“Out,” Kerstan said entering the room. He walked over to Betje and affectionately put a hand on her shoulder. “She needs rest. You and I will talk in a moment. Wait for me in the hallway.”
The German girl got to her feet and stared at me for a moment, before she turned her eyes to Kerstan, nodded, and left the room.
“That’s her best friend,” he explained as he sat down where Betje was. “I hadn’t been very kind to her and Lieve tried to protect her from me. I wasn’t happy about it so I had some things done to her while Lieve watched then I sent her to Luuk.”
“I’m not a priest,” I replied in a labored voice. The numbness was starting to go away and the pain was starting to creep up on me.
“I’m aware,” he said with a wry smile. “But I think that you should be aware of how I’ve ... evolved as a House Master since you’ve been gone. It’ll help both of us; me if you let me talk about it and you, if you listen.”
I rolled onto my other side so my back would be to him. It hurt like hell since that’s the side my cut was on, but not only did I not have time for stories I had no want for them either.
He scoffed as he the bed creaked, signaling him getting to his feet.
“Eventually you’ll have to listen. The doctor is on his way. Stay in this room until you feel better.”
; I heard his footsteps retreating as he left the room, following by the door closing.
With my eyes closed, I sighed again. I hadn’t even come close to saving the American and now Luuk knew the real reason I had come to his house.
I can’t save her yet. I haven’t even saved myself.
Nine
Famke
The screams were starting to haunt me. Ever since the Dutch girl had left with Kerstan, Amity had been wailing. It scared me because I didn’t know what was wrong or what had been happening to her to cause it.
Luuk had locked her back into the main dining room once they had left and warned us that if we let her out or went near the door, we’d be found floating in the Amstel river. He said no one would care about a discarded whore and everyone believed him.
Everyone but me.
In the moment that Kerstan had spared my life, I learned that not all House Masters were bastards like Luuk. It made my fear of him and my want to be free clash together with my quest for freedom being the winner.
I wanted to help her, but not the way Kerstan’s girl wanted to help her. I wanted to set her free, truly free, to stop the pain and anguish she had suffered in her short life. Not because I hated her, but because I could see myself in her and I didn’t know if I would be able to sustain myself much longer if she was around.
Amity would be dead, I’d be in jail for the crime and we would both be away from Luuk. It was the perfect plan, I only had to figure out how to execute it.
I took a deep breath as I left my room. The other girls were asleep somehow and the halls were empty. I walked quickly to the dining room and almost stopped short when I saw the door was slightly ajar.
I looked down at my bare feet for a moment wondering how I close I could get before I was noticed. I pushed the fear of being caught out of my mind and walked toward the door again when she let out a howl.
The closer I got the more my body started to shake. The howling, the wailing; something was obviously very wrong. I walked up to the door and I pressed my face against the opening, as the dim light illuminated a small portion of the room. It took my eyes a full sweeps of the room to find her and when I did, my hand flew to my mouth.
She ... she was under the table, the chairs had been knocked out of the way, the table had been flipped on it’s side, and there was a group of men standing around her ... they were ... taking turns with her.
I watched as she fought wildly until two of the men restrained her while a third pushed himself onto her. Amity let out another scream as the man viciously moved in and out her until he was finished. Then another climbed on top of her, then another. And all the while Luuk was standing against the far wall, his arms crossed over his chest, as he watched Amity being gang raped by almost every client he had.
I felt myself becoming ill. I turned around and I ran from the room. Killing Amity wouldn’t save her, hell it wouldn’t save me either. This was our life now and this is what we were meant to be.
I got back to the room and I threw myself onto my bed and started to sob. Ilse came over and laid down behind me, wrapping her arm around me.
“Are they hurting her?” she asked quietly.
A heart-wrenching sob was my only response. I couldn’t nod my head, it was still full of the image of what was happening to her.
“Can we help her?” she asked.