An exclusive interview.

CASSANDRA

~*~

I shook my head, and he dropped the shirt on my lap. I lowered the peas, pulled the shirt around my back, and slid my arms through the sleeves. My whole body felt heavy as I slowly linked a few of the buttons in the middle.

“You think badly of me, huh?” Christiano leaned across from me. Ordinarily, I might have made a fuss about him watching as I was even more exposed than usual. I just didn’t have it in me tonight so instead, I merely looked up to him questioningly. “That I would just let any of you girls here get hurt?”

“I am hurt,” I replied dully pulling the peas back to my face.

He sighed and pushed off from the wall and began pacing. “Alright, poor choice of words. You think I would allow any of you to get r*p*d?”

I flicked at the ‘R’ word. Had that been what had almost happened to me?

“I have ears everywhere, Cassandra, you think I wouldn’t get wind of what was going on? That I want any of you to be abused or forced into something you don’t want?”

I scoffed and dropped the peas, “You think any of us want this?”

As I worked down here, Christiano constantly watched me with this cold, but curious gaze, but his eyes came to life abruptly. He nodded and mauled over my question. “So then, what’s your story?” When I didn’t respond, he shrugged. “It’s fine if you would rather not tell me… they’re mostly all the same anyway. Abusive boyfriend, heavily in debt, hell we have a few down here who are even on the run from the police.” He laughed. I must have had a horrible expression on my face because he added quickly, “Always innocent of course.”

“You’re making no sense,” I sighed and put the peas back to my cheek.

“Well, I mean, there must be a reason for you to be here, it’s not as though you could’ve just walked through the front door.” He chuckled and shook his head at the thought.

I gave a nervous laugh to him. “Yeah, not likely, huh?”

“So then, what’s the story?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Ironic, I came here looking for a story now he was asking me for mine.

His eyes twinkled, and he dropped onto the bed beside me shaking his head in awe. “I just knew you didn’t belong. I knew it.”

I scooted away from him and stared.

“If you belonged here, I would have had to agree to a price with you. So first, I would have recognized you. Secondly, you would have some sort of horror story, something you’re running from, and one of the boys would have known you or a friend of a friend ordeal who would have brought your file to me once Paulo acquired you.”

“Horror story?” I repeated.

Where was my pen and paper when you needed them the most?

“I would have assigned you to a room, appointed you a big sister, I have no record of you at all. No record of how long you are to stay, where you came from, where you’re to be dropped off after, and what the price is.”

I sincerely hoped the ‘drop off’ place wasn’t a ditch at the side of the road.

The excitement drained from his face quickly, “So, what do I do with you now? I can’t let you leave obviously… but I can’t keep you here against your will.” He stood up again, pacing the room as I noted his hand resting on his gun.

Panic leaped through me and I stood up quickly. I planted myself in front of him and put my hands on his chest to stop his pacing. “I’m not unwilling!” I assured him. He raised an eyebrow, “I mean, I’m not unwilling to stay here.” I quickly dropped my hands from his chest and took a slow step back. “I mean, I’ll uh- I’ll stay Christiano.”

He moved his hand slowly away from his gun, “I’m just not sure,” He sighed heavily and sunk on the bed again, “I’ve never had a situation like this before. I mean, I know the only logical thing to keep my cover…”

I sat down beside him quickly. We sat in silence, I fiddled with my fingers nervously as he thought.

“Are you going to shoot me?” I finally asked after the longest half-minute of my life.

He crossed his arms over his chest and remained quiet for a few moments. “I couldn’t do that,”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“I’d feel much too bad, I would need someone to do it for me.” My eyes almost fell out of their sockets at his words.

He would kill me.

I could tell the look on my face was horrible because he burst out in laughter almost immediately, “Oh, quit looking at me like that! I was only joking. Relax, lay down, go to sleep.”

Sleep?

“Sleep?” I repeated. At a time like this? Just… sleep?

He stared at me, waiting for my compliance. I bit my lip and lay down slowly as he handed me the peas. I took them and lightly laid them on my cheek. He pulled the covers over me.

“Goodnight, Cassandra.”

~*~

I woke up in the king’s bed, alone of course, but it was still a frightening situation. My cheek was cool, but my once-frozen peas were now merely mush. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I needed a plan or something. There was a ray of light cutting through the darkness of the room and on a whim, I decided to follow it, already assuming where it would lead me.

Christiano sat in his office, his suit jacket was off, the sleeves of his pin-striped shirt were rolled up to just below the elbow, and his feet were propped up on his desk. He inhaled his cigar in his mouth and puffed out smoke from it.

“My dearest, please sit.” He offered with the whitest fake smile ever.

Sh*t…

It was currently, I knew something had been discovered.

God help my soul.