The Leviathan

Chapter 3 ~ ALICIA ~ Perfume

Chapter 3 ~ ALICIA ~ Perfume

We are not made to be alone. My mother used to tell me that. I’ve always believed it. I can’t remember her face or her voice. But I can always remember her perfume. That sweet, sweet smell of moonlight and evening dew… that’s always what I imagined it to be.

The Red Light District had always been my home ever since I can remember. It had always been a man’s paradise but to us, the women of the night, this place is a prison. A nightmare we couldn’t wake up from. All the women here cannot leave, from the day we  are bound to this prison when we are young up until our death. Some of us came here through the slave traders and some had been sold by their own family . And some, the unluckiest of them all like me, are born in this hell. We can only leave this place when we die. When we get too old and useless, they kill us and throw our bodies in the river. With no name and no family, those who found our bodies buries us in unmarked graves. Abandoned just like that. Just like everyone has.

 There are no children here. Everyone that is female is considered an object of lust and gratification no matter how young. We are taught how to beguile and please men from the day we can hold pens. At the age of 12 we undergo a coming of age ceremony where we are made to watch for the first time, the lustful act that will be the bane of our existence. As I said before there are no children here. Only women. We are the forgotten children of the pleasure world.

At the age of 14 everyone participates in a bidding. That is to lose one’s chastity to the highest price possible. But not me. My price can only be paid by my weight in diamonds. And the more I grew up, the more expensive I become. The reason why? My eyes are the color of gold. Like the color of the summer sun. I am the only one in this district with this kind of eyes. Most of the pleasure women are priced by the color of their eyes. I do not know why. But this is the world I have known. From the age of 14, the pleasure house that I belong to had locked me up in the tower. And every night, when the district became alive with the red lanterns and the beguiling women in red, I sat here in my tower. Looking down at the world below me. And every man who came to the district knew my name.

“Alicia! Alicia!” They called me.

But I pay them no attention. No matter how loud they scream my name. No matter how rowdy they become they cannot touch me. I am the untouchable virgin. I am the sun that shines on the district. I am the dream they cannot have. When the dawn came and every man leaves, the women send them away. I can hear their goodbyes, the promises they exchanged that can never happen. And all that’s left for us were broken dreams and loneliness.

But I am loneliest woman in this town. Because I have no one. Not even a friend. The only kindness I have remembered is a memory of a perfume. We are not made to be alone. But some of us doesn’t have that choice.