Warnings and Disclaimer: Everything belongs to my pal Steph except the poem from which I filched a line for my title (Lord Byron's "Manfred," 1817).
The following is not some fluffy love tale about sparkly vampires. Well, actually, it is a love tale and there are glittery blood-suckers, but I've gone and replaced the fluff with trigger material and sensitive subject matter. Please proceed with care.
My skin feels starched, like it could crackle, like I could split apart at the seams with the slightest touch.
Unrelenting sun will do that, and there's no escaping its scorching view while I'm under strict order to remain on this makeshift platform, so I bake. We all do. The girl beside me whimpers from time to time and tries to lift a hand to shield her eyes, but I'm no fool. We'd be whipped for movement, and so my own hands remain firmly clasped in front of me, though she tugs and tugs at the rope that binds us in line, burning its imprint into my skin.
I don't flinch. It's not as if it's the first time I've been branded.
Many come, dozens even. They pinch my slight frame and cast me aside for my lack of muscle. They ask me my name and think me unintelligent when all I offer is a thin smile. I'm not useful here, with my weak body and lack of charm. I'd do these men no good in bed, and the wives have no need of me in their kitchen.
I should think Master will just do away with me before the auction is up.
But Ra is not merciful—why should he be? I'm of little importance to him—and so I stand at attention and watch as other more blessed, cursed souls are led away. I begin to count each second as just another closer to the death that the sun is sure to dole out.
At day's end, when I'm the only girl left and Master is pulling me from the platform by lead of my thick braid, he appears. He ghosts over the hill, and in the moment between twilight and nightfall, he almost seems to shimmer, as if he's a deity that's seen fit to come and rescue me.
Later that night, when he asks me my name and I only offer my same small smile, I learn a god's wrath.
Author's Notes: I have no idea what I'm doing.
Still, here we go. This is a short and sweet seven chapters, probably about six thousand words or so in total. The whole thing should be posted by the end of the month.