Breaking Chains

New Home

The next morning, I woke to the soft sound of voices in the hallway. Wait, voices in the hallway? That's not right. The family shouldn't be up yet and if they are, why am I not in trouble? Then, I remembered what had happened the day before. I wasn't in the master's house anymore. I wasn't a slave anymore! Once that thought hit my brain, I couldn't stop crying from pure joy. i must have been crying for an hour before someone knocked lightly on my door. "Michelle? It's me Aaron. Can I come in please?" "Sure." I answered. He stepped into my room and saw me sitting on the floor with tear stains all down my face. "Are you alright?" Aaron asked when he stepped up to my side. " Yes, I'm fine. The realization that I am no longer a slave hit me kinda hard. These are happy tears, I promise. " "Oh! Okay, that's good. I thought maybe you weren't happy with the room or the situation, considering you really don't know what is going on." "Yeah, when am I going to get those answers you promised?" "Right after breakfast. Everyone is excited to meet you." " Everyone?" "You'll see." With those last words he went to the closet and grabbed me a pair of black sweatpants and a dark green t- shirt. "You get to pick out your undergarments. I'm not brave enough to do that." Aaron laughed all the way back to the door. Once the door was closed, I went to the dresser and grabbed a black bra and matching underwear and slipped into the sweatpants and shirt. Then I went to the closet to find a pair of shoes to wear before I walked out of my new room. I ended up finding a nice comfy pair of black fuzzy slippers to put on and headed out the door. Aaron was waiting for me, leaning on the railing of the stairs. As I came out of the door, I saw a look on Aaron's face that I had never seen. His eyes were bright, and he had the biggest smile on his face, like he had always hoped he would be seeing me. It left me confused and when I asked about it, he just simply shrugged and started to head downstairs. Once I caught up with him, I was immediately greeted by about six different faces all bright-eyed and smiling at me. A woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties came up to me and took both of my hands in hers. "Welcome to your new home Michelle. My name is Lana. I'm Aaron's mother. If you need anything, let me know. It's so good to have you here." "Thank you so much," I said as she gave me a slight hug and a smile. I met person after person. Most introduced themselves as family friends or distant cousins. I had a feeling it was more than that, but I shook it off. As we went farther and farther into the huge dining room, I saw someone who looked very familiar for some reason. And sure enough, we stopped right in front of him. "Hello sir, it's nice to make your acquaintance." I said, my voice shaking a little. " Hello Michelle. I'm Aaron's father, Matthew. I am looking forward to getting to know each other." " I look forward to it as well sir." Aaron cleared his throat and said, "Alright everyone, Now that introductions are out of the way, Let's eat!" Everyone crowded around the table and sat down. I stood there awkwardly looking around because I wasn't sure where to go or what to do. Then, a silvery voice called out to me and waved me over. The voice belonged to a young woman who could be my twin, except for the hair and eyes. She had long black hair to my long blonde hair and had deep brown eyes compared to my bright green ones. When I reached where she was sitting, I was almost knocked off my feet by the hug she gave me. "Hi, I'm Angela. I have lived with Aaron's family since I was 3 years old. My parents passed away, and I didn't have anyone to take care of me. Luckily, Lana and Matthew took me in and made me part of their family." I know you must have a lot of different feelings you are trying to figure out right now, but I hope you know you are safe now." "Thank you, Angela. My name is Michelle. I do have a lot of feelings, but mostly I am just confused. I have been a slave for as long as I can remember, so this is completely new to me. I have never even been permitted to sit at the table with the family, let alone eat the food they are." " Oh my goodness, that is terrible. I'm sorry you had to endure that for so long. How old are you?" "I will be 20 in 2 weeks." "Really! My birthday is in 2 weeks too!" Angela exclaimed with glee. She was so excited about the news that she wanted to be best friends right away and, to be honest, so did I. There was something about her that made me at ease. I need that more than ever right now. Angela introduced me to the other people sitting at our part of the table. There was Mark. He was 19 as well and a track star at their school. Cylia is an art major at the local college and working towards becoming an art teacher at the recreation center next door. Abby is a junior in high school and is taking a film studies course because she wants to be a movie producer. And finally, we came to the last member of our motley crew, Nathan. Nathan is a senior in high school and is a chemistry wizard and a technological genius. He is into making gadgets and developing medicines to help people in their day-to-day lives. All of them had different dreams and goals that they were working towards. It made me wonder what I wanted to do with my life. I had never put a lot of thought into it, because before I never had a choice. Now that I did have a choice, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Seeing the puzzled look on my face, Cylia spoke up. "Michelle? Are you alright?" "Oh, yes I am alright. Just lost in thought. You all have such beautiful dreams that I am trying to think about what it is that I want to do with my life." Just as I had finished speaking, Aaron walked up to our group. "Hey Aaron, what's up?" asked Mark. "Hey dude, I just need to borrow Michelle for a bit. Mom and dad wanna talk to her and fill her in on some things." With that said, I got up and excused myself to follow Aaron. Finally, after what seemed like forever, we stopped in front of a large oak door. The door had been carved many years ago by the look of it, and had deep etchings of a large clearing in the forest with a large full moon hanging above it. In the clearing there were wolves of varying sizes gathered, all gazing up and sending their voices to the sky. "It's beautiful isn't it?" Aaron asked with a smirk on his lips. "Gorgeous. How long has this house been in your family?" "This house has been in our family for the last 800 years. We have an impressive family history, if I may say so myself. Most of our family were artisans. Painters, sculptors, blacksmiths and bladesmiths. The first head of our family carved this door himself and made the wolf our family crest. And this house has been passed from son to son since then." "Wow. That's amazing. I feel honored to be here Aaron." "Thank you, Michelle, now are you ready to get those answers you have been waiting for?" "Yes." Aaron grabbed my hand and held it tight as we walked through the door to the study. I was finally going to get the answers that I wanted. But, would those answers make me feel any better? It's better than being confused. That was the last thought I had before I sat down to hear the story of my life.