“Was this a set up all along?” I blurt out.
The woman who answered the door just laughs.
“Maxine, get Paige here something to calm her down so she feels more at home,” Reggie instructs her.
“My pleasure,” she says.
“I don’t want anything. I’m fine the way I am,” I protest. “Just tell me what’s going on? What am I here for? Ah!” I cry out as a sharp stabbing pain enters my thigh. I look down and see that Maxine has just stabbed me with a needle. Pain radiates around the injection site, as whatever it is she gives me seeps into my muscle tissue. “What did you ju-“. I don’t even get to finish the sentence. Everything’s gone black.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Reggie’s ‘girls’ are a group of drug dependent women. He provides them with everything they could possibly want, in return for complete complicity.
When he breaks a new girl in, he’s careful not to let her high wear off too much while he uses her body to suit his own purposes.
Reggie enjoys watching his girls with each other, and sometimes with other people. He also enjoys playing out sexual fetishes. I think he must have some sort of playbook somewhere because he asks his girls to do increasingly more difficult things. He seems to like testing their loyalty because the moment one of them says no, he stops giving her drugs.
The withdrawal is excruciating, and the girl will do anything – anything to make the pain stop.
I know this, because I am now one of them. I’m currently experiencing the pain that goes with withdrawal from whatever it is he’s been injecting me with.
I have no idea how much time has passed since Braden brought me here, but while I writhe in pain, locked in a room on my own, time is moving slower than a snail’s pace.
Eventually it’s too much.
“Fine!” I scream out. “I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever you want!”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Party, Party, Party!” Maxine sings, skipping along beside me as we follow Reggie out to a waiting limo. “See, I told you if you were good, he’d start to take you out,” she says quietly in my ear.
Out of all the girls in the house, Maxine has become the closest one to me. It’s not that we talk much, because we’re high most of the time. But we have this quiet bond where we look out for each other. It’s what you need in a situation like ours.
She took pity on me early on in my stay, and coached me on how to behave so Reggie favoured me. Basically, I have to act like I can’t think for myself and say ‘yes’ to everything he asks.
It’s not my favourite thing to do, but it makes my life easier, and has its perks.
Such as tonight. We’re dressed in designer outfits, with matching shoes and handbags. To look at us, you would never guess that we were drug whores. We look impeccable. The only difference between us and any other woman who dresses the same, is that we can’t hold an intelligent conversation. We’re simply too fucked up.
The three of us huddle in the limo, with Maxine and I, seated either side of him as he touches us, however he pleases.
“Hey Maxine,” he says after a while. “Hand out the champagne. We need to celebrate.”
She does as she’s told and starts passing glasses out for us to hold.
“What are we celebrating Reggie?” I ask, holding my glass out as Maxine fills it.
“We’re going to go and see a potential new girl.”
“Another one?” Maxine whines. She’s only a little older than me at nineteen, and has a tendency to pout like a child. But Reggie seems to like it, she’s been his ‘best girl’ for the whole time I’ve been there.