by Lola St. Vil
An hour later, I am no longer disgusted by the fighting taking place of the “Anger” level of the club. In fact, I place a bet on the new fighters. As loud as the crowd screams, I am even louder.
“Kill him! Kill him!” I scream.
Just then, one of the Demons in the crowd, pushes one of the fighters. The fighter pushes back. Soon everyone is in an all-out brawl. Rage takes my hand and says we have to go.
He cuts through the crowd and we head for the exit.
In the corner of my eye, I see a female Angel with her back to me. She’s wearing a royal blue mini dress and six inch heels. The reason she catches my eye is because she’s making out with a Demon in the corner. She doesn’t care that there’s a brawl breaking out, she’s got her tongue down his throat with dedication. He puts his hand on her ass and returns her passionate kiss.
Demons and Angels on CP have a better love life then me…
“What’s the next level?” I ask Rage before we get to the door.
“Unlike level one, where they fight from anger, level two is ‘Envy.’ Demons battle to get other Demons’ powers that they have coveted.”
“What’s on the last level?” I ask as he tries to guide us outside.
“You don’t want to go to level three,” he replies.
“Rage, what’s level three?”
“Lust.”
“What’s up there?” I ask.
“Strippers and a never ending stream of Coy Dark; and before you ask, Coy Dark is just like the Angels’ Coy, except it doesn’t have flavors like ‘Bliss’ and ‘Euphoria.’ It has flavors like ‘ego,’ ‘inhibition’ and ‘sex drive.’”
“Really...?” I reply.
“Yes, now we need to go,” he says as the fight starts getting closer to us.
“Let’s go to the third level,” I announce.
“No.”
“C’mon, Rage.”
“No…I can’t take you up there.”
“I’m just gonna look around,” I beg.
“No.”
“If he won’t take you, Daddy will,” A being says behind us.
We look over and see a tall blond Demon with black eyes and a snake like smile.
Something about his demeanor makes me feel like I need a shower.
“Fine, I’ll take you,” Rage says reluctantly.
“Maybe the human wants to go with me,” the Demon offers.
“No,” I reply as I take Rage’s hand.
We start to take off and the Demon follows us.
“I said she’s going with me,” he threatens.
Rage looks back, his eyes grow dark and a power ball emerges from his palm. The Demon’s eyes widen in alarm.
“First Akon, I didn’t know. I mean…I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he says, flying back down to level one quickly.
“Let’s go,” Rage commands.
We pass the second level called “Envy,” where the Demons battle for powers. We then head for the third level. Rage wasn’t kidding about it being all about “Lust.” There are a number of Demons, both male and female, wearing very little, skillfully sliding down poles.
There are a few differences between this place and the average strip club. For one thing, the poles are floating about the room. Rage tells me the poles are programmed to go to whoever pays more. The customers in the room are seated in plush armchairs with some kind of remote attached. They punch in how much they are willing to pay for the strippers as they float past them.
Like the other levels, a section is reserved for the crowd to dance. They dance so close to each other, there is no room for air. They grind and paw each other like animals in heat.
The third level is thick with salacious intent and scandalous desires.
“Why are there Holders swirling above the dance floor?” I ask, referencing to the large see through bubble-like prison.
“It’s not a Holder. It’s an Offer. It does everything a Holder does, but it can be cracked open. Sometimes beings get really crazy, and climb into one. They start stripping and if the crowd likes it, they shout. The more they shout, the more the Offer weakens until it cracks. Then the guy or girl falls out and into someone’s lap.”
“Classy,” I remark under my breath.
“Hey, sexy, long time no see,” someone says.
Rage and I look up to see one of the strippers sliding down her pole and onto the floor; before Rage even realizes what’s happening, she plants a big kiss on him.
“Tammy, hi,” he says, pulling away from her.
“Where you been, baby?” She asks.
“You know, around,” he says, avoiding her eyes.
“I have time for a free one, what do you say?” She asks as she traces his lips with her index finger suggestively.
“I can’t,” he says, taking her fingers away from his face.
“What, since when?” She asks.
“I’m engaged,” he says.
“So, it’s really true? You let an Angel tie you down? I thought you only liked it when I did that,” she says, undressing him with her eyes.
This girl is really pushing it…
“That’s in the past, Tammy. Things have changed,” he replies proudly.
“Shame, I have a new routine I think you’d really get into,” Tammy says as she coils his hair around her fingers.
Is she really just doing that?
“So, who is this Angel chick, anyway?” Tammy asks as Rage takes her hand away. I can’t take it anymore; she is smug and out of line. I step in front of Rage to answer the skanky Demon’s question.
“Her name is Ameana; she’s a Guardian and she can rip out every bone in your body without ever touching you. So back the hell up,” I bark.
“Human, what did you say to me?” Tammy asks, shocked.
“Did I stutter?” I reply, getting in her face.
Without the slightest hesitation, she lifts her hands up and prepares to send a power ball my way. Rage quickly steps in front of me.
“Tammy, you don’t want to do that,” he warns her.
“She can’t speak to me like that. She doesn’t even have any powers!”
“Bitch, I don’t need powers to beat you!” I shout.
We both start talking over each other. The crowd gathers around us, ready to see a fight.
Rage is overwhelmed and shocked at what is taking place.
“Ladies, ladies, let’s not do this,” Rage says, clearly uncomfortable with the new role of peacekeeper.
“Rage, take this little girl home before I kill her,” Tammy says.
I lunge at her full force. Rage manages to pull me back just as Tammy and I are about to make contact. I fight furiously to get at the Demon, but Rage keeps holding me back.
“Calm down, Tammy; we’re leaving,” Rage assures her.
“The hell I am. I’m heading over to the dance floor. And if see you anywhere near him, I will fuck you up,” I promise her.
I turn my back on her and head across the platform. As I walk away I hear Tammy speak to Rage with utter disbelief.
“I should destroy her; she has no powers.”
“No, but I do; so forget this happened,” he warns her.
On my way to the dance floor, I grab the nearest waitress and take shot after shot of Coy Dark. I don’t read the labels so I don’t know what flavors they were, but judging by the way I feel they must be “Don’t give a damn” and “Bite Me.” They both make me feel really, really good.
Once on the dance floor, I start moving with the crowd. The music controls me. It makes me move in ways I never have before. Rage tries to pull me out of the crowd, but I escape his grasp and go further into the center of the mob. He calls out to me and says it’s time to go home. I fade him out; I fade everything out but the music.
The more I drink, the harder I dance and the easier it is to forget about everything. Soon, I have no idea what I was upset about. I take shots of Coy Dark like it were water. I’m dancing in the crowd with no one in particular unti
l a Demon comes behind me and starts to grind on me. Rage is by my side immediately.
I signal for him to go away. He remains standing nearby, but he doesn’t summon his fireball, so we keep dancing. When they play a club mix of my favorite Rihanna song, I lose my mind; I put both hands up in the air and wind my hips like the girls on the pole.
Then a siren comes on. The Demon girl next to me signals for me to watch what happens.
Suddenly everyone on the dance floor takes off an article of clothing and twirls it around on finger. I had no idea they would do that, but I join in. I take my shirt off, leaving me with my jeans, and undershirt.
I see Rage from the corner of my eye, asking the waitress to bring him something. I guess he’s ready to start partying too. Good then he can stop mothering me.
I don’t have a Mom anymore…
It’s coming back: The grief. The loss. The pain.
I head to the nearest waitress. She offers me a shot glass, but I turn it down and opt for the entire bottle. I down it in a matter of minutes and, just like that, the pain is gone.
I go to head back to my spot while Rage nags me in the background. I ignore him and look up at the Offers hanging above me. I signal to one of the guys on the dance floor, he lifts me up and I am instantly taken into the bubble. The crowd begins to cheer for me.
The world is nothing more than a series of blurred colors in front of me.
So I start to strip. The crowd hollers and cheers down below. The bubble I’m in starts to crack. Rage desperately calls out for me to stop stripping. I’m down to my bra and underwear. There’s no way I’m gonna stop. I want to feel this way forever.
When I put my arms around my back to unhook my bra the crowd applauds so wildly, the Offer cracks open. I squeal in delight as fall out of the sky and into the lap of a Demon with killer green eyes.
“I got you,” he says.
“Lucky me…” I reply.
I didn’t even realize Rage was near me until I felt his hand firmly clasp mine. He pulls me away from the Demon.
“Hey, let go of me!” I demand.
Rage pays no attention to my cries. He steals one of the Demons’ jackets from the back of the chair. The owner of the jacket is about to object when Rage glares at him. The Demon whose lap I fell on comes after me.
“Who the hell are you to take her?” He barks as he summons up a power ball.
“I’m her brother, and I promised Mom she would cut back on maggots,” Rage says as he covers me up with the jacket.
“I’m just dancing, damn. Relax.” I snap.
Again, he pays no attention to me. His focus is one the Demon who still has the power ball in his hand.
“You take her out of here under my dead—”
The Demon never gets to finish his sentence. Rage sets him on fire. He screams as the flames sear his flesh. Everyone in the crowd now realizes who Rage is. Some of them run because they fear the Akon’s wrath and others attack, certain they can get the best of him.
Rage orders me to get behind the bar as the power balls go flying into the air. He’s being attacked from all sides. I want to help, but he says I better stay hidden or he’ll kill me himself. I know he doesn’t mean that, but still I remain behind the bar.
I’m not really sure how we get out of the club, but soon we are outside. Rage tries to get me to go to with him back to the alley where we first landed. Unfortunately, there are a dozen Demons blocking our path.
Rage says there’s too many of them to take on right now. So he breaks into a storefront and we go inside to wait them out. We get low to the ground in one of the aisles and listen as the Demons desperately seek us out.
“I shouldn’t have brought you here, the First Guardian would be pissed,” Rage says.
“He doesn’t give a damn what happens to me.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Rage laughs.
“Could we not talk about him, please?” I snap.
“Fine by me.”
“Demons have the best alcohol. I’m not puking or light headed,” I inform Rage.
“You shouldn’t be; There’s no alcohol in the drinks you had tonight.”
“What? There had to be.”
“There are some mean mixtures in our drinks, but they don’t affect humans.”
“So why did I act that way? Why am I half naked in this store?” I ask.
“You needed an excuse to speak your mind and do what you wanted.”
“And what I wanted was to beat the hell out of Tammy?” I ask.
“Wasn’t that what you wanted?” Rage counters.
“Well, yeah…” I concede.
“So, like I said, you did what you wanted.”
“Fine, I wanted to blow up Tammy, but why would I want to get half naked in a room full of strangers?”
“I hear most girls who do that for a living have daddy issues, and well, given who your father is, I’m surprised you didn’t hit the poles sooner,” he jokes.
“No, there had to be something in the drinks,” I insist.
“I don’t want to tell you how to live your life or anything, but maybe if you did what you wanted to do instead of what was expected from you, you wouldn’t run wild the first chance you get.”
“Are you giving me advice?”
“I’m just saying, you have a right to be pissed. So be pissed. You don’t need alcohol to be your excuse,” Rage says, shrugging his shoulders.
“I never thought about it,” I reply.
“Well let’s go; I think they’re gone now,” Rage says as he takes my hand.
We scurry to the back of the store and survey the area; so far it’s all clear. As we start to take off, Rage stops me.
“Hey, you dropped something,” he says.
I look down on the ground and my sliver necklace lies there with my engagement ring hanging in the middle. I pick it up and study the most valuable thing I have ever been given.
“Okay, let’s go,” Rage calls out.
I don’t head out the door with him. Instead, I clasp the ring in my hand. I can feel my heart breaking all over again. I take deep breaths to stay in control. I refuse to lose control.
“Emmy, let’s move!” Rage orders.
The morning Marcus proposed to me pops into my head. I can’t shake it. I inhale his scent as if he were right in front of me. My longing for him is no longer just an emotion, but an actual weapon. I’ve been wounded by it many, many times before.
I hate him. I really hate him. How could just throw me away? If he loves me like he says, he should find a way to make it work.
“Um…everything…okay?” Rage asks hesitantly.
“Tell me; how do I stop it?” I ask as tears spring to my eyes.
No crying. No crying. Stop it!!!
“How do you stop what?” Rage asks coming closer.
“Love. How do I stop being in love?”
My love for Marcus transforms itself into a blade and shreds my insides open. I gasp in pain and slide down to the floor, but there is no blood to show for my injuries. The only liquid oozing out of me, is the useless salty kind.
“Look, I don’t deal well with…that,” Rage cautions me.
“Deal with what?” I asked between sobs.
“Cry—”
“— FUCK YOU, I AM NOT CRYING!!” I counter as I weep into my hands.
“Okay, you’re right. You’re not crying,” he says, fearing I will cry even harder if he doesn’t agree with the lie I’m telling myself.
Nervously, he sits beside me.
“Just tell me when it’ll get better. I can hold on if I know when it will get better,” I beg Rage.
“Look, um it will all…work out,” he says, struggling for words.
“How do you know that?”
“Well…because…here’s the thing about guys; Angel, human, Quo, or Demon, we’re pretty stupid. I mean with romance and stuff. So we get it wrong–a lot and then, one day, we get it right.”
“He sent me away…” I wh
isper; too hurt and ashamed to say it any louder.
“See he’s getting it wrong, but that means he’s closer to getting it right,” Rage confirms.
He takes a box of tissues from the counter and hands it to me. I wipe my face and blow my nose.
“Damn it, I can’t even hold back my tears for Marcus. How am I supposed to hold back my love?”
“It doesn’t work; trying to hold love back and shit. It’s always there, hiding behind a shot of Coy Dark, a stripper pole or a fireball. It’s still there,” Rage tells me.
“Great, now I have to start over again,” I tell myself.
“Start what?”
“My ‘no tears’ calendar count down.”
“You have a calendar on your wall to count out the days you don’t cry?”
“No; I have an app.”
“Nice…” He says, smiling.
“Now, I have to start all over. I was so proud of myself and now…”
He studies me. Then a light comes into his eyes.
“You didn’t cry, Emmy.”
“Thanks for trying.” I reply.
“No, seriously. Sometimes Coy Dark can have a side effect on humans; it messes with their tear ducts.”
“Really?” I ask, knowing he’s full of it.
“Yeah, so this outburst was…medical; a side effect of the Coy. Your record is still intact,” he lies.
I smile despite myself and embrace him tightly. He is thrown off by it, but a few seconds later, he starts to hug me back.
“Okay, I’m ready to go,” I say as we pull apart.
“I’ll check the back entrance again, you stay here,” Rage says.
As I watch him leave, I look around and find the bathroom. Once inside, I splash cold water on my face and neck. I zip up the jacket all the way and exit the bathroom. Rage is not back yet. I take a quick peek out the front store window to see if any Demons are out.
The streets are clear, except for the Angel I saw earlier; the girl with the royal blue mini dress and high heels. She and the Demon are making out a few feet away from me.
I can’t see her face because she’s sucking on the Demons’ neck. The Demon laughs and fondles her.
“Wow, get a room,” I whisper.
Just as I am about to make my way to the back of the store, the Demon grabs the girl and embraces her from the back, finally giving me a clear view of her face.
