Hello again :)

With the last chapter I forgot to mention that I began to do some illustrations of my fanfictions with Lillian and Connor. If you´re interested, you can find me on deviantart as Ayanna2495.

Reviews:

Luthlien: I totally agree with you. I neither like the way women were treated back then, but unfortunately it´s still an issue today in some parts of society. But of course Nathan´s doings were quite exaggerated and an childish act of hurt pride. I won´t tell if we´re done with him yet. ;) Maybe, but maybe not.

The only way?

After Nathan had left, I stood undetermined in front of the large desk and endured Victoire´s scrutinizing gazes. Should I thank her? I wasn´t in Nathan´s hands anymore at last but I was still in a brothel, hundred miles away from home. The only question was if the woman in front of me was able to help me with getting there. Now she leaned a bit back in her chair and played with the ring on one of her fat fingers.
"Well, girl", she started. "What´s your name? You´re not from here, aren´t you? How I know Nathan, he certainly brought you as far away from any problems as possible before he brought you here."
The tone in which she was talking about this man was more than scornful and it gave me this feeling again, that I could trust her basically. Even though my first impression of her had scared me off.

"My name is Lillian Kenway", I began to answer her questions. "And no, I´m not from here. My home is near Boston and I have to go back there."
Victoire nodded slowly and on an impulse, I stepped a bit closer to the desk and looked at her pleadingly. "I have to send a message home or maybe take a carriage to get there. I don´t know this city but maybe you could help me. I would be very grateful."
"Do you have money?"
I blinked surprised about this question and shook my head, which made Victoire smile bitterly. "So you don´t have many possibilities then. You can neither send a message nor you can take a carriage. Furthermore, look at you. You wouldn´t be able to come even a few metres wide on these streets, much less into a post office or a carriage in the way you´re running around."
"Well, maybe you could..."
"I can´t do anything." Victoire shook her head determined. "Where do you think you are? We´re not a poor house. I don´t have money to waste."
"But I do have money. As soon as I am home, I can..."
"Of course you can." My person opposite had raised a hand and gave me a smug gaze. "How many times do you think I hear this sentence? Most of all from some guys who think that the services of my girls are for free. I won´t waste money on you, hoping naively that I will get it back." She shook her head again. "I can only make you the offer that you can stay here first. You will get clothes, a roof over your head and will be supplied. You have to work for me for that. You will get a share of the money you´re earning and as soon as you have the money for a message or your journey home, you can leave. None of my girls is forced to stay but if they stay, they have to work for it."

I stared at Victoire almost disbelievingly. Did I hear right? She didn´t want to help me as long as I didn´t work in her establishment? It had to be a bad joke.
"I certainly will not work for you", I uttered angrily but Victoire wasn´t impressed.
"You don´t have to. You´re free to decide but remember that you have to go and are not allowed to come back then. You will be on your own."
I snorted indignantly. "Fine. Everything is better than your offer." In a jerk I turned away and went back to the door but Victoire´s voice held me back.
"I would think about it, if I were you. You´re alone, you have no money and you...well, to put it mildly, you´re almost naked. You´re in the middle of Helltown and as soon as you take a step outside, you´re alone and have to expect that you´re attacked and raped by some guys in every moment. Even if you get out of this district, you certainly will be arrested by soldiers soon and I don´t think that I have to tell you, what they do with women who behave indecent."

My hand clawed at the door handle while my mind tried desperately to suppress that Victoire was right. I wouldn´t come far, especially not without money. I didn´t know the city and I didn´t know anybody who lived here and who I could ask for help. Probably I even wouldn´t get help in a church. In the contrary. They would throw me out sooner than anybody else. But Victoire´s offer wasn´t an alternative either. I was no whore, no matter what Nathan said. I had been disgusted by myself when I had offered myself to him in my desperation. But to sell my body willingly, just to get home? I would become the woman Nathan saw in me. Apart from the fact that I had a husband I loved and who I certainly didn´t want to cuckold. No matter for what reasons. But while I was inwardly fighting desperately against Victoire´s words, I became more and more calm externally. Because at the same time a desperate plan had ripened in my head.
"How much is the share?", I asked hollowly without turning around.
"Well, from an average guest the girls get about four pounds. They have to give the half of it."
"Two pounds?" Dumbfounded I turned around. "They get ridiculous two pounds for their services?"
The lady shrugged her shoulders. "That´s easily earned money. If they have several punters a day, they have soon earned more money in one day than an ordinary merchant´s wife."
I felt sick. So these women slept with several men in one day just to provide their living? That was disgusting and almost inhuman. Why should a woman endure something like that willingly?
"So, what now? Do you want to go or do you want to stay?"
I had to suppress my disgusted thoughts and think of my plan again. Tensely I pinched my lips and nodded finally. "I will stay."

Several minutes later I was led to a room by Joanne, the young woman who had been in Victoire´s room before. It was small, almost tiny. But at least it had a window, a washstand, a small dresser and of course a bed. But with the sight of the latter it became clear to me that I would certainly never sleep in it. The bedding looked fresh but the sheet was covered with stains whose origin I didn´t want to know. Joanne disappeared shortly to get warm water and while I was alone, I stepped to the washstand and glanced into the small mirror. I really looked even worse than I felt. Dark shadows under my eyes, pale skin on which the bruises under my eyes and on my jaw were almost glowing. My hair was totally matted and dirty and also my body was almost covered in dirt as well as my clothes. Furthermore I had loosed more weight over the last two weeks than I had thought because my shoulders and décolleté were bonier than ever before. I would have never thought that I could ever look so neglected and even though it wasn´t my fault, I was ashamed of my own reflection.

When Joanne returned, she put the bowl of water onto the washstand and dipped a rag in it.
"Take your clothes off", she instructed me but I only raised an eyebrow.
"I can wash myself alone, thank you."
Joanne looked at me mockingly, totally unimpressed by my sharp tone. "I have no doubt", she teased. "But it should be done thoroughly. So don´t make a fuss. I will turn a blind eye on your glory."
I frowned irritated but when Joanne kept looking at me coldly, I gave up my resistance, took off my dressing gown and slipped out of my nightgown. Joanne stepped to me unmoved and began to wash the dirt of the last two weeks from my body. Although I felt more than uncomfortable at first, I endured it without complaint. When she was done, she indicated to me that I should sit at the chair by the washstand and disappeared again to get new water, with which she began to wash my hair. When she had freed me from all of the dirt, the young woman stepped to the dresser and took out a shift, a corset and a dress and put them onto the bed. But when I just wanted to stand up to get dressed, she held me back. "Victoire is going to come by."
"Yes, and what?" I wanted to grab past her and take the clothes but she pushed herself into my way.
"She wants to have a look at you first before she decides if you´re allowed to stay."
I looked at her confused. I had thought that my stay was already certain. So what did it mean that Victoire wanted to look at me? She had seen me already. But I was too naive to know that she hadn´t done it really.

Because shortly afterwards, Victoire entered the room and involuntarily I asked myself, how she had managed it to hoist herself from the chair without ripping her dress. Joanne pushed me into the centre of the room so that Victoire could walk around me with slow steps. Again I felt like cattle on a market and I didn´t know what was more demeaning: To be abused by a man who wanted to sell you to a brothel, or to stand naked in a room in exactly such an establishment and being scrutinized all around?
Victoire let my still wet hair slide through her fingers, stroked with her fingertips over my shoulders and finally stopped in front of me. "Your hair is healthy, you have beautiful skin..." She reached out a hand, put it under my chin and made me open my mouth. "...healthy and complete teeth."
She made a step backwards and her gaze roamed my naked body again. "You are quite thin but some men actually like that. At least you have certain female curves. Some women of your stature appear more like boys. How old are you?"
"Twenty-six", was my short answer and Victoire clicked her tongue.
"So you would be the oldest of my girls. But nobody will ask anyway and if they do, you can pretend to be four years younger. Nobody will notice."
Her gaze stopped at my left hand and swearing quietly, she grabbed it. "I hope for you that this isn´t a wedding ring", she said and tapped on it. "If it is, you have to go immediately. I neither want an angry husband coming here nor do I want to hear any accusations about alleged bawdiness."
Staring at the ring, it was my first impulse to confirm her fear of course. But I couldn´t risk it now to end up on the streets again.
I´m sorry, Connor, I thought and shook my head. "It´s an heirloom."
Victoire frowned but let my hand go. "Don´t wear it", she said shortly before she looked me over again. "Are you still a virgin? Did you bear children?"
Irritated I frowned about her more or less intimate questions. Both were none of her business but according to her gaze, I had to answer. "No and no."
She nodded. "Good. So you can get dressed now and from tomorrow on, you can earn your money."
With these words, she turned away and left the room.

I stayed alone with Joanne who already slipped the low-cut shift over my head and laid the corset around my waist. "Already wore such a thing?", she asked while starting to lace it up. I just nodded and tried to stay still as she tightened it more and more and I noticed how my breasts were pushed up. I asked myself how the men, who were coming here, chose the women. Did they choose the one who showed her breasts more than others or weren´t they not so simple minded? How was somebody, who paid for love-making, minded anyway? Probably not different than a woman who took money for it.
"Why are you here?", I asked Joanne all of the sudden, who was already grabbing the dress. She frowned shortly before she went on dressing me. "Because I would be laying the gutter, if I wasn´t. My parents were poor farmers. They hadn´t much to give and when I got pregnant by a farmhand and he didn´t want to marry me, I was driven out by my family and village and basically the brothel was everything that was left for me."
She said all of this without any emotion as if she wouldn´t mind being banished from society.
"What happened to the child?"
"Died." Again an unmoved answer that made me gulp. She had experienced terrible things but talked about like it was nothing.

Joanne adjusted the dress and took a step back. "We will do your hair tomorrow. And we have to cover your bruises. Nobody will take you like this."
I just nodded and didn´t know if I should thank her. She had helped me somehow but was gratitude really appropriate? However. Joanne didn´t seem like she expected it anyway. She bid farewell with a short nod and suddenly I was alone. Alone in a room in a brothel. Dressed like a whore and officially demoted to one. When I had heard people talking about hitting rock bottom, I had never understood what it meant. Now I knew it.

I spent the hours until evening in the room which I refused to call mine. I didn´t want to leave it because from my seat in one of the rear corners of the small room, I could hear the men coming and going. I asked myself how many of them were coming here on one day but somehow I didn´t want to know it either. I didn´t want to bump into one of them and so I sat huddled in my corner on the floor, biting my lower lip and twisting the ring on my finger. I had denied Connor but I hoped it finally resulted in my return to him. I would do it somehow. I didn´t want Nathan´s plan to work and I didn´t want to sit here idle and hoping that Connor was going to find me somehow. The chance was small, when I was honest to myself. There was nothing that could lead him here. That could tell him that I was in Philadelphia and furthermore in a brothel. I didn´t want to imagine what could happen, if he would learn about the latter. I didn´t want him to see me in this environment and I especially didn´t want him to see me in these clothes. When I had seen my reflection in the mirror, I had been ashamed of myself again. A plunging neckline, pushed-up breasts. This dress was outdoing the dress that my mentor Theresa had given to me for my twenty fifth birthday, hoping that I could catch the attention of a possible future husband, with permissiveness. I had felt like a whore back then, but I´d had no idea.

When Joanne came and brought me something to eat, she gave me a sceptical gaze but I ignored it, thanked her for the food and was alone shortly afterwards. The bowl full of cereal mash in my hands, I withdrew into my corner again and pecked at the mushy content. Wasn´t this rather a breakfast? Rests of the breakfast? Did I want to think about it? Sighing I tried the mash and squinched up my face. It tasted bland, was cold and was already a few hours old. But I was hungry and so I forced myself to empty the bowl, spoonful after spoonful. Afterwards I pushed it aside drew up my legs to my body and bedded my head onto my knees to bear this heavy feeling in my stomach. But at least I was sated now and maybe the food, no matter how disgusting it had been, would help me to regain my strength again. Because I had to.

When the night had fallen long since and the brothel had closed its doors for a few hours shortly before dawn, I was still sitting there and listened. A deadly silence had spread over the whole building and I began to see my time coming. I stood up, took the shoes which belonged to my new clothes and tiptoed out of the room. Everything was silent in the hallway and so I scurried to the staircase and went downstairs as carefully as possible, the stairs cracking quietly underneath my bare feet. I stopped shortly, listened but when I was sure that nobody had heard me, I went on. The taproom was empty, too and with a triumphant smile, I sneaked to the door, grabbed the handle and froze when it didn´t budge. It was locked.
"Where would you like to go?"
I winced when the deep male voice sounded behind me and turned around. Behind me, in the semi-darkness, stood the innkeeper. Bert, when I had got it right. He stood there, his arms crossed and looked at me expectantly. Did he live here? Had I really failed to notice him?
"I...wanted to...get some fresh air. I couldn´t open the window", I managed to say and tried not to look too caught.
"That´s how it should be", Bert mumbled. "The windows are always locked to keep out unwanted visitors. That´s why the door is locked at night, too. So you have to wait until morning to get your fresh air. Furthermore you shouldn't run around outside in the middle of the night."
I blinked, tried to suppress the disappointment that was spreading inside of me. So I had failed. Again. I had thought that I could slip away unseen and try my luck in the city, now somehow decently dressed. But it seemed like I should fail because of a locked door. The lump in my throat grew to a painful size.
"That sounds reasonable", I said quietly and put on a smile. "So...I will go to sleep then."
Bert nodded and I still felt his gaze in my back when I went upstairs again and through the hallway to my...the room.

There I took the blanket from the bed, curled up on the floor and wrapped myself into the blanket. Laying there like that, I played with my ring again and while I had forbid myself to cry during the last days because I hadn´t want to grant Nathan the satisfaction, I now allowed free play to my tears. I just wanted to go home. I didn´t want to be here. But how should I manage it to get away from here without money?
Sobbing to myself I pulled the blanked over my head, closed my eyes and cried even more when it became aware to me again, how much I missed it that Connor was laying next to me. More than in the nights before, now that I was finally alone in the darkness and no sound got to my ears. I missed his warmth. I missed it to cuddle up to him when I couldn´t sleep, like now and I missed it how he always wrapped his arms around me then and kissed my hair when he was awake and that I fell asleep peacefully through his regular breathing alone. Now I could only imagine it. I fell asleep but it certainly wasn´t peacefully.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt totally spent. My eyes burned, as if I had been still crying while sleeping but I felt numb. As if my body had no energy for any kind of emotion anymore. Silently I went downstairs into the taproom with the other women, ate a meagre breakfast and followed Joanne upstairs afterwards because she wanted to do my hair and make me up. Make me look pretty for my first day. The thought of it alone, that they expected me to wait with the others by the staircase when possible guests were entering the house, made me feel empty. A bit reluctant, yes. But it didn´t manage it to get out.
I just stayed silent and stared at a spot on the washstand´s wood while Joanne brushed my hair. The young woman glanced at me through the mirror and really seemed to attach importance to my silence. "Are you nervous?"
I raised my head. What should I answer? Was I nervous? Yes, somehow, but only because I didn´t want to be a whore. I didn´t want to wait for men to earn two pounds. No matter if I needed money or not. "No", I answered and Joanne nodded.
"You don´t have to. You don´t have to be afraid of these guys. They think they have us in their hands but basically you only have to scream loud enough, if one of them should be full of mischief and Bert throws him out. You don´t have to put up with everything but very few have any perversities in mind."
Were those supposed to be reassuring words? I raised an eyebrow and it didn´t escape Joanne´s notice.
"Like I said, you don´t have to be afraid. Just imagine that you´re with someone who appeals you more and if you fear that you could get pregnant: Don´t climax and you don´t have to be afraid. But the guys are not so good anyway. Most of them just stick it in shortly and it´s already over. You don´t even notice it. You also don´t have to do much. They don´t care if you like it or not. They´re paying for their own fun after all."

All of this came out of her mouth in one torrent of words as if we were talking about the weather. Calmly she braided my hair while I just stared at her dumfounded. Were all of the women so unscrupulous like Joanne? She had to sleep with foreign men to survive and she accepted it as if it was nothing. The thought alone made me feel disgust and her words did the rest. I raised my hands and stood up in a jerk so that Joanne stepped back surprised.
"Stop talking about it", I uttered. "I won´t do that! I´m no whore. I never wanted to be one and never I will be one!" I was almost screaming and felt how my body started to tremble. All of that was so absurd. I didn´t belong here and I won´t stay.
Determined I went to the door but Joanne grabbed my arm and looked at me irritated.
"Do you know what you´re doing? You can´t walk around outside alone. What do you think how far you can get until you will be dragged into a dark corner? Helltown is not a place for women who are on their own and neither is Philadelphia. Look into the mirror. You say you´re not a whore but you´re looking like one. Nobody will take you seriously, apart from the fact that you would have to slip into your nightgown again, if you go because the dress doesn´t belong to you."
She let my arm go but kept looking at me. "I´ve heard that you want to go home, wherever it is. Believe me, I wanted that, too. But nobody comes far without money. Sooner or later you will get to a point where somebody asks you for a coin and you have none. Victoire took you in because she wanted to help you. Nobody has to stay here if he doesn´t want to, but you should think carefully about what you´re doing. Because you have no chance alone and you will be alone, if you go now. To be a whore might be not the most respected position but often it is the only one that gets you to your aims. Maybe you should swallow your pride because I heard that you don´t need much money. A few pounds for sending a letter." She snorted. "Therefore you only need to have one guest and maybe another one so that you´re allowed to stay until you can go home. You could go out there and mingle with the beggars but like I said: It won´t take long until some guy jumps you and then your pride is no use for you anymore."
Her voice was sober but not ineffective. I caught myself agreeing with her shortly and scolded myself for it in an instant. No matter if one or two punters, I didn´t want that. Maybe it was going to be hard for me alone but maybe I had a chance...
I bit my lower lip. The chance was small, barely existent. It was bigger if I stayed and...No! This choice couldn´t be under discussion. There had to be another way. I just had to find it.
Joanne scrutinized me as I stayed silent and went to the door. "Think about it", she said and left.

And actually several hours past by in which I thought about it. There were two voices in my head. The one that was saying loudly that I could do it without help. That I would find a way. But there was also this quiet, persistent voice that told me that I had no opportunities. That I had no chance alone, especially not in this district without knowledge about the city. This voice talked me into thinking that it couldn´t be so bad if I would let two guests come to me. Only two. Just shortly and nobody had to learn about it. This voice was wrong but she began to become louder and I became more and more troubled. Darkness was sinking onto the city. A misty light spread and I just sat there and stared into the void. At least until the door opened and Joanne came in.

She had a cup in her hand and sat down next to me on the bed. "Victoire is getting angry", she said. "She didn´t see you today and says that she wants to throw you out, if you keep sitting around. Then you will be on the streets in your nightgown again."
For the first time I believed to hear something like pity in her voice and when I looked at her, she appeared almost sad. "You won´t survive on the streets. Believe me. Once there was a girl like you who tried it. She left us and one day later, she way laying naked and with a slit open throat in the gutter. You don´t want to end like this. You have an aim in life."
I felt the tears rising up to my eyes and a convulsive sob escaped me. "But I don´t want to reach it like that. It´s not right."
Joanne nodded slowly. "Often we think that something is wrong but sometimes we have to choose the wrong paths to find the right one again."
She looked at the cup in her hand and gave it to me. "Here. It...will help."

Hesitantly I took the cup and looked at the red liquid in it. "Wine?", I asked sceptically and she nodded slowly. "It will calm you."
Slowly I swayed the drink in the cup before I lifted it sighing and put it to my lips. It was just half filled and so I had emptied it with a few gulps. But I squinched up my face as a bitter and sharp taste spread on my tongue.
"It tastes strange", I said and handed the cup over to Joanne who took it, keeping her gaze down. Was I wrong or didn´t she want to look into my eyes?
"It will help", she murmured and stood up. "Stay here. I will take care of the rest."
Joanne went to the door while I asked myself what she wanted to take care of. Did she want to talk to Victoire? Ask her if I could stay without working for her? Make her help me?
"Thank you, Joanne", I said before she reached the door, even though I didn´t know what I was thanking her for. But Joanne didn´t look at me again as she opened the door and said "Don´t thank me", before she disappeared.

I stayed behind alone again, uncertain what was going to happen next. Whatever Joanne was planning, it seemed like I had to wait. I stood up slowly and enlightened the oil lamp next to the bed, that bathed the room in subdued light thanks to its filthy glass. I stood there for a moment and watched its flickering, before I turned around and went back to the bed and that was when I felt it. A sudden tiredness which I hadn´t noticed before. It flowed through me, made my legs become heavy and I sank sighing onto the bed. I blinked several times as my vision slipped away, too and when I rubbed my eyes, I was seized by a sudden feeling of dizziness that made me groan. What the hell was going on? Did the wine...? I faltered. The strange taste...
I wasn´t able to finish the thought because suddenly the door opened and when I raised my eyes, I saw a man stepping in. He was tall, had close-cropped brown hair, was tanned, had an athletic build and a sparkle in his eyes that I couldn´t interpret, as he looked at me.
"Good evening", he said with a deep, husky voice while I was staring at him as if he was a ghost.
"What...what do you want here?", I asked and was wondering that it was so difficult to speak all of the sudden.
The man smirked. "Well, I´ve never been asked that before." He grabbed into the pocket of his pants and counted some coins on his flat hand before putting them onto the commode.
"One of your friends sent me to you as no other girl was to my liking but with you, it´s definitely different."
His words didn´t get through to me while he approached me slowly. Even when he began to unbutton his shirt, I didn´t react. I was too busy with trying to keep my vision clear and my mind was totally dazed.

Silent and absent-minded I watched the stranger taking off his shirt, his boots and finally sitting down next to me on the bed, half naked. He reached out his hand, played with one of my strands of hair and grabbed me by my hips then, making me stand up. On trembling legs I stood in front of him, still absent with my thoughts and emotions and it seemed like he didn´t mind at all. Unaffected he grabbed the hem of my dress, pulled it over my head and had taken off the corset and my shift shortly afterwards. Not until I was standing naked in front of him, something started to stir in my subconsciousness and tried to break through the fog that had turned off my mind completely. My whole body felt numb as if it wasn´t a part of me anymore and although my subconsciousness was almost screaming that something was terribly wrong here, I couldn´t move myself to do something against it.

I did nothing when the man´s rough hands roamed over my torso, touched my breasts and finally pulled me onto the bed again. Not until I was laying on my back and he over me, my subconsciousness finally reached my mind and my eyes widened. No! That was wrong! He had to stop! He had to go! But I still wasn´t in control of my own body. My limbs felt endlessly heavy and I needed all my strength to preserve my sanity and to keep me from slipping into the numbness again that wanted to take back the control. Again and again the man´s face became blurred in front of my eyes while he had begun to move his lips down my neck. Just imagine that you´re with someone who appeals you more.
Joanne´s words that came back to my mind as I looked down at the man´s head who just began to kiss my décolleté. Imagine that he was Connor? Certainly not. He might be built like him, had dark hair and a tanned skin, but he wasn´t Connor. He wasn´t as tender as him. In the contrary. He was greedy and especially showed this greed as he sat up in a jerk, gave me a lustful gaze and began to take off his pants.

No! Finally my mind reached my body, too as I tossed my head whereupon the man frowned. I began to writhe under him even though no sound left my lips. My tongue still felt heavy but I didn´t need it. When he pressed his hands against my shoulders with an indignant expression and wanted to push himself between my legs, I shoved my knee up so that it thrust into his belly. He gasped surprised, let me be and gave me the opportunity to roll away from him. My vision still blurred, I stumbled to the washstand while the man behind me swore and ordered me to come back to the bed. I heard him standing up and approaching me and without thinking, I grabbed the heavy wooden jug on the washstand, whirled around and struck the jar against his head. He sank to the ground immediately and lay motionless. Trembling I stared down at him, not able to move. But then there was only one thing on my mind: Go! Before he stands up!

As fast as I could in my still dizzy state, I went to the bed, slipped into the shift and grabbed his pants. I rummaged around in the pockets, pulled out a wallet and weighed it in my hand. Stealing was wrong but I didn´t care. Everything else that just could have happened would have burdened my conscience more than every theft. But what now? I couldn´t walk through the door because there were the other whores, Victoire and Bert. They wouldn´t let me go. I had knocked a punter down. But I had to leave without being noticed.

So there was only one thing I could do. I locked the door and took the jug from the washstand again, but this time I struck it against the window. I had to do it twice until it finally broke. I let the jug fall banging to the floor and glanced outside. I was on the first floor. The ground was too far away for jumping and there was nothing that could cushion my fall. But a few metres underneath the window was a ledge. A decoration that was running around the whole building and that could help me to climb down. I had to try it because I already heard that it became noisy on the hallway. The shattering of the window hadn´t been unheard. So I climbed out of the window but had to suppress a scream when a shard of glass scratched along my shin. Warm blood ran over my leg in an instant but I ignored it. Trembling I felt for the ledge with my feet while my hands were clinging to the window´s wood. Somebody was joggling the door and called for Bert. I didn´t hear anymore that he kicked the door in because after I had actually managed it to climb down over the ledge and the basement´s doors, I didn´t pay attention to my environment anymore. I turned away from the brothel and ran