Conquer My Heart
After witnessing the brutal murder of her parents, Sam has learned to detest people, especially the nobles of Masters Castle. When the youngest son, Daniel, is chided by his father for his cruelty toward animals and inability to tame one, he kidnaps Sam in hopes she will teach him kindness, but Sam seeks revenge. Can the young maiden reach the arrogant noble's heart before she plunges a sword right through it?
Prologue
The sound of my mother's scream was what woke me up that night.
A candle flickered just beside my cot, something my parents always blew out when I fell into a deep slumber, but now the persistent sobs of my mother continued to echo in the house, making the flame dance wildly. Each shriek made me flinch. Every thud had my lip trembling. But it was the silence that I feared the most. I didn't dare move.
Amity was accustomed to tormented pleas of its citizens. Under the rule of the Masters' –often referred to as Phantoms for their lack of being seen– we received punishment for simple mistakes. My parents owned a small shop in the market and were always harassed by guards for having the misfortune of being named Manson.
Our family had originally been in power, but after the vicious Masters' overruled, we were sent like rats to the streets. Many of the townspeople blamed us for the pain, the misery. My mother had only been a small child when she fell out of power yet everyone was convinced it was her fault.
Often they came at night.
It was such a normal gesture that I expected it everyday. The first time I heard the screams, I ran into the room. I saw my mother on the ground. I saw the blood on the blade. I saw the man's twisted face as he came over and struck me with that dagger.
Whenever I went to bed now, my father made sure to lock my door.
"Pamela!"
It was my father's voice that broke through the constant cries. There was a struggle, then the sound of something breaking. I imagined bone cracking as my father cursed and then released such a gut wrenching noise my toes curled.
The torture of hearing my parents' agony stung more then when the blade cut my cheek.
My mother was weeping now, crying my father's name over and over again. Then there was another voice, filled with venom, and the pounding of his boots again the floorboards. The doorknob to my room rattled. I held my breath.
My mother's cry came just before the explosion. Instead of staring into the dark oak of my bedroom door, I watched as a cruel face turned into a smirk. His eyes were green and bright, sinister against the dim candle light.
His boots marched on as he approached me, gripping a fistful of my hair and jerking me to the floor. I screamed in pain. He didn't seem to notice.
"No!" My mother screamed and it was then that I saw her face. I hardly recognized the unruly orange hair, crushed nose, and stream of blood dripping down her face. I was too busy staring at the head in her lap, lifeless and pooled in red.
The man kept his grip on my hair sharp, tugging me forward. My eyes watered as I followed him into the living room, where my parents laid.
"Don't touch her," my mother begged. I had never seen such a desperate, beaten mess on the floor. The image made me cry, made me reach for her.
The man grunted and pulled back on my hair, making me scream again.
"Samantha!" she called out.
And that was when I saw the club. The man gave her one good whack to the head, and then it was over. My mother's body fell onto the ground, motionless, beside my unmoving father. The sight turned my blood cold, silenced my screams, and froze me completely.
They were…
The pull to my braid was so intense now. The man jerked it down hard until I was forced to stare into those cruel, green eyes.
"Now you will understand the pain," he sneered, "the suffering, the never ending death that surrounds us all. And you will live with it. Forever."
He released my hair and I crumpled to the ground, staring at the bodies. I blinked, something like a whimper coming from my mouth before I shook my mother's shoulder.
"Mother," I choked. She didn't move. Didn't respond. Her body felt heavy and solid, but that was it. Nothing more then a corpse. "Mother, please." I shook her more frantically, doing the same to my father.
Eventually the smell carried to the neighbors and they found me, curled up in a ball beside my parents bodies. They stopped tormenting me after that, for some reason believing I had murdered them.
I lashed out at the men that reached for my father's body and he backed away, calling me the devil. I continued to do that to anyone who touched my parents, until finally, I was hit in the head with something sharp.
I woke up alone in the house, wishing the entire world would turn to ashes.