Thursday, June 22, 2023

Day 173 - Joon

 Joon
 Matthew Ryan Fischer

 
It was an expensive apartment. That is up until Vik kicked the door in. Drugs and drunks fell to the ground as party guests scattered. Some of the men looked surprised; the women did not. They knew how to tell time and knew the party had run long. Some ran to challenge him, but Vik was a vicious fighter and seemed to enjoy leaving them on the ground. The women knew better than to run. Sure, they might make it to the street, but then where would they go? There was no way out of town on foot and none of them had any contacts around the city to help them escape. Joon sat and watched the fighting. It was impressive. She couldn’t remember the last time she had actually be turned on, but seeing Vik in action reminded her about what she had once appreciated about a man. Not that he’d care. He looked at the women with disgust, sometimes pity. He had looked at Fiona one or two times too many, but had never said or done anything. Joon considered him a dead-end. She had her own plans on how to escape the life, and none of them relied on one of her slave masters to suddenly turn benevolent. Joon was a realist that way, unlike many of the others.  
Vik found a man who seemed to own the apartment and threw him on the couch. Vik made eye contact with the women he brought and simply said “time’s up” like it was an order. The women began to file out of the room. The men protested and some even offered more money. The time for negotiations was over and once Vik had made up his mind, it was made up. As she made her way past him, Joon smiled and said “you’re pretty tough,” to which Vik had no reply. Joon wasn’t done and she reached out to touch him, but Vik put a stop to that right quick. Time to go home.
Back at the hotel, Vik walked towards the manager’s office, probably to get his money, and Joon when to her crowded room with five other girls. “Anything?” asked Fiona. “He’s a dead-end, just like I told you before.” “And your friend?” “I’ll see him soon.” It wasn’t an answer, but it was the best one Joon had.
“What about the brother? You sleep with him yet?”
“I won’t need to sleep with him to in order to use him. We only need him distracted for a moment.” Joon acted confident, even though she was doubtful inside. The plan she had was hardly a plan at all, but a fool with too much money and love in his eyes had made promises, and Rikard was never as careful as his brother. She couldn’t get all the girls out, but she would make sure she got a couple to come along with her. The real challenge would be where to hide and then how quickly they could move. The right car, the right street, it might only take an hour or two to get out of town. If no one was even looking yet, she could be long gone. The gangs had reach but she doubted they would look very hard. There was always a new boat coming in and a new group of girls. She just needed a back staircase and a waiting vehicle in the alley and a slew of distracted eyes. Not a lot to ask but maybe too much to hope for.

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