Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 546: From the heart

At the end of it, Zarah dragged Arabella’s half-conscious carcass back to the training room as Margarette trailed behind them.

From that angle, only the high ceiling covering the hallways was visible.

The rest of her body was so done that every sense in her had turned numb.

Was the floor rubbing against her lacerated back hot or was it cold? There no longer was a way to tell as her nerve endings were pretty much burned to a crisp through the sheer, ruthless force that the whip had inflicted upon her.

To say she was vandalized would have been an understatement.

"Get someone to clean the blood off the floors!"

That was Zarah addressing someone that quickly squeaked a response, "Yes, madame!"

The contrasting hues between the gold shine-coated corridors and the feeble orange light in the training room were nearly blinding.

Arabella shut her eyes and waited motionless on the floor for what was to come, but thankfully, the hag did not touch her again.

Instead, she spoke to Margarette, "Make sure she gets nothing to eat tonight. Aside from a glass of water every hour, give her nothing!"

"Yes, mistress!"

However, the response did not come from Margarette alone. Multiple voices chimed in, synchronized, all feminine and echoing against the grim walls of that hellhole.

As soon as the door blared shut, a soft pair of hands connected with Arabella’s body only to stop moving when someone else spoke.

"What are you doing?" that sounded like Asha.

"She scrubbed the floors with her open wounds. They will get infected if they’re not cleaned up," Margarette’s tone shifted from the high pitched it had in Zarah’s presence to a monotone and a quieter one.

"And? What’s it to you?" another woman that Arabella did not recognize spoke, "The mistress only ordered that we do not inflict infectious injuries ourselves upon her! We didn’t do this so let her rot!"

"I reckon this whore hasn’t had enough serving for the day, maybe some more training will do her great good. Go on, Margarette, tonight the honor to determine her fate goes back to you! Say, which position should we put this bitch in?" the one that spoke that time around was none other than Arwa.

"What are you doing? Who’s that for?" another woman spoke, sounding more defensive than the others.

"Irene, what are you doing?"

Irene? Arabella cursed her condition for not being able to even move her head, following the voices.

"So, what? Are you choosing her now? You’re going to stand against us! I am just saying, you better be sure of what you’re doing because your actions will certainly yield consequences. Don’t you think we will spare you as if you stand with her, you are just as bad-"

But Asha never got to finish her warnings. Interrupted by nothing other than a sweet laugh that swept the cold air around all of them.

It was hard to tell whose it was as the young woman had never heard any of the pleasure girls laugh from the heart before.

"You know, it is so fascinating to me the way all of you have turned so stupid in the span of two short days," Irene had finally spoken, voice steady and eerily cheerful.

"What did you say?"

"How dare you?"

The others descended upon her with insults of their own, but were all rendered mute once more. Only it wasn’t Irene’s words that did that, but Margarette’s.

"She’s right, you know! I can’t recognize any of you anymore, it’s scary," after a short pause, she added, "They threw you a bone and now you’re ripping each other apart like actual barking bitches... Exactly what they think we are,"

"But you know we’re right, Margarette!" another shouted, "She’s the cause of all of our suffering! She might as well have killed your sister with her own hands!"

"Don’t you speak for my sister and let her rest in peace! She would have wanted no part of this!" for the first time, Margarette dared raise her voice, "Do you genuinely believe that this woman is the cause of every wrong thing in your lives or are you saying it because it’s the only thing you were given the right to claim out loud?"

Silence fell after those words with the only sound cutting that thick veil that was the tension surrounding them being soft but determined footsteps, drawing closer to Arabella’s figure.

"You cannot give her food! We were ordered-"

"And who’s going to tell on me?" Irene stopped speaking momentarily. The footsteps stopped as well, "Is it going to be you, Mira? Do you not care if your little secret got out? I mean if we’re all going to turn on each other, I might as well start somewhere, right? What about you, Rose? Did you know that one of the maids saw you sneaking a peek at your child in the rear court? Did you know I had to bribe her not to rat you out? Or should I start with you, Arwa and those secret letters you managed to sneak past the guards to your family?" Irene spoke fast, cutting the chances of getting interrupted, "Yes... Look at me with those wide eyes, all of you. We all have secrets and none of them are safe if we can just turn on each other so easily, are they?"

A cry escaped someone in the room. One that had, null doubt been suppressed for so long, "So... What are we supposed to do? Just forgive her for what she’s done to us? Is that what you suggest?"

"Have we no dignity left then? No spine?" Margarette murmured.

"It’s alright, dear. They still don’t get yet," Irene stopped by Arabella’s head, towering over her, "She’s done nothing that needs forgiveness. She’s not the source of our torments and don’t you lie to me and say that had you been given the chance, you wouldn’t have fled for your lives exactly the way she did? Or would you feel you owe something to a bunch of people you didn’t even know existed?"