Chapter 4: What're Friends For?

It took hours, but the two Lycan girls finally succeeded in making the ballroom spotless. Looking around at realizing that they were done and that all of their hard work in there had paid off, Hope and Anora were absolutely exhausted. They looked around the room with tired expressions on their faces, then turned to each other and smiled a bit.

They gave each other a high five, quietly celebrating their accomplishment of the day. "Alright! We're done!" Hope said triumphantly, raising her hands into the air happily.

Anora nodded her head with a smile and a small laugh. "Finally!" she cheerfully added. Both girls stood up and took one more look around the room, satisfied with what they saw, to be perfectly honest. "Looks like we're through here. Let's get outta here, Hope. I can't stand this room."

"Yeah, I hate being in this room for more time than I absolutely have to," the blue-eyed brunette was all too eager to agree with Anora. And so, both girls turned and left the room. They kept their voices low, should any they come across any of the Vampires that lived in the mansion, which they most likely would, but still chatted happily amongst themselves. They laughed and joked, walking side by side to go to their rooms for a bit to rest before they were called upon by one of the masters to do anything else.

They'd almost made it, too—out of the mansion and to the Lycans' Quarters, located in a corner of the Draconis grounds outside, a large, yet cramped old rundown building separate from the mansion. They almost made it, but not quite. They made it to the large entrance foyer of the mansion, where Hope had entered from before, and that was as far as they got. As soon as they got into the foyer, the first person they saw as they looked towards the door was Servina, standing in front of it with her arms crossed over her chest, looking very angry.

As soon as she saw the two Lycan girls, her icy cold glare intensified. Nothing on this earth could've matched the anger in those eyes at that moment. And it was then that Hope and Anora knew that something was wrong and that they were in deep trouble over something. "So…a slut, am I?" was all the coven mistress said, her voice cold as ice and filled with raw fury, even though she kept it deadly calm, which actually only made it all the more terrifying. As soon as they heard this, the two girls looked at each other, instantly realizing what was going on. The color on both of their faces almost instantly drained, and fear immediately washed over them like a tidal wave.

Hope and Anora were both speechless, too terrified to speak. There was no way around a harsh beating now, and they knew it. They both stayed where they were, not sure what to do and looking a bit like deer caught in headlights. Then, Servina wiggled a finger at them, telling them to come to her. Then, she pointed to a spot on the ground directly in front of her, and then folded her arms again and waited, her face never wavering from that fierce glare.

The slaves all knew what to do then. This meant that whoever she was indicating was to kneel in front of her while she delivered judgment and an, at often times, harsh sentencing. If the girls stalled any longer, it'd only be worse for them. They had no choice, and so, Anora and Hope slowly approached Servina and kneeled in front of her on one knee, keeping their heads down the entire time. They didn't dare speak, move, look at her (especially not in the eye), or do anything other than that at the moment. Servina was on an extremely short fuse at the moment and they were both very well aware of that fact.

"Well…?" Servina asked in a deadly calm tone. "I'm waiting for one of you to try and think up an excuse. I can tell you one thing for sure—it'd better be a damned good one this time, too!" Oh boy, were they ever in trouble now! Both of them remained silent, their heads remaining down in respect. Servina saw this and chuckled cruelly. "As I thought," she said. "There is no excuse this time and you know it. Calling me such a thing, making fun of me and disrespecting me in such a way! How dare you!"

Hope and Anora, hoping to get at least the smallest hint of mercy, put on ashamed faces then. Servina knew exactly what they were trying to achieve with those looks, but ignored it, and instead slapped Hope across the face for the second time that day, and then did the same to Anora, producing the same effect as before on both Lycan girls. "Now then…as for your punishments, girls—"

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"Hope." Hope was brought out of the horrifying memory of what happened by the sound of Anora's voice, accompanied a sharp stinging on her back as Anora treated the fresh cuts just recently made on it. Hope lay down on her bed at the moment on her stomach, sniffling a bit since she'd just managed to stop crying, her head resting in her folded arms upon her pillow, as Anora treated the girl's wounds from the severe beating she'd just received. She winced as the sensation hit her, whimpering softly in pain and tensing up slightly, but nothing else.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you do that?" Anora's voice wavered with emotion. Hope glanced at her to find she had a single tear running down her cheek, but then she sighed and laid her head back down. "You didn't have to endure it all. I could've taken half of the lashes, you know. Why did you offer to take mine, as well as your own?"

"What're friends for?" Anora's answer came in the form of a question asked right back to her. Then Hope continued. "I didn't wanna see you get hurt. You're my best friend, Anora, and I couldn't bear to see you punished. I gladly would've taken twice as many lashes as what I received, if it meant that you'd be safe from harm." Hope's words were sincere and her voice was confident, albeit a little weak.

Their friendship had been worth the thirty lashes she'd just received. She could've gotten merely fifteen, but that would've meant that Anora would've gotten the remainder of them. Hope just couldn't let that happen, though. She'd do what she felt she had to in order to protect her friends. And it was especially important to protect Anora from something like that, really. The girl had a condition. A fall down the stairs had left her prone to seizures and a beating like that could've very well set one off. Hope just couldn't stand the thought of it.

"Besides," she added, "it's not like it affects me too much. I've received enough of these to be fully able to handle a little whipping—oh!" Hope's sentence was cut a bit short as she cried out a bit from the sting of her wounds being treated. She winced and then recovered, then looked at Anora and smiled weakly, even though there were still tears in her eyes. There had been ever since the very first lash. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For helping me out here, you know—for treating my back? I couldn't very well have treated my own wounds, now could I?" Hope managed a small laugh, despite the pain she was undoubtedly feeling at the moment. Anora emitted a silent sigh and kept working. That was just like Hope, to try and smile through immense pain, to try and fake people into thinking she was alright when she, in truth, was far from it.

"There's no need for you to thank me, Hope. I should actually be the one thanking you. You saved me from a beating, and took it all yourself. Nothing I could ever do would ever truly repay you for that. I owe you big. I mean, who knows what a beating like that would've done to me, especially since…she was the one to administer the whipping this time." Anora finished up treating her just as she asked this. Putting the supplies aside, she knelt down next to the bed and looked at her fallen friend.

Hope sighed. "Quintz? Yeah, as usual. I'd actually be surprised if she ever volunteered not to be the one to beat one of the slaves. Plus, she is my mistress, after all…unfortunately…and boy was she ever pissed about this little 'incident'. I think we may have caught her in a bad mood." She paused for a moment, and then frowned a bit and cleared her throat, trying her best not to move as much as she could. "I'm just sorry you had to watch all that," she said in a soft voice, referring how Servina had sentenced Anora to stay and watch Hope receive her punishment, which ultimately led to the girl being chained up so she wouldn't try to run away from the penalty.

"Quintz is always in a bad mood, Hope." Anora gave Hope a reassuring smile, then put a soft hand on Hope's shoulder and rubbed it gently before pushing a stray strand of hair out of the other girl's face and tucking it behind her ear. "It's alright," she replied. "Besides, I didn't have all my attention focused on it this time. A lot of it was focused on her." At this last word, Anora made a disgusted face, regarding the one who had stayed for two reasons—one, to see the punishment take place, and two, to keep a close eye on Anora and make sure she didn't try to get away or anything like that.

Hope made a similar face at the mention, too. "Ugh! I know. Sythera 'Psychobitch' Damonico. First, she rats us out to Servina and then comes to watch the show—from when we got to the entrance foyer to when Quintz finally stopped beating me. I swear, the both of them get some sick, twisted, sadistic pleasure out of torturing us. And it applies to all of us, you know, not just you and I. They love to torment all Lycans, especially the slaves of this coven, and all because they have anger management problems and they take it out on us—talk about issues."

"Yeah, I swear, the only reason she did rat us out was just to see us get punished," Anora agreed. She then gave a short pause and then looked at Hope. "And do you happen to notice at all that both she and Quintz tend to enjoy seeing the both of us tortured more than any other slaves in this coven, except for Missy when it comes to Sythera? Although, I can understand Quintz liking to see you tortured more than anyone else, seeing as how she is the Vampire who owns you." Anora grimaced at the word "owns", as though she'd smelled something really nasty or something of the sort.

It was true— Quintessence Acanthus, who was better known as "Quintz", since anyone who ever called her by her full name would probably…no, wait…would definitely wind up dead in a matter of seconds, loved nothing more than to see Hope and Anora get beaten or tormented—especially Hope, her slave—and the only one Sythera loved seeing suffer more than them was her own slave, Artemis—very well-known as one of the hardest slaves to control and probably the biggest trouble-maker in the entire mansion—even though she often times tried to play nice with her slave so that Artemis would let her guard down and think that Sythera was nicer than she seemed to be. Then, she'd eventually lose her temper over something and end up hitting Artemis or insulting her or yelling at her or something like that.

Needless to say, Missy was never convinced anymore by the bitch's nice act. She's learned quite a while ago never to let her guard down when it came to her psychopath of a mistress. It all too often led to a beating or to her feelings getting hurt greatly, even though feelings were the one thing she tried never to show. Sythera was a merciless woman who constantly tried to find Artemis's weak point, but in the three years since the woman's taken Missy as her slave, she has never been able to break her. No one has ever been able to break Artemis Gaia Rose in all of the thirty-seven years that the girl has spent in slavery amongst the Vampires. (Artemis may look to be only sixteen, but she is really fifty-three.) None have ever been able to crush the girl's spirit, save for her abusive mother, whom she ran away from after being bitten at sixteen for fear of what'd happen if her mother ever found out.

"Yeah, trust me, I noticed." Hope paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. Then, snapping out of it, she shook her head a bit and then looked at Anora with a smile. "Hey, we'd better get back to the mansion before Servina decides to nail us for not doing our duties." She started to get up then, wincing in pain but trying to fight through it as best she could, but Anora stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder, pushing her back into a lying position on her bed, as she'd been before.

The strain of that had taken a lot out of her, Hope suddenly realized as she all of a sudden felt dizzy and nauseous from the pain and exhaustion of everything, feeling like she could pass out at any given moment. "No, Hope," Anora said. "I'll go back; you stay here and rest. You need time to recover. Quintz beat you pretty badly." The girl then rubbed her friend's shoulder gently, placing a soothing hand on hers. "Rest, Hope."

"Alright, alright, I will," Hope sighed, relaxing herself again as best she could, considering how she was feeling at the moment.

Anora smiled. "Good," she said, her voice having been soft and soothing the entire time. Then, she leaned over and hugged Hope gently. "I'll see you later, then. Bye." And, with that, the girl turned and left after one final wave to her friend.

"Bye," Hope said in a quiet, weak voice. She then took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, relaxing despite the stinging pain that'd just caused her back. Then, she closed her eyes and gently drifted off to sleep.

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A/N: Finally, I finished Chapter 4! Sorry it took so long. I was fighting off writer's block again, and plus, I've just been so busy lately. School just started, and I've been out of town and well…I'm here now, anyway. I really hope you guys liked this chapter. I promise it'll start getting a little more exciting very soon. The storyline's about to come into play a bit more. Please R&R! Once again, constructive criticism is welcome, but please no flames. This is, as I've said before, my first "Underworld" fanfic. And, of course, I give a lot of credit to the "Dark Underground" RPG, since a lot of the characters, setting, and some of the storyline originated from there. And, as always, thanks to my friend Meagan Reid for letting me use her characters—Servina Karavalis and Quintz Acanthus. And thanks to my good friend Kerry Dale for letting me use his character, Sythera Damonico, in my story. You guys all rock! Anyway, I'll update again as soon as I get the chance, since a lot of people really seem to wanna see how this story goes. Although, it may take me a little longer than usual, since I now have school to deal with. I really appreciate you guys' thoughts on this story, so please keep them coming. Until then, this is Diva'sDream. See ya later, everyone! .