The Bad Girl (3 page)

“Do I?” he asked raising his eyebrows.

“Kerstan, for fuck’s sakes! Those two never did anything to you. They were
my
friends so you sent them away to Mindfuck Land and now you’re going to let them keep thinking I’m dead? Come on! Where the fuck is your decency as a human being?” Amity yelled at him.

“I’m trying very hard to control my anger right now, Lieve,” he said quietly. “I ask that you lower your voice and have respect or it’ll be at least a month before you can walk again.”

Amity took a deep breath and got off of the bed. She went over to Kerstan and sat next to him quietly choosing her next words.

“I’ll do the thing you’ve been dying for me to do. With you only if you just please let them know that I’m alive,” she mumbled looking at the floor.

Kerstan looked at Amity, then he looked at me. “Does Luuk know you’re here?”

“No. I told him I was going to town; that was seven days ago.”

“You told him or asked his permission?” he asked.

“I don’t ask Luuk’s permission for anything. I
told
him,” I replied coldly.

“I think we’ve found the Amity Crane of
that
house,” Kerstan replied rolling his eyes. His statement was followed by a sigh. Amity kept her eyes on him as he contemplated what he was going to do.

“I don’t like that you lied to me,” he said looking at me. “I don’t tolerate things like that and because of that, my answer is no. I will not allow word to go back to Betje and Minikin that you’re alive, Lieve.”

Her mouth dropped open. I think that whatever it was that she was offering to do with him or for him would gain his favor, but he rejected it because of me.

“Go back to your house. That’s your punishment,” Kerstan said getting to his feet.

“Fine!” Amity yelled. She ran over to a closet that sat along the far wall and began to pull out clothes.

I watched her silently as did the rest of Kerstan’s women as she pulled on a pair of denim shorts, a t-shirt, and fished around the bottom of the closet before pulling out a pair of simple, flat black shoes and sat on the floor while she slid them on. When she was done she got to her feet and came back over to where I was sitting.

“Let’s go,” she said in a determined voice, yanking me off of the bed. I looked at Kerstan nervously as we walked past him toward the door.

“Stop right there,” he said in a low, menacing tone. “You are
not
going to that house, Lieve.”

“The hell I’m not! You won’t tell them that I’m okay, then I’ll tell them myself!” she yelled at him.

“Amity, you will not go to that house. You aren’t ready for that just yet,” Kerstan said coming over to us. “Famke will go back alone and you will stay here with me,” he said prying us apart.

Amity reached for Kerstan’s hand and pulled it off of my arm and opened the door. She gently pushed me through and slammed the door closed behind us.

“Run or we’ll never make it to the front door,” she said urgently as she broke into a sprint.

I’d like to think that if we hadn’t spent the time glancing over our shoulders we would have made it. I’d like to think that Amity didn’t suffer to terribly when Kerstan easily caught up to us and slammed her face into the door, knocking her out cold. I’d like to think that he wouldn’t tell Luuk that I had been there and that I was trying to desperately defect.

I’d like to think a lot of good things about him, but as I walked home with him following closely in his chauffer driven car, in tears, and terrified, I soon learned that maybe Kerstan was worse than Luuk after all.

Five

Betje

On the ninth evening that Famke was missing, we were all sitting in the dining room eating dinner. I sat with Minikin to my left and Ilse to my right. Ever since we were told that Amity was dead and Famke disappeared, I refused to let either one of them out of my sight.

The doorbell rang reverberating throughout the house and Luuk glanced at one of his servants and waived them out of the room to answer it. I glanced down at my plate still full with vegetables, mashed potatoes, and thin cuts of pork shoulder on it unable to find my appetite. If Luuk had noticed, he hadn’t said anything.

I sighed and placed my fork gently down on the plate and looked at the other girls. They were all eating quietly and I couldn’t help but feel like we were in some kind of twisted convent because of the strict silence during meals rule he had.

“Luuk,” the servant said frantically as she entered the room. (Luuk’s servants were older whores of his that could never figure out what to do with their lives once their debts were worked off.) “Luuk, you must come quickly.”

He glanced up at her looking completely annoyed that someone was speaking during a meal and got up from his seat. He used his cloth napkin to wipe his mouth before he dropped it onto the table and followed her out.

A few moments later there was an eruption of raised, angry voices coming from the main hall. We all jumped in surprise and looked at each other wondering who would be brave enough to peek and see what was happening.

“I’ll do it,” Ilse finally said.

“Be careful,” I whispered as she got up and ran toward the door. She opened it slightly and peeked out before she turned around and waved me over.

“Look,” she said moving slightly so that I could look into the brightly lit hallway.

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

It was Famke; she was back, but she wasn’t alone. She was standing there in bitter tears, with her head down as Luuk argued with a man I couldn’t quite make out. I can’t say that I was thinking clearly when I ran out into the hallway toward Famke. I just knew that she was scared and I wanted to be there for her.

But the closer I got the clearer the man came into view and my quick paces slowed to a screeching halt when his eyes wandered over to me. The slow smile that spread across his lips was so familiar and the way his eyes pierced into me made me feel unsteady on my feet.

Before either of us could say anything to each other, Famke let out a rush of frantic words, “Amity’s not dead! She’s not! I saw her! She’s still alive!”

The snapping sound that followed hit me like a shot in the heart. I watched as Kerstan moved his hands away from Famke’s neck and watched her body collapse onto the ground between him and Luuk.

“Keep  your whores away from my house, or the next time it will be you,” Kerstan warned Luuk.

I watched as he callously nudged Famke’s lifeless body with his shoe before he turned his eyes back up toward me.

“You and Minikin are to stay away from my home and Lieve, do you understand? Don’t send anymore spies to me. You both had your chance and you screwed up. Now you have to deal with it,” he said evenly. 

My lips trembled as I looked Kerstan in the eyes. I wanted so desperately to attack him for what he did to Famke and I wanted to attack him for sending us away when we did nothing wrong. But instead I turned toward Luuk and kept my eyes off of Famke so I wouldn’t lose my nerve.

“May I please go outside and get some fresh air?” I asked in a shaky voice.

He nodded. Without hesitation Luuk permitted me the one thing that he had denied us all unless we were stepping outside to get fresh air, fuck someone, and bring money back in.

“Thank you,” I whispered as I walked past them both and out the front door.

I collapsed onto the stairs and began to sob. This was all wrong; Famke shouldn’t be dead. Kerstan shouldn’t be here and Minikin didn’t deserve this life of sexual slavery.

A pair of strong hands grabbed me by the shoulders and I looked up through a veil of tears to see Kerstan’s most trusted Grandmother pulling me to my feet.

“Come quickly, Betje. We came for you and Minikin; where is she?” the old woman asked me.

“She’s still inside!” I replied frantically.

“Then she must stay,” she said pushing me toward Kerstan’s waiting car. She opened the backdoor and ushered me inside instructing me to lie down while she hid me beneath a blanket.

My heart was racing. I was terrified of what would happened if I was discovered and even more terrified of leaving Minnie behind, but if Amity was still alive, I knew that she would come in person to retrieve her and Luuk wouldn’t be able to deny her. Not only was she beautiful, but she was cunning with her words and would be able to strike a bargain for Minnie.

The car door opened and closed.

“Drive,” Kerstan’s voice said. “I’m sorry about your friend Betje, but she deserved it for her transgression. I will take you back to Lieve and somehow I’ll get Minikin back too. But I want you to know that I don’t do this for either of the two of you. I do this for Lieve.”

I closed my eyes as the car drove away from the House of Luuk back to the House of Kerstan. I felt myself become less afraid because I knew that Amity was at the other end of the drive. I let out a sigh as I fell asleep the rest of the way back.

Six

“Wake up, troublemaker,” a voice gently said.

My eyelids fluttered and I turned on my side. The voice sounded so familiar but if it was true then it would be a dream walking through my nightmare.

“Wendeline, my little German brat,” the voice said affectionately brushing a hand over my hair. “Wake up.”

I groaned as I turned on my side and forced my eyes open. I blinked a few times to get them to focus and I turned my head slightly.

The kindest face, the brightest blue eyes, and the most genuine smile greeted me. It was her
.
It was Amity; her hair was no longer completely blonde, but it was
her.

I sat up and wrapped my arms tightly around her, crying into her chest. She laughed kindly and hugged me close. Neither of us said anything further, we just held each other until I was done crying like a lost child.

“I’m sorry about your friend.”

I pulled away from Amity slightly and saw Kerstan suddenly standing behind her, his arms crossed over his chest.

“You killed her!” I shrieked jumping up from the bed and trying to claw at him. Amity, however, gripped me around the waist and pulled me back down onto the bed.

“It was either her or you, Wendeline,” she said quietly. “Kerstan didn’t have a choice.”

My head started to spin and my temples started to ache. What the fuck was going on? Why was she defending him? Had that much changed since we had been given away?

“We have to get Minnie out of there as soon as possible,” she said to Kerstan.

“I know,” he replied with a heavy sigh. “I obviously can’t go back  to do it and I won’t let you go. If we send her back he’ll kill her,” he said nodding at me.

“What the fuck is going on?” I asked rubbing my temples. “It almost sounds like the two of you are working together when I know you can’t stand the sight of one another.”

Amity cleared her throat and glanced up at Kerstan. He nodded and she turned her attention back to me.

“We’ve come to an understanding; almost a stalemate to be able to co-exist. Part of my deal in cooperating with the new set of rules for me is that he gets you and Minikin back. So far, I can see he’s holding up his end of the bargain. One down, one to go.”

I looked at the large bump on her forehead and raised an eyebrow, “So he still gets to knock you around? That sounds like a shit deal to me.”

She laughed and put a hand to tenderly to the bump, “Still working out some of the kinks. That hasn’t happened in a long time and I think someone regressed back to their old selves for a minute.”

Kerstan chuckled slightly before he walked toward the door. “I’ll have one of the grandmothers take her to my room. She’ll rest better there. Amity, you come with me. We have to things to discuss.” I looked at Amity and she smiled at me before she left the room with Kerstan.

A moment later the same elderly woman who had helped me escape from Luuk’s house entered the room. She gently, but firmly wrapped an arm around my waist and helped me off of the bed. We went down the hallway back to a grand staircase and up to a private floor. It was kind of weird how there were barely any other doors on this floor yet so many on the others.

***

Amity

“That was pretty risky of you; to go into his house yourself and try to get them back,” I said quietly as I walked next to Kerstan.

He nodded without so much as a glance toward me and made his way to the formal parlor. I had only been in there once before, when we sat down and negotiated our new terms. We had spent nearly all night arguing, because he didn’t want to get Betje and Minnie. Of course, when I told him that Lieve would die an instant death and Amity Crane would be back in full force, he conceded.

Kerstan put his hand on the elaborate gold door handle when we reached the parlor and hesitated for a moment.

“Are you sure that you want to get Minikin back? What I did ... It has put a mark on this house,” he said uneasily.

“Don’t worry. If any ninjas come flying through the windows, I’ll be sure to fuck them back out,” I replied breezily, reaching for the door knob.

“This isn’t a game, Lieve,” he shot back angrily. “You still have the will of a child in many, many things and you don’t understand what can possibly happen now. To my girls, to you, to my grandmothers. Nothing will happen to me; that would be result in too much trouble for Luuk, but the rest of you are now targets.”

“Listen if it bothers you that much, then close the doors until we figure it out. There
are
other brothels in town you know,” I said pulling the door open.

“No. He would expect that and I don’t want to lose business. You’re do to be out and working soon too. You know how much money you make me,” he replied closing the doors firmly behind us and locking them.

I rolled my eyes but didn’t say anything. Apparently the world would come to an end if he allowed me to tighten up.  Or any of the girls for that matter. I sometimes wondered how he would feel if he was being used for money he didn’t get to keep. I also wondered how he felt if whenever he was asked by one of us how much closer we were to paying off our debts, he would just smirk and dismiss it.