Kill the sunshine.

Those taunting words. He would’ve expected nothing less from a girl like her, trying to survive. Of course he knew a girl like her, who’d traded away everything for a distant dream likely wouldn’t be so shy as to open a door without any clothes on. The purpose was that he could get her to do it. That money could get her to do it. A few fleeting coins in exchange for a memory that would haunt her for as long as she allowed it to. To make her commit to such an act in exchange for something he considered to be beneath such a hungry artist was the goal. Neither did it hurt that she was made to bend to his will, playing the game he wanted her to in spite of her façade.

François permitted a smile when she showed her anger. For once she had been speaking out of anger, or was it reluctance? No matter what it was she had showed some emotion beyond a stuttering little street urchin. This was reinforced as she cast her clothing aside but François paid those actions little mind as the last stitch hit the floor. Then the door followed.

There were things he could’ve done after she opened that door. François thought of humiliating her further, mentioning her desperate plea for him to return to the apartment or repeat those other silly murmurings she rambled on about throughout the night. He could’ve even let them in on the picture she had taken. Instead he held it inside as he stared at the rear view of Nora, seeing her acquaintance and his temporary lover over her exposed shoulder. François allowed a slight smile after her remark but he held silent as he had accomplished what he wanted in the moment. There were other subjects to confront with naked honest truths.

“Yes,” François added. “You have. It was beginning to become quite dull with the rumblings of only two voices in the night. So much so that I almost had to leave.” François broadened his smile toward the newcomers, his eyes centering on the clothed girl as his hand reached for the door, opening it wider than where Nora had placed it. “It seems there is plenty of room here tonight.”

Guillaume’s answer to the spectacle in front of him was a loud laugh. “Nora, my dove, it seems like you have been a horrible hostess to this kind monsieur.” Staring at her naked form with unmasked lust, he added, slightly wetting his lips: “Even though it seems hard to imagine that anyone would be bored by this.”

Nora rolled her eyes and stepped to the side. “It’s freezing. Come in so I can close the door.” She made a point of ignoring François. From his latest remark, he and Guillaume would get on like a house on fire, and she wondered if she should just have let him leave, or get dressed and leave herself.

Then she remembered the 300 Francs. Putain. It simply was too much money to throw away.

The slender red-haired girl stumbled into the room, and immediately made a somewhat swerving beeline towards François. “Oh mon dieu, I have never seen a man more beautiful than you!” Nora was instantly annoyed, while Guillaume kept watching the young photographer, smirking and provocatively raising one eyebrow. Of course he wouldn’t care that his companion acted like this, he was too confident and too fucking arrogant to be bothered by such minor incidents. Nora was sure that he even enjoyed it.

What was her name again? Emily? Aurélie? Something like that. Nora closed the door and leant against it, her arms crossed in front of her chest, watching the scene in front of her. The girls’ coat had slipped from her shoulders, revealing a blouse that was already half-unbuttoned. Nicely firm tits, Nora thought. Maybe she would give the two men something to distract themselves with.

Obviously tipsy, the girl put her hands against François’ chest, looking at him with an innocent smile. “If she was so boring, maybe I can brighten up this grey evening?” Nora almost laughed at her attempt at subtle seduction. Guillaume was now standing next to her, smiling. It made Nora uncomfortably feel like his accomplice.

“Maybe this evening will get a tad more amusing after all”, he said. Nora was wondering what François would do. So far, he had not struck her as the type to be seduced by anything else than the prospect of being able to display absolute self-control at all times.

François’ lips turned into a smile as he heard Nora complain about the temperature in the room. Of course, that must’ve been the only reason why she wanted to hurry and close the door tight. François knew her situation well. Before he had turned and become what he had morphed in to he had known poverty and the reckless things people would do to claw their way out of it. Communism had consumed Russia and it seemed like liberal policies were also likely to absorb Western Europe. But if the time would come when he had to surrender the coin, there were always other objects to trade. Humans always want the things they cannot have and if a new order alters the way things are, then there will always be something else to be prized. Freedom, for one. And given his curse, he had plenty to provide.

As the little red headed girl came closer toward him François was forced to divert his attention. Of course she was intoxicated. Looking at the surroundings she allowed herself to be dragged into, along with the man she allowed to escort her, would’ve told him that much. But her chest was pronounced and she had a head full of air few men could resist. Even François couldn’t neglect playing with her a little.

“Perhaps,” he simply responded as he looked down at her after pressing her hand against his chest. “You’re more than welcome to try,” he admitted a slight smile before adding in her little ear, “We wouldn’t want to Nora to feel like she’s the only waif without a stitch of clothing.”

François left it simply as that as he moved away from the red haired girl and made his way toward the couch. If two more were going to be added to the group he didn’t want to be standing around like stodgy aristocracy. No, François had already lived that life. Power was easily attained when it was gifted from father to son or coming from the barrel of a gun, the latter was where he had attained it in the past. It was more entertaining, at least for François, if it were applied indirectly.

He led himself to the edge of the couch as he sat down, leaning an elbow on the arm’s rest as he gazed through the red headed girl and toward the pair he noticed behind her, Guillaume and Nora. “Well, I think its nearly time we ought to be acquainted with one another. Don’t you agree?” François momentarily shifted his eyes toward the red haired guest.