The floor to the confinement rooms was dark as expected, with only one lantern that was the source of light, it didn’t spread the light too far but enough to know what was in front of them. The remaining area was pitch black.
She could see the silhouette as well as the outline that was formed by the light in front of them when it came to the warden as well as the guardsman. Walking beside Damien, her feet were firm and sturdy.
Her nose was suddenly greeted with a foul smell. Did it smell this bad before? Asked Penny to herself. Maybe it did and she had just not noticed, how could she forget her stepping on the iron nail that had made her pass out from the pain. They passed by one of the dark corners to move to the next one. Unlike the outside cells which had walls, this place was made purely by iron bars which separated the space of one person to another.
The cells were filled with four people and the woman she had come to meet was placed in the last cell. The very same cell she once had been placed in.
“These slaves are here because they find it hard to follow rules. A slave who doesn’t know how to follow one is not someone we give away. It would be a bad reputation,” said the warden, using the rod he had been holding, he used it to hit on the metal bars that made the sound echo throughout the space making one wonder how big this place was.
Truthfully one wouldn’t need to hit the rod. With the floor being this quiet, even a drop of a small stick could wake a person in here.
“I don’t think the slave establishment has any reputation at all since the very beginning,” Damien commented, his eyes staring at the slaves in here, “There isn’t much difference when it comes to witches and what happens in here.”
Hearing this the two men who worked here snapped their head to look at him. Their face hardened for comparing them to the witches but that didn’t bother Damien Quinn at all. Instead, he went on to say,
“What I mean is, witches, abduct people for their use. While the slave establishment mostly makes use of the abducted people who are sent in here. Aren’t I right?” asked Damien. He waved his hand as if he was always right, “But it is a good sanctuary for people. Better than witches but still the reputation…” he trailed, going to step close to the people he asked,
“What do you make them do here? Just keep them caged?”
The warden changed his expression quickly to reply to the question asked, “We don’t feed them. Depending on the severity of what they have done, their days here are allocated accordingly. Also, we don’t provide them food in here to remind them of their place.”
“What if one of them dies?” Damien moved forward, noticing the first three were male and the fourth one there, in the end, was a woman.
“Then it is their fault for not listening,” answered the warden with a lack of remorse to people who were in here or people who had passed away in here.
Penny walked forward, going closer to the cell where the woman sat in darkness, “Her,” she said looking at her as the light on the woman fell, “I want to talk to her,” she turned her head looking at the warden which irked the man.
A mere slave who was in his grasp in the past was now ordering him. His eyes burned in darkness, he looked at the guardsman who nodded his head before going to the cell. Pulling out a bunch of keys, he opened the door to the cell.
The guardsman wasn’t gentle when he went to call the woman who was awake, the woman looked up from the light which was falling on her. Squinting her eyes, she turned to see who had come and what the ruckus was.
“Come out! It is your break time,” the guardsman dragged the woman who appeared to be feeble and weak due to the lack of food and the space she was placed in.
After ten minutes, they were seated in a room. Penny was sitting in front of the woman whom she had come to know as Caitlin when she was here. Damien and the other two men stood outside while Penny stayed in the room, giving the reason that she wanted to make sure she was the slave she was going to take home.
Two glasses of water were placed, one for each of them. At first, Caitlin only stared at Penny with no words. It made her wonder if the woman didn’t remember her.
“Is that your master who has come with you?” the red-haired woman asked her. Her eyes had dark circles and her face looked tired.
Penny nodded her head, “He was my master but he’s freed me.”
One side of Caitlin’s lips pulled up, “There was nothing to free in the first case,” because Penny was never marked with the slave establishment seal. She hadn’t given the opportunity for them to mark and had escaped early, “It is good to see that you are doing well.”
“What did you do to get in there? You look terrible,” Penny whispered, earning a smile from the woman.
“Just breaking the normal rules. They are waiting for me to pass away as I am not young meat for the market to be sold. Why are you here? I don’t think it is to buy a new slave,” the woman gauged Penny’s expression.
“I had a few questions to ask you,” the woman gave her a nod to continue, “Have you heard about a family named ‘Artemis’?” she didn’t miss the sour expression that formed on Caitlin’s face.
“Thought I would never hear about them here,” Caitlin muttered under her breath. Her guess was right, the little girl in the portrait was Caitlin. The woman’s eyes suddenly narrowed, “How did you know it was me? Does anyone else know that you are here to meet me?”
Penny shook her head, “No,” she looked slightly worried as Caitlin appeared to be stressed, “It is just me and him. Why?”
“I think you should go from here if you don’t want to be in this mix. Act as if you have never met me and stay away from that family,” warned the woman in complete seriousness.
