The Bell of Freedom (King and human romance)✔

Chapter One

Copyright © by Kayley Barratt

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I drag my feet numbly behind the creature as he takes me to the infirmary. I keep a desirable distance between us so that we don't touch by accident. Nothing good happens if a creature touches you. The first time I felt it was when I was twelve, the day I was taken, when a creature's arms wrapped around my chest and lifted me from the ground. I couldn't feel my body for several minutes, it was as though I was put on ice. Since then I have been trying my hardest to avoid their paralysis, but sometimes it can't be possible.

The creature is taking me to Tyler, the little boy that I've been caring for since he was transferred from the other nannery at seven. He is ten now and for the last few days he has become severely sick. The creatures speculate that his soul is becoming impure. I've often wanted to ask what that meant but I never had the courage. No one has.

The creature stops outside the door to the infirmary and opens it for me. He doesn't say a word to me, which I am grateful for. Humans are merely food to them; they do not speak to us unless it is essential.

Another creature named Arabella stands at the far wall to my left, her long white hair changes to golden yellow at the sight of me. That often happens when they become aroused by a soul nearby. She only works here as a guard; at home she will have her own humans that she feeds from. We are off limits to the creatures. We are called nannies, the carers of the young. Basically, I am an older human fulfilling the role of a mother to younger humans. That is until we all become too old to still be here and then we are transferred to be owned by a creature.

The feeding process is slow. They take their energy over several weeks, sometimes months. The humans are in unbearable pain when that happens, I've seen it. I watched them do it to my parents. The paralysis keeps us from moving, from fighting back, but they felt everything. I could see it in their eyes. Thankfully, the process wasn't slow for them, it was over in seconds.

It was like that for most of the world. When the creatures fell they were so hungry that they couldn't wait. They fed until there was nothing left of their victims but frail bones. Weapons couldn't kill them, bombs couldn't blow them up, and humans were vastly outnumbered.

I don't know much about them; where they came from or why they arrived here, but there is one thing I do know. Children were precious to them. All those under thirteen were speared, they called us the pure souls. The oldest were required to raise the youngest. At twelve years old, I had to bottle feed new-born babies. The creatures could read their minds when they fed from their parents, they knew their needs and desires. They arranged for everything a baby would need to survive to be brought to the nanneries.

After they fed from all the adults it was a waiting game for the children to grow up. It was their leader's law that they had to wait. Most were sent from the nannery to the creatures' homes as young as thirteen, others at sixteen, and I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm almost twenty and I haven't been transferred yet.

Because the humans were not allowed to procreate unless they were transferred to the breeding centres, it's very rare that we have new arrivals. There are no children here younger than eight, because it was eight years ago when the world ended.