Chapter 8

No customer came that day, and I lied on my bed crying the entire time.

I will take my revenge for this tainted love. I decided. I will take my revenge.

"You didn't come for lunch nor to have dinner yesterday. Is everything alright?" Kareena asked, eyeing at the dark crescents under my eyes. I just shook my head to dismiss the topic.

"Tell me about yourself. How did you end up here?" I asked.

"No one informed you? We aren't supposed to discuss our personal life. Girls do it anyway, but if discovered, they're punished severely. I still remember Salty and Sweet—those were their Firecracker names, of course." I couldn't help roll my eyes. "They shared all their personal information and were beaten naked with whips." And I winced my eyes.

Seriously? How could Rover do such a thing?

"We already took a huge risk by telling each other our real names. But please call me by my Firecracker name only, which is Vanilla."

Wow, that's sweet! I thought.

"So what they just expect us to work with each other and not know about each other?" I asked her, serving myself a spoonful of Spaghetti as I saw Millie watching me.

"No, it's not like that. I can't tell you what my name is or where I lived or how I got here. But I can tell you that I had my first kiss when I was only nine, with a boy named James, and that I left my fiance at the altar because I saw him doing one of the bridesmaids before getting up on the stage to say 'I Do.' It was like, dude, you already did! Too much.'"

"Oh my god, that's terrible."

"Talking about terrible? I am not the one missing meals roaming with dark circles under my eyes, my friend." She said with concern clearly reflected in her eyes.

I looked around for any traces of Rover's or anyone's prying ears before sitting on the table.

I exhaled. "Rover came to my room last night."

"I know that. And?" She asked.

I frowned. "Well, he proved what a beast he was."

"But I thought you too already had sex. Weren't you two doing the very first day too?" She asked.

"How do you know so much?" I asked, flabbergasted by her knowledge.

"Well, I kinda know everything." She said too proudly.

"Well, yes! We have slept together twice before. In fact, he was my first ever. But he was always gentle, but last night, he hurt me in a way I ever thought he could. In the way, I ever thought anyone could! I think somewhere in my heart, I still believed that he wouldn't hurt me even though he brought me here. I thought he just got himself among the wrong people. That there was still this hope that Rover would again be the man I fell in love with. But yesterday, with that pain, all such misconceptions drowned into my sorrow. He was just so perfect then. How can someone so perfect be a monster?" I finished.

Kareena reached over the table to place her hand over mine.

"I am so sorry to break this to you, Feisty, but yesterday you were hurt so much because something very beautiful in your heart broke into pieces. But, honey, the pain you felt down there, you have to get used to it. Because you will find customers who are too aggressive and love violence. And I know this is the worst time possible to tell you this, but it's better that you're warned rather than be surprised by the excruciating pain.

"But don't worry, at some point, you get used to it. Because I remember, when I came here, I perhaps was more delicate than you. But now it doesn't hurt so much. And it is better if you start enjoying it because there is definitely no way out and better enjoy than whine and torture yourself. That's what I do. Life doesn't seem so cruel then."

I can't. I can't.

*****

Millie had been forcing me to eat my meals. As I lied there on the bed, chained to be used, the dinner threatened to swirl out of my mouth.

'But, honey, the pain you felt down there, you have to get used to it. Because you will find customers who are too aggressive and love violence.'

I heard the click of the door open and shook off the goosebumps.

Today, I lied there with no clothes.

I heard the footsteps and then felt something cool and soft sliding up my body. It was a blanket. The man was covering me.

"Roy, is that you?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied, and listening to his voice—not his words, but his voice—I believed him.