The Stables

Darkness was beginning to set in, and Sophie knew that she had to find shelter quickly, if she didn't want to spend the night on the street. She really didn't want to do that, as the streets were dangerous at night. Especially so for an unowned woman like her, who had no man to protect or avenge her. Right now she had exactly two rights (to live and to choose her first owner), and it was all but certain that she'd loose at least one of them if she stayed here.

However, there weren't many places for Sophie to go. Normal places like taverns or hotels would never take in unowned women like herself. It was only logical, really. She didn't have money, and she couldn't work to earn any. If she happend to break anything during her stay, there was no one to demand damage payments from. Also, she didn't have any money to pay for her stay, even if they were willing to humour her.

No, there was only one place for Sophie: the stables. They were a state welfare program, that had been started about thirty years ago. During that year there had been extraordinarily many kidnappings and killings of unowned women, to the point where it meaningfully affected the supply for upstanding citizens. That had prompted the late emperor to act, establishing a system of save havens for the night. These were the stables.

After a quarter of an hour of hectically searching, Sophie finally found a stable in a gloomy backstreet. Out in front hang a metal sign, showing a naked woman lying horizontally. Sophie hurried towards the building, slipping in through the door as quickly as possible.

She then found herself in a small room, divided into two parts by a large counter. Behind it stood a women, with two more sitting and chatting in the back. The standing woman approached Sophie: „Do you bitch have any idea how late it is?! The sun is almost down! Is this your first fucking time, or what?!“

„Yes ma'am, I'm very sorry. I had a very hard time finding this place,“ Sophie replied weakly, curtsying to her superior.

„Great! That means I now have to explain this shit to you idiot. So listen closely, because I will not repeat myself!“ the counter woman replied, slamming a metal basket onto the table. „Put everything in there. And by everything, I mean everything. Your skirt, your belt, your bag, your shoes, and anything else you might have on you. You'll get it back in the morning. This is for your own protection, because that means if you stupid cunts start a fight back there, at least nobody will be armed. Then head through that door and find yourself a place to sleep. You'll be woken up at 05:30 in the morning, and the stable needs to be cleared out at 6 o'clock. Got that?“

Sophie only managed a weak nod, and began undressing. Thanks to her outfit, it only took about a minute. She then placed her only belongings carefully into the basked. She really hoped she'd actually get them back, the worn silver locket being the only reminder of her family she had. Once she was done, the other women took the basket away, and Sophie headed through the door she'd been shown before.

The first thing she noticed was the smell. It stank of sweat and tears, and maybe even something worse. Then she noticed the heat. While the outside air was appropriately cold for an April evening, in here it was almost uncomfortably warm. And then she realized the scale of the room she'd just entered.

In front of her, there was a row of fifteen steel columns, filling the room from right to left, with maybe about a meter of space in between. Behind each of them, there was a row of further steel columns, maybe ten deep each, separated by about two meters. And within those two meter gaps there where net hammocks hung from the columns, at least five above and/or below each other.

All of this made for an incredibly confined space, as the walkways between the rows where only about 40 cm wide, and the vertical room between to hammocks was maybe about 30 cm. What made it worse was the light. The only sources of it where a couple of gas lamps at the front of the room. The farther in one went, the harder it was to see. Sophie was impressed, doubting that there could be any way to save more unowned women with less resources. „Practical engineering, that only a man could have come up with,“ she was sure.

All she had to do now was find herself an empty hammock. That, however, was easier said then done, as all the hammocks she could see from the front were already taken. Sighing, she started to walk down a row, hoping to find an empty spot. When had reached the ending to find none, she carefully went to the front, to try another row. After repeating this a couple of times, she finally found a spot, in the second lowest hammock to her right.

Sophie eagerly climbed in, and immediately noticed how uncomfortable the netting of he hammock was. Its knots weren't far enough apart for her to fall or reach through. However they were far enough apart so that each segment of string had to carry enough weight to hurt her skin. She tried to turn and twist a bit, to try to get more comfortable. However, her efforts weren't rewarded and she had to settle for the least bad option.

Shortly after that, she noticed that the light in the front was turned off. It was that moment, when the reality of her existence as an unowned woman really sunk in. She was lying in a completely dark room, uncomfortably hot and filled with the stink of sweat, in an bad hammock, completely naked and with all her belongings being locked away somewhere she could not reach them. And on top of that, she wasn't alone but shared the room with at least several hundred women in the same situation.

When the stables had been first described to her, she believed them to be an unneeded luxury, and worried that some stupid cunts would **** the generosity of the empire. However, now she new that couldn't be the case. The stables were clearly only fitting as a short term solution, while searching for an owner. She needed to find one as soon as possible!

Then Sophie fell asleep.