A pet's purpose

Chapter 6

"It looks better", Atlas said as he looked at my back. He trailed his fingers on the now healing lash-marks, thanks to Rowan.

"Will it scar?" I asked and looked over my shoulder at Atlas. "No I don't think so" he said.

I woke up pretty late, and Atlas had let me sleep in his bed. He had taken the couch, that was seated next to the bed.

It was very kind of him and I think no other vampire would have let me even touch their bed to begin with.

Today was the first day I would eat in the dining hall, together with all the other vampires and pets. I was kind of nervous to be honest. I didn't know what to expect.

"Let's go Marlow", Atlas said and crouched down to clip on my leash. We left the dorm and headed downstairs to the dining hall.

It was already crowded with people when we entered. I noticed all pets got their own little plate, seated beside their master's.

The pets were initially supposed to fetch all food for their Master's but it got replaced by servants doing it, scared the pets might mix up meals with one another.

All vampires had their own diet and preferences. The pets had the same meal though, but some had more food that contained iron, like eggs and beans.

That would keep their boddy from iron-loss if their Masters drank too much from them.

I sat beside Atlas as I was supposed to, and in front of us sat Erwan and his pet Maya. "You haven't feed from your pet yet?" Erwan asked and I choked on the water I was drinking.

Erwan smirked, and Atlas looked bored at him.

"No, I'm waiting for her to gain more weight. The healthier host the healthier blood", he replied simply.

I gulped. I knew it was only a matter of time before he'd go for it.

I poked around the food on my plate. It was mostly vegetables, but a slice of meat on the side confirmed what Atlas had said earlier.

I did need to gain more weight. My arms were thin, probably because the lack of food I got in the pet shop.

The stress I was going through didn't help either.

Being in a constant state of flight or fight mode had a negative effect on my body. On any body I suppose.

Erwan and Atlas continued to chatting but I just kind of zoned out. Maya ate everything on her plate and sat quietly with her hands on her lap waiting for Erwan to finish.

She met my gaze and I looked down. "You know that we're supposed to take the pets to training tomorrow, right? Erwan said to Atlas. "Almost forgot about that", he replied and sighed.

Training? What would we have to train for?

I flinched as I felt Atlas hands on my neck, clipping on the leash. He stood up and so did I.
We were about to leave but Erwan spoke up.

"I heard there would be a festival in the Mapel Park in the weekend. I was thinking on going wanna join?" "Sure. I need to look for something in the city anyway", Atlas replied.

We were about to leave when we got interrupted. Again.

"Atlas!", a girl exclaimed and threw herself around his neck. "Hello to you too Natasha", Atlas answered.

She had brown, long, hair and brown doe eyes. Her body was to die for and it made me ache for something I knew I couldn't achieve.

"So how was the break?", Natasha asked with a laugh. "You know, the usual. Spend most time with Erwan. Couldn't leave my cousin, you know?" he answered.

THEY WERE COUSINS??!!!

I had to plaster a neutral expression over my surprised one. I watched between Erwan and Atlas in secret.

I saw they had the same straight nose and broad shoulders, but that's where the similarities ended.

Natasha looped her arm in Atlas and started to walk, me in tow. Atlas looked back at Erwan and exchanged a look.

I didn't see Erwan's face but I could guess what it was displaying, based of how Atlas rolled his eyes.

Natasha seemed oblivious of their little exchange and continued to blabber about what she had done on the break.

She talked about the parties she had gone to and how lovely their vacation in the Maldives had been.

I've never been in any other country than my own, which is Canada. When I was little I dreamed about going around the world.

To see famous buildings and places like the Eiffel-tower or the Niagara Falls. I could only read about those places, never visit them.

It was too expensive and we didn't even have money for food anyways.

It was terrible to be poor. Everything was a fight between life and death. Would we get food today?

We didn't know. Would we keep our shelter over our heads? We didn't. They kicked us out because we couldn't keep up with the rent.

And that's when we tried to escape to another town so the vampires wouldn't come and take us instead.

That didn't work out either.

We stoped at Atlas dorm and Natasha hugged goodbye to him. "See you at the festival!", she said. "Yeah see u then", he said with lack of enthusiasm.

When she was out of sight Atlas sighed and opened the dorm door. He took off my collar and leash and sat at his desk silently.

I was glad he let me walk around so freely in his dorm. I bet others just had their pets in their cages when they didn't use them.

He even let me be without my collar. Even though he had it loose it still felt bothersome.

It reminded me of the pet shop, and the horrors with it. All the times I had to endure Mr. Eggs kick to my ribs, or the lashings he gave me when I didn't behave.

The things that hapoened were past me but I still thought about it sometimes. All the what ifs and maybes made me feel weak.

What if my family and I never left the city.

What if I behaved like Mr. Egg wanted me to.

What if the vampires never took over the world.

Maybe we could have run faster.

Maybe if I just tried harder to be a good pet.

That's what bothered me. I couldn't change anything that happened, I knew that. But I could learn from it.

Starting today.

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Authors Note

We reached 70 reads!!! I can't believe it I'm sooo happy!! *throws arms out like Rose in titanic*

Anyway, first time meeting Natasha! What do you guys think about her? Lmk in the comments!

Next update will be tomorrow!

And as always,

Vote, Comment and Share!

-Blondie

Word count: 1200