Under the Clouds of the Night
Laura Mckenzie
It all began on a Friday night.
A Friday night - the night believed to be the time when people seek relief after a week of going in to work every day, by visiting bars, and strip clubs and whatever else amuses them.
It was like a spirit no one could ever really possess - the night comes in like a spirit and possesses the human body by beckoning to those who want it by sending a shiver down their spine. The cold air goes further and runs through the veins making them release a heavy, unintentional sigh as they walk down the street late at night, joyful that at long last, the week was finished. There was one thing however that could force people back into their shells after having a moment with the spirit of the night, and that is the spirit of tomorrow. The thought enters like an intruder without a key into their house of thoughts, brutally, reminding them that for the joy experienced now, there is a Monday coming. And so, people would fight that dreadful spirit with the aid of the spirit of the night and push it out of their consciousness for the night, which is why you would see people doing what you never expected they would do.
Humans are so unstable.
Married men would not be going home to their wives, they would go instead to hang out at bars or watching young women possibly young enough to be their child - but not all - wrapping themselves around poles with people they consider friends, and the wives, without knowledge or with knowledge of what their husband was going to be doing on this Friday night, take matters into their own hands and pour themselves a glass of wine and settle down to read a book. But the case is different for others. You would see them taking advantage of that hot, young thing they had seen moving in to the house next door.
And again, not all.
And teenagers would be sneaking out of their houses or for those whose parents don't have a tight leash around their necks, just tell their parents they're going out and that's that. And later, you will find them at clubs grinding on a total stranger who they consider hot, which would then eventually lead to a make out session in dark corner in the room.
Again, not all.
Natalie Myers shook her head to clear herself of thoughts as she walked into the establishment through the back door.
Natalie Myers, part time stripper and part time student at the Wisconsin Institute sighed as she looked at the men sitting and cheering in that dimly lighted room, and blowing kisses at her work colleagues as they wrap themselves around the pole.
Tonight was different. Two girls on the stage at once, embracing a pole was what they called 'double dare.'
Another night of hating myself, Natalie thought. In the deeper part of her mind, she wished that that one day she'll be someone's wife would come soon, at which point this chapter of her life would be a distant memory. And on Friday nights, she wouldn't be in a place called Domino's Strips, waiting for her to turn to caress a pole like it was her long-lost lover.
How had she gotten here? To this prostitution ring or as some people prefer to call it, this Escorting Services perfectly masked to seem like a random strip club, and it was only the people that have dined with the devil that actually knew some girls here can be paid for and taken home for the night to do and be whatever the man wants her to be - sexually of course. And then there were the other girls, the ones not involved in the escorting service - like herself - who were just hired to work as strippers as a front to throw dogs that may off their scent.
Her thoughts flew back to her past - specifically her teenage life. Her life had been going smoothly until... What happened?
The question everyone asks themselves when everything falls apart in a fraction of a second and then you blink and suddenly find yourself as a worker in a strip club. But she knew exactly what happened.
Her mum had passed away when she was a little girl and her dad? Her dad had tried raising her up to a point, sending her to school and saving up for her college, never once trying to get back into the world himself. Things had been going well until that day she invited Christina to come over for a sleepover at her place the night before her 18th birthday.
Why her? It wasn't like she and Christina were friends like that. They were just schoolmates whose paths often cross in the hallway, at which point, they eagerly avoided each other's eyes and just said HI. One would think the two girls didn't like one another, and their one-word conversation was forced, but to Natalie, she felt closer to Christina than anyone else in that school.
Her dad had been out with some friends on that Friday night, and she didn't wanna stay home alone, so in a spontaneous motion during their hallway moments, she had invited Christina over.