This post was written in response to Writing 101: A Room with a View. It is being uploaded a few days late because I wanted the chance to polish it a bit. This piece does not strictly follow the twist but was inspired by the prompt.
This piece is part of a story I am writing for my SO on a private blog. There will not be updates on Birth of a Lycan through this site.
TRIGGER WARNING: This piece hints at abuse.
Jeremiah slipped his hand into the front inside pocket of his jacket. His fingers gently caressed the satin ribbon which he knew was tied around a small velvet box.
The box held the key to his existence. Without this box, he didn’t know if he would be alive.
He gripped the box tightly in his hand as memories of her gripped his mind.
She was the reason for this box. She was the reason he was still here.
He remembered her teaching him. Days spent sitting side by side as she showed him the ways of steam-powered technology. He remembered the feel of her skin as he brushed against her in the library and the smell of aether as they built their machines.
As he pulled the box from its resting place, he remembered the day she gave it to him. He remembered the way the sunset danced on the horizon; the way her eyes teared up as she sat in her wheelchair. The years had been hard on her body, though her mind was as sharp as the day they met.
As she handed over the open box, she finally told him the truth. Truth that she had kept from him for twenty years. Truth that he could never let anyone else know. Truth which he kept hidden in a small velvet box tied shut with a blue satin ribbon.
“Do you love him?”
The question was simple, but Alyssa found that she couldn’t answer. As much as she wanted to love, she also knew she couldn’t.
“Well?” Rhiondra tapped the toe of her polished leather shoe on the floor. “Do you love David?”
“Rhiondra, unlike you, I do not have the privilege to fall in love.” Alyssa’s voice faultered as she thought of what she was going to say. “I am a purposed person. We are only meant to do what we are purposed for. I was purposed as a servant. I am to clean and cook not fall in love.”
“That is ridiculous. You should be able to love. In fact, you are able to love because I allow it.”
“It is not as simple as that Rhiondra. Love is not my purpose.” Alyssa tugged on the bottom of Rhiondra’s dress. “Can you stop moving so that I might hem your dress?”
Rhiondra waved off Alyssa’s comment but stopped moving. “It is as simple as that. And, if I were you, I would run away to be with my love. It would be very romantic.”
“It would be dangerous and deadly.” Alyssa stopped her work so that she could look Rhiondra in the eyes.
“But it would also be romantic.” Rhiondra’s eyes took on a faraway look.
Alyssa sighed. “Yes, Rhiondra, it would also be romantic.”
If anyone were to come looking for her, they would find her watching clouds. She had wanted to watch clouds ever since she could remember. If she thought about it, she had wanted to watch clouds since she had first read about it in the shelter library.
She never thought that she would be one of the lucky few allowed out of the shelter. She never thought that she would be lucky enough to see what the world looked like without watching movies or reading books.
Of course, if she wasn’t a biosphere engineer, she wouldn’t have had the chance to walk in the open air. If she hadn’t specialized in atmospheric chemicals she wouldn’t have been chosen to fix the bio-analysis unit. If she hadn’t taken the courses in bio-chem hazards she would be relaying the information to someone else through the communications units.
Unfortunately, the atmospheric chemicals were at an unexpected high. The chemicals had already eaten through half of her bio-chem suit by the time she finished with the repairs.
She may have been able to return to base with the suit intact, but she had been ordered to stay. They needed to know that the repairs would hold. Checking the repairs would take at least another hour
By that time, the suit would be more of a decoration than a barrier. Parts of the suit were already becoming transparent, disappearing before her eyes.
And so she decided to watch the clouds. To watch the colours swirl in the sky, dark colours of blue and purple mixed with lighter shades of red and white.
She could feel the chemicals burning her skin. She knew that she didn’t have long to live. But as she lie down on the hillside, she wasn’t afraid of death. Because, in this last day, she had finally lived.
“And now on the block we have a small blonde from Canaan.”
A large man shoved Alyssa up the steps before her. She stumbled up the few steps, righting herself once she reached the small platform by throwing her tied up hands in front of her.
“We will start the bidding at five credits. Do I hear five credits?”
Alyssa’s heart beat loudly, overpowering the voice of the auctioneer. Her body trembled as she stood, naked, in front of the people who were bidding on her.
Please let me go somewhere where I’ll be safe and treated well. Please don’t send me to my death. Alyssa thought as the bids grew in size.
“I have eight credits from number twenty-nine. I have eight credits, who will give me nine? I have eight credits, do I hear nine?”
Alyssa’s thoughts strayed to the stories she heard from the other people in her compartment. Stories about what different households did to the girls they bought. Stories about rape and abuse. Stories about suicide and murder. And all Alyssa could do was hope that she was one of the lucky ones. That she would be one of the ones who survive.
“Sold to number forty-two for twenty-one credits. Our biggest sale today. If you will go over to the counter to pay, you can pick up your slave.”
A.P.'s Quill 