When Demons Are Redeemed: The Dominant's Muse

Two - Malika

TWO

Malika

A month after her escape, Catherine helps a desperate old woman retrieve items of hers picked up by a strong wind, and, in return, the kindly, grateful woman provides her with clothes  from her mobile home, otherwise known as a shopping cart.

Catherine's weight is drastically reduced and the donated clothes fit her much better than what she slipped on weeks ago in the middle of the night, before escaping again. She is also handed a brush, and, after a little wrist-work, her beautiful, long, light-brown hair once again becomes a feature of hers that stands out.

That same night, Catherine wakes up thinking that the tight fit of her new jeans is responsible for sharp pain in her abdomen, but soon realizes that she dreamt the discomfort. Her conscious mind, however, does not allow her to simply fall asleep again.

“She’s not reacting. She’s still frozen. Does she even know what’s happening?” Catherine therefore hears replayed in her mind.

Ignore everything. Ignore the words, healer told her then, and now warns her once again. Its programming worked perfectly well at the hospital, as Catherine successfully disassociated herself from her own body, and, consequently, saw body parts of hers as someone else’s. Swollen abdomen, knees up. Not hers. The only thing that registered in Catherine’s mind that day was that it was her birthday, which she knew because a morning show television announcer revealed the date.

Annoyed, she now shuts the file once again, before exiting what has become a cardboard blanket, or a sleeping bag of sorts, since what was once a box no longer has structure. Her feet then once more guide her to her food source.

Catherine's basic survival without a word spoken yet since her escape has her inner healer daring to believe in forever, as far as the continuance of this removed existence is concerned, but, just as it pats itself on the back once again, Catherine bumps into someone, literally, who does not allow her to walk on: the teenage streetwalker who looks into Catherine’s eyes after their bodies meet before their minds do looks  past Catherine's clothing, manages to hold her eyes into hers, and, recognizing the pain within them, chooses not to let her walk away.

During the two weeks that follow this chance meeting, Catherine continues to remain silent. She follows Malika's directions and rules to the letter, however, and is no problem at all for the prostitute, who is willing to feed her and to keep an eye on her for a little while, until something else can be done for her, with her. And so, Catherine no longer sleeps in cardboard in an alley, but in Malika's hotel room instead, when the latter is not conducting business there. The dangers of the outdoors have thus been replaced by dealing with cockroaches, which Catherine feels climbing up her legs and thighs as she is startled out of slumber by their touch. Should they not be afraid of me? 

Catherine learns that Malika's story is typical of many prostitutes': she ran away from home because there were problems there, and because she decided that she might as well get paid for the services demanded of her. She is two inches taller than Catherine, standing at about 5'6“ without heels, and is petite, with shoulder-length, bleached-blond hair. Despite her frame, however, she is very well endowed where her clients find it most desirably so.

Catherine  finds security in her arrangement with Malika until the day when the prostitute's pimp, after seeing Catherine a few times in the shadows, insists that she be drawn into the life as well,  making it clear that she is to work for him, or else. As he states his case with force, while running his fingers through Catherine’s hair and feeling various parts of her body as if he were buying fruit at the market, Catherine's voice decides that it must now make its comeback. Right now.