Page 13 of Brutal Empire

My body jumped on instinct, but the ropes on my body forced me to stay put. I saw Katia again, this time through the camera lens. Katia began to whimper as the man in the beaked mask started to move closer.

The camera zoomed in on her, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen her sober, but I knew it deep in my gut that right now she wasn’t high. Her eyes weren’t glassy, but they were terrified.

“No,” she hissed, trying to move, and then she yelled in agony.

“The more she resists, the tighter the binds will get until it feels like they are biting her skin,” the woman next to me explained.

“Stop it,” I spat. “I will give you anything.”

The woman laughed. She moved away from me and stood in front of the two-way mirror as the cameraman got closer.

“You don’t think Katia said the same thing once she got sober? Once the drugs weren’t ruling her world, she didn’t bribe or beg for her release?”

My nostrils flared, but I remained quiet.

“To these men, your kind of money means nothing. They get off on making people like you get on their knees.”

There was a lump in my throat, making it hard to swallow.

“Everyone who is tuning in tonight is aware of who she is, of her pedigree. It’s her own people who are willing to see her succumb to the madness of their lust. Money isn’t salvation. Sometimes it is the very thing that drags you into hell.”

That lump in my throat grew. It felt as if I had weights on my chest, and it made it hard to breathe.

Bile rose when the man with the beaked mask began to caress Katia. Fuck, I had finally found her, and I couldn’t do anything to help her. How could I save her? Maybe if I had tried harder when she was promised to me, we wouldn’t be in this position. Her coke habit didn’t seem like a big deal. Everyone did it. Weed was for the poor who couldn’t afford white lines. It was an expensive habit that she could afford. I was selfish, too self-absorbed, and now I was watching her pay the price.

I tried to move once more, knowing it would be in vain.

The man with the beaked mask got on top of the table, and he began to undress her.

“Help her!” I begged the pale woman, but she ignored me.

Katia’s whimpers filled the room, making it all that much worse because I knew she was on the other side of the glass. So fucking close but still unreachable as ever.

The man with the mask moved until he was between her legs. My chest was rising rapidly. It took me a second to realize he was reading from a screen.

People were paying for what they wanted to see done.

How did shit like this even exist?

He angled himself right by her legs. My stomach sank. I closed my eyes tightly, and blood coated my mouth from where I bit my lip.

Katia’s scream broke through the room. It was amplified by the speakers on the phone. My mouth was wide open, and I was trying to scream, but no sound came out.

“Watch!” the woman commanded.

My eyes were wide open as Katia’s back arched, her eyes rolling in pain and her screams even louder than before. The man had that beak between her legs.

Pain, I was in pain. Which was ridiculous since I was not the one being raped.

My leg felt as if it was burning. I looked down at it and noticed a hunting knife lodged in my thigh. Then it took a second to realize that my mouth had a gag.

“You can’t solve all your problems with money. Not against your own kind of people.”

The woman’s voice was much softer now, almost as if she was sorry. She put the phone away, and I was thankful because everything had become worse.

“You need to watch. You need to know…”

Her words trailed off.

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