I wake to something I haven't felt in some time, warmth. Damn, I'm still alive. I was so sure that I wasn't going to wake this time. The numbness remains though. I'm so cold. There is warmth, I'm cocooned in it, but nothing will warm the frozen me inside.

There are blankets warming me, and a soft mattress under me. This makes me actually open the eyes that wanted to stay shut. I look at the room. I haven't seen such luxury for some time. My family took everything away from me unless we needed to put up appearances. Then I'm dolled up in the best clothes and trotted around and shown off.

I'd be shocked that my family hasn't sold me off if I had the ability to be shocked anymore. Nothing matters so nothing that happens can shock.

I wish I had died with mother. Then this would be over as well. I can't be angry at her for leaving though; no anger, just envy. Now it seems that my captor intends on treating me more like a human.

Perhaps. I feel the throbbing of my back where the whip marks bit deep. He was holding back. My family never did, I wonder why he had. He hadn't whipped me much, when he stopped I kept waiting for the next bite but instead I heard him giving orders to have my back taken care of.

Then he beat me. Still, the force behind those hits wasn't nearly as bad as it was when my family beat me. He hadn't even broken any bones.

I hear the door open and look at the person that enters in. Rather at the people. There are three of them, two men and a woman. The woman is obviously a servant of some sort, a maid perhaps? One of the men is the one that had forced my face up to look at me before I blacked out. I vaguely remember seeing the third one before. I think he's the doctor.

The doctor talks to me pulling my attention to him, but his words don't make any sense to me. He frowns and comes forward and talks to me again. I just look at him blankly not understanding what he says. 

He takes out a pen light and looks at my eyes. The light irritates me but I don't show anything other than my blank expression. I learned a long time ago emotions will be used against you.

The doctor tries talking once more only this time he slows it down to almost comically drawn out words, but I finally understand what he asks.

"Yes, I hurt. But it's not anything I can't handle." The pain is nothing to what my so called loving family dealt me on a regular basis. In another day I won't even notice it. Already the scabs on the back are forming making things less painful.

The doctor asks me another question, "Are you hungry?"

I'm so used to not eating that my stomach is almost non existent. At the thought of food my non existent stomach growls.

"I really don't know how to answer that question. I haven't eaten in I don't know how long, but I don't want any food either." I reply truthfully and my words make both the doctor and the other man scowl.

"You don't know how long it's been since you've eaten?" This from the man I suspect is my captor.

"I have no idea how long I've been here, so there is no possible way for me to know how long it's been since I've eaten. Before I was brought here I had eaten two slices of bread and a bowl of fruit for breakfast." I tell them and let them figure out how long it's been. My kidnapping took place the night I was allowed to eat breakfast. I was almost sick from so much food.

"Is that your normal breakfast then?" The one I determined was a doctor asks me.

I look at him blankly. "There is no such thing as a normal meal for me. I was fed when it was in my family's best interest to do so. I was never sure if I would eat at any time during the day and there were times I would go two or three days without eating. I was never allowed more than that amount unless we were eating out. Then I couldn't eat because the food would make me sick."

The other man makes a growling sound that brings me to look at him. I cant my head to the side to look at him better. He rather looks like my uncle. Good looking on the outside, but my uncle is rotten to the core on the inside. I doubt this man is any better. They say to never judge a book by its cover, but his treatment of me show me what he's like. Just because I'm now in a guest chamber rather than the cells doesn't change anything.

"You don't believe me?" I ask this man. If he gets angry with me all to the better. These types have very little self control and he'll kill me.

Then he turns his eyes on me. They are full of anger. It makes me catch my breath. It won't take much to push him over. "I do believe you." The man says having adopted the slow cadence of the doctor in talking with me.

If he believes me then why the anger?

The man turns to the woman and tells her something I don't understand. She leaves after giving a quick nod of her head. For just a minute she'd looked at me and I saw a sadness in her face. I think she felt sad for me.

 It doesn't matter, I don't know why my captor has changed his way of treating me. I don't trust him any more than I trust my so called family. They are probably celebrating my disappearance. That might last until they find out the terms of the will.

With out my body, they won't be able to touch a cent of the money. What's worse, they won't be able to live in the house. They won't be able to hide my disappearance for long. I have several appearances lined up. They might be able to get out of some of them, but not all. Questions will be asked. My lawyers will be demanding to see me and when they can't bring me forth they will be thrown out of the house within twenty-four hours.

While I'm lost in my thoughts the doctor also leaves. The other man comes over to my bed and sits down.

It's this action that draws my attention back to him.

"I don't know why I'm here, but if it has something to do with revenge against my uncle all you have to do is leak to the press that I've disappeared. I'm guessing that my uncle hasn't bothered to look for me. But if he can't produce me when my lawyers demand to see me he'll be kicked out of the house. Him and his unholy crew of bastards." I tell that man. He loses control of his stone face for just a split second. I don't think he expected me to give him a means to hurt that bastard so easily.

"I don't see how that would get your uncle kicked out of the house. It belongs to him does it not?" The man says thoughtfully.

"Hardly. The house, the entire estate belongs to me. He is my legal guardian at least physically, but the lawyers are the only ones that can touch the money. If my uncle can't prove that I'm still living at the estate then he and his 'family' will be kicked out. 

"The lawyers detest him.  They would love nothing more than to have him removed from the house. My uncle made sure that I was never able to speak to them or otherwise communicate to them." I stop and an idea popped into my brain.

I look over to the man now studying me intently.

"Why did you take me? If you answer me honestly I'll help you without any need to resort to violence."