Along Came a Spider

Posted on Sat Oct 29th, 2022 @ 5:35pm by Kindra Graham & The Narrator

Mission: Home Sweet Wonderful Home
Location: Three Hills, basement of Sunny Delights Brothel
Timeline: November 16 early morning, after post 'Strawberries, Cherries, and an Angel's Kiss in Spring'

Kindra fought her way up through unconscious darkness, like the black but oily and cloying, holding on tight to one thought: Alden. She could not let him believe she'd just up and left him, again.

The sheet she lay on was coarse against her cheek, but clean. Kindra opened her eyes and started to push up into a sitting position, but a wave of nausea hit her and she stopped moving in hopes that her head would stop spinning. She was on a cot in a small, cold room that smelled of mildew, with one wall comprised of bars like a jail cell. A slight figure sitting by a lamp on the other side of the bars hurried away, followed by the creak of a door opening to vaguely familiar noises and a young voice announcing, "She's awake. Ms. Angel said to-" but then the door slammed shut and it was silent again.

She took stock of her situation. Kindra was still wearing the clothes she'd been forced to change into, warmer than her gown would have been but she was cold. Though the effects of the drug were wearing off, she felt nauseous and desperately thirsty. Otherwise, she was unharmed. The cell had no window, only the cot and an empty bucket. When she staggered barefoot to the bars she saw only a windowless hallway leading to stairs, dimly illuminated by the lamp on a small table, a book on the chair next to it, all out of reach.

This was bad. Kindra was in real trouble. How long had it been, and was Alden looking for her? She slumped onto the cot and pulled her knees up to her chest, head spinning, and considered the ruse her kidnappers set up to make it appear she'd left town on a train. How much did Alden really believe her when she said she wouldn't leave him?

The door opened again, and this time Kindra recognized the familiar almost homey sounds of a busy kitchen before the door closed and her would-be client walked down the stairs. This time, she was wearing jeans and a tight, low-cut sleeveless blouse. She was carrying a canteen and a bowl of something that smelled delicious despite Kindra's queasy stomach. She recalled the woman's self-introduction before she lost consciousness. Ginny Angel, Madame of Sunny Delights.

"The princess is finally awake, I see." The canteen sloshed when Angel set it on the table next to the bowl. Kindra got unsteadily to her feet on the cold concrete floor, arms wrapped around herself for warmth. She was so thirsty her voice came out in a croak. "Where am I?"

"Welcome to Sunny Delights brothel." Angel set the canteen on the floor near the bars and stepped back. "I might apologize for providing you with accommodations beneath the standards of a Companion, but your brother should be along soon to collect you."

Kindra grabbed the canteen, opened it and drank greedily. Plain water had never tasted so good. When about half was gone, she hesitated, wondering if she needed to ration it.

"Relax. You can have all the water and food you want, Ginny Angel always takes care of the people under her roof. This bowl is for you." Angel put the bowl of stew on the floor by the bars.

Kindra carefully set down the canteen and picked up the bowl, her nausea forgotten. No spoon, but she tipped it like a cup and slurped the thick meat and vegetable stew that tasted just as wonderfully savory as it smelled. Between bites she said, "My brother… you mean Jim Buccleuch? Handing me over to him is a death sentence. Please, let me go. I can… I can pay you."

"Jim said you'd say somethin' melodramatic like that. Come now princess, a marriage contract to a wealthy man is hardly a death sentence. Jim did go on and on about family honor and securing corporate connections, but I stopped listening once he made it clear it was a family matter between you and your brother. Besides, he paid me in advance and that coin has already gone to good use."

The queasiness returned, and Kindra shivered as she wiped her mouth. "What marriage contract?" The possibility that James had made such an arrangement to further his own ambitions, plus retain the third of Walter's estate left to her, was fully in the realm of possibilities. "I didn't agree to any such thing! James lied. Please, you have to let me go."

"Take that up with your brother when he gets here. In the meantime, I'll send Clarice back down with a blanket and a pair of socks. You look cold." Angel headed back up the stairs without a backward glance.

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Clarice turned out to be a slender, very dark skinned woman in her early twenties, dreds tightly woven and spiralling around and down the back of her head in a loose triple plait. Some of the dark strands were bright red, some a neon blue and they matched the colour of the working girl's bra top and a silk headscarf that hid most of her neck. Beneath the bra top was a firm stomach and a pair of comfy looking dark grey sweatpants. Her feet were bare, toenails and fingernails painted in a pastel blue.

"Here ya go, beautiful," Clarice said, as she approached the bars of Kinda's 'room' and started to try and push the weighty blanket through to the other side.

Kindra took hold of one edge of the thick blanket, and pulled it between the bars to her side. She thought of tearing it up later to make a rope or something useful for defending herself, but it was too bulky to be of much use in that regard. With the other woman's help and a final, last pull, she got it through. "Are you Clarice? Thank you," she said as she wrapped the blanket around herself. "What time is it? Is this really a brothel?"

Once the blanket was successfully deployed to the other side of the bars, Clarice reached into her trouser pocket and pulled out a pair of striped, fuzzy socks. They looked clean and smelled faintly of fabric conditioner as she handed them to the jailbird, gifting the working girl a few more seconds to consider a response to Kindra's question.

"I'm Clarice, yeah," she confirmed, seeing no reason to lie. "You're welcome, hunny." Dark eyes regarded Kindra with secondhand sympathy, but the time of day question was summarily ignored. "You're in a brothel, yes," she answered with a flash of a grin. "What did you do to end up behind bars anyway?"

Kindra accepted the socks, murmuring her grateful thanks, and pulled them on one at a time. The temperature of her cell was not so cold that a person feels uncomfortable right away. It was the kind of cold that seeps into the body, cooling it slowly. The blanket and the socks were helping, she was warming up.

What did Kindra do to end up here? She contracted with a client who turned out to be acting on behalf of Jim Buccleuch. "I was deceived. I've never been in a real brothel before. What sort of things have the people who usually get locked up here done?"

Clarice shrugged. "I dunno, honey, I just bring them stuff when I'm asked to." She regarded Kindra for a long couple of seconds, before adding. "You look way fancier than the last fella was in here." She wasn't supposed to ask questions, and her time was limited, but the pretty lady with the gorgeous skin and fine hair had her curious.

"That's kind of you to say." Kindra regarded Clarice speculatively, trying to think of how she might convince the pretty woman to help her escape. It seemed likely that Clarice was a prostitute, work that entailed one aspect of her own formal training, that might mean she was immune to seduction, "You seem like a kind person. The woman who brought me here, Ms. Ginny Angel, said she was hired by Jim Buccleuch. But he lied to her. If she hands me over, Buccleuch will kill me. If you let me out, I'll do whatever you want. I can pay you. You could leave this place with me."

There was a rough laugh, the type that often found itself returned to a repeated joke or unwanted insult, and Clarice shook her head. "Oh lovely," she said, with fond amusement rather than any sign of derision. "Everyone in here lies. All the time. What makes you any different?" She ran fingers over her skull and regarded Kindra with a light frown, as if considering her for an honest minute. "Ms Angel, she's always been fair. Don't strike me as the kind to hand someone across to no one to get murdered."

Despair pressed against Kindra's chest, making it hard to breathe. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the cold metal bars. Indeed, Kindra could tell a very convincing lie, the trick was to convince herself it was true. Problem was, she wasn't lying. "If Ms. Angel is fair like you say, then she doesn't know." Pleading was useless, and would only make Kindra appear weak. For a woman like this Clarice, survival required her to be extremely careful about whom she trusted. She was unlikely to betray Angel by letting some random woman go free.

Alden returned to the fore of Kindra's thoughts. That sweet, goofy grin, his kindhearted, protective soul, the deep awareness in his knowing touch. What would be worse for him - if he thought she'd left him again, disappearing on the train without a word of goodbye? Or if he knew she'd walked right into the trap Jim Buccleuch set for her, and was gone from the 'Verse forever? Either way, he'd blame himself, but in which scenario was he more likely to recover? With effort, Kindra pulled herself together and stood up straight. "Look, I understand that you can't let me go. I really do. But could you… could you please send a wave for me? Wait until after Angel delivers me to Buccleuch if you need to. There's someone-" Kindra's voice cracked, and she blinked hard to hold her tears at bay, "someone I love, waiting for me to come home."

This one was good, Clarice thought. Whatever Ms Angel wanted her for, her skills were topnotch, and they might have worked on someone who wasn't a. loyal to the core, or b. smart enough to know when they had a Good Thing going. "It's a good story, darlin'," Clarice complimented Kindra. "But Ms Angel's tough, well-connected and smart. She wouldn't still be here if she wasn't." And I ain't stupid either, she finished in her own head.

The trapped woman took a moment, presumably mustering up the capacity to shed some tears (that's what Clarice herself might have tried if their positions had been reversed) and then dragged herself upright. Clarice took an automatic step backwards, which likely told Kindra more about her than the other way around. "Send a wave for you?" There was a long pause, a stern and confident shake of her head and Clarice waggled a maternal finger. No.

"Are you crazy? I shouldn't even be listening to you this long. You're gonna get me in trouble." But that crack in Kindra's voice was either perfect acting or truth, and it pulled briefly at Clarice's heartstrings. "Who's waiting for you, girl?"

"Alden," Kindra whispered, her voice caressing the two syllables. "Alden Loxley is waiting for me. The man I love... and I... I think he loves me. I promised I'd only be gone overnight. I promised I'd come back to him. And he's going to think..." She sank onto the cot, and pulled the blanket around herself. "He's going to think I left him without saying goodbye." Again.

Clarice considered this alleged romantic development for a second or two, impressed by the theatre. If it wasn't, she postulated, then sending a wave wouldn't hurt. Not like she had to leave her name and number or anything, plenty of means to leave this guy - if he existed - an anonymous message. "No promises," Clarice said, voice quietly pensive. "But I'll look him up at least." That covered her backside if anyone was listening or if this woman was lying, but there was a sense of painful truth to the other woman's words.

Kindra pressed the blanket to her damp face and thought ahead to James' arrival. Would he kill her right away, with a gun beneath her chin like he'd done to her mother? Or did he plan to make it look like an accident, to smooth the way to collecting her part of the inheritance? As long as she was alive, there was a chance of escape, and she would fight every step of the way to get back to Alden. "Do you know when Jim Buccleuch is coming for me? How much time do I have left?"

To this, Clarice could only shrug. "Like I said, love," she noted, tone level and clear, neither especially friendly or unkind. "I just bring the warm clothes, and your food later if you're allowed any. They don't tell me no details 'bout anything else. You want me to tell Ms Angel to come see you again?" She offered, but she was long due a return upstairs now and started to fidget some towards that end.

Despite her current circumstances, Kindra was not such a fool as to think she'd be able to convince this Ginny Angel in a second round. The woman had gone to a lot of trouble to create a false identity in the companion registry and deceive Kindra. Jim's story and pay must be lucrative. But Clarice's loyalty seemed genuine, based on fair treatment rather than fear. So maybe there was a chance Angel had some integrity, and Kindra had to try. "Yes, please. If you would, tell her I asked to speak with her again."

From Clarice came a firm nod of promise to do just that. Dark eyes regarded the imprisoned woman with curiosity rather than concern. Ms Angel wouldn't allow anything bad to happen to this one, of that she was certain. "I'll ask for you, girl," Clarice confirmed, and she turned swiftly to walk in the direction of the door. Once there, however, she paused once, moved fluidly back around to face Kindra one last time and offered up a friendly smile. "You'll be okay," she said, then left, the door closing with a slam and sounds of a lock being engaged behind her.

She knew it was an empty promise, that she'd be okay, but Kindra appreciated Clarice's reassurance all the same. She recalled the vid of James holding a gun to her mother's chin, and what happened next. Kindra slipped from the blanket and thoroughly examined the cell. The bars were solid, there was nothing she could use for a weapon. Her hair had come loose, but try as she might with her hairpins, she couldn't pick the lock. Finally, she wrapped up in the blanket again to wait.

But when the door at the top of the stairs was unlocked again, the voice that greeted her was not Ginny Angel's.

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