A somber night within him

Ten years later

I scrubbed at the floor with a cloth and stared over at Arlen perched on his throne as if he owned the world. In a sense he did, but it was unfortunate. Arlen had won the elections back when I was seven. Too young to understand how much of an ass he really is. But now that he'd made me work my whole life, I kind of started to realize that. And I was the one who actually had royal blood. Not him.

"Make sure you get the windows too" Arlen called, enjoying my pain.

"Of course" I said just about ready to punch him in the face.

And as soon as I finished the floor and got up to walk over to the windows I got yelled at for walking on the floor I just cleaned.

"You'll have to do it again" Arlen said.

"But you told me to do the floor first!" I said. "I was the one who suggested to do the windows first because of this"

"Are you talking back to me?" Arlen asked.

"Whatever you want to call it sure" I said and headed off to do the floor again.

"You'd better learn how to do things around here, as if you haven't for ten years" Arlen growled. "It's a good thing Charice is coming tomorrow, maybe she'll straighten you out"

"Already been straightened, by you" I said.

"Are you forgetting who's wearing the crown and who isn't wearing it, Seren?"

"How could I forget? It's so messed up it's not as if I couldn't"

"What's so messed up?" Arlen asked.

"The fact that you have the crown and you don't even deserve it and that I'm the daughter of the king and queen and no one seems to get that"

"You wouldn't be able to run this place as well as I can" Arlen said. "Now get back to work, I have that dance being held tonight. If it's not spotless you're sleeping outside again"

"There are animals in the woods" I said. "Why would you make me sleep out there with animals that could eat me?"

"Don't be so imaginative" Arlen said. "No animals would want to eat you"

"There are bears and I've seen them"

"Get back to work"

I sighed and scrubbed again. Only a few more hours of this and then about a year more.

Two hours later I'm sitting at the kitchen table in the dinning room with a bowl of soup. Cindy is next to me who's been a good friend of mine since I was little.

"I don't think I can take much more of this" I said to Cindy.

"No one can" Cindy said.

"Then why can't I just run away or something? I'm old enough"

"It's only a year or so more" Cindy encouraged.

"But what about you Cindy? You're thirty. You could get out of here anytime you wanted"

"And how would I pay for my house?" Cindy asked.

"By getting a new job"

"It's not that easy Seren" She said.

"Was Arlen here before he won the elections?" I asked.

"Yes" She said.

"For how long?"

"Since you were a baby"

"And who ruled then?"

"No one did"

"Who took care of me?"

Cindy paused a minute as if trying to think up a lie as an answer for something she didn't want to tell me.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing" She said getting up with her soup.

"Are you finished with that?"

"Yeah" I said handing it to her. "But what is it Cindy? Please tell me"

She left the room before I could finish the sentence. With a sigh I got up from the table and started to head off to my room when a maid walked in and called my name.

"What?" I asked.

"Arlen requests you be a waitress for his ball tonight" The maid said.

"What else do I have to do?" I asked as I headed into the throne room.

Arlen was standing by his throne when I walked up to him.

"What do I have to wear?" I asked.

He turned towards me witht that stupid smirk on his face.

"There are some dresses in the back closet. Wear that" He pointed over to the closet.

"Why won't you let me go to bed?" I asked.

"Because I can" He said.

"Bastard" I muttered as I headed over to the closet to grab an extra dress. Oh mother of all fuckers. The dress had to be as tight as size zero and as short as up to my upper theigh. It was a sparkling black and made it seem as though I were more of a cocktail waitress than a waitress. Maybe that's what it was. I slipped on the dress and the painfull heels I had to endure and walked out to the kitchen. A maid was handing off trays of red colored drinks and I was really curious so I leaned in to smell it and got a wiff of a really gross scent.

"What kind of drink is this?" I asked.

Another maid turned to me. "Seren?" She asked. "Why are you here?"

"Why do you think?" I asked.

"Arlen?"

I nodded and she sighed. "Okay cmon I'll show you how it's done"

"How it's done? Don't I just serve drinks to people?"

"Not exactly" She said. "You see, were cocktail waitress's, which basically means you get someone a martini or blood or wine or whatever and then sometimes you'll have to get in bed with someone"

"No fuckin way" I said. "Not happening, and wait did you say blood?"

"For the vampires" Another explained.

"Oh" I said. "I feel stupid. I forgot about them. Oh wait, so Arlen is inviting vampires?"

"That might want you to drink instead of what your serving" The maid said.

"Well that's not happening" I said.

"Weather or not you want to, Arlen is in charge and I'm not sure you realize this sweetheart but if you don't listen to Arlen, let's just say some things are going to happen"

"Like what?" I asked.

"Hasn't he ever told you about the cellar?" Another maid asked.

"No" I said. "Does he like, lock you in there?"

She nodded. "He has a dungeon full of humans that weren't exactly cooroperative. But you don't have to not listen to him to get yourself locked down there"

"Oh this just gets better and better. Remind me never to come downstairs in the middle of the night"

And then after that we started hearing music and knew it was time to come out. How had my life gone from sucking to worse? All I knew was that I was walking out in a room full of vampires to serve cheap wine and blood in a slutty dress.