Her King, His Slave

Verlice Kingdom

Verlice Kingdom

The black and red gate stands firm and high. On both sides of the gates are the posts with the same color theme. There is a black bat-like symbol at the top of the left post, while a symbol of a white dove is on the right. In the middle top part of the elegant gate, there are gold metallic letters engraved. 'Verlice Kingdom'.

Verlice Kingdom. The haven of the victors. The home of vampires and humans.

As you enter the kingdom, tall, wild, and menacing trees with thick dark green leaves that cover the light from the sky will welcome you. The first part of the kingdom is the home of wild bears, venomous snakes, and other wild animals. Since this is in the front, intruders have a hard time trespassing and for the humans to get out, (not that someone is brave enough to enter or exit the most powerful kingdom in the whole supernatural world.)

At the end of the seemingly endless forest is a small town. Wet and dry markets, stores, and some houses will be found here. Every day is like a carnival due to the triangular colorful papers hanging above.

Humans mostly live in this part of the Kingdom.

However, as joyful as it looks, you couldn’t seem to feel a festive vibe from humans. Everything is dull, gloomy, and dead.

There is a crystal blue river after the small town. This serves as the borderline between vampires and humans. On the other side of the river is another forest, a small one, which is where vampires mostly live.

After the forest is the Verlice school. This is the only school in the whole kingdom. Both humans and vampire students go here.

And at the back of the Verlice school is the castle. It is enormous in size and covered with gold and red. Continuously growing vines surrounded the black metal gate with two palace guards on the sides.

If you pass through the gate, you have to take the long uphill cemented road with trimmed bushes on the sides to get into the palace itself.

Made with red, gold, and a touch of black, the whole castle screams elegance. The castle is surrounded by its mysterious atmosphere. Given its size, it is undeniable that the castle is visible even if you're standing from the small town of humans beyond the river.

On the first ground of the palace, the floor is covered in red carpet. There are two twisted grand stairs at both ends which will lead you to the second floor of the castle. In the middle of the intertwined grand stairs, a rectangular frame is glued on the gold wall.

The Bathory Family.

They are the only royal family in the kingdom and the ones responsible for governing it.

In the Verlice Kingdom, there are different kinds of vampires. While humans have levels of classes.

Royal Vampires

This is where the Bathory family belongs. They are the highest-ranked vampires in the Kingdom. All the decisions and actions made by the council should come and be approved by them. The Royal vampires don’t mate with humans or even other kinds of vampires. They do this to keep the bloodline pure.

Vampire Council (Elite Vampires)

They are the legislative and judicial bodies in the Kingdom. This means that they are the one who gives advice to what the Royal Vampires would do. Moreover, they are the one who drafts laws that should be followed by both vampires and humans. They have also vested the power to punish those who violated and refused to follow the laws.

The council is composed of elite vampires—specifically, the family of vampires that are close to the Bathory Family and have pure vampire blood.

Due to their authority, elite vampires are also respected and feared by both humans and normal vampires.

Pure Vampires

Pure Vampires are also called “normal vampires”. None of their bloodlines has been tainted with human blood. Pure vampires and Elite vampires have little-to-no difference. Only that, an elite vampire has given more privilege (be it in education, connections, etc.) With this, Elite Vampires have more advanced powers and higher social status than Pure Vampires.

Hybrid Vampire

The last type of vampire. These are the vampires with human and vampire blood. One of their parents is a vampire while the other one was once a human that mated with a vampire. In the Kingdom, although the Royal vampires strongly advocate anti-discrimination, some pureblooded vampires belittle them. Their powers are below average due to the human blood that runs in their system.

On the other hand, the humans living in the Kingdom has also class status.

The Council

The Royal Vampires acknowledge the presence of humans in their vampire-dominated Kingdom. The Council is a group of humans who are selected to be part of the council and join the council meetings. They serve as the representative of human beings. The council is the one who voices out the concerns of the problems of humans. Those families who are in council gain some privilege and a higher social status than other humans.

Slaves

These are humans who were guilty of violating laws. In the Kingdom, the vampire council and the council will decide if the guilty human will be sentenced to death or be a slave.

High-ranking vampires, such as Royal, Elite, and Pure, can be the new master of the slaves (depending on who would want to take them). Slaves have no right to say ‘no’ to their masters since their life depends on them. Their masters can kill them whenever they want in whatever way.

In short, if a human became a slave, he has no freedom and will only live for his master.

***

"I want her!" The tall and lean pure vampire shouts in the corner of the room. His pupil dilates and his eyes turn red. He stares back at the woman on the stage who is shaking in fear. Both of her hands are tied at the back and she's kneeling in front of the whole crowd of vampires.

The tall vampire stands in his seat. In just a blink of an eye, he's already on the stage beside the woman.

"P-Please... I'm s-sorry. I w-won't steal food a-anymore. Please!" she begs, but the applause and uproar of the crowd drown her pleads.

As for the rules, the tall vampire hands the bag of animal blood to the council, he snakes his arm on the small waist of the woman, and with his vampire powers, they storm out of the room.

If you want to take the slave, you have to give animal blood to the council as payment. Vampires in Verlice Kingdom are prohibited to drink human blood... unless the human is their slave.

If a vampire happens to violate the law, he will be straight up sentenced to death.

"It is not my fault! She offered herself to me! I did not know that she will eventually die once I drink her blood. I swear! I did not intend to drain her!" Shout by a pure vampire. Two of the members of the council drag him on the stage, replacing the woman who was once in his position.

His hands and feet are both chained. One of the council members removes the cover of the blazing furnace placed at the side of the stage. He grabs a torch and puts the opposite end of it in the furnace to get fire.

The orange ball of flame enthusiastically dances at the end of the torch. The fire reflected in the vampire's eyes. He tried to free himself from the chains with his vampire power but the council easily pin him down.

“Please, please! I’m begging you! Please forgive me!”

One of the members breaks his arms to stop him from resisting. His scream echoes in the corners of the room. No one dared to move nor bat an eye. Everyone’s watching the poor vampire suffer.

The other council kicked the back of his knees, breaking it and making him kneel. Helplessly, the vampire shouted in horror when the torch was geared toward him.

"Please! No! I don't want to die! I lived for 132 years! I don't want to die." He tries to remove his arms from the council, but a pure vampire like him has no chance against two elite vampires.

"KING BATHORY, PLEASE FORGIVE ME--"

His scream was stopped when the council pierced the blazing torch right into his chest—ending his life.

This is just an ordinary scene in the kingdom. Vampires dominate, and humans submit. Low-class vampires live in fear and discrimination and often exert dominance over humans to satisfy their superiority complex. In the end, it’s always the humans that suffer.

In the Kingdom that claims the equality of both beings, is it still possible for this crooked system to be changed? If it is, will it be for the better? Aside from these tortures and sl*very, how deep and dark does this Kingdom offers? Will there be light in the end? Or this Kingdom embodies an unending tunnel—long, dark, and dead.

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Unedited. English is not the author's first language so expect grammatical errors.

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Her King, His Slave

by: Joanne Cristel

©2021