a huge hoodie and sweatpants to hide the obvious marks, I could hear the sniggers and jeers of the girls as they looked at my sad frame walk in.
I took a sit at the farthest bench, preparing for the annual ritual ceremony. The ceremony was one that every girl had to attend the moment she clocked 18. It was my birthday today and for the first time, I had thought it would have made a difference to him, maybe stopped the beatings. But It never did.
The mayor climbed onto the stage, his fat hands grasping a paper as he hurriedly mounted the podium.
He cleared his throat loudly, before he continued.
" Hello teens..it's so good to see you all sitting here in our presence today. And I'm glad to wish each and every one of you a belated happy birthday. Without further ado, I'm sure you all know how this plays out every year. I pick a bunch of girls name from this box and I call them out. They would be the ones that would be given to the dragon lord this year" he said again.
A heavy silence befell the whole room as even the chatty girls sitting at the far end of the room fell silent.
With a heavy heart, we all watched him draw out the first name from the box and called it out.
The girl's screams rang out in the room as she screamed to be freed. The guards immediately held her down, dragging her to an adjoining room.
It continued until the third girl was called.
For a moment, I could feel all of the girls eyes on me as they looked at me with pity and some fear.
It was not until the guards held my arms and dragged me to the adjoining room before I could finally realize what just happened.
I had been picked to go to the dragon King's castle.
