Chapter Text
"Number 63194. You can approach."
The red-haired girl took a few hesitant steps towards the man wearing a lab coat. He was writing something on a few papers on his wooden table. With a swift movement, he indicated to her the chair. She sat on it, putting her suitcase next to her.
"Number… 63194… Okay. Born in... Are you 19?"
"Yes sir."
"You are pretty young. Not that it will displease the boys." Said the man, chuckling before becoming silent again when he noticed her stern face. "You passed all the exams, didn't you?"
"Yes Sir. I think it's written on my report, are you trying to have a small talk with me?"
He widened his eyes, surprised, and put his glasses back in place. "I am trying indeed. I won't befriend you but… I think it's better to have at least some decent human contact before being cut out from anything, don't you think?"
For the first time since they started their conversation, she let a smile draw itself on her lips. "Yes sir."
He returned the smile and went back to checking the report. "You are passing the last exam to become Mama… So a child huh? Are they really that much in need for them to need a 19 years old to bear a child?"
"A lot of the last newborns had disabilities sir. The nobles are unsatisfied."
"I see. Well it happens sometimes."
He wrote some things on his report before looking back at her again. "Do you have any preferences?"
"Huh?"
"In terms of boys."
She was about to suggest him to stop flirting with her before she understood that he was talking about the House's boys. "No. Not really."
"Maybe the stature? I can't show you their faces nor their records, but we can arrange it so that you won't have to bear the child of someone you don't like."
She thought about it for a few seconds before answering. "Someone weaker than me. Physically speaking."
He went through his paper again, letting out another chuckle. "The choice is too wide. They are raised to be naturally strong but weaker than any of you Mama trainees. Then maybe the age? Someone about your age or younger?"
"Younger?"
"Ah right you don't know. The boys are sent in the House at the age of 16. Most of them are younger than you."
"I… don't know then. Please write that I don't have any preferences."
"Alright. You'll see at the House anyway." He kept on writing for a small amount of time. "Do you have any questions?"
"If I'm allowed to. Are the boys and the girls still separated?"
"Yes. We don't want any uncontrolled pregnancy after all. You will only see each other during the meals and once your partner has been decided for you."
"Do we have our own room?"
"No. Only the boys have their own room. You girls sleep in a dorm. Any other questions?"
"How loosely are those rules applied?"
The man stopped writing and raised his head to look at her. A small smirk on his lips. "You'll see for yourself." He finished writing one last sentence and put the papers in an envelope before sliding it towards her. "Here is your file. You need to give it to the House's Mother."
"Alright." She got up from her chair and took the envelop in her free hand.
"One last thing before you go." He said. She looked at him. "What is your name?"
"I don't have one, I'm number 63194."
"Well. In my case my name is Smee. The person who raised me gave me that name. And you?"
She thought about it, hesitated again but then managed to say it. "Emma. My name is Emma."
"Oh. Like the Jane Austen novel?"
"No, my mother just liked the name."
"Then she thought that you would become a great Mama then. It sounds like that to me."
"I see. Now if you'll excuse me."
And with that said. She took back her luggage and went out of the room.
Their mentor had given them a file with all the information they needed before going to The House. Emma was going through them during the trip. She looked at the other girls in the carriage.
They were 15, between 18 and 30 years old it seemed. She didn’t remember most of the faces looking at her and whispering, but she at least knew that she was the only one from her plantation. If some of the younger girls seemed excited about the trip, the elders seemed more or less tired and bored. Emma would’ve guessed that it was because they went to The House often. She looked back at the file.
The House, also nicknamed The Whorehouse, was a complex building separated in two wings and occupying a full plantation. From what she could read, there were about 30 boys living there at all time, as well as a House’s Mama, and a few selected doctors. Like Smee had told her, the girls were going to sleep in 3 different dorms, while each boy had individual rooms. The structure of the building, as she could see from the map, was made so that the boys and girls could only interact during mealtime or during the “sexual intercourses” organized for pregnancy. But she still needed to see for herself if the single corridor joining the two wings was as guarded as the file pretended it to be. Or if the separated dorms were as separated as the map was trying to make her believe.
Besides, it seemed to be like most Houses, there was a dining room, a kitchen, a storage room, bathrooms, a library and an attic. There weren’t any training rooms like in the Sister Facility, nor any kind of classrooms. Everything was made to guarantee intimacy and being as discrete as possible.
Her trail of thoughts was interrupted by one of the older girls poking her shoulder.
“Hey, are you THE Emma?”
She tilted her head, not understanding what she meant by that.
“I mean, are you 63194?”
“Yes I am. What does it have to do with my name?”
“Oh my God! Girls! It’s really her!”
Emma was suddenly greeted by numerous squealing and screeching as they gathered around her.
“THE Emma! It really is her!”
“I didn’t know I was famous.” Said Emma.
“Of course you are!” Replied the girl who had started talking to her. “You are the genius girl from plantation 3 who was raised by the greatest Mama who ever existed, you passed all the exams and succeeded in them before attaining your 18! You are a legend here!”
“I’m not sure that you can call me a legend. It was just some basic exams.”
“Basic exams!?” Exclaimed one of the other girls. “Do you know how hard those are?! I could barely become a Sister!”
“But I didn’t know you were so pretty! I always thought of you as some kind of cold woman, like an ice queen.” Said another one.
“It sounds more like how my Mama was when working…” Replied Emma, smiling politely.
“Well, we can see how talented you are! Look at those hair! How did you managed to make such a pretty hairstyle?”
Instinctively, Emma brought one of her hand to the braided bun at the back of her head. The hairstyle was more complex than what was necessary but taking the time to make it in the morning always relaxed her.
“My hair is just very unruly. I don’t have any other choices if I want them stay in place.”
“I can’t believe it! You seem so perfect!”
“I’m truly not.”
“But everything about you is so mesmerizing!”
“Can you all please stay quiet?” Suddenly said a woman at the back of the carriage. “You are all so noisy.”
The woman seemed in her late twenties, she had the most bored look out of the elders and was staring at her with some kind of indescribable disgust. The girl to Emma’s left leaned to her.
“Don’t worry about her, she often came to The House. I think it’ll be her 8th child now. She is kind of grumpy because of her multiple pregnancies.”
Emma had heard of those girls that were condemned to be pregnant and to give birth without being expected to do anything else. When they could have a fertile and resistant women to do that job, they were obviously using them as much as they could. But she also knew that it would be her last year too then, because most of those women were doing that until they hit 30. After that they were finally accepted into the Sister Facility and could work… or got shipped out.
She knew she wouldn’t get that fate. Grandma had told her that she was definitely going to become a Mama with how things were going, and she would do anything in her power to get the happiness that would grant her the position.
“What are you all here for?” Asked Emma to the girls surrounding her.
“I’m passing my Sister exams! And since I’m fertile it’s my last one!” Replied one of the girls.
“Yeah me too!”
“I personally already passed them and already made a pregnancy, but they needed newborns quickly, so they sent me back.”
“It’s my 3rd one in my case!”
“You two already came to The House?” kept on asking Emma, the more information she could get, the better it would be. “How was it?”
The eldest of the two sighed. “I can’t tell, it seems they changed of House’s Mama while I was away so things might be different now. But in my case… Well… It bears the nickname ‘Whorehouse’ for a reason.”
“Yes. It really was depraved.” Added the other. “Since they mostly want us to get pregnant, if we take too long, they don’t mind anymore where we go as long as we get pregnant. In my case I ended up finding one of my friends having… huh… an illegal affair with a boy that wasn’t assigned as her partner.”
The other girls next to Emma brought their hands to their mouth with a shocked expression. “Oh my.”
“But honestly, as long as you don’t wander off too much everything is fine. As for the prepared ‘sexual intercourses’, the Givers are trained for that, so if you don’t mind the look of your partner too much, it’s… pleasant I would say.”
“The Givers?”
“Didn’t you read it? It’s their names. The Givers.”
The Givers. Emma had read about it in her file. They were selected boys between 16 and 26, the file didn’t mention any kind of training though. She understood now why the elders were tired to go to The House. If they had the same as age as the boys it could have been fine, but most of them were older than the majority of them, and all the pleasant thing about it was kind of gone at this point.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped.
“You are here girls.” Said the demon that brought them there. “Welcome to The House.”
Emma woke up to the sound of the clock, it was 6 am. She quickly got out of her bed like she had been trained to do and grabbed one of her dresses in her suitcase.
“You were right, your hair really is unruly.” Suddenly said a voice behind her, making her jump out.
“You startled me!” She said. “Let me get dressed up before talking to me please.”
“Sorry.” Replied the girl.
Emma had recently learned that she was called Helen and was a year younger than her. She was a small but cute girl, with messy blond hair separated into two braids. She somehow reminded her of a mix between her two younger sisters, Yvette and Anna. It wasn’t the time to be nostalgic.
Emma put on her undergarment and her dress as quickly and as precisely as she had learned to, walking as quickly to the dorm’s mirror to prepare her complex hairstyle under the admirative stares of the other girls. When she was finished, most girls were done dressing up and were heading out to the dinner room. Emma followed them, Helen walking with smalls, but quick, steps next to her.
“It’s our first meal with the boys! Aren’t you excited?” Asked Helen.
“Not really.” Replied Emma. They had eaten separately yesterday evening so that The House’s Mama, previously named Sister Krone, could explain to them the rules.
“Do you think I’m looking fine?”
Emma glanced at her. Messy hair barely kept in her braids, the simple black dress without the apron reserved for Mamas and Sisters, she seemed barely okay. “I guess.”
“Please tell me the truth! You always look so perfect!”
Emma was about to answer when she noticed the group of girls aligning themselves in front of the door leading to the dinner room. Without questioning the action, she aligned herself with the others as Krone greeted them.
“Okay girls, the newbies will meet the boys for the first time. Don’t talk with them, just go to your table, am I clear?”
“Yes!” Replied the small army.
She opened the door and Emma followed the steps of the elders. She was surprised to see that all the meals had already been prepared and put in place, the boys were already here too, sitting at their assigned tables.
They were 22 Givers, of different ages and looks. All wearing an unusual uniform, a white shirt with a black tank top and black pants. From the file, it seemed that the black tank top was reserved to them. Most of them weren’t wearing it correctly, with sometimes an open shirt, others were letting their shoulders in sight, and some even decided to just not wear the shirt at all.
“How indecent!” Exclaimed Helen behind her, talking softly. “But they are… so handsome!”
Emma couldn’t deny it. Most of the boys had very nice faces and elegant features, she would definitely categorize them as being handsome. At the table next to them, was another group of men, seemingly slightly older than the Givers. They were wearing properly clean shirt and ties, with a lab coat mostly put on the back of their chairs. They were probably the Mediators, or simply called the nurses. They seemed to be around 20.
She finally arrived at her assigned place and sat. Next to her was Helen, and in front of her was one of the girls that were here before her. They all brought their hands into the usual prayer given before eating, from the corner of her eyes, she could notice that some of the Givers weren’t doing the gesture. But as quickly as it was made, the room was filled with the sounds of people talking and utensils hitting the plates.
“Don’t the Givers do the usual prayer?” Asked Emma, taking a piece of bread.
“At this point of their life, can they really believe in God anymore?” Replied the elder in front of her.
“Oh hi!” Said Helen. “We didn’t properly introduce ourselves yesterday. I’m Helen and she is Emma. And you are?”
“Ah. I’m Violet. Nice to meet you too. Why are you two here?”
“Sister and Mama exams.” Replied Emma.
“Really? Well, I hope you’ll be luckier than me, it’s been almost 6 months since I’m here and I just can’t get pregnant, it’s starting to get annoying. At least my partner is nice.”
“Must be hard.” Said Helen, she seemed to think about what to say next before leaning closer to the older girl and whispering. “Since you’ve been here for a while, can you tell us how the sexual intercourses are?”
Emma almost chocked on her glass of water at the sudden crude question. Despite knowing why they were here in the first place, thinking about the thing wasn’t something she wished she could’ve talked about with anyone. It wasn’t because she was prude – no way that it was that with the things she already experimented at her age – but mostly because the subject was as embarrassing as it was shaming, reminding her of their ‘animal’ condition.
Violet smirked. “That’s the only thing they are nice with. You know, at first, I thought they would control everything. But there’s a reason why the boys are trained…” She leaned closer to them. “You are kept in a room with your partner, without anyone looking at you, for one hour. And during that time… Holy Shit you do things.”
Helen let out a nervous laugh as her cheeks became red. Of course, it wasn’t called The Whorehouse for nothing, it had to hold to its reputation. Emma thought about the novels she would sometimes read back when she was still an ignorant child, how she had blushed when she had found an erotic one and how she had discovered the effect that her puberty had on her body during her latest years. She wished Violet would stop talking about the subject, but she kept on, but to Emma’s relief it was now more practical info.
“By the way, I would recommend you go to the Mediators to be able to have a good Giver as your partner. If you are specific enough, and if they think you are compatible enough for the merchandise they want, you might get a really good catch.”
“A good catch?” Asked Helen.
“Well, I only heard about it, but all Givers are different. The sexual intercourses can change depending on their years here, their training, or simply their implication on the thing. For example, since it’s your first year, you won’t get the newbies, they often go with more experimented Receivers. The older they are, usually the better they are, because they are selected for it. But when it’s in between…” She gulped. “Expect anything. To a super good and gentle guy to a rough animal.”
Not only Emma wished she could stop thinking about the thing, but now that a horrifying image had been put into her mind she was starting to stress out. In case she would have to stay here longer than she would want she maybe should have told Smee about a certain type of Giver she could’ve wanted.
“So… We can ask the nurses to select them for us?” She asked.
“It’s not guaranteed. But for example, if you really don’t want a certain guy, they will take it in account. Besides, if a Giver isn’t efficient or popular enough, they ship him out.”
Helen widened her eyes in horror. “They…? I thought the House was safe from…!”
“Safe from what? When they need meat, they need meat. If they can’t have good catch within the farm’s products, they take in the adults. Whether they are Sister, Mama, Receiver, Giver or even Mediators. No one explained that to you?”
“Let it go.” Suddenly cut her off Emma. “She maybe had the luck to not know the fate of the victims of her promotion. You shouldn’t scare her like that.”
“You’re right. You should at least try to have a good time here. It’s the only place where you will ever feel pleasure in your whole life. So enjoy your stay.”
Helen nodded, hands still shaky due to the revelation. Emma looked at the table of Givers and the Mediator’s table. Trying to see who she could talk to after eating.
“Hey Violet, since you’re telling us to try to find a good catch, do you have some to recommend to us? So that we know what to ask.”
“Well, as I said, the oldest are the best. There’s the 25 years old transfer from 9 years ago, he is the best from what I heard, and the oldest of the bunch. Though the 24- and 23-years old guys are good too. But if you want someone your age, then I would recommend you the black-haired guy who is sitting next to the transfer.”
“Who?” Asked Emma, searching for said Giver.
Violet pointed at the end of the Givers’ table, where a white-haired man without a tattoo on his neck was sitting in front of the black-haired boy Violet was talking about. Emma could only see his back and his messy hair. He was probably the more indecent of the bunch, his shirt seemingly open and slide to show one of his shoulders. His neck was covered in bruises… bruises?
“This guy… He is the best catch within the young ones.” Said Violet. “He is 19, well built, experienced for his age, and I never had him but all the girls who had him got pregnant quickly and said that the sexual intercourse went really well. He complies to any demand as long as he can come inside to get you pregnant.”
“Efficient indeed.” Replied Emma, staring at him. She could recognize that hair somewhere, but she couldn’t tell where.
“There’s just one tiny problem. Though it helps with the sexual intercourses.”
“What?” Asked Helen.
“As much as he is a good catch, I wouldn’t get involved with him. He is a total slut.”
Emma looked at the girls, raising a brow. “Aren’t all Givers supposed to be prostitutes at this point?”
“No. Like… He really acts like a prostitute. If it’s not part of the sexual intercourses, he always asks for something in exchange for sex. And he often asks for sex. I never had him for the prepared sexual intercourses… But he already flirted with me to try to get one of my belongings. And he is good I can tell you. He is… very… good…”
“You let him do it.” Concluded Emma.
“He gave me the puppy eyes! I can’t resist puppy eyes! How did he know that it was my weakness? I don’t know! But he managed to! When I tell you that he is good, he really is! It’s a pro! Once he has you in your hand it’s over! OVER!”
“Does he only do that with the Receivers?”
“That’s the thing. No. Most of his clients are actually Mediators from what I know.”
“Aren’t they men?” Asked Helen.
“Helen, how do you think Givers train to become good catches before their first prepared intercourses?”
Emma could almost see the gears turning in Helen’s head as the realization struck her. “Oh. Like… that. Okay.”
“Don’t be so shocked. It’s the Whorehouse here. House of all sins and pleasures. The only moment that matters is the moment you leave it. The rest is like a dream, it’s crazy and has an end. And usually it’s erotic.”
“I never had…!”
“Try to tell me you never dreamt of any sexy scenes?” Said Violet, smirking and earning a deep blush from the younger girl who refused to reply and focused on her plate.
Emma in her own case was still focusing on trying to remember where she might have seen those black hair. “What is his number?” She ended up asking. “Or his name if you know it.”
“81194.”
Emma dropped her fork. Her whole body frozen in horror as she finally remembered where she had seen them. Under the shades of a tree, as he was turning the pages of another complicated book. The loud noise made some heads turns towards her, including his.
Their eyes met.
And the same horrifying realization struck them both as they recognized each other.
Of course, he had changed, his face had lost all roundness from childhood, his eyes were sharpers and his lips chapped. She could notice a small bruise on his forehead, behind his fringe hiding his left eye. Was he taking in the changes she had spotted in him in hers too? He had recognized her she knew it.
Why?
Why him? Why of all people it had to be him?
Why Ray?