Payment.

Bambi POV.

"How's work?" Colin asks me, I'm back from my work, my feet hurt so badly, I just wanted to sit down and lift them off the ground.

"Tiring," I groan, I have dropped out of school, and took over my mother's cleaning job, you'd think I was asked a lot of questions or even showed around the job but instead I was just pushed in and told to start cleaning.

I took over my mother's hours, starting her work right away, I have to scrub and clean, and use my elbow grease to clean dirty floors and walls. When you have enough money to have your whole house filled with humans to clean the house, to do anything you ask for, if one of the house masters says to clean their shoes, you'll spend your whole day cleaning their shoes while the rest of the maids are busy with the daily chores.

The house is always spotless, it's always clean, but it's also always full, you might be told to clean one small point over the floor, and you'll have to keep on cleaning it the whole day, you would never stand still, the same spot would get dirty, people are coming and leaving the whole time and that's mean more job for us. And me being the new girl, I was given the worse jobs, even if I'm taking over my mother's job for the master of the house, for the other workers, I'm the new girl, and I'm treated that way.

"New girl, you're needed on the third floor," one of the human boys calls me, he's only a couple of years older than me, he's been working over here for years now, even younger than me when he started, in the hierarchy of things around this place, he was my boss and I had to obey.

"Okay," I say and run upstairs to see where I'm needed, I just hoped I won't have to clean the bathrooms again, they just are dirty, all the time.

"I was called?" I ask the one in charge on that floor, every floor has a butler, one in charge of every maid on the said floor, and then there's one in charge of everyone, it's all messed up, but I need the job and I'm not here to question how things go by.

"Yes, stand next to the wall and look pretty," the one in charge says, I was confused to the request but was quick to obey, if you're told to jump, you jump, if you're told to sit, you sit, no question asked, complete obedience or you get kicked out, and then good luck finding a new job with no letter of recommendation. Your name would be put on the black list, being kicked out, no one wants a disobedient human, everyone wants one that would obey, always obey.

I just nod and ran to stand where I'm told to stand, it wasn't just me, there were other girls and boys, all of them beautiful, or at least they are pretty in my eyes, and we all had our uniforms on.

We weren't allowed to talk or move or make any kind of reaction, just stand, be good dolls and be quiet, we were only here as a decoration, some of us had blond hair, and black hair, and I was the redhead, growing up, I hated my red hair, and now people would compliment my strange looking hair, some would even ask if it's natural, and it is, I kept my hair long since my mother loved it this way, I wanted to keep her happy, even while she's sick.

The people sitting at the table were talking about random things, some would look at us, others just ignored us, I didn't mind being ignored, being looked at and being the centre of attention between all of these scary looking supernatural, they aren't nice people, they are known to take advantage of everyone get what they want and what they need from us, our consent is damned, what would a human do? Fill out a complaint. The police would laugh in our face and send us our way, with a warning to never come back.

As their dinner was closer to ending, my heart was skipping beats, as some of the standing dolls were asked to get over there, sit in their lap, getting touched, getting kissed, but soon the guy who called me in came into the room.

"Red, you're needed in the second floor," he says, and I nod knowing I'm not allowed to talk, I ran toward the second floor, happy that I got away from them, away from the chance of being hurt, or touched without my consent.

"What am I needed for?" I ask seeing the guy following me down the stairs.

"I had to get you away from them before one decides to pick you," he says with a wink he just saved me, I think that requires talking to him.

"Thank you," I say thanking him for his help.

"You're welcome red, they always pick the new girls, and you don't want to be picked yet," he says, does he mean I'll be picked later? I don't think I'll ever want to be picked!

"Okay," I say not knowing what else to tell him.

"Go get paid," he says, it's my payday already, I couldn't wait for my payment, my mother is suffering too much, her pain is getting worse by the day, although she tries to act like she's not in pain, but I could see it in her eyes.

"Thanks!" I say excited this time, and run toward the office where everyone gets paid in, I'll stop by the shop and get my mother's medicine and maybe some extra groceries, we've been living over canned soup until now.

"I'm here for my payment?" I say in a shy voice, looking at the man sitting behind the desk.

"Number," he says, he doesn't ask for my name, I'm just a number for them, I gave him my ID number, waiting for him to pay me what I'm owned.

"Thank you," I say holding the money, I counted them, but they were too little, not enough to pay for the medicine and get the food.

"Why...so little?" I ask gathering all of my courage.

"Little? This is the average, get used to it, don't live in the fairyland," the guy who paid me says, this is the average? My mother is paid so little and still, she could keep a roof over my head?

"Now move it, next!" he yells, making me move forward to the rest of the tiring day.