Lina went to door of Asha’s room to speak with her. She saw on the door, carved onto its surface, a lion standing on all fours looking directly at her, its mane bristling with pride. Lina knocked on the door and a voice told her she could enter.
Inside she saw Asha naked, face down upon her bed while two vampires hovered over her, kneading her muscles with their hands.
“What do you want Little Lina?” Asha hissed, still lying flat, without opening her eyes or turning her head, her face buried in her mattress.
“What are they doing to you,” Lina innocently asked.
“Is that what you came here for? They’re massaging my muscles. It relaxes me and feels very good. If that’s all you want, then you can leave me.”
“No, no,” Lina hastily interjected, “I wanted to ask your permission for something. I want to go up to the surface.”
Asha finally opened her eyes and turned her head to look at Lina, “Why do you want to go outside? It’s daylight out now, isn’t it?” Lina nodded, and Asha said, “I hate going out in daylight. You want to go out now?”
“I do, yes,” Lina hesitantly answered.
“Why? What do you want that for?”
“I miss seeing the sun. I miss being out,” Lina said.
“You’re a creature of the dark now. You must get used to it,” Asha vehemently asserted.
“I want to get out. I want to walk around in the fresh air. I want to do something. What do you vampires do all day? There’s hardly enough work for me to fill a day.”
“So you’re bored? Take up a hobby, then. They taught you how to read in that convent, didn't they? See if you can find a book to read. Do something creative. Even if I let you outside, what will you do?”
“I don’t know,” Lina shrugged her shoulders, “Walk around.”
Asha brought the massage to a stop by raising her hand and then sitting up in her bed. Her naked beauty was exposed to Lina temporarily, who looked up at Asha with a distinct look of envy, but she quickly lowered her eyes when Asha noticed her stare. Asha put on her light indoor clothing on and dismissed the two vampires from her presence. They left the room and waited in the hall.
“You wish you were beautiful like me, don’t you?” Asha said, “You will be someday. Be patient. You’ve already become more beautiful since you came here. I can tell.”
Lina blushed shyly, not because she was embarrassed by the compliment, but worried that Asha might infer her secret.
Asha continued, “I was quite beautiful even when I was a young human. But it was not a blessing, I assure you. You don’t know what it’s like to be beautiful. Being beautiful means always being seen, always being noticed. It can be quite oppressive to have eyes on you all the time.”
“No worse than never being seen,” Lina replied, causing Asha to emit a slight laugh. Not knowing what more to say, Lina reiterated her request, “Will you give me permission to go outside?”
“I will give you permission,” Asha said. Lina turned, ready to leave, but Asha stopped her, saying, “But I want you to hear a story first. I want you to hear about my life as a human.” Lina turned around and looked at Asha, who smiled in that arrogant, domineering way she always smiled and said, “It’s quite instructive.”
“You grew up in a convent as a novice,” Asha began, “left there by your parents, no doubt; perhaps motivated by some misplaced sense of piety to offer you as their devotional sacrifice to God. I grew up as a whore in a whorehouse, abandoned by my parents from their own indifference and negligence. I was born a long, long time ago. All I know about my parents is that they were nomads from the East. And, perhaps because they had too much to carry, they left me, in a small city far from here, in the care of an older woman, who, if I haven’t been misled, paid my parents to take me. She paid for me because I would earn for her far more in return. She took care of me while I was young, and I worked by cleaning the rooms of what I would later find out was a brothel. I would clean up after the sweaty sex that the other whores had in those rooms, until I was old enough.”
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