TWO

Bella.

“There are rules guiding this establishment, rules you’re expected to strictly adhere to. Under no circumstances are you to break any of them, not one. Am I clear?” A middle aged woman who looked like the lower budget of Madame C addressed us. 

The movies were right, the actual wolves did put on sheep clothings and the worst of criminals were dressed in expensive suits and dresses, no tattoos or piercings in sight. 

“Yes Ma’am.” We chorused.

“Some of these rules are general, while some will be particular to the division you’ve been placed. Yes, divisions,” she repeated, probably seeing the questioning looks we threw her way. 

“I am certain you all weren’t trained the same way in your place of……grooming.” She continued, pacing back and forth and observing us like we were under a lens. 

“And even you were trained in a similar manner, I’m certain you all didn’t go for the same price.” She pinned her gaze on me as though she was trying to send a message. I was very intent on not receiving that message so, I shrugged. 

“The general rules include,” she continued, not acknowledging my defiance. “You only enter rooms you’ve been assigned to or sent to, you only speak when you’ve been spoken to, extracurricular activities with guests is highly prohibited except through authorized means, relationships of any sort must not be formed between you and patrons.” 

I took my time to look at the other girls in the room with me, we all had one thing in common, looks. It wasn’t rocket science what we were bought for, all eight of us. 

How much did it cost to purchase eight girls in one night, how rich were these people? And where is the mystery man from the auction, he wasn’t one of the men that brought me here. There were lousy and  their voices lacked the characteristic chill  his voice carried. 

My analysis was interrupted by a shoulder bumping into mine, causing my to jump a bit and return my focus to the woman in front of us.

“Isabella right?” 

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Do you happen to zone out a lot?”

“Not often Ma.”

“Good, I would advise you kill all hopes of a life beyond these walls. I know leaving the academy into the real world might have opened a glimpse of hope for some of you to think you have a shot. If you’re caught trying to escape, you’ll be gunned down at the spot.” She announced, her gaze sweeping through us, making sure her threat was well received.

“You can day dream all you want but it won’t change much. The waitresses amongst you will be in charge of serving, the escorts will do as their name imply, escorting and the performers will perform. Any questions?”

“How are we to know where we belong?” A red hair to my left asked, her lower lips trembling in fear or maybe she was muttering a word of prayer. I wouldn’t know, I stopped praying a long time ago. 

“You’ll be posted tonight and your uniforms and job description will be made known to you. Any thing else? I don’t have all day.”

“Alright then. George, take them back from to their rooms.” 

A sigh of relief left my lips as she dismissed us. I find meetings and opening addresses very tiring and exhausting and the constant attempt to ascertain dominance and get people to fear you was slowly going out of style in my opinion.

She spent over thirty minutes trying to intimidate us and the remaining five to pass across important information. A very visible sign of weakness. People of power didn’t have to convince you they’re powerful. You’ll see it in them.

“Not you Bella, stay.”

So much for wanting to be done with this charade. I made my way back into the room, she better have something important to say, patience is not my best virtue.

“It says you were exclusively trained by Charlotte for a decade,” she mused, flipping through my file. “Your specialties were; dance, gymnastics, entertainment, conversation and…..sex?” 

“Yes Ma’am.”

“But it also says you’re a virgin. How does one acquire such skills without practice?” She asked, giving me a pointer look I suppose was meant to scare me.

“Madame C had her methods.” I answered courtly. I wasn’t divulging anymore than this. 

She leaned back into her seat, observing me with keen eyes. “And this method didn’t require you practicing any of your skills?” 

“Oh I did practice, I practiced really hard. Long hours in the gym, a strict diet, multiple teachers for different languages by day and a karma sutra instructor by night.”

If there’s one thing I have to commend Madame C for, it’s how thorough she was. She looked at every girl brought into the academy and she put them into a category and then she made  them into the  model students of said category.

It’s why she didn’t take kids above ten, she said kids with double numbers to their age were a lot more difficult to handle. 

My training started two weeks after I was brought into the academy. I spent the past decade in a corset top and was weighed and observed every month. 

“And this practice you speak of, it never progressed to something…..real?” She tried to sound casual about her questions but I could see past her mask -another perk for being raised by Madame C herself- she was fishing for something. Maybe she and C were rivals. 

“Like I said Ma’am, Madame C had her methods.” 

She regarded me a little over a minute before returning her attention to my file. “It also says here you can be very independent and impulsive.” She slammed the file shut and gave me an incredulous look. 

“Charlotte raised you for ten years and never found the time to break an attitude but somehow marketed you for what, $20,000,000?  When I heard your price, I was genuinely intrigued and couldn’t wait to see you and I’ve never been more disappointed. I watched the whole time, the facial expressions, the eye rolls and look of defiance. You’re not afraid to look people in the eye, you must think you’re better than everyone else because you were raised specially but you’re just like them, property bought and paid for and will be discarded , your fate is even worse than theirs and I’ll tell you how.”

“Those girls,” “she continued, pointing her finger in the direction of the door. “They were raised for something, to be waiters, workers, care givers etc. You on the other hand, you were raised for sex, degradation, pleasure. You’ll cater to the needs of anything with enough money in their pockets and you’ll be tossed aside with a womb full of rotten semen and God knows how many infections. So when you try to get cocky or feel good about yourself, it’ll help if you remember there’s no difference between you and a sex toy. You just happen to have a voice, not that it would matter.” She finished, looking me up and down. 

I had always known what my fate would be but hearing it from someone in this manner made it more real than I had imagined. But I knew her game, she was upset I wasn’t as docile as the other girls, she was trying to break into me and I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. I had a plan of my own. So I looked her in the eye, and I gave her by best smile.