Something I wrote for my school magazine's writing contest. Winner gets $50. I would like to win the money, but I just hope I don't get labelled the crazy emo-girl instead of emo-girl after this.

Bordello Blues

Horses trotted in the roads just outside a brightly-lit building. Lanterns swayed in the evening breeze and from inside, the cheerful laughter of women and the deep chuckles of men could be heard. A sigh escaped her lips.

“Chieko, get away from the window! We have customers!” screeched the Madame, a thin woman in her early forties. Her thin eyes were narrowed into slits and the frown etched deep into her features made the skin stretch on her face, giving her the appearance of a well-dressed lizard. The girl named Chieko gave a sigh.

“Hai Asuka-san,” Chieko said bowing deeply, the ends of her hair just brushing over her shoulders. The Madame merely nodded her head before gliding soundlessly through the halls. Listening to the fading footsteps, Chieko sighed and looked out the window.

The year was 1873, the Meiji Restoration. Though the land of the rising sun was beginning to move towards industrialization like the westerners, it had left its people behind for glory. Daimyo lands were being dissolved and many were facing debt. Her family had been one of them and when her family had been killed in a struggle with an official demanding payment, she had been the one left to shoulder the burden.

Naturally, since she could not hope to find a job being the uneducated daughter of a poor farmer, she and many of her village were sold to brothels to pay off their families’ debts. She had been twelve then. Five years later, she found herself staring out the same window and watching the same people pass in and out of the doors of the establishment. Her sliding door rattled.

“Chieko!”

And she turned to see Ayaka, a girl two years older than her with startling green eyes rare for their people. Because of that, she was popular with the customers as well as Asuka-san. She was also one of the few friends she had here.

“Chieko! Aiya! You lazy girl, you know what mother will do to you if you don’t get out of your room. She’s already come to you once. If she comes again, you’ll be punished!” Ayaka shouted as she dragged Chieko by the arm, causing her kimono to spill open. Ayaka merely shut the collar with her hand, crumpling the fabric as she roused Chieko to her feet and hurried her to the small vanity they shared.

Chieko watched, entranced as Ayaka’s nimble fingers skated over her skin, leaving trails of blood reds and kohl blacks in their wake. As Ayaka began to fix her hair, she let her gaze stray to Ayaka’s face. Her face was long, raven hair neatly tucked into an ornate style as her radiant green eyes focused solely on the task at hand. In summary, she was beautiful. Chieko shook her head. Though what she felt for Ayaka was more than what friends felt for each other, she could not say she loved her. She did not love women and if she did, she certainly would not have done as well as she had been doing. She learned that lesson from a woman named Hikari.

Like Ayaka, Hikari had been a rare beauty. With skin naturally pale as the snow and eyes that shimmered like the moon, she was a sight to behold. She was also quite kind to many of the girls and in return, they were kind to her. Hikari was the one who showed her the ropes, but that was before they found out she liked the girls a bit more than she should have. After that, she became ostracized. The girls started talking to her less and less, and still being new, she followed the girls as well for fear of ending up like Hikari. In the end, Hikari was thrown out of the brothel and was never heard from again.

A sharp tug brought her back from her reverie and she looked up just in time to see Ayaka’s firm gaze as she glared down at her. “Chieko, what are you thinking? Don’t you want to get out of here? Don’t you want to buy your freedom and become your own woman?”

Of course, she did. It was the dream of many of the girls to leave this hellhole and find new lives. Ones where they didn’t have to bow to the orders of drunken patrons and angry madams, but what was the point? Her family’s debt still had to be paid off and even if she saved up enough tips to buy her freedom, where would she go? What would she do in life? Sure, she could find a husband and start a family of her own like she dreamed of as a child, but who would want someone like her: a whore?

Ayaka led her to the room just inside the entrance, lushly decorated with curtains and silk pillows decorated with ornate patterns. Against the front wall was a slated window where the customers would choose girls for the night. It was here that they were regarded not as the women they were, but pieces of meat for their pleasure and it was here that Chieko prayed every night that she would not be chosen. Unfortunately for her, the gods were not with her that night.

“That one, the one with the short hair,” said a portly man, face flushed from alcohol. Their “mother” nodded and Asuka grabbed Chieko’s arm, nails digging into her skin like talons as she was led into one of the backrooms. Moans filtered through the thin doors, each glowing from the lantern lights inside before she was thrown into the nearest vacant room, her drunken patron stumbling in after her.

The events after that were the same as they had always been. They removed the clothes, both his and hers before shoving his face against hers and committing the carnal act. It was here that she usually escaped into her mind, fantasies playing in her head to pass the time until it was over.

She could still remember the first time this happened to her. The man had been a merchant, a man in his late twenties with strong features and hair shorn close to his head. At first, she thought that he was just going to talk with her like her mother said her father did when they first met. There hadn’t been much talking that night, but there had been screams. Horrible, awful screams as she fought against him and by the end of the night, she had been left staring brokenly at the ceiling as blood poured from her body. The one thing she had heard from him all night besides commands to stay still was that he liked her hair. It was the next morning that she cut it with a knife she found in the kitchen. She had been keeping it short ever since.

Now, cutting her hair did not come without consequences. It had decreased her worth and mother had been furious. If she closed her eyes, she could still see the red that had flushed to her withered cheeks as Asuka forbade her dinner for a week. Ayaka had slipped her meals when she could, but Chieko wished that she hadn’t.

A groan sounded above her and by the time she returned to this world, the deed was done and the sounds of fading footsteps and falling coins reached her ear. A few fell onto her skin and she shivered at the invisible dirt that seemed to crawl over her where they touched before she scooped them up into her hand and peeked out the door to see the lanterns out. It had closed for the night.

Quietly, she tiptoed back to her room, the one she shared with five other girls. Her bed roll had already been prepared and she changed quietly in the corner before going over to her bed. Bruises marred her skin and her body ached all over. Depositing her tip into the toiletry kit she kept by her pillow, she shrank beneath the covers and cried herself to sleep.