Fox Chase

Chapter 2

Fox has been in Las Vegas for almost two weeks now. Each night she marks off more and more of the clubs off her list, only she's not even half way through. She still has no leads on her father or the club and she's running out of money. That's not all, Fox has had to switch hotels four times in the dead of the night. She's positive that someone has been following her, she can't be sure she's never actually seen who it is. However, she keeps seeing the shadow of a man out of the corner of her eye, and when she turns around its gone, but an uneasy feeling burrows in the pit of her stomach anyway. At first she tried to ignore it, but her instincts told her to run. If she's learned anything it's to always trust your gut, so she ran, something she's become unfortunately good at. She also decided it's better to be safe than sorry so she purchased some mase, a taser, and an adorable pair of matching pink brass knuckles. Now she really considers herself armed and dangerous. Besides even if she's wrong and no one is following her this is sin city after all, and desperate people do irrational things. Not to mention you've got your everyday criminals and creeps out on the streets, and the clubs and bars she's been to aren't exactly the most respectable. Seedy places breed seedy people and you can never be too careful.

Fox groaned as the sun slid through the opening of her curtains and spilled onto her face ruining her desire to sleep in. She turned over to glance at the alarm clock through squinted eyes and let out another exasperated groan as she realized it was only six in the morning. She pulled the covers over her head desperate to get a few more hours of sleep, but after twenty minutes she gave up and drug herself out of bed and into the shower. Half asleep and grumpy under the pulse of scalding hot water it finally dawned on Fox what day it was. August twenty-third, and at 11:59 tonight she'll officially be eighteen, she'd always been excited about turning eighteen, now not so much. After what her mother said turning eighteen didn't seem so great, obviously her mother is insane, but it still put a damper on her celebratory mood. Still she figured she owed herself at least a breakfast frappuccino and doughnut, maybe even a new book or deck of tarot cards since she'd forgotten her deck back at her old place. She missed reading cards, it was how she got extra cash between paychecks, it also helped that she was never wrong. Someway somehow they always came true; she always just chalked it up to the readings influencing future decisions people would make or just a simple coincidence.

In an effort to perk herself up and get back in a celebratory mood Fox spends a little extra time getting ready and listening to music. Instead of pulling her hip length red hair into a ponytail like usual, Fox opts to leave her fiery ringlets down and runs a little moose through to keep the frizz away. She applies some winged eyeliner, gold eyeshadow, and a red lipstick playfully named lust. Then she dons a gorgeous pair of simple red stilettos and her favorite little black dress; a skin tight, mid-thigh, backless, strapless piece of genius with a plunging neckline. Fox has a bad habit of loving to turn heads which stems from the fact that in her town she turned heads no matter what, so she decided to give them a reason. She stopped trying to be someone she wasn't just to be accepted in her town, and became who she was. She dressed like she was on a runway, spoke like a sailor, and kicked ass like the badass she is. She had no friends, and everyone in town could care less about her, but for the most part she was happy just being able to be herself. Here in Las Vegas though she knows she turns heads for very different reasons, sure some people disapprove of her but most of them either want her or are jealous of her. She fits in in this crass, beautiful, dangerous city of sin; she feels more at home here than she ever did in her dinky judgmental little town. Even if she doesn't find what she's looking for she knows she can't stay. She has a heart full of wanderlust and it won't let her stay in one place too long. Her desire to see the world is about as strong as her desire to find her father.

Fox is seated at one of the small tables outside Starbucks with a delicious vanilla crème frappuccino and custard doughnut marking clubs and bars off her long list. Tonight in honor of her birthday she decided she'd visit the more ritzy clubs; they're fancier and more expensive than the ones she's been visiting recently. She doubts she'll find any leads in clubs like that since her mother was a runaway who worked as a waitress, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Determined not to let any of that put a damper on her birthday spirit she polishes off her doughnut and hails a cab to a small bookstore nestled in the less glamorous side of the city. The goth barista at Starbucks had recommended it to her saying its selection of cards was ten times better than any chain bookstore could sell. It's a small black building with big bay windows full of displays of leather bound books, crystals, and jewelry. Blackthorn is scrawled across the top of the building in big silver letters wrapped up in thorny vines. Once inside Fox finds herself surrounded by strange books about black magic, rituals, crystal healing and more. She peruses the interesting book titles, beautiful crystals, odd jewelry, and strange altar ritual pieces finding peace amongst the strangeness of the tiny shop.