The melodious tune of Beethoven's ode to joy made it's way around the dim opera house as the audience remained quiet and enjoyed the rythm.
On a podium sat two figures sipping tea and watching the oh so magnificent performance;
" Lady Lucia it has come to my notice that our shipments have been intercepted far more frequently as of recently "
Lucia looked towards the man beside her with his raggered brown beared and aged face full of scars, she honestly didn't know his name and refered to him like every single one of his other connections, ' the general ', a business partner of her father's that just like a few of the others decided to stay after she took over;
" Oh my, General " She said sarcastically " from what my sources gathered it would be the doing of some run of the mill lowlifes, they seem to have come from that backwater town in Northern Aldritch
In my opinion they're not something you should worry about, many like them come and go everyday but they all end the same way... Though what strikes me is their name, I think they called themselves..... "
The Large doors of the opera house burst open as men in dripping wet trench coats walked in holding rifles, they arranged themselves at each corner of the building as a lady wearing a rough white shirt and a pair of stylish cloth jeans made her way inside, her hair was white with a multiple strips of pink, her ears were long and pointy and her eyes a deep purplish blue, she tore open the sealed parchment in her hand and screamed aloud for all individuals in the building to hear;
" In the name of ' The Great House Spade '... "
*** *** ***
My eyes opened as I slowly regained consciousness, my surroundings slowly came into focus. I was in a cage, imprisoned in an unfamiliar place. I racked my brain as I tried to figure out what happened to me, the last thing I could remember was breaking off my engagement before leaving my fiance in a restaurant and then... I lost consciousness.
Panic set in as the realized my predicament I was in, my body felt different, it was smaller, skinny to the point I could see my ribs, almost childlike, it was like it didn't belong to me; I screamed from the shock and fear as reality slowly dawned on me, yelling as loud as I could in hopes that someone would hear me
My cries were answered by a tall dark skinned man with a bald head, he approached me holding an iron rod in his hand with rage filling his eyes, despite my struggle to defend myself, my sickly body had little to no strength to fight back
" I'd better not hear anymore whining from you " the man said as he slowly walked away;
Laying on the ground defeated, I took in my surroundings, there were others in similar circumstances, all with tattered clothes, skinny and pale, with shackles on their necks, some snickered finding delight in my battered state, but what stood out most to me were the demi-humans and other races, including humans imprisoned alongside me;
The cages were arranged in rows and columns, as I observed the structure of the area, I noticed that we were in a ware house, were we captured into slavery,
I grabbed the collar on my neck trying to remove with the little strength I had left, I doubted it'd come of but just maybe
Zzzt - !!
It electrocuted me, I gnashed my teeth holding back my screams to avoid another beating from the bald man. A flurry of questions filled my head, how did I get here ? where was I ? was I dead ? Is this hell ? was this all a dream ? But before the questions could settle in my head I heard an explosion from the outside,
Boom -!!
Several men ran out from the darker part of the warehouse heading towards the exit with guns in their hand, the sound of machine gun fire echoed in the air as the stench of iron began to spread, a short fat man who had been running the opposite way in regards to the others almost passed by me before I grabbed his leg
" Let go of me you bastard " he yelled trying to shake me off, going as far as kicking my hand with his other leg;
( It hurts, it fucking hurts)
Tears streamed down my face as I screamed urgently; " p...please, let me go, I... I'll die if you leave me here "
" Let me go you piece of shit... "
Boom -!!
Another explosion echoed in the air, the fat man sweating bullets pulled out a stack of keys and threw them into my cage, I let go of him rushing back to the keys,
" Hope you rot in hell you little punk " he screamed as he ran away,
Without any hesitation I grabbed the stack of keys, my hand shook as I tested the keys one after another as fast as I could
Click*
As I finally managed to open the lock the other children began crying and pleading for me to help them, I rushed to the cage directly Infront of me, a boy and a girl seemed to be locked together in it, again I tested the keys,
Click*
The girl looked at me tears in her swollen red eyes, her silver hair an unkept mess and her long ears a slight shade of red; " t...thank y... "
Boom -!!
The entirety of the area at my back exploded, the shockwave throwing myself and the children in the cage the opposite direction,
Boom -!!
Boom -!!
Boom -!!
Consecutive blasts raged on, destroying and levelling the once standing warehouse, the explosions didn't discriminate killing both the slavers and the slaves, the boy stood up, he seemed to be the girls older brother sharing the same features except his pupils were different colors, he grabbed mine and the girls hands before making a run for a hole made on the wall, the explosions continued around us, the sound of screams and weeping of the other children and the slavers making a background tune of pain, the stench of iron and charred flesh filled my nose as I tried my best to keep up, at this point I realized that this kid was probably in a better physical condition than myself;
" Duck !!! " He screamed at the top of his lungs as a beam of blue light made it's way to us,
" Duck? Duck!!! ", I bent my as an explosion emerged from behind me, all three of us were launched forwards from the shockwave,
I tried to get up but felt excruciating pain in my leg, taking a look I found out I was injured, a steel bar had made it's roots in my legs,
( Fuck ?! )
I screamed in pain barely trying to hold back anymore, I was calm on the inside but I could barely hold the pain in;
" Hey did you hear that " a voice from a distance said;
The two children looked at then at themselves before we all screamed for help with a glint of hope that we might survive;
" I heard it from over there ", they seemed to have traced our voices as I heard footsteps getting louder from afar.
Within a few minutes several men had surrounded us, they wore black trench coats and top hats with an ace of spades entangled between a rose design on the coats;
They all made way as a man in a plain white shirt walked towards us, he wasn't wearing a top hat like the others, with bright brown hair and dark skin, his brown eyes scanned us as if looking for any danger, at this the other boy stood in front of me and his sister his arms wide around us like a lion protecting it's cubs,
The man looked at him with a grin on his face;
" Tell the Madam about this ", he said speaking to the man that stood beside him while observing the wreckage and corpses around us, he let out a sigh allowing the gravity of his mistake to seep in;
" We've really messed up " he said looking towards me, he pulled out a vial with a glowing blue liquid in it trying to pour the liquid on my injured leg;
" Don't worry this'll fix you up real fast "
The other kid ran in front of me glaring intently at the dark man, the man in response looked back at me then at him before letting out a light chuckle;
" Don't worry I promise not to hurt any of you ", he said raising his arms in submission, he poured the vial on my injury and the pain began to subside as the wounds closes;
" My name is Horatio, what's yours ", Horatio said stretching his arms to help me up, the next words that followed weren't mine, frankly I think they belonged to the previous owner of this body, they came out instinctively, almost like I'd said them over a million times, I grabbed his hand and pulled myself up;
" B... Bruno... Bruno Kaplan "
" Nice to meet you Bruno ", he said as he turned to the other children,
" Liam... Liam argo Backwood "
" Sapphire argo Backwood"
" I see, siblings huh "
Horatio looked around, watching the facial expressions of his men, they didn't seem very happy by the way,
Clap -!
" Be grateful children cause you're in luck, in fact I'd say the holy mother seems to be in your side ", he suddenly screamed at the top of his deep voice, " for today you have become a part of our family, I welcome you on behalf of my brothers and sisters and on behalf of our lord and madam to ' the great House Spade '
Thunder roared in the sky as bullets of water fell from the clouds adding an unspoken effect to his statement, rain poured down on us as I realized once again what I had realized before, one could say that it hadn't sunk in before but it did now, I'm not in my own world and this is most definitely not a dream.
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