Discerning Retribution

prologue

The woman glided through the dance floor like a serpent, changing partners as she went. She didn't care who it was, so long as they were willing to grind hips with her.

Club hopping in the wee hours of the night was her form of escape from the stress of work and family. She always went at the end of the week so she didn't have to worry about waking up early the next morning.

Almost everybody there already knew her, though she always went alone. No friends, no family, no lover, that was her personal rule. It wouldn't be fun otherwise, with them trying to keep her sober and coherent. And letting loose was something she needed, or else worse things will start getting into her head again. Nobody understood though, so she always went alone.

Loud music blared through the speakers, banging at the solid walls and assaulting her ears in time with the pounding on her chest.

'Or was it the other way around?' She wondered.

She decided she didn't care.

Her sweat shimmered under the strobe lights as she continued to move with no particular beat. As long as she got to move her body to numbness and exhaustion, she didn't care if other people saw her and thought her weird.

She had always argued the point of getting wasted was so she wouldn't have to keep up appearances. She was prettier than more than half the shallow, underaged bitches in the place and she knew it. Nobody would care if she looked stupid, only that she was showing them more than a little skin.

Finally feeling the soles of her feet aching, she pushed at her latest partner and made a beeline towards an empty table. It was time for a break.

A waiter immediately handed her a glass of water before she could even sit down. She barely looked at him and downed the the glass empty.

The woman debated if she could have another one of her favorite long islands. She just got her payslip so she had money to spend. But that would be boring. Why bother pulling out your own wallet if the place was packed with gullible idiots who'd be more than willing to pay for her?

She scanned the nearby tables, newly-manicured fingers drumming on the black, overused table. The night was still young, and there were more than the usual number of faces she hadn't seen before.

'Too young. Too scrawny. Too bald.' She quickly ticked them off her list of targets. 'Too gay.'

There's got to be somebody in the damned place decent enough to be her flavor of the night.

She craned her neck to get a good look at the bar area to her right and almost immediately her eyes landed on a tall, foreign-looking guy dressed in what appeared to be the latest ensemble from Armani.

'A Korean maybe?' She thought. The lights weren't bright enough so she couldn't be sure.

The guy sat at the bar, nestling a bottle of beer. Even his hair looked like it had been styled by a real hairdresser. His movements told her he was scouting the place, just like her.

There was a small chance the guy wasn't even straight, but a possible long night of free drinks was too much a temptation to pass up. She reckoned he just might still be salvageable. If it was her, she could handle a slightly strayed arrow.

She stared at him a few more seconds to see if he was alone.Beside him sat another man, but she couldn't see his face, only his shoes, which were a little too beaten down for her taste. They weren't talking - a good sign.

'Korean it is.' She tidied herself a little with her hands.

There was no way a guy like that would even look at her if she sweated all over the tables. But just as she was about to leave her seat, another waiter came up to her, offering a glass of the drink she'd wanted.