The Bell of Freedom (King and human romance)✔

Chapter Two

After burying Tyler's body in the grounds behind the nannery, I gather my section of children for their dinner. I allowed the older ones to attend his burial, they marked it with freshly taken flowers that grow in our greenhouse. Many nannies also attended, not a word was said, we all just stood there, casting our silent heartache to the sky.

The children are not what I remember children being like. When I was a child, before all of this happened, I was such a happy and energetic life. I was always running, always playing, always chasing my friends around yards and through fields. The creatures want the children to be comfortable and as happy as possible so that their souls can stay pure for longer, but there are limits to what they can do.

We can go for walks, and play games to stimulate their minds. I can teach them how to read and write, how to cook and how to bake. We even have our very own kitchen. But the children are not stupid. They know they are prisoners. They question why they cannot leave the grounds of the nannery, why they cannot explore further than the steel gates that trap us, and once a child questioned the wrong creature about it. The creature smacked the child so forcefully that the child never spoke again. To anyone.

The twelve-year-olds put me on edge the most. I keep a diary of all their birthdays that the creatures took from their parents' minds before they were killed. Every day they become closer to being thirteen. At thirteen, they are either taken by a creature for feeding or they stay as a nanny or another figure of service, like Irene. I am always relieved when they are allowed to stay, but I have also had to witness dozens of them leave. They are all most likely dead now. And how Arabella confessed to treating her victims while she feeds on them makes the process even more difficult to think about.

She has taken at least sixteen in the eight years that I've known her. I knew those little lives. I talked to them, I comforted them, I made sure they always had someone that cared for them and loved them. To think of them being confined to cages and electrocuted, enduring immense suffering over and over again, slowly, just makes me want to kill all of these children in this very room. I could smother the darlings in their sleep, they wouldn't even wake up. Their souls would be out of reach, hopefully somewhere better and safer, by the time the creatures found them. That thought is so dark and terrifying, but I'd be sparing them so much pain. I can never do it. No matter how many times I think about it, I can never get past the sickness in my stomach.

"Is something wrong, Jackson?" I ask the boy across the table from me, who is pushing his food around his plate slowly.

"No," he says, keeping his gaze down.

"Why aren't you eating?"

"Not hungry."

As I glance around the table, I find the others to be doing the same thing. Tyler's death has come as a shock to them, he was their friend, their roommate, he was the funny one that told them jokes to brighten their day. I flick my eyes to the creature that stands against the far wall, he is watching us closely, becoming agitated with their reluctance to eat. His human form is very large and intimidating. More visitors are arriving tomorrow to find their chosen meals and so the children's energy levels must be high enough for satisfaction.

"Please," I say, to all of them. "You know the rules."

A few of them sigh and begin placing the food into their mouths. I glance back to the creature, he seems content enough and pushes himself back into the wall.

"Did they kill Tyler?" Jackson says.

I am startled by his question. They all stare at me for the answer, as if it's something that they've all been wondering all day. I can't lie to them. This isn't the kind of world where you can afford false hope. "Yes."