BLOOD OF THE FIRST

Yeahhh!!!” I closed my eyes in pain, refusing to make any sound, as cheers erupted from the onlookers watching me and five other girls get molested. It’s not like it’s the first time anyway. My name is Freya, a Dormant blood. That’s what they call us: wolves who can’t wolf out and find a mate. Since there’s no one to claim us, we’re forced to be everybody’s plaything. We’re referred to as an abomination and thus treated as one. We get ridiculed, used over and over again, and we never get to enjoy the good things like everyone else. Crack! I felt the sting of the whip against my back. Apparently, the man doing me wasn’t happy with how quiet I was. They don’t like us quiet, I’ve come to realize. I stifled a cry from the stinging pain. I looked around and caught Merlyn’s pitiful eyes. She’s twenty-five and the oldest of the girls being used presently, and also the most favored. Merlyn is what I call a beauty. Perfect eyes, nose, and lips. Hell, even her teeth are perfect. They’d have made incredible fangs had she been able to wolf out. I remember her before she became a Dormant blood. She walked around in a flowery gown and told us how she envisioned her wolfing out and meeting her mate. Everyone envied her; the men were looking forward to who would be her mate and have her to himself, but now everyone has gotten, and is still getting, their share of her. She didn’t fight for long, so she told us. “Fighting is useless, Freya. Just accept it and it’ll be endurable. You don’t have to be whipped every time,” she had told me the third night after I was taken from my home because I didn’t wolf out. That had been one year ago. I had refused to cry, scream, moan, or make any sound whatsoever to please their stupid egos. The outcome of that rebellion had been terrible though. Crack! Another whip landed on my back, and I immediately bit my lips, drawing blood. A tear threatened to fall, but I fought against it. They won’t break me. I promised that to my father the night they were dragging me away. “Don’t let them break you. Promise me.” I couldn’t say anything to him as my mouth refused to say the words I said in my heart. I just watched him hold my brother in terror. Little Luca. He couldn’t understand why they were dragging me away or why Father was crying, but he joined in the tears anyway. The tears I’ve been holding finally gave way, and before I could wipe them away, Old Rob saw them. One of the old people who stood for the motion of Dormant bloods being used as playthings. Maybe he wouldn’t be so happy if it was his daughter in this position, but alas, his daughter wolfed out. Vivian—mighty and high, always acting like the world revolves around her. Maybe it does, cause… “What a sight. The dormant cunt is crying,” Old Rob said loudly, interrupting my thought. His voice was very loud for all to hear, and everyone turned to me. “Well done, Jimmy. You really did her good, heh?” one of the men I didn’t recognize said, and Jimmy, feeling proud, yanked my hair to face everyone so they could get a look at the tears in my eyes. Then he brought his face closer to me and said, “You’re beginning to be a good girl, aren’t ya?” I moved my lips inaudibly, and he brought his ears closer to my lips to hear what I said, just like I had predicted, and immediately… catching him unaware, I bit his ear hard. Now, I may not have wolfed out, but I have incredibly sharp teeth for a Dormant blood. I’d have ripped Jimmy’s—whatever his name was—ear off if it was not for Thomas, the one in charge of us who came with the torture device he uses on us whenever any of us decides to be rebellious, and I’m mostly his victim. It is a small rectangular pad with a button that sends electric waves around your body immediately as it comes in contact with your skin. I felt an extremely painful, electrifying shock all over my body as darkness threatened to overtake me. In my dizzy state, I heard the bastard I bit curse at me while holding his almost-fallen ear. Then three people I could hardly recognize, because my eyes were closing, rushed over to me, kicking me all over. I tried to dodge some of their attacks, but it was useless. Unbearable pain shot through me as their thick boots connected with my frail body, and I blacked out immediately. I opened my eyes hazily, expecting the darkness of the cage, but rather, the rays of the sun nearly blinded me. I raised my hands to block them, but I stopped mid-raise because my perfectly clean hands caught my attention. No bruises, no roughness. Just like how it was before I was taken. I looked around; I was in my mom’s favorite garden, our secret place. I laughed tearfully as I twirled around, taking in the beautiful sight I’ve missed so much. I touched the fabric I was wearing; it’s the black lace gown Mother had sewn for me. I ran to the river close to the tree with the berries and bent down to look at my face, but instead, a beautiful yet terrifying lady with a pale, ghostly face and completely black, angry eyes stared back at me. I jumped back in fear and suddenly heard Mother’s voice. “Run…!! Run…!!! They’re coming.” I hesitated, looking around for a minute to see where she was screaming from, before I took to my heels, the beautiful garden suddenly changing its form into a thick forest. I kept running regardless, cutting through the trees as the branches kept tearing at my clothes and skin until I was almost unrecognizable; then chains from nowhere came at me, holding my wrists tight as I was forced to kneel. I tugged desperately, trying to get free, but the more I tugged, the tighter the chains became. “Mamaaaa,” I screamed in pain as it felt like the chains were crushing my bones. Suddenly the face I saw in the river appeared, this time with her full body. She had a similar black gown like mine, but hers looked like something made in a palace. Smoother, richer, and awfully intimidating. She was floating in the air and charging at me with such speed that I almost missed her long claws. “Weak.” She kept saying it as she cut through my chest over and over again. Her voice was booming with thunderous echoes, sounding like it was coming from different places all at once. I felt life leave me as I bled out with each tear of my skin. Whoever she is, she’s right. I am indeed weak, I said to myself, waiting patiently for death to take me…