Chapter 10: Just Call Me ‘J’

Ayden scanned the room.  She guessed there must have been close to two hundred girls lined up in this room, which Ayden immediately recognized as a dining hall.  At the center of the room were rows of tables with simple straight back chairs standing at attention just like the girls that stood in rows radiating out from the tables likes rays of bright orange sunshine.  Guards milled around the room carrying long sticks covered in dark leather.  She watched as one of the guards tapped a tall girl on the back of the thighs.  She instantaneously raised her arms to the side and stood very still.  Ayden watched in wonder at the guard who slid the leather stick between the girl’s bare skin and the orange fabric.  He used the stick to lift the tunic leaving the naked girl exposed from the small of her back to the floor.  The guard lowered his stick and proceeded to the front where he again lifted the tunic, however in the front he lifted it so that it folded in half in front of the girl’s face revealing her beautiful breasts and slim waist.  The guard studied the girl carefully and moved to the girl standing in front of her and she too raised her arms when tapped on the back of the thighs.  Ayden watched as this process was repeated all around the room.  She noticed that several of the girls had colored lines that ran across their bodies; some across their bellies, others across their breasts, and many that had red marks covering most of the soft flesh from their waists to their knees.  The guards seemed to take particular pleasure to inspect the girls with marks.  Ayden thought she almost noticed a smile of admiration on one or two of their faces. 

There was a girl on the far side of the room and Ayden could only see that her tunic had been raised in the front when the guard used the leather stick to flip it over her head.  It fluttered to the floor narrowly missing the girl that stood in line directly behind her.  The girl was hustled out of her line and taken over to the corner of the room.  Ayden had not noticed the line of girls standing there facing a doorway with their backs to the room.  All of the girls were standing naked with their hands clasped behind their backs and they each wore a dark bag on their head, like the one she had worn on the way here from the Squeeze Inn.  Ayden wondered what would happen to those girls at the very moment she felt it; a sharp tap on the back of her legs.  She turned to look at the guard who was glowering down at her.  He leaned in close to her ear and hissed, “Raise your arms,” as the leather stick again slapped hard against the back of her thighs.  Ayden winced but she raised her arms forming a perfect “T” and held her breath as she was examined for the second time since she had arrived. 

The guard moved to the front and starred directly into Ayden’s eyes and she glared defiantly back at him.  The guard slid his leather stick between her thighs and raised it until Ayden was standing on her tiptoes with the leather stick as a perch pressing into the folds of her flesh.  For a moment Ayden felt a little of the heat from her earlier examination reawakened.  When he leaned in so close Ayden could almost taste his hot stale breath.  With his teeth bared he began to yell at her while spittle showered her with his rage, “You insolent piece of ass when I tell you to raise your arms you do not waste my time.  Furthermore, who in the hell do you think you are staring at me with your attitude?  You are nothing.  You were something beautiful to be cherished but you decided to run away from that and in here you are just a piece of ass.  You will learn to show some respect if you ever want to leave.”  Ayden blinked and lowered her gaze.

The guard dragged the leather stick out slowly.  Ayden refused to let herself react to the sensation it created in her errant clit.  She merely closed her eyes.

The leather stick snaked across her belly and still she did not open her eyes.  Her tunic was raised.  She could feel his eyes scrutinizing her bare flesh.  When suddenly the fabric was flung over her head and the guard’s cutting words stung in her ears, “You know what?  I changed my mind.  Get her out of here.  This impetuous thing is not good enough to stay here among our girls.  She is lucky it is too late for the beach.  Just sell her cheap to the bargain hunters that show up looking for lost causes.”

Ayden was plunged into darkness.  She recognized the dark bag, like the one she had worn earlier this morning.  Her arm was grabbed from behind and she was nearly pulled off her feet by an unseen hand that hauled her out of line.

“Wait.”

The voice was familiar.  Ayden had heard it before.  In her panic she tried to see through the weave of the bag but all she could see were two men-shaped blobs as she was being hauled towards the line by the door.

“She was just brought in this morning and she is on a missings hold for three days.”  Ayden recognized the voice.  It was Tracker Jenkins.  She was so grateful when his shape came towards her and removed the bag.  She could not hold back the smile that bloomed on her face.

Tracker Jenkins grabbed her arm, bent at the waist and scooped up her tunic from the floor where it had fallen, and handed it to her.  He shook her arm hard, “Wipe that smile off your face,” he cautioned.  Ayden clutched at the orange fabric like it was a life preserver.  She held it tight against her breasts as she was half dragged and half trailed behind Tracker Jenkins feeling like a toddler who has just been scolded.

Every eye in the room on her as Tracker Jenkins led her to a line of girls who were as wide-eyed as she was.  He spun her around until she was facing him and then he focused his anger on her, “What were you doing in that line?” he railed.

Ayden lowered her head.  About to cry she whimpered, “That is where the nurse told…”

Before she could finish her sentence Tracker Jenkins cut her off.  “Good grief child!  That was a rhetorical question.  Has no one taught you how to behave?  Do you see any of the other girls in this room opening their mouths?  If you open that mouth of yours one more time I am going to shove something into it.”  He paused for a moment but Ayden did not look up.  Tears formed in her eyes.  Each word that followed was enunciated like a clap of thunder that made Ayden shutter, “Do you understand me?”

Ayden sniffled and nodded silently.

Tracker Jenkins tone softened, “Good, wipe your nose, and put your clothes back on.”  Grateful to move her muscles that she had dare not move she slid the fabric back over her head and stole a peek up at Tracker Jenkins who stood over her scowling.

“It is clear you need some training and we will have someone work on that very soon.  Until then do as you are told and remain silent when you are in ranks.”  Without another word or waiting for a reply he turned on his heels and strode away.

Ayden watched him walk directly to where the nurse was standing in a line of girls dressed just like her.  The pretty nurse had a look of pure terror on her face.  Her eyes darted from Ayden to Tracker Jenkins and back again.  It was as if she were watching an invisible tennis match.  Finally her eyes settled on Tracker Jenkins’ when he was within just a few steps of her.  Ayden thought she saw the girl flinch, but the movement was so slight she could not be sure.  He got very close to her face and Ayden could not hear what was said but the pretty girl nodded and began to sob.  Tracker Jenkins turned to the guard with the leather stick that was inspecting the girls on that row and said a few words.  The guard motioned to a second guard who came over, placed a bag on the girl’s head, and led her to the end of the line of naked girls that were facing the door.

With the excitement over the guards quickly finished their inspections.  The girls in the black hoods were filed out first before all of the girls in the room were excused except those in the line with Ayden.  She hoped she had not gotten any of them in trouble along with her.

From across the room a booming voice announced, “Line up on the red line facing away from the tables.  Now!”  It was Tracker Jenkins’ voice.

Every girl in Ayden’s line scrambled to where a thick red line had been painted on the floor.  Ayden nearly ran to the line and even reached the line before some of the slower girls.  She watched as the other girls placed their toes on the line and she did the same.  They did not raise their bowed head so she kept her face down too.  And when each of the girls raised her hands with their palms up in front of them Ayden mimicked this posture too.  She tried her best to look exactly like every other girl in the line.

“When it is your turn I want you to step forward, tell me your name and who your last owner was.  You will be assigned a new designation,” he explained.

Tracker Jenkins stepped to the front of the line of girls with a young guard at his side.  He pointed at the first girl on the right side of the line.  She took one step forward and said her name was, “Di,” and her Master’s name was, “Master Koller.”

The young guard noted her responses on a clipboard and announced, “A.”  The girl looked up at him and nodded her understanding and stepped back into line.  The young guard did not look up from his clipboard. 

The next girl stepped forward without being asked and gave her name as, “Seven.”  She was given the new designation of, “B.”  She too stepped back to her place in the line.

They continued down the row in this fashion, simply following the alphabet.  Ayden had listened to each of the girls’ responses and when her turn came she tried to emulate their mannerisms.  She stepped hesitantly forward, looked up, and quietly said, “Ayden.  Master Hunter?”  She was not sure if anyone had ever owned her but he seemed to be the most correct answer.  She hoped that he would come looking for her and get her out of here.  The young guard noted her name and Master Hunter’s name on his clipboard and declared her, “J.” 

Ayden cocked her head to the side.  Her confusion was clearly written across her face.  She opened her mouth to protest, but she saw the look that instantly washed over Tracker Jenkins’ face.  Her mouth popped shut.  He stepped forward shaking his finger at her.  With a crooked finger to her chin he brought her eyes to his and admonished her, “I do not care what your name was before.  You my impossible one will henceforth be called ‘J’, just J.”  He placed a solitary finger on her lips to silence her.  She nodded simply with her eyes and he knew that she understood.

The men moved to the next girl and subsequently to all of the girls to J’s left until they had reached the letter ‘Q’.  Once all seventeen girls had received a letter of designation Tracker Jenkins folded his hands behind his back and said, “Welcome to Mystic Cove Detention Center.   If you follow the rules your stay here will be short; I am sure.  Colt will be in charge of your orientation.  He will show you to your cells for tonight.  It goes without saying there will be silence while you remain in your ranks.”  Tracker Jenkins looked directly at J as he said this making it very clear to her.  She quietly turned and followed the other girls out of the room.