***
Svetlana returned to Yelena's room. She brought a fresh plate of food and placed it on the vanity next to the plate she left Yelena last night.
Svetlana noticed Yelena barely touched last night’s dinner and said sweetly, “Yelena, you needn’t starve yourself.”
Then Svetlana sat on the chair near Yelena again and placed the bag of new clothes on the bed next to Yelena.
Yelena sat up. She smiled a little at the bag and then kicked the bag away from her.
“Please don’t be that way,” Svetlana pleaded, “I’m here to help you. You have won me over to your cause. I want to be your friend.”
While tears formed in the corner of her eyes, Yelena shrieked, “Then please take me home. Take me away from this place.”
“I can't. Sasha will kill me. You ask the impossible.”
“I don't want to stay here. I want to be with Keith.”
“I know you don't want to be here. At the moment, I’m powerless to help you. In a way, I’m trapped here too. I’m Sasha's prisoner, too.”
“I see you bought me clothes, so Sasha must let you leave the house. He doesn’t keep you locked up in a room.”
“Of course, Sasha lets me leave, but I always return to him. Honestly, I have nowhere to go. I have little money, no passport, no documents, and I don’t intend to return to Russia. I'm trapped here just like you, and the bastard knows that.”
“Then why are you talking to me? Why are you trying to be my friend?”
“Believe it or not, I want to help you. For me to help you, you must help me. In all honesty, I want to leave this place too, but I must ensure I can get away safely. If Sasha knew I tried to escape, he would kill me and use my dead body as an example to the other girls. So I must be careful.”
“How can I help you then? I have nothing to give you.” Yelena said with a puzzled look on her face.
“Like I said before, I have nowhere to go. I have no money, but if I knew someone could help me get away, then I would take a chance. Don't let me sound materialistic, but does Keith have any money?”
“I don't know. He's a professor. He probably makes more than a teacher. I know he’s considered rich in Bosnia, but I never asked him. Money never interested me.”
Svetlana’s eyes bulged out while she opened her mouth wide. She always sized up a man's net worth. The size of a man's wallet was more important than the size of his manhood. Then she studied Yelena closely. She was a weird bird indeed, not a typical poor Russian girl who is ready to clean out any man who flashes a little money.
“Look, I’ll help you, if you promise you’ll help me. Does Keith have enough money to help me to relocate? Can he help me buy a new life, a new life far away from Montenegro and Sasha?”
“If I had to guess, then he probably does have some money, but I never asked him.”
Svetlana fished a pen and a small notebook from her purse and handed it to Yelena, “Then write down his number for his cell phone. I’ll try to call him tonight.”
“Can you call him now? I want to talk to him,” Yelena pleaded.
“No, I can't. I must talk to him alone. I must be very careful. If Sasha finds out what I am doing, he would kill me. Then he would kill you, too! Sasha kills anyone who disrespects him.”
Yelena quickly scribbled Keith's number on the paper and handed it to Svetlana. She then tore the paper out of the notebook and folded it into a small wad, slipping the wad of paper into a secret pocket located inside her bra. Usually, she stuffed money in that pocket, but today, she stuffed her escape pass for Sasha's prison.
Svetlana stood up and hugged Yelena, and then she kissed her cheek, “Please eat, Yelena.” She placed a couple more cigarettes into Yelena's eager hand, then left, taking last night’s dinner plate to the kitchen with her.
Svetlana stood at the kitchen sink, scraping Yelena's old dinner with a fork into the trashcan under the sink. She turned on the water faucet, grabbed a sponge soaked with dish soap, and began scrubbing the plate.
Someone snuck into the kitchen and quickly approached Svetlana, embracing her from behind. She dropped the plate into the sink and stepped backwards to push away the rude advances.
The eager hands grabbed Svetlana’s shoulders.
Svetlana yelled, “Stop it.”
“No. You’re mine.”
“Sasha, please not now. I’m not in the mood.”
“I am, so it’s not my problem.”
Svetlana grinned and closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Sasha’s serpent-like fingers snaked and glided along her back.
Her nose itched a little from the chlorine scent covering Sasha’s body. He must have completed his morning swim. Sasha began fondling her breasts. She kept her eyes closed and tried to push the mental picture of snakes out of her mind. Sasha's hand brushed accidentally over the wad of paper in her bra.
Svetlana had turned quickly before Sasha realized what he had touched. She started kissing Sasha's neck, ensuring she did not kiss anywhere near Sasha's lips. He would become furious and beat her black and blue. Sasha hated kissing lips. He considered that nasty.
Svetlana continued to kiss his chest, covered with luscious black hair. Then she worked her way down to his crotch area. Sasha thrust his hips forward in throbbing waves of ecstasy as Svetlana performed fellatio on him. Then he opened her skirt, and made love to her on the kitchen table.
Svetlana lay back, opening her legs wide, smiling, letting Sasha have his way with her. She didn’t smile from sexual pleasure. She realized her life would be changing. Hopefully, in another week, she’ll begin a new life, a life devoid of men and their sick sexual depravities.
After Sasha finished, Svetlana wouldn’t let him leave. She wanted to wear him out. She seduced him repeatedly until he couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted to dry him up like a withered prune.
After the third time, Sasha pulled away and put his bathrobe back on. He hollered, “Damn girl! What has gotten into you? You’re insatiable!” He glanced down at Svetlana as she smiled and wriggled her body seductively.
Sasha turned and stormed out of the kitchen before Svetlana could seduce him again.
Svetlana continued to lie naked on the kitchen table for a few minutes as perspiration covering her skin around her breast and abdomen cooled. Most of the perspiration came from Sasha.
Svetlana continued to smile, lost in deep thought. In another week, she can walk away from Sasha and never see him again. She’ll be free. She wasn’t giving him good-bye sex. She wore him down so he would leave the new girl alone. Svetlana was protecting her one-way ticket out of the underworld. She crossed her fingers that Keith had better have some money. That ticket for freedom would not be cheap.