“Come on!” Darren, the third man, said to JC who was still struggling against being taken to the palace although they were already there. He’d been giving the three men who took him nothing but trouble, he was determined to escape his awaiting faith. However the three men who took him didn’t agree. Darren pulled at the rope and JC lurched forward.

“Get in here” Darren hissed pulling hard at the rope, JC felt the ropes burn against his skin and he cringed. The ropes had been tightly bound around his wrists, he had tried to free himself on the way over but till now all his efforts remained fruitless.

They entered a building on the palace ground. It was a ruinous building, it wasn’t apart of the castle but it was their property. JC soon learned that this building was for the slaves who worked around the castle. They didn’t want to have the slaves sleeping inside the castle so they had a different building for that, far less luxurious and more crowded of course.

They walked through several hallways before they reached an office, after knocking they went inside still pulling JC along. He stumbled inside and was immediately shoved to his knees in front of a desk. ‘What the hell is this?’ he thought while he looked up at the man behind the desk, eyeing him for several moments before Darren, who was still holding the rope, slapped him on the back of his head.

“Don’t you know the rules for slaves, boy?” the man behind the desk asked exasperated. JC didn’t answer the man’s question, thinking it wasn’t really a question for him to answer. It was the wrong choice though.

“Answer me slave!” the man bulged. JC jumped not expecting this but he managed to answer the man,

“No sir”

“Darren will fill you in later, let’s do the formalities first,” the man behind the desk said.

“Listen, I’m Mr. Norton. I’m the manager here so that means you do as I say. You’ll call me Mr. Norton or Sir nothing else understand?” Mr. Norton stated firmly.

“Yes Sir” JC nodded still keeping his gaze to the floor.

“Alright now, Darren get me the shackles” Mr. Norton ordered.

“Yes Sir” Darren obeyed letting the long rope, he was still holding, fall to the floor before he walked towards a cabin on the other side of the room.

‘Shackles?’ JC thought, ‘What is that? What are they going to do?’ he wondered fearfully but he didn’t dare to ask.

“Here you go Sir” Darren said bowing slightly in the process, giving Mr. Norton the shackles he requested.

“Thank you” he said accepting the shackles. JC didn’t bear to look up to see what it was but he heard something jingle. Mr. Norton noted the number engraved in the shackle in his administrative book and asked,

“Name?” JC didn’t notice the man was talking to him till Darren nudged him with his foot and JC quickly spook to prevent the man from getting angry.

“JC, Sir”

“Last name?” Mr. Norton asked as soon as he wrote down the slave’s name.

“Chasez, Sir”

“Date of birth?” Another question? JC thought why would they want to know all of this about a slave? The man seemed to read his mind when he answered,

“It’s for the King, he wants to know who works for him and lives on his property”

‘Yeah like he really cares!’ JC wanted to say but resisted the urge; instead he answered the man’s question.

“August 8th 1776”

“So that would make you 24?” Mr. Norton asked after a short pause.

“Yes sir” JC confirmed.

“Alright” Mr. Norton said while he closed the book.

“Untie the rope” Mr. Norton instructed while he reached under his shirt for a key to a secret cabin. He opened it when Darren was busy untying the ropes around JC’s wrists with JC wincing once in a while when the rope brushed against his sore flesh. Mr. Norton pulled out yet another set of keys. He opened the shackles ready to snap them around JC’s wrists. These shackles were used to point out the slaves from the real employees. Each set of shackle had a number on it corresponding with the name in Mr. Norton’s book. It was a well known system and had proved its usefulness several times over the years. It was an easy way to keep track of the numerous of slaves and punish them if necessary.

JC rubbed the pain out of his wrists once the ropes were untied. A shadow fell over him and when he looked slightly ahead of him, without looking up, he saw Mr. Norton standing in front of him. He crouched down in front of the young man still sitting on his knees and grabbed one of his wrists. JC struggled slightly since he still didn’t know what was happening.

“Don’t even think about it” Mr. Norton hissed while he put one shackle around JC’s wrist and locked it. He let go of JC’s wrist and grabbed the other doing the same while JC looked at his right wrist which had something shiny around it. It was pretty heavy and rather uncomfortable. When Mr. Norton was done he rose from his position, looking at JC who was fidgeting with the shackles around his wrists.

“You’ll get used to it” he dismissed the discomfort of his new slave.