The other children taken from the orphanage with Serena, under the pretences of being adopted and being given a new home, have spent the last three months crammed tightly together in a small, damp and musty room at the far end of the building, and have been taking it in turns sleeping on the sharp rickety beds placed along the wall by the half boarded and slightly leaking window in the bedroom. A child can only earn the 'luxury' of one of those beds once they have completed enough work and to an adequate standard, or achieved specific tasks to warrant those privileges, but only the masters themselves can make the final decision on such rewards. The older boys of their group that arrived there with them from the orphanage, began their stay with being removed from the joint room on a regular basis along with other older boys from around the building. But when they arrived back at the bedroom at the end of the day, they were bruised and bloody from head to toe, however they all refused to go into detail of the reason behind any of it.
Yet now the guards and masters have now moved the orphanage's group out of their original room that they were all crammed together into at the beginning of their stay, and into two large individual dormitory-like bedrooms instead; each dormitory is separate from the other, one specifically for the girls and one for the boys. The most interaction the orphanage group of children have had from other people are from either their masters, or the guards bringing them their meals and lists of tasks for the day.
Over time, as many more months have passed, their individual tasks and duties have changed ever so slightly but also carried on much the same. Her once bright, twinkling, oceanic blue coloured eyes, have lost their sparkle and dulled to a dark sapphire blue instead. Her once chestnut brown and golden thick cascading hair has become faded, thinner and lacklustre. By now Serena has discovered what the older boys have been doing and the reason for their injuries, as they appeared to have been fighting and training with the guards and even occasionally with a master or two. They are starting to develop and change, appear bigger, more physically defined and stronger, as well as more intimidating, as the weeks and months have gone by. All the younger girls cook, clean and carry out anything that they are asked to by their masters, or even sometimes the guards. Some of the older adolescent girls, that have seemed to have lived here some years, have returned to the dormitory room at randomly various times throughout, bruised, injured, cut, grubby and fearful. They have become timid shells of themselves and now stay solitary, refusing to interact with the other girls in their shared dormitory. In another observation, some of the younger girls that are the healthiest amongst the group get taken away in alternating rotations and are carried back to their beds an hour later gaunt and weak, but again not very much information is offered up from them either.
As the late evening drew in, Serena was alone sweeping a long corridor, that is somewhat neglected and not used very often. She was in a world of her own, in a fantastical reality created within her own mind, of very opposite circumstances than the one she has found herself accustomed to over time, when she was brought back to the current world by being grabbed swiftly from behind and pushed harshly against a wall. She attempted to scream in shock and for help, but a large calloused hand covered her mouth preventing any such action.
"Sshh...sshh now none of that little girl." She was feeling increasingly repulsed and began to gag on the smell of his rancid breath that was laced with ale, fanning her cheek. He roughly stroked down the side of her face and swiped a stray tear away from her eye as he forcefully pushed some loose hair behind her ear and wet kissed her forehead. She tried whimpering and begging for him to let her go but all she received in return was a hard glare.
"Ralph! Conner wants you in his office. Stop playing around here."
"Perhaps another time then little one."
As master Ralph released his hold on her, he left with master Connor down the corridor, and Serena let out a long-ragged breath that she didn't know that she was even holding and slid shakily down the wall to land on the floor with a soft thud. She sat there for some time and let the tears fall freely and silently so as not to draw any attention.
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Today, the newer group of young girls, the small group brought from the orphanage, had gotten taken away down into the laboratory where they are to be tested on. None of the other girls, that have lived there for quite some time, would advise them of what to expect but they did not seem very enthusiastic about any of the events that were to take place. All those summoned to the laboratory were instructed to stand single file in a line and positioned in such a way that one of their sides were facing out into the room, against the wall at the far end of the room while the bloodletting took place, taken from their lean fragile arms. They were each informed that this was a necessary task in order to determine whether they were healthy or not or if they needed any type of treatment. Once all of that was completed, they were then notified that they were permitted to leave immediately but that they were to continue carrying out their regular assigned tasks for the day as any other normal day. However, Serena was feeling very uneasy and suspicious about the entire situation, starting the instant the girls were first summoned from their dorm room this morning.
As the day progressed, nothing more was spoken of the earlier events in the laboratory until that very evening. Whilst they were having their meals in their dormitory, some of the girls were called out into the corridor and taken away into an unknown area of the building, sadly all except one returned. No one knew of where that last girl had disappeared to but some of the older girls advised them that it was not good and warned them that she would not be seen again. Soon it was Serena's turn, and she was called out into the hallway away from the dormitory. One of the master's guards led her down the winding, creaking corridor that let to an old broad-stepped staircase and into a barely lit entry hallway. She was sharply thrust through a large rustic looking cupboard door that opened onto steep, cold stone steps and down into the basement to where the laboratory resides.
"Serena dear take a seat, and behave for Master Doc." She was greeted as she entered the room, she passed Master Connor who stood leaning against the wall with his arms folded and a stern but unreadable expression present on his face.
"You have very spectacular blood my dear. The healthiest and strongest we have seen in a long time," Master Doc compliments.
"We need to know of where you have come from, and who were your parents? Do you have any other relatives?" Master Connor questions her as he pushes off the wall and looks Serena up and down with interest and curiosity slowly becoming evident on his face, but not quite reaching his eyes.
"I...I... don't know sir. I do not believe that I have any relatives and I am unsure what happened to my parents. I have always been well though and never gotten sick before."
"Well we need to test more samples of your blood before we can transfer you into the donor group." Says Master Doc while retrieving small glass vials and long but soiled metal implements from the rusted and mouldy counter top.
"I have a quicker method of testing quality Doc." Master Connor states towards Master Doc, but with an evil smirk and hungry glint in his eyes as he faces Serena and reaches for her hand. He holds her wrist in a steel like grip and brings it up steadily to his face. He slowly runs the tip of his nose up the palm of her hand, starting at her finger tips and gradually moving up towards her palm and finishing at her wrist and then opened his mouth over her wrist. It appeared that he was going to place an open-mouthed kiss on the sensitive thin skin of her wrist but instead a sharp piercing and burning pain enveloped her wrist as he bit down hard and started to suck.
"Grr eck...(spit)...that is terrible! Her blood tastes awful."
"What?! How is that possible?! She has perfect blood, very healthy, a strong blood count and no infections or diseases present." Master Doc nervously questions with a frustrated expression.
"Well I do not know the reason behind it, I am not a scientist, but it is clear we cannot use her as a donor. She will have to continue working in her position as a slave and toy and then later become an incubating vessel just like the others."
"Will she at least provide healthy offspring?" Questions Master Doc.
"I do not know why she would not." Master Connor states, then turns to a guard stationed at the door to the laboratory, "take her away and out of my sight."
"Yes sir." He replies whilst he grabs Serena's upper arm roughly, hoists her off the chair she was sat in and drags her through the laboratory door and up the stairs, all the way back to the dormitory. As they finally approached the final landing just before her dormitory, with Serena slightly out of breath and pushing forward on aching legs due to the urgency and speed of their march, they were swiftly headed off by Master Ralph, whom was lurking just behind the corner.
"I will take her from here, get back to your post." He orders the guard that was escorting her with a cruel smirk.
"Of course, sir." The guard replies with a concerned and apologetic look in Serena's direction, before leaving her behind with the disturbing individual standing across from her.
"Come." He demands in her direction, before pulling her down an adjoining corridor and towards a room with a dark cherry oak wooden door, that she has heard many a girls' screams come from in the past few months that she has been working in that building. She tried freeing herself from his cruel grasp, pleading with him and digging her heels into the old wooden floorboards, but only receiving splinters and silence for her efforts. This seemed not to effect Master Ralph at all as he simply tightened his grip further on her upper arm and carried onwards through the door, slamming and locking it behind him. He shoved her aside to the floor and strode to the far end of the room to pour himself an alcoholic drink. She watched cautiously from afar before she hauled herself up off the floor and hastily ran to the door to attempt an escape. She pulled desperately at the rusted metal handle, but he had just appeared behind her quicker that she thought was physically possible and grabbed a large fistful of her hair whilst he pulled her violently away from the door and her attempted escape.
"Now now, none of that. Can you not see I am doing you a favour?! Many girls would love to be in your position, but you are the one lucky enough to have been chosen by me. Now be a good girl or I will start to get angry."
She whimpered quietly inside to herself, but on the outside she held firm and threw her head back into him. She managed to catch him off guard as the back of her skull crashed into his nose and a crunch could be heard loudly through the room.
"Aaahhh you bitch!" He threw her down to the floor in front of him and back handed her hard across the face, causing her lip to split and bleed from the impact. She crouched on the floor and cradled her face gently, whilst resuming to watch Master Ralph for his next action, as he wiped the blood from his nose with his hand and down his trouser leg.
In a matter of seconds, his nose corrected itself and any visible marks on his face simply disappeared with no evidence of there being any damage present in the first place. Serena panicked and frantically rushed towards the only window present in that room and wishing, to any deity that may be listening to her, that it would be open for her to escape this wretched place. But before she could even make it to the handle, Master Ralph's large arm snaked around her waist and lifted her up off the floor where she had scrambled.
"Aaahhh what are you?!" She screamed out loud.
"Your worst nightmare." He replied unnervingly calm, and then continued to wrap his sizeable hand around her delicately slender neck and started to slowly squeeze it tightly until she found breathing and even uttering a single sound awfully difficult.
"Now are you going to behave, or should I punish you more?" He asked her sadistically and momentarily out of breath. She shakily nodded her head, so he released her neck slowly from his hand and leaned back on his knees while still towering over her and keeping her pinned to the bed.
"Now that we have that dealt with, and you understand that you are my property, I wish to see what I have to work with."
As the night went on, he forcefully took poor Serena's carefree, bubbly nature and purity while displaying what little, she as a slave, was worth to him and to the masters, as well as all that her future would consist of from now on.