Matéo

Back from Hell

"The place looked well kept but it felt like I going into a real military dome. They had to force us out of the boat with people with guns aimed at the back of our heads if we tried to run, unfortunately, someone did and they were killed instantly. Most of stayed quiet and put while others cried in fear, for me, I was still too busy trying to comprehend was all that real and if that was my new life now.

"They took us to dorms where we be staying and this is where I met Storm, she ended up being my new roommate."

"What was she like back then?"

He smiled, "The same but more. . . Storm; she was basically like a teenage version of Mary.

"I didn't know why they had set me up with her in the first place, I was only eleven while she was almost an adult; kinda weird.

"As time went on she acted so weirdly around me like when I wake up I find her sitting on her bed just staring at me and sometimes when she thought I was sleep she crawl in my bed, holds me close to her like I was her son or something with her crying every now and then."

"You must've meant a lot to her."

He shrugged, "Beats me, we were strangers to each other back then and she made it seem like she despised when we were around each other.

"Anyway, us kids were sent to meet. . . him," Moo grimaced, "That son of bitch of a leader, Bates Lawrence. If you thought Lilly was bad, Bates made look like a harmless sheep compared to him."

Violet shivered knowing how awful Lilly was, she couldn't imagine coming across someone worst than her.

"The soldiers made kneel like he was some king, if you refused you were taken to a room and be brutally beaten—tortured," he trailed off quietly making Violet wondered if had gone through that, she prayed he didn't but this story was already at a rough start.

"He assigned us to where we would going and doing for of our lives there. Almost all of us were assigned to be soldiers in training, and as for me. . ." he sighed heavily inhaling more of his half-burnt cigarette, "I was assigned as a soldier and training too but. . ."

"What is it?"

"He assigned me to be in the group's brothel too."

The word was foreign to her but by the look in Moo's eyes, it wasn't a nice place to be in.

"What was it?" she asked out of curiosity.

"A sex working place."

She was right, it wasn't a good place after all. She thought what compelled this sick leader to put a child in an environment that he wasn't ready for, the thought just made Violet ill to her stomach.

"Why the fuck would he do that to you?" she growled as she still couldn't stop thinking about it.

He grabbed a fold-up chair beside him gently sitting in it inhaling the last bit of his cigarette, "He said I was too cute to pass up, cuteness equals more trade of supplies and weapons for them."

"But you were only a kid! I feel like I'm making that clear."

"There were a lot of young people in there I just happened to be the youngest, so yeah.

"When they took to the leader of the brothel, Gertrude, just instantly fell in love with me despite my age. She had special trainers to help me get in shape because she also told me even though I had the looks it couldn't substitute chubbiness."

She frowned, "But you were cute either way."

"She thought otherwise and. . . so did I.

"I didn't really go into the brothel until like a year later, they made me focus more on my soldier and physical training more than anything else. After every session I was so beat, my body felt a million weights being was crushing it, Storm had told Bates and Gertrude to lay off on the training but Gerts wouldn't listen and Bates, well Bates did listen to her request but for too long.