The Girl

  The Master came upstairs, he rarely did that, normally left it to the Crier and the girls to run their own house. Respected them at their craft.

  He had the Girl in tow.

  She knew it the moment she laid eyes on her. Didn't belong here; didn't want to be here. Furtive, afraid of what would happen up here; more afraid of something else, something outside.

  "Teach her the rules! Tell her how to please the men and tolerate the boys. Put her in number nine, Alberta is off having her seventh brat, staying with her mother until Spring."

  To the girl - "Behave! No more of your smart talk! No more stealing! We are decent people here; you can act like one, even if it's not your nature."

  With that he was off, not going to meddle in the women’s affairs. Trust her to settle this girl, set her straight, make her profitable.

  She could see right off, she was terrified. Had thought this could be a safe place, safe from what she couldn't guess. But now, now that the reality was upon her, she was ready to bolt.

  "Tell me your name? We're all friends here. More than enough business for all of us, we turn them away. No one will resent you, young and pretty though you are. You're a prime filly! Be very popular with the younger men."

  She kept talking, took the girl to number nine, saying simple soothing things, helping her deal with the fact that she would be on her back all night, legs in the air, newly fledged boys spending in her, on her, for her.

  Simple really, they never lasted the hour, they rarely lasted fifteen minutes. She'd be done in an hour, maybe two if she liked.

  The men had their favorites, a very few preferred the young ones. Most had enough experience to know a girl improved with practice. Had no patience with the silly young things.

  Her name was Fanny. She had four brothers, all off to sea. She'd left home to escape abuse. Her uncle tried to rape her. She was a virgin.

  It all came out in a rush, she had to tell somebody and here was a calm woman in charge to tell her what to do.

  It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

  "You won't stay a virgin here, not for half an hour. By the end of the night you'll lose your virginity seven or eight times over!"

  She wondered how that could be; it was simple.

  "You tell them you're a virgin, and they'll believe you. They want to believe you. You don't even have to bleed, not after the first one.

  “You're young and timid and fresh; everything a virgin is except a hymen.

  “Just squeal and tell them it hurts and then that it feels good, and they'll slam into you, expel into you like a stallion. Won't take ten minutes.

  “You have to satisfy three of them each night, that's our rule; more if you like. You earn two each time. Ask them for seven; the house takes five.”

  That didn't seem fair, she was a special case, a virgin deserved more than two. But she'd quickly make up in volume what she didn't earn on each client.

  "Are you sure? That you want to go through with this. There's no going back.

  “What you did to your uncle, you cannot do to these men. They are paying; you are a professional, providing a service.

  “You owe it to them, once you slide this peephole open and they come in, well then. You must indulge them, however they like, in your mouth or your sex, in your hand or on the floor. In your butt! Yes! Some spend that way.

  "The young boys that will choose you; if they don't pop on your bush even before they get started, they will put it deep inside you, where babies are made. Spend all their semen in your belly, so much semen!

  “Before the year is out, you'll be pregnant, you'll never know who's it is. It will be yours, alone."

  That was a lot; she wasn't sure.

  "I think of it like this. Here, I am in charge. I choose to fuck strangers, because it is my profession. They come here to spend in the girls, but they have no choice in it, they are men, they must or lose their mind.

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  "We are free! They enter and cum and leave and we stay, we never have to feed them or wash their clothes or beg them for money. We cum as we like, or not at all, just pretending.

  “As many men as we can tolerate, or as few. They leave their stain and leave our house and we wash away their slime, clean ourselves, forget about them.

  “We live together as a family of independent women. Money of our own, a room of our own, a life of our own making."

  It was penetrating her febrile mind; she was seeing she might own a future here. Still, a virgin, the fear remained, the lifetime admonition to save her hymen, to keep it holy. It was plain on her face.

  "Here you discard the obsolete rules of childhood. Tonight! Your parents are no longer in charge.

  “What came before is nothing. You become an adult, take your body and your life to be your own. Take the men, enjoy it or just smile and cry out encouragement.

  “They won't know the difference, they aren't thinking with their head, but with their dick. You have to do the thinking for yourself now."

  Determination, she saw that. This girl, no, this woman would decide for herself. And she'd decided, she would stay and fuck strangers and cum on their cocks as they came in her! Because, she could decide, the decision was right in front of her.

  She made it.

  "Where do I clean up?" and she showed her the room behind, the towels, where to keep the money until the crier came to claim the house share.

  Where the linens went when they were foul, a boy would bring fresh each morning. Which lotions smelled nice, which soothed sore sex and nipples, which healed scratches and bites.

  "Let's practice! You have a few minutes. Strip, lie on the bed."

  She had a strong body, clearly she'd 'done' for brothers and father and uncle all her life, washing and cleaning, her legs were strong like a pony, her arms and shoulders bulged with corded muscle.

  It must have been easy for her, to kill her uncle.

  "No, not like that. Too crude. The boys won't care; the men need a little more.

  “Pretend it's accidental, you don't know how a robe works, it's always slipping from one shoulder, always gaping, showing too much. Pretend to close it, but never so well that it doesn't fall open again."

  She tried; no, try again. Got better; got pretty good at it. Smiled a sudden smile.

  "I like you! Can we be friends?"

  Sigh. "For a while. I don't think I'm going to be here forever; I know I'll have to leave at some point. But I'll think of you and remember you always."

  That would have to be enough, for now. She did like this girl, this woman whose fate had tumbled and caromed like a roll of the die and ended up here, talking to a prostitute, learning the trade. They hugged, like sisters.

  Now the men were coming, they heard them on the stairs. The girl grinned; this was going to be good! She left to prepare; they could talk murder and retribution later.

  Ah, the resilience of the young. All this one needed was, to be given permission to bang whom she liked. And forgiveness for patricide. Avunculicide? That didn't sound right.

  The night went well, plenty of energetic dicks to pacify but she was distracted, listening to the glad cries from the rooms around, the passionate screams, the laughter and quiet serious discussions.

  It seemed to take an age for the men to cum and to go, for the hallway to become quiet, the voice of the Crier to make the familiar chant.

  She discarded her robe, took her pay and went to the corridor to wait her turn.

  Two doors down, on the other side at number nine and her charge was standing proud, naked and unafraid, a plump bag of money, breathing hard and glowing.

  Caught her eye, she grinned that sudden grin, somehow familiar, and she found she loved her, this amazing woman who'd taken charge of herself in a matter of minutes, taken control of a life out of control, wrestled the wild stallion and mastered it!

  Such relief! She hadn't been broken or hurt, hadn't failed to satisfy, had taken their semen and their cash and left them to their fate. Found a place. Chosen a life. She was proud.

  And a man came up the stairs, saw the girl standing there and she saw him raise a gun. She took one sudden step forward, between gun and girl and felt the lead enter her chest, like a hammer strike, right over her heart. Heard the sound only after the stunning blow, saw the burst of blood so red, like a fountain, spattering the wall.

  "Honey? Well done. You did good."

  She was standing at the podium again, in front of the beautiful lady, trembling a little, no time had passed and a lifetime had passed.

  She had no words; the lady understood and waited.

  "What will happen to her?" She found, death held no fear for her, it was old news by now, her third one after all.

  But the girl! She needed to know, what of the girl?

  "What will happen, has already happened, had happened before we began.

  “All that? Was long ago. She mourned her friend, moved on. Made good money, opened her own dress shop.

  “Kept her own girls and taught them as she'd been taught, by a friend, saved them from lives of misery and made them proud.

  “Because of you, honey. Because of you."

  And she couldn't talk, couldn't hardly see for the sudden mist over her eyes. The woman took her hand, gently, showed her the unblemished skin, innocent and pure. The mark was gone, as if it'd never been.

  "You should go through the door, again."

  Too soon! Too much to think about, to run over in her mind. To understand.

  "I... can’t go back! Maybe never again. It was too hard." She was crying, that was why the room was blurry, that part made sense.

  The lady smiled, a sudden smile, it was familiar again, where had she seen that before?

  "Not back, not this time. Forward! To your reward."

  Confused; this was her reward, what she deserved for her wasted life of selfishness and lust.

  A bungalow shared with a prim librarian who watched trash tv, reveled in human suffering.

  A cesspit in the yard visited by sprites who drank the piss, drowned in the shit.

  Visiting a grimy penthouse casino to fuck her boredom away. Walks in sad rundown neighborhoods, dodging gangs.

  The lady took pity. "This is not what you think it is. All this? Like a dream. The reward is still ahead. For you, it comes today, right now!"

  Understanding. "For that? Just for that?"

  Nodding, "Just for that."

  And the door pulsed brilliantly now, like the sun so bright, sunbeams spearing forth, rotating and illuminating the entire hall and she thought she could see something behind, something wonderful.

  So, she stepped through.