The Spark

"What can I change?"

"Many things. Another time my mother will be happy to sit you down and explain rules and politics and how things work, but just now I do not wish to go into it. Tell me more about you."

We talked. We talked the whole evening and into the night and he held me as we slept right there on the long, cushioned chair he told me was called a sofa. We stayed in his rooms the next day as well and people came to us. I was fitted for clothes and his mother came to see us and tell us about the wedding she was planning for that Sunday. Other people came to his rooms, his family and friends. Not too many, not an overwhelming amount, but enough to know he had good friends and family who had missed him and wanted to meet me and talk to us.

Thursday morning came and he got up, kissing me awake. I opened my eyes, smiling as he let go of my hand. "I have to leave this morning, Hailene," he said softly. "I will be back this afternoon, sooner if I can get things back as quickly as I would like to. Mother said she would come and check on you around noon, ok?"

"Ok," I answered, pulling him down for another kiss. He grinned and hugged me before letting go of me and disappearing. I sat up, blinking. He hadn't done that in front of me before! I let out a shocked laugh, looking around. That was kind of amazing! Maybe my own Spark would be teleporting and I could go with him to the surface. See all the things he had told me about.

I got up, yawning and went to the small table where there was always fresh fruit and water, grabbing something to eat before going to the smaller couch with the book I had been reading. Reading in his arms was better, but if I had to keep myself occupied until he got home, this was the best way I could think of.

I read all morning until there was a knock at the door. I sat up, knowing it was too early for his mom, there was still almost an hour before noon. Ian opened the door and stepped in, looking me over as he shut the door.

"Hi," he said, walking across the room.

"Hi," I answered nervously, setting my book down. I had a very bad feeling.

"I wanted to come talk to you," he said, sitting down next to me.

"About?" I asked, starting to stand as if I was going to go get a drink.

He caught my arm and held me on the sofa. "I was thinking. Bennett took you to see Melany too soon. You and I had just been together, there was no way she could see it yet. If... say... I were to argue that point and take you to see her again later today... after he got home. There would still be time to seed you. And we could be together."

I tugged on my arm, feelings rushing through me that I didn't understand. "You don't even want me Ian! You just want someone besides Paul to toy with and hurt! See how far you can push until you can tip them over the edge and how quickly you can real them back in! It's all a game to you, isn't it? You enjoy hurting people! Not just Paul, but others too!"

"You shut your mouth!" he said angrily. "You don't know anything about me! Bennett doesn't know me either, I don't care what he's been telling you, it's all lies!"

He jerked me around on the sofa, shoving me to my back and yanking the skirts of my dress up.

"Stop!" I screamed, clawing at his face.

He laughed and jerked me off the sofa to the floor, rolling me to my stomach. "I like it this way better anyway," he said roughly, pinning me down to the hard floor.

"Please stop! I will tell Bennett!"

"So what? It will be too late then, won't it? Stop fighting!" he said angrily, shoving my legs apart with his knee. He ripped my underclothes away, tearing them off. I could hear and feel the seams of my dress ripping as I struggled and he held me down, shoving my skirts up my back.

"Ian PLEASE!" I screamed, trying to turn or roll, kick or hit him.

He grabbed a handful of my hair and bounced my face off the floor and I screamed in pain this time as my teeth cut into my lips and my nose exploded in agony.

"I said stop fighting and shut up!" he yelled.

I went limp, sobbing as he shoved his pants down, his other hand on the back of my neck. He leaned over me, looking at my face with glazed eyes as he shoved into me. I cried out in pain and his excitement rose to a fever pitch. His free hand took a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back hard so he could see my face better as he rammed into me as hard as he could. His breathing was ragged as he watched me beg and scream for him to stop, he wasn't hearing my words or pleas at all, just watching the pain I was in and getting some sort of high off of it.

"I am going to keep you, Hailene," he whispered. "You are going to be my new toy. No one else's."

"NOOOO!" I screamed again, my heart hurting more than anything else. I wanted Bennett! Not this monster!

"IAN!" Emily's yell of horror froze Ian where he was as he looked up at the door.

"Get out!" he finally managed as she stood there with her hands over her mouth. "She is MINE! I am making her mine!"

"Help me!" I pleaded desperately, reaching for her.

"Ian let her go!" Emily cried, coming in. "Denny, get Mikkael, now! Josep, come and help me!"

One of the men with her took off at a run, the other came in and looked down at Ian grimly. "If I use my Spark on him, she's liable to get some throwback," Josep said to Emily.

"Ian, get off of her!" Emily said again, moving closer.

"Get out! I want her! She was mine first!"

"Josep, haul him off of her!" Emily said, anguished.

The hulking Josep bent over Ian and pulled him back, but Ian kept hold of my hair, pulling me with them. I screamed, trying to pull away and Emily hugged me against her and tried to pry Ians fingers out of my hair.

"Let her go!" she yelled, crying now.

"Mrs Lancaster, let him go," Jesep commanded. Emily let Ians hand go, then Ian jerked and screamed a high pitched scream as his body went rigid. His hand released my hair and I fell into Emily's arms and we both went to the floor sobbing.

She held me against her, not even caring that I was getting blood all over her beautiful silk dress.

Josep pulled Ian back to the back wall and dropped him on the ground as Ian writhed and mewled in pain.

Mikkael came running in with Denny, and more guards behind them. As soon as Emily saw Mikkael, she sobbed harder and Mikkael came to both of us, going to his knees and pulling us both into a hug.

"What has happened?" he demanded, his voice sounding lost and full of despair. "What did he do?!?"

"He hurt her! He hurt her and he was... he was... trying to seed her before the wedding!" Emily managed through hiccoughing sobs.

Mikkael gave his son a grim look, then gave a nod to the guards. "See him locked in his rooms. No one is allowed in or out. No one. Not even Paul. Have Dane teleport meals to him, two a day, no more. Bread and meat, that is all. Servants fare. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Denny said quickly. The four men lifted the still whimpering Ian and carried him out of the room.

"Liam, get Anita and Solinda. Tell Anita these rooms will need to be cleaned and tell Solinda that our Hailene will need healing. Find Solinda first. Once you find them and tell them, get Charlie, tell him to find Bennett. After that, get Harmony and tell her our Hailene will need a new dress right away. Go now, please hurry!" Emily said to one of the remaining men.

When the man left, she hugged me closer and I could feel her heartache like a physical pain. She already loved me as a daughter and her heart hurt for what she knew she must do to Ian. her heart hurt for how devastated she knew Bennet would be. I shared her pain and cried harder as she hugged me against her chest. Mikkael felt lost and helpless, not knowing what he could do to help and I felt his anguish as well.

We were all still huddled on the floor when an older woman came hurrying in with another tall guard. She went to her knees in front of me and took my face in her hands.

She was focused, but also horrified at what she saw. She had helped others before, after Ian had his hands on them. Paul mostly, but girls too. Girls always got it the worst from Ian. Before they had all been servants, I was the first girl he had hurt who had the Spark.

I felt a coolness flow through her fingertips and the pain in my mouth and nose receded, washing away as if it had never been.

"Thank you," I managed, my voice hitching and choking up.

"You'll be just fine now, girl," she said gently. "I am Solinde."

"I know. How come you never told anyone about the others? All the people he has hurt? All the girls?"

Solinde went pale, her eyes darting to Emily and Mikkael, but I knew the answer as I asked it.

"He threatened you. Told you that you would get worse when he found out the first girl came to you. Said he would kill you?"

Solinde gave a bare nod of her head, still pale.

"We will speak of this later," Mikkael said gently to Solinde. The woman gave another nod, then got up and hurried out. "Do you think you can get up now, Hailene?" Mikkael asked softly. "Move to the couch where you can be cleaned up more easily?"

"Yes, thank you," I said as he helped me up. He had an undercurrent of excitement coursing through him now and I could feel the same from Emily. Both of them were near to bursting with it.

Emily sat with me, holding my hand as Mikkael paced behind us.

"Are you alright?" Emily asked gently. "Did... did he...?"

"No," I answered quickly, knowing what she was going to ask.

"She will still need to see Melany," Mikkael said absently. "Just to be certain."

Another woman came in with a pail and rags and she went straight to the blood on the floor and began cleaning it up. I knew from looking at her, young and pretty, that she was one that Ian had gotten his hands on. I hid my face in Emily's shoulder, feeling so lost and full of despair. I wanted my own mother.

Harmony came in with a dress in her arms and I already knew her. She had fitted me and brought me other dresses to wear as she finished them. She immediately came to me and hugged me and I felt her affection and heartache for me as well, and her heartache for Bennett who would be upset and enraged both. She led me back to the room and helped me clean the blood off of my face and neck and out of my hair, then she helped me change out of the ripped and bloody dress.

I was still shaking and numb as she led me back out to Emily and Emily immediately came to me and hugged me again, stroking my hair back. She held me at arms length to look me over.

Seconds later, Bennett appeared a few feet away, staggering slightly as he spun around, then spotted me and his mother and rushed to us. "What is it? What's wrong?!? Charlie said it was an emergency? You are so pale! What happened?" he cried. His stress and worry was so much that I was actually feeling sick from it!

"It was Ian," Mikkael said, coming around to us. "I have him locked in his room now, but... he thought to seed her against her will so that he would have rights to her."

"He... raped her?!? I'm going to kill him!"

Rage rolled off of him, even as his concern for me shot up as he took me in his arms and held me tight against him.

"Are you ok? Are You hurt?" he asked anxiously.

"Solinde healed her," Emily said quickly. "And the blood has all been cleaned up, so has she, she has a new dress on and she's all clean."

Bennett stared at the blood still on his mother's dress, then looked back to me, his eyes welling with tears. "I'm going to kill him," he said, his voice choked with pain.

"He will face trial..." Mikkael began, but Bennett disappeared, gone.

"No!" Emily cried. "Guards, go now! Stop him!"

They took off at a sprint and Mikkael was right behind them. Emily took my hand and pulled me after them, also running.

"Go! I will catch up!" I said, pulling away. Her legs were longer. She let go and ran. I stopped, then spun the other way and ran to the main hall, then to the entrance of the huge wing. I shot out the front door and looked around at the crowded square. I had no idea how to go down to the lower levels, so I stopped a man and asked.

He gestured, annoyed, to a large door with guards on it and I ran to it. "Open it," I commanded with as much authority as I could muster. They didn't question, they were there to keep lower levels from coming up, not to keep anyone from going down.

I ran down the curving, slightly sloping ramp and I knew I wouldn't last long. It had taken an eternity to get up to the first level from the seventh level. Still, I ran as long as I could and I was panting and out of breath when I made it to the third level. Even going downhill, it was exhausting. Still, I went as fast as I could walk, hoping I would make it home before they came to find me.

It was the small hours of the morning before I finally made it to the seventh level and once I reached our house, I froze. She wouldn't be there. She would be in a singles hall now. Still, I knocked.

The man who answered looked tired and annoyed, then stood up straight when he saw my dress.

"The woman who lived here, do you know where she went?"

"Singles hall," he shrugged.

"Which one?"

"Closest one I reckon."

I sighed and turned, yelling thanks as I took off towards the closest one. I didn't have to knock, the front doors to the singles halls were open and I hurried down the narrow corridor looking in the stalls as I went. I finally found her about halfway down, asleep on a thin cushion.

I threw myself on the cushion next to her and hugged her, breaking down all over again. She sat up, confused, then hugged me and held me. "Hailene! What are you doing here? Look at you! What has happened?" She was so confused and so incredibly happy to see me, but she was also afraid. Had I been cast down? Had I run away? Was I going to be punished for being here?

"I needed you mama," I sobbed.

"Oh, my Hailene," she said soothingly, kissing my forehead. "I know that was never a life you wanted! But it must be better, isn't it?"

"No. Yes. Some. But some of the people are so horrible!"

"Shhh now, my little one," she said gently, rocking me. "Tell me what is wrong. What happened?"

"No. No, I just want you to hold me!"

"Oh, my Hailene, that bad?"

"It's so different up there mama, the people... some are just monsters."

"Is... Is Leona alright?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes, Leona is fine," I answered. I would make sure she was. "She was placed all the way up in level two! Her babes will be born with the Spark."

"And you, my little one?" she asked, pulling my face back to look at me.

"Level one," I whispered.

She nodded, smiling. "I always knew you were the one born with the Spark," she whispered. She had always known. She had known since the day I was born, I had felt different to her. I could feel all of that in her. "Your husband... is he why you ran?" she asked softly.

"No mama, I'm not married yet, but he is a good man. It wasn't him, not at all. And his mother and father are wonderful people too, his mother has been so kind to me. But I have caused a divide between the brothers and one of them, he is not very nice at all. They were fighting when I left and I am afraid."

"Shh, my little one," she whispered, rocking me. She held me close and I hugged her tight and got all of my tears out until it was morning and other women were getting up and getting ready for their shifts.

"Here! She's here!" Mikkael yelled, appearing at the mouth of my mother's stall. Bennett came running up, skidding to a halt as he grabbed the wall to swing into the stall.

"Hailene!" he wailed, going to his knees and reaching for me. His hands stopped short, fluttering slightly as if he were afraid of rejection. I lunged into his arms, hugging him and burying my face in his neck. He stood up, holding me as he did.

I finally lifted my face. "Mama, this is Bennett and his father Mikkael. This is my mother, Rhonda. Bennett is the man I am intended to marry."

"Hailene!" Emily cried, catching up to her husband and son. She hurried to me and put a hand on my shoulder as she looked up at me in Bennett's arms.

"Mama, this is Emily, Emily this is my mother, Rhonda."

My mom bent low, bowing to them as they looked at my mother with unease.

"It's lovely to meet you," Emily said lightly, but there was something... other in her voice.

"Very pleased," Mikkael said politely.

Bennett looked around, and I felt anger welling up in him and that made me nervous. What was wrong? Was he angry I came? No... it was something else. Outrage.

"People should not have to live like this!" he said angrily, looking around. "It is dark and dirty and crowded and they all look so malnourished and hopeless! No one said it was this bad down here!"

"I told you what it was like down here," I said softly.

"But it didn't sound this bad!"

"It was never bad in her eyes," my mother said softly. "She has never seen it the way others have. She never wanted out like others did."

"We have to do something," Bennett growled, outrage oozing out of him.

"Of course," Emily said softly, also looking around. "We will, but we can do nothing just this moment. Sweetheart, take us home?"

Emily took Mikkael's hand and put her other hand on Bennett and before I could ask to hug my mom again, we were back in the main hall of their quarter of the 1st level.

There were people everywhere and the entire place was a flurry of activity and I turned, hiding my face in Bennetts neck sleepily. I sighed, wishing I could have said goodbye.

"Hailene," Bennet said softly. "You have not slept, have you?"

"No."

I felt how concerned he was, how upset he was.

"Did you really kill him?" I asked.

He felt shocked to his core. "No! Of course not. No, but I may have beat him bloody a little before they stopped me. Did you really think I would do that?"

"You said you would and you were so angry!"

"Shhh, my Hailene. You are exhausted. I am taking you to bed to rest. Denny, please get Melany and have her make something to ease Hailene's distress." He turned from everyone and walked me back to his rooms and I just laid against him feeling empty and gutted. He felt stressed and worried, anxious.

He set me out on his bed and untied my laces on the back of my dress, then laid me down and pulled off my shoes. He moved next to me on the bed and pulled a blanket up to my chin and I could still feel how stressed and worried he was.

"Hailene, my Petite Beauty, you look so lost. Please look at me?"

I looked at him and reached up to stroke his cheek. "I will be alright, I am just exhausted. Sorry I left like I did, I just needed to see my mama."

"Don't even mention it, Hailene! Of course you needed familiar arms. I shouldn't have left you the way I did, my anger was the wrong reaction. I should have stayed with you, you needed me and I left you. I'm sorry."

"No, your anger wasn't misplaced. I'm just tired, I promise I will be fine after I sleep a little."

"Hailene," he said brokenly, "my heart is breaking for you."

"I know, but truly, I will be fine. I am ok. It was a long night and I have not slept at all and neither have you. We should both sleep. I am sorry I was so much trouble."

"You weren't, do not speak of it again. You were not at all." It wasn't the complete truth, he had been sick with worry. Afraid that I had run away from him and I was trying to hide from him and his family. He had been afraid they might have to bring me back against my will and he hadn't wanted to have to do that, the relief when I came to him and he understood that I had just needed my mother had been enough to put him to his knees if he hadn't already been there.

Melany came in, carrying a small vial of amber liquid. "Here you are, young lady," she said gently. "And I was told to test you again? Is that right, Bennett?"