The pleasing rooms were at the first floor of the old mansion. An almost seemingly endless corridor with bright light and a vibrant red carpet that led to the countless doors on every side of the wall. Dark brown wooden doors with a little bell on the right side, that signal the ladies when they had a client.
After that excruciating scream everyone was standing at the doorframes of their respected rooms. Girls half naked and old man with their zippers open they were looking at the only room that didn't have anyone sitting on the door, staring.
Alice ran into the room, hoping that this would be a sick joke but her red eyes, almost were identical in shade with the blood that was oozing from the girl's head. One of the Ladies of the Night, a young girl only twenty years old, was lying on the floor of her room, her limbs in unbelievable angles while she bled out from the back of her head, he blonde hair getting dump and sticky with the skin that was hanging from the open wound. The only evidence that someone else was in the room were the open window that now was broken and probably the blood of the killer on the pieces that had left stuck on its frame.
"Angelica. Someone call her!" Alice said as she took the girl in her arms. "Rosa? Rosa can you hear me?" She called out but her skin was already cold, her complexion a deadly grey. She had been dead for a while but no one noticed.
"Everyone return to your rooms. Work is not over for you. Now!" Angelica screamed as she got up the wide staircase. She sprinted towards the room her shawl almost like a vigilante's cape, dark blue as the midnight sky waved with her every step. "Alice you too." She told her and looked at her with a cold stare. "Your customer is waiting...unless you want to try to save her" Angelica told her.
"How can I? She is already dead" Alice cried, tears streaming down her face. How could she tell everyone to get back to their work like nothing happened? It was almost disgusting. Who could commit such acts after having seen a girl dying on the room next to them. She looked outside with her blurry eyes. Everyone had indeed closed their doors and had returned to their business like Rosa was not one of her friends, like they haven't been talking with her just a few seconds ago. They were cruel. Money made people like that.
"You can try. If you are the same as your mother. You know what I am talking about here." Angelica whispered and ran towards the door, closing it carefully after checking if someone was still there. "Your mother. She could bring people back from the dead. You might be able to do it too."
"That was magic miss Angelica. I can't do magic. I never could" Alice confessed and felt her cold body becoming stiffer in her embrace, Rosa was gone and she could do nothing about it.
"Are you really going to let her like that then?"
"What are you talking about?" Alice shouted. "Have you lost your mind? Why are you asking me to perform magic out of the blue? Do you think that if I was a magician I would be here right now? I would have been at the Starfell Academy already." Alice screamed at her, confused as to why she was acting like this. Angelica sighed and annoyed she came closer and grabbed her arm, forcing her to get up, Rosa's lifeless body falling again on the dirty floor. "No! We need to call the guards, the knights! Someone killed her. Miss Angelica!" Alice fought with her, her boss' long nails digging on her arm as she threw her out onto the corridor.
"Get back to work. I will have someone clean this mess up. Go!" she shouted and Alice utterly defeated, dragging her shaky body returned to the room.
Her favorite person was still there, sitting on the couch and waiting. The moment he saw her he ran towards her and she collapsed in his arms unable to keep standing anymore. She was shocked. Shocked with the fact that just now one of her friends had been found dead, shocked about the fact that no one seemed to actually cared, shocked that she had been ordered to just go back to her room and please a man as if there hadn't been a murdered in the building.
"Are you alright? Alice?" The young man called her but she felt unable to speak. He took her in his embrace and brought her to the bed, laying her down and kissing gently her forehead.
"Thank god it was you" She mumbled as he sat next to her, grabbing her pale hand.
"What?"
"Thank god you are the one who is here with me." She repeated, a tear leaving the corner of her eye. "Why are you so kind to me my lord? I am just a…prostitute." She said hating the sound of the word but she wasn't going to delude herself by saying she was a lady of The Night, romanticizing the fact that she was just a toy, for others. Leaving, breathing and speaking, for others.
"Alice, I wish I could get you out of here." The man said and she faintly smiled. She sat up and caressed his cheek.
"It's alright, I understand, I man who lives so far away from here, a man whose name I do not know could never take me away from here. It is alright my lord. But please visit me. From time to time. I always enjoy your company." She told him and tried to look as cheerful as she could.
"My name is Philip, Alice and I am a Duke" The man said and chuckled. The innocent girl gaped as she heard his words.
"A Duke? What is a Duke doing here?"
"I…well it's complicated but please believe me. If I could I would have already gotten you out. I swear. I…towards you Alice, my feelings…"
"It's okay. I know" Alice told him not really wanting to hear him say it. If he did, then her heart would be shackled forever. If she heard such sweet words now, later when he left her world would turn even more sorrowful so didn't want to know, even if deep down in her heart she did. She could see it in his gentle eyes. The way he held her and how he called her name. This man loved her, deeply and she did too.
She fell in his embrace and their lips collided as she found the comfort she desired. His kisses were sweet and gentle, filled with care and adoration and he laid her down on the soft bed and caressed her skin she herself began to forget and became one of those people she so much criticized and detested, drowned in lust she had let the horrid thought of the girl with the frozen skin disappear so she could spend the only night she had with him. The man who now she knew, was named Philip.
When she opened her eyes. From the aggressive beams of sunlight that easily got in from the light curtains she felt his warm body around her. He hadn't left, she thought and her heart was instantly warmed up. Her tired eyes fluttered and she sifted lightly causing Philip to awaken too.
"You are still here."
"I was worried about you. About what happened last night. I will have a talk with the lady here now that everyone will be gone. I don't want anything happening to you."
"No please don't. Miss Angelica will think I put you into this. She doesn't want people from the top zone messing with her business." Alice warned him.
"It will be alright." He tried to reassure her and he stood up, getting dressed. "Come on now. Let's go have a talk with her."
"My lord I don't think…"
"It's Philip. You can call me Philip. Just you" He told her with a gentle smile as he wore his boots. Alice feeling butterflies in her stomach, actually believing that this once she might have looked like one of the girls that she read in the books stood up and got dressed ready to lead him to Angelica's office.
A small room, stinking of cigarettes in the back of the main hall, filled with unknown papers and empty bottles of whiskey Angelica sat between the endless piles, rubbing her forehead and looking at her with a frown as she noticed her coming in with Philip. In the room was one of the entrance guards too and Alice noticed that his clothes and hands were red. He was the one who got rid of Rosa's body, again like nothing happened.
"My lord" She said with a tired smile and stood up. "What brings you here."
"I wanted to talk about the girl that was found dead. If you would like I could send some people here to investigate." He proposed and Angelica wrapped her old shawl around herself, messing up the half burning fire at the small fireplace near her desk.
"We appreciate the help but…we will deal with our affairs on our own." She told him. "But please tell me. Was it Alice who brought you here?"
"No it was my decision to speak to you. I want to make sure that Alice will be safe." He stated
"Then if you want her to be safe why don't you take her away?" The lady asked with a smile that reminded Alice of a serpent. "The work of a prostitute could never be safe. From diseases to perverted men they all have to deal with things sometimes worse than death. If you care so much about her, my lord, why don't you buy her? Or is it that you don't care about her enough?"
"No!" Alice intervened. "I do not need him to buy me. I am fine. I do not want anyone's help. Philip is a good man. You shouldn't be talking to him like that" Alice scolded her boss and Angelica looked at her in shock. She took a few steps towards her and raised her bony arm ready to slap her. Alice closed her eyes, her heart raging on her chest waiting for that familiar sting.
Nothing happened though. She opened her eyes, curious because she was sure she had heard her palm landing on skin and noticed that Philip was standing right in front of her, his cheek turning a bright red. Even Angelica herself was stunned as to what had happened.
She had slapped a Duke and the only person that had been kind towards Alice.
She stared at her filled with rage.
"What did you just do?" She asked her.
And then something very unexpected happened.