Madame's Rage

Madame had been really pissed off because someone had broken a vase in the living room, and no one was admitting if they'd done it. I had been called down to the living room, along with everyone else. The broken shards of marble were still laying on the dark wood floor. The pieces were rather large, and you could still tell what the vase had looked like. Marble pieces lined with thin streaks of gold were woven throughout each piece. Madame's lips were in a thin, tight-lipped, berry-colored line. Her eyes were narrow in a suspicious glare at each of us. Her thin, frail arms were placed on her hips, a gesture suggesting that she wasn't taking anyone's shit. It was odd, mostly because no one ever really spoke to Madame, she just gave us our appointments and was on her way. Seeing her this enraged was a bit comical and unusual. Though we could all tell she was pissed, it was rather amusing, or at least to me it was. Madame was a stunning lady, and even when her face didn't display a no-nonsense frown, or a friendly grin, she was still gorgeous. "So, does anyone wanna grow a fucking pair and admit they did it?" Madame growled at us all. I saw Shay flinch at her harsh tone. No one spoke, no one even breathed. "Someone better fucking say something before I get my restraints and gags." The fact that she owned anything things of the sort didn't surprise me, but it made me want to laugh. Why was I so giggly? Because, I and Oli had went out hiking again, only this time when we did, we'd come across some fireflies. It had been a really nice evening, rather, dawn. "Well, I didn't do it." Of course Missy would assert her innocence in this scenario. "But I know Tyler was down here and he was trying to dust." Tyler's eyes widened and he shook his head. "No, no, no! I wasn't dusting in here, I-I wasn't dusting at all. I'd just said that the living room was dusty." Tyler explained. I was biting my lip to keep from laughing out loud. I didn't want to laugh and give Madame the false impression that I'd done it, when I had been asleep in bed with the covers pulled up to my neck. "Someone had to have done it, the vase didn't just jump off the fucking mantle." Madame's face was turning red, matching her hair, as she talked. "And it was one of you eight." "I think Oli did it." Jake suggested. It was quiet, completely quiet except for my own eyes which shot to Jake. "I doubt it, Oli doesn't leave the library." Josie told him. Jake snorted. "Whatever. He likes pain, just punish him." Jake replied with an eye roll. I knew Jake could be a dick, but I didn't think he'd go as far as to punish someone else because they 'liked pain'. Yeah, Oli's odd fascination with pain wasn't subtle, but that didn't give anyone any right to hurt him because they assumed he 'liked it'. "Then I'll never know who actually did it." Madame snarled. "WHO THE FUCK BROKE THE MOTHERFUCKING VASE?!" She took a deep breath. "You all have till the count of three to tell me." The room went silent again. "One...

My breathing halted. Everyone's did.

"Two...

Eyes were darting at each other, wordlessly begging for someone to just step forward and get it over with. Shay was shaking slightly in fear of Madame's enraged punishment.

"Three. I'm getting the gags and restraints. You all are fucking pussies, and I hate all of you." Madame turned to go, her bitter words nothing short of spat in our general direction. The moment she left the living room, everyone broke into chatter. "Who the fuck did it?" Missy asked us all. "I'm not about to get punished because one of you is too much of a little bitch to admit you broke the goddamned vase." "I didn't break it, I was with Shay upstairs!" Tyler said. I caught Shay starting to blush. "They were probably fucking again." Ashley scoffed with an eye roll. "Shut the fuck up!" Shay snapped, flicking Ashley off. I shrugged and went to go sit down on a couch. I watched as everyone started blaming each other, over a vase. What if a client had done it? Then what? How quickly we'd all turned against each other made me question how the hell were we all a 'family'? Especially when Madame made it perfectly clear she doesn't like any of us on a personal level. We're all just dirty, filthy, whores to her, so how was that a 'family'? The clinking of metal against one another made us all look in the doorway to find Madame standing with rope and gags. "You all disgust me, line up." The command in her voice drove each of us behind one another, awaiting her plan of pain and harm. She tied our hands together in front of us. Rope around our wrists, binding the limbs together with force. Once our hands were tied, she gagged each of us, then one at a time, she whipped all of us. Ten strikes against our backsides each.

The funny thing is, even when she was done...

We still didn't know who broke the vase.

___

I wonder how college kids communicate with their parents. It's the first time they're really one their own away from the restrictions and care of their parents. So how often do they call? Do they call at all? I'd assume they made regular calls home, perhaps not daily, but maybe once a week or something. Being away from your parents can be a difficult thing. It's almost like you almost forget the joy it had been to be with them everyday. You don't get how it was nice when your mom would make breakfast for you on Saturday mornings, or how you'd get to hang out with your dad and go fishing or fix cars together. Of course parents weren't always perfect, they always seem to forget what it's like to be young, they neglect feelings and assume all of your problems are insignificant. Yeah, most of my problems were insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but at the time, they'd been things that had kept me awake at night. There was also a period of time where I was very confused about my gender, I mean, I'd been born a female, yes, but at the same time, I constantly was wondering if I were just a man born into a female's body. Not to mention the period of time I'd been confused by my sexuality. I think both of those things are things most people think about, but it felt like no one understood my feverish thoughts. So did I miss my parents, yes, I did. But at the same time, I was in no rush to really talk or see them again. Did that make me a bad person? No, it just meant I wasn't very close to the people who'd brought me into the world. There's nothing wrong with that. "My ass hurts." Josie whined from her bed. Everyone had been sent back to their rooms, no clients being taken today; as we all were being punished. "Shut the fuck up." Missy growled from her pillow. I was lying on my side, staring out the window not too far from my bed. "I bet fucking Oli did it." Ashley snarled. "That little shit's always been weird." "He had no reason to do it, and like Josie said, he doesn't leave the library." Missy replied tiredly. "Not to mention the fact the dude's not even that bad." "Are you defending him?" Ashley asked her, sitting up in her bed, wincing slightly. "Considering you're being a bitch right now," Missy sat up as well. "I am. No one talks shit about your man in front of you, so why the fuck do you think it's okay to do it to Holly? She's been nothing but nice to you." "Excuse me? You've been more of a bitch to her than I have." Ashley huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. Missy got out of bed and went over to Ashley. "What? You know I'm right." "I'm a bitch to everyone." Missy slapped Ashley across her face and dragged her by her hair over to my bed. "Now fucking apologize to her." "Hell no! I thought you hated her too, Missy!" Ashley yelled. Missy just sighed and slapped her again. I glanced up at Missy. "Just apologize, Ashley. None of us will think any less of you." I told her. Josie nodded. "I won't either, because I already think you're trash." Missy said, glaring down at the girl. I felt a bit bad for her, but then again, I didn't. "So might as well apologize." "I'm sorry, Holly." Ashley spat out. "Sorry that your boyfriend's a weird, fucking little shit!" And I don't know what came over me, but I punched Ashley in her nose. My heart was racing and my breathing was slow and heavy. Missy had let go of Ashley's hair, as blood trickled from the girl's nose. I stood over her. "You listen here and listen good, you fucking cuntmuffin," I growled. "Don't you ever say anything like that about him. You know nothing, and anything you think you know isn't true. If I ever hear you speak badly about him I will personally slit your throat while your asleep. I'm not afraid to go to prison, so don't think I won't do it." My words were spoken with a calm collective of someone talking to a child about where babies came from. Her eyes were wide with fear as she just nodded her head. "Good." I crawled back into bed and turned my back to all of them. Nothing else was said, the only noise in the room was the sound of each girl settling back into bed. It was dreary and gray-colored afternoon. I wasn't in the mood to talk nor take anyone's shit. Though I still consider myself a pretty decent person, I didn't really know why I got so defensive when Ashley had talked shit about Oli. Maybe it was because I knew he didn't deserve her saying those things about him, or maybe it was because I really cared about him. I'd rather go with both of those suggestions.

___

"You don't capture fireflies in mason jars," Oli said to me that night. It was around six in the morning and we were walking around in the woods again, this time surrounded by the brilliantly, glowing, creatures. "Because doing that makes them lose their beauty. You see, when you see something like them in a fleeting way, you want to remember them like that, not as something you keep in a jar to shake up whenever you're bored." "So you never have kept fireflies in a jar? Nor a butterfly?" I asked him, squeezing his hand. He shook his head. "No, I know their home is out here, so I always let them be." He replied easily. It was like dancing, flickering lights without strings, moving about. In their own world, unknowing of why me and the wonderful man beside me were outside to begin with. "You know, those aren't stars, they're actually galaxies." I glanced over at Oli, but he was simply watching the small creatures fly about. "Really?" I gazed above us, looking at what I'd assumed were stars. They'd twinkled like stars, like bright specks of glitter stamped onto the sky. "Yeah, I remember reading about it in a book the other night, well, morning." He chuckled. "Space is a really interesting topic, but I much prefer the ocean." "The ocean is beautiful, and I think it's full of so many possibilities." "True, there are fishes that create their own light in a pit of darkness, creatures that can turn different colors and creatures larger than islands, all off shore. Isn't that wonderful?" "Beyond wonderful." I leaned up and kissed him gently. "It's getting late, I can see the sun starting to rise." "Okay." We began walking back in the direction of the house, we were about to leave the woods we'd been in when Oli stopped dead in his tracks. Which caused me to almost run into him. "What's wrong?" I whispered, practically hiding behind him. He didn't say anything to me. I didn't hear any growls or sounds of animals about to attack. "Oli?" "What if...what if we didn't go back?" He asked me quietly. "What if we ran?" A sigh of relief oozed out of my body. I looked up at him curiously. "Where would we go?" I asked him. He shrugged. "Anywhere. Anywhere's good. Would you run away with me?" The pleading glint in his eyes made me cave instantly. He probably didn't even mean a word he was saying. "Yeah, I'd run without a second thought." I wasn't lying to him, I'd run because, why not? I knew being a prostitute wouldn't last forever, and it was only a matter of time before Madame fired me and I was back out on the street. "But why are you asking this?" "I dunno. I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and I've wanted to run, but the thought of leaving you behind stops me." "Is there a particular reason why you want to run?" I asked him curiously as we continued strolling again. "You remember that secret I told you that I'd be killed for if it got out?" Oli asked. I nodded. "Well, it's already started to leak out, a few others in the whorehouse know part of it. I have no idea how, but they know. So it's about time I tell you." "You don't have to, unless you want to." "No, it's only a matter of time until you found out anyway. I don't get clients, you know. And there's a reason for that; Madame kinda just uses me as her personal sex toy." He sighed. "She gets very defensive about me and keeps me away from the others. I even have my own room in the very back of the library. You remember when you asked me how I'd gotten into this industry? And I didn't tell you? Well I got into it, because Madame bought me off the streets from some sex-slave ring. I'd been addicted to crack, but Madame got me help and I've been clean since. No one knows she bought me, she could get serious time in prison if anyone found out about that." "I'm...I'm at a loss for words here. I mean, Missy told me that you didn't get clients because Madame was only allowed to touch you. Is that the part you were saying people knew?" "Yeah, they know that part, but honestly, you know how nose-y and talkative everyone can be, it won't be long until someone puts two and two together." "So you don't make any commission like the rest of us do?" "No, Madame says that her buying me was the only payment I deserve." It clicked in my mind in that moment. Oli wanted to run away because he had been convinced he didn't matter to anyone, and now that he saw that he mattered to me, he wanted to make things better for the both of us. I wondered if he'd always been as broken and self-loathing, or if Madame had done that to him. The latter wasn't unreasonable, she could be a bit...cold. "That's not true, and I want you to know that." I told him, squeezing his hand again and looking him in the eyes. "So you'd really run away with me?" "You say the word and I'd go, no matter what or when."