Chapter 4

Hope

“I wish you hadn’t cut your hair, Hope.” Standing behind me Franc dragged the comb , most of the teeth broken and sharp enough to dig into my scalp through my damp hair.  “All that long hair would have caught someone’s attention. It was so bright and full of life.”

My hair when I had woken up here had been longer and brighter even when it was flattened by the rain I had been standing in before I had been transported here and I did miss it. Just like I missed a lot about my old life.

“I wish I hadn’t either.” I muttered. Cutting my waist length hair had been one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do but I’d worked out pretty early on that it was the right thing to do because Franc was right. That kind of hair, healthy and full of life would draw to much attention to me and that was the last thing I wanted.

I had spent the last how ever long I had been here trying not to be noticed. I skipped out on meetings with the other would be companions, I feigned illness or just disappeared into the ruins of the city whenever there was a gathering to meet the commanders.

In general I did everything I could not to be in the very situation I was in now.

Not that I could do any of that now. Tonight I would be taken up the hill and paraded in front of a bunch of old fat rich dudes. Hopefully none of them would choose me but it was a weak hope. I was taller , stronger and healthier than any of the other women I had seen that were my age.  All walking around with their haunted eyes.

I didn’t know what put those looks on their faces, probably the fact they were being sold to rich old dudes by their own families but maybe I was wrong about that. Maybe it was just the stress of living in this world that caused them to look like that.

If I had been born in this time I probably would have looked the same.

“At least it’s grown a fair bit now.” Franc lifted the wet tresses from my shoulder and rubbed them between his fingers. “Did I tell you my daughter had orange hair? It’s one of the reasons I took you in.” He sighed. “You remind me so much of her.” His hand dropped to my shoulder and he smoothed his fingers over my skin.

Leaning forward , I fought the urge to roll my eyes and failed. Yes he had mentioned it a few hundred times. So many times in fact that I was starting to think he thought I was his dead daughter. Or at least I had thought that. Right up until the morning about six months ago, when  he began to look at me differently, touch me differently.

It wasn’t the type of touch that a father gave his daughter.

So far I had managed to escape before things got too awkward but the threat was always there and it made me sick to my stomach.

“Yours is darker.” He carried on like I hadn’t just moved away from him in disgust. “Hers was brighter and had the most beautiful curls.” He sighed dreamily. “Just like her mother.” Suddenly he looked at me. And I didn’t like the look on his face one bit. Slowly he appraised me. His eyes lingering on the curves I tried desperately to hide. “You’re just as beautiful, Hope.”

“Thank you Franc.” I nodded my head politely. After all, he had taken me in. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for him. Lost and dead and probably cannibalised because that definitely happened even if people said it didn’t.

“That’s why I have chosen an extra special dress for you to wear tonight.” Hurrying away I saw him open one of the trunks pushed against the far wall. He straightened a few seconds later.

“That is-“ I stared at the purple fabric in his hands and tried not to grimace. And it was only scraps of material. There wasn’t enough of it to make any kind of elegant dress.

“My wife wore this the day I met her. She was coming back from a meeting just like you are about to go but they didn’t want her back. She wasn’t a right fit.” His eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Didn’t smell right I guess but that was perfect for me because it meant she could be mine. Here try it on.” He thrust the dress into my hands.

I didn’t know what smell had to do with anything but Franc was borderline crazy so I wasn’t going to ask. I’d already listened to enough of his crazy stories to last me a lifetime.

“Go on.” He urged. “Did you remove the hair I said-“

“Yes.” Although shaving with a blunt knife was something I never wanted to do again. My legs and underarms looked like something out of a horror movie. “Will you step outside please or turn your back.”

He always turned his back and gave me some privacy. Always.

For a second I thought he was going to argue with me and geared myself up for an argument but finally he turned. His shoulders hunched.

I stripped quickly, shivering from the water dripping from my hair. The purple dress was some kind of clubbing thing that ravers would have worn back in my time. Back when parties where a thing and the world hadn’t gone boom. It was something I wouldn’t have been seen dead in but here I was lacking in choices.

I settled the thin spaghetti straps over my shoulders with a frown that pinched my eyebrows together.

The commanders had turned down his wife wearing this dress so maybe some of her luck would wash off on me and they would reject me as well.

I lifted my head and saw his reflection perfect mirrored in the far window. Franc had watched me dress which meant he had seen everything.

Pervy asshole.

“You look beautiful Hope.” Turning he walked towards me. “The colour suits you and your body-“

Do not start talking about my body, I begged silently. Please don’t make this even weirder than it already is.

“Your body is shown off so perfectly.” Lifting his hand he let it hover over the swell of my breast. I flashed him a look almost daring him to touch me and see what would happen. Something must have translated because he dropped his hand to his side with a sigh.

Outside an engine rumbled. An actual engine. A sound from my time and something I very rarely heard. The bus had come to take me and the other companion candidates up the hill.

“And remember Hope.” Franc said softly. “You already have a place here if you aren’t chosen. Life as a beta isn’t so hard and we can stay together.”

I had no idea what a beta was but if he meant stay here as his wife then I would gladly pass. It was weird enough that he had replaced his dead daughter with me. I didn’t want to be a replacement wife either.

Gross.

“Wouldn’t you like that?”

I forced my lips up in a smile. “Of course but I have to go.” Thrusting my feet back into my boots, the only footwear I had , i headed towards the door.

Truthfully I didn’t want any of this. The only thing I really wanted was to go home.