Two days later, Rachel was sitting in Dave's transport on the way to
her meeting with Susan. Dave's good-bye kiss still tingled on her
lips but, now, the thrill was rapidly fading. In the intervening
days, and even during earlier part of the ride, the memory of his
attentions and the responding feelings that coursed through her had
been able to keep her worries and distress at bay. But now, so close
to the meeting with Susan, where she would get concrete information
about the current status of Alice's feelings, chinks were starting to
appear in the armor and she felt a sick knot of fear in her stomach,
which sharply intensified as she felt the transport lower. As she
rose to exit the transport, the radio station was announcing an
“exclusive interview” with Bernard CEO Taranburg to talk about
the avant garde coming out of the closet party he had just hosted.
Rachel was glad to go as the interview in question was very far from
exclusive and almost every station had been playing similar content
non-stop for the past couple of days.
“So, what was that all about?” asked Susan as they settled
into their chairs next to the window of Fedallah's. “Oh, what
should I get today?”
“I’m just getting my normal boysenberry cinnamon cream,” said
Rachel, thinking once again how glad she was that Fedallah's had
added a smoothie line, even though most of the smoothies still
contained coffee. “And I don’t know what Alice’s problem is.”
“I tried to get her side of the story but she just keeps saying
that your selfishness was making her suffer. I think I’ll try
pineapple, guava, mint today with a side of mini-almond cookies.”
“Okay, so here’s the truth. Alice gave me plenty of probable
cause to suspect that her reasons for suggesting Dave weren’t just
about money. Maybe I reacted a little harshly but you understand
why. Instead of trying to see why I was upset, she just tried to get
me to give myself a medical.”
“That is the standard reaction,” said Susan dryly as she
punched in her order on the table's menu card.
“And I am the Demon,” Rachel shot back fiercely.
“Yes, I know, but you can’t expect Alice to understand that.
When I tried to talk to her, she just kept saying that you were
unstable and that was bad.”
“Well, fuck her,” cried Rachel. “My instability is the only
thing that made me willing to help her and I’ve told her as much.”
Then the fire went out of her eyes and she hung her head. “I
still miss her terribly though.”
“Don’t bother about Alice for the moment,” Susan suggested.
“Maybe she’ll calm down after she’s been Sacrificed and has
nothing to worry about. The main idea right now is to figure out how
to get her there. “
“It’s going to be very hard, having to be around Alice and
watching her hate me.”
“I suppose you wouldn’t like it if I suggested you take more
pills.”
Rachel shrugged. “They wear off pretty fast if I take them in
small doses. I can just cry in the transport afterwards. “
“You know.” Susan sipped her drink thoughtfully. “It might be
good for Alice to see you not being upset. If she thinks that you
don’t need her or even that you might actively reject her,
she might soften up.”
“I’m not going to lie to her,” cried Rachel in disgust. “I’ve
done that enough already and I promised I never would again. I can
hide my true self from the outside world to help her succeed but I
won’t manipulate Alice herself for my own gain.”
“Okay, sure. More Rachel weirdness isn’t going to shock me at
this point. But to business. The phone’s been ringing off the
hook with people asking for Alice. We’ve got another party set up
for her the day after tomorrow and then there’s a big gathering the
next night—don’t worry, you won’t have to go to that—and
we’re bringing her along as one of Luther’s
girls so she can learn standard party service…within reason of
course.
“Susan,” Rachel cut in tentatively, “Can we talk about
something else, just for a second.” Susan paused with her lips in
a perfect circle, just as she was about to pop one of her miniature
cookies into her mouth. “See, I’m really upset about something
you said the other night.”
“Did I offend you?” Susan seemed torn between concern and
exasperation about how easily Rachel got offended.
“No, more like frightened me. That thing you said about how guys
sometimes end up resenting the first woman they sleep with. I know
it’s true in theory but I never thought about it that deeply and
now I wonder if Dave might be disappointed by me?”
“I’m
sorry, I don’t understand,” said Susan.
“Dave could be dreaming about his ideal girl and what if I’m not
it?”
“But he’s not…You haven’t had sex yet? What’s going
on?”
Rachel looked uncomfortable. “We just want it to develop naturally
instead of forcing it.”
“If you succeed, yours will be the first sex that’s developed
‘naturally’ in hundreds of years. I don’t even know what that
really means.”
“Anyway, what if, when it comes down to it, he doesn’t like me?”
“Rachel, don’t be absurd,” cried Susan. “It’s obvious how
much he adores you. Besides, even if you haven’t had sex, you’re
still living together--how weird is that?--so he knows a lot about
you already. If you haven’t disappointed him yet, I doubt you
will. That theory only applies to people who go to bed for the first
time with almost total strangers—which is pretty much everyone
except you.”
“You really
think I’ll be okay?” asked Rachel unsteadily.
“Yes, yes,
it’ll be fine.” Susan laughed loudly at the irony of Rachel, of
all people, being afraid of what someone else thought. “He must
have some sort of very special ability, if he can make the Demon turn
inside out and become all selfless and nervous.”
“It truly is
amazing,” Rachel agreed. “And, Susan, it does scare me. Like,
maybe, I don’t know myself anymore. But, at the same time, I’m
so happy. I don’t want anything to go wrong.”
“Nothing will
go wrong, seriously. You should be far more worried about Alice than
about Dave.”
“Worried about
Alice? Is something wrong? Other than the obvious.”
“Well, no, not
exactly. She’s just so nervous, that’s all. When she came back
from the party the other night, she was happy at first. She put on a
good face for the other girls and accepted all their congratulations,
which were rather on the mild side to be honest, considering that
amazing voice she has. Imagine, us having something like that under
our noses all the time and never realizing it. It's
such a shame that Alice can't preform at the Red Fan's virgin show,
but that would blow the 'innocent' persona you've set up for her.
You would have thought she would have been glad to be complemented
after everything she's been through but, instead, she
was so embarrassed that I thought she was going to be sick. Later, I
found her crying in her room and she told me she knew she had done
horribly and nothing I could say would make her think otherwise.”
“She shouldn’t
be living in that room by herself. It’s not good for her,”
Rachel cried in distress. “Especially not now, when she’s in
such a delicate situation.”
“That’s what
Elissa said,” Susan agreed cautiously as she sipped her shake.
“Elissa and I
are actually in agreement about something? Isn’t that amazing?”
“Yea, but you’re not going to like her solution at all.” Susan
looked down at the table and fidgeted uncomfortably. “I didn’t
want to tell you this but I figure you’d find out anyway. Elissa
decided to have Alice move in with her so there would be someone to
keep an eye on her.”
“What about Elissa's roommate?” asked Rachel, in a cold, flat
voice.
“Are you kidding? When Elissa suggested swapping, she jumped at the
chance to get her own room. You know how rare that is.” Rachel
swore. “Try not to let it get to you. It makes Alice feel just a
little bit better. After all, if Elissa wants to share a room with
Alice, she can hardly be trying to kick her out.”
“Alice would think that,” Rachel groaned wretchedly. “But
she doesn't know Elissa like I do. There are plenty of ways she
could undermine Alice behind the scenes.”
“She wouldn't dare.” Susan waved her hand dismissively. “Stacy
and I and all the other experienced members know what she tried to
pull. We're watching her now.” Rachel nodded but, inside, she was
still troubled because she knew well there were a lot of things
Elissa could do that wouldn't harm the brothel but would, most
certainly, harm Rachel. If Alice believed her when she was cruel,
how much more would she do so now under the guise of friendship?
Rachel shuddered to think what special “conspiratorial secrets”
she might whisper to Alice at a moment when she was feeling
vulnerable.
In the weeks that followed, Rachel kept worrying about this new
development between Elissa and Alice, despite the fact that she had
so much else on her mind as Alice's popularity just kept growing.
She almost always had more invitations than she could accept.
Apparently, the strain of having to control themselves around her was
so great that it made all the men crazy with sexual frustration. The
rest of the girls at Luther's
did a booming business because no one wanted to leave a party alone
if Alice had been there. It turned out that Dave was right.
Something that had to be treated carefully and worked hard for was
seen as being special, not a pain, fortunately. Of course, everyone
wanted an invitation to the Sacrifice so they could have a chance to
find out what was so special about Alice that it needed to be so
carefully protected. But Susan, coached carefully by Rachel, was
very particular about handing them out. They wanted a big enough
crowd that the competition would drive the price up but, at the same
time, still make it look exclusive so the people who did get
invited would feel honored and try to prove their worthiness by
spending more money. Rachel also had a secret reason for wanting to
limit the guest list. The more people present, the more Dave would
have to pay to accommodate them all and, since he had already spent
so much on her, she wanted to make the financial hit as light as
possible for him.
Fortunately, there was no need for Rachel to go to all the
parties Alice was invited to as it was a huge emotional strain for
her to deal with a cold and resentful Alice. However, she did go to
enough to notice that there wasn't a significant increase in Alice's
confidence. She was still shaky and nervous before every gathering
even though, obviously, she was doing well since there was so much
demand for her. A little bit of nerves might even make her seem more
endearing. But there was always the risk she would get too upset and
break down, ruining the whole plan. The other thing that Rachel
didn't see much of was evidence of Susan's dire rumor about Alice and
Elissa. But then, how could she? After all, she hadn't actually
seen Elissa at all, let alone while interacting with Alice. She
personally suspected the other girls were taking steps to keep them
apart, knowing how potentially explosive the situation was. It
wasn't really that difficult since Rachel never went to any of the
big public parties, being thankfully discouraged by her contract with
Dave from doing so, and, if only three or four girls were going,
there was absolutely no reason to have Elissa be one of them. Rachel
would have liked to believe this precaution was unnecessary, that,
for Alice's sake, she could have suppressed even her hatred for
Elissa. But, at the same time, she was very glad she didn't have to
find out if she could, nor endure the pain of being around Elissa,
whether it showed or not.
The downside of this was that Rachel was left alone with her thoughts
a great deal of the time. Dave was frequently out working, making
sure he had an ample reserve of money to cover whatever crazy
expenses the Sacrifice might throw at them. They had already decided
that the meal should include a salad course to really wow the guests.
Dave had nervously asked if they should try to negotiate for
mini-pizza appetizers from Preator Pizza but Rachel was glad to be
able to authoritatively veto that expense. She had been tempted for
a brief moment, then realized it would be the ultimate act of cruelty
to Alice to have to sit in a room full of the food she most wanted
and be able to touch none of it. She tried not to think about how in
normal circumstances, even as a house pet, she'd be back at Luther's
almost daily, helping Alice out, attending parties to be her support
and provide feedback. But, since there was little else to do to, it
was hard indeed to stop herself. Because of her distance from the
other women, she couldn't even have a casual conversation with Susan
or make plans to go on an outing with her as there was no easy way
for them to contact one another. Sure they could make plans when
they were at a party together but, frequently, Rachel was so
distraught over having to be confronted with Alice's coldness that
she forgot until it was too late.
With a heavy sigh, Rachel somehow found the motivation to reach out
and switch on the radio. This was part of her daily ritual and it
too was painful but necessary. Every day, she lurked on all the
major stations to see what they were saying about Alice to keep an
eye on how public perceptions of her were developing. Today,
“Serious Tabloid Gossip Hour,” was featuring an interview with
two girls from Calvin's hysterically ranting about about how
Lurther's was clearly going mad from desperation, to stage this
bizarre display, while the condescending comments from the presenter
made it clear the audience was supposed to think they were the
ones who were crazy. Rachel felt a wave of bitter melancholy wash
over her think how, considering how much she loved the show, Alice
must be thrilled to be the featured topic on “Serious Tabloid
Gossip Hour.” There was an interview with Alice's music teacher on
another station where he raved over how he had never had such a
talented student in his entire career. As she jumped between
stations, Rachel encountered at least five commercials, up by two
from the previous day, from various mass-produced fashion brands
which were already working overtime to churn out a veritable flood of
concealing white dresses. But the worst was an interview with
Charles CAO Genoa Appliance, a guest at Alice's most recent
appearance, who had a great deal to say about the wonderful woman who
had accompanied Alice to the party, plainly meaning Elissa, what an
amazing job she had done keep the poor dear's nerves under control,
and how clever she must have been to come up with a way to so
effectively showcase Alice's unique talents.
With an emotional
wrench, Rachel shut off the radio. It was so hard to listen to all
the praise heaped on Alice when she wasn't able to share in her
excitement over it. She felt it was important to regularly check up
on these things but tried to keep the sessions short so she wouldn't
be a complete emotional mess when Dave got back from work. Of
course, there were days when the act of will required to pull herself
away from the torture was too great and she would sit there for hours
on end, cycling between stations as she cried. On really bad days,
Dave would come back to find her sitting motionless in dark,
sometimes too distraught to rise from her chair or do anything else
even when she had managed to turn off the radio, and he would have to
coax her back to functionality and encourage her to eat.
©Amanda RR Hamlin 2026
