A Light in the Darkness

Paige

“How is that?” I peered through the darkness of one of the many interior hallways Zahur made us stick to, barely able to see McKenna’s black eye.

“Had worse.” She shrugged. Her English accent rounded the edges off all her letters. “Seen other girls come out much worse.”

I nodded. In some ways, Zahur was better than some of the other bastards who had owned me. He let us wear long, thin robes over our naked bodies, let us walk around. Only in pairs and only in the isolated interior hallways he approved, but still.

One of the bastards—I only called them the bastards now—had kept me in a cage for damn near the whole month and a half he had me. But Zahur had a violent streak. I came in with another girl, Delia, and he picked her to spend the first night with. I never saw her again. McKenna had taken me under her wing the next morning.

“Still.” I shook my head. “You’ve got a cut in there. You should see a doctor.”

She laughed, a high tinkling sound. “Mint, and I’ll just head back to M