Brendi Lyn Ch. 07

I was only alone for a couple minutes when the door opened and a young woman with shoulder length chestnut brown hair came in, she had the same well toned shape the rest of the women I'd seen did. In her hand she had a can of slim fast and a straw. She opened the can with a quiet clunk, then put the straw in. "Master says you're hungry."

"I am." She put the straw to my lips. The shake is supposed to be chocolate, but tastes chalky.

"What's your name?"

"Gwyn-" I catch myself. "I mean Brendi, Brendi Lyn." She laughed.

"It's so hard to give up your old name, so hard to accept that you're not going to get free. I'm surprised that most of us are fairly sane. But he doesn't enjoy breaking our minds to smithereens, just to obeyance." I sucked on the slim fast. It wasn't giving me enough nourishment by far. She quieted for a minute. "I'm Tiarra. At least he gave you a real name." I just suckled at the straw. "The master's only had me three years, legally I'm still alive. Morag, Sylvie, Lara, Faith, Darcie, and Niam, legally they're all dead, it's been more than seven years. Shauna and Tristin only have a year left, then they're dead, too."

"Dead?"

"Seven years and you're legally dead. All the family you need is right here. I guess I talk too much. If I keep talking I don't think, so talking is good." I tried to nod, and my back didn't burst into fire. There was a name she hadn't mentioned that the master had used.

"What about the bald girl, Jenny?"

"She's my match, like Amanda's yours. She's been here three years, too. When we first got here she had beautiful long hair. It was so dark and shiny. The master didn't like that she was so proud of it, so he cut it off to punish her pride. He did it in front of me while he was breaking us. She tried to fight, she was cooperative except for that." Tiarra shivered. "He broke her too far. She's not..." The girl trailed off. "You and Amanda will be all right though. You'll see, he's been gentler with you."

"Gentle?" I choked.

"He screwed more with our heads than he has you, he backs off when you can't take the punishment. He broke Jenny's mind so he's trying to be nicer to you." The door opened and a little girl, couldn't have been more than five years old ran up to her.

"Daddy said for you to be a good girl. He said don't scare Bwendi." She had pretty blond hair and her r's turned into w's. She ran back to the door and I heard it slam shut. "Shauna's oldest, looks just like her mom." Tiarra pulled my hair away from my face and started gently running her fingers through it.

"Oldest?"

"We all have two. He knows that we won't abandon our children to him."

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say.

"My son's still nursing, he's only about five months old. My daughter just turned two. She's so adorable, but she has the master's eyes. They're cold like his."

"I should go, Master didn't want me to stay too long." I heard the click of a lock, probably the door so I couldn't get out, and then the lights went out.3