‘Indie was about to discover the meaning of the phrase, “boned”. She wasn’t normally so picky when it came to accepting clients - but this one lacked the muscle she was into, and the skin, and everything really. The skeleton seemed mostly held together by magic, which hissed softly as it moved.

Lucky for him, he paid in full, in gold, a lot of gold… or she probably wouldn’t even be humouring this.

She pulled off her robe, her body bare and trim. Indie was the prettiest of the whores along Old Spire Road, and the most worn in. Everyone wanted her and everyone got her, it didn’t matter if they were man, woman, dog or donkey.

It wasn’t that she was easy, it was that she loved it.’

“You’re such a nerd.”

Indie blushed, snapping her laptop shut. Her sister was standing right behind her, they’d been reading her screen. Indie pulled off her headphones.

“How was work?”

Indie turned around in her desk-chair, “F-fine.”

Skye smirked, “Well, dinner’s in the kitchen. Stop writing your schlick-fic and go eat.”

Indie sighed and pulled herself to her feet. She really needed to lock the door when she was home alone. Skye followed her down, unfazed by it all.

“How’s Kriem doing?”

Indie sat down at the table, ignoring her sister’s question as she unpacked her fried chicken.

“Indie, how’s Kriem? I was meant to call her today about her papers.”

Skye had forgotten her mountain dew, the one time she asked for it, “Why didn’t you?”

“I was busy,” Skye’s face reflexively scowled.

Indie wasn’t really interested in poking that hornet nest. Lucky for both of them Scarlett had already left for work.

“Uh, she’s fine I guess.”

Skye examined her intently as she took a bite out of a chip, “Fine?”

Indie chewed on the moral dilemma, Skye had been offered a job but it was a private thing Kriem had told her. Skye was her sister though, so she probably should say something.

“She’s uh…” half-way through she realised Skye would object to her working for a pervert, “into some strange things.”

“Strange? How?” Skye sat down across from her and opened up their salad, “She doesn’t hunt animals does she?”

“No, not like that,” she really had to tell them now, “remember that time I walked in on you and that girl you knew?”

Skye raised an eye-brow, “What girl?”

“I think she was from law school.”

“Steffani?”

Indie shuddered, “No, the other one.”

“Aarna?”

Indie tried to picture them, “Was she the Indian one?”

Skye frowned, “Yes.”

Indie tilted her box of chips to look inside, “Y-yeah.”

Skye thought about it for a long moment, separating her knife and fork and pouring on the salad dressing. 

Mid-way through she paused, her face deep, dark red.

“She’s into that kind of thing.”

Skye had completely forgotten Indie knew about that side of her. That dark, desirous, lustful side of herself she buried deep.

“S-she uh, she’s into that?”

Her sister nodded, “Kinda super into it…”

“How’d you find out?”

Indie picked up one of their chicken legs and examined the crispy skin as if looking for blemishes, “I stumbled on some of their stuff, then they just told me about it.”

Skye examined her sister’s expression, so soft, so innocent, so naive, “They just told you about it? Did you ask?”

“Kinda…”

She frowned, “If they try to get you to do anything Indie, I want you to call me.”

Indie shook her head, “It’s not like that.”

She firmly reiterated, “If they try to do anything Indie. Call me.”

Indie sighed, “Yeah, alright.”

***

It was close to midday by the time Skye finally got a chance to leave work and deliver the papers to the Disablot. The wealthy socialite would no doubt be hitting on her sister again, and she hoped to catch them red-handed.

Skye had some experience sneaking into places unseen, some things you retained even years after leaving college. The wall was nothing she couldn’t scale, she was just glad it was casual friday at the firm. It’d be much harder sneaking in wearing a suit and dress shoes.

The lawn was so soft beneath her feet that it was almost like walking on sand. The tree masked her approach from the front windows and once she was at the door, she managed to open it without even a squeak. It also helped that the house she was sneaking into was owned by someone richer than God - rusty door hinges were like poor people’s alarms.

She made her way to the kitchen first, the screens keeping her concealed from anyone inside. No-one in the kitchen, or in the lounge, or in the bar. They must be upstairs.

The second floor was space dedicated to a half-dozen rooms, she realised only once she was there that the study looked out over the main floor - lucky no-one was there. Most of the doors were locked so she moved upstairs again, one last place to check.

Emerging onto a patio she was stunned by the view, it overlooked the entire city… she’d always dreamed of a house like that.

Then someone tapped her shoulder and she nearly screamed, definitely jumped.

“You’re pretty good.”

It was an unfamiliar voice, Skye turned around to see who caught her. It was a tall woman, their bright orange hair immediately drew her eye but the dozen piercings in their face drew her attention back to the sinister smirk.

“You must be Skye.”

Skye stiffened her back, almost managing not to be looked down upon, “And you are?”

“Not going to stop you from going in there,” they pointed to the door, then produced a key from their jeans pocket.

Skye took the key and examined the woman again. They just smirked. She liked their style, bright dyed hair, pierced, hoodie and jeans, sneakers, right side of their head shaven and the left side a tangle of long hair.

“I’m Clementine, I’ll see you around.”

They turned and left down the stair-well leaving Skye with a strange looking key in her hand. It almost looked like a USB, and the key-hole looked like a port. Sticking it in and turning it unlocked the door, silently.

Beyond the door was a bedroom, a small alcove led into an open floor plan where the massive bed sat to one side of the room looking out a window that could see the entire city. A scattering of chairs sat in front of a television, sitting on the floor near to one was Indie tapping away at their laptop keyboard. Watching from the bed, on their phone, was Kriem herself.

“Yes, she’s here right now.”

Skye slinked back into the shadows, this was the moment she wanted.

“You think I won’t pay for her?”

Kriem was watching Indie as they spoke. Skye pulled out her phone, ready to record. There was no way she was letting her sister be harassed.

“Five hundred thousand? I’m not an idiot, I’ll give you two-fifty.”

The television in front of Indie flashed up suddenly with a score screen, then groups of people cheering and celebrating a win in front of computers.

“This is just a courtesy call, Gary. You know what’ll happen if you don’t give me what I want.”

Skye’s ears prickled at the name, a shiver ran up her spine, suddenly she realised that Kriem wasn’t talking about her sister.

“Don’t think because I am letting you name your price, that this is a negotiation.”

Kriem turned to look at her, she ducked away well before they could have seen her, but she still had the feeling they knew she was there.

“Good, I’ll tell her the good news myself.”

Skye didn’t even dare to breath. That woman must have told them.

“Good news Skye, you officially work for me now.”

Her heart skipped a beat, but she emerged from hiding and grinned weakly, “Uh…”

Indie turned to look at her, then immediately went back to work.

“Clementine told me you’d arrived.”

Well at least they hadn’t told the truth.

“Hey Indie, could you give me and your sister some privacy while we discuss business?”

Indie groaned, but folded up her laptop and grabbed her bag.

“Maybe you could set up the consoles in the lounge-room.”

Indie shrugged, leaving without saying a word to Kriem or her sister. Kriem was still sitting on the edge of their bed, Skye made her way in to stand opposite them, arms crossed.

“You’re not here with the papers, so I guess you’re here for some other reason.”

Skye locked eyes with them, “Indie told me what you did yesterday.”

Kriem smiled, “I’m sorry if that’s crossing some kind of line. She was curious so I explained it to her.”

“Like you ‘explained yourself’ to Scarlett?”

Kriem smirked, “She didn’t need explaining.”

They stood up, their white dress falling perfectly around their hips, no crinkles, no crush, just elegant and flowing. Skye couldn’t help but break eye-contact to watch their breasts heave. She couldn’t even blame Scarlett, she was jealous if anything. Every time she tried to be like her friend it had been… a miserable failure.

“I’m sorry Skye, I didn’t know you had feelings for your friend. I didn’t even think you would be into other women.”

Skye raised an eyebrow, “You don’t think I’m a dyke?”

Kriem shrugged their hands, “You strike me more as, domineering. Then my friend you met before told me you have a track record of dating women and I realised I was a colossal ass.”

Skye was still wondering how someone would mistake her for straight, no-one ever assumed she was straight.

“I mean of course you and your friend have history, you’re both so beautiful and smart.”

Skye raised a finger, “I know what you’re doing.”

“I don’t think, you think I’m doing what I am actually doing.”

She scowled, “Leave my sister alone.”

Kriem waved her away, “Please, Indie isn’t interested. But I think you are.”

She furrowed her brow, “What?”

“I told Scarlett about my… tastes, she let slip something interesting. You and I have something in common.”

Her blood ran cold, then hot, “You’re-“

Kriem nodded slowly, “I taught dozens of partners how to please me, I can teach you as well. A pretty girl like yourself, could make more money in one night spanking rich, sexually starved socialites than a girl as smart as you could make working for a drone like Gary Waller in a life-time.”

“You want me to be a prostitute?”

It was a strange feeling, society taught her to be disgusted by the suggestion but everything in her being screamed for it. She wasn’t sociopathic enough to be a lawyer, she wasn’t stupid enough to be a politician, smart enough to be a doctor, depraved enough to be a police officer but she craved power. She wanted to control her life and the lives of those around her. And she knew why, because she had dark desires that went unfulfilled.

“Prostitution is a beautiful profession, given a sordid reputation because society demonises the medium of their art. When you demonise an art-form, only the most desperate pursue doing it.”

Skye almost laughed, “Right, sex is art, and law is empathy.”

Kriem frowned, “I’m not saying I want you to be a prostitute, but I want you to enjoy your life. I’m just giving you an option.”

Kriem pulled a card from her bra, “Here, this is my personal number. If you decide you want to learn, then call me. Otherwise, I hope you’ll be my lawyer at least.”

She took the card, it was a valid phone-number at least. It’d been a while since she got a girl’s number.

“I’ll think about it.”

Kriem smiled, “I hope you do.”

Skye paused, then made her way to the door. Her phone chimed as she reached for the handle and instinctively she checked it. It was her bank account, but the numbers didn’t make any sense. She turned to ask Kriem, but they had already walked off.

“One hundred thousand dollars?”

Her chest was tight, she really hoped she wasn’t having a heart attack.