Page 15 of Ensnared
"Ignite Your Passions. Dive into the Sensual Playground of Veiled Connection. Earn $1000 on your first session as a cam girl, money guaranteed."
A thousand dollars! Instantly Eve thought of all the things she could do with a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars could most likely solve her car issue, right? Sitting up in the bed, she straightened her glasses on her nose and opened up a new screen. Eve typed in all the details of her car and the sounds it did and did not make when she tried to start it earlier. Beside her, Mochi stretched and purred into a better sleep.
Fifteen forums later and a few responses from a Reddit car group, Eve was positive it was the starter.
She chewed on her thumbnail. A thousand dollars could cover that easily. And she would have some left over. That would make surviving until she found another job a little bit easier, she reasoned.
Hesitantly, she went back to the other screen with the ad. She hovered the mouse over the ad.
"Oh my God." Eve shook her head and stood up abruptly. "What the hell am I thinking?" Closing the laptop with a snap, she marched into the bathroom and shut the door.
Looking at herself in the mirror she noted her frizzy hair and rumpled shirt. Maybe a shower would do her some good. Anything to get rid of the idea of actually clicking on that damn ad. A cam girl?! Was she losing her mind?
Undressing, she stepped into the shower and closed her eyes to the hot spray hitting her back. What did a cam girl even do? Unlike some of her friends, she didn't really look at porn. All of her pornographic entertainment was in the 2D form of her scandalous webtoons and online comics. But Eve wasn't so sheltered that she wasn’t aware of what a cam girl was, she just wasn't sure all that it involved. Wasn't it just playing with yourself on camera? Didn't she read an article about girls who started Only Fans accounts and were now making millions?
She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. "Stop thinking about it," she growled to herself.
Besides, she didn't need millions, she just needed that damn thousand dollars. Her shoulders slumped and she walked back across the hall to her room. Tossing the towel on the bed, she pulled out her underwear and began to dress. Okay, she had to be reasonable about this. Without selling her body online there had to be a way for her to work the numbers in her bank account in order to get her car fixed. Maybe she would just skip this month's school loan repayment and call and see if she could push back her car insurance and phone payment by a few weeks or so.
With her black curls bundled into a messy ponytail and wearing a not so wrinkled set of shorts and shirt, Eve sat back down and grabbed her laptop. She closed the page with the ad and opened a new page. Searching for her insurance company's website she paused yet again, this time it was a long, vertical black and gold banner showing another beautiful masked woman wearing black lingerie.
"Unleash Your Inner Desire. Wear A Mask. One on One Client Experience. Get $1000 for Just One Session. Try Veiled Connection Now and We'll Send You a Mask."
It was masked? The question echoed through her chest with a palpable ache.
Doing her best to ignore the ad she clicked on her insurance provider and opened up a chat and did the same with her phone provider in another window. Thirty minutes later she was on the verge of tears. Both of them would only give her a five-day grace period. Five days wasn't enough. And to make matters worse she logged into her bank account and saw that the student loan payment had already been deducted.
Was this some cosmic joke? Had she been a war criminal in her past life or something?
Leaning back against her headboard, she stared up at the ceiling. Everything was bad, from every possible direction. She couldn't see any way out or any hope in this situation. She had no money. No way to make money. And pretty soon she wouldn't have anywhere to go. Beside her, she could feel the weight of her phone against her leg and her thoughts turned to her ex. If she called him and explained the situation, would he help her? Eve thought of the picture of him that Lisa sent her. Even without looking, Eve could easily conjure the image of him smiling while possessively holding the girl in the picture. Jealousy and anger sparked inside of her like clashing swords on a battlefield. The girl was skinny, beautiful, and from the looks of it younger than her.
Bitterly, Eve thought of all the times she tried to diet while helping Landon work on his book. She thought of each time he would give her some backhanded comment about herchubby cheeksandthick hipswhile disguising it in a joke. He knew it felt like an arrow to the back each time, but that didn't stop him.
With tears pooling in her eyes, she sat up. Landon wouldn’t help her. Ricky wasn't here. Even her grandfather wanted her to make it on her own. Well, fine. What choice did she have? She got herself into this mess and she was the only one who could get herself out of it, right?
Grabbing her laptop, she opened it and found the flashing black and gold banner. Without giving herself time to think about it she filled out the brief form and pressed submit. Closing the laptop, she shoved it onto the floor and sank back down into her pillows.
"It's my body, it's my life," she whispered into the dark.
Ding Dong
Ding Dong
The familiar notes seemed to drag as if each one was being held three seconds too long.
Diiiing Donnnng
Eve frowned into her pillow and opened her eyes. Was somebody ringing the doorbell? Annoyed and confused she looked at her alarm clock by the bed. She had gotten the Hello Kitty alarm clock for her ninth birthday and it was still going strong. The bright red digits displayed the time: nine-ten.
Letting out a whiny groan, Eve threw back her covers and stood up. Running a hand over her chaotic hair, she stumbled out of her room and to the front door. Hesitantly she peeked through the peephole and watched as a man dressed in black and a matching baseball cap walked away from her door. She waited until he got into the white delivery van and drove off before she opened the door.
Sitting on the faded welcome mat was a black box.
The last of her sleep faded as she picked up the box and carried it inside. With no furniture in the living room, she had no choice but to carry it back to her room. On her bed now, Eve opened the box and froze. Inside, underneath the black and gold monogrammed tissue paper sat a beautiful black and gold cat mask with a black card underneath.
Carefully she opened the card and read the gold embossed text on the midnight card.
"Welcome to Veiled Connection, Eve."
