Chapter Text
Chastity Sawyer had never thought of herself as the kind of person who went to parties. She’d never been invited to one in all the time she could remember, and she’d certainly never had the opportunity to host any of her own. As such, she wasn’t even sure if she would like going to them if she did. She and her friends had been able to make their own fun without ever attending such a social gathering, anyway. She’d long since given up any desire to be at any of the hottest, liveliest parties in her vicinity by this point.
Well, she was at one of them now.
She hadn’t been invited, but that hardly mattered – it was easy enough to slip in. This wasn’t the kind of place too concerned about security, and they seemed to hold the opinion that the more was all the merrier. And she and Raina were exactly the kind of people the hosts of this particular event wanted there, so they were welcomed almost immediately.
“He does so want to seem popular with the youths,” said one esteemed-looking guest, who would talk to anyone willing to listen as she waved a cigarette in the air. “Did you two bring any…you know…”
“Any what?” asked Raina with what might have been faux-innocence.
The woman laughed and sauntered off elsewhere, in lieu of responding.
Chass and Raina were enjoying themselves about as much as they could. The food was good, and the kind of stuff they were unlikely to find on their own outside of places like this. The music was decent, even if Chastity was of the opinion that it was chosen more for aesthetics than because of any personal taste on the part of their host. And there were just enough controlled substances for them to sneak to enhance the experience, even if technically they were supposed to remain at a certain level of sobriety in order to properly complete their assignment.
Because they were here on assignment, not just for fun. The host in question was a fairly well-respected “eccentric” type, which meant that he had money but that people with similar levels of wealth thought him a bit odd. But he could get away with it, because of the money. And also because of the money, he really didn’t seem that odd in comparison to some of the people that Chass knew, or to Chass herself. She and Raina exchanged many a private glance and smirk over some of the things the people here said. In this modern era, it was considered fashionable to be a little eccentric, living freely as the youths did and mingling with their culture, if you weren’t one of those stuck-up conservative types of rich folks who disapproved of everything the rebellious youths were doing. This was a very respectable party to be at.
However, it was still a party hosted by a very wealthy man, and Chastity and Raina’s goal was to, by the end of the night, find the man who lived in this house and kill him.
It wasn’t really that morally reprehensible a thing to be doing. If you saw the size of the house, you might agree.
(That it was comparable to the size of the house that Sonia – the woman who had given them this assignment in the first place – owned and lived in and ran her community out of was irrelevant. She had been born into wealth just like this man, but the difference was what she chose to do with it. There was a reason she had been chosen to inherit money and property like that, or something. Right now it was so she had the means to deal with others in that position.)
Chastity and Raina, of course, had no problem doing what Sonia told them to do. Neither of them saw anything morally wrong with getting rid of people who hoarded wealth like this, especially Chastity. It wasn’t only that she’d grown up with much less – it was that she knew this was far from the worst thing she’d ever done to another human being in her life. But she didn’t tell Raina that. Not yet, at least.
She did wonder a bit about Sonia’s beliefs of divine inspiration, but just because she doubted them didn’t mean the cause wasn’t just. There had been people espousing similar ideas with similar goals and methods, even, around here recently – everyone knew about that – but Sonia frequently asserted that she was not like them. She was more organized and thoughtful when it came to getting her work done, and in general she seemed to have a better idea of what exactly she was doing. And it helped that she had more resources to draw from to do it. In case they would be too hesitant to take a life otherwise, she had offered her would-be assassins a substantial sum of payment in exchange, which Chastity accepted immediately. Other leaders, she knew, would be more likely to drain their followers’ finances for themselves instead.
Raina, for her part, seemed to believe a little more fervently in Sonia’s cosmology, but Chass didn’t mind that. They didn’t really talk about it in depth that much. They didn’t need to, not when they had the same goals in mind. And when they loved each other so much.
Chass had known Raina for a little under a year at this point, and she did not know where their relationship would go in the future. But she did know that for now, they were deeply in love. It hardly mattered that it was their first real romantic relationship; they’d clicked almost immediately and stayed in sync ever since their first meeting. It was no wonder they worked so well together that even Sonia thought they should be paired on almost every assignment she gave them.
They’d formed a friend group around themselves fairly quickly since they’d both arrived in Sonia’s community. They and the others in it were usually sent out as a group if they were needed, and would split up however worked best for that particular mission once they were there. Right now, there was another pair infiltrating a different party a few blocks over from this one, but their mission was less important. It had been agreed that no more than one death should occur at a time when groups were sent out. They were starting small.
They hadn’t gone on that many missions yet, but they knew this was one of the first “big” ones. Sonia was usually fairly light on details when assigning them, but they could tell that the man they were going after this time was a little more important, a little more influential, than their last few targets. There was even talk of him having some kind of personal connection to Sonia, but those were just rumors so far as they knew. In any case, this case would be significant in that it would most likely not be passed off as a disappearance, accident, or suicide like some of the last ones were. When the scene was discovered, there would be no other explanation but murder. It was a thrilling prospect. Chastity and Raina were very honored to have been trusted with it.
They weren’t nervous about any possible retribution. Raina was, initially, but they trusted Sonia to cover for them, and Chass’ lack of concern seemed to put Raina at ease. Chastity privately thought that she might be a little too calm about it – she had to remind herself she wasn’t at home anymore – but nothing had happened to anyone else in their community yet, and Sonia always seemed so sure of herself that she felt there was nothing to worry about. The woman was capable of covering up anything. She would keep her people safe.
Because of this, Chass and Raina were able to use the assignment as a chance to relax and have a bit of fun that they wouldn’t get on the average day at Sonia’s. Not that they never relaxed there, but there were still things that needed to be done, and everyone had to contribute. They did have some celebrations and games and things of that nature, but they were usually more organized than this.
It was always a treat to get to go out and see new things, even if they were fairly close to where they’d started, like this one. The houses in these neighborhoods alone were astounding. Certainly not something she’d ever have seen at home. Chass was glad to prove to herself that she could expand her horizons without having to go to college. There were so many more ways to experience the world than higher education.
(She liked to think that if she’d been born a boy, she wouldn’t have joined the military to do so, either. And that she’d also have found a way to avoid having to do it. One of the many reasons she’d left home was that, when checking in on what her former classmates were doing, she was struck with the profound sense that she was wasting her life. It had never really occurred to her before just how precious and fleeting her one life really was, as a young person.)
She and Raina took the opportunity to explore the house and the grounds, exclaiming quietly to each other over some of the decorations and the furniture, and startling a few amorous couples and other partakers in private activities in the process. Then they went off to partake in some of those private activities themselves. Then they danced. Then they took part in some more private activities. Then they mingled with some other guests. The conversation ranged from dull to cryptic-but-intriguing. They tried to parse out some details about their host, but some of the guests could be maddeningly vague.
“He’s around here somewhere,” one woman said. “He never leaves his parties while they’re in session, I assure you.”
“That’s good to know,” Raina said, nodding.
“He’s probably upstairs with her,” said another, glancing pointedly at the ceiling.
“Who?” Chastity asked – not because she thought she’d know, but just to get any more information she could.
“Oh, one of his girls – I can’t keep them straight, but he knows exactly which ones to invite when. Some socialite. Maybe his secretary. You know how these men are.”
This helped them little, but all they really had to do was wait for most of these people to leave. Once they’d cleared out, there would be only one left they had to deal with.
“Is she going to stay the night?” Raina asked, trying to make herself sound interested in the scandalous details of their host’s affairs.
“Probably not,” the woman they were talking to said. “I don’t think they ever do. If one does, we’ll know who the favorite is – I mean, they all know about it, of course, even if they don’t talk. It’s an – an open secret.”
“You mean an open relationship?” asked Raina.
“No, darling, that would imply he knows. But I don’t know what he does…”
“We haven’t even seen this guy yet,” Chastity muttered to Raina once they were on their own again. “How will we even know we’ve got the right one?”
“It’ll be fine…”
Chass was getting tired. If this had been an ordinary party, she imagined she’d probably have gone home already.
“Is this just going to go on all night?” she asked. “Is everyone still going to be here in the morning?”
“No, Sonia said they’d be gone before sunrise at least…” But even Raina was starting to sound doubtful. She was getting bored of the proceedings, too.
“If this is what parties are like, I guess I didn’t miss much,” said Chass.
“Not all parties,” said Raina. “I mean, I think it’s only like this if you don’t know anyone there.”
“I know you.”
“Yeah, but imagine if we had more friends here, then it would be fun…”
They were not keeping track of time particularly rigidly, so they were largely unaware of exactly how late it was getting. Thus, they were a little surprised to come downstairs from one of the multiple(!) master bedrooms they’d managed to slip into and see that the house had cleared out significantly. In fact, there were only a few people left milling about the kitchen and living room, and one of them, they were pretty sure, was the man they were here for.
He sat on the couch, his arm around a young woman, smiling languidly at her. They both looked to be in the later stages of intoxication.
Chass and Raina glanced at each other, nodded slightly, and softly made their way back upstairs. They found a place to hide.
“I’ll go downstairs,” said Raina, “and you stay up here. When everyone’s gone, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay,” said Chastity. She trusted Raina’s judgment. And she didn’t mind hanging out in this walk-in closet for however long she needed, as long as no one else decided to use it as a clandestine meeting area. Maybe she could rest for a little while, even take a nap if she could. She really was tired.
She kissed Raina one more time and listened to her pad back down the stairs.
She wasn’t sure if she’d fallen asleep or had just passed the time – however long it was – sitting there staring up at the rows of fine clothes above her and letting her mind clear, but when someone knocked on the closet door, she snapped instantly to attention.
“Um—”
“It’s me,” came Raina’s voice.
Chass quickly got to her feet and opened the door. “Well?”
Raina sighed in exasperation. “This guy left. He’ll be back soon, apparently, but the only people left here are me and him and this girl and it doesn’t seem like she’s leaving anytime soon. I’m just sitting here trying to hurry things along, like, hey, it’s getting pretty late, huh, and I don’t want you to be the last one here, I know I’d hate that, but I think she thinks that I’m hoping to make a move on him. Which I haven’t even tried, obviously, but she’s getting pretty suspicious. I told her I needed to use the bathroom and I ran up here, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to do this without her here.”
Chastity thought about this for a minute. “Hmm. Could you get him up here alone and then we can—slip out the back, or something?”
“Oh, god, no, she’d never let that—”
“Alright, alright. I’m starting to think we should just kill her first.”
Raina’s eyes went wide. “No!”
“I mean, what’s one more—”
“Sonia explicitly said we’re only supposed to come out of this with one body. It would be bad if we – it would be bad.”
“Probably not that bad. I mean – maybe we could hide it. You know, cover it up until it would be convenient. Make it look like something unrelated…”
“We don’t have enough time to do all that,” said Raina.
Chastity thought some more.
“Alright. Okay. Listen. Here’s what we’ll do.”
Raina waited.
“Sonia said we don’t all have to be back at the same time, right?”
“Right…”
“So you can go down right now, kill that woman, and then leave. Then I’ll wait for him to get back and kill him before he can do anything, and then I’ll go back.”
“How will you—”
“Not important. I mean, I’ll think of something. It’s fine. Just don’t tell Sonia anything when you get back. Just say, like, yeah, we did it, Chass is just cleaning some stuff up, she said it’s fine and to go on without her. Then if she finds out, it’ll just get blamed on me.”
“Oh, Chass, you don’t have to do that…”
“It’s fine. I’ve taken the fall for shit so many times before. It’s nothing.”
Raina stood there, looking very conflicted.
“Look, you can make it up to me any time after this. Technically you owe me one now.”
Raina smiled. “Oh, alright.”
“We can do it together if you want…”
“No, I got it. Call me back at the place when you’re done, okay?”
“I will,” said Chastity, and kissed her again. Raina walked back downstairs, glancing over her shoulder a few times at Chass, leaning against the doorway of the closet.
Chastity had to hand it to Raina. She could be very efficient on her own. The telltale sounds didn’t last nearly as long as she expected.
After the door closed, she went downstairs herself and waited. It occurred to her then that this was Raina’s first time killing, unless she had done something before that Chastity didn’t know about. She thought they should make more of the occasion later, when they had time.
Chass considered hiding the evidence herself, even if just by shoving it under the couch, but it turned out she didn’t have to wait long.
In this case, the scuffle lasted a bit longer than she’d anticipated, and by the end she felt rather spent. But a Chastity running on adrenaline, the last dregs of certain psychotropic drugs, and the amount of sleep she usually got was still just as efficient as a Chastity running at full capacity (whatever that was), so she still got the job done.
She collapsed on the couch to survey her and Raina’s handiwork for a few minutes before getting up and stumbling out the door. She couldn’t waste any time now.
She was a few feet down the road before remembering she was supposed to call Raina when she finished. No matter. She did say she could make it back by herself, and that’s what she would rather do right now than risk going back inside and being seen or setting something off.
God, she was exhausted.
Just then, a car pulled up alongside her and she froze. Before she could resume moving at a much quicker pace, the window rolled down and there was Sonia Simmons.
“Chastity!” she said. “There you are. Would you like a ride?”
Sonia didn’t immediately start driving back home – home, home base, the compound, whatever – once Chastity got in, though. Instead, she pointed her car at the house Chass had just left.
“Did you do it?” she asked.
“Yeah,” said Chastity.
“Well, let’s see it, then,” said Sonia.
“Um,” said Chastity. “I didn’t want to go back inside now because—”
“It’ll be alright,” said Sonia, who was already getting out and heading towards it. Chass had no choice but to follow.
They stood in the doorway, observing the two bodies.
“Well,” Sonia finally said. “Who killed this one, do you know?”
“Um,” said Chastity. “I did?” Rapidly, she tried to explain herself. “I know, I know, we weren’t supposed to, but she wouldn’t leave and I knew we couldn’t have any witnesses, so I told Raina to just go home and I’d handle it, and, well, I did.”
She stood there, awkwardly, anxiously, waiting for more questions, already rehearsing the answers inside her head. As long as it didn’t get blamed on Raina, it’d be fine.
Finally Sonia said, “We’ll have to hide her for a while. Help me get her in the car.”
Chass relaxed. That had been what she originally planned to do, anyway.
She and Sonia set about gathering up the body. It was nothing she hadn’t done before.
All in all, Chass thought, as she rode back with Sonia, the night hadn’t turned out so bad. She and Raina had had a reasonably good time at the party, and they’d successfully completed their mission. And she was sure that even with this minor bump in the road, Sonia would be able to handle it just like everything else.
Sonia didn’t say anything to her on the way back, though, which made her slightly nervous. It reminded her of all the similar drives in stony silence she’d taken with her older sister, knowing full well that once they got home there’d be hell to pay. She was too nervous to say anything herself, though. She hoped that whatever her punishment for this might be, it would be in the morning. Sonia would at least recognize that she needed to sleep, even if she probably wouldn’t let her sleep late like she usually did post-missions.
When they pulled up to Sonia’s house, Chastity moved to get out first, but Sonia held up a hand. “Not yet. Wait here first.”
She did, allowing Sonia to get out. Then she waited.
As she did, she tried to let herself relax. Sonia was just going to get some people to help her move the evidence – which Chastity would probably have to help with – and then together they’d dispose of it or hide it safely wherever she was planning to, and then it’d be fine. They’d take care of it and it wouldn’t come up again, and just helping with this process would be enough for Chastity to make it up, because Sonia understood when mistakes could be made and also when you had to do what was necessary in a situation even if it wasn’t what you were told to do.
Right?
She’d always thought of Sonia as a fairly reasonable person, at least on these kinds of subjects. She had to relax. It would be fine. She shouldn’t assume anything bad of her.
Hell, even Patience would have understood in this situation, and probably would have done the same thing herself. And if her older sister wouldn’t have seen anything wrong with it, then there was no way Sonia would penalize her. At least not too harshly.
She sighed quietly, and sat, and waited.
When Sonia came back, she was alone. All she did was open the car door and tell Chastity to get out.
“Are we going to move the—”
“Later. Just follow me.”
Chass did so. It was dark, but between the moon and the few lights on outside of Sonia’s house and scattered around the compound, she could see where she was going well enough.
They walked around the house, across the grounds, and all the way out to the farthest reaches of the property. They were beyond what Chastity thought were the limits of the place when they reached a long, low concrete structure set into the ground.
Chastity had seen this before, in the daytime, but had never taken much notice of it. Sonia had a lot of buildings and structures of various sizes and functions scattered around her place. It would be a stretch to call this one a building, but she wasn’t sure what it was; it didn’t look like a shed, but she assumed it was probably some kind of storage space. There were a series of what seemed to be wooden doors set into it, evenly spaced along its length, which looked more like heavy sliding doors than the vertically-opening garage-type doors you’d usually find on a storage locker. She was familiar with the type of opening even if you really had to squint to see them in the dark.
Was this where they stored the bodies? It would make sense, but Sonia hadn’t brought anything with her that they might be putting in there.
It began to dawn on her that whatever they were doing here, it was probably part of her penalty for screwing up, and she began to get nervous again.
She imagined that spending the night in this thing wouldn’t be pleasant, but she could handle it. The apprehension of coming out here had made her forget a bit about being tired, but she was still ready to fall asleep at the soonest opportunity. As soon as she was alone, no matter how dark or cramped or – she knew well – bad-smelling it was, she would be out. Then in the morning she’d act like she’d learned her lesson and that would most likely be that.
No sooner had she come to terms with this possibility than Sonia knocked once, twice, on the heavy wooden door. It produced a hollower sound than she’d expected.
Sonia suddenly turned around to face Chastity and put her hands on her shoulders, and Chass found herself abruptly spun around so she was facing away from the door as it opened.
“What—”
“Shh,” said Sonia. Then to someone else she said, “You can take things from here, ladies.”
“Thank you, Sonia,” said a voice from behind. Then Sonia was in front of her again and giving her a quick, sharp shove, and she stumbled backwards and was caught by hands from behind pulling her into the darkened doorway. The last thing she saw before what little light there was outside vanished was Sonia’s serene smile.
Then the door slammed shut and she was standing in pitch blackness. She was not alone.
A hand clapped itself on her shoulder. “On your knees,” said the same voice she’d heard before. A woman’s, but that did not bring her much comfort. She slowly sank down to a kneeling position, the hand never leaving her shoulder the whole time, almost pushing her even though she was moving on her own.
The floor was hard, rough concrete. She could feel it through her jeans. This would not be a comfortable position to hold.
“Good girl,” said the woman behind her. “Now stay there.”
She stayed there rigidly, afraid to even tremble, as someone carefully, almost gently, took her glasses off her face and – she imagined – put them aside somewhere. She couldn’t see a thing but she was acutely aware of the human presences in front of and behind her, and she swore she could sense their every move. This did not make her feel any less uneasy.
“I’ll just let you know,” said a different woman’s voice from in front of her. “This will be much easier for all of us if you just keep doing as we say. Now let’s begin.”
Chass barely had time to register that statement before the first blow struck her in the face. She barely had time to register that before the second struck her from behind.
With her face pressed into the concrete floor, she was still able to form a coherent thought, which was that her plans for sleep were going to have to be put on hold for a while. The night was far from over.
Chastity woke up aching all over.
She could not tell whether it was the next morning, or the middle of the day, or even the following morning; in fact, she wasn’t sure if she’d slept at all, or possibly fallen unconscious. She did know that it was no longer night, since there was now just enough daylight coming into the room around the wooden door that she could actually see her surroundings.
It wasn’t much to look at. The aforementioned plain wooden door and bare stone walls and that same hard rough concrete floor she’d just been slammed against all night (and not in a good way.)
She could barely move for the waves of pain the slightest shift in position would send through her body, so she spent some time lying on her back staring at the ceiling before managing to sit up and have a better look around. There were a few recesses set into the walls where you could set some small items for safekeeping; the only thing being kept there was what was keeping her from seeing more clearly, but she didn’t feel like putting on her glasses just yet.
She wondered if she was allowed to leave. She would expect the door to remain locked from the outside. It was probably safest to simply wait for someone to open it, unless of course that meant that…
No. It had to be over. Sonia wouldn’t—
But she didn’t know what Sonia would do, now, did she? Not anymore. Of course, Sonia hadn’t been the one who beat the shit out of her last night, but she’d obviously been the one who told those other two women to do it. Just like how Raina was technically responsible for what they’d done wrong, but Chass had told her to do it, so it was really her fault.
Well, she had deliberately taken the fall so Raina wouldn’t be punished for it. And this, it seemed, was what she was protecting her from.
She didn’t want to think about Raina going through what had just happened to her. She regretted nothing, in that case.
She looked down at her hands. She couldn’t see any obvious bruising, although she thought she remembered one being stepped on towards what might have been the end of it. Any marks left on her would probably be under her clothes, which she had been eager to get off last night (before she’d known what they had in store for her back here) as they were still sticky with blood.
Not her own, but now, who knew? She could barely remember the details of the previous night. Just a lot of pain and suffering.
If it was over – god, she hoped – then at least all she had to do was never make another mistake like that and she’d never have to go through this again. She had to hand it to Sonia for that. Quite an efficient system when you knew what could happen; it only had to be once.
She was considering whether it would be worth it to try standing up when her eye fell upon something in the corner of the room. At first she wasn’t sure what it was (some kind of dead animal?) in the relative dimness, until she realized it with a lurch of her stomach.
It was a long coil of black hair.
The sight brought a much sharper, clearer memory to the forefront
(on her knees again and someone grabbed her hair and yanked her head back and she heard the sound of a knife being flicked out and her stomach dropped but it wasn’t anywhere near her throat, thank god, but now she was sawing on it and she heard herself involuntarily cry no! and that woman behind her said shut up but with a derisive snort and the one in front was holding her hands together at the wrists so she couldn’t so much as move a finger)
and suddenly a whole slew of specifics came flooding back and she was on her hands and knees, struggling not to throw up and wondering why her body thought that was the appropriate response to remembering this shit. As if she hadn’t seen and done things that would make even Sonia violently sick, she thought bitterly.
When she’d finally gotten control of herself, she’d heaved up nothing more than some spit and her face was wet with sweat or tears or both. She sat back on her heels and tried to focus on breathing normally.
Then the door slid open and she flung a hand over her eyes as the room was suddenly full of blinding light.
Framed by all this heavenly sunlight in the doorway was Sonia.
She would suppose later that fear was likely the appropriate response to seeing that woman at that time – she was the last person she had seen before being locked away, and she hadn’t seen the faces of her actual tormentors at all. This was likely deliberate. She wished to show the woman in the doorway nothing but the utmost deference.
“Good morning, Chastity,” said Sonia, pleasantly enough. “I trust you’ve learned your lesson?”
Chastity didn’t know what to say to this. Instead she said nothing.
“Alright,” said Sonia, softer now, more sympathetic. “It’s okay, dear. It’s over.”
She stepped closer, inside the little room, and Chass resisted the urge to draw back, flinch, or cringe away.
Sonia handed her something – her glasses. “I believe you could use these again.”
Chastity put them on and blinked hard. The room didn’t look much different in the full light, or with the benefit of clearer eyesight; there simply wasn’t much to notice. She looked away from the pile of her own hair in the corner and focused on Sonia.
“You can come out now, of course,” Sonia said. “We’ll clean up – whatever needs to be cleaned up in here later.”
Chastity finally, shakily, stood up, and once she was sure she could walk without trembling, she followed Sonia out the door. She let her close and lock it again behind them. She did not want to look at the building – or whatever you’d call it – longer than she had to, now that she knew what it was for.
Once they’d gotten a sufficient distance away from it, Sonia turned her loose. But not before telling her, gently, quietly, but seriously:
“You do understand, don’t you, why we have to do things like this. We can’t afford to have anyone slip up, however badly, even early on. This is a very carefully organized operation. One mistake, one failure to obey the proper directions now could be disaster down the line, and we have to make sure it never happens again.”
Chastity found herself nodding, even solemnly. Of course she understood. It was just like when—
No, it wasn’t like that. Patience might have yelled at her if she messed up at home, sure, and that could suck, but it was never like this, even when what was at stake was comparable. But, she supposed, this was a more important plan, in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t just Sonia’s way of life being threatened if one of them made a big enough mistake.
So yes, she did understand. Sonia was a lot nicer about it than Patience ever was, anyway.
“I get it,” she said. “And I’m sorry. It definitely won’t happen again.”
“I know,” said Sonia. “Thank you for cooperating.”
With that she was left alone.
She set off to find Raina.
Raina was, thankfully, in one of their usual favored spots for hanging out, sitting on the ground and looking worried. When she saw Chastity she got up quickly and immediately started towards her, eyes widening as she took her in.
“Chass!” she exclaimed, and rushed to embrace her. Chass eagerly returned it.
Not long into the embrace, though, Raina pulled back and looked her up and down. “What happened to you? Did they do this—”
“No, no, I took care of both of them,” said Chastity, understanding what she meant. “But, um, turns out I shouldn’t have. You were right about that.”
Only after saying this did she realize she didn’t ask Sonia what she should have done instead. There had been no time for that, she reasoned.
“Oh,” said Raina, her eyes filling with both concern and comprehension. “You were—punished.”
“Yeah, but…it’s fine. I’m fine. We just—won’t do that again. Gotta follow the instructions, exactly, I get it now.”
Raina did not seem reassured. “Did they hurt you badly?”
“No…” It was true, she thought. Most of her worst aches and pains had subsided, and she figured she would be feeling fine by the end of the day. Which reminded her of something. “Hey, what time is it?”
“Not far past ten.”
“Oh. Good.” She’d been worried that almost the whole day had passed while she was in there. “And it’s still…”
“The same day, yeah. I mean, you were only gone – or wherever you were – for the rest of last night.”
“What did you do last night?”
Raina shrugged. “Slept. Sonia told me to. She saw I was still up and she told me you were back and to just get some rest, I’d see you in the morning. She said I did well.” She glanced down. “I didn’t tell her…anything else.”
“Good,” said Chastity. “It worked out fine, then.”
Raina sighed. “For me, maybe.”
“Look, it’s fine. I served my sentence.” She laughed a bit, tried to play it off. She wanted to move on from this as soon as possible. “And it was my idea in the first place, anyway, so you really didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Raina, and that was the end of it. Chass went inside the house to clean herself up a bit, get changed, and eat something. They passed the day quite normally after that.