‘I tell you, she’s six months pregnant, swaddling around like a happy goose, red cheeks, goofy smile …’

‘Alex never had a goofy smile.’

‘Now she has.’

Ivana shook her head in surprise lying on the couch in Mandy’s huge house, whose cellar and attic kept so many pain- and joyful memories. Cassie holding her former cheerleading squad member in her arms was playing with Ivana’s long brown hair, destroying her Ukrainian angel’s crown in the process, a relic of her long stay in her ancestors’ homeland.

‘But she always told us that Greg has this huge cock. Did Mandy cut her open?’

‘Oh no, that was the funny thing. She was visiting from college and meeting up with Susie and her husband Greg …’

‘They married? Gee, I missed everything over there. That was something I never quite figured out, I mean Greg was Alex’s boyfriend and than she was ok with her best friend taking him in, when they broke up?’

‘Wasn’t really a break up, more a drifting apart, she off to college, he stuck here, after he lost his scholarship with the accident during the last game …’

‘That really sucked.’

‘… working in his father’s carpentry, visiting Susie in her little whore house regularly. So one thing led to the other …’

‘She still has that beautiful old house?’

Cassie had finished unbraiding her, stroking her beautiful brown hair, massaging Ivana’s scalp like they did each other in sisterly commiseration, when they nurtured their freshly cut and closed pussies three years ago.

‘Oh yeah, and more money than you can think off. She only takes in Dollies, who are eager to earn a little extra in their spare time and after Greg has trained them. I tell you, people book three months in advance and can’t get enough of these sexless girls.’

‘All anal service, I assume.’

‘Like in our times, with the difference that these girls actually enjoy themselves as they still have their G-spots.’

‘Well, I’ll be mad with Mandy till the end of my days that only the next bunch of girls had their pee holes protected with ceramic shields. You remember? Twenty one girls going to the slaughter.’

‘Crazy. The robot was glowing red after that day.’

‘A squad of twenty five Dollies with two stunt groups, what a show. I never thought we really could make it and win the state championship a second time. You outdid yourself, Cassie.’

Ivana had started to return the favor and massaged Cassie’s feet and calves, her look now and then turned towards Cassie’s empty crotch. They had shed their clothes the moment they had entered Mandy’s house. For Ivana it was like a ritual of remembrance as they had spent many naked hours healing between these walls.

‘Ah, stop sucking up to me, we all did it. And I had a great predecessor and teacher.’

‘You mean Alex? By the way, you never finished her story.’

‘Her story? Oh yeah, Alex’s denouement. Well, they had this drunken reunion party and suddenly she blurred out that she always dreamed that Greg would take her virginity, at least that’s how Susie told me. And the next minute Greg forces his huge cock into her small hole, tearing her apart, she screaming like a wounded animal, Susie laughing her head off, blood everywhere, not the least from his back, where her claws left deep scars. And it seems she had the only orgasm since her cutting and it must have been something, as, Susie said, she was flapping around on the bed like a dying fish.’

‘What a fucked up way to finish one’s education.’

Ivana couldn’t believe her eyes: There was a wet spot forming between Cassie’s legs. How could she still produce so much fluid with her urethral glands destroyed? Perhaps she was ripe today and her cervix worked overtime. Long past was the time when, as the Dollies, their rhythms were synchronized and knowing your own state of fertility told you everything about your girlfriends’.

‘Oh no, she’s continuing with college and as soon as the baby is here, she’s gonna leave it with Susie and Greg.’

‘That sounds more like Alex: always the tough one.’

‘I don’t know, she was crying her heart out when she was telling me. But then again it might have been Mandy’s needle work, as Alex wanted her to sew her shut till the birth. It seems she wasn’t too fond of her torn up pussy and prefers to have that small Dollies hole like before.’

‘I see you’re still got yours closed:’

Ivana couldn’t resist anymore and stroked Cassie’s flat crotch, the scar barely noticeable till she reached the small hole to plunge her small finger into the warm crevice, only to reappear seconds later covered in gluey white, which she eagerly smelled and tasted. Their new sexuality after their near total nullification had brought them all closer to Tina’s proclivities, even, if asked, they would deny any lesbian tendencies.

‘Yeah, I couldn’t be bothered, after all I prefer anal anyway.’

‘Don’t tell me, you can get off on it.’

‘Seldom. It depends. If I’m horny like today and a guy has a really long dick, he might manage to hit my A spot right through the anal and vaginal walls. And if he has enough stamina, he actually could set off one of these long, never ending, back-of your-head-lifting orgasms, which keep on burning for hours after the fucking stops.’

‘That’s a lot of ifs.’

‘Yeah, I know, and the guys who can do this, they’re not the types, who stick around for long.’

Cassie had started to tenderly touch Ivana’s empty chest.

‘I still can’t believe that you really cut them off.’

‘I told you, it was the prize to pay to get close to them.’

‘You should have used the robot, the scars would be much smoother.’

Ivana’s face had darkened.

‘They were not happy that my pussy was already modified, so they insisted that I do the breasts in front of them.’

‘You did it yourself?’

Ivana’s lips were trembling, her eyes filling.

‘They had prepared an old blunt kitchen knife and an iron, which didn’t seem to get enough electricity. So after cutting off my left breast I had to keep it pressed against my chest for at least a minute to stop the bleeding, my flesh slowly cooking. By this time I had peed myself, so I landed in that mess, when I collapsed, nearly breaking my toes with the iron …’

Cassie had taken Ivana into her arms. Ivana whispered into her shoulder, her tears running down Cassie’s breasts, whose nipple stumps were erect in sympathy with the destruction of Ivana’s wonderful specimens.

‘That’s why you have this red spot on top of your foot.’

‘The two young girls, which were with the head of the monastery, finally helped me up. There was pity and contempt in their eyes. They wore these thin white shifts and lying on the ground I could look straight up them. They were not older than fourteen and both of them were nullified. One whispered something like “Be Strong”. When I was half way through my second breast I pleaded with them to help me. I saw they had tears in their eyes, but when one of them looked up to the Prior, he just grunted and they both turned their eyes to the ground. I can’t remember, how I managed to continue, but obviously I did. I woke up lying in a pool of shit, pee and blood. My clothes had gone and instead there was a mop, a bucket with water and a white shift, my new uniform. When I had finished cleaning the place they brought me to my new cell, where I spend many days and nights screaming into my pillow from pain and loss. An old lady nursed me finally to health. The Prior came, gave me one of their crosses and told me that my family’s debt had been paid and I was now one of the White Doves.’

‘How did they know, who you are?’

Ivana had sat up, playing longingly with Cassie’s nipple stumps.

‘That’s the crazy thing. It took many months, till I got access to their library, even longer to gain their trust, but one thing became finally clear. They are more numerous than we all think. There are Skoptsy here in town and they were observing my family the whole time, just waiting for the right moment. They probably know I’m with you now. They only let me go, so I will help them over here to increase their numbers through proselytizing and otherwise “convincing” especially young boys and girls to join them. If I were you, I really would try to find out, what happened with your aunt.’

It was obvious that Cassie liked the attention to her nipples as her hips started to make swaying movements.

‘Shsh. Lucy is upstairs. I don’t want her to get even more worried. We haven’t heard from her mother for more than a year now.’

‘Hi! Two naked beauties, all for me I assume.’

’Sylvie!’

Ivana hugged Cassie’s sister, her former wild haired self now reformed into the cliché of a feminist academic. Sylvie held her at arm’s length, looking at Ivana’s flat chest, shaking her head.

‘What a sacrifice!’

Her voice thick, a sob of compassion stuck in her throat. Another hug, a sigh, a finger trailing Cassie’s cheek in sisterly affection.

‘We didn’t hear the car, we didn’t hear the door …’

‘No wonder, you were probably engrossed in the many things to tell …’

‘We were just talking about Lucy.’

Sylvie’s sorrowful look turned towards the staircase.

‘Did you see her yet?’

‘No, she’s probably hiding in her room again.’

Ivana looked confused.

‘What’s going on with her? She was this, well weird, but still lively girl …’

‘I think just puberty. It hit her early, like with me as well …’

‘But she’s what? Twelve?’

Sylvie had shed her coat and laptop bag.

‘Eleven actually. I’ll check on her.’

‘What happened with Lydia, did she stay in town?’

Cassie’s question stopped Sylvie’s ascent of the stairs.

‘Who’s Lydia?’

‘You remember Sylvie’s Africa stories? The German girl?’

‘Oh yeah, the fisting expert. What, she’s here? Why?’

Sylvie had rejoined them.

‘Visiting. Just as a tourist. I showed her around town and then we met Tina and they two really hit it off, so Tina is bringing her home later. Gee, it’s hot in here, who put the heating high like that?’

Sylvie started to loose the rest of her clothes.

‘Maria coming along too?’

‘Probably. You know these two, where there’s Tina there’s Maria.’

‘Still inseparable. Who would have thought? I mean Tina … that’s clear, but Maria …’

‘Who kept falling in love with one guy after the other …?’

‘Till they found out, they couldn’t fuck her …’

‘And then she fell for the one, who was standing beside her all the time …’

‘It just happened to be a woman.’

Ivana and Cassie reminisced, their common Dollies history still shaping their lives.

‘And Tina went from Mary to Maria.’

Sylvie was stretching lasciviously, naked, feeling liberated after one hard day in the town archive, trying to get to grips with her research on the circumcision rituals in the area.

‘That’s mean, Sylvie. Better never mention Tina’s first love to her.’

‘She’s still looking for her?’

‘Yeah, I think so, Maria is even helping her. It’s not so much that she still loves her; it’s just finding closure, I think.’

‘I’ll better see for Lucy.’

‘Why did she come back to this God forsaken place? You told me anthropological research institutions all over the world were ready to hire her, so why here?’

Ivana was whispering to Cassie as Sylvie had disappeared upstairs.

‘I don’t know. I think, she needed some time out, I mean she studied really hard; you don’t become best of class by going to keg parties every night. And to some degree that’s the advantage of being cut, we’re not distracted so much. But if you ask me, she’s quite worried about Mom.’

‘Worried?’

‘… that she would want to join Aunt Agnes.’

‘And rightly so …’

‘Lucy’s not in her room.’

Sylvie came back, a gnawing feeling in her stomach creasing her beautiful forehead.

‘You didn’t hear the backdoor or anything?’

‘What happened with the other girl?’

Ivana was unfazed by Sylvie’s worry for her niece.

‘What …?’

‘This Spanish girl or Italian …’

Sylvie’s determination to find Lucy was compromised by her confusion.

‘She’s talking about Africa, Sylvie.’

‘Ah, you mean Mila. That’s a really sad story. But …’

‘Look in the cellar.’

‘But she’s not supposed to go there.’

‘So …’

‘Ok, I get your point.’

Sylvie disappeared towards the place, where the Dollies saw their creation.

‘What’s sad about this Mila?’

‘You remember she was fleeing from her father?’

‘Yeah, hiding in this mission in Africa …’

‘Well, her father found her and brought her back to Italy and …’

‘It’s locked. She must be somewhere else.’

Sylvie had returned.

‘I wouldn’t be too sure, check for the key, in the left cupboard in the kitchen, under the towels. Mandy still has the illusion, Lucy wouldn’t find it there. …So back in Italy her father discovers that she’s not a virgin anymore and goes berserk. He basically nullified her by sticking her into this stiff rubber suit, treated her with hormones, so she started lactating, and then forced her to live on her own milk and …’

‘What? Pee?’

Cassie’s pointed finger towards her own empty crotch spoke more than words.

‘Can’t find the key.’

‘Told you, she’s in there. The second key is in my trousers. No, not in my knickers.’

‘How come you still smell like real pussy?’

Sylvie still had a thing for Cassie’s panties.

‘Yeah, I also wondered. She leaves spots all over this sofa with her leaking little hole.’

There was jealousy in Ivana’s voice. Sylvie disappeared again.

‘How you know all that?’

‘When Sylvie lost contact with her, she pestered Dad till he agreed to have some of his colleagues in Italy check on Mila. And just in time. When they found her she was lying next to her dead father, nearly dead herself. It never became clear if he died of a heart attack or if she somehow managed to kill him. It was all hushed up and she lives in a mental hospital now. Sylvie wants to visit her, when her professor takes her along to this WHO conference on “Genital mutil…”’

‘Cassie, Cassie …’

The panic in Sylvie’s voice had the girls running down the stairs in seconds. The view froze their hearts. Under the harsh lights of Mandy’s surgical lamps sat Lucy in the old gyn chair, her feet in stirrups, her torso painted in red meanders, her face dotted with bloody streaks, her mouth slack, all consciousness gone. Sylvie was trying to wake her, her pleading sobs achieving the fluttering of Lucy’s eye lids. Cassie was running to the other side of the chair, when a look between Lucy’s legs stopped her in her tracks. Blood was seeping from deep wounds on both sides of her small pussy. The blades of the kitchen scissors were stuck on top, imbedded in her outer lips, her hood and small lips bulging out.

‘Jesus, what did this girl do?’

‘That’s obvious, she tried to become one of the Dollies.’

Ivana’s clear head contrasted with Sylvie’s crying and Cassie’s despair.

‘Ok, I’ll get the phone. We have to ask Mandy for advice. I’m sure there is disinfectant and water down here, you start getting the blood off her, Cassie, so we can see where the damage really is.’

When Ivana was back, Cassie was finishing cleaning Lucy’s face, while Sylvie was feeding her little sips to drink. Lucy’s tired looking eyes were full of remorse and pain.

‘Ok girl, what got into your crazy little head, cutting yourself up like this.’

Ivana took over from Sylvie, while Lucy’s cousin frantically worked on the phone.

‘Hi, Ivana.’

Lucy managed a faint whisper and an even fainter smile. She lifted her bloody fingers and touched Ivana’s scarred chest.

‘Beautiful.’

‘Don’t get any ideas. Enough cutting for one day I would say.’

Cassie was tidying Lucy’s torso and it became clear that although the binding hadn’t been strong enough, the bleeding from her tiny nipple stumps had stopped by now.

‘Mandy. God, finally …already at the airport … surprise? … Ok, sorry to interrupt you, but we have something of a surprise as well and I’m afraid not a good one, Lucy cut herself and …No reason to panic, we just have to …finish …’

‘Where is she?’

Ivana’s attempt to plod out Sylvie’s discussion as well as Cassie’s mumbled ‘I can’t stop the bleeding’, emanating between Lucy’s legs, where any touch had Lucy crunching up her face, was rather obvious, but worked.

‘She’s with Aunt Christine at this circumciser conference.’

Lucy’s voice had gained in strength.

‘What’s your mother doing there?’

Cassie’s confusion about Ivana’s small talk was only matched by her cluelessness, how to help her little cousin, while Sylvie was running around in the background looking for something, whispering into Cassie’s mobile.

‘They are lovers, what you expect. They can’t keep their hands off each other. I gather Mandy took my mother’s place in my aunt’s life.’

Cassie looked dumbfounded at Lucy’s lucid reply, which she had been supposed to give herself.

‘Got it. Ok, the drawer is open, which one …’

‘The one in the middle.’

‘Yeah, that was Lucy. Do you want to speak with … We should better hurry. Ok. See ya.’

Sylvie took out a gleaming scalpel.

‘The cauterizing iron is in the cupboard below the drawer, you better start heating it up.’

The three women couldn’t believe their ears, when this half conscious eleven year old started to give them instructions.

‘If only Mandy hadn’t used a new hiding place for the key, I’ll be finished by now and this stupid scissors wouldn’t be stuck in my cunt. Can you pass me the towel? It’s fallen …’

‘It’s all bloody, don’t you want a new one?’

Cassie had found it on the floor, her own feet slick with Lucy’s blood and other body fluids.

‘That’s fine, I like to taste my own blood.’

Lucy’s matter of fact approach couldn’t fool Cassie. There was a shaking in Lucy’s voice and her eyes flickered with fright that the pain would be too strong again, the reason, why in the end she had failed to castrate herself.

‘Ok Lucy, you’re not alone now, Ivana and I, we will hold your hands, and we will all scream and shout and breathe through it, ok?’

Lucy’s tears showed that the pain must have been already unbearable and she duly started sobbing, when Sylvie made the first cuts by lifting the half severed outer lips, trying to be as fast and at the same time as meticulous as possible, which wasn’t easy with the blood blocking the view. Cutting upwards she finished just where the scissor blades had eaten into Lucy’s pussy. Starting again on top she went under the blades close to the skin separating the rest of Lucy’s pouch, circumscribing the one little piece of nerves, she had promised herself to cut the last. Lucy’s sobs had turned to screams, the towel no protection anymore against the ear piercing noise.

‘Cassie, Ivana, the scissors!’

Following Mandy’s instructions the scissors should be kept in till the last minute as the bleeding would increase by their removal. Clinging to Lucy’s hands, wiping away their own tears, they opened the scissors together the same moment that Sylvie made the final cut, separating Lucy’s clit from her body. Her breathing stopped in mid-scream, Cassie’s and Ivana’s worry deepened by her glazed stare. Reaching for the cauterizing iron Sylvie halted for a moment mesmerized by the pulsing little hole, now visible in a plain of raw flesh oozing blood, Lucy’s mangled pouch lying in juxtaposition on her rippling belly. It seemed impossible but Lucy’s screams re-started and increased in intensity, when the iron touched her open wounds till with one final shriek she lost consciousness as well as the last remnants of her clit.

‘Finally. I thought she’s gonna break my hand:’

Ivana’s time with the Skoptsy had hardened her. Cassie was just shaking her head, tears still running down her face, stroking Lucy’s face.

‘If I remember correctly, you both did a lot of pussy stitching during your Dollies time, so your turn now. I’ll check her breathing.’

First setting the catheter and then taking turns stitching, it took them half an hour to close that little de-sexed pussy, making sure that the remaining hole wasn’t bigger than a little finger and that the scar would be as beautiful as their own. They were just about to carry Lucy to her room, when they heard a car approaching the house.

‘That’s not Mandy.’

Laying Lucy down on the couch in the living room, they looked out the window. The wiry, severe looking lady, which exited the black, tinted windowed van, was dwarfed by the four bulky men joining her.

‘Skoptsy:’

Ivana’s blunt statement carried sufficient menace to have them run to the doors and windows to check their firm closure. Cassie just managed to bolt the backdoor, before someone threw his considerable weight against it.

‘Do you have any weapons?’

‘Just that.’

‘Your phone?’

‘Ououou.’

Lucy had just woken up at the worst moment. With Cassie typing into her phone and Sylvie having disappeared into the cellar, it was Ivana, who tried to calm her. She was about to help her walk up the stairs, each step a sob of agony, when the front door flew into the room and the group of five made their sinister entrance. With a move of her head the woman ordered one of the giants in the direction of Ivana, when suddenly Sylvie re-appeared throwing one of the scalpels. Grunting in a high voice he pulled the knife from his thigh, not even flinching when the second one missed him. Closing his puffy paws around Sylvie’s neck he oversaw the third one, which seconds later propelled by Sylvie’s mortal agony stuck in his jaw to the hilt, the only visible part being the top of the blade exiting from the crook of his nose. Whining like a stuck pig he started clawing at his face, cutting his hands at the sharp blade, banging against furniture till he fled the scene crashing over the banister of the veranda. Sylvie, retching in her desperate attempt to regain some breath, retreated from the second giant, who, however, ignored her and was reaching for … Lucy? Ivana stood in front of her, when Cassie attacked from the back with Great Grandpa’s old walking stick and a mighty swing between his legs. His feral grin, when he turned to swat this nuisance away, told her one thing:

‘Fuck, he’s a eunuch.’

She remembered just in time that the stick had a secret treasure, which ended up decorating his crotch. Cassie must have found exactly his little pee hole, which was all that was left from his penis, to lodge the rapier in. Shrieking in his high voice he tried to reach for it, when Ivana kicked him in the back of his knees with Cassie swinging the rest of the stick to his neck. Thus falling on his belly, the rapier cut through his crotch to finish severing his lower spine. With a wheezing noise he lost consciousness. His two brothers in arms were not amused, but even less so when there lumbering attack ended in two heels making contact with their noses, as Cassie and Ivana used their cart wheeling routine as the Dollies for new imaginative uses. Somersaulting through the eunuchs’ legs brought Cassie and Ivana suddenly in front of … Lydia and Tina. Having stepped in silently through the broken door it took them only seconds of eye contact to understand their parts, which they fulfilled masterly by confounding the two adversaries, who had furiously turned around to get their hands on these slippery girls, by placing two right hooks squarely on two wobbly chins. Their staggering reactions ended in a slow descend, helped by two naked bodies kneeling behind their legs. Sylvie having robbed the mantelpiece of two ugly vases used them most efficiently, by crashing them onto their heads.

‘Enough with that circus! Hand over the girl.’

The gun held by the lady with the heavy Slavic accent would have been a convincing argument, had she given more attention to the fact that one of the two leather dykes didn’t lift her arms but moved them to her back, suddenly bending and thus hurling a back flipping dervish right into her face. The intricacies of the screamed Spanish swear words were lost to her as, apart from trying to stay conscious, she looked for her gun, which she finally found pointed to her head by a very angry Maria.

‘What’s going on here?’

As Lydia and Tina turned around, the view freed for the whole scene.

‘Colonel Chernova, I should have known …’

‘Mommy!’

How could one scream encompass the pain of abandonment, the pain of trying so hard to belong, to be one of the big girls, the pain of self inflicted punishment to pay for all the imagined reasons, why her mother left her? How could one shriek combine the joy of homecoming, the joy of having paid the price and being found right, the joy of seeing her mother again, after having cried secretly many nights for her, hiding her despair in grown girl attitude? How could a child’s run through a room of vanquished villains, broken glass and upturned furniture, a child whose black curly hair framed an elfin face with eyes the color of azure, whose bloody points, where nipples once have been, and whose sewn up crotch, where an adolescent pussy once brought pleasure, paid tribute to the extent of her sacrifice, how could this child’s clinging to her mother’s breastless chest not bring tears to everyone’s eyes, not add sobs of one’s own to the child’s deep, heaving, heart breaking weeping?

Colonel Chernova wasn’t easily moved, one could argue she didn’t have any feelings at all as her country’s tyrants did the thinking and feeling for her. So the occasion of a tearful family reunion allowed her with a quick flick of her hand to turn the tables and point the gun back at her captors till the door was at her back and there was just one thing preventing her escape: her desire to succeed.

‘OK Agnes, hand her to me, you know very well that you have no chance against us.’

‘Over my dead body.’

Agnes’ voice was raspy from the emotion of holding her daughter in her arms after such a long time as well as the furor against the possibility of losing her again.

‘Well, it might come to that, although I would regret it, as you’ve been of great service to us. But I might start first with your sister … or your other daughter? I give you a choice.’

‘You promised you would leave my family alone, if I took my job up again and nullified all the poor kids, who had been brainwashed in these Christian summer camps.’

‘Well, promises, so many broken promises. Have you lately checked the divorce rate in this country? All broken promises, so one more or less doesn’t make much difference now, does it? And how should I have known, that the Skoptsy achieve their goal of 144.000 eunuchs exactly during my watch? And it’s also not exactly my fault either that your family carries the blood of Kondratii Selivanov in its veins, is it?’

‘Gee, one of the founders of the Skoptsy …’

Ivana’s whisper barely reached Cassie. Slowly Agnes put Lucy on the ground, turning her around to the gasps of many in the room. While running to fling herself into her mother’s arms she had lost her terry cloth bath robe, now standing proud in all her eleven year old naked glory, her body marked by its recent loss. How could she have sustained the pain of stretching her legs around Agnes’ hips, of pressing her cut off nipples at her mother’s blouse?

‘So you think she is the Messiah? She has already cut herself as you can see. How would the Elders now evaluate, if she is the one, as they can’t observe the castration as foreseen in the scripture of the Skoptsy?’

There was defiance and deep anger in her reply, an anger mostly against herself for not having been here for her daughter.

‘I don’t give a damn if she is the Messiah or his cleaning lady! All I know is that the Skoptsy are our best operatives and as their handler I’m ordered to support them. I don’t make the stupid rules of these freaks …’

Her furious reaction as well as the waving of her weapon in the air showed the growing insecurity of Colonel Chernova, not the least because the sound of an approaching horse had stopped quite close to the house. Suddenly her face turned waxen and the gun fell from her hand, Mandy’s foot transporting it through the room till it clattered onto the far wall. Against the waning light of the autumn sky a figure stood in the splintered door frame: Caroline or wakhan ho, The Spirit’s Voice as some Lakota had started to call her. In her leather skinned riding trousers, her hair cut and bound the Lakota way and her mocassins she looked like from another century. It didn’t help that she had shed her shirt on the porch and her naked torso was covered in scars, her cut nipples the least of them. A new one on her arm was tripping blood as she was sheathing her scary looking knife. It took everyone by surprise that Colonel Chernova suddenly moved jerkingly, took Caroline by the hand and started walking toward the staircase down to the cellar.

‘Look at Caroline’s eyes, you only see white, she must have cut herself, so she could fall into trance …’

‘She’s in that crazy woman’s head …’

Cassie and Ivana remembered only too well Caroline’s strange stories from her nullification and the reasons she gave for not finishing school and abandoning the Dollies in their last year: Her desire to learn from her Grandmother and to follow in her footsteps as a healer and spiritual leader of her people.

‘I better go with them.’

Mandy had found her voice.

‘And we better make sure that these guys can’t make troubles any more.’

Sylvie took control by starting to tie up one of the eunuchs as everyone was trying to come to grips with the situation and hugs and introductions didn’t seem to ever stop. Checking on that bulk of a Skoptsy, who had ended up falling off the veranda and driving the scalpel into his brain, it was also Sylvie, who saw a group of cars approaching and alarmed the others.

‘No worries, it must be the other Dollies, whom I texted asking for help. No, look, it’s Uncle Bernie and his workmen and there is also Susie’s car.’

Carrie’s explanation and the hoopla ensuing especially from Alex’s pregnancy served as distraction to Greg and Uncle Bernie forming a group together with the heavy looking handymen on the other side of the living room. The shot from Bernie’s gun into the ceiling had Agnes spill Sylvie’s pain reducing concoction, which she was feeding to Lucy, who refused to let go of Agnes’ hand or to go to her bed. Cassie’s ‘I don’t believe this’, was answered by Ivana’s ‘I told you so.’

‘I hope I got everyone’s attention. Where is my superior, Colonel Chernova?’

A wave with his hand had two of his heavies carry one of the unconscious Skoptsy outside to the waiting cars.

‘Where’s my father?’

‘What are you doing, Greg?’

The simultaneous questions by Sylvie and Susie put a sardonic smile on Bernie’s face.

‘So many questions, so few answers. Let me put it that way: Your father’s large sexual appetite was met by a short snip. And dear Greg here: well blood is thicker than pussy juice and the young man made the wise decision to follow his family’s historical obligations, didn’t you?’

Greg’s curt nod betrayed his unease.

‘Anyway: time for my answers. Greg, get the gir…’

The sound of flesh connecting with flesh as well as two painful grunts, let him turn the gun towards the entrance, the moment a black clad foot connected with his chin. Greg’s movement to grab Lucy was cut short by Susie’s leg ending up in his crotch. There was furniture flying and more vases biting the dust on heavy heads, while three masked figures twirled their martial arts dance through Mandy’s living room. The last one to loose consciousness was Greg with four girls sitting on his arms and legs and Alex blocking his breath with her amble bottom, which had grown proportionally to her pregnant belly.

‘This moron tried to bite my pussy!’

The laughter of the other girls about Alex’s indignant reaction was cut short by the eerie silence, which descended around the three ominous figures standing in fighter’s poses opposite the rest of the group.

This time Ivana’s retort to Cassie’s ‘It’s like in a bad story ...’ was a simple nod of her head.

‘Mi Ling, you came.’

Lucy’s reaction caught everyone by surprise. The figure in front lifted the covering cloth from her face, her tears obvious as she knelt to embrace Lucy.

‘Come.’

As soon as Lucy and Mi Ling had disappeared into the cellar, the whispering started.

‘So, it’s true. Mi Ling must have joined this secret society, she always talked about.’

‘Well, she was gone without a trace after our graduation.’

‘You remember Mi Ling’s stories about the Chinese eunuchs …’

‘Yes and their hope of coming to power again by the sacrifice …’

Their reappearance cut short their speculations. Mi Ling was carrying referentially a lacquered box … containing Lucy’s sex, which, though damaged by the scissors and having lost its color, looked like a precious clam topped by a little pearl, Lucy’s clit still swollen, rising from its hood. In a gesture of good bye Lucy stroked it for an instant smiling, while Mi Ling showed the content to her two companions, who bowed their heads honoring Lucy and her gift. She closed the box and handed it to them. The vrooming noise of their motorbikes still reverberated, when Mi Ling turned around, her hand on Lucy’s head.

‘Be informed that this house is under the protection of the Eunuchs of the Imperial Court.’

Greg’s pitiful mewling, which one could hear through his gag, had Uncle Bernie rattle against the restraints of the old gyn chair. Alex and Susie were discussing, which one of the different sizes of acupuncture needles they would pass through Greg’s other testicle.

‘Revenge is all right, but don’t overdo it, girls. He still needs to be able to talk.’

Sylvie had come back to the cellar, after helping the girls to secure the Skoptsy with sufficient rope to circle the globe. Two mad grins answered her admonishment.

‘Dad is fine. At least that’s what Wendy could tell me from outside the operating theatre. But he won’t be much use as a husband any longer.’

‘Not much difference to before then.’

Christine’s ironic reply to Sylvie’s news had them all giggling.

‘I have Mandy for these calls of nature anyway.’

Christine’s tender stroking of Mandy’s neck had her smiling up from the strenuous task of reprogramming the robot, which housed a naked, shivering Colonel Chernova, who up till now refused steadfastly to answer their questions and whose stubborn face not only betrayed deep seated fear, but also increasing resignation that she would have to pay the ultimate prize for the interests of her country.

‘And I hope I can also be of help again.’

Agnes had joined them after putting Lucy finally to sleep. Christine’s ruffling through Agnes’ re-grown hair was all the reply necessary.

‘How is she?’

‘This Indian girl …’

‘Caroline …’

‘Yeah, she produced an ointment, which is supposed to be an improvement to the one used with all the other girls and Lucy should be on her legs in two days, that’s what she said. This Chinese girl is also up there, guarding her, calling her sister. The others have started making dinner.’

’… and we are in charge of dessert: Sliced Colonel Chernova.’