He nodded. I pushed my hair behind my ears and sighed. I wondered how long it would take for him to do something I had no desire to do.
“And Margit?”
“We were getting there. To being friends I mean,” I replied.
“What of Minikin? She seemed a bit distraught when I excused you yesterday,” he said conversationally.
“Because she’s scared, Kerstan. She doesn’t want to be here anymore than the rest of us do. We’re not friends though. I already told her not to even attempt to be my friend because I have zero interest.”
Kerstan chuckled and finally got to his feet. I closed my eyes tightly for a moment and told myself not to fight him; to let him do whatever he wanted to me. But when the bed didn’t creak and when I didn’t hear the sound of his pants unzipping, I cracked one eye open and glanced over at him. He had his hands pressed firmly on the windowsill and he was looking at something almost directly below him.
“Come here,” he said without looking at me.
I took a deep breath and shimmied toward the end of the bed. I quickly walked over to Kerstan’s side and he finally turned to glance at me. His smile gave me chills, because it was the sinister smile he would almost always get when he was going to say or do something completely fucked up.
He turned slightly and sat on the windowsill keeping his eyes glued to my face. I raised an eyebrow at his intent stare and wondered how high up we really were and if a jump would kill or just maim me.
“So, Minikin is of no consequence to you, then?” he asked.
“None,” I lied, licking my lips nervously.
With a nod, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. I watched as he pressed a button, held the phone to his ear, and after a short moment, said something in Dutch. No sooner did he hang up his phone than I heard a scream from outside. Cur
iously, I got as close as I could to Kerstan so that I could look outside. And when I looked down, my heart broke and tears sprang to my eyes.
It was Minikin. Sweet virginal Minikin, surrounded by a small group of men. Instinctively, I tried to push past Kerstan because I reasoned there had to be some way to get down into the gardens that I now knew sat below his window, and save her from what was about to happen. But he gripped my wrists tightly in his arms, and sat me down on the small sliver of space next to him.
“Watch.”
That was his simple command. His only wish for this entire evening tonight was that I would watch. One of them looked up at the window at Kerstan, almost as if waiting for approval. I wasn’t sure if he gave a nod, because my back was pressed against his body, but the man grabbed Minikin by her hair and lifted her head.
When she saw me she burst into tears. This young girl who trusted me, or at least I thought she did, was looking up at her owner and her pseudo friend sitting on the windowsill “together” watching.
“Kerstan, please don’t do this to her. Please, she’s a virgin. This isn’t right. This shouldn’t happen to her,” I whispered frantically to him.
He chuckled behind me, and let one hand slide from my left wrist, around my waist. “I don’t like being lied to Amity. Your foolishness is what costs her purity. I will not tell them to be gentle and I will not stop them. I want them to bruise her on the inside and I want her to know that you had a hand in it. And do you know why? Because you think yourself my equal and it drives me mad. If you wish to be my equal, then you will learn how. At the expense of those close to you,” he whispered into my ear.
I watched as the man let go of her hair and pushed her roughly to the ground. I watched as he ripped her panties from her body and I watched as he took his erection out of his pants and position himself behind her.
“Let me take her place,” I pleaded.
“No. You’re still a whore, but you’re now my whore until it is time to give you up. Now. Watch.”
And I did.
As each man climbed on top of her after her initial, brutal pounding that she took. After she had her virginity stolen from her in the worse way possible, I sat and I watched as each of the men took turns viciously raping Minikin; sometimes two at a time, as she cried helplessly until her tears and sobs faded away to nothing. Until she just lay in the gardens that I once loved so much and took violation after violation, a stoic, faraway look on her face.
Five
I was lying in Kerstan’s bed, the sounds of Minikin’s screams and sobs echoing loudly in my mind. As loud as a sonic boom exploding over and over in my mind. I knew the sun would be up soon and I would hopefully be allowed to go back to our rooms. I decided that I would convince Minikin to run away with me; I wanted to set her free more now than ever and I would come back so that he wouldn’t send anyone to chase her.
The sun had not yet come up when Kerstan stirred behind me. His fingers came to life and slowly rubbed my belly before he removed his hand to my hip.
“Goedemorgen,” he said softly.
“Not quite,” I replied curtly. I grit my teeth to keep myself from attempting to break his hand. His touch to me was viler than that of any of the “customers” I had been sent to entertain.
He chuckled tiredly and took his hand from my hip, using it to brush my hair away from my face and neck. Kerstan shifted slightly and gently grazed his lips against my neck, causing my body to react. My mind however, was wondering how long I would be able to take this before I tried to impale him with the pen that was sitting on the nightstand next to us.