Chapter 4 #2
Asha frowned, but a second later, a tall woman with long, flowing strawberry blonde hair appeared, wearing a mid-length eyelet dress that seemed inappropriate for March weather.
She was probably in her early twenties, and Asha couldn’t help noticing her voluptuous figure, with full, perky breasts, wide-set hips, and ample thighs.
She swallowed hard and looked at the floor.
“Hey, Lana,” Cade said in a friendly, familiar way. “We have a new addition. This is Asha.”
Lana’s bright blue eyes sparkled in the firelight, and she gave Asha a warm smile that made her flush.
“Hi there, sugar,” she said brightly. “Welcome to the Nest.”
Asha nodded mutely, earning her an odd look from Cade.
“Angel sent her to get cleaned up before the meeting tonight,” he continued, a crease still between his brows.
Asha felt Lana’s eyes on her, studying her. “She need a bed, then?”
“No,” Cade answered easily. “After the meeting, she’s mine.”
“Wow, settling down already, Cade?” Lana teased him, in a way that made Asha’s stomach flutter. “We’ll miss you around here.”
His grey eyes lighted, and his broad grin at Lana’s obvious flirting was undeniably charming.
Why are they both so hot? Asha thought, half-protesting her own reaction to them. People who hold you captive are supposed to be ogres or some shit.
To be fair, most of them might as well have been, which made Cade and Lana’s beauty that much more obnoxious.
“I’ll see you again at the meeting,” Cade said to Asha by way of goodbye. “It shouldn’t be too long.”
Despite her general distrust, Asha’s heart beat hideously at the thought of him leaving. He was the only thing standing between her and the unknown abyss of her future. Their newly negotiated bargain was an anchor in the sudden storm that’d overtaken her life.
“It’ll be okay,” Cade murmured, evidently sensing her unease. “Once the claiming’s over with.”
On that less-than-comforting note, he left, and Asha wondered for the hundredth time what on Earth she’d gotten herself into.
“Well, let’s get you cleaned up, sugar,” Lana said to her, wrinkling her nose. “Because no offence, but you reek.”
“A couple weeks wandering the wilderness will do that,” Asha replied, resigned. She followed Lana as she led her down a hallway. “Are you the madam here, then?”
Lana frowned. “The madam?”
“It means a woman who’s in charge of a brothel.”
She giggled. “Never heard that before. I guess it applies, though I do a lot more than that. As do the other girls.”
Other young women filtered in and out of the rooms in the hallway, talking and laughing. They shot Asha curious glances when they spotted her, but if they had questions, they kept them to themselves. Asha guessed that, like her, they’d learned that questions only invited unwanted attention.
Lana turned right near the end of the corridor, into what was once the clubhouse’s public washroom.
The tile was dirty and cracked, and there was a narrow, glassless window that had been boarded up.
The stalls and toilets had been gutted, but surprisingly, the sinks had been left intact.
It seemed that without indoor plumbing, the women had converted them into washbasins, like something out of a period movie.
A water barrel stood in one corner, confirming Asha’s suspicion.
In place of the toilets, someone had put in an old metal stock tank, which she could only assume they used as a bathtub. It was currently empty.
“You can wash up here,” Lana said as she opened a small cupboard built into the wall.
From there, she offered Asha a thin washcloth and a metal bucket.
“Most of us fill the bucket from the water barrel, then stand in the tub to wash. If you need to pee, the door at the end of the hall leads to the yard. The latrines are at the very back, farthest from the door.”
Asha nodded. “Thanks.”
“I nearly forgot.” Lana briefly left into the room across the hall, then returned holding a pile of clothing. “Every new girl here gets a set of basic clothes to wear. These are free, but anything extra, you’ll have to either earn yourself or have Cade gift to you.”
Asha didn’t bother asking how she’d earn such things. “Okay.”
“Oh, and just so you know—Angel doesn’t allow women to cut their hair,” Lana added, as though this were a minor addition rather than a massive violation, just like everything else in this place. “Even attached ones have to keep their hair long.”
With that, Lana left her alone, but there was little privacy.
Whether the washroom door had been removed on purpose or had simply succumbed to the sands of time, there was nothing to stop anyone from walking in at any time.
Still, she had to admit that Lana was right: she fucking stank, and she’d do just about anything to remove the gross, sweaty film of grime that clung to her skin.
She visited the latrine first, and the stench felt as though it might sear her eyebrows off.
She finished as quickly as she could, then took Lana’s advice and washed up in the tub, mindful of the open doorway.
Thankfully, no one walked by. She then dressed in a simple white t-shirt and black pants from the pile of clothing she’d been given.
Wearing clean clothing felt like a revelation in itself after so many days of wandering.
After she was done, she peered down the corridor, looking for Lana.
A moment later, she emerged from a closed door and waved Asha over.
The door led to a small, simple bedroom, with a double bed that looked far plusher than the bunk beds in the women’s dormitory.
Each side had a wooden nightstand. One side was neat, with only a few personal effects: a hairbrush, a tarnished silver locket, and an assortment of what seemed to be crudely-made cosmetics.
The opposite side was messy and had children’s toys, crayons, and a one-eyed, raggedy teddy bear.
“This is your room?” Asha asked, and Lana nodded.
“A privilege of my status,” she replied. “I live here with my little sister, Cassie. It’s the safest place we’ve lived.”
Asha carefully kept her face neutral, not letting herself consider what Lana’s previous homes must’ve been like if she considered this the best one.
“So, you and the other women all live here together?”
“Yep,” Lana said, cleaning under her fingernails. “All the unattached women, anyway. A few of the men have claimed women, and they live with their men. But the rest of us live here, and we serve the single men.”
“Serve…how?” Asha asked carefully.
Lana shrugged. “How ever they need, really. We cook, wash clothing and linens, sort the packages that come from the Settlements.”
“The Settlements?”
“Where we get the things we need—food rations, clothes, and such,” Lana replied, sounding surprised. “Where did you think it came from? Someone’s gotta grow and make that stuff.”
Asha frowned. “What do you trade for it, then? I haven’t seen anything that—”
Lana’s tinkly laugh contained a note of disbelief.
“Where’d you say you came from, sweetheart?” she asked, then moved on without waiting for an answer. “We don’t trade. None of the big gangs like us do. The Settlements give us stuff in exchange for protection.”
Like the mafia in an Old World movie. I should’ve guessed.
“So, when you say you serve the men,” Asha continued slowly, “do you—”
“Fuck them?” Lana asked, sounding amused. “Geez, you don’t have to be so precious about it. Yeah, it’s part of the arrangement. Unattached men can ask for a girl for a night. Usually, they give gifts to their favourites.”
Asha couldn’t help but make a face. “Gross.”
“Nothing gross about it,” Lana said sharply, and Asha could practically hear her eyeroll in her voice.
“Don’t know where you lived that made you so judgy, but there are worse lives than this, sugar.
The girls who live here have a community of women around them.
They never go to bed hungry, and they’re safer than anywhere else they could be.
For many of them, opening their legs is a small price to pay for that. ”
“I didn’t mean you’re gross,” Asha replied, a little stung. “It’s just…it’s barbaric that the men here expect that of you. Treat you like slaves.”
Lana chuckled. “And just where are the men that expect any different? If they exist, I don’t know them. It’s only by accepting how they are that I got to be in the spot I’m in now.”
“What spot is that?”
She flipped her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder. “In charge of the women and children. I help make sure they have what they need. And I’m Angel’s first choice, which has its privileges.”
Must be why she’s the best dressed one here.
Still, Asha only just managed to avoid wrinkling her nose. Being that man’s favourite didn’t seem like much of a prize to her…but then, she didn’t know what Lana’s options before this had been. Maybe there were people even worse than him.
“There are kids here?” she asked instead, mildly appalled.
“Of course,” Lana replied, as though it were a silly question. “We do our best, but sometimes pregnancy happens to unclaimed women. The kids live here with their mothers.”
She gestured for Asha to follow her, and in a small room across from the dormitory, there was a children’s room.
They had the same bunk beds as the women’s dorm, but there were small wooden toys here and there, and childish drawings on the cracked concrete walls.
It all looked a bit forlorn—worn and torn by the hands of time, put together as an afterthought for these accidental children.
It struck Asha as a depressing place for a child to grow up, but unfortunately, sad childhoods were not the exclusive province of extreme poverty. As she knew from personal experience, nothing impoverished a child quite like a lack of love.
“It’s not so bad,” Lana said quietly, watching Asha survey the room. “At least they’re with their mothers. That’s more than I had, growing up.”
Asha bowed her head. “Sorry to hear that.”
Lana brushed her off. “It’s fine; I’m over it. But it helps to remember that things can always be worse.”
“Fair enough. Thank you for showing me around, and giving me the clothes.”
“You’re welcome,” Lana said with a smile, and then her tone turned playful. “It’s like anywhere else here, you know. You just gotta figure out how to work the system, sweetness. You want food and nice things? Fuck a man. You want to get off? Fuck a woman.”
Asha couldn’t help it; she laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”