“Careful girlie! If Kerstan likes you, he’ll fuck you instead of sending you out to work and then you’ll be stuck here forever like me,” a brunette with big blue eyes and an American accent called out.
Kerstan? I found him? Finally!
“Lieve, why must you always do this?” he asked in exasperation.
“Because I like to piss you off,” she replied simply.
“Lieve?” I asked curiously stepping closer to her. “Your name sounds very familiar to me.”
“Lieve is my hooker name. Call me Amity,” she said lighting a cigarette.
Four
“You’re not dead?” I breathed in disbelief.
“Obviously not,” she replied dryly. “Why is that the new rumor? Killed me off already, did you?” she asked turning her attention to Kerstan who was now staring at me questioningly.
&n
bsp; “Why did you believe her dead?” he asked.
But her hair isn’t blonde. Not completely anymore. This can’t be the girl I’m looking for, I thought shaking my head.
“Famke,” Kerstan said sternly. “Did you lie to me? Do you belong to another house?”
I put a hand to my chest and tried to steady my breathing. “My owner’s name is Luuk; he told Betje and Minikin that Amity was dead.”
Amity sat up immediately at the sound of her friends’ names. She got to her feet and came over to me and gripped my arms firmly.
“Are they okay? You’re in the same house with them? Oh God, tell me they’re okay!”
Tears slid down my face. Luuk was more of a monster than I thought he was. He took great pleasure in wearing us down physically but moving on to mental degradation was way worse than any smack or belt lash.
“Luuk?” Kerstan cut in with a half-smile on his face. “Defecting are you? I won’t turn you away if you’d like to stay. That bastard owes me and he knows it.”
“Why would he say you were dead?” I wondered quietly to myself. “Minikin – I swear I’ve heard her heartbroken cries every time I’ve closed my eyes since.”
Amity put her arms around me and took me over to her cot. She balanced her cigarette between her lips as she pulled off the sheet on the bed next to her and wrapped it around me.
“You’ve got to find a way to let them know I’m alive,” she said looking at Kerstan.
“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.