''How long have I been here? How many days has it been since I last felt the Sun on my skin? At this point I''ve lost count...somewhere around 53, I think. I wonder when they''re taking us.'' She sighed. ''Or maybe they''ve just forgotten all about us...aboutme. I''ve been tucked away in some corner so I guess it''s possible.''


    Night after night they would come in and viciously attack her. They never said a word as to why, either. Several of them would just appear out of nowhere and do their worst. The other prisoners, mostly the ones who had been recently captured, would yell and rattle their cages in protest.


    Lilith had been crushed by this lack of support and subsequently closed herself off from the other prisoners. While those who still had their spirits intact discussed escaping and the kind of hellish lives they would lead if they didn''t, Lilith chose to escape to recesses of her mind.


    It wasn''t like the thought of trying never occurred to her. She would definitely try if she ever felt confident in managing an escape, but with no control over her Haki, there was no telling what might happen.he retreated to the happier moments of her life, which at that point was anything before her enslavement.


    Instead, she retreated to the happier moments of her life, which at that point was anything before her enslavement.


    She remembered the times she spent playing beneath the trees at the edge of her island, how she spent most of her nights on rooftops watching the stars, the classes in the library she was forced to take, and even the day she went blind.


    Lilith found it funny that her time as a slave was so brutal that she was forced to go so far as to seek comfort in the day she lost her sight. ''It''s almost as bad as comparing that wretched library to a refuge of peace and comfort.''


    Pretty soon, after she stopped resisting and just let things happen, the servants began to beat her less and less. For a very brief period of time, she was left alone. No beatings, or insults, or taunts. Lilith assumed it was because they wanted her to look like a blank canvas for whoever had bought her. She was, to her immense disappointment, correct.


    She''d overheard one of the servants talking about how Saint Roswald wanted to have his new slaves branded personally. ''No wonder they stopped the beatings. They''re afraid of their masters finding out they''ve messed with their property.''


    She rolled her eyes at their actions, looking down on how they fear a fatass, as she assumed that all World Nobles were obese, in a spacesuit. She was the one who was going to be branded, the one who would only live a short while longer, and the one who would most likely suffer the most seeing as she was a woman. If anyone had any right to be afraid, it was her.


    As the days went by, she noticed that the number of voices in the room became smaller and smaller. Silently, she waited for her turn to come. For someone to open the door to her cage, drag her out, and bring her straight to Saint Roswald.


    But it never happened. Soon the last of the other slaves were taken away until it was only her and one other. She could tell from the rough breathing and the occasional splashes of water coming from the other side of the room that there was still one other person, other than her, that had yet to be moved.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    ''Maybe they were also bought by Roswald. At least I won''t be alone in this.'' Part of her had meant it as a joke, but the rest of her had not. She was afraid. And like anyone who''s ever felt fear, she didn''t want to face it alone.


    Not long after the other had been dropped off, the food had stopped coming. At first, Lilith had thought it meant that the ship was close enough to wherever Roswald was that the crew deemed their hunger to no longer be their problem.Unbeknownst to her, however, the ship was currently several months away from its final destination. And before that time, her captors would be putting the two remaining ''passengers'' through a new form of hell.


    She leaned against the wall and slid down with a whimper. ''Why...why me?...It''s notfair!'' "Motherfucker!" She punched the ground with tired arms. That was it, it was over. Her life was over, and there was nothing she could do about it. She sat quietly for a few minutes before getting up once again to try busting the door open.


    As she stood up, her vision became blurry and her head developed a pulsing headache. It felt like everymigraineshe''d ever had compressed into one. The blood rushing to her ears was deafening, she had almost missed the sound of the cargo doors opening.


    On any other day, the screech of the doors would be followed by pompous laughter. ''Are they back? So soon? I thought they''d be watching the execution. Damn it!'' She didn''t want to be anyone''s slave. She could hear the steps of a child walking down the stairs. ''Is that a kid? Saint Roswald''s a kid? Ofcoursehe''s a kid, just my luck that I get to be a training doll for some Noble''s kid to play with.''


    She heard the footsteps come to a slow stop. She could only assume that he expected her to be in his sight right as he came down the stairs. ''He''s probably angry at being inconvenienced. Probably angry enough to take it out on me...'' Lilith felt out of breath. The cage she was in suddenly seemed so much smaller than it did before.


    Before she knew it, she was on the floor breathing heavily, wrapping herself in her blanket, and gently rocking on her side. In her panicked state, she prayed for whoever was listening to help her. She didn''t carehow,Lilith just wanted the nightmare to be over.


    In the midst of prayers, she heard the door open once again. This time the footsteps were heavy sounding. She knew that they could only belong to a grown man. She felt hot tears threatening to spill as she listened to who she assumed to be Roswald''s father made it to the last step. Her heart threatened to burst out of her chest as she imagined all the different waysthey''d probably have to torture her.


    Lilith didn''t hear much else after the older man made it down the stairs until she heard what sounded like something metal being ripped away from something else. ''Did a Noble just rip the lock off of a door? But if they were Nobles, then they should''ve had the key.'''' She was right, and they would have had the keyifthey were Nobles.


    She spaced out as she tried to think of who else would be down here. ''If not the servants or the Nobles...then, is someone trying to rescue us?'' Her eyes widened at the possibility. Did she dare place her faith into something that might not be at all what she hoped for? As she tried to decide whether or not to risk calling out, she heard the two people making their way towards the stairs, without her. "Wait-" But before she could finish, the headache and the dizziness from earlier came back with a vengeance.


    On the floor, deaf, and barely conscious, she felt cheated. Her one and only chance at escape was probably gone forever and she had no one to blame but herself. Why couldn''t she have just taken the chance while she could? How much worse could the result have been compared to being in the hands of a Noble for the rest of her life?


    Just like the one before it, the intense headache began to fade. And as she slipped into unconsciousness, Lilith could''ve sworn she saw a man with a big red nose standing over her and saying something.


    ''Please, God...let this be real.'' She closed her eyes, unsure if she would ever wake up again.