Receiving a few nods from the group, she heard him speak, “From here on, there will changes in the mansion when it comes to the work to be done and what to do and not allowed to,” he paused to make sure he had everyone listening to his words which they did, “As we don’t want any mishaps, each and everyone will from now hold the master-slave bond placed on you. This will be done so that I can have your whereabouts. The servants are not allowed to leave the mansion unless told to or taken permission directly from me. Servants talking in the middle of the work or anywhere that maybe will not be tolerated. You have come here to work and I expect nothing less.”

What was master-slave bond? Vivian had never heard about it until now. The only bond she had heard about was the soul bond which was possible and was placed by people who loved one another.

“If anyone has issues about it and wouldn’t want to work here can step forward and leave the mansion,” said Leonard looking at the small crowd of maids and servants of the mansion.

The maid next to Vivian, trembled in fear as she took a step forward as their master of the mansion had asked. She looked nervous and scared.

“Anyone else?” asked the Lord standing next to him. Seeing no one else object to it, the man said, “Let me lead you out,” he said taking the maid from there and the young girl walked to where he was before following him out of the dining room.

“The servants from the right can come here in line so that I can place the bond,” Leonard ordered and the servants though apprehensive about it, they began to form a line. Not a few seconds later, everyone heard someone scream outside in the halls, the painful echoes filling up their ears as fear took place. It didn’t take anyone much time to know that the maid who had decided to leave the job had been killed.

Fear slowly started crawling under Vivian’s skin. Her heart began thudding, her ears numb and hot due to the emotion as she looked at the walls behind which the halls was located. Why was she killed? Her hands began to shake and she had to dig her nails into her palms to stop the shivers erupting out as she was the next one from being bit pierced with the nails.

As the man in front of her moved away to make space for her to step in, her eyes fell directly on Leonard who didn’t look at her. One night and everything had changed. It changed the person she knew him to be. The Leonard in front of her was distant and aloof, his eyes empty and without any emotion in it. It pained her to see him like this. She wished she could tell him things would get better in time but time couldn’t bring back the people he loved.

She raised her right hand in front of him, facing her palm upwards the way she had seen others do. She tightened her left hand harder to stop any possible fear being seen on her as Leonard pierced his thumbnail right at the center of her palm making her flinch due to the tearing of her skin. He kept it there for two seconds before she felt her heart thud loudly as if her heart would stop any minute. Her heart then went to beat normally as he let go of her hand.

Her mouth parted out of habit to speak to him but he spoke before she could.

“Next,” and her heart broke a little at the aloof gesture.

With everything that went down at the Carmichael’s mansion, word had spread like a wildfire in the forest not letting any tree untouched which made things that much difficult for the lowly servants. Most of the families had begun to adopt the master-slave bond for the precautionary situation of not wanting the same plight. The servants weren’t trusted and were ill-treated by a lot of the pureblooded family.

Like Leonard had stated, the servants kept to themselves and avoided speaking to one another in the mansion. The place which one’s held light and happiness now was filled with nothing but darkness. The mansion had turned quieter and quieter with days that it seemed like no one lived there anymore. And if proof was required it would only be the Duke who rarely came out of his room to eat or go out. Leonard spent most of his time working outside in the council and for the Lord but that didn’t stop the servants from being obedient to his words.

The servants who had been bonded with Leonard had received small design like marks on their body after he had drawn blood from their palms. Some had on their hands, some on the back of their neck. The mark for Vivian had appeared right above her lower back. As days turned to weeks, the human girl came to understand that things couldn’t go back to the way it was before.

On one particular night, Vivian had trouble following asleep and to drive it away she had come to fetch few of the logs which were placed in the kitchen for the study room and the drawing room late at night. Picking up the woods which weren’t cut evenly, she carried them to the drawing room in the dark where no one was in sight. Like any other day in the land of Bonelake, rain pelted against the windows of the mansion ruthlessly. Taking the remaining logs with her, Vivian began to make way to the study room when she caught something outside the windows she was passing by.

Halting her footsteps, she turned to the closed window and used the side of her hand to clear the fog that had appeared on the window due to the cold weather. Her brows furrowed when she caught sight of people there. As the lightning struck the ground, she saw it was Leonard and his uncle Sullivan standing out there in the rain. But they weren’t alone. On the ground was Paul and he wasn’t the only one there tied down. She caught sight of Grace who was Paul’s sister, her husband and their son Thomas.

As if time had slowed down, she saw Leonard and his uncle pulling the people on the ground one by one before they began tearing the bodies, limb by limb.

Vivian covered her mouth in horror as she stepped back from the window which had slowly begun to turn hazy. Running back with the logs still in her hands, she went straight to her room and shut the door close. Tears began flowing down her cheeks. Hiccuping, she wiped the tears with her hands.

Suddenly her room door was knocked loudly, and Vivian looked utterly frightened.