"How about a good night for you sir? Looking for some company?" her voice is sweet and ever so alluring. Katara smiles, her lips painted red. It makes her more desirable, or so Mammy says. The waterbender, donning the colors of her native land, begins her nightly banter with men who look to women like her for pleasures their wives cannot provide.
"Mr Chiang," she says to a man waddling past her. "How about a good night for you?" she says as nicely as possible and proceeds to hold on to his arm tenderly.
"Don't touch me you little whore," the Earth Kingdom man, who sells silk, says as he brushes past her. He is one of her regulars, has been for years but the man doesn't seem to want her services on a night like this. Her eyes are large with anger. She knows that he is drunk but she doesn't really care and so spits at him.
Mr Chiang is not a nice man, and so he doesn't take kindly to her actions. He raises a closed fist and punches her in the face. Katara is not the kind of girl who gets bullied easily and responds by biting down on his ear. He screams but she doesn't relent, pulling away she kicks his shin. Now they are even. "Crazy bitch," he shouts and on wobbly legs, moves away from her. She touches her hand to her nose and it comes away bloody. Great, now I have to go redo my makeup, she thinks as she crosses the road to the brothel where she works.
The Madam is sitting at the table where they have their daily meals. She looks up at Katara and isn't too happy that one of her girls has been assaulted. "Come here," she says calmly and ushers the girl to sit down. She knows that she is the closest thing they've got to a mother. In fact, she takes them to be her daughters, albeit, far more sexually active daughters than the usual lot. "How many times must I tell you to stay out of trouble? Now look at you!" she exclaims, exasperated.
"Mammy," Katara says, well, whines really. She's been staying here since she was five when the men from the Fire Nation killed her mother and sold her into prostitution. She sighs heavily and looks at the lady whom she has come to see as a confidante. "What was I supposed to do? He called me a whore," she states to which the woman's face becomes even more exasperated.
"You must learn to control your emotions, you're still a girl, this can be more easily forgiven," she begins. "When I was younger, the Madam I was working for would beat us whenever there were complaints," she tells Katara who now has a towel pressed to her nose. "You girls, you are lucky," at the mention of the word, Katara rolls her eyes again. This, this is NOT her definition of 'lucky' but she doesn't dispute. "You've got a lot of comments of late, and let's just say they aren't pretty," the woman says as she applies ointment on the bruise on Katara's face.
"You need to make money for yourself Katara, I can't keep feeding you for free. As it is, your business barely keeps you afloat," she sighs and looks at her worker. "I mean, I will look after you until I can no longer but you need to start making money," she states, shaking her head. "Most of our customers say you are very attractive, but that temper of yours put them off," her words just make Katara roll her eyes yet again.
"I know, I know. They are perfect gentlemen with perfect manners and I'm just a slut," she drawls sarcastically and stands from her place at the dining table.
"Where are you going?" the Earth Kingdom woman asks as Katara moves to leave the room. "I'm not finished!" she protests to no avail.
"Fuck that! I'm going to earn my keep," she informs the Madam who watches her leave without uttering another word.
X
Katara lies on the bed with her eyes set on the washroom door. The man who picked her out of the line up women at the brothel is bathing and has left her to her own devices. She rubs her hands together and wonders how her first time will be like. The other women have explained to her the art of making love. They are, after all, very experienced in bed and she likes to think that what they've told her is true.
Most men know their way around a woman's body, or so that had said. They claim that the men who visit them, have very good skills behind closed doors. But Katara knows better than to trust their words. She wishes what they have said is true. But she knows that they are just trying to make her less fearful than she is, even though their words do nothing to console her.
At age twelve, Katara is the youngest in the brothel, the most inexperience and the only virgin. The man who has engaged her services is about thrice her age. He looks to be nearly six feet and probably weighs way more than she does. The thought makes her teeth chatter. How will he fit into her? The question replays in her head repeatedly and she swallows hard. She wishes she could tell the Madam that she doesn't want to do this, that she is scared, and yet she does want to do it. It is strange really, she knows, but Katara feels the need to be an asset to the woman who has practically raised her.
After all, she has already become a lady. Her first of many monthly cycles began a month before. Blood, crimson red and angry, came from her private areas and stained her undergarments. That is when Mammy decided that she was ready.
Her very first customer, a Fire Nation soldier with broad shoulders and a tattoo of a dragon on his chest comes from the washroom. He is naked, wearing nothing but a perverse smile. Katara shrinks into her place on the bed and decides that she really doesn't' want to do this.
"Sir," she begins but he pays her no heed. "I don't think I'm up for this," she says timidly but he doesn't listen. Instead, he moved to her half-naked form and holds her, kissing her roughly. She pulls away and slaps him, running for the door. The man does not let her go. He captures her in his arms and squeezes the air from her lungs, like python. "Please," she whimpers as he throws her onto the bed, moving such that he is between her legs. And then, with a single, fluid thrust, he takes her. and that is when she decides that she will never forgive the Fire Nation and it's hordes of bastards.
When the soldier has his fill of the young waterbender, he looks at her. There is something in his eyes as he puts on his clothing. She presses her hand to her head and she can feel a touch of wetness. It doesn't take long before she realizes that it is blood, and then, everything fades away as she falls into the bottomless pit of darkness.
X
Katara takes a puff of her cigarette. It is a bad habit, smoking. She knows this, but Katara doesn't feel the need to stop. She closes her eyes as she allows the smoke to course down her windpipe. Glancing out at the streets, she decides that it is time again to begin looking for her customers. This has become a ritual of sorts, she goes out to find men who are willing to pay her for the pleasure her body can provide.
Sex… is overrated. Katara snorts at the thought and inhales of the cigarette again. 'Making love' or whatever the romantic scrolls describe is nothing like what she experiences every night. It is crude, it is rough and it hurts. What makes it even more revolting is the fact that it isn't even done between people who love each other.
"Good evening sir," she says and tugs on a Fire Nation soldiers arm. The light is dim and she doesn't know if her eyes are playing tricks on her, because in front of her is the man who took her virginity.
X
"Sweetheart," the monster's voice hasn't changed a bit since his last visit. Katara feels as if this whole situation is being depicted in an awful nightmare. His gaze is belittling, is disgusting and yet there is something about the way he is staring at her that prevents the waterbender from looking away. It's almost as if he is looking into her very soul. He no longer dons the Fire Nation armour and she assumes that he has retired from the military.
Her mind is racing, it is running, it is jumping and yet she doesn't know what the thoughts are saying. It wanders, leaving her numb. There is nothing like this feeling, she doesn't remember being someone who doens't feel. Katara is an emotional person; she is very in touch with her feelings and so for her to be unaware of herself alarms her faintly.
The girl turns to lock the door as she prepares herself for the night. She peels back her layers of clothing. She begins with her outer tunic, blue as the sea. She stands in her bindings as she turns and looks at the man who is now lying on the bed eating peanuts. There is lust in his eyes, longing, it is feral almost and Katara can feel her body tensing up.
She doesn't want to do this, but the man has promised her a heavy bag of gold if she accedes to his every desire. Katara, poor and nearly penniless cannot refuse his offer. And so before she knows it, she has removed her bindings and is standing before her rapist, showing, rather reluctantly, her naked flesh.
"Ahh, you have grown haven't you," his voice is dripping with venom and everything in Katara is screaming for her to flee, run from this room and never return. However, she cannot bring herself to do so. It has been her lifelong desire to face the man who killed her spirit. She wants to kill him, send him to hell but she will not, for she is too afraid and timid.
And so the eighteen-year-old lies on the bed, naked and waiting. The beast, pauses for a moment to eye her body. And then he holds her, kisses her neck and does to her what should be reserved for the husband she will never have. Katara bites back the cry that longs to pierce through her lungs, she holds back the anguish that threatens to spill from her, as she allows her tears to flow.
After the man has his fill of Katara, he lifts himself of her form, dresses quickly and heads for the door. Katara pulls the blanket to her neck and almost lets him leave. Her mind is wandering again and she feels physically sick.
"What about my gold?" she hears herself say. The Fire Nation man looks at her, glares really as he moves to her.
"Here's your payment," he says and slaps her across the face. "You little slut," his voice is dark and she feels her anger grow. She watches in disgust as he lowers his pants and urinates over her; the ultimate insult. "You little slut, that's what you get for trying to take my gold," he laughs and moves to the door.
What happens after this, Katara doesn't really register. But what Mammy describes to her later would give her the feeling of perverted satisfaction. Because according to the woman, Katara took a knife from the nightstand and plunged it right into the man's heart, and then left him to bleed to death as she watched.
His murder will not be her last.
A/N: Please read and review! can i get at least 10 reviews? pretty please? :) lol anyways, as always, i hope you enjoy this story. and please keep the suggestions coming!