Aria - for Rose
Aria was in the middle of his break, the curtains pulled around his bed to give him some sort of privacy as he tried to catch some sleep in the four hours he was permitted for himself. Other than this the only time he had when he was not working was the fifteen minutes for breakfast and dinner, and the ten minutes he got to clean up between customers.
The room was incredibly noisey, it had taken Aria a long time to learn to force himself to sleep through the ruckus. He shared this particular room with twenty of his colleagues and there was little more than a thin curtain seperating each bed. Aria lay there, listening to Arrianne and her client in the neighbouring bed - Arrianne was a friend of his, a beautiful young woman who had looked after him when he'd first arrived. The bed to the right of Aria's was empty and had been so for two months now. Beltaire, the young man who had worked there, had died from a sickness - he had been coughing and shivering and unable to work one morning, and when Aria pulled the curtain back to check on him during his break the man had simply vanished and Aria had never seen him again.
"Aria!"
The young man sat up at the sound of his name being called and pulled his curtain back to find himself face to face with Crescent, the girl who worked in the bed opposite his own. She was a cheerful sort with choppy blonde hair, puckered lips, a tiny nose, and wide eyes, and like all who worked at Snipeville she was remarkably beautiful.
"Hello Crescent, what's the matter?" Aria asked, inviting his friend to his 'room'.
"There's a new girl, she's being brought in, she's wearing awfully odd clothes - you must come see!" Crescent said, excitably, taking Aria by the wrist.
"I was just going to sleep," Aria protested, quietly, as she dragged him out of bed.
"It will only take a minute, and the chances are Skice will put her next to you anyway," Crescent pouted.
Skice was the owner of Snipeville whorehouse, a greedy, cruel, cold man with thick, curly black hair, a twisted goatee, and very pointed features. He was as charming as a snake, as cunning as a fox, and utterly ruthless. He worked his whores as hard as he could, fed them as little as he could get away with, and made an enormous profit.
"Oh alright then," Aria smiled. He loved Crescent's enthusiasm and found it hard to say no to her.
Aria followed Crescent onto the landing and peeked over the banister to the hallway below. He was just in time to spot Skice pulling an unfamiliar girl towards the double doors of the drawing room.
"Poor thing," Crescent commented. Both she and Aria had been through the same thing on their arrival. Scared and unknowing they had been taken into the drawing room, stripped, studied for the quality of their bodies, then branded with the Snipeville mark on their right shoulder blade before being taken to their beds and left.
Aria sighed and returned to his bed, deciding to wait up for the girl who would undoubtedly be his new neighbour - she would most likely need some comfort and a friendly face after her ordeal.