Chapter Two
He Sees Me
Six months previous on Earth
I sat down to add a little extra makeup to cover up the slight hollow of my cheeks. It had been a lean month. No one had money for either exotic dancers or whores, of which I was both.
I was finished with the makeup, good thing too, because Tina came in early from her act. Bubbly as ever she rattled on a million miles a second, as her heavy breasts threatened to spill out of the next to nothing costume she wore.
Even if the costume had slipped off Tina’s chest, her girls wouldn’t have gone anywhere. They were implants, bad ones at that. Everything was cheap these days, even implants, because no one could afford to buy quality, if there was such a thing as quality anymore.
Tina was getting fat too and that wasn’t good. If she got any fatter she wouldn’t be allowed on the stage and if she wasn’t allowed on the stage, then she could only hope to get high paying encounters with clients, which is where the real money was.
There were few enough good paying clients as there were without stacking the odds against yourself by getting fat and perceived as cheap. Going from cheap lay to the next cheap encounter, until she was working for a dollar or two was a fast road to hell. With all that cloud of negativity surrounding Tina, she was still my friend and the least I could do was listen to her.
She was babbling on about something, “Tina! Tina! Slow down what are you trying to say?”
Tina seemed to gather her scattered wits some and sucked in a big breath and managed to slow the pace of her words down, just barely, “There is a man! A big man! A dangerous man! I know if you try you can get him! Such a man would have to be rich, but rich or not it would be worth it just for the experience! I’d do him for free, but he probably wouldn’t want me.” She finished on a self-deprecating note.
I stood up and hugged her trying to wipe away the sudden self-realization on Tina’s face, “Of course he would Tina! You have a lot to offer!”
That was one way of putting it nicely anyway.
“Now where is this god of a man located?” I asked.
Tina’s eyes rose to mine and completely serious she responded with, “Oh you won’t miss him Evangelina. He stands out like a wolf among a pack of whining coyotes!”
I looked at her surprised by the moment of seriousness that came so rarely to her by nature. Giving her one last glance I let go of her and stepped through the curtains and made my way towards the stage, as I went, I let the mask of perceived sensuality settle over me and govern the motions of my body.
It was easy, once I’d done it enough times. The audience would see everything that they longed for and desired. My alluring movements would make them think that the desire was mutual on my part for them and they would go crazy with yearning for me.
In reality it was a job, an act I did to survive. It gave me no pleasure and in fact it took away a little more of me every time I did it, but it was the way that it had to be. There was no changing it. It just was.
I stepped onto the stage amidst the cheers of the gathered throng of lusty club patrons and flashing lights. I paid the crowd of cheering onlookers no real attention; as long as I heard their roars in the background I must be doing everything right.
Most of them didn’t have much money and what they did have they spent on alcohol and the lust of watching girls like me perform, in a vain effort to escape the reality of their miserable lives of indebted poverty.
They would’ve sold an organ for a night with me, but I wasn’t interested. I didn’t sell myself cheaply. They had to have real money in order to use my body. I had learned the value of keeping myself as a limited higher end commodity.
So many of the girls got hooked on drugs and had no choice, but to take any offer that came their way, in order to feed their habit. I had tried drugs, but I found the release they offered not to my liking and I couldn’t afford them anyway. I would have my release when I was dead, but until then I had a purpose, to make money and survive. Death could come soon enough, as it was.
There were many ways to die in my business; an unhappy client, a client that got too carried away, a random mugging with a knife slipped between my ribs simply for the clothes that I wore, and then there was the perennial favorite of some mentally unstable kook, with a childish fantasy of paying his mother back for locking him in the closet as a child, who’d cut me up into a million pieces. Stuff like that happened every day.
Death was easy to find in the world I lived in. Life was harder to come by. Introspectively I noted, as I moved fluidly across the stage in whatever sway of movement would incite my crowd of onlookers the best, that I definitely needed to focus on eating a little more. It was almost as bad to be too thin in my profession, as it was to be too fat.
It was just hard to focus on taking the time to eat though. I simply forgot about doing it sometimes, but I was going to have to fix that, if I wanted to keep my appeal and the demand for me high. I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to look for Tina’s man.
It wasn’t good to pass up a candidate, who might turn out to be a high paying client. I really opened my eyes for the first time during my performance; as it is possible to have your eyes open, but not really see anything, if you keep your mind from focusing.
Most of the time there wasn’t anything worth focusing on. I began to scan the crowd for the stranger without seeming to do so, as I moved in the dance. I almost came to a stop when my eyes found him, but my experience saved me and I continued on in the dance, without too noticeable of a pause I hoped.
Every movement of the dance felt unnatural and unpracticed to me now, even though I’d done the act a thousand times before. I could feel his gaze on me now and I wondered how I could have not sensed it from the moment I stepped foot on the stage.
His presence was so strong that it felt like a cloak had wrapped around me and was choking me with its tight grip. I felt naked, which was crazy because most of the time I essentially was naked. Why should it be any different? But it was!
The strength of his gaze felt like he was peeling away the layers of my skin and seeing into my deepest inner self. It was awful and I wanted to leave the stage, but I forced myself to gut it out. Curiosity compelled me to glance at him again.
He just sat there at a table off to the side of the room watching me. Intimidating was too small a word to describe him. He was a gringo. They were many of them in Columbia now; ever since the great nation to the north had fallen, they had migrated down here looking to survive, as everyone else was in an uncertain world.
I’d seen big men before, but he was big and something more besides. I’d only seen black men with the muscle structure and frame size that this man had. But it wasn’t just the size and strength of the man that was imposing. There was an easy confidence in the way he lounged in his chair with his legs spread out.
It was, as if he was a big cat lounging idly, as he watched for prey. Ready at any moment to spring into action and crush his helpless victim. My greatest fear watching him watch me was that I was his next victim.
I ended a little earlier than usual, which I never did. I couldn’t take it any longer!
I had to get off the stage!
I rushed off into the darkness of the hallway and pressed my back up against the wall trying to catch my breath, even as my heart pounded in my chest.
“Are you all right Evangelina?” Asked one of the other girls waiting to go out.
I nodded hurriedly and motioned her on, but no, I was not all right.
I felt like I was about to feel the teeth of a lion sink into me at any moment and rip me apart. I realized then that I had left behind the few dollars thrown up onto the stage.
There was no way I was going back out there! I had to get out of here fast!
I ran into the dressing room and hurriedly got dressed and within moments I was running out the back of the dance hall into the dingy dark alley that ran behind it. I quickly hurried down it trying to stay out of the mud and piles of refuse.
Looking back once I thought I saw movement. I was being followed!
Panic spurred me on and within seconds I made the main street although it was little better in appearance than the back alley had been. I started hurrying down it looking back constantly.
I didn’t even see the car that came to a screeching halt beside me, until it stopped. Recognizing the car I hurried on, but the car door opened ahead of me blocking my path. A hired gun in a black suit got out quickly. His face showed no readable emotion. It was like that old saying, out of the frying pan and into the fire.
“Victor wants you.” The hired beef said in a monotone voice.
With what little bravado I had left I shot back, “Yeah well, tell Victor he can keep looking! I told him the last time, was the last time!”
I made to go around him, but he caught my arm and pulled me back. I kicked him hard in the shin and was rewarded with a backhanded slap that almost took my head off.
Knocked half dizzy, I stood tottering on my feet, as he opened the back door of the sedan. He shoved me into the car so hard that my head hit off the other passenger side door.
I sat up in the seat slowly, a frisson of fear going through me. I tasted the blood at the corner of my mouth, as the realization set in that tonight might be my last.
The car pulled up at a house in the wealthy section of town. The house was one of those modern ones that was all glass and sharp angles. I didn’t care for it or the slimy little maggot it housed.
I was yanked out of the car and practically dragged up the walkway to the front door. We made our way past more guards inside and then I was thrust into a room I took to be the study. Victor, a slim tall weasel of a man, rose from his black leather chair behind the room’s only desk.
Normally with a man of his slight build I could handle my own against, but Victor was different. Victor had the strength mentally unstable people often have, because he was unstable. He in fact was completely insane and capable of doing anything.
I knew fear as he approached me. I never knew how my sessions with him would go, but they never went well. It was more a question of how bad it would be.
“Goodness Evangelina what’s this?” He asked drawing his finger along the crack in my swollen lip.
He glanced pointedly at his hired gun.
“She didn’t want to come.” Her captor said simply in way of his defense.
With the eerie light of craziness in his eyes Victor asked me, “Is that true my dear?”
“Yes.” I muttered out knowing it didn’t matter what I said, so it might as well be the truth.
His hand snaked out and slapped the other side of my face hard. A swelling welt rose quickly along my cheekbone.
“The truth won’t get you anywhere here Evangelina.”
I stood stone-faced, as he ripped my blouse open and then promptly shoved me over backward. My head cracked off the hardwood floor and stunned me.
My breath escaped me, as he sunk a fist into my stomach. He straddled me on the floor and in a flurry of movement started flailing away at my head and chest.
Almost beaten senseless I felt him inside of me. Through the fog in my brain I could hear him grunting like a pig on top of me, as the guards still in the room laughed.
I felt his long stringy fingers at my throat, as they began to tighten. I struggled to breath and I felt myself start to black out.
Light pierced into my eyes painfully and I lifted my eyelids further to see Victor getting to his feet, as he pulled his pants back up. It felt like it had been hours, but knowing Victor it had probably been less than a minute.
He slipped back his greasy hair with one hand and smiled charmingly down at me, almost appearing sane for a moment.
“I’m afraid I have to run along now my dear. I have a dinner appointment to keep.”
And then with dramatic effect he added, “With your loving father no less!”
Laughing hard he pulled his wallet out and dropped several bills down upon me. I felt the currency land on my stomach, as if it was a lead weight.
“If you think I paid you too much.” He leaned down and socked a fist hard to my right eye, knowing that the resulting bruise would put me out of action on the stage for over a week or more.
“Now you don’t. Do drag yourself out of here before I return!”
He straightened back up and left with his guards following close behind him. One of them stopped briefly and picked a bill off of me. He gave me a wink before continuing after his master.
I lay there for a long time and then slowly I began to move. I turned onto my stomach and groaned.
Slowly I began crawling toward the study bathroom. I reached the sink and began to pull myself upward, leaving bloodstains on the pristine white marble countertop in the process. I got to my feet leaning heavily on the countertop and then unwillingly I lifted my head and looked at myself out of the one eye I could still see out of.
No emotion could express how I felt other than completely hopeless. I should just end it. I could at least tick Victor off, by bleeding out all over his expensive carpet, in my final death throws.
“No!”
My fist shot out and smacked into the mirror sending cracks out across it.
Rafael would be getting worried. I needed to get cleaned up and get home. That was what I had to do!
I turned the water on and got a towel wet. I started to wash some smeared blood off of my arm. I rubbed hard and then harder, but I couldn’t get the stain off of me!
I rubbed so hard that I made my skin bleed.
My body jerked on a sob and I grabbed my bloody face with my hands, as I sank back down to the floor sobbing painfully.
I’d never be clean!
Ever!
It may not have been cold, temperature wise outside, but I was cold. The slight rain didn’t help any. It was over a mile from Victor’s house to where I lived.
Even though there was light enough to walk by and find my way, I kept walking into things on my blindside. I must have looked completely pathetic, as even the late-night muggers left me alone. Their thought must’ve been, ‘what else was there left to be taken other than my worthless life’.
Finally I reached the rundown apartment complex where I lived. It was actually better than most in the city, as with my occupation I could afford a little better, although for how long I didn’t know.
I could feel the weight of Victor’s money in my pocket. Oh how I hated money!
You needed it to live, but you had to die to get it.
I climbed the stairs to the fourth floor and made my way down the completely dark hall by memory, until I reached my door. I found the key hidden in a slit in the wall, where the drywall had been torn away. Fumbling with the key I unlocked the door and stepped inside, quickly locking the door behind me.
I let my forehead rest against the door for a moment. It wasn’t much, but it was at least something. To have a locked door between me and the world, for at least a little while, was as much security as I could ever hope for.
I made my way around the kitchen table to the doorway of the second room and listened. I heard Rafael’s breathing and I relaxed a little. I made my way back to the kitchen, when I sensed a familiar feeling.
I ripped open the little drawer next to the refrigerator and reached for the old pistol hidden under some hand towels. My fingers found it and I yanked it free, as with my other hand I flipped the light switch on.
The weak light bulb located over the table flickered to life and cast its weak glow into the dark room. I held the big pistol up with both hands wishing I could see out of both eyes.
I had three bullets and I hoped they would be enough to take the big man down, who was sitting in the chair across the table from me. I wasn’t sure if three bullets would be enough. He scared me and put me off balance more than any man ever had and I didn’t even know why!
“Put the gun down.” He said firmly, his voice deep and full of authority.
Before I realized it the gun in my hands had lowered halfway in obedience to the man’s voiced command. I jerked the gun back up breathing hard.
What was he doing here?
How did he know where I lived?
They didn’t even know where I lived at work! He had to have followed me home in the past!
Was he here to kill me?
With the last thought fresh in my mind I pulled the trigger involuntarily and a flat hollow click sounded loud in the room. I panicked and pulled the trigger again and again.
Click!
Click!
What was wrong with it? Maybe I had the cylinder in the wrong place. I yanked on the trigger three more times.
Click!
Click!
Click!
I gazed at him in terror out of my one good eye. He hadn’t moved the whole time. His hand reached out toward the table and slowly, as if pausing for effect, he set my three pistol shells in a row on their bottom ends along the table’s edge in front of him.
His blue eyes blazed brightly in the semidarkness of the room, “Put the gun down.”
I sensed the threat in his voice and I slammed the pistol down to the counter and peeled my fingers away from the false hope that it had offered me. From underneath my small table, he shoved the chair nearest to me, at me. I jumped back against the counter at the unexpected movement of the chair.
“Sit down.”
There was no denying the command of his voice. Every part of me was quivering, as I half stumbled forward and sat down.
He played with one of my bullets on the table in front of him as he began, “I have a proposition for you and you’re going to agree to it.”
He looked up pointedly from playing with my bullets to make direct eye contact with me. The sudden irrational thought given the situation that occurred to me was that he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. The most deadly man as well.
“I need a place to stay for a while and you are going to provide it for me. Lodging is all you are going to provide me with. Do I make myself clear?”
I nodded yes, even as I was consumed by shock at his words. Did I look that bad?
He had me at his complete mercy and all he was insisting that I provide him with was my small home?
“There’s one more thing you’re going to provide me with. You’re going to tell me everything you know about Victor Uchenko. Him, his houses, his possessions, his guards, his likes and dislikes, in short everything you know about him.”
A cold dread filled me with the sounding out of his words and I started to shake my head no, “He’ll kill me!” I whispered out past my swollen lips.
He looked at me across the table his face unreadable as he said, “I’ll kill you if you don’t.”
A single tear leaked out of my eye and down my cheek, but I continued to shake my head no. He got out of his chair and walked toward me and I gripped the side arms of my chair tightly.
It did no good to run. I had nowhere to go. I was going to die. He stepped behind me and I couldn’t help but begin to shake.
I jumped when his strong forearm slid across my throat, as his hand gripped the side of my face. I couldn’t help the whimper of fear that escaped my mouth, as I felt his other hand close over my head. He was going to snap my neck!
Hurriedly I choked out, “Please don’t hurt the boy!”
A moment passed that nothing happened and then I jumped when his words were said directly against my ear, “You would make a far better warrior than you do a whore.”
He withdrew his arm and hands and I sucked in a big gulp of air not realizing I had been holding my breath.
I watched, as he went back to his side of the table and picked up his hat. He came back to stand beside me and stopped. I had to look up because he was so tall.
“I’ll be back in the morning. In the meantime you should get some rest. You’ll tell me what you know about Victor tomorrow.”
I made to speak, but his callused finger touched my lips gently and I stopped.
He repeated, “You’ll tell me what you know in the morning.”
There was no question in his words and I don’t know why, but I nodded yes.
He nodded his head in acceptance of my submission. He set my three pistol shells on the table in front of me and I looked at them and then back up to him in shock. The look in his eyes was different somehow.
“Don’t forget to lock your door Evangelina.”
He turned to go and I don’t know what possessed me to ask, but I did.
“What will you do, if I don’t open the door in the morning?”
He turned back and nonchalantly said, “Bust it off its hinges. Good night Evangelina. Get some rest. I’ll bring something for that eye in the morning.”
He closed the door and I just sat there in shock over my encounter with the stranger. There was a slight per-functionary knock and I jumped up and locked the door. I heard him walk away down the hall then. I stared at the door and reached a hand up to my swollen eye.
What had just happened?
I didn’t know, but he would be back in the morning that I didn’t doubt.