Fiction: Unknown World: Untitled Fantasy

[k_a_webb]

When Erin was almost out of the window a hand grabbed hold of her leg and pulled her back into the room. All she had a chance to do was let go of the files in the hope that she'd be able to retrieve them. Her feet had barely touched the ground when she was almost picked up by the owner of the hand. The only thing she really had a chance to notice about him, other than his gender, was the slave collar he wore around his neck so she knew that he was only following orders. That didn't stop her from trying to fight her way free but he was a lot stronger than she had expected him to be.

 

“Take her upstairs,” a voice said from behind them. “I'll deal with her in the morning.”

Upstairs was not where she wanted to go. If she ended up in one of the rooms that the slaves used she wouldn't be able to get away. She fought harder against her captor, feeling her fear grow with every step that they took towards the stairs. Going back to the house a second time had been the mistake she said it would be. Her feet hit him time and time again but it didn't do any good. The arms around her were unmovable, no matter what she did.

Tears of frustration and anger began trickling down her cheeks. She was angry with herself for letting her partner talk her into going back to the house for a second time. The money would have been useful but not getting out of the house meant that she would never get to use it. Instead she would be forced to wear one of those collars for the rest of her life.

Sooner than she expected he stepped onto the landing. It wouldn't be long before she was trapped behind one of those doors and that thought made her fight even harder. A minute later she thought she was actually getting somewhere because he dropped her but then she found herself almost falling into a room. She hadn't full regained her balance when she was pushed into the room, falling hard on her knees. The burst of pain, her job really wasn't good for the knees, stopped her for almost as long as it took the door to close.

Another burst of pain came when she quickly put her hand, the hand that she had cut the day before, between the door and the door frame. Using that hand she pushed the door open before attempting to crawl out of the room. She was stopped by a hand wrapping around her ankle. Getting her foot free was impossible so all she could do was watch as the door shut, trapping her inside the room. When the door was closed he let go of her ankle because there was no chance of her getting out of the room.

Tears continued streaming down her cheeks and there was nothing she could do to stop them. Wiping them away didn't do any good because they just kept falling. For what felt like hours she tried to force the door open using her non-existant nails but all she ended up doing was making her fingers bleed. Eventually she gave up, knowing that there was nothing she could do to get out of that room. Again she wiped tears off her cheeks, wincing as she realised that she had probably wiped blood all over her face.

Her captor had slept through everything. She crawled over to the bed he was sleeping in and looked down at him. There was very little light coming through the window but she had just enough light to see him. Unfortunately she hadn't been given much time to look at the files they'd taken so it took her a while to work out who it was. Finally she realised that it was Draven. He'd been described as dangerous.

Now her only chance of getting away from the house was him. Running her tongue over her bottom lip she worked on the collar as gently as she could. She didn't want him to wake up while she was working in case he tried to stop her. When the sun was beginning to light the sky she finally managed to get it off and then she attempted to thow it out of the tiny opening at the top of the window. It didn't work very well but the collar was out of the room.

Turning away from the window she noticed that his eyes were opened a slit. He watched her as she crossed the room, attempting to seem nonchalant. She didn't think it worked very well because she knew she was shaking like a leaf with fear and frustration. Blinking away more tears, so she didn't look weak in front of him, she sat down on one of the other beds in the room. Instead of looking at him like she wanted to she stared at the wall across from her. Her back was to the door, something she hated doing but had to so she could keep an eye on her captor. If he was really dangerous then she wanted to know what he was doing more than she wanted any warning of the door opening.

“Do you know what I am?” he asked, surprising her slightly.

She turned to look at him. “All I know is your name and that you're apparently dangerous.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Weren't you worried that I might hurt you?”

“It was a possibility but I thought the risk was worth it. I won't let them put a collar on me and the only thing I can use to stop them is you.”

“What makes you think I'm going to help you?”

She smiled at him. “I took your collar off.”

Their eyes locked. She could hear footsteps walking along the landing and knew that it wouldn't be long before someone opened the door to their room. It made her wish she could read his mind so she knew whether she was going to be fighting with him or against him. There was no doubt in her mind that he wouldn't want to be collared again but that didn't mean he would help her.

“You do exactly what I say.”

She didn't have a chance to answer because the door opened. Even though she wasn't sure that she could trust him she stood and turned so she was facing the three men who had just walked into the room. The first thing she saw was the fear that filled their eyes.

“What have you done?” one of them whispered, beginning to back away. “He's a dragon.”

Erin stared at him. She'd heard of the dragons, everyone had, but most people believed that they were just a myth. There was no real proof that they had ever actually existed. Occasionally someone said they'd found a dragon bone and it always turned out to be a hoax.

“Get me a collar,” he whispered into her ear.

Without stopping to think about what he had told her to do she ran for the door. The man closest tried to shut it until his arm was grabbed by the man they called a dragon. She actually heard the bones crunch. It made her think that maybe he really was a dragon, they were said to be really strong, but she couldn't let that stop her.

First she checked the rooms closest to them. No one was in them so she had to search for someone wearing a collar. Unsurprisingly it didn't take her long. At the end of the landing a man wearing a collar was washing a window. She felt bad for making him jump when she grabbed hold of the collar but she knew she had to work quickly. Part of it was the fear that they could have been ordered to fight anyone who tried to take their collar off and the rest was simply because she knew that he needed her to be fast.

It took her much less time to take the second collar off. As soon as it was off she ran back to the room. The man she'd freed from the collar followed her. She had no idea why and it scared her slightly. Once she was stood in the door way of their room she couldn't help thinking that being followed was a lot less scary than seeing what he was capable of.

He looked at her and raised his hand so she threw the collar to him. Smiling he put the collar onto the flailing man who was underneath him. The other two men were either unconcious or dead. Erin looked around the room, wondering how he could have done so much damage in the time it had taken her to get the collar that he wanted. When he looked up at her again she couldn't hold back her shiver of fear.

“Thank you,” he said, standing.

“I helped for purely selfish reason.”

“All the same I appreciate it. There are those who don't bother fighting.” He looked at the man who was stood behind her. “I thought it would be you, Art. Make a start on getting the collars off everyone we can trust while I talk to my new friend.”

Art didn't say anything but Erin saw the end of his nod when she glanced over her shoulder. He walked away, leaving the two of them alone. She stared over at the man who'd been collared and couldn't help feeling glad that she wasn't wearing one. Without saying anything she turned to walk away. A vice like grip on her shoulder stopped her.

“You're not going anywhere. The last thing I need is word of what happened her getting out.”

“I'm not going to say anything to anyone.”

“This may come as a surprise to you but I don't trust you. Right now you have two choices. You either stay here or you stay here wearing a collar. Pick one quickly.”

Glaring at him she tried to pull her shoulder free. “I am not wearing one of those collars.”

“Well then all you have to do is behave. If you try to leave this house I will collar you.” He squeezed her shoulder hard before letting go. “You know my name so it's only polite that you give me yours.”

She shook her head. Once she got out of the house, and retrieved the files she'd thrown out the window, the last thing she wanted was him coming after her. It didn't help that she was disliked by enough of the wrong people, people who would give her up if it meant getting something in return.

“I'll get Art to grab a collar for you then.”

Curling her hands into fists she stared at the wall. Her fingers still hurt but that didn't matter. If she could have her time again there were so many things she would do differently. When she looked at him she knew that she really did only have one choice left to her if she didn't want to wear a collar. She knew enough about them to know that she really did not want to ever wear one.

Finally she said, “I'm Erin.”

 

© K A Jones 2011

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.