" I could make you play with dolls," Mom said. "You could relive thegirlhood you never had. Dolls. Little girls' dresses, with pigtails inyour hair. I...could make you my little baby girl and put you in diapersand plastic panties and baby dresses. But I won't."I almost asked why not, but stopped just in time. It might be fun to bea little girl for a day, but diapers? Not if I was expected to usethem."For now," Mom said, "you'll stay the age you are, and you'll wear thenew dresses you got today,. Sure, I’m a damned good escort, fucking good at my job... of fucking... Ultimately that's it, I’m fuck all to him... I’m just a fuck...” “Oh shit,” she could feel herself welling up at the realisation; at the stoney look on his face, his business face, as if he were closing a deal, not his happy, smiley negotiating face, but the tough cookie one that lurked beneath, the one that made sure that it was he who did the screwing and was not the one getting screwed. “Mattie, Mattie!” she screamed. Can I help at all?”Michelle pushed the button to the elevator again, harder.“No, I’m good,” the oriental girl replied.“Just let me know if you need something, Miss Chen.”“I will, thank you.”Michelle winced inside. She should have left out the “thank you” part but politeness had been drilled into her at an early age. The elevator door opened, thankfully, before Eric could say another word.Once inside the welcome confines of her apartment, Michelle quickly stripped out of her clothes on the way. ’ * * * The men stick to the shadows – afraid to reveal themselves to whatever is hunting them. Sophie, Saku, Kristen and I step boldly forward towards the large iron doors that bar Jessie’s section of the Market. They’ve been whispering behind us the entire way. What they’ve heard about him. One of them actually saw the way he moves, and they’re so terrified I can’t help but grin to myself. But this comes with an epiphany. All fear is only ignorance. Cypress told me that before, but I.