14. Whipped and Raped.

"Its funny how the man I told you to avoid is the same man whose toes you stepped on immediately after the warning. " Edith said.

"Are you okay though?" Katherine asked.

"What's with the stupid question, does she look okay to you? She's literally crying, is that tears of joy to you? She even stinks and her eyes are so so puffy, she looks like the total opposite of what she was three days ago yet you still dare to ask her if she's okay?" Agnes scolded.

"Uhm... I was just caring for her in my own way..." Katherine started to say before she was interrupted by Agnes, "well, I hope it wasn't too unbearable for you? I can't imagine going from being whipped and raped by that brutal chief warden to spending a whole three days in the restraint room."

At that, Winifred's ears perked up,"Whipped and raped?" She asked, confused.

"Uhm, yes? The chief warden dragged you away and went with you, that's what he does when such happens, don't worry, you don't need to hide anything from us, we know the kind of devil that he is. He did the same thing to me when I first got here, It was terrible." Agnes said.

It was at that point that Winifred felt a little bit lucky, she would actually take any other punishment above rape and whipping. Truly, she had cried, cried to the point where her eyes had turned small and red as if the bees had stung her eyes. She knew that she had it easy judging from the way the other slaves who had seen her assumed that she had been punished like the others who didn't know their place here. After all, it wasn't uncommon for the slaves to be treated in such a manner.

"I'm so sorry about what happened to you but I wasn't raped, neither was I whipped. I was just locked in the restraint room." Winifred stated.

"Really? You're very lucky if that's truly the case, I'm happy for you. What are you crying for then? You had it easy!" Agnes replied, smiling, even though it was very obvious to every one of them in the cell that she was nowhere near happy for Winifred. Agnes was jealous of the fact that she didn't have to go through what she went through even when she should have, and she did a bad job hiding that feeling.

"I'm really tired of this place, is this really going to be my life henceforth?" Winifred found herself asking no one in particular.

"Yes. It might even get worst when you get sold. Imagine getting sold to Sir Edward, you'd prefer to have been chosen as a prostitute slave." Katherine finally spoke.

"Sir Edward? Who's he?" Winifred asked, out of curiosity.

"The most brutal slave master. He has nothing less than five sex slaves and is said to always treat them worst than animals. He's also said to always get the most beautiful slave, he's always tipped by the wardens when there's a very beautiful new slave and driving the auction, he bids the highest to make sure be gets her and he does, all of the time. As soon as he feels like a slave of his is getting unkempt and ugly, he feeds them to his hyenas." Katherine explained, while Winifred kept gasping in horror.

"Shouldn't there be a law protecting slaves too? Are we just supposed to take anything thrown our way?" She asked, horrified.

"A law? What law? A law to protect people that they see as objects? Do you not get it? We are objects to these people, once you become a slave, you're a non living thing to be owned, whatever is done to you will always be no ones business. This place is run by the higher society, the elite as they call themselves," Edith scoffed and rolled her eyes before continuing, "It is rumored that even the beasts contributed to the running of this place and still visit here in disguise to buy humans as their pets too."

"Its not a rumor, Edith. It's a fact. The house of Babylon and the splat house which is for the male slaves was built decades ago when the four beings lived together in harmony. Even after the war that separated us all into three different lands and completely eliminated the witches, it is said that all the three lands still put money into the house of Babylon for their own use." Katherine added.

"So a slave establishment is what unites these three... what do you call it... beings?" Winifred asked, confused.

"Yes. It does, the one on the high levels, it unites them, secretly, a lot of commoners do not know about it though. They do this because they all need slaves to do their bidding, whatever they want, be it blood, sex or labour. I heard a man raised his voice once telling them to cancel this slaveryof a thing, he hoped that the society would back him up and they would do something about it. The next day, this man was found dead in his home." Edith explained.

"Is this a kind of joke?" Winifred questioned again.

"We don't crack jokes in the house of Babylon, Winifred. Just hope that you land yourself a decent master as a sex slave or a decent mistress as a labour slave to look after you. That's all you can do, nothing else." Edith added.

The so called house of Babylon suddenly looked even more darker and horrible to Winifred as she kept getting fed more and more horror stories about the place she had found herself in.

"This man... this Sir Edward, he doesn't come to every auction, does he?" She asked.

"No, he doesn't. As a matter of fact, he hasn't been to an auction in seven months, as I've heard. But for some reason, I feel like he's sure to show up for the upcoming auction." Edith responded.

"Yes, it's been rumored that he'll show up and most of the slave have been panicking about it. With that usual hideous hat of his and his stupid curvy mustache, he's easy to notice." Agnes contributed too.

"Yes, let me also add the most obvious one which is the huge scar on his face which adds to his cruel look. In short, its easy to know him when you see him, he's very scary." Edith added.

"When is the next auction?" Winifred asked, her fears heightened.

"The day after tomorrow." Katherine replied.

Soon, the wardens came to get them to go and clean themselves up as usual and even before they were asked to strip and start taking their bathes, Winifred was already taking hers off, even while the wardens watched.

Once bitten, twice shy.