Chapter 4: Getting Naked?!

Two knocks are planted softly on the other side of my bedroom door, as I lay on my back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what I'm supposed to do with my new life. I ignored the two sounds at first, thinking whether my mother knew about this or not. Whether she knew Vincent would actually take her daughter away, and send her to some other, blood-sucking monster continent. I hated Vincent.

"Miss Vega?" A soothing, female's voice called from outside my door. I turned and looked over, a strand of my golden brown hair dropping from between my fingers and landing on my chest. I was silent. I didn't want to join anybody at the dining hall. I didn't choose nor want to be here. I didn't belong here.

Suddenly, my door cracks open, and a pair of bright green eyes appear through the crack. I swallow hard as I stare at the maid, who takes small steps inside my room. She surely was the same woman from earlier, and she looked even prettier, close up and not moving.

"Master Wilson orders for you to come join us." She says softly, and I look down at my stomach before slowly getting off my bed, and following the woman down the stairs and into the large room with the long, cherry wood table. Surely, many are already seated and eating, and I'm glad it wasn't like those moments where you walk in a classroom late, and everybody stares at you like you murdered another.

"Where should I sit?" I nearly choke on nothing as I see Master Wilson seated in the grand chair at the very end of the table, sipping a wine glass filled with some red liquid, which I assume is blood.

"Wherever." The woman, or Bridget, motions toward an empty seat, next to Goth Amber. "There's an open seat, if you would like to sit there."

I swallow hard as she leaves me standing there, and I slowly approach the seat and sit down. Some of the servants and maids are staring at me in disgust, and the two girls Piper and Nora are also looking at me like I'm some thing. Is this how every newcomer is treated?

As I look around, I spot Landon sitting next to Master Wilson, and they are both laughing as Master sips his blood, Landon sipping some yellowish, maybe wine liquid. Landon glances over at me as he looks around, but his eyes wander off me like he doesn't even notice I'm there. I don't see Vincent, and I assume he's one of the government's officials that just kind of finds girls from other countries to come to Galea, if that doesn't sound stalkerish enough.

"Are you hungry, Miss?" I turn to my right and notice a plump, fat man sitting there, with greased up hair, a small mustache, and not high height numbers. His skin is a palish gray, so I assume he's a vampire automatically.

"Um, I don't know." My mind was racing, I couldn't even concentrate on my stomach.

"If you are worried that blood is in the meal, no need to." The man simply grabs my plate and takes the spoon in the mashed potatoes pan, and grabs a huge glob, and plops it down on my dish. "It's just like ordinary human food. Do you want some parsley on your potatoes?"

I'm surprised by how friendly this man is, as he fills my plate with delicious smelling food, and then settles it in front of me. He continues to eat right after, as if nothing happened, and I eat my meal slowly, in shock.

I'm bothered throughout the meal. I know Master Wilson keeps looking down the table, straight at me. I know he has some sort of lust in his eyes. But I can never bring myself to looking back at him. I'd probably melt down and start crying of frustration.

After the meal, as I'm walking back to my room in silence, my wrist is grabbed and I'm swung around the corner and into a wall. When I look up, I'm a little surprised to see Bridget standing there, looking at me with interest in her green eyes.

"You need to be bathed." She says softly, and I frown at her, my eyes squinting.

"Excuse me?" I asked, and she crossed her arms at me, studying my whole body carefully.

"Yeah, come with me." She grabs my wrist again, and pulls me down some winding hall and into a huge, grand bathroom. There were a bunch of maids in there, all either washing clothes or gossiping or doing their hair. There were maybe 4 bathtubs, 5 showers, many counters and sinks.

"What is this place?" I whispered.

"The main bathroom, where all the women come to bathe, clean, and gossip." Bridget makes me stand by a bathtub, and then she walks over to a huge closet, opens it up, and Girly Clothes Galore appears before her. She walks in, chooses some pajama outfit, and comes out, fully concentrated on what she is doing. She walks over to me. "Strip down."

"Wait, what?" I raise my eyebrows at her, and she nods, looking at me seriously. "Like, get naked?"

"Yep." She puts the clothes, which was some nice white t-shirt and a pair of gray booty shorts, on one of the counters, and some maid from behind her, looks at her smugly and snatches her makeup away, that Bridget accidentally put the clothes on top of. "Come on Maddie, we don't have all day."

Jeez, I thought, she seemed friendlier before.

"Hell no." I say, and Bridget looks at me with surprise. "I'm not getting naked in front of a bunch of strangers."

"You can't make them all get out." Bridget says, grabbing some random shampoo and conditioner bottle. "Here's the deal: us maids take showers on our own, but when it comes to you girls, like you, Amber, Nora, and Piper, us maids have to thoroughly bathe you, or just wash your hair while you wash your body. So you might as well stop complaining and get used to it, because it's a rule we follow under Master Wilson's order."

"Why can't we just bathe ourselves?"

"It's just a rule, Maddie, I have no idea why it was made or why we have to follow it. Now please, take off your clothes."

I felt weird and uncomfortable as I stripped down, in front of all the maids, but they made no notice or irritation toward me. It was completely normal to them, this must be like, the ladies room that everybody sees you naked in.

So I step in the huge Jacuzzi type bath, and Bridget washes my hair for me while I scrub the dirt particles off my body. I was so self-conscious the whole time, but Bridget paid no attention to anything, she just talked over her shoulder to one of her friends. Then, when I got out, I dressed into the clothing Bridget offered me, and she led me through the mansion and back to my room.

Before she left, she muttered, "Oh, and you have your injection tomorrow morning," and then she was gone.

I barely slept that first night. It was maybe 4 AM when I heard yelling coming from downstairs. I lay in my bed, the blankets wrapped tightly around my body as I listened to Master Wilson yell and argue with what sounded like one of the girls, probably Amber.

She must've stolen some food or something, and she was yelling about how she was hungry, and how her master was a piece of shit, and it took one loud slapping sound that broke everything off.

Tears formed in my eyes, as I turned over and pressed the blankets to my ears, whimpering with fright. I don't know whether Master Wilson slapped Amber or something, but I did know that there would be no fighting continuing that night.