Arina

Chapter Twenty-Four

It was a bleak morning, though it was only just autumn. The climate matched the feelings and attitude of the people of the brothel. All were a bit sensitive due to the previous day’s events in which Mustafa once again used violence on one of the inhabitants of the building.

Arina sat in her bed, her eyes were still red from the previous day. That and also the fact that she hadn’t slept all night. Neither had Natalie. Both had stayed up and, frequently, said a few words to each other- nothing too friendly. Most of their talk was merely neutral; nothing that caused anything more.

It was the morning now and it was time for the girls to get up. Their daily routine had become a habit that they had grown into quite quickly for Arina forced herself up from her bed. Neither of the girls wanted to get up, but they knew they had no choice.

Natalie did not want to get up because a part of her felt embarrassed because of the way she reacted when Mustafa was attacking her. Most of the time she had tried her best to kept her dignity in tact when it came to her being subjected to violence. She often avoided pleading, crying, or wailing in pain because she thought it would prove to Mustafa that what he was doing to her was affecting her. She wanted him to think that it did not have any sort of affect on her to stop him from doing it further, but yesterday, she had done all three things. All three things that, she thought, damaged her reputation in the house. Natalie now believed that people in the house would no longer see her as the strong, hard-faced person she made herself out to be; she would not be able to stand it if that was the case.

Arina did not want to get up because she was still feeling iffy about D. She was not sure about him. He had been rude to her in their conversation by not explaining what he meant, but a part of her believed he was not dangerous. If the police wanted him, it must be for a minor reason, she figured.

She also still felt guilty for how she had behaved with Haden. Arina felt as if she had been incredibly rude to him, and she was pondering what the outcome between them would be. Thinking back to before her Baba’s funeral, she remembered her and Haden had almost shared a kiss before D had interrupted with news of her step-father’s death. What did that almost-kiss mean? And if D had not walked in, would she have gone through with it? Arina strongly hoped that Haden did not stop talking to her now because of yesterday, but she also storngly believed that that would be the actual outcome. After all, he did offer her the ultimatum of ‘now’ or ‘never’.

Slowly, Arina left for the bathroom, returned, and then headed downstairs for her usual bowl of porridge. Walking into the kitchen, she saw Kos.

          “Morning, darling. How are you feeling?” Kos asked, in her usual motherly-tone.

          “I’m fine, thanks.”

          “Have a seat, I will make breakfast for you today.”

Kos said it in a manner that made having breakfast in the brothel sound like a good thing, when in actual fact, Arina loathed it. She felt sick every time she had to put another spoonful of sour, off porridge down her throat, but she was smart enough to know that she had to eat to have energy for her usual activities. Kos was acting especially nice to Arina because she felt sorry for her. She hated seeing such an innocent young girl have to go through such things.

On the contrary, Arina still felt guilty because of what Mustafa had been forcing her to do with him when he was married to Kos. She wanted so badly to just tell, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it for fear of what Mustafa would do to her.

Taking a seat, Kos soon brought her a bowl of porridge with a spoon that had obviously not been washed for days. It made Arina just sick to think that she’d have to eat that.