Chapter 3: The Guests
Every time Atlas glanced at his sister's face; he could only see pain and loneliness. She behaved happily around him, but it wasn't hard to comprehend that Misella was lonely and depressed. She was no different than other helpless children serving there.
"Hey, Atlas. So you survived today as well." A soft voice came from the distance, followed by a light chuckle.
"Hmm?"
Atlas looked up to find a young boy standing there. He was of the same age as him but looked a bit more healthy. The boy was another oddity in their group, known as Jason.
Jason had been here even longer than him, so he suffered a lot more, but for some odd reason, he wasn't as skinny as the rest of them. The boy had some good mass on his body and looked slightly chubby as well.
His height was even shorter than Atlas, but Jason was bulkier. While Atlas was five feet eight inches tall, Jason was three inches shorter. Unlike his long black hair, Jason possessed short dark hair. Sometimes even Atlas was jealous of Jason due to his healthy appearance. He didn't look malnourished.
Jason had probably given more blood than anyone else here due to the time span he spent there. However, he still seemed healthy and could go on providing a lot more. It made Atlas envious. Only if he had a similar health he could have given the blood in his sister's place.
"Man, why do you always lose yourself in your thoughts whenever I approach you?" said Jason as he sat beside Atlas. "Anyway, why aren't you leaving? If you finished donating blood, you should go. Aren't you feeling weak now? Let's go and eat something?"
Jason casually spouted those words because he had gotten used to this whole practice. However, Atlas seemed to have gotten irked with the worry regarding his sister ruining the mood.
"Donating? You call what we were doing a donation?!"
In response to Jason's words, Atlas could only show a weak smile. He didn't know how he looked when smiling, but he believed that he didn't look particularly handsome. His face was pale; his eyes had dark spots under them as if he hadn't slept for weeks, and his lips were dry.
In fact, if he were to say, the only great thing about his looks would have been his deep blue eyes which were rare around here.
'We are going with the flow, letting them take whatever they want. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say that we are just trying to survive until we turn eighteen so we can hopefully be free,' he thought.
Atlas didn't share his thoughts often because he knew that sometimes sharing thoughts like these could put them in danger. Thus he kept his thoughts to himself, putting on a standoffish expression, looking like he didn't want to talk to others.
Jason looked around the room to find the cause of his bad mood and soon noticed Misella on the bed. "Ah, so you're cranky because your sister is there. That's why you're waiting."
Atlas turned his head to shoo him off; he didn't have any intention of diverting his attention from Misella to Jason.
"It's right. You can leave now," Atlas lazily stated.
"That's alright. I can afford to wait with you as well." Jason flashed a smile.
Atlas glanced at Jason, shaking his head over his stubbornness.
'I don't get it. Why is this guy so strange? Here, everyone thinks for themselves. They only act good with others and work together at times, but no one is kind enough to wait for me. Why is this guy waiting?'
Atlas sat slightly confused at the behaviour of Jason.
"Two more years, huh," Jason abruptly muttered, snagging Atlas' attention.
"What?" Atlas asked.
"I said just two more years, and we will be eighteen. We'll be out of this place," Jason repeated with a smile.
Atlas helplessly looked at Jason.
'It looks like he is no different than us after all. He also looks forward to being free. Then again, who wouldn't think about being free from this hell?'
"That reminds me. What will happen to your sister after you are free?" Jason asked, seemingly curious. "She will be sixteen and will be staying here back while you have to leave? What's your plan after that? You have to leave her behind after all."
Atlas was taken aback by the sudden realization, which made him worried once again regarding Misella's safety.
"Huh?"
A certain thought dawned upon him and forced him to ponder upon the situation.
'That's right. Why didn't I think of this before? We have different ages. I am going to be free two years before her. What am I going to do? I….I can't leave her behind!'
"Worried for her?" Jason asked. "I think you should start forming good relationships with others, the ones who could keep her safe here in your absence."
Jason's suggestion was valid, and it made Atlas wonder if he should give it a go or not. Could he trust others with his sister?
"What do you mean?" He required a detailed plan to proceed with.
"I mean, you should make some friends, especially fourteen years olds. You still have two years to do that. Once you're friends with one, you can be sure that your friend will keep your sister safe for two more years."
Atlas knew that Jason wasn't particularly wrong, but he couldn't trust others when it came to the safety of his sisters. And he couldn't simply leave alone, but he had to sooner or later. The law of the mansion dictated that only people under the age of 18 were used for blood for some reason, so he only had two years while his sister had four left.
"I'll ask them to let me stay here as a servant at least. If that's not possible, I'll think of something else. In any case, I'm not leaving this place without her!"
That was the only answer he could give. It didn't matter if Jason asked once or a thousand times; his response wasn't going to change. He didn't care about himself and was ready to die today if it granted freedom to his sister.
If he could get Misella out of this hell, he wouldn't have thought twice. How could he leave this place without her?
Atlas didn't care what he was supposed to do to make it work, but he promised himself that he was going to find a way to stay here even after he was eighteen. He gazed at the innocent little girl who was lying on the bed.
As he raised his soft yet worry-laced gaze towards Misella, he could see her looking back at him. There was a smile on her pale face, which had already started sweating.
'This idiot, does she not know? Does she think I wouldn't notice she was in pain just because she was faking a smile?'
Atlas could only take a deep breath and smile back at Misella. For now, they were stuck in an unbreakable loophole. He was trying to act strong for her, and there she was, doing the same thing for him.
[Thud]
The door of the hall opened with a loud noise, and a man stepped inside, pushing a trolley. It wasn't hard to guess for anyone that the man was here to take all the blood bags for the guests.
The man filled the trolley with the blood bags that were already collected and started waiting for more. He was already very impatient because the guests were about to arrive.
"Come on, doc. Be fast. The guests can be here anytime. We need to be prepared in advance. We also need to put the blood in the freezer, so it's chilled enough to serve them. You know how serious this is, don't you?" The man's constant nagging displayed worry to the Doctor who was collecting the blood.
"What do you want me to do? Slit their wrists and take the blood? This isn't an ordinary quantity. If I am too hasty, many of them will die!" The doctor snapped back.
"So what? They're all dispensable. Their lives aren't worth a second of our time today! Each second is precious! We can't make masters angry!"
The mere words proved they all were replaceable, and their lives didn't matter.
"I know they are dispensable, but still, it's better to keep them alive. If all of them die, who will give blood tomorrow? It will take at least one day to get this many kids! That delay would upset the Lord even more, wouldn't it? Should I do it and then tell them it was your idea?"
The doctor knew how to respond and silence the man to avoid his nagging.
"Ah, why are you getting so serious? I-i didn't mean to kill them all." The young man started sweating at the thought of the punishment he would receive if all kids died and there would be no blood tomorrow.
"It's fine if a few of them died, but if they all died because you were telling me to hurry, not only will I be punished, but you as well," the doctor further added nonchalantly.
"Sigh, just be fast! I'm not telling you to kill them all, but I'm certainly tossing all the blame to you if we are late in serving the guests." The man rolled his eyes as he folded his arms to wait patiently.
Hearing their conversation, Atlas grew even more curious about these mysterious guests. Who were they? Were they also Vampires? That was what common sense suggested. Vampires would only respect other Vampires to treat them as guests. Humans were nothing to them after all.
"They keep talking about guests. I wonder who the guests are?" Jason muttered to himself. "They must be Vampires too."
Atlas couldn't help but to smile. It seemed like Jason thought the same thing.
"Sigh, whatever. It's not as if our lives would change for the better with their arrival," Atlas answered him with what he actually thought. "They will come and go after one day. It's only us who will get back to our old lives."
Atlas believed their arrival and departure wouldn't affect them more than it already did. At least that's what he thought at that time.
Unbeknownst to him, destiny seemed to have an entirely different plan for him. He didn't realize how wrong he was going to be proven. If only he knew, then maybe he could have changed the inevitable outcome…
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone