Special. Fuck that. I didn’t want to be special anymore. However, this was the most anyone had said to me about the process and as much as I loathed the woman with the cold hands and even colder heart, I needed a distraction. “What do you mean?” I asked through gritted teeth.
She tsked as if the answer should be obvious. “No virgin pussy by itself is worth the kind of money the buyers shell out. There has to be more than just virginity on the table. Looks, personality, there are many variables that go into the selection process.”
“And how does Madame Moirai find her girls?” I asked, biting back a groan as I tried not to shit myself.
But the woman knew well enough to leave those sorts of questions unanswered as she announced briskly, “Time to flush! Use the lemon spritz afterward.”
I hobbled from the table and locked myself in the bathroom and unloaded the contents of my lower intestines until I thought my insides might fall out. The pain was indescribable as I cramped and purged repeatedly until I was empty of anything.
Immediately afterward, the woman took me to the bath where the other girls were, each of them looking as drained and traumatized by the enema as I’d been. I didn’t even bother covering my breasts as I climbed into the huge jacuzzi type Roman bath.
Tana and Jilly were pale, Dylan was silent.
“And I thought the waxing was going to be the worst part,” I tried half-heartedly, my weak attempt to lighten the mood falling flat. No one felt like laughing. I didn’t blame them.
I fought the urge to cry. I wanted to back out. I wanted to rip up the contract and run away from this nightmare. What had I gotten myself into? I saw the same question mirrored in the other girls’ expressions. We were all questioning our decision to willfully sign on the dotted line for the promise of future freedom.
Madame Moirai had, indeed, picked the right girls for this disgusting transaction. She knew we were desperate enough to make a devil’s bargain and that we were alone. All we had was ourselves.
Desperation was a powerful motivator but it also blinded. I should’ve run. I should’ve told someone. I should’ve told Mr. Personality to go fuck himself with Madame Moirai’s filthy offer.
But I’d taken the deal. I felt as empty as my bowels.
Even the promise of future security seemed a hollow victory as I held myself together with a string.
In the fantasy, it was raining cash but the reality was…earning that payday was going to be a bitch.
I didn’t know if I was strong enough to get through this.
I didn’t know if any of us were.
Even hard-ass Dylan.
We were all scared kids about to sell our innocence.
How do you prepare for that?
That’s easy — you don’t.
6
Around eight o’clock a servant delivered what we would wear to the auction. Tana stared in utter shock at the clothing — two separate pieces, one was a tiny, tightly laced corset thing with a matching thong and the other a flimsy, gauzy wrap — and gasped, saying, “It’s practically see-through! We’ll be standing there naked!”
I had to agree but felt compelled to state the obvious. “We’re here to sell ourselves. What makes you think that they’re going to want to buy without seeing the goods?”
“I don’t know,” Tana admitted, holding the skimpy material with a panicked expression. “I thought…I don’t know. I didn’t think I would be practically naked.”
“It’s not a date,” I reminded her gently. “They aren’t looking to treat us to dinner and a movie. They’re here for one thing.”
“I don’t want to do this,” Tana cried softly, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I want out.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Dylan said sharply, drawing Tana’s attention. “Don’t you know what will happen to you if you breach your contract?” At Tana’s slow shake of her head, Dylan answered, “Something tells me Madame Moirai isn’t about to just let loose ends dangle. You have to go through with it.”
“Why?” Tana dared to contradict Dylan, her wide-eyes desperate. “She can’t make us do anything. We should be allowed to leave if the bidding hasn’t started yet.”
“You have a death wish or something? Jesus, you’re fucking stupid,” Dylan shot back, shaking her head.
Tana’s gaze opened with fear. “What are you talking about? She can’t…I mean, we’re people. She wouldn’t…” she looked to me for help “Would she?”
I didn’t have an answer but the longer we were in this pretty prison, I got the feeling Dylan was probably right. The stakes were unbelievably high. We were cattle. A product. If the product became too much trouble, what was to stop them from eliminating the problem? I didn’t want to think the worst but it was hard to ignore the warning tingle in my gut. “Just try to get through it, Tana. It’ll be over soon.”
“Yeah, twenty-four hours and we’re done,” Jilly chimed in, trying to be supportive but she was nervous, too.
Tana gulped, clutching a delicate cross necklace in her palm that she must’ve been hiding when Olivia took our belongings the day before. “Twenty-four hours,” she repeated like a mantra. To herself, she said, “I can do this.”
Dylan looked more closely at her costume. “It’s not that bad,” she said with a critical eye, holding up the corset, then she frowned. “Mine is different than yours.” That caught my attention and I turned to see what Dylan was talking about. Her corset had nothing where the breasts were supposed to go.
“My guess is that you must have the best rack,” I said, which then led me to think of what Nurse Ratchet had said to me. I held up my own get-up and saw that mine had an area cut out where my butt was supposed to go. My cheeks burned but I wasn’t about to let that mess with my head. “And apparently, I have the best ass,” I quipped as if I wasn’t bothered at all.
Jilly examined hers and found that hers had an opening for her belly. In fact, hers wasn’t so much a corset at all but a series of straps and buckles. “I might need help with this,” she said in a small voice. “I have no idea how it works.”
I dropped my costume (I couldn’t think of anything better to call it) and went to help Jilly into hers because of the four of us, hers was the most confusing. With a fair amount of swearing, we managed to get Jilly trussed up in her outfit and she promptly wrapped herself in the gauzy covering, her cheeks blazing like the noonday sun. “It looks good,” I said, trying to make her feel better.
But Tana was nearing a mental breakdown and vehemently disagreed. “Are you kidding me? Isn’t it bad enough that we’re doing this? Why do they have to strip us of our dignity, too!” She scooped up her costume and ran for the bathroom.
We were all thinking the same thing but only Dylan had the balls to say out loud as she gestured toward the closed bathroom door. “How’d that girl hook up with Madame Moirai? She’s a prude.”
“Shut up,” I said, feeling protective but Dylan was right. Tana wasn’t the right fit for something like this but we were all in this until the end.
“This is going to fuck her up,” Jilly said, worried.
“I hope not,” I said but like Jilly, I wasn’t sure how Tana was going to survive this night. She was fragile, breakable. I worried this would break Tana’s spirit. Tana was like Lora. Lora was still in love with the fairy tale idea of falling for her Prince Charming. I’d long since realized that Prince Charming didn’t exist.