Authors: Romina Nicolaides
“Too long.”
“Do you think we’ll ever get out?”
He took my hand and briefly squeezed it, “Have some hope, Theodora, and one day I will get us both out of here.”
Eleven
The years that followed were the happiest of my time in the Keep, if one could call them that. By the time I met Vyktor, from what I could roughly calculate, I had already been there approximately two hundred and forty three years. Two hundred and forty three years was the lifetime of several people and yet it had passed in a monotonous haze. The seventy years or so I had spent in the wild before being caught, though a shorter time period than what I had spent in the Keep, felt much more vivid in my memory. It beggars belief that such an existence of endless work and torture could last for so long. The life of a slave often feels stretched, dreary and tortuous and one without a foreseeable end is even more so. I often thought of Shaq’ al and the way she had passed. If it hadn’t been for Vyktor and his endless supply of controlled optimism I would have probably exploded in a fit of rage one day, and that would have been the end of me. I knew what they did to rebels and sometimes my repetitive fantasy of ripping Father Superior’s heart out with my bare hands, drinking the blood from its detached vessels and then being publicly executed in the main hall gave me secret relief. I thought it a fitting ending to such
an inglorious existence and at least my pain would cease and I would have wreaked some havoc in this soulless organization
.
During the time I was with Vyktor the nightly visits from the Priest stopped and were replaced by his own. Whenever we could, we would spend the night together in my cage making love or simply lying in each other’s arms. Our existence was delicate and fragile and we were very aware of the dangerous situation we were placing ourselves in. Often, simply the fact that we sat together on the dirt in my cage there for each other gave us the strength to go on. There weren’t many sweet words, and only a few promises, but instead we were held together by a loving bond of understanding and solidarity. Perhaps if we had been free things would’ve been different, perhaps we would have never been together and we probably would have never known such powerful emotions.
Of course the daily drudge of work, pain and hunger would continue but it no longer mattered to me as long as I got to see Vyktor every night. And then one night he didn’t come, which was followed by another and then another. Worried sick I asked the others discreetly if they knew what had happened but no one seemed to know. On the fifth day of no visit from Vyktor I heard some old familiar footsteps in the gravel. My teeth instinctively showed themselves as my nose caught the smell of cloves that always foretold his arrival. This visit, however, was not from Father Eusebios but from the Father Superior himself.
“Hello Theodora,” he said standing just outside my cage.
“To what do I owe this visit, Father?” I tried little to disguise the contempt in my voice.
“I know it is not me you expected.”
I gave no answer.
“Come now, don’t be coy. I know you have been making
close
friends in recent months.”
I continued to gaze angrily at him through the bars and I swear I could hear the beating of his heart and the blood coursing through his veins, reminding me of my fantasy.
“We have been watching you and your
friend
Vyktor closely.”
My breath stalled and my eyes widened without realizing.
“Yes, you weren’t aware of the fact that you were being monitored, were you?”
“What have you done to him, you vile priest?” I spat, my blood boiling.
“Careful child, you don’t want to anger me tonight. Your dear friend is being held in his cage. It’ll be a long time before he can roam free like he used to round here. Sadly, you creatures can never appreciate the liberties we give you. You always have to take it that step further. We select the Keepers judiciously and even then we still watch their movements. Not even the best trained dog will remain obedient if you put a juicy bone in front of him.”
Approaching my cage a little more, he produced a silver cross from inside the folds of his sleeves and gestured me to step back, away from the bars. He proceeded to unlock the gate and secured my wrists to the wall in that familiar way Father Eusebios used to do. He stood looking at me and I hissed showing him my fangs. His contempt for me was obvious but he continued to look. I dreaded to think what he was about to do. In a swift gesture he removed my garment and I braced myself for his approach. He rolled back his sleeve to reveal an old hand and I wondered what his method would be. My skin crawled at the renewed fear of being raped by these men, and my stomach jumped to my throat in disgust. At least the other one had been fast. This one seemed to want to prolong the ordeal. He proceeded to touch my body tentatively, but scientifically too. At first he felt my thighs, and then my buttocks, followed by my stomach and my breasts, which he continued to fondle for a long while. Finally he inserted his fingers into my vagina and prodded for several minutes while I squirmed. Removing his fingers he passed them under his nose and smelled them with concentration. Eventually he stepped back and lowered his sleeve. I hung there naked and prostrate.
“Wonderful! Just as I had suspected! You, my dear, are carrying a child.” Suddenly my heart sank and I felt the blood drain from my face.
“Don’t look so amazed, it does happen to you creatures from time to time. Over the years we toiled in trying to breed you. Initially by allowing the priests to impregnate the slaves, but cross fertilization never seemed to work. We realized it was ungodly to propagate demons with holy human seed and concluded that your curse also rendered you infertile. Then by some stroke of luck two salacious slaves came together and in time the female presented the signs of being with child. The fruit of their amorous behavior came to term after several months but was born sickly and deformed. We were amazed by this turn of events, however, as it meant that the option of breeding did not need to be completely abandoned and thus we proceeded to inseminate the females with male seed; that too, however, yielded no results. Our next thought was to segregate some male and female slaves together and let things happen naturally, as it were. True to form and their insatiable makeup the slaves were soon mating and producing young, not as effectively or uniformly as humans but some encouraging results were achieved to make the effort worthwhile. Your offspring, it turns out, are further proof of your ungodly constitution as they are all born feeble, monstrous and deformed but they are moldable and have highly acute senses and can be used for a series of tasks, particularly hunting slaves. Isn’t it poetic that the products of your loins are created to capture their own? These aberrations which are produced in a delicate distillation process are then fine-tuned to seek and locate others of their species in order to help us fulfill God's divine orders.”
Oh how Father Superior loved his monologues; he could preach for hours on the benefits of his toil, so devoted was he to his work, and yet after a while all I could hear was simply the hum of his words.
The heavy slap to my face was unexpected. The tears dislodged from my eyes and fell to the ground in big drops.
“I fear you have lost your focus, pay attention! As I was saying, after my close examination you too are now with child after your tryst with Vyktor. We have been watching you closely and now that I have examined you for the signs, I have confirmed that your term has started and you will be moved to the breeding area for close observation so that you do not attempt to rid yourself of the child."
“What will happen to Vyktor?”
“Only for the fact that extreme sorrow has proven non-beneficial to expectant slaves, I shall inform you that he will remain alive, in strict isolation, punished for his insolence in permitting himself to come into contact with one of his wards.”
“But you said that is the only way for the slaves to become pregnant? You are punishing him for something you are essentially encouraging?”
“It is indeed, but we expect obedience before anything else.”
His answer did not particularly astound me; it was just like these people to expect everything to be done their way which included punishing us for something they covertly encouraged.
***
I was brought to the breeding sector under extreme secrecy and with my eyes blindfolded so that I could not deduce where it was in comparison to the rest of the Keep. Unfortunately for them, the priests always underestimated how much was given away by the smell of the place, probably because their senses were not as developed as our own. By the quality of the air and the reduction in dampness and humidity it struck me as if the Breedery, as it was called, was either above ground or quite near the top of the cave system. It was significantly cleaner, warmer and more welcoming than the rest of the Keep. There were some windows on the upper walls but they were kept sealed during the day, to keep most of the light out and opened at night to let in the fresh air. There was a fireplace in every room and wooden bunks in the dormitory on which the expectant slaves slept. In all, this was the highest level of comfort I had experienced in over two centuries. The smell that wafted from the back implied that there was a separate cooking facility up here but other than the half dozen expectant mothers I could see no new-borns and no nursery. The guard walked me to my bunk and proceeded to attach an additional silver cuff to my ankle, causing the familiar singe to be sensed anew. I looked at him in wonderment but he felt no obligation to explain himself. I stood and pulled at the chain and realized that it just about gave me the option to get on or off the bed but little else. Eventually I was approached by a nun in the usual red livery who had a permanent smile on her face. She must have been about forty five in human years (augmented, I assumed, by our blood) and extremely small in stature.
“Welcome to the Breedery, my dear,” she said looking up with some effort. She appeared controlled and stiff and tightly packed inside her skin.
“I don't think I'm supposed to be here.”
“Nonsense! Father Superior is never wrong in his diagnoses. He’s yet to send me a girl who wasn't pregnant.”
She patted my skinny belly in a pseudo-tender gesture and gazed at it with the forced affection demanded of her position.
“How long do I have to be here?”
“Are you in rush, dear? Or have you somewhere better to be? Most of the girls are relieved when they come here. They no longer have to work and they receive a daily meal as well as improved bedding. What more could you ask for?” Inadvertently I looked at the chain on my foot.
“That’s so you don't wander off,” she’d cocked her head to the side as if talking to a child.
“You haven't answered my question.”
She shot me a glance that implied I’d overstepped my mark and took a step closer as she looked up at me. “The truth is we don't really know. Your kind is unpredictable that way; however the least amount of time you can expect to spend in here is a year. No one has ever given birth before an annual gestation, some have even gone as far as two and a half. We have found, however, that the better care a girl receives the earlier she gives birth, so I don't want you worrying about anything other than resting and growing that little one.”
Her ‘pleasant’ demeanor returned in a flash and covered her face like a mask.
“And what happens if I want to relieve myself?” I said defiantly tugging at the chain on my foot knowing full well that the silver would burn my skin once more.
“We take you to the privy area every few hours, so no need to worry.”
“And at night?”
“At night you get a bucket or you just hold it, the choice is yours.”
“No different than my cage.”
“You'll feel right at home then,” she announced without a trace of irony.
After she left I sat on the bed taking in my new surroundings. In the one next to mine lay a young girl with an enormous belly.
“Don't worry,” she said, “it's really quite pleasant here once you get used to it.”
I looked at her but said nothing.
“It might be restricted, but you won't be as hungry and you won't miss the back breaking work, trust me.”
“How many of these nuns are there here?”
“The nurses? About three.”
“And slaves?”
“Five at the moment. Just the two of us here, and another three in a different section of the Breedery.”
“Is that all?”
“I'm sure you were told about the difficulties in conceiving by the Father Superior were you not?”
“So there’re three of them for five of us?”