Lasers shot from ten angles, measuring her body and storing her unique physical parameters. Selena noticed Shaun injecting something into his neck; she recognized the green pentagonal packaging of Hardnow. He dropped his hand into his lap and out of sight. Sure, the drug would allow him to have forty orgasms a day, but it would burn him out in a few years. Her stomach clenched with revulsion.
“Bend over,” Knowels said. Her no-nonsense approach
proved she had done this many times before. Selena complied, and Knowels said, “Now spread your cheeks. Wider.”
SeLena did as she was told; her stomach felt like it was in a vise. She was free to leave at any moment, though she would have nothing to show for the experience besides a new kind of humiliation. She had to stick it out for the money. And it wasn’t
as though humiliation was such a stranger.
The lasers continued to dance over her body.
“Stand straight. Computer: depube.”
A foot square opening appeared in the floor and a machine emerged.
“Avert your eyes,” she ordered.
Selena looked away and felt warmth around her groin, then a second of suction. When she looked down, all of her pubic hair was gone. “Hey!”
“Just part of the process. Either get out, or stop complaining and lie down on your back, legs spread.” Both men now had a hand out of sight, each unashamed of the rhythmic motion of their shoulder.
She almost left right then… but school… her career… Beauty…. A spasm ripped through her stomach — something had to give — and Selena vomited. Her dinner made a sad puddle of half-digested noodles and protein sticks; she would have fled the room if her knees weren’t so shaky.
“Computer: cleanup.” Knowels didn’t flinch, though Taylor's hand made a sudden reappearance on the table.Shawn sped up. Selena stomach did another flip-flop. She forced down the taste of bile.
A hatch in the floor opened and a hose emerged, swaying back and forth sucking up the mess. Selena watched it with a dark dread, certain Knowels was going to make her fornicate with the machine. In a way, she no longer cared if that’s what it took.
She suddenly understood how people could have sex on camera. One
small step at a time, each one taking them farther away from self worth. When you stopped caring about yourself, you were primed to do anything. She understood desperation more sharply than ever before. And she understood why there had to be laws to protect those like herself.
The cleanup hose retracted into the floor, and she took a deep breath; it felt like she might have gotten over the hump. The worst wasn’t as bad as her imaginings, though it could have been.
“Are you ready to go on, or should I call in the next girl? There are quite a few you know.” Knowels frowned with impatience.
Selena took a deep breath and lay down on her back. Slowly, she spread her legs.
