Disclaimer: This was written over 10 years ago, and the author no longer agrees with many of the concepts found in this story. Some of the content will be cringey and/or problematic. Please remember this is entirely fictional and does not represent the author's beliefs.
Twitter: dazzleizzy
Copyright © 2012-2023
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Zayn's POV
With so much to do, and such little time, I got out of bed at five-thirty. It was still dark outside - the sun had not risen yet.
It didn't even matter that I didn't get a wink of sleep last night, and that I got up feeling just as tired, if not more, than when I had gone to bed.
What was I thinking, threatening her with the gun to get back inside the car?
Oh, right. I wasn't.
Nothing that I did yesterday was thought out. I reacted purely out of instinct, purely out of fear that I'd lose the only person I had grown attached to.
I'd been consumed by the irrational fear, so consumed that nothing else mattered at the moment.
But now, it did.
Fuck.
And now, I was so completely consumed by my thoughts that I hadn't realized I had already undressed and stepped into the shower.
Fuck.
--
By the time I went downstairs and headed into the dining room, it was already almost six-fifteen. There were only a few of my slaves, some just walking in, others already seated and patiently waiting In a quarter hour, breakfast would be ready, but I wasn't going to fucking wait.
With a snap of my fingers, one of the uniformed servants that stood in the corner of the room appeared by my side.
"Yes, Master?"
"Get me breakfast, now. I don't want to wait." I ordered, taking a seat in my chair at the end of the table.
"Yes, Sir, right away!"
Truth was, was not that I didn't want to wait. I just wanted to eat and get the fuck out of here before Abby showed up.
When my breakfast arrived, I scarfed is down in minutes, paying no attention to the flavor. The room was filling up now, everyone taking their seats as they were individually served by the servants.
I couldn't help but look away when I saw Abby step in the dining room, and make her way over to her chair - the chair directly next to me.
One glance at her direction, and I immediately regret looking at her. She looked exhausted, tired, and overall drained. Her cheeks were tear stained, her eyes red, and her shoulders drooped.
She didn't say anything as she stiffly pulled her chair out from under the table and took a seat, and I couldn't help but feel like I was drowning in dread and guilt.
I quickly stuffed the last bit of my omelette into my mouth, and stood up and out of my chair. I had way too much shit to do today to be drowning in guilt. No.
I walked out of the dining hall without another word, earning a few stares on the way, but I paid no attention to them.
--
In my mind, I made a list.
Amber's prize.
Jillian.
The trespasser.
Plan with Caleb.
Those were few of the many things I had to do today, and those would easily keep me distracted from drowning in my guilt from yesterday's fiasco.
So, starting off with the first item on my list, I headed to Amber's room to get everything cleared up.
"Amber?" I call through the door as I knocked, and then proceeded to open the door.
She stood beside her bed, bent over, tucking the sheets underneath the mattress.
"Sir?"
"Amber." I say in acknowledgement. "How are you doing?"
Standing up straight, she looks over to me and forces a smile on her face.
"Fine. You, Sir?" She sighs.
I just nod, because there was no point in telling her how shitty I felt at this moment.
"Have you decided what you wanted to choose as your prize?" I ask.
She hesitates. "About that..."
"Don't worry about the price, I'll be able to afford it." I assure her.
Amber hesitates again, tucking a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear, and looks away. "It-it doesn't..."
Shifting my weight, I cross my arms, growing impatient with her hesitation. "It doesn't what?"
She doesn't make eye contact with me as she speaks up, her voice low.
"It doesn't cost anything, what I wanted."
"Okay..." I elongate the word, waiting for her to reply.
"I want to - I wanted to ask for my....physical...freedom."
"Physical freedom?" I can't help but raise my eyebrow.
"Yes." She nods slowly.
"What do you mean by physical freedom?"
"As in, I don't-I don't want...I don't want you to touch me anymore." Her face is red - she's clearly embarrassed as she's explaining to me exactly what she wanted.
She leaves me extremely curious as to why she didn't ask for complete freedom, and I couldn't help but ask why. "Why not all of it?"
"Why not all of what?"
"Why not all of your freedom? As in to be completely free, to be able to come and leave as you please."
She pauses. "The world is a fucked up place. I don't want to leave here completely and just be thrown back into slavery, but working for someone else."
I nod - she has a valid point. "Okay, so you're going to have to specify exactly what you do and what you don't want. There has to be boundaries."
She nods. "I know."
I wait for her to continue, and she does.
"I don't want you to touch me. And as in by touch, I don't want you to kiss me. I don't want you to put your arms around me, to embrace me. I don't want you to fuck me, have sex with me, make love to me, whatever euphemism you have for it. I don't want it. I don't want to be obligated into doing anything for you, either."
Amber pauses once again, and looks away momentarily before making eye contact with me. "I don't want to have to please you, physically. Or sexually, whatever you want to call it. No sex, no blow jobs, no hand jobs, no nothing."
I can tell she's highly embarrassed by how red her cheeks are, but she stands her ground and remains firm as she spells out exactly what it is that she wanted - or in this case, didn't want, from me.
"Okay." I breathe.
"Okay. But-"
"But what?"
She looks me dead in the eye before speaking again. "I want it written down. On a contract. With your signature."
I cross my arms. "Why?"
"Because once it's written, and signed, it's official. You can't bend the rules, or change them, or whatever."
I nod - she had a legitimate point. "Okay. And that's all you want?"
She nodded. "That's all."
I take a step backwards, towards the door. "Okay then. I'll have it written out, and then both you and I will sign it. Deal?"
She smiles genuinely for the first time that I'm in her room. "Deal."
As I am about to step out of the room, she stops me.
"Wait!"
Looking back at her, I raise an eyebrow. "What?"
She pauses for a second, as if to think her words through before saying them. "Do you know....do you know what's wrong with Niall?"
I turn my entire body towards her, confused. "Niall? What's wrong with him?"
She looks down. "I don't know. He's been avoiding me all weekend."
I'm not about to sit around here and play therapist for Amber to vent to, so I turn back to the door. "I don't know, Amber. People have bad days, give him a break and let him breathe. Or you can confront him about it. I don't know. I have to go."
She nods. "Okay, Sir. Thank you."
And without another word, I step out of the room, off to do the next thing on my list.
--
"Niall." I say, and he turns around from his chair in the security room.
"Yes, Sir? Good morning."
"Morning." I say curtly.
"Did you sleep well yesterday?" He asks, referring to the pills he brought me after I asked for them.
I shake my head. "No. But anyways-"
He stands up, and faces me. "Yes?"
"Jillian, where is she?"
Niall pauses. "Oh, Jillian? Perrie's been taking care of her. When we got back from the City, I immediately sent her and Perrie to the hospital wing. Liam checked her out and made sure everything was okay with her, sent a meal plan for her to the chefs downstairs, and then I showed her to one of the vacant rooms."
"And?" I ask.
"And then I gave her an hour to clean up and shower and what not. Then I just took her around the mansion and gave her an introduction...and yeah, I guess that's all."
"How is she? Is she stable? Did you get any sort of information from her?"
Niall takes a moment to think, and then sighs. "Yeah, she seems to be mentally stable, from Liam's assessment of her. I think she's thirty four years old or something. She didn't speak much about her past though. She was mostly quiet."
"And where is she now?"
"Right now? She's probably with Perrie somewhere. I didn't assign her any real jobs yet, I wanted to get her used to the whole idea first, so I told her she could help Perrie. And Perrie's being very compliant about it all."
Giving him a quick nod, I grab a rolly chair and pull it out from under the table and take a seat. "That's good."
Niall shrugs. "I guess."
Just as I was about to ask him about the security breach, Caleb opens the door and steps in. 'Hey."
I acknowledge him by raising my eyebrows, and then turn back to Niall. "So, what happened?"
He grabs a chair, pushes it towards Caleb's direction, and then grabs another one for himself before sitting down. "About the security breach?"
"Yeah."
Caleb speaks up. "Basically, your fantabulous security team you have sucks ass. Get rid of them and get better ones." He remarks, and sits back in his chair.
I roll my eyes at him. "Very detailed, Caleb. What actually happened?"
He shrugs. "Basically, I was just doing my shit and stuff, and then this dude comes up to me and tells me that the head security officer, Carl or whatever the fuck his name is, needs me in the security room because of an emergency."
"Mhmm?"
"And then I came here, and Carl told me that there's someone on the grounds on the inside of the gates, and they can't get to them or whatever, but that they were tracing them. And then I went and got Niall and stuff."
I turn to Niall. "And then what happened?"
He shifts in his seat uncomfortably, looking away for a second before looking back up to me. "Um, we got here, and security head told us to put everyone on lock down, so we did."
"Lock down, as in..." I say, wanting him to elaborate.
"As in we sent everyone to the dungeons underground, and everyone was put two to a cell because they were worried that whoever this trespasser might be might've had explosives on them."
"And then what happened?"
Caleb interrupts. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Whoever it was got away underneath the fencing, without ever getting caught. And then we let everyone out."
"Hmm," I say, bringing a hand up to my chin. "but you said last night that you had a feeling about who it was?"
Caleb stiffened. "No."
"But-" I started.
"I said no. I was just joking around." When his gray eyes meet mine, I know that he is lying, but he's telling me something. I give him a confused glance, but look away. He'd probably tell me later.
"Okay then. Niall, did you get tighter security around the mansion?"
He nods right away. "First think I did after the lockdown was over."
Caleb gives him a confused glance. "You did? You never told me."
Niall shrugs. "I did it on my own - I didn't think you would want to be bothered by it."
Caleb shakes his head, crossing his arms. "Bothered? No. But the security and safety of my brother's mansion does concern me." He's definitely annoyed.
Niall's eyes widen, and he quickly looks to Caleb, and then to me, and then to Caleb again. "Holy shit. Holy shit. You guys are brothers?"
I don't answer, instead, I get up and head for the door.
Caleb does speak up, though. "Surprise, surprise, motherfucker."
I roll my eyes.
--
Perrie's POV
It was the start of a long ass day. Because we'd had the entire weekend basically free and to ourselves, getting back to work felt worse than ever. I've only been tending to the laundry for two hours now, but I was getting tired and the word was just plain tedious.
I wasn't the only one in the laundry room, though. Niall had assigned me to keep Jillian with me to get her used to life in the mansion, and I agreed. Not because I had to, but because I would have appreciated someone showing me around and mentoring me when I first came here. It would have been a lot less suckier and a lot easier had there been someone for me. But there wasn't and I had to learn the hard way.
So I complied when Jillian was assigned to me - I would help her, even though she was obviously quite a bit older than me.
Jillian and I weren't the only ones in the room, either. Abby, an extremely silent Abby was with us, throwing loads of clothes into separate washers, adding laundry soap, and then starting each load. She hadn't said a word to either of us all morning, and she looked absolutely exhausted. Her face held no emotion, and Jillian often sent me looks, wondering what was wrong with her. I just shrugged my shoulders and shook my head - I had no clue what was wrong with Abby.
"Jill, can you get me the white load over there?" I asked her, and she nodded and smiled. The load was in the washer, but it was done, and Jillian would have to take them out of the washer, put them in the basket, and bring them over to me to where I was playing with the settings on the dryer.
My eyes turn to Abby, who stood near the cabinets, trying to reach for the bottle of bleach. She stood on her tiptoes, her hand outstretched, but she still wasn't able to reach it.
I stood there, observing her as she poked the bottle furiously, edging it nearer and nearer to the to the edge of the shelf.
It was too late to warn her when I'd realized that the bottle was going to tip over because by that time, it already had.
The gallon-sized bottle fell with a splat when it landed on the floor, exploding and splashing everywhere. It sprayed everywhere, but Abby got most of the hit.
"Fuck!" She shrieked, and I rushed over to her. Abby looked down at herself, horrified. She was drowned in bleach, as was the floor.
"Abby, are you okay?" I ask, worried. Jill comes over too, careful to step around the puddle of bleach. When I look back to Abby, there's a steady stream of tears rolling down her face, and silent sobs racked through her body.
"Abby?" Jillian says softly, approaching her. "Honey, are you okay?"
She opens her mouth as of to scream, but nothing comes out. Absolutely silence. She presses her back to one of the washing machines, and lets herself slip to the ground in defeat.
Abby brings her arms around her legs, hugging her knees as she buried her face into them.
Both Jillian and I crouch next to her, and Jill flashes me a concerned look. It takes me only a few seconds to realize that her body was entirely shaking with sobs, and then she's crying out loud.
"Abby, what's wrong, babe?" I ask, resting my hand on her arm. "You can tell us." I literally can't believe that I'm telling her this...but my hatred for her has slowly started to evaporate, lost in between the fucked up mess I have found myself in with Harry.
Harry.
Fuck, I can't think of him now. Abby's a mess, and she's basically sitting in bleach.
Fuck.
"Abby, get up! You have to get up! You're sitting in bleach!" I suddenly realize. Holy fuck, the strong chemical can and will burn her skin.
She doesn't budge, but not because she's ignoring me. Abby's not listening to anyone - absorbed in her own cries and sobs.
"Jillian, help me move her. The bleach is going to fucking burn her skin off!"
Jillian nods. "Holy shit, it will."
We practically dragged Abby out of the puddle of bleach, and moved her to the side. Her hands come up to wipe at her eyes - but it's no use, because her tears aren't stopping, and I can't help but wonder what had her so worked up.
Master Zayn. It had to be; she was with him all weekend long. Something must've happened. I think to myself.
She doesn't say anything, and neither do we.
All is quiet, until Abby gasps, and then screams. "It's burning! Fuck!"
I don't know what to do - I'm panicking because I've never dealt with chemical burns before.
"Where?' I ask her frantically. "Where does it burn?"
"My legs! My arms; fuck! My hands too!" Her face is red as she stares at her limbs horrified.
I am pushed out of the way by Jillian, who takes action. "Abby, take off your pants, right now. And your shirt, Anything that's been soaked by the bleach, you have to take off! Right now!"
Jillian turns to me. "Go get the doctor-um, Doctor Payne. Hurry!" She orders me, and I nod.
I am surprised by her suddenly taking action, but I am appreciative of it nonetheless because I was completely lost as what to do.
I rush out of the laundry room, head up the elevator, and run as fast as my legs can carry me to the hospital wing at the completely other side of the mansion.
--
As I'm running down the hall, my eyes come across Niall, Zayn, and the guy that was in charge this weekend, whose name I couldn't remember walking out of the security room.
I don't say anything as I rush by, but then a hand reaches out and grabs my arm.
"Where are you going?" Master Zayn asks me, pulling me back.
"Liam. I have to get him. It's an emergency." I pant, rushing my words. I pull away, but he only tightens his grip so that I can't walk away.
"What happened? What's going on?"
I just shake my head and forcefully pull my arm from his grasp. "Abby."
His eyes widen at her name, and he rushes after me as I resume my run to the hospital.
--
I'm breathless by the time I reach the hospital, and Liam's expression is clearly surprised as he takes in a very panicked me, and a worried Zayn who doesn't know what the fuck is going on.
I rest my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. When I can get enough breath the breathe normally again, I stand up straight.
"Liam," I start, and take another quick breath. "Abby's got chemical burns, I think. We were-"
"What?" Zayn says furiously, turning me around to face him. "How?!?"
Liam brushes past Zayn to me. "Excuse me. Perrie, how did this happen?"
"We were on laundry duty, and the bleach bottle tipped over and - "
Liam cuts me off by raising his hand. "One second. Harry!" He called.
Fuck. I didn't want to see Harry right now, not when I looked like absolute shit and I my emotions and thoughts were all over the place.
When Harry comes out quickly, and his eyes also widen when he takes us all in. "What's going on...?" He asks, confused.
"Perrie, explain to me what happened on the way there. Let's go. Harry, bring some burn ointment and gauzes."
Zayn hasn't said anything yet, but I can tell he's not himself as he quickly matches our paces out of the hospital wing and towards the back of the mansion to the laundry room again.
--
Zayn's POV
When we step into the laundry room after taking the elevator down, the first thing I hear is Abby's hiss, and Jillian's calm voice speaking to her.
Abby is perched up on one of the counters near the sink, completely bare except for her bra and panties, and her feet are in the sink as Jillian washes away the bleach from her skin.
Abby's back is towards us as we approach, but Jillian immediately waves us over, and Abby looks back to see who had entered.
Her eyes travel past Liam, Perrie, and then Harry, and then meet mine. Scowling, she looks turns her back to us, and Liam immediately rushes to their side.
"Alright, Abby, I was told everything that happened. Everyone, move out! I need space! Harry, come here, clear the counter next to Abby for me." Liam started throwing orders around, and Perrie and Jillian immediately stepped back, but I didn't budge. In fact, I moved closer to Abby, and reached out to touch her.
"Abby, are you okay?" I ask timidly, putting a hand on her bare shoulder. She flinches away from me, but doesn't look at me.
"Sir, you're going to have to step out of the way. I need my space." Liam says, shooing me away. I ignore him.
"Abby, talk to me-" I begin, and then Abby brings her hand up to her eyes, wiping away at something. Was she...crying? Fuck.
"Sir! Please step aside!" Liam shouts, and turns to Harry. "Harry, get the first aid kit set up please."
When Abby continues to ignore me, I sigh and take a step back. My jaw clenches because Harry's in the room, his eyes flicking to and back from Abby, who was basically almost naked.
Fuck. I don't need to explode right now. I don't need one more thing to get in between the two of us.
--
Liam's POV
It's a definite pro that the sinks installed in the laundry room were the huge, industrial sized three compartment sinks, because that way I had enough room to stick Abby's legs underneath the faucet and let the cool water wash off the bleach. I grab her arms, and pull them underneath the stream of water as well, and by the way the blisters raised on her skin, I could tell that some parts of the burns were not only first degree burns, but also second degree burns.
I quickly scan her body to make sure there weren't any other signs of red, inflamed skin, and I'm relieved to see that there was nothing. But just to make sure, I asked her. "Abby, did it spill anywhere else? Did the bleach get anywhere else on your body."
"No, I don't think so." She says quietly, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Zayn frown at the fact that she answered me so easily.
"Harry, come here for a second." I order, and he steps next to me.
"Yes?"
"Hold her arms under the water for a second, I have to go get-"
"No." Zayn barks from behind me, and takes a step toward us.
"Zayn, Sir, please-" I say. I need to get her burns washed off, and I don't need the drama right now.
"No, I can do it." Zayn growls; he's furious.
I turn around to face Zayn. "I don't need your bullshit right now. I've got a patient to take care of, and that's all that matters. Now step aside so I can get her burns healed."
He looks as if he's about to say something, but then stops and changes his mind. His jaw is clenched, and his body is tense, but I don't care.
"Harry, get over here." I yell, and Harry hesitates, looking from me to Zayn, and then back to me again.
"Go on," I assure him. "You have my orders." I give a stern look at Zayn, and he doesn't say anything. Good. His overprotectiveness and possessiveness when it comes to the girl is unhealthy and out of control anyways.
Finally, Harry does as I say, and I can get to work on laying out the sterile wraps and I get the ointment out. "You guys can all go." I say, talking to Perrie, Jillian, and Zayn. I didn't like to work with a whole bunch of bystanders in the room anyways.
Perrie and Jill comply immediately, and I quickly thank them for notifying me as they stepped out.
"Zayn, Sir-" I start, and he glares at me.
"Shut up, Liam. I'm not doing anything."
I roll my eyes. "That's the point. You aren't doing anything, you're just in the way."
"I am not." He continues to glare at me.
I step around him, and then turn to the counter. "You know, your possessiveness is going to destroy everything between the two of you. Keep that in mind." I say solemnly, and turn my attention to Harry, who was talking to Abby in a low voice.
"How long has that been?" I ask Harry.
He looks at his watch. "We've kept her feet under the running water for about ten minutes, now."
"Okay, good." I say, and then pick up one of the medical wraps and walk over to them. "Abby, now, I need you to keep your other leg and your arms under the faucet the entire time. We're going to take your first leg, dry it, and apply the ointment to it, okay?"
She nods, her voice just above a whisper. "Okay."
I motion for Harry to grab a towel, and he does, pulling one of Abby's legs out of the sink.
He works slowly, his touch ginger as he slowly dried her leg, starting from her ankle and working his way up her leg.
I could practically hear Zayn fuming behind me, but I chose to ignore him.
Once her leg was completely dried, he began on her next leg, and I started applying ointment to the area of the burns.
It took the both of us a good thirty minutes to clean and dress all of Abby's wounds, all the while Zayn stood about six or seven feet away from us, fuming in a quiet rage.
Once I was done, I gave Abby a smile, and she half-smiled, half grimaced back at me. "How do you feel?"
"Well, it hurts." She answers frankly, completely ignoring Zayn's lurking presence behind me.
I couldn't help but laugh - she looked ridiculous in only a pair of panties and a bra and her arms and legs completely covered in bandages, but she laughs a bit too as she looks down at herself.
"Nothing that a few painkillers can't help with." I tell her. She nods, and grimaces again.
"Okay, so I'm going to allow you to have a break from your duties so that you can rest up, and they should heal pretty quickly. Maybe a week, at the most. Just try to not get them wet, okay?" I tell her.
She nods. "Okay."
"Harry, can you take her back to her room?" I ask, and then bring my palm to my face when I realized that Zayn is still with us.
"I'll take her." Zayn cuts in quickly, leaving us no room to protest. As I was about to insist on Harry taking her, I saw that in his eyes was fury,
Harry backed up, putting his hands up in surrender. He flashed me an apologetic smile, and I just rolled my eyes at Zayn's caveman behavior.
"Okay then. Take her back to her room. She doesn't need any emotional stress right now, though. Okay?" I warn him sternly. Now was not the time to upset her.
"Fuck off, Liam." He steps to where Abby had swung her legs over the edge of the counter, and wrapped his arms around her. He picked her up effortlessly, and shifted her weight against him.
He stops, looking to me as if he was going to say something, but then he just shakes his head and make his way out of the room without another word.
When he's gone, Harry bursts into a fit of contagious laughter, and I can't help but join him. "He is so fucking pissed."
I just shake my head, and laugh some more. "He really is."
--
Zayn's POV
I set her down gently on her bed, and sigh. It's like being close to her has emotionally drained me after all this worrying. She was still here, she was still safe, she was still with me.
She turns around in her bed, pulling the covers up and over her body. She doesn't say another word, but I'm dying for her to say something. To say anything.
But she doesn't because she's stubborn, and I don't, because I'm stubborn. And then there's nothing left for me to do in the room but leave, and so I do.
But I don't leave without anything - because now there's a heavy weight on my shoulders, and nothing I seem to do with ever remove it.
~~