Pain. That was the first thing he felt. As he slowly tried to open his eyes, a sharp pain stabbed through his skull causing him to hold his head. The blurry shapes that he could make out around him were unfamiliar. They were neither his room, his home, nor any space he recognized. As his eyes focused, he could make out more defined shapes. Men in suits of armor with a rose-like emblem emblazoned on the chest plate, a kingly figure on a wooden throne, a stained glass window that seemed to be letting in a small amount of filtered light, and a ceiling that looked to be twenty times his height. However it all paled in comparison to the girl who's brilliant brown hair flowed all the way down to her waist, her skin looked as smooth as silk, her eyes shined red like rubies, and her delicate figure seemed to radiate through her long flowing dress. In other words, she looked to him like a goddess descended from the heavens, more beautiful than any other girl he had ever seen before. Another woman, dressed in a black and white frilly maid outfit stood next to her, with a stern look on her face. He hadn't up until now realized that despite looking like normal people they were all noticeably pale. Not deathly so, but it looked as if not a single person here had seen the sun in ages. Not only that but, just like the girl that caught his attention, they too had red eyes.. The Ruby eyed girl was now standing in the center of the room nearest to him with a look of confusion and surprise as she looked down on him. He tried to open his mouth, but to say what? "Where am I?" "What's going on?" "Who are you?" Not even he was sure what to say, but as he tried to speak, he was surprised to find he couldn't utter a single sound. Another sharp pain stabbed at his head as he seemed to regain his hearing, which he had only just realized he had lost in the first place. Incoherent sounds were coming from several of the soldiers surrounding him.The kingly figure was shouting angrily at another figure who was obscured from view. As the pain subsided he began to understand the noises around him, their words were becoming more coherent.
"What went wrong?"
"Wasn't it supposed to..."
"You told me it would..."
"I'm sorry but it seems..." Numerous people were speaking on top of each other. The sound of the overlapping voices were making his head throb harder with pain, and he again struggled to understand all the things being said. Until one booming voice drowned out the others.
"Enough!" the kingly figure roared over the chaos, silencing all others in the room. The small crowd began to disperse from around him, leaving only the Ruby Eyed girl, the maid, the figure on the throne, as well as a new man clad in a robe standing next to the throne.
"What happened?!!" the kingly figure continued, rage resonating from every word. "You promised me a cure for my daughter, instead I get this… this Human!!!" He spoke the word with pure malice and contempt. The kingly man peered down at the young man, hatred flashing in his eyes.. The robed man next to the throne began to speak up.
"That's just it, my Lord, the ritual went perfectly... it seems that this human is the cure." The kingly figure turned to the robed man with a look of confusion and anger. He was repulsed at the very idea that a human could be the cure. Now, even more incensed than before, his voice became a roar.
"No! I will have none of this. The ritual failed, and so we will try it again." He looked over to the maid standing in the center of the room as he continued. "Dispose of him!" Within a moment, the maid, who had been standing ten feet away from the young man was now, in a flash, in front of him -- her hand around his throat. Using a single hand, she pulled him onto his feet and lifted him up into the air while continuing to choke him.
Her grip was iron tight. It felt like a giant weight was crushing all sides of his neck, and as he struggled for air his hands instinctively grabbed onto her arm. He squeezed as hard as he could, but she showed no signs of stopping. In fact her grip only seemed to tighten, showing off her own strength as a response to his measly attempts to break free. He increasingly began to feel lightheaded and, already in weak condition, his eyes began to feel as if they were popping right out of his head. She dug her nails deep into the flesh of his neck, and he could feel small rivulets of blood dripping down his neck. He attempted to say something to her, but couldn't eke out more than a few sounds. All he could think of were two words --
"Release me!"
His eyes blurred and grew dark as he now violently struggled for air. Right when he felt himself slipping away into either death or unconsciousness he noticed a faint glow emitting from the left side of his face.
"That's it… It's over." he thought, assuming that the radiance he saw was a heavenly glow. But, for some unknowable reason, his vision slowly returned, and everyone in the room was staring right at him, even the kingly figure.
"A Blood Sigil" one of the soldiers muttered under his breath. The kingly figure, whose face had curled into a panicked expression, was speechless. The robe-clad figure spoke up quickly.
"Sir! Stop her immediately!"
The kingly figure immediately shouted to the maid to stop, which she did, unceremoniously dropping him onto the hard floor. He clasped at his throat as he struggled to catch his breath. Now his head hurt much worse than before, throbbing in pain with every heartbeat. His eyes were still clouded and blurry. He had a violent urge to throw up, and his whole body was now shaking violently. Once again, the room started into an uproar.
"A Blood Sigil? How can that be?"
"Is it really a Blood Sigil?"
"I don't understand..."
"Why would there be one here and now?"
The uproar among the soldiers was growing louder by the second. Once again, the kingly figure shouted over all the noise.
"Quiet!" He turned to the robed figure. "Tell me. What does this mean?"
"It is as I said, my lord." The figure responded calmly. "It means he is the cure for your daughter, that his Blood shall save her."
The young man sat clutching his throat in the middle of the room, desperately trying to regain his senses. All questions of where he was, what was going on, who they were, were thrown out the stained glass window. Overcome by a single thought, a single primal urge that was bursting out from within himself: RUN. It was all he could think as he regained his senses after being choked nearly to death. However, he remained still for the moment as his body still felt too weak to run, his legs were still shaking violently, until the word blood was uttered.
It wasn't as if he had any aversion to blood, but something about the way the robed man said the word, blood, his possessive, clinical way of speaking, sent the young man into a panic, instantly kicking in his fight-or-flight response. He had already become aware of the fact that this circular room he found himself in had but one way out, a single long corridor behind him. So, while all the soldiers, the kingly figure, the robed man, and the maid were busy talking over the situation, he, with all his remaining strength, bolted for the corridor. A few tears of fear ran down his face as he ran, faster than he ever imagined he could, towards the corridor. The adrenaline coursing through his veins was pushing his body to the limit; all he could think about was escaping from this hellhole. Nothing else mattered.
However, in his moment of haste he failed to realize that there was still one person whose attention remained on him: the girl with the brown hair. Never once had her gaze left him, and she bore witness to the very moment he sprung up and ran. Though he felt as if he had been running at full speed for an eternity towards the corridor, no more than a single moment passed before the girl appeared in front of him. He was still barreling forward, full speed, so had he decided to change course to avoid her he would need some time to do so. In the end it didn't matter. Despite how long it seemed to be stretching for him, it was nothing more than mere moments of time, and in this moment, the girl sent him flying back a few feet with a punch to the gut. The punch instantly winded him and immediately dashed any hopes he had of "escape." He was shocked by how unable he was to comprehend what had just happened.
Looking up at the girl, he saw a single tear rolling down her face. As it dripped to the ground, she looked down at it, confused.
The young man now keeled over, holding his gut, fading into unconsciousness fast as the pain from that punch sent shockwaves throughout his entire body. He looked up at the girl as his vision fades to white. She looked down at him with an expression that caught him off guard: sorrow. Not for herself, but for him. He was just barely beginning to grasp the cruel irony of the situation as his vision faded to blackness.
Not half a moment later, the entire room was again in an uproar. The soldiers immediately surrounded the young man and pointed their spears at him, despite the fact he was on the ground, unconscious. The figure on the throne stood up, his reddening face contorted with ire and frustration. The robed figure took a step back, not expecting the turn of events, and the maid quickly rushed over to the girl, putting herself between the unconscious young man and the girl, as if the girl was the one in need of protection. As the room explodes into an argument about what exactly just happened, the girl felt another wetness on her other cheek. Lifting her hand to her pale cheek, she expected to touch another tear, but instead, touched blood. Not her blood, but the young man's. She looked down at the young boy, pitiful and silent on the floor, thin trickles of blood still oozing from his neck. It was his blood on her face. Her pity quickly turned to disgust. Then, almost involuntarily, she licked the blood on her finger. As soon as she did, her eyes immediately widened.
Some time later, the young man awoke, for the second time that day, to himself in an unfamiliar room, his head throbbing in pain, his torso bruised in multiple places, and his whole body shaking violently. As he slowly and carefully came to his senses and his vision began to unblur, he got a better look at the small room he was being held in. It was, in a word, a dungeon. The cold stone walls were unkempt, old, and musty, the metal bars that separate his room from freedom looked rusted and weathered. There are even manacles on the wall, dangling by their chains to the floor. His "bed," if you could call it that, was little more than a pile of hay thrown in the corner, and while he did not see anything resembling a toilet, the foul smelling bucket in the corner was clearly intended as a replacement.
Almost as soon as he had a full grasp on his situation, his mind began to fly at a million miles a minute. Hundreds of questions came to his mind, and feelings of dread, confusion, anxiety, fear, anger, flowed into him. And while he had never experienced such in his life, he was very near to having a full-blown panic attack. But just as he began to cower within himself, he felt a sense of calm wash over him, and almost as quickly as the feelings came onto him, they just as quickly were gone, and he was once again left with little more than the quiet room he awoke in.
With his emotions in check for the moment, he began to take stock of the situation. He recalled reading once that the first thing a person should do in a survival situation is to recall as much of their life as they can, to ground themselves. He didn't know whether that was true or not, but it seemed like a good place to start.
"I am David Williams, a 20-year-old college student, at Burroughs University..."
Memory proved to not be among his problems, as his head filled with images and sounds from his life. All the time he'd helped his sister, naming his dog, making his mother cry less by picking a university on the West Coast. He smiled for a moment only to immediately lose it when his eyes focussed on the dungeon he was locked in. He may not have had a clue how he arrived at--wherever he was, but he was at least glad to not have actual amnesia.
David then decided that there was no reason to repeat every detail of his life to himself, since at the very least his sense of self seemed to be intact. He then turned his focus away from his two decades of life, and onto the past few hours: the icy gaze of the figure on the throne, the maid who callously choked him with emotionless eyes, and the beautiful girl who knocked him out cold with a single punch to the gut, the girl who he had foolishly assumed was on his side!
Once again, he was overwhelmed with emotions, but this time, he was able to calm himself down quickly.
"So, where am I?" he said aloud, the tiny echo of his voice reverberating off the stone walls.. He had always had a keen interest in architecture, history, and culture, which was part of the reason he chose Burroughs. He thought back to what he had learned there: the room he initially awoke in resembled an old Victorian manor, based on the mahogany panelling adorning almost every surface from floor to ceiling. At the very least, it was some sort of early-modern European style, but the armor the soldiers were wearing, the full plate legs, small, armless chest plates, and metal halfhelms, those couldn't have been Victorian. Late medieval, at the very latest.
"And why were they wearing armor in the first place?" He spoke aloud again. No military has worn anything like that in centuries! And they had wooden spears! With iron tips! Not a gun in sight!"
Now that his train of thought was fully on track, he continued to think aloud: "And if I wasn't threatened by them as soon as I arrived, I would assume they are for show. Does that mean they're ceremonial, like the guards at the Vatican?"
The more questions he asked himself, the more questions he realized he had. Why did they kidnap him? How did he get here? Who are they? What the hell is a Blood Sigil? He touched his neck, and found that the blood had dried.
"Well, that's good news." Shakily, he stood himself up and tried to get a better look at his surroundings. The only light coming into the cell is a single torch placed somewhere in the hallway outside his cell; besides this, it was rather dark. After seeing nothing new in his cell he slowly makes his way to the cell bars and looks into the corridor. He sees a rather long hallway stretching the entire floor, and a single guard standing at the entrance to the floor at a flight of stairs.
Almost as soon as he reaches the bars and looks out the guard notices him and walks over.
"What am I doing here? Why am I in a cell?" David asked the guard, trying to muster up some small amount of courage in his voice.
"You are now the Miss's personal pet." The soldier said dryly.
"Pet!?!" David yells back at the soldier. "I am no one's pet!"
"You are now." the soldier said back again, uncaring. He reaches for the key ring at his waist, produces an iron key, and unlocks the cell door.
Immediately, David moves to try to bolt past the guard, but without hesitation the guard knocks him to the floor, and drags him upstairs by the collar. David struggles on his way up the stairs but by the time he reaches the summit he has already realized that he can't escape the grip and gives up.
He was brought through a mahogany-adorned hallway. On either side of him sat huge suits of armor covered in plates of iron from head to toe. There were statues and busts that reminded him of those found in Greece and Rome. Paintings depicting anything from military conflict to portraits of well-dressed individuals lined the walls, as well as vases that, while rather ordinary looking, he could only surmise were priceless when positioned next to everything else around them. Overall, everything he saw screamed expensive.
Eventually they stop at a door at the end of the hall. The soldier uses his free hand to knock on the door.
"Young miss, I've brought the pet as ordered." He spoke loud enough to be heard through the door. A moment later the door opens, revealing the same young lady from before, now wearing a less formal dress, but still one that somehow manages to extenuate her beauty.
"Bring him in, if you would be so kind" the young lady said as she gestured for the soldier, still carrying David, to enter.
The girl takes a seat on a chair and gestured to the soldier to put David down. Almost as quickly as David was put down, he began to go into a barrage of questions.
"Where am I? Who are you? Why am I here?" The anger in his voice is hidden only behind the fear that is clearly coming through.
"In due time," she responded calmly. "This is the manor of House Velma, I am the daughter of the head of the household, Maria Velma. And you are here to cure my curse, my personal blood bag." David is taken aback, both by the fact he got a straight answer and by the fact that she didn't respond violently.
"I have no interest in being your Blood Bag." David said, with disdain. "So send me back where I came from!" Then, summoning what little bravado he possessed, he added what he hoped was a threatening "or else!"
"Unfortunately for you, my father has already finalized his decision, but I promise you, being my pet will not be too displeasing of an experience for you." Maria said warmly. However, despite her calming tone, David was aghast that she called him a pet, it immediately demeaned him and he hated the sound of it.
"I refuse, I will not be your pet! I will not be your blood bag! I will not be your... slave!" After he said the word, slave, he realized what it was that made him hate the word "pet" so much, it was the connotation, the way both she and the soldier said it, "pet" was just a euphemism for "slave." The thought made him sick and shiver again.
A look of trouble washed over Maria's face, then left as quickly as it came.
"This would have been much better for you, had you cooperated." She motions to the soldier who then grabs him from behind, pinning one of his arms behind his back, and putting the other gloved hand over David's mouth.
"I do apologize." Maria said as she slowly walked over to David. He struggles in vain as she continues to get closer. The soldier then forcibly pulls David's head over to one side revealing the entire left side of his neck. Panicked, David begins to struggle harder as Maria comes to a stop right in front of him.
She opened her mouth revealing two pointed teeth protruding noticeably further from all her other teeth, her breath tickling the inside of David's nose as his eyes widened in fear. Then she suddenly bites down on his exposed neck. Warm blood flows out from the puncture points as she begins to suck it out from him. The moment her teeth entered his neck he was no longer able to control his body, as if something had suddenly sapped all his strength, it was all he could do to prevent himself from slumping over completely. While the initial feeling of the teeth biting into him was rather unpleasant, it was immediately followed by an odd sense of euphoria, almost like a drug, his mind was immediately muddled, he had a shortness of breath and his eyes dilated. All he could think about was the pleasurable sensation coming from his neck. He could no longer think about where he was, or what he was doing, he had all but lost himself to the pleasure. However, this feeling did not last long as he quickly succumbed to a deep and sudden sleeplessness, and quickly he fell unconscious.
Maria was astounded, his blood tasted good! She could scarcely believe it herself. All her life no matter whose blood was offered to her, be it human blood, noble vampire blood, or even animal blood, none of it tasted even remotely good, in fact she could scarcely manage to put it in her mouth. But this human was... different. His blood tasted like a sweet ambrosia. A nectar that could be likened to honey but whose taste even honey could not compare. She got so caught up in the moment that she couldn't help herself and kept drinking more and more. She was so utterly and completely lost in enjoying herself for the first time in her life, that she didn't even notice that David had long since passed out. It wasn't until the soldier who had been holding David upright worryingly tapped her on the shoulder that she came to her senses.
She withdrew immediately, flush with embarrassment. The blood was still flowing out from this human young man's neck and leaving stains all over his shirt. The blood-trail even made some stains on his unusual blue pants. She realized that she too had blood on her, the shoulder of her dress was soaked in it, and most of her pale, delicate face was completely covered in it. She bashfully covered her mouth and licked the blood off her lips.
"I may have... overdone it a little." Maria said, trying to regain her composure.
Maria walked over to her desk, grabbed the piece of cloth prepared for her, and gently wrapped it around David's neck to stem the bleeding.
"Please, take him to one of the guest rooms." Maria told the soldier as she finished bandaging David's neck. "And have the maid prepare him a hot meal." She then looked down at his blood-stained clothes, sighing to herself. "And find a fresh pair of clothes for him, and when he awakes, draw him a bath." The soldier nodded in response and carried David out of the room.
Maria sat down on the chair and calmed herself down. The whole experience had been intoxicating. But, she had lost her composure too much during the act, and thus had embarrassed herself.
"Next time, I will take his blood when not in the presence of others." She said to herself, wiping the dried blood off her face. She grimaced, thinking about his limp, unconscious body dangling from the soldier's arms.
"I shall also reserve myself next time, to see that I don't overdo it." She declared to herself. She felt a weird sense of remorse at the thought of rendering him unconscious for a second time in the same day, something that goes beyond simply hurting her new pet. However she had no explanation. After a few moments of mulling over those feelings, she picked herself up, walked over to the door, and called a maid over to help her change.
David awoke to a familiar feeling -- his head -- throbbing. He held his hand up to his head only to find that his whole body ached as well. He opened his eyes to see, yet again, more new surroundings. He was sitting on a bed adorned with various pillows, sheets, and blankets all of which seemed freshly laundered. The room itself was also decorated very nicely, there were: two nightstands on either side of the bed each topped with an ornate vase filled with fresh flowers, a canopy that lay above him on top of the bed, a large wardrobe, dresser, and also a closet. There was even a large wooden footlocker at the end of the bed. Staring at him from the wall opposite him was a large, scenic painting depicting some large battle between armored soldiers and strange and unfamiliar beasts.
David was rather taken aback by the splendor of the room, and would have been even more so, were it not for his throbbing head, a cruel reminder of his unfortunate circumstances. He thought back to the horrific sight of the beautiful girl opening her mouth to reveal two sharp teeth, and then her stabbing his neck and sucking his blood. He remembered, clearly, the feeling of euphoria that followed her bite but he was stuck replaying the events leading up to it over and over again. Fear began to overtake him as he bent forward to hide his head into his legs and put his arms around his neck like a ball. Once more he felt the signs of a mental breakdown. But as he did, he was brought back to reality by the feeling of foreign cloth around his neck, the bandage.
He took another few moments to fully calm himself down before he glanced over to his right to see a collapsible wooden tray table with a platter of food on it and a fresh pair of clothes. Well, "food" was relative, the only things that were there to be eaten was a small piece of moldy and stale bread as well as a cold bowl of mystery soup that looked far too murky to be edible. The "fresh clothes" was a pile of rags with holes cut for arms and legs. It was a joke! It's like they put him in this room just to tease him with what he couldn't have and then gave him his reality with the moldy bread and tattered clothes. There was one thing he knew, he had to get out of here.
David stood himself up and dragged his leaden body over to the door. He found out quickly that it was locked from the outside and started to panic, adrenaline speeding through his tired veins. He flung his aching limbs around, almost knocking himself and one of the gaudy vases over to see a window looking out onto a forest. If he can get out the window and to the forest, he could escape that way! It was his best bet anyway. He walks over to the window and checks it. Despite his fears, the window was unlocked so he pushes it open and crawls out through it. He did it! He managed to get out! But he wasn't in the clear yet, he had to make his way to the forest to escape this madhouse completely.
David's body was still sore and heavy, but he drags himself over into the forest and goes a little way in before taking a momentary breather. However, he has hardly any time to congratulate himself on his escape when he hears several people shouting from outside the forest, clearly, they found out he escaped. He didn't have much time he had to get away, struggling to get to his feet again he pulled himself up and started walking away from the manor. He walked for about 10 minutes before he heard sounds of soldiers hunting for him. Instinctively he hid behind a tree next to a bush. He heard them talking as they walked right by him. A few moments went by before he breathed a sigh of relief but just as he does a soldier popped up from behind the bush.
"Gotcha!" The soldier exclaimed as he pinned David against the tree.
"I found him!" The soldier called out to the others nearby. David struggled against the soldier's grip, but not only was the soldier abnormally strong, like the others he has met since he came here, but David was also running on fumes by this point he was in no shape to fight back. He struggled for a few moments more before 3 other soldiers walked over.
"You think they would mind if we take a taste?" One of the soldiers said to another. "It has been a while since I've had fresh human blood" He said while licking his lips. David struggled as much as he could to break free of the grasp upon hearing that they wanted to drink his blood too.
"Well at the very least I get first taste since I caught him." The soldier holding David against the tree claimed.
The soldier then opened his mouth revealing two long teeth and starts heading towards his neck when suddenly, inches before his teeth penetrate David's flesh, the Blood Sigil, a blood-red lattice of interweaving lines formed together in a shape quite like an unfinished eight stopped his teeth inches from David's neck. The Blood Sigil acting as a wall that prevented the teeth from reaching his neck.
"Hey, I didn't hear about this!" The soldier exclaimed. "I didn't know he had a Blood Sigil!" The soldiers all look at each other worried.
"Well there are other ways to get his blood without drinking it directly." The soldier said as he drew his sword at his hip.
"I doubt they will care if he's missing an arm or two when they get him back. After all he is just a Human!" The way the words were sent David immediately went into a frenzy, thrashing out trying to break free of the grip.
"No use! Better just give into fate!" The soldier yelled as he held his sword overhead, prepared to swing and lop off an arm.
"What do you think you are doing?!" A female voice said from behind David. The soldiers all freeze in place upon hearing this voice. David by this point was far beyond burnt out, turning his head to see Maria standing there, in yet a new dress. "You were ordered to find him, not maim him!" Maria exclaimed, clearly upset at the actions of the soldiers. Immediately the soldiers apologized and sheathed their weapons.
"Give him to me, I'll take him from here." The soldier, currently pinning David against the wall, slowly backed off and hands David to Maria.
After he did so, he bowed to her and then walked off along with the other soldiers. David, who had by this point had been staying conscious purely by adrenaline, for some reason could no longer keep himself awake once he was in the arms of Maria. It took only seconds for David to once again pass out. Maria looks upon his sleeping body the way a person looks upon a puppy who just fell asleep after doing a bad deed. But even though that was the way Maria would describe her thoughts now, it didn't seem quite right. This "pet" who had tried to escape twice now, isn't making her angry but instead she is relieved to see him safe and in one piece.
Effortlessly she picks him up and carries him, bridal style, back to the manor. When she made it back to the manor she stopped when she saw her father standing sternly at the front door. She knew that his anger was entirely directed towards this human, but for some reason she also felt shame for the anger directed to him from her father.
"Bring him in." He said, coldly.
David once again awakens groggy. However, unlike the previous times his head doesn't hurt and he doesn't find himself in an unfamiliar place. That's the good news, the bad news is he is back in the dungeon cell from before.
"So, I failed." David said to himself softly as tears began to stream down his face. The realization that he may never be able to escape this place, to see his friends and family again, and never be able to live his life like a normal person hit him hard. His quiet sobbing turned into full blown crying after some time. However, after a bit he managed to calm himself down enough to notice that there were sounds of a loud argument taking place at what was presumably the top of the stairs. One was clearly Maria judging by the effeminate voice, and the other was the kingly figure he saw in the throne room? He wasn't sure, but it was clear that they were having a disagreement about something.
The argument continued for a little while until the male voice yelled.
"Enough!" After that the conversation quieted down. After a few minutes David heard footsteps coming toward his cell. The kingly figure, Maria's father, was standing there, alongside the maid that choked David.
"I'm tired of your insolence, boy!" He shouted. "It seems you will have to learn some manners before you will be let out of the cell. Do I make myself clear?" David felt something odd inside of him, up to this point these people have been terrifying, they could, with their monstrous strength rip him in half with nothing but their hands. However rather than feeling fear David only felt one thing. Anger. The indignation he felt from being thrown in a cell twice, being treated like a slave, and being insulted, had completely overpowered David's sense of reason.
"Fuck you, you asshole!" David shouted at him. Even David was surprised by his sudden outburst, but he didn't care anymore. This had gone too far, if he wasn't ever going to be able to go home, then the least he could do is hurl some insults.
"I hope you fucking choke on that fat-ass tongue of yours, you old bastard!" Even to David this was a bit much, but he was long past caring, he had nothing left to lose. At this point he felt like he'd rather die than be a slave.
Maria's father just continued to look down upon David like he was the most revolting and vile filth he had ever seen. Without a word he motions to the maid and she throws in the same stale, moldy bread from earlier.
"Eat" He commanded as he stared at David.
David, saying nothing, without even looking at the bread walked over to the corner of the cell and sat down. Maria's father shook his head and walked away followed shortly after by the maid. By this point David was so full of anger that he made a silent vow to himself that no matter what he would not eat anything they gave him.