Devil

A few days later, she returned to the club, sliding into her plush stool just as the doors opened for the night. The rush tonight was crazier than she was used to, and Nebraska estimated that she had made over £9000 in the first hour of operation. The Warehouse was packed, but through the dancing crowd and blinking lights, she could just see that the light in the Kid’s office wasn’t on. He hadn’t even bothered to show up at all tonight. She could feel the anger prickling beneath her skin, though she knew there wasn’t any rational basis for it.

By the time Danny plopped down beside her, she had downed two shots of tequila and was nursing a glass of vanilla vodka, courtesy of Finn. He was excited to see this side of her, though Nebraska wasn’t excited to show it. She felt like she was getting out of control.

“Why are you here, Danny the DJ?” she asked. The words jumped out of her mouth before she had a chance to swallow them, and she took a sip of her drink to calm herself, steelily looking at the black backing of the bar.

“To buy you a drink.” She scoffed.

“I’m sure there are plenty of girls here that would love for you to buy them a drink.”

“Probably. But I’d rather buy one for you.”

She turned away from the back of the bar to look at him. He wore that stupid grin on his face, of course, and she couldn’t help but smile too. She swiveled her stool so she was facing him, but at their close proximity, her knees bumped his. She prepared to apologise, already beginning to move to rectify the touching, but he placed his hands firmly on her knees to hold her there. They were both so entranced with each other, they failed to notice Finn making a note behind the bar.

"Hurry up and fucking buy, man."

The two of them turned to see a large, hulking man glaring at Danny, his meaty fingers curled into a very threatening fist.

"I said, fucking buy," he emphasized, as he put his hand on Danny’s shoulder. Before he could react, Nebraska had grabbed the man and pushed him onto the bar with his arm behind his back.

"Walk away, Mark," she said calmly.

"Get the fuck off me, bitch!" he spit.

She pulled his arm up higher, causing him to grunt in pain.

"Walk away, Mark," she repeated.

He mumbled, and she let him go. She sat back down as he sauntered back through the crowd and out the door.

"He's supposed to have been banned," she said, by way of explanation.

"What for?"

"Addiction made him violent."

Danny couldn’t think of a response to that, and Nebraska didn’t want to explain further. For all of the great effects of the Kid’s wonder drug, addiction was prevalent, and caused some of the men to get violent and the women to get crazy. Some of them talked about hallucinations, and as a result, the Kid had been stricter on who could and couldn’t buy. Mark had made the top of the list for attempting to threaten Nebraska into giving him more drugs than he was paying for, and when she refused, he destroyed the bar. He hadn’t been back in a very long time. The covert bouncers at the door usually kept him at bay.

She made a discrete motion to Finn, who made a phone call on his cellphone. She couldn’t hear the words he was saying, but knew the gist of the conversation. Finn was telling the Kid what had happened, hopefully leaving out the detail of Danny, and he was telling him how to deal with it. Finn hung up, placing his cellphone back into his back pocket, and wrote down a time on a card from behind the bar, which he slid over to Nebraska. The time was in three minutes.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she said to Danny, gently sliding off of her stool. He grabbed her arm before she could leave, drawing her very close to him. She could feel his breath on her neck, and in her nearly drunken state, with adrenaline rushing through her, she wanted nothing more than to press her lips to his. But she refrained.

“When can I see you again?” he murmured into her ear.

“I can be back tomorrow.” He nodded, biting his lip. He wasn’t satisfied with that.

“What if I want to see you before then?” This was inappropriate. This was crossing a lot of lines. Nebraska found that she didn’t really care.

She pulled a small slip of paper out of her back pocket, placing it in his lap, her fingers just brushing over his thigh.

“Feel free to call,” she whispered, her lips lightly brushing over his ear.

With that, she took the card off of the bar countertop, and walked away.
--
When she arrived in the dark alleyway behind the Warehouse, Finn, the Kid, and Frances, the occasional bouncer, were already there. The Kid had a crowbar in his hands, and Mark was groaning in pain on the wet pavement.

“I told you,” the Kid said, “you aren’t allowed here anymore. Do we have an understanding?”
Mark didn’t say anything, just groaned. He hit him with the crowbar repeatedly until Mark screamed his affirmation. Satisfied, he nodded to Finn and Frances, who grabbed Mark and dragged him away. The Kid cleaned the crowbar with a bottle of water from the bar, not saying anything to Nebraska, who was leaning idly against the wall.

She had always been invited to watch these things, and found that, like most of her experience with the Kid, she couldn’t remember how it started. A card usually appeared in front of her with a time, and occasionally she joined in, all involving patrons who had gotten too close to the workers without proper consent. Stuff like that drove her mad, and the Kid was more than happy to let her alleviate her anger on the scumbag men.

The Kid threw the crowbar behind a large green trash bin, and looked at her, still saying nothing. She could feel the anger bubbling beneath her skin again, and she had to refrain from slapping him as she stepped forward.

“I’ll bet she fucks like a fairy on acid,” she said instead, a rare edge coming to her voice. As the favourite, she and the Kid fought very rarely, and when they did, it was always quickly resolved. But this was something different. The Kid was preparing to leave, and even if no one else saw it, she knew him well enough to recognize the change in his behavior.

His hand met her face before she saw it coming, and she stumbled back a few steps in shock.

“Touchy, touchy,” she said, continuing to goad him. He didn’t hit her again, just sighed.

“Don’t see him again,” was all he remarked, as he turned around to head into the Warehouse.

“She doesn’t know about this, does she? She thinks you’re normal. But you’re not normal.” He ignored her, and kept walking.

“YOU’LL NEVER BE ONE OF THEM, YOU’LL ALWAYS BE THE KID!” she shouted at him as he rounded the corner. Nebraska cursed and kicked the trashcan, desperately not wanting to have to return to the large club. She left instead, sending a quick text to Finn that she was leaving and that she would get her share of the money tomorrow.