“I’m so nervous,” Rachel whispered.
“What do you have to lose?” asked Dave, not looking up from his
video game. “The brothel isn’t giving you money anymore. What’s
mine is yours.”
Rachel gave her comb a vicious yank, pulling out a snarl of hair like
a crumpled ball of copper wire. Conditions in Dave’s house were
absolutely primitive since he had spent his money on computer
equipment not beauty equipment. Consequently, there was no
hairdressing unit. “On a personal level, my pride is at stake,”
she replied, giving the comb another twist. “But, more important,
Alice’s welfare is at stake and tied to Alice’s welfare, are
Alice’s feelings for me.”
“I never had any real friends,” said Dave. “So I wouldn’t
know what it’s like. Most people make fun of me for being,” he
caught himself and looked away, the thought still painfully new and
tender, “having been, a virgin so I don’t want to talk to them.
I have a few people I entertain, like Jake from the fabric warehouse
and some other people I’ve worked with, but that’s not really the
same. We just play video games and stuff.”
“Don’t feel bad.” Rachel stopped yanking on her hair and bent
to kiss him behind the ear. “I know you would do anything to make
me feel better.” The feel of his warm skin against her lips still
made her shiver but she reluctantly turned back to her preparations.
They had only about an hour until the guests started arriving.
Already, the staff, specifically hired for the day from U'Sparkle,
had been busy, cleaning the house, preparing food for the extravagant
dinner that even included the decedent salad
course that had cost a fortune with all its little components, and
rearranging the grand room at the base of the stairs so that it could
accommodate several hundred guests, probably the first time it was
ever being used for its proper function, at least since Dave moved
in.
Rachel's attempts to limit the guest list and save Dave's money had
ultimately been futile. Alice’s fame had grown with exposure and
at her every appearance more people clamored for an invitation to the
Sacrifice. In addition to their enthusiasm for the Victim, many
people came to get a look at the inside of Dave’s house. Despite
being one of the wealthiest men in Her-Babylon, he never gave
parties. The fact that now he was hosting, not just a party but the
Sacrifice of the most controversial girl in decades, meant that it
was certainly not an event to be missed. Rachel pulled a last knot
from her hair and opened her box of make-up which came with a large
mirror that folded out from the lid so at least that was one
necessity she would not have to go without. As she squinted into the
mirror, trying to get the lines of deep silver around her eyes just
so, she could hear Dave muttering in relief or anger at his game.
Much as she adored her lover, Rachel felt a small surge of resentment
that, as a man, he had so much less work to do to get ready. He was
already resplendent in red and gold with a hair clasp like an eagle
with huge clawed feet and it had taken him ten minutes or less to do
it all.
At last, Rachel was finished and sank wearily down beside him on the
couch. The event had not even started yet and she was already
exhausted. Dave put down his game controller and ran his fingers
through her long hair, silky soft from her rough brushing, with a
bittersweet look on his face. Her hair was un-styled and unadorned
and he knew why. She had worn her midnight blue dress just as had
originally been planned by her and Alice. But, deprived of Alice’s
friendship, she had deprived herself of Alice’s headpiece and now
went bareheaded to represent the emptiness in her heart. Dave did
not say anything. Having watched Rachel suffer over the past weeks,
he knew her pain was beyond him. She did not speak either but he
could see the strain in her face. So, instead, he took her in his
arms and tilted up her face to kiss her. This moment of quiet peace
was broken all too soon by the loud ringing of the doorbell.
Although there were staff on hand from U'Serve, hired specifically
for the job, to answer it and take coats, hats, and umbrellas, the
two lovers rose reluctantly, since social expectation demanded that
they be present to greet the guests. Rachel’s heart beat
erratically at the sound of the bell but her mind knew she did not
have to worry…yet. Alice would be fashionably late, allowing her
to make a grand entrance.
A group of four men were standing on the landing platform, the top
executives from Vissathron, who Rachel had entertained on numerous
occasions. Dave greeted them politely and showed them to seats in
the main room. Since there were no other women present yet, Rachel,
to her great discomfort, had to take it upon herself to serve them.
As she glided gracefully back and forth, keeping her inner feelings
carefully concealed, while she kept their wine glasses full and their
plates well supplied with delicate cheese croquettes and bite-sized
bacon and chives sandwich fingers, she could see pain and disgust in
Dave’s eyes at the way she had to dance attendance on these man and
even more at the fact that she accompanied her service with
fluttering eyelashes and flirtatious smiles. But there was nothing
he could do. If he did not offer the men proper hospitality they
would be offended, possibly leave, and the Sacrifice would be a
failure. So, until some of the women from Luther’s
arrived, Rachel had to serve. She privately suspected Elissa might
be deliberately delaying them to force her into this uncomfortable
situation. At least none of the four was a former client of Rachel's
but, unfortunately, some of the guests would be, as taking anyone she
had previously slept with off the guest list would have meant
snubbing some of the top executives of Her-Babylon. The very thought
made her want to run to Dave and burrow into his arms, to wipe out
all memory of being touched by anyone but him. But of course she
could not, for to do so would be to betray Alice.
She knew Dave was suffering in the situation as well. As she bent to
refill his cup, he whispered to her, “After tonight you will never
have to do this again. I swear it.” Though his influence was
limited if he wanted to maintain his image, he did what he could to
relieve Rachel’s situation. When one of the men went beyond
significant looks and made an openly sexualized comment to Rachel, he
stepped in. “Tonight, we won't have any of that,” he said with
counterfeit pleasantness, though Rachel could see the high color of
his face from anger. The man looked offended. Dave gave a laugh
that, miraculously, did not sound forced. “What are you trying to
do,” he asked in a friendly way, “ruin my Sacrifice? You should
know by now that the Victim has never heard any such words. If she
overhears you, she’ll get frightened and be ruined for tonight.
I’m not taking that risk so you need to behave yourselves. I know
that’s a novel concept for you so you should start practicing now.”
The ploy worked and the men burst into lecherous laughter,
distracted from Rachel by their real reason for being there.
Fortunately, before they could get bored again, the first detachment
from Luther’s arrived.
There were about twenty of them due to the very large size of the
gathering. More would come later with Alice’s escort and there
were probably some girls who had no work tonight who were ready to
come over should there be need. Luther’s
had had to pay to rent extra transports since their own could not fit
everyone. One of the first people Rachel saw was Stacy, who must
have ordered her dress months ahead, not likely, or paid a fortune to
have it completed on time. This dress was not cut from solid pieces
of fabric but made up of a tracery of vines and leaves, some placed
strategically. It was emerald green and decorated with delicate blue
flowers, more of which were threaded in her hair. Rachel grinned,
momentarily distracted from her troubles, hoping Stacy got her wish,
not for the honor of the brothel, but because it would make Stacy
happy.
“I see your hopes are high,” she said jovially, walking over to
greet Stacy.
“Yes, thanks to you.” Stacy looked around in awe at the large
grandly decorated room and the swarms of women and guests, more of
whom were arriving every moment. Since, right then, there were
enough women to serve, they retired to a corner to talk privately.
“Rachel, you’ve done it again,” she said admiringly. “So
what if you’re emotionally unstable? You’re still an asset to
Luther’s. You achieve the
miraculous and, in fact, it’s your emotional state, your ‘Demon
spirit’ as you call it, that gives you the power to overcome the
impossible.”
Rachel felt herself flushing with embarrassed pride. “Thank you,
Stacy,” she said almost shyly. “I’m glad to know your keen
business mind finds some advantage in my wildness.”
Grinning back at her, Stacy kept up her stream of praise. “Yes, we
need practical people, but sometimes we need people to take risks
too. Just think about it! Lifelong non-competitive hOwnership, this
giant Sacrifice for a girl who can’t even perform a proper hand
job, you’ve made more money for us in the last month than many
people make in their whole lives. I’m so glad I fought and beat
Elissa about you.”
Rachel felt a sick ball of nausea start rolling around in her
stomach. “What has Elissa done now?” she asked faintly.
Stacy looked disgusted. “She told us you were bad for the brothel’s
image because you were so wild and tried to forbid anyone to speak to
you.”
“What the fuck?” In her anger, Rachel spoke much louder than she
intended. At once, she clapped her hand over her mouth and looked
around guiltily. Fortunately, in the crowded room not many had
heard.
Stacy giggled at Rachel’s self-conciseness before becoming serious
again. “She said that, since you would no longer be living or
directly working at Luther’s,
there would be no need talk to you and risk having you make us look
bad.”
Grabbing the nearest bottle of liquor, Rachel poured herself a glass
and downed it at once. The burning sensation in her throat and
stomach helped galvanize her to face the situation. “And what did
you do?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“Susan and I stood together and told Elissa that we have as much
influence at Luther’s as
she did so she had no right to demand anything of us. Also, that it
couldn't be so easily concluded that you were a bad influence. Your
double record as toast of the city and one of the highest earning
women around could actually enhance our reputation if we capitalized
on it properly. Finally, I made the point that being in the
immediate assignment roster is not the only way you can serve the
brothel.” Rachel made a face, quite sure she did not want to serve
the brothel in any capacity, especially since that would mean helping
Elissa. “I had this idea that you could become an official trainer
of new recruits. You're very good with traditional skills but you’ve
also amply proved,” she gestured at the extravagant party around
her, “that you can make someone a success even if they lack
traditional skills. Also, I think you could serve as an inspiration
to the new hires, both because they know that, in your hands, no one
is hopeless, and because your own cushy position is one they could
imagine aspiring to. What do you say?”
“I’ll think about it,” said Rachel uncertainly. It was a
perfect opportunity to try to show more people a way out of the cage.
If she could teach them to dream of something more than random sex
and cold cash… For a moment, Rachel’s mind took flight. She saw
herself single-handedly engineering the downfall of the brothel
system by teaching young girls, through her own example, to desire,
to demand respect for themselves, maybe even to seek for a deeper
relationship like her own. But right now she couldn't imagine how
she could bear being around Elissa or, more to the point, around
Alice.
“Well, just give me a call when you make up your mind,” said
Stacy. “After all, it's not forbidden to call in on the
brothel phone,” she finished with a grin.
At that moment, Rachel caught a glimpse of familiar flamingo pink and
then Susan came bustling up, her gown, accented with black velvet and
masses of bows and ruffles and her hair ornamented with several large
feathers so that she looked much larger than she really was. When
she moved, all the feathers and flounces on her costume fluttered and
waved, underscoring her frantic hurry. “Rachel, I’m so glad I’ve
found you,” she gasped, flinging wide her arms to embrace her
friend. “A group of men from the Jaipen Power Company were lacking
service so I was kept busy fetching drinks and telling stories. It
wasn’t until they started talking business and, hence, ignoring me
that I was able to slip off.”
As soon as she had set eyes on Susan, Rachel had felt a sense of
impending horror and calamity that she could not quite place. Now it
hit her. “Susan,” she asked in a cold flat voice, “if you're
here now, who is preparing Alice? Who will escort her to her
Sacrifice?” Yes, it enraged her that anyone besides herself
should do these things. Still, she could think of people far worse
than Susan doing the honor.
All the hyper happy glow drained out of Susan. It seemed like her
skin went from pink to gray in a matter of seconds but it might just
have been the contrast with the brilliant pink of her dress that made
her reaction look so extreme. “I warned you, Rachel,” she said
in a tense whisper. “I warned you they had become friends.”
“Are you saying that Elissa is escorting her?” cried
Rachel in disgust. Susan and Stacy both saw the Demon light flash in
her eyes and neither dared answer but their frozen silence told her
all that she needed to know. Almost calmly, she picked up a
champagne flute and walked over to the wall so that her body blocked
the view of much of the room. Then she raised the flute and smashed
it against the wall. Letting the jagged stem fall from her hand, she
went to pick up another flute and prepared to do the same thing
again. But, suddenly, she stopped, set the glass down gently, and,
burying her face in her hands, began to cry. Even though her crying
was subdued with no sound or motion, Stacy and Susan moved to make
sure she was fully hidden from view. Yes, from the back she looked
like she was just blowing her nose or brushing her hair out of her
face, but why take the risk?
“Rachel, what is it?” asked Susan rather redundantly.
“I
can’t even be angry anymore,” whispered Rachel. “I care for
him so much that I don't want to do him any harm. When I started
breaking the glasses, I realized he would have to pay to replace them
and I can’t do that to him so I can only be sad.”
“I don’t know what you will think of this,” said Susan quietly,
almost grimly. “But Alice gave me a message to take to you. She
asked you politely not to try to make contact with her. She said she
is sorry but the risk is too great in her position.”
“Risk? What risk?”
“Remember the story Elissa tried to sell us,” said Stacy, “about
you being bad for our image? Which, let me say, I was far too smart
to fall for. Anyway, Alice bought the whole thing, devoured it like
first-rate cheesecake.”
“But why? I can understand that she’s been in a tight situation
and wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her position
tonight. But, if the Sacrifice goes well, she’ll be set. Why
reject me forever instead of just until her position is secure?”
“Alice is a fool,” said Stacy contemptuously. “If she had half
a brain, she would realize everyone already knows about her
relationship with you. It’s pretty public now. After all, no one
could believe Elissa came up with this.” She gestured
around the room. “But Alice has become ambitious, not that I mind
that part. She doesn’t just want to stay off the streets. She
wants to rise in the world. All the attention she’s been getting
recently has gone to her head. She thinks she can usurp your place
of fame and fortune and become the toast of Her-Babylon. That
is what she is afraid your ‘bad reputation’ will jeopardize.”
“And if tonight goes well, she just might succeed,” said Susan
dryly. “But she’ll lose more than money and public acclaim by
staying with you. She’ll lose her special place with Elissa.
Alice is overwhelmed by the attention she’s getting from someone
who used to only harass and criticize her. She doesn’t see that
Elissa only values things that are of immediate use so her regard or
lack thereof for Alice is based solely on her ability to make money.”
“And her ability to hurt me,” said Rachel bitterly. “That’s
another ‘immediate use’ Alice is good for. Do you think there’s
any hope,” she asked almost pathetically, “that Alice will change
her mind once she gets some distance from the situation?”
©Amanda RR Hamlin 2026
