At night, the dripping from the steel pipes, faint snoring, and the breeze rattling metal doors was enough to make sleeping impossible for someone with sensitive hearing and insomnia to boot. Throw in the cold, stiff air that would settle into anyone's bones, and a lack of a blanket, and absolutely anyone would be struggling with sleep deprivation. Such things were inhumane. Even a mongrel could find a box to crawl into and warm up, but when a person was confined to a metal cage without means to find something, it felt like a new kind of hell. "I'm so hungry.." The soft, despondent voice rang with an echo. "It hurts."
"I know." Others couldn't sleep either. The whines of discomfort sounding disembodied as the sound meandered the halls, making the place sound even more haunting. "Eden."
"Mm?" The chains were so short, it was impossible to move out of the way of the water leaking from the ceiling, pooling on the floor. "I don't want to live anymore."
"I know." Eden whispered, scratching at the infected crust that surrounded the shackle on his ankle. The water was making it fester. He shivered perpetually, his bones feeling soggy and frozen. He stared into the cell across the hall for hours and hours. He was sure that the man inside was dead. Flies circled over him. He hadn't moved in two days. Eden wondered if the man chained next to the corpse would be next to pass. He'd gathered that there were roughly twenty of them in ten cells. They paired them up and starved them to madness in tiny cages with stone floors.
Eden glowered at the woman chained next to him. Her name was Iskra. All she'd done was cry and beg for something to eat, keeping him and everyone else awake at all hours. She'd repeat his name, complain. He'd hoped she'd die soon just so he could close his eyes and get some rest without her waking him with her wails. "Eden." "I know, Iskra." He sighed. He was hungry, too. Probably not as far gone as she was, as she'd reached the point of delirium. When she was first brought in, her eyes were blue and, since, had turned completely red, showing just how far gone she had become. However, Eden's eyes, when he met them in the reflection of the pool of water beneath him, were no different. This wasn't because of starvation, but because they never changed. He'd spent a lot of time staring at himself, watching his hair grow longer, his face thinner.
How much time had passed, anyway?
Eden could still imagine his mother's voice, faintly, the smell of summer air. Yet some things had been forgotten. What did warmth feel like? To not feel perpetually damp and covered in filth?
"Time to wake up, mosquitos!" A harsh bang on the cage with a metal pipe punctuated the repetitive yell. This was the first time they'd come in and addressed the entire cell block, and not just deposited a new person inside, since Eden had arrived there. He winced at the sound, along with most everyone inside. It was stabbingly loud, unbearable to starving vampires with hightened senses. Eden covered his ears, the ringing ripping through his head like a hot knife.
There wasn't much conversation going through the hallways, but the man in the cell next to Eden's had told him that every three months, they held an auction. But only the red-eyed ones would be sold, the ones already close to death. "You're the grand finale, pureblood." Eden's gaze trickled up, meeting that of a man in heavy armor, with piercing blue eyes. He slammed the pipe against the bars, "Eyes down! Fucking blood sucker." Eden's head rung like a bell yet he refused to break his hateful stare, red half moons seated underneath thick lashes, held hells-fire within them. His nails raked the dusty mud on the floor, quivering against it. "S'matter mosquito? Do I smell tasty?" The man taunted. "I'd rather drink my own piss." Eden retorted, his fangs protruding in his grimace. "I want blood! I'll drink it, please!" Iskra began to shout, wriggling against her chained leg. She reached forward in absolute madness, swiping at the air. Eden sighed, yet the reality was that he wasn't far off from the same state that woman had descended into. Soon, he'd be wrapped up in the psychological despair of knowing he'd die from starvation. "Shut up. I'm not giving you shit." He reached the pole into their cell, smacking Iskra across her face. Her head whipped to the side, rendering her unconscious as she hit the ground. Eden turned his gaze away from her, not quite indifferent, yet he found himself relieved to no longer be hearing her incessant whining.
"Watch your mouth, or you'll be next."
Men started to flow in, and chaos ensued. The ones that entered the cells wore metal plate armor, others, stood by conversing with sheets of paper in their hands. A man in a nice suit drug a woman with a muzzle and a collar on, past Eden's cell. She grasped a hand around the bar, only for a foot to find its way atop her wrist. "Keep going, bitch." She was yanked forward, crying and stumbling in tow.
This process repeated, one by one they left and not one returned. Somehow, it felt as if it was a countdown, the dreadful wait for his own turn to be.. sold. Animals were sold, objects, land.. and apparently, vampires were treated the same within this country. In Eden's country, such a thing was unheard of. He was homesick.
When his cage did finally open, it wasn't for him. Iskra was removed first, promptly after being doused with cold water. She roused in a panic, to find herself muzzled and chained at the neck. "Eden! Eden! Hel-..p..." She choked out, yet he stared at the wall, his back to her as she was drug out and pulled across the floor by her throat. Silence befell after her cries were too distant, leaving him staring at the leaking ceiling by himself.
Annoying.
Eden counted seconds in droplets and minutes in shivers. It felt like hours before it was his turn. But when they arrived, two armored men were at each arm. They chained his wrists behind his back, muzzled him, and even went as far as to shackle his legs. He hadn't seen a single other vampire brought out in the same fashion, yet the reason was obvious. Eden, a pureblood, was far stronger than his diluted kin. Even dried out, he was a threat.
The suit-adorned man in front of him met his unsettling gaze, a bead of sweat dripping down his face. "I'll be able to hold onto him, right?" The man asked, swallowing thickly. "Don't be a bitch, he's been here for three months. He can barely walk." The armored man to his right, laughed. "Want to bet?" Eden spat from within his muzzle, lunging forward only to be slammed back on his ass. The muddy water splashed over him, and everyone else nearby. "Augh, don't splash their piss water on me, nasty." The other armored man fussed, before detaching him from the floor chain and hauling him upward. Eden's knees weren't able to take the weight of his own body at first, the lack of use leaving him crippled. They gave him no time to recover before he was forced to move and walk on aching legs. This felt as though it took forever, up a tall length of stairs, many halls, many more cells of much livelier vampires than he'd seen in a long time. Eden's stare lingered until his head was forced down. "Eyes down!" The man's voice pierced his skull, leaving a throbbing ache behind. Eden's anger boiled over, yet he just barely kept himself contained. It was pointless to lash out. Every part of him was restrained, and he was too weak to resist. Even if he did manage to get loose.. he had no where to go.
At the end of the chain dragging walk, the hallway gave way to a huge room. His eyes went up, the ceiling was high and there were so many voices, people.. masks. They were all wearing masks. Balconies scalloped the upper curves of the walls, the closer to the floor, the more crowded it became, seats closer and closer together. They approached a round stage, curtains parted to reveal it to the crowd. The suit-adorned man took hold of his restraints and led Eden out to the center. The chattering that permeated the room came to silence. "The one you've all been waiting for! He's a pureblood, ladies and gentleman! Rare, gorgeous! A diamond in the rough!" The man grasped Eden by his hair, forcing his head center. "Look at those red eyes, these rubies will never dull! He's tall! He's young! Need I say more?" Eden felt nauseated, the accumulative gaze centerset on him, as he was sold off like a mongrel. Yet he found himself frozen in place, the audacity of it all leaving him stunned silent.
"I know, you're all ready for the bidding to start. Don't let me stop you!" Eden glanced up, catching the wide smile of the suit-adorned man in his gaze, then flicked back to the crowd. The sound of shouting numbers, between the man next to him and the entirety of the room, sounded far away, gradually turning into ringing in his ears and nothing else.
Eden felt dizzy.
