Instead of the knife hitting me as I expected, it hit the wall behind me with a loud clang, making stuff hung on the walls fall down. I opened my eyes in surprise, looking up at Dimitri, who was staring at the walls behind me with unreadable eyes.
He then looked down at me with a scowl on his face. "The only reason you're not dead is because my friendship with Devon is far more important to me than killing humans. But I'm not letting any of you survive for free."
He began undoing the straps that kept me down on the chair. Once he was done, he pulled me up. Grabbing my arm, he pulled me out down the hallway and it seemed as if we were going towards the cell where the rest of the girls were being kept. He then handed me off to a guard before walking off. The guard pushed me into the cell with the other girls, locking the door behind me.
"You're not dead! Why?" Shauna asked pointing an accusing finger at me. I glared at her. She was honestly such a bitch. It's because of me her stupid ass'll be saved. If I hadn't have gone after Thomas, none of us would be saved. She should be bowing down to me.
Pam and a couple other girls came to me and asked me what happened. I relayed the story in detail of everything that happened, leaving out the dream details. Every girl, including Shauna, listened intently to my story of what happened.
"So what is Dimitri going to make us do in exchange for our lives?" Pam asked me and I shrugged my shoulders as I had absolutely no idea.
"Was he hot?" Shauna asked causing me to roll my eyes. Is that all she cared about? I ignored her stupid question and kept conversing with Pam. We were listing things we thought he could make us do. As we were talking, the guards came and opened our cell door, in walked Devon with Thomas in his arms. Thomas immediately chirped up at the sight of me and jumped out of Devon's arms, running towards me. When he reached me, I immediately scooped him up in a tight hug. "You're alive!" Thomas whispered, causing a few tears to slip out of my eyes.
"I am Thomas. I am." I whispered back, rubbing Thomas's back gently.
"Bella." Devon said, smiling at me. I smiled back, wiping my tears away. Just then Dimitri showed up with what seemed like a permanent scowl etched onto his face. A guard came walking behind him, announcing Dimitri as Dimitri Rae, the Demon King to all the girls before leaving. I noticed Shauna's eyes widened as a flirtatious smile appeared on her face. "Hi. I'm Shauna." She whispered in a seductive voice. Dimitri looked at her, giving her getup a once over. I couldn't tell if he found her attractive or not. I wouldn't be surprised if he did since she was pretty attractive and she did seem to have the perfect body, whatever society classifies as a perfect body, as I don't believe in a perfect body to really exist.
"I'm Dimitri Rae, as you all know now. I've decided to strike up a deal with all you girls. Devon, my stupid best friend doesn't want me to get rid of you girls and the little boy. And I've agreed. But I am not going to let any of you live for free. You all will-"
"I'm very good in bed!" Shauna chimed in, cutting Dimitri right off. Some girls quietly snickered at how stupid she sounded while I just mentally face palmed myself. "I'd make a very good mistress if-"
"I'd appreciate it if I wasn't interrupted." He said in a raised voice which shut Shauna up right away. "Anyways, as I was saying, none of you will live for free. All of you will work for your lives. All of you will take up a duty in this castle. I will assign you all the jobs that you need to do. If you all do as I say, you'll be allowed to live. But if any of you, even disobey me once, I will kill you. Not all of you of course. Only the offender. Is that a good enough deal? If anyone objects to it, I will have to kill you." Dimitri explained and I had to say it was a fair enough deal. No one thankfully objected and Dimitri finalized the deal.
"Okay so I have a list of things you will each take up on." Dimitri said as he walked around, assigning different places and jobs to each girl, such as kitchen duty. Etcetera, etcetera.
All the girls had been given a duty except Shauna, Pam, Thomas and I, yet. I had no idea what he was going to make Thomas do as he was only a child. I hoped Dimitri would have some compassion and not make Thomas do anything hard. I also hoped I wouldn't get anything horrible as some girls have. Some of the girls have to clean up his killings as he is still going to torture and kill humans. I really hoped Thomas and I didn't get that. Even Pam, I didn't want her getting something as horrible as that. I didn't really care if Shauna got it. She deserved it anyways.
Dimitri left a girl and came towards Shauna. Shauna practically stuck herself up against him when he reached her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, shooting him a very seductive look. I noticed Dimitri's gaze fixed on her cleavage. He had an arm wrapped around her waist and I noticed some lust show through in his eyes before he blinked it away. "You will be working for me, as my personal maid, servant, whatever you want to call it. You'll be catering to all my needs." He said and Shauna grinned happy about that. She was the first one chosen to be his personal maid.
He then let go of Shauna and walked up to Pam. "You'll work in the kitchen under Mary's command." He said and Pam smiled about that. "I love cooking." She whispered to me and I smiled back at her, happy she didn't get anything horrible. She was working under Mary's command. Mary was the castles main cook as that's what Dimitri said to the other girls.
"Thomas you will do small things, here and there. Should be easy enough for a five year old boy like you." Dimitri said and I sighed in relief at the fact that he was going easy on Thomas.
Dimitri then turned to look at me. He stared down at me for a while before deciding to say something. "You will also be a personal maid of mine. With Shannie."
"My name's Shauna not Shannie and I don't want to work with that piece of filth!" She exclaimed sounding angry as she pointed at me. I glared at her, not happy about this either. I really didn't want to deal with her but at least I wasn't making a huge deal about it.
"Well Shauna, it's your choice. Death or working with the piece of filth." Dimitri said, looking at her with a hard look in his eyes.
"Piece of filth it is." She grumbled with her arms crossed across her chest.
"Excuse you but I don't like being called a piece of filth. So I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't. And stop being such a brat about it Shauna. Everything's not all about you. Believe me, I'd rather not work with you either. But sometimes life doesn't give us choices." I state, getting up off the floor.
"You're wrong." Dimitri speaks up before Shauna can say anything.
"What?" I ask confused.
"You're wrong. Life always gives choices. One always have a choice. One is never forced to do anything. Everything one does is what one chooses to do." Dimitri says silencing everyone. I had to say, he was right. We did have a choice. Even though our choices are quite limited.
"The castle workers will come soon to retrieve you all. When they come, I want you to go with them and listen to what they tell you to do. And you three-" He said pointing to Shauna, Thomas and I. "-can come with me."
I grabbed Thomas's hand and followed Dimitri out the room with Shauna trailing beside us. I hoped Shauna would dull her annoying personality down a bit. I don't think I can handle her for too long before I snap.
"So you three will be staying in one room together." Dimitri said causing my eyes to widen and I saw Shauna about to open her mouth to protest. "I hope that won't be an issue for any of you." He stated making sure to look both Shauna and I in the eyes, causing Shauna's words to stay stuck in her mouth. At least she was smart enough to realize when to just stay quiet.
He gave us a small, quick tour of the important places of the castle. He then showed us our room before showing us his room. His bedroom was absolutely huge, bigger than any bedroom you'd see in people's homes on earth. "You are not allowed to enter my room unless instructed otherwise. If you need to talk to me, knock on the door. Okay?" He asked looking at both of us. We both silently nodded our heads.
"I want you two to always be available for me in case I need you to do something. I'll be very annoyed if at least one of you isn't there. You'll get three chances. You blow the chances, you're out." He said causing me to gulp in fear. I needed to make sure to always be there near him so I don't get booted out. This was going to be hard. Especially if he sends us off to do errands and then needs us there with him at the same time. I was going to have to constantly check in on him to make sure he doesn't need us to do something else.
Just then Devon walked by smiling at Thomas and I. "I'll take Thomas with me for now." He says and Dimitri nods his head. Once they left Dimitri turned to us again.
"I already have stuff for you two to do so you can get started. Shauna, I have a basket full of my clothes that I want you to iron. There are also a basket full of my dirty clothes that you need to take to the laundry room and separate into the right colors. The maids there will then take care of the rest. Okay?" He says and Shauna nods.
"And you," He looks at me. "You can go change my bedsheets and put new ones on." He said showing me to the linen closet which held all the clean bedsheets.
"Is that it?" I ask and he nods his head.
"Why do I have to do more than her?" Shauna screeches in her annoying high-pitched angry voice.
Dimitri glares at her. "Just go do what you're told to." He demands and she nods her head in annoyance before turning around to leave. "And curtsy when you leave. I'm a King. Show some damn respect."
"Sorry, Your Highness." She says as she turns around, curtsies, then leaves. I couldn't tell if she genuinely said that or if it was supposed to sound sarcastic. It kind of sounded like a mixture of both. But Dimitri didn't say anything, he just waited until she left, then turned to look at me.
"My bed. Now." He demanded pointing towards it, and I quickly went and started removing the old bedsheets and pillowcases. Once I get those off, I threw them in the laundry hamper before leaving the room to go to the linen closet to find new bedsheets. Once there, I picked out a red-coloured bedding set and then started carrying it back to Dimitri's room.
I couldn't see since the bedding was covering my view and so I accidentally bumped into Kenneth, the fiery red-haired demon. "What the fuck! Watch where you're going!" He yelled at me and I quietly muttered an apology. He started walking away giving me a scowl when I tripped over the bedsheets, landing on the ground with a loud thump, tangled in the mess.
Kenneth turned to look at the mess I created. "You're honestly pathetic." He said, sticking a hand out for me to grab. I grabbed it and he surprisingly pulled me up. He then surprised me even more by helping me gather up the bedsheets from the ground. He helped set them in my arms in a way that I could easily hold them and see where I was going as well. "Thank you." I whispered sending him a very thankful smile.
"Whatever." He grouched before walking away. I really wasn't expecting Kenneth to help me. Was he on drugs or something?
Pushing the thought out of my mind, I walked towards Dimitri's room and found it empty of him. I then quickly dressed his bed with the clean bedsheets and pillowcases. Once I was done, I took a step back to make sure everything was perfect. Once I saw it was, I turned around and jumped a little when I noticed Dimitri standing there by the doorway, his arms crossed across his chest, simply watching me with calculating eyes.
I decided now was the chance to thank him for sparing our lives since none of us really did. It was important for him to know that we appreciated the choice he made. Maybe we could convince him to end his human torture and killing ways forever. Maybe we wouldn't have to result to murdering him ourselves. I doubt we'd be able to do it anyways. Maybe all he needs is for someone to show him that he can do so much better than killing humans. That he could do lots better.
I slowly and hesitantly approached him, not knowing how to start. Once I was a foot away from him, I looked up into his scary eyes. I flinched a little since I wasn't used to seeing him with such harsh red and black eyes.
"Um, Your Highness." I said, curtsying as I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do. He just stared back at me with those same calculating eyes, leaning against the wall, with his buff muscular arms still crossed. "I made your bed for you." He still doesn't move or say anything which is starting to make me uncomfortable. "I um... wanted to say thank you for giving us another option. I also wanted to thank you for not killing me off. I really appreciated your change of mind."
"Cut the bullshit." He finally spoke up, looking angry for some reason.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Oh don't act like you don't know. You don't really care to thank me. You're just happy I spared your lives." He said with an annoyed look in his eyes.
"What do you mean I don't care to thank you? I do. And of course I'm happy that you spared our lives. But I'm not going to take that for granted. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to pay for your kindness." I say truthfully. I was willing to. I mean he did do us all a huge favour by not killing us off.
"Kindness? Really? Now you're just sweet talking me so I go easy on you. Well guess what Isabella?" He said my name as if it was some sort of horrible contagious disease. "I won't go easy on you at all. I thought at first that maybe I would. That I'd just give you one small task per day. But I change my mind. You're just as manipulating and conniving as them all. Do you really think you can seduce yourself out of this? Just like Shauna or whatever the hell her name is. "
What the heck was he talking about? Seduce him? What? I wasn't doing any of that.
"I'm not trying to sweet talk you or seduce you. I don't know where you got that from. And I don't think Shauna's trying to seduce her way out of this either. She's just naturally like that."
"I know you girls. You're all like that. Don't think I haven't experienced the lot of you, every single year. Every single year, at least one girl has tried to seduce me out of killing them. It doesn't work. In fact it works oppositely. So don't bother." He stated before he walked up to his bed and laid down.
"But I'm not trying to do anything!" I exclaimed. He was acting really dumb now.
"Really now?" He mocked. "Then why did you come towards me with those eyes of yours all wide and innocent-like? With your hips swaying the way they were? Just because I was attracted to you in those dreams, doesn't mean I am in real life. And honestly, I don't get why I was even remotely attracted to you in those dreams. You're not attractive at all. Now Shauna, that girl is hot."
I felt hurt, really hurt. He didn't have to tell me I wasn't attractive. He could have just kept that to himself. And I hated how he was thinking I was trying to seduce him. I would never dare do that. With anyone. I know I didn't have the body Shauna had and so I know it would be a complete failure. I knew I wasn't what people called pretty either. I knew I was pretty average and I was okay with it. I felt good in my own skin and that's what mattered, right? But I felt really hurt at what he said. He had no right to compare me to Shauna. No right, at all.