Fire and Ice: Zara and Reese

Chapter 32

*SERIOUS trigger warning: heavy sexual and abuse subject matter. Very serious about this - do not read if at all triggering to you.*

Zara looked at the dress and high heels laying on the bed. The last time she had worn a dress or high heels was to Georgie's funeral, and only so her mother wouldn't fight with her about it. And that was so long ago. She had always felt unsafe and uncomfortable in dresses, even as a child. The first time she put on a suit, she felt like her body belonged to herself. But now, she would be forced to wear a dress and be very feminine. For some event that still hadn't been explained to them.

Next to it sat some very feminine lingerie that Zara also would never be caught dead in. She knew she was expected to put on everything by the time someone came to get she and Maureen. Probably Rob. Little rat appeared to be Constantin's and Gerhard's henchman. Little cretin. In any other circumstances, he wouldn't even have balls left. 

But the threats to her family were real. Constantin had shown her surveillance photos of her mother at their home, her brother at Oxford, and...Reese...pacing the garden. She had to lay low and figure out a plan. Something was being planned here, she wasn't sure what. The sound of furniture being moved, scraping across the floor overhead, had been constant for three days now. She wasn't sure what was happening, but in any event, as long as her family was safe, she didn't care. They could do what they wanted to her. 

Her life had been over when Georgie died, she felt. She hadn't hoped to feel alive again, to feel whole again, until she met Reese. But now Reese didn't want her. The feeling of being again part of the world had been sucked out of her. So, really her family's lives -- and Reese's despite everything -- were more important than her own. She was scared, but only because she was human. Not because she felt like her life mattered anymore.

She saw that Maureen across from her was done getting dressed and was putting on the high heels left for her. 

"What will they make us do?" Zara asked. 

In the time they had been there, Zara estimated maybe about a week, they had been made to serve food and alcohol, completely naked, to the groups of men invited to the house. It was degrading the way they were spoken to, not to mention parading around with nothing on and made to kneel by the door. She couldn't believe Maureen had been subjected to this for months. But, the first day of this when Zara had protested, he held her by the throat and threatened her family and Reese. She believed him, which is why she would comply. For now. 

Last night, one old man had reached out and slapped her butt and said, "she just hasn't had a good man to tend to that ass of hers. That's why she thinks she's a lesbian." If a man had said that to her in another place and time, he wouldn't have a face left. They were allowed to touch her under the long list of rules Constantin and Gerhard made up. Just not try to have sex with her. Constantin and Gerhard controlled that tightly.

Tonight was different than the usual serving and such, though. Zara was sure they had something extra disgusting in store. Constantin's usual sneers were even more cruel the last few days and he kept saying he would teach her a lesson.

"I'm not sure, I've never been clothes the entire time I've been here," Maureen said. 

"I haven't worn a dress in at least ten years. Makes me uncomfortable, actually. I only wear men's clothes really." 

"I wear women's clothes, but definitely nothing like this," she said, motioning to how revealing the dress she was made to wear was. 

She came to sit next to Zara and took her hands in hers.