2 Prologue- A little insight

|Little Red|

There was a time when I knew what peace felt like.

"Two minutes until breakfast, you fucking mongrels!"

When I didn't flinch at every sound. When I was just a normal girl, living with her family in a small town. We were so happy. Playing games, working and harvesting our plants to sell to the big city. Life was just how it should be. Until they showed up.

Someone had tipped off the warden of the dynasty prison, that there were some freaks living only a few miles from him. So he raided our town with his goons. Forced us to tell him what made us freaks. I wish we had been stronger. I wish we had lied and told him we didn't know what he meant. Then we might have avoided this.

"Adele." My sister coughs next to me, spitting blood out onto the floor. It's been three days since she's eaten. I told the warden she was allergic to shell fish, but he wouldn't listen.

This has happened one too many times. Like for me, I can't eat meat. I'm strictly a vegan. That makes my food options limited.

They don't care about us. They use us to fight off creatures who have done nothing to them. The warden is just bloodthirsty. He has no reason for what he's doing. He's just doing it. A fucking bastard. A demon in sheeps clothing.

Have they not humiliated us enough? Is killing and siphoning our abilities not enough for them?

They take the healthiest ones out of us, force other prisoners to impregnate them so more of us can be born, and then they kill the male children because those aren't born with this curse. Only the women. And as if the universe was against them, none of us have had female children.

I haven't been touched though. I know my time is coming, and I'm not ready to fight it. I can't win against the warden. I've lost too many to him. My mother died, heart attack from seeing my father's crushed skull. The warden had kept her body for weeks until there was no blood for him to take.

My older sister was next. Then the one after her. Then my friends. My cousins. One by one they started to drop like flies and the warden doesn't give two craps. I'm one of six that are left. One of those six being my sister.

I snicker a pained laugh, and my stomach cries for food. But I am determined not to touch meat. I'm not a vegan by choice. My mother discovered a year after I could eat stronger meals, that I could die from eating meat. Even seafood is off the list. My body rejects them all.

I'm some kind of herbivore.

I turned my neck, balancing my arms against my spine. The weight of the chains, and shackles cause me to grunt a little.

"Mira." I called for her. She looks so pale, and very close to death's door. She's the only family I have left.

"I can't feel anything, Adele."

My heart cracks, that's what my older sister said too. They've all said the same thing before they died. They went numb, they couldn't feel a single thing and my heart hurts for them.

Mira's own is the worst. Despite being ill, the warden still forced her blood to be taken. She has nothing to keep her alive. No water. She's a mess. Covered in her own vomit. Faecal matter.

They'll likely leave her body here to rot so I can suffer.

"It'll be okay. Close your eyes, and just let it all go. Forget about everything. You're going to meet mama, and pa. You're going to join the family." My voice breaks even as I say this. And I scold myself internally. I'm trying to reassure my sister that everything will be alright for her. Death is better than being here.

They took her virginity, they killed her baby, they've poisoned and beaten her, they've used her blood, it's enough. Death is the only way she can know peace.

"I don't want to leave you." She sobs. Her eyes are struggling to stay open, and I want to hold her. I can never get a last hug.

"Mira, promise me you'll say hi to mama for me. Tell everyone I love them, and I'll be seeing them soon."

Her head sways, but she's tired. I can see that. She's so tired and forcing herself not to sleep or she'll never wake up.

"I can hold out. We'll stay together. Please, Adele, don't make me leave. Not without you."

I forced my throat to work. Swallowing thickly through the constriction.

"I'm going to be fine." She shows her disbelief on her face. Even my voice doesn't sound like I believe myself. And clearly I don't. Of course I'm not going to be fucking fine. My life is going to end like the rest of them.

"No, no you won't. And I won't leave you with these animals."

"Shush now, Mira. Just sleep, you've been through enough."

It really isn't her choice. Even as she shakes her head, and mutters 'i love you' her eyes slam down and Mira's body tips to the left. A thud to the floor, and I hold back my sobs.

She doesn't move, she's not breathing from what I can tell. So I know she's dead. I won't inform the guards just yet. It's not like they'll do anything, anyways. They'll just inform the warden, who will grumble and drag us all out for whipping because he's upset he's lost another.

That brings me a smile. Once I'm gone, once the other four are gone, he'll lose. He'll have no one else to help him in this war that he started.

He'll be done for.

I glanced to the side, and closed my eyes. I waited, and counted to six before prying them back open so I could see Mira's soul leave her body. Like it others, her souls goes up and she doesn't look down once. Which is fine by me.

She's in a better place now.

Soon it'll be my turn. Until then, I have to brace myself for the hell I'm about to receive.