Fateful Encounter

Marie awoke with a terrible headache.

As she tried to get up, her entire body was stiff and painful, especially her neck and upper body.

Groggily sitting on the ground, Marie kneaded her neck.

This was everything but a 'refreshing rest', Marie thought depressedly, rubbing her slightly crusted eyes.

She slowly got off the wooden floor.

Except for the tiny gap between door and wall, there was no hint of light entering the room, so Marie had to be very careful while walking, as to not accidentally stumble over a candle stand or maybe even her niece. She took small steps, barely lifting her feet off the ground and her arms stretched out to prevent crashing into a wall.

"What are you doing?"

Marie barely avoided screaming when a voice suddenly appeared behind her, but she still spun around, her arms raised, ready to strike.

With a gasp of relief and a rapidly beating heart, she stopped her actions just in time.

"My god, Sarah! You can't scare me like that!", Marie almost shouted.

But Sarah only looked at her with her usual cold face, waiting for Marie to answer her question, obviously not caring about her 'uncle's' sudden outburst.

Unfortunately, Marie still had to take several deep breaths before her heartbeat slowed enough for her to start answering.

"I was going to open the door to let some light inside, you can barely see in here," she complained, pointing at the gap of light, although she didn't expect Sarah to actually see her motion.

Sarah slightly raised her eyebrow but didn't say anything else, passing Marie by and sliding open the door. Immediately, the bit of light outside entered the room and Marie was finally able to see her surroudings again.

Marie was surprised by Sarah's kind gesture for a moment before warmly smiling at her niece.

"Thank you."

Sarah only nodded in response before leaving. Marie hurried to follow.

Once again, the smell inside the brothel was horrible after stepping out of the more or less isolated room, maybe even worse than yesterday night, but at least it was quiet. Which was truly a blessing considering Marie's headache.

Still, she can't live like this, something had to change.

But breakfast came first.

After not eating for an entire day and vomiting her heart out, Marie felt absolutely famished in addition to everything else, but at least for that there existed an easy fix.

"Hey, Sarah, where could we get some breakfast?"

Her niece didn't answer for a while and Marie almost thought she wouldn't receive a reply at all, just then they stepped into the sleeping hall that was shared between all of the other women in the brothel.

And contrary to what Marie expected, most of the women were already awake, sitting around in the hall. Although none of them looked really well-rested, it was actually closer to exhausted to the bone.

But they simply watched the door, not talking, not sleeping, just quietly staring.

With countless pairs of empty eyes, only colored by deep-lying hopelessness in their gaze.

Facing them, facing this gaze that Marie wasn't entirely unfamiliar with, a sudden realization blossomed in Marie's mind.

This were people.

No creatures, no far off aliens, no props for a mission, ...people.

With thoughts and feelings...

And pain.

A sour feeling rose inside her heart.

The longer their gazes crossed, the more grave Marie felt.

"Let's go."

Sarah's words abruptly awoke her from these thoughts.

The women in the sleeping hall began to rise from the ground one after the other, and walked out of the sleeping hall. A few of them however struggled to even sit up, let alone stand. Nobody stopped to help them.

When Marie saw this, she couldn't just remain still, she slowly weaved through the crowd of leaving women into the room, which was pretty easy since they took care to leave at least half a meter between them and her, staring at her for a moment when she passed them.

Even the extremely weak women stared at Marie with slight fear in their devoid eyes, trying harder to get up the closer she got.

A small frown appeared on Marie's face as she noticed this, but she still walked up to one of them.

The girl seemed to be in slightly better shape, she had a small pair of black and white ears on top her orange-red head and there was a painful expression on her pale face, although she still warily stared at Marie.

Coming to a halt, Marie began to bend down, finally kneeling down next to the girl who was watching her with olive green eyes. But the moment Marie really faced the girl, the frown vanished, exchanged for a warm and friendly smile.

"Good morning," Marie greeted the other in a soft tone, "You don't look too good, what's wrong?"

The girl was stunned for a moment, she nervously looked at Marie, pleadingly glancing past her several times, unsure on what to do.

Ultimately, the girl hesitantly opened her mouth, her fear obvious.

"My body feels weak..., I can't move...", the girl paused, closing her eyes tightly, waiting to be chastised for being lazy but nothing happened. She slowly opened her eyes.

The 'youth' before her had a sympathetic expression on 'his' face, entirely focused on her as 'he' seriously listened.

"Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere else?"

The girl was unprepared for this question, it threw her off completely. She didn't know what to do, just continuing staring at the 'youth's' face.

Seconds passed, the 'youth' was still patiently waiting for her reply, the expression on his face so sincerely worried that she couldn't believe that it was directed at her.

The longer she looked, the more she felt the urge to tell 'him' the truth.

"A-and I'm dizzy...," the girl cautiously examined the 'youth's' face for any change after saying this. Finding no difference, she continued, "and my back hurts,... my wrists feel like they're burning,... ha, it's so pa-ainful..."

The girl's voice became increasingly choked up the more she talked, surpressing her sobs as long-due tears stood in her eyes threatening to fall if she just allowed them to.

Marie watched this girl on the brink of collapse and felt her heart squeezing painfully.

"I understand, may I touch you for a moment?"

Yesterday's lesson wasn't forgotten.

These women obviously weren't here on their own volition, abused without any chance to resist.

There were already enough people touching them without their permission.

The girl unconsciously nodded at Marie's sudden request.

Having received the other's consent, Marie stretched out her arm and softly patted the girl's back.

"Rest a bit longer, I will get you some water and food, alright?"

This stumped the girl once more and she could only stare at Marie, unable to believe that a male had actually offered her help.

But Marie's expression was just too sincere to find even a hint of doubt, it convinced the girl that this 'youth' was really taking her seriously.

"M-mhm," the girl agreed hesitantly.

Marie smiled gently.

"Great."

With this Marie took off her outer robe and folded it into a long pillow. She carefully supported the girl to lie down on top of it.

After having settled the first girl, Marie also walked over to the other women, questioning them softly before helping them move to the pillow.

They were exactly five of them, which meant that the makeshift pillow was barely long enough to accomondate all of them.

With every girl she questioned, her eyes grew sadder.

Looking at them, sick, weak due to overexercion and maltrition, injured in some cases, pity kept surging in her heart.

And that was just from the women who had stayed in the sleeping hall, there was still an entire crowd outside whose state must be just as tragic. Although they didn't show it.

Marie stood up.

She had to do something.

Not just for her niece or herself, but for all the women here.

She could't simply turn a blind eye to this suffering.

A resolute light appeared in Marie's eyes.

She turned around and unexpectedly, there was still a person left in the sleeping hall.