Elior

She was never wanted. Not from the first seconds of her life. Her mother left her without a glance. Her father didn't blink an eye - it didn't concern him. So she became nobody's, a thing without a name and love.

The orphanage greeted her with silence and the smell of chlorine. She was silent, timid, like an animal in a cage. Other children played, and she watched from afar, as if behind glass. At first she whispered, then she stopped talking. They called her "gloomy." Her parents were frightened by her too-mature eyes.

At ten, she was "taken" by a man with a greasy chain and an unpleasant smell of cologne. He looked at her not as a child, but as a commodity. He wanted to resell her, but no one wanted to. For six years, she was his as a defective commodity - he broke her with silence and indifference.

Elior appeared, twenty years old, with power and money. Everyone expected the beautiful and useful one, but he chose her - quiet, skinny, in a torn shirt.

“Her,” he said without emotion.

At first he was cold, irritated, looked at me as if I were empty. But he didn't kick me out. He asked:

• What do you want?

She was silent, she didn't know. He gave her a card - "Buy what you want", but she was afraid.

The ice in her chest melted. He became softer, more attentive. She was learning to feel. She took his hand - he smiled.

He went to the brothel on business. She bought a kitten - white, fluffy.

An hour passed. He was not there. She was nervous. She called her assistant, got the address and went.

In the brothel, the guy grabbed her wrist. She was silent, her eyes full of horror.

The door swung open - Elior. One blow - the guy fell, the second - he didn't get up. He was screaming - not at her, but at everyone.

He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. It was quiet in the office. He sat her down and lit a cigarette.

• You fool... What are you doing here? Do you understand how vulnerable you are? Why didn't you stay home? This is a brothel, there are only freaks here. If I hadn't had time...

He fell silent. There was a heavy tension between them. There was no anger in his voice, but fear. For her.