She felt the fear rise in her as she saw the shady characters around her, drunks and otherwise, men throwing glances her direction. She tried to stay close to Tyr, knowing as long as they could see she was with him, they wouldn’t touch her. Looking around, she knew Mariah wouldn’t be here yet, but it was almost morning. People were already starting to leave, and soon her friend would be searching the drift, like she did every morning. Most days she didn’t find anyone, and hopefully this would be one of those days. She didn’t want to wish rape upon anyone else, ever again.
“Let’s just wait here,” she whispered, pulling Tyr up against the wall and sliding down it herself. He soon joined her, giving her a quizzical look.
“What are we actually waiting for?”
“The woman who…well she’ll come out here. And then I can tell her to bring everyone out so we can take them back to the Andromeda.” He raised an eyebrow.
“How are you so sure they want to come?” She threw him an annoyed glance.
“Because I lived there…I lived with them for months. I know, ok?” He didn’t question her again, and they sat in silence, watching the crowd slowly disappear. Soon Beka saw a figure she recognised and flew up from her seat.
“Hey.”
“Rebekah! You’re back! I was so worried about you!” She threw herself into a tight embrace which Beka, only slightly embarrassed, returned. “Did you get back to your ship? Are you safe?” Beka nodded quickly.
“I had a suggestion for you…”
****
It all went well. While Mr Culligan was sleeping, the women in the brothel all sneaked out. Beka hadn’t been surprised to find none of them wanted to stay with Mr Culligan, and her evil side came out while thinking about what he’d do when he found they were all gone. Although, he did deserve it, didn’t he?
“So,” Harper said as they walked down the corridor towards the obs deck where their guests were currently assembled, “where are we taking them?” He might not have meant anything by it, but the “them” really stood out to her. Was he expecting her to stay now?
“To some little planet I can’t remember the name of. It’s a commonwealth planet, and it’s quite nice apparently.” She realised the tone of her voice was quite short, but she was still very embarrassed around him. The memory of being pulled out in front of him in those clothes was still fresh, and she didn’t think she’d forget it any time soon.
“So,” he said awkwardly, “I guess you’re going to see…” he stopped, unsure of how to end that sentence. She decided to put him out of his misery.
“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I’d better. But I’ll see you later.” She walked into the obs deck, where she was immediately surrounded with grateful women. She tried to shrug it off, and eventually they went back to the discussion they’d had before she came. What they were going to do now that they were free. The general idea seemed to be what Beka had thought of before, starting a new brothel.
“We could have our own rules.”
“And keep all the money ourselves.”
“And if we don’t want to work one night, we don’t have to.”
“And…no BDSM.”
“No food fetishes.” They went off in a discussion on what they would and wouldn’t allow, Beka being the only one not involved. This had been an idea of hers, so why wasn’t she involving herself? She wasn’t going to stay around. Of course not. How could she?
“So are you coming Rebekah? Or are you staying here?” The question came from Emralda. She shifted uncomfortably before answering.
“Yeah, I guess,” she mumbled vaguely. Emralda frowned.
“Yeah what?”
“I’m coming, I mean. With you.” A few smiles and scattered comments were given to her in reply before she decided to leave them to their discussion. She felt strangely sick all of a sudden. Running out of the obs deck and, in lack of the Maru, to her crew quarters she, in repetition of last night, fell onto the bed shaking with sobs. She wasn’t sure why she was crying, or why she was so scared, but she didn’t really care. It was just as if it was something she couldn’t control, and in addition to the emotions already flowing through her, it frightened her. Why was she so upset? She had absolutely no reason to be. The thing she had wanted before was now within her grasp, she should be happy. She should be in the obs deck, planning for their business. Instead, she was lying on her bed, crying her eyes out. It didn’t make sense, not that any of her feelings made sense. For the first time in a long time, Beka really missed something. A friend. Not like the women from the brothel. Sure, they were nice, but she needed someone else. Someone who really knew her. She needed someone like Harper. But no way could she…no way. So she just had to do the one thing she could do. She had to cry alone.
