Code Arhangel - FAMILY #1

2.3

EVA

Luckily, he didn't expect an answer. With a crooked and ridiculous smile, he walked away.

"He's a little weird, Eva, but once you get to know him, you'll like him," Ethan told me as I shook the dust off my coat.

How had he been allowed into the club anyway?

I looked at Ethan and when I realized he was laughing, I get mad.

"Your friend is a jerk, Ethan."

"You're not the first to call him that but he's also the owner of the Climax so..."

So what?

Was he a shopaholic?

I didn't say anything. In Christopher's time it was different. There was a rudimentary level at least in behavior. Apparently over the years things had changed for the worse. I continued to shake off my clothes as I watched Damon walk away. He was moving through the crowd without being pushed by anyone and I wasn't impressed that everyone stepped aside to let him pass. He was dirty and smelled horrible. Until he grabbed two blondes from the waist and stuck them on him.

"He come and loaded. Unbelievable" Myra commented as I placed my coat on the stool.

"He isn't a picky Myra. He is a trash can".

"Don't be mean" she commented with a half laugh. "Damon is a good guy, just needs time to get used to him."

"Ok..." I said with an ironic grin.

Guys like Damon didn't want time, they wanted dry cleaners and cultural education, and if none of that worked, they would have to be removed from all human presence by state law. As for Myra, she probably supported him and considered him nice because he was her client.

Moments later a similar guy approached Ethan. They spoke for a few seconds and luckily me, the dirty-guy-number-two didn't look or even come close to me.

Once he was gone Ethan waved at Myra.

"Let's go" my friend told me. She took my hand, and I didn't even ask where she was taking me. The way people behaved in here, there was no way I would be alone in the bar.

As we were moving through the crowd a waitress stopped in front of Ethan. Whatever she started to tell him she seemed agitated, trembling. Ethan grabbed her shoulder as if he was trying to reassure her, then focused behind her and shook his head to the right. The girl left and as we moved on again, I saw a man in ripped jeans and bums dragging a man in a suit towards the exit.

"You'll get used to it" Myra commented to me.

Immediately, I stopped moving.

What the hell was going on in this place?

"Get used to, what?"

"All of them" she said serious.

Passing the last customers of the Eyes level, we crossed a narrow corridor and get in in an anteroom with two couches. Laughter was heard and two blondes in non-existent clothes came out of a door that wrote Staff Only. The 'dancers' greeted Ethan who returned the favor by holding the door open for them to pass. Seconds later he did the same for me and Myra with the door in the background.

Following my friend, I entered at an office that could easily be a stable. There was a large table piled up with papers and envelopes, empty vodka bottles, scattered glasses, and ashtrays full of cigarettes. Two armchairs were covered in dirty clothes, a pair of boots were thrown on the floor, along with several car magazines, and to the left of the entrance, a table-top pinball machine.

The door closed. Ethan approached the table, moving anything that was in place on the wooden surface. When he didn't find what he was looking for turned his head right. "Where did he put it, man" shouted.

"On the first and third drawer" Damon's voice came from the next room.

Ethan opened the drawers, took out two bags of cocaine, and smilingly began to wave them in the air.

"How many lines girls?" he asked looking alternately at me and Myra.

I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded negatively.

"Not even once;" Myra became persistent.

Jesus Crist...

"No" I confirmed sharply.

Myra smiled and walked over to Ethan who was beginning the process of placing the drug onto the glass from the pinball machine. He made three lines from one packet and one more, a little farther from the other. Wondering why the hell I was in that room; I heard his voice again from. "I hope you didn't mess it up, Doctor."

"They're marked, assholl" Ethan replied.

The door opened. Damon appeared with a towel in hand.

The former scoundrel had turned almost human. He was wearing black cloth pants, his belt hanging around his waist and his shirt half buttoned, half hiding his chest.

Passing by me, he winked at me and approached the others.

"Will Eva taste too?" he asked.

"No. Just us," Myra replied.

Damon wiped one line with the towel and leaned close to one of the other three. He inhaled, raised his head and finally cleaned with his palm the remains of the white powder that had remained in his nose. He finished the process by licking the remnants from his lips with his tongue in a highly ostentatious manner.