Kiran climbed down the stairs to arrive at the lowest part of the ship. Entering the gloomy corridor, his unsteady feet landed on the floor and he seemed to feel the water below. The corridor was graced by not even a single spec of natural light, forcing the usage of Light Wards for illumination which painted the long hallway with a bright azure glow.

Kiran's unsteady footsteps stopped in front of the first cell and he breathed deeply to settle himself before he unlocked the metal bars with the key he had previously received from the guard. The door opened with a creak and Kiran entered the dim cell, only to find the bare minimum; a toilet, a platform, a quilt and a feeding station. That was all there was. Even prisoners were treated better, for they were allowed to see the light of the day.

Yet, this person wasn’t.

Kiran sighed as his eyes fell on the stark naked woman lying on the platform, covered in blood that was hers and bodily fluids that weren't. “Get up.” The white-robed man approached the resting woman. “I am here to heal you.”

“Yes, yes. They wouldn’t want to waste all those coins.” A hoarse feminine voice answered before a dry chuckle escaped her thin lips as she sat up, “Would they?”

Kiran didn't reply as his wide eyes lingered on the woman's battered face. His pupils dilated, his breath hitched and his heart pounded. His mouth fell open while he drank in the sight of the woman before him. At that moment, Kiran felt the world slow down to melt away, leaving him and the woman alone in all of existence. His heart raced as he unblinkingly gazed.

However, the object of attention was not a beauty to write home about, instead, she was quite plain. Her eyes were small and so was her nose. Her upper lip was smaller than her luscious lower one while her skin was unnaturally pale. Her long black hair fell over her naked breast but did little to hide her modesty as the woman wore not a single piece of fabric.

The injured woman saw the desire in Kiran's eyes and her plain face twisted in an ugly sneer. “You want this, don’t you?” She spread her legs apart. Thick coagulating blood dripped down from her crotch as bloody bite marks adorned her flesh like malicious jewels. “Come. Get it. What’s stopping you?”

Kiran’s wide eyes widened further as his imagination ran wild. However, the hideous expression of the woman snapped him out of his daydreams. His ears burned and a flush covered his cheeks while his brows furrowed and eyes narrowed. His face burned and he snapped. “Show some decency woman!”

“Ha!” The woman’s hoarse laugh was scratchy. The unpleasant sound would cause most to shiver in disgust but Kiran was not most. The ugly sound caused his body to react as his heart raced, breathing paced and pupils dilated. However, his reverie was broken as the object of his attention stopped laughing to scream, “I am no WOMAN! I am a man! What you want to fuck is a man! MAN!!”

As if slapped, Kiran stumbled at the sheer hate within the voice. His body burned and scalp tingled as the desire from before vanished. His forehead scrunched, nose flared while eyes narrowed. He unconsciously clenched his fist as humiliation burned him from the inside. Growing up in the ashram, Kiran never had to face such a mess of emotions, causing his first encounter with this heightened state to overwhelm him.

His rampaging emotions tore at him as refused to acknowledge them, hoping against hope for their dissipation. However, when had such action helped anyone. On one hand, he desired this woman, uncaring for what she was or the beauty she lacked. He wanted to make her, his. He knew it. His body knew it. She knew it. On the other hand, the look on the woman’s face made him feel small and ashamed. Her actions and vulgarity jumbled his thoughts in humiliation. Her words made his heart grow cold in anger and the look in her eyes made him want to rip them out.

In just a moment, the fleeting emotion that had been a chance desire crossed the thin line to became a destructive obsession. Kiran did not know when his body moved and when he arrived near the naked woman. He did not know when his thoughts became so jumbled that he acted on his emotions rather than his thoughts. All he knew was that the battered woman that he was fixated on had humiliated him.

A resounding smack echoed across the closed-cell and the injured woman fell from her platform, laughing.

“Come on. Fuck me. Go on. I know you want to.” The dark-haired woman laughed, the ugly sound of it mocking as her wide eyes became crazed, her small nose flared and spit flew out of her mouth. “FUCK ME!” She screamed with a voice so hoarse that her throat shook from the intensity.

Kiran did not know when he walked forward and pressed a nerve on the back of the woman’s head causing her to faint and fall in his arms. His breathing was laboured, eyes wide and head cloudy. He heart rapidly raced and hot blood pumped through his veins as he stared at the woman in his arms while his face morphed in between a slew of emotions. Moments passed as he remained unmoving with the fallen frame of the woman in his arms. However, as his breathing recovered, he gently lowered her down to the platform before falling down the floor himself.

‘What just happened?’ Kiran did not know the answer to that as he closed his eyes to message them. He kept them closed and breathed deeply to calm his thoughts but the smell of sweat, blood and sex permeating the room made it difficult. As he opened his eyes again, his gaze fell on the woman on the platform and a strange emotion passed in them. ‘I came here to heal.’

“I came here to heal.” He said out loud this time as if he was reminding himself of his purpose. “Yes, yes. I came here to heal.” The white-clad man pushed himself up and walked over to the woman. “[Anatomy Vision].”

0.0

Kiran ascended the flight of stairs and once again returned to the light of the world and the sun. Yet his thoughts remained confused. He had healed her and he had healed all the other Chambermaids. He had healed the rest without any issue. It was only the first Chambermaid that had evoked such emotions in him that he had lost control over himself.

He did not know why.

Kiran breathed deeply and his brown eyes gazed upon the endless waters. He did not know what had come over him. He did not know why he had hit her. He did not why he had become so violent.

Or perhaps, he knew but didn’t wish to acknowledge it to himself. Of course, this was no justification. This was, however, just the beginning of the story of the ‘Healer and the Whore.’

-X-

Within a desolate desert, inside a dilapidated shop, on a simple chair, a youth seemingly slept.

-X-