The Silk Trap. A Novel in 43 Chapters
Chapter 36: Lara is groomed.
Lara heard the key turn in the door again. Lara dreaded the worst as she sat up in bed, terrified and yet curious. It had been just an hour since the Queen had left. The door opened, and it was the Trans male nurse. He was now dressed in a jumper and blue jeans with sneakers.
He gave Lara a big smile and said, “Tadaaaa...Time to be Cinderella, Baby”. He was quite excited and had a naughty glint in his eyes as he looked at Lara.
“The queen has sent me to doll you up for a photoshoot, baby. You are the star of the show for the auction tonite! You lucky, lucky girl!!! All you have to do is come with me to the studio.”
Lara looked confused. “Studio? Where’s the studio?” she asked.
“I’ll show you. Let's go.”
Lara was being taken out of her prison for the first time…and for an insane second she missed the safety of the room she knew as her only safe place.
Lara followed the nurse. The door of her room opened into a stark concrete corridor that was lit by white tungsten light. There was no one in the passageway. She walked past rooms with black doors like the one she had exited out next to each other like rooms in a hotel. There was no carpet on the floor but just the same concrete slabs as that on the walls. The whole place was cold and smelt damp and morbid. At the end of the corridor, there was a lift. The nurse pressed the button, and it opened. Inside was a large cage-like carriageway that looked very old and had some rust on the ceiling. The door closed, and the lift moved up with a loud groaning and grating sound of chains moving. Lara could not help but shudder in fear at where she was. It seemed like they were in a dungeon somewhere deep under the ground.
After about a minute, the lift slowly ground to a halt. The door opened, and Lara was shocked to see the Queen standing to receive her into what looked like a large photo studio with lights and people bustling around, busy dressing up a few girls and putting on their makeup.
“Welcome to the Blue Moon,” said the Queen softly with a little flair in her voice.
Lara felt a shiver down her spine. This is what Cassandra had whispered that night at the bar …But she had told Lara to stay away from the Blue Moon.
The Queen held Lara by the hand and walked her to an empty chair with a mirror and makeup equipment waiting for her.
She made Lara sit down and spoke to the make-up artist briefly in Czeck and then turned to Lara and said, “We have to get you ready for the auction. The makeup artist has a nice idea. She’ll need a few hours on your face and body, and then we’ll take some pictures. I think the glitter will look perfect against your skin.
Lara looked blankly at the Queen and just said, “Ok.”
Lara felt so lonely under the camera's lights as the photographer instructed her to move and pose in different positions. The make-up artist ran around her sorting out her makeup and glitter, and hair while Lara went through the motions like a frozen statue. Lara did not remember what she was made to wear and what she took off. It was all a slow-motion blur. The only thing she could not do was smile. All she could think of was Michel and how much she missed him and if she would ever see him again.
The queen fussed all over each camera angle as Lara lay cold and lifeless under the rapacious arc lights. She was the grand prize of the auction tonite, and the queen wanted everything to be just perfect.
Lara came out of her daze when she returned to the makeup chair to remove her glitter and mascara. She looked like a mermaid who had been swimming in gold. Her entire body looked alien, and she felt a wave of despair and sadness rush through her body. She was being put up for sale to have sex with a stranger, and she could do nothing about it.
She was being dressed to be undressed for slaughter...
And the Queen was delighted with the results. She walked up to Lara and patted her head, and said, “The camera loves your body, my dear. I think that they will adore you at the auction.”
The Queen called the nurse to take Lara back to her room.
“You need to get some sleep now, darling. You are going to be very busy soon.”
As Lara left the studio, the queen looked at the pictures of Lara again. Lara reminded her so much of her own face and body before her horrific accident that turned her from Adéla into the Queen.
She still remembers that day 15 years ago like it was yesterday.
Adéla had come home early after a run in the woods. She was hungry, so she headed to the kitchen to heat some leftover dinner from the night before. The burner of the stove would not start. She kept trying to start it again and again. The phone rang so she went to pick it up. It was her boyfriend telling her he was running late. After speaking to him for a few minutes, she went back to try and start the fire. But this time, she carried her cigarette lighter. The burner exploded into a ball of flame the second she lit the burner with the lighter. The gas had continued to leak in the kitchen while she was on the phone. Her lycra top caught fire instantly. She somehow stopped the fire from burning her face, but her legs, chest, and stomach suffered severe second-degree burns. While her body slowly healed over 2 years of skin grafting treatments, she lost her acting career, her boyfriend, and all her friends along the way.
And then she met Jakub.
Jakub turned her life around and made her his Queen. She met him during one of her trips to the hospital. He loved her and brought her back from hell and made her the Queen of his empire that he had built up over the years that they now ran together as a couple under the company name of Blue Moon Productions.
Lara was Adéla latest jewel in the crown…