The Red Shadow

Chapter 4: No Time to Lose

"I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life."

Fitzgerald F. Scott, The Great Gatsby

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Being a waitress at an American Night Club was much harder than she had expected. Not physically, rather mentally very draining. She had to serve and clean after these rich American Arm Dealers who cared about nothing and no one but themselves. Living in a bubble of entitlement where they thought their money gave them the right to do just about anything while being shielded from the consequences of their actions. Just a bunch of narcissistic humans with a god complex. That was what they were in her eyes.

'Alex' had asked her to take the job there to learn more about the United States and in a way, it helped her to fit in. The job also helped with her rent and other expenses. She wasn't going to take advantage of Alex's wealth. She wanted to earn the money for her needs to the last penny, in the good honest way, unlike these people who were simply born into it, never once having to think of taking responsibility for it. She wasn't going to join that mass. She resented the very idea. People in Kaznia - like Mikhail's mother - worked day and night to provide for their families while these people grew richer every day by taking advantage of igniting wars and selling their weapons to the opposite parties. Ameritek.... Those snakes were responsible for Mikhail's death.

" Oh my God, Linda! Did you cut yourself!?" A female voice asked in fear and she looked down at the glinting shards of champagne flute in her hand. She had unwantedly broken it in her steel grip, once more. Sometimes keeping her temper in check ended at the cost of these delicate items. She hated those Ameritek men. Those 'Merchants of Death and War'.

"I'm alright, Sidney. Don't worry," She replied her colleague in a perfect American accent as she discarded the useless remnant of the glass into a bin behind the counter.

It was almost midnight yet the club was buzzing. It was the first time she was doing a long night shift to cover for another girl who had come down with the flu. She usually spent the night time to study on her misguided sister, Supergirl and her Alex. She practiced her mimics to be ready when 'Alex' called her for action. Therefore, it was the first time she was witnessing the nightlife of the club and she was in for a big surprise.

She thought that she had seen it all. All the darkness of this world.

But she was so wrong and so very oblivious.

As the hours grew later - or rather earlier - many customers left and only a handful of regulars remained behind. Obviously, the club had more entertainment to offer even at these hours. She walked around, collecting the abandoned glasses or dishes among decks of cards, some barely even touched. Such a waste, she thought to herself. Did they even care?

The few regulars dismissed themselves eventually to some other private rooms and that was the cue for the few remaining staff to finally call it a day. She finished stacking the dirty glasses onto a cart. Sidney, the only other girl still working beside her, was busy putting back the liquor bottles in order on the shelves. They were almost finished. She just had to take the cart into the kitchen so the staff could clean them in the morning.

That was when she heard the sound of crying from the hallway behind the kitchen's back door. It was a quiet muffled whimpering as if the person didn't wish to be heard, but it couldn't go unnoticed by her sharp alien hearing. She looked around, using her enhanced vision to see through the walls. A young woman was couching, hugging her legs in a prone position and shaking against her sobs.