Juliana’s Pov:
I watched as the men kept laughing as they drove deeper inside the woods with me tied to the back of the car. The truck came out of the woods and entered an empty room driving freely on the road without any fear or anything. I was weak and scared, still, l in my thought they moved inside another woods this time they drove deeper and deeper. My stomach grumbled in fear as the voices of the birds could be heard, the crack of the woods was also heard as the truck kept smashing the old dead planks and branches that were on the ground. My head kept hitting the rails as the driver kept taking turns to avoid bashing into the woods.
Deciding to rest my throbbing head, our truck halted, and the door opened as the men came down. Hearing footsteps as they stopped at my side, the door was pulled open and I was forcefully yanked out of the car. Grabbing me by the neck they mockery laughed at me, showing all their brownish teeth, and that disgusts me to the core and makes me want to throw up.
“Move her, she needs to join others…..” The huge one said, causing them to groan in satisfaction.
“Which others……” I murmured more to myself as they dragged me towards the wood.
“Ouch!…..” I whimpered as my skin got turned by the edge of the wood. Moving deeper, I started hearing small voices, this is a small pack more like a forbidding pack because they were small in size, and the people there all looked tattered and malnourished. Glancing around as I stare at the faces of the people gathering there, they gaze at me with pity and pain.
“What is going on here…..?” I mumbled to myself.
“They are staring at me with pity, is something wrong?” I asked myself, Heaven is very weak to respond to my questions.
They looked lifeless, tired, and haggard which scares me “Are they, human eaters…?” I whimpered in fear, they scared me.
Pushing me to the dry leaves as my mouth hits the ground, blood drips out of it, gosh that was painful.
“Here, is your fellow slaves…..” The previous guy announced. He looked like their leader, I gazed at the people there with a surprised and horrified look. They smiled bitterly at me and nodded as a sign of welcome, I thought that they were a pack but I was mistaken because these people were slaves. Working under these men, my heart twisted as the thought of me being like this pops into my head.
“From here onwards this is where you belong….” He declared.
“Turn her to face me, to be sure that my words got to sink into those shallow brains of hers,” he ordered. I felt my body harshly lifted from the ground and turned around to face their leader with my hands tied to my back. Kneeling I stared at him.
“We have rules here and we hope you abide by them, breaking any of the rules will result in a severe punishment which is no other than death,” I smirked at him, taking him by surprise, I wasn’t afraid of death anyway. His eyes narrowed as he ignored me pretending like he didn’t notice my sudden behavior.
“You seem like a troubled part but for your information, we loved trouble types but so bad they couldn’t last long,” he uttered deadly, causing all his men to burst into laughter.
“Enough!…..” He declares openly.
“As I was saying, the rules are very small but so tempting to avoid…….” Showing his disgusting teeth, he snarled.
“First, you don’t talk to anybody but use signs as we hate noise more like I hate noise…..
“Second, you don’t eat nor smile till you are told to do so…..
” Third, don’t you ever make any friends here. You don’t have to feel emotional here….. It disgusts me
“Finally, this is your home and where you belong, no escaping!… your room will be shown to you, after your duties you are required to go back to your room. We don’t like people wandering around like a lost sheep,” he mumbled with a taunting brow.
“But you know that if you comply we will move you to a better place, better than here……. Your fate will be determined by me, that you leave this place alive depends on the way you behave,” he griped.
Despite being sacred by a few boils the more I stared at those dingy and lifeless slaves, their condition breaks me into millions. I just need a way to escape this situation with them, this place is not facilitative at all.
“Take her to the kitchen to make some food,” the same man commands.
Pushing me up, one of them hurls me towards the direction of the kitchen, a wooden and dilapidated place. Slowly pushing the door, the door makes a cracking noise, it looks weak and awful that it did break anytime soon. The man strode inside, I hesitated at first to enter unsurely but as the man hurled me a deadly glare I instantly complied and walked inside as cobwebs were almost the whole place. It is very dusty and smelly, dry blood and rotten bodies irk from the whole area. Gosh, I feel fucking tired and leery of staying here for a long time.
“This is our lovely kitchen…” the man announced with satisfaction as I disgusting makes a poker face at him, ignoring me he went on with what he was saying “Here is the place where the food is being made, so today our leader has taking it upon himself that you do the dishes and food all by yourself tonight…..” He openly declares as I bewilderedly gaped at him. Cooking for them in this sick place is going to be a hard choice to make. I opened my mouth to protest but he beat me to it.
“And mind you, failure to bring in savory and delightful food will cost you your life….”
“Excuse me!…..” His words took me by surprise, how on earth am I to pay with my life in exchange for food?
“Yes…….” He muttered impatiently.
“I don’t know where to start from, please,” I desperately pleaded.
“And how is that my business…?” He spits with hatred when irritatedly glaring at me.
“I just needed a second hand, sorry more like someone to assist me on how to prepare the dish and you know……
” How pathetic, so you can’t cook……” he voiced out with irritation.
“No! No…… that is not…….. I didn’t get to finish again as he jumped in.
” And that means that in this first test that you have to fail…….” He muttered creepily showing his canines.
“Test….” I agape, but loud enough for him to hear.
“Yes! ….. A test but enough of questions, I will send in a slave in here to help you and maybe to direct you on how to dish the food accordingly, idiot…..” He used foul language as he walked out of the door but not before staring at me with contempt and loathe.
“Uhow!” I instantly release the breath that I don’t know that I was holding. Gosh! This place is unhealthy and smells bad, my stomach grumbles as I fight the urge of throwing up inside the place. I need to do something and get the hell out of this place, without showing who I truly was. But I pray that it works this time of me escaping without causing any havoc and violence.