PRETTY THEFT

SEVEN PT.3 [M] /3

I watched carefully as Jennie let out a hum of an answer. The girl kicking off from the wall she had been leaned against and grimacing as she straightened up on her tall, platform heels.

She forced a practiced smile back at me before taking my tray of drinks from my hand. Quickly sweeping her long hair over her shoulders, my eyes flickered up to the noticeable bruise along her collar bone.
It was a little too big to be a hickey, but I didn't see it for much longer before she propped the tray up onto her shoulder easily.
Warning bells.
There were no more words exchanged before she motioned me to follow her.

And so I did.

Walking through the V.I.P hallway, I was surprised by how much quieter everything was.
The music could still be heard but it lessened significantly as we walked, our heels quickly becoming the only sound in the hall.

"You're incredibly healthy to be a newbie, "
Jennie commented quietly. The strain in her voice even more noticeable now that it was silent.
She flashed a near envious glance over her shoulder as she continued,
"They must like you a lot,"

My eyebrows pulled together as we walked down the hall. Silence once again falling over us as I tried to gather what she was implying. Obviously there was something I was missing here.

My eyes wandered down her back as I followed her through a hallway. The red flag, once again being ignored as she kept talking,
"When did you arrive from transport?"

My eyebrows knitted together as I considered her question, transport from where?
I shook my head slightly as I stared down the various dark splotches of makeup that adorned her skin.
Were those bruises?,

"A week ago," I tried randomly. 

Her steps stuttered slightly, making me pause in my place as the sound of her voice itched at my ears again,
"A week?" It came out whispered, almost disbelieving as she flashed a glance over her shoulder to look at me.

It was then, when I noticed the limp in her right leg.

My face remained stoic. My eyes suddenly trailing our surroundings as she continued our hushed conversation,

"You're not even marked yet..they must really like you,"

Marked?
The emotion in her voice left me even more confused as it lacked any sort of bitterness to it. Wasn't it normally a good thing to be the favorite?
However, instead of bitter, she only sounded sympathetic,

"I used to be like you, you know?"
Jennie told me quietly, the girl carrying on our conversation herself,
"Eventually though, they got tired of me,"

She sighed as she stopped before a set of doors and flashed her wrist before a scanner. A buzz sounded from the door as it unlocked, leading us passed the VIP rooms completely. 
My heart raced as I looked to the barcode tattooed onto her wrist, something I had only thought I had seen on a few of the other dancers in the club.

'Marked'

She let out a few puffs of air, maybe it was an attempt to laugh but I couldn't tell,
"Maybe, you'll have the something I didn't," she offered kindly— or at least that's what it seemed like as she walked us down a dark hall of blood-red doors, stopping in front of one set in particular and handing me the drink tray back,