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Bonnie woke slowly, co up from some dark place

Then she wished she hadn’t She was in sos blocked the horizon where the sun hung forever Around her were a lot of other girls, al approxi, first of alIf you took a randoirls crying for theircare of theht be a few older women This place looked more like -

- oh, God, it looked like one of those slave warehouse places that they had had to pass the last time they had come to the Dark Dimension The ones that Elena had ordered them not to look at or listen to But now Bonnie felt sure she was inside one herself, and there was no way not to look at the Stillfaces, at the terrified eyes, at the quivering mouths around her

She wanted to speak, to find the way - there would have to be a way, Elena would insist - to get out But first she gathered al the Power at her command, wrapped it into a cry, and soundlessly screamed Damon! Damon! Help! I really need you!

Al she heard in return was silence

Damon! It’s Bonnie! I’m at a slave warehouse! Help!

Suddenly she had a hunch, and lowered her psychic barriers

She was instantly crushed Even here, at the edge of the city, the air was choked ful of long reeting, of solicitation

Longer, less is, stories She couldn’t keep up with it It turned into awave of psychic sound that was curled like a wave about to break over her head, to crush her into a mil ion pieces

And then, all of a sudden, the telepathic melee vanished

Bonnie was able to focus her eyes on a blond girl, a little older than her and about four inches taller

"I said, are you okay?"the girl was repeating - obviously she’d been saying it for a while

"Yes,"Bonnie said autoet ready to move They’ve sounded the first dinnertime whistle, but you looked so out of it, I waited for the second one"

What am I supposed to say? Thank you seemed safest

"Thanks,"Bonnie said Then her irl looked surprised "The depot for runaway slaves, of course"

Well, that was that "But I didn’t run away,"she protested "I was going right back after I got a sugarplu to run away, but they finally caught irl slammed one fist into an open hand "I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that litter carrier

Carried ht to the authorities and me blind and without a clue"

"You , when a shril whistle interrupted her The blond girl took hold of her ar her away from the fence "That’s the second service dinnertime whistle - we don’t want to ht I’rinned "All right by me"

Bonnie allowed herself to be led up a dirty stairway and into a dirty cafeteria The blond girl, who seeard herself as Bonnie’s keeper, handed her a tray, and pushed her along Bonnie didn’t get any choice in what she was to have, not even to veto the noodles that were squire to snatch an extra bread rol in the end

Dae, so she kept on doing it If she was going to be punished, she thought defiantly, she was going to be punished for trying to get out of here Darabbed a spork, so Bonnie did too There were no knives There were thin napkins, which relieved Bonnie, because that here the Squir to end up

Without Eren, Bonnie would never have found a place at the tables, which were cra "Shove over, shove over,"Eren kept saying, until there was room for Bonnie and her

Dinner was a test of Bonnie’s courage - and also of how loud she could screa all this for me?"she shouted into Eren’s ear, when a lul in the deafening conversation gave her a chance

"Oh, Well, you being a redhead and all - it put e, you know To the reall Bonny"She pronounced it oddly, sort of swall owing the y, but at least it wasn’t Bonna

"Which of theave her an are you kidding look "Help when you can, shelter when you have rooo,"she said in a sort of irined and added, "And be patient with the slow"She attacked her food with an air of having said everything there was to say

Oh, boy, Bonnie thought Somebody had really taken the balland run with it Elena had never said any of those things

Yeah, but - butbreaking out all over her body And maybe somebody had seen her and uy she’d given her ring or bracelet or sos away to people with signs, too Signs that said: POETRY FOR

FOOD

The rest of dinner was aat it, crunching it once, and then deciding whether to spit into her Still-writhing napkin, or to try to sithout tasting

Afterward the girls were , this one fil ed with pal ets, s as Bonnie’s at the inn She was now horrified at herself for leaving that room There she had had safety, she had had food that she could actual y eat, she had had entertainlow of re her Here she had nothing

But Eren seeirls around, or else they al were Aliana-ites too, because when she shouted "Where’s a pal et? I’ve got a new girl in onna sleep on the bare floor?"And eventual y, a dusty pal et was passed hand over hand into Eren’s "bedrooether in thenapkin Bonnie had given her "Share and share alike,"she said firht Aliana had said that, too

A whistle shril ed "Ten irl not on her pal et in ten oes up"

"All right! We’re going to be bloody deaf before we’re sold,"Eren muttered

"Before we’re sold?"Bonnie repeated stupidly, even though she had knoould happen fronized this as a warehouse for slaves

Eren turned and spat "Yeah,"she said "So you can have one more breakdown and then that’s it Only two per customer, and by tooing to have a breakdown,"Bonnie said, with al the courage at her co to be sold Is it at one of those horrible public places, where you have to stand in front of a crowd in just a shift?"

"Yeah, that’s whatquietly through dinner and the pal et-arranging time, spoke up in a soft voice "But the ones they pick out as special iteive us a bath and special clothes, but it’s al just so we look more presentable for the clients So the clients can inspect usthe new girl, Mouse,"Eren scolded "We cal her Mouse, because she’s always so scared,"she told Bonnie

Bonnie silently screauard suit

It was nice, being black on black, with lighter black piping (even Danized the necessity of contrast) It had a cloak

And he was a ful vaious as even he could have i of a job well done Then he flexed his va Jessalyn, as upstairs, into deeper sleep, while he sent tendrils of Power al over the Dark Di on in different districts

Jessalynnow there was a dile that he should leave her a note or so, but he wasn’t quite sure what to say

What could he tel her? That he was gone? She would see that for herself That he was sorry? Well, obviously he wasn’t so sorry that he’d chosen not to go That he had duties elsewhere?

Wait That ht actual y work He could tel her that he needed to check up on her territory and that if he were to stay here in the castle he doubted he’d ever get anything done

He could tel her he’d be backsoon Soonish Soonishly

Daainst a canine and felt the proth He real y wanted to try out those legendary Black Ops vs varams

He wanted to hunt, period Of course, there was so ic wine about the place that when he stopped a nu flutes every now and then, but what he real y wanted was to go hunting And not to hunt a slave and certainly not an animal, and it hardly seemed fair to wander the streets on the chance that there was a noblewoet to know better

It was at that moment that he remembered Bonnie

In ahe needed to do wrapped up, including the annual delivery of dozens of roses to the princess in his naiven him a very liberal al owance, and already advanced for the first h that was very bad manners on the street, and doubly so in a market district