Luxuria's Darkness

Chapter 23: Attack.

Sophia had taken a break and went outside for a breath of fresh air. She couldn't forget the lines she read in her sister's diary, they kept playing in her mind like some old broken record.

I feel like someone is following me these days. I might be imagining things, but the possibility of someone stalking me, it's driving me insane. I can feel his eyes, or hers, burning a hole in my back. I'm scared. There is a rumor that one of my colleagues had gone missing. There is nothing sure, she didn't come up to work today, and the girls here are joking around that she was kidnapped. I hope that's not true. I can't understand why would someone joke about that. Kidnapping is a serious issue. Every time I walk on the stage, I have trouble focusing. I feel like I'm some sort of tape worm under a microscope. I really hope that is all in my imagination. I still can't shake the feeling that someone is watching me. Even now, I feel watched. Most of the time, I'm trying to stay at Mr. Ricardo down the hall. I feel safer with him there.

Jasmine was being followed long before she went missing. Was she really stalked, or was just her imagination? Since she was missing, Sophia could bet her life that Jasmine had a stalker, and most definitely he, or she, found her at the club. She hated the club. Not only it was a snake nest, but it was also a place that could change you, not necessarily for the best.

Sophia realized how many dark secrets were hidden behind the pristine curtain of Luxuria. Sure, it seems glamorous working in such a club, but the women were still seen as objects, or baby making machines, she couldn't help but being heartbroken for the women who got to work in shadier clubs. Putting on with the harassment and the bullying, you'd think one might get used to the idea of working in such of environment. Sometimes, people chose not what they want, but what they need to do in order to survive.

Rachel was one of the women who had it hard in life, so she turned her attention to something that will help her achieve her purpose, getting her children back, she couldn't be condemned for that. Sometimes, as she began to think about herself too, you get this idea stuck in your head that you are not better than what others think of you. You fall down in a black hole of depression, self loathing and hate towards the world around, sometimes, it can also make you a bit cynical. You start seeing the world through the perception that was instilled in you by the people you serve in the club.

She looked at the sky, the night was breezy. She rubbed her arms, the chilly air was making her shiver. She was feeling more and more useless and unimportant, not only because she hadn't found the answers she was looking for, also because the place made her question her own sanity.

She wasn't a confident person to begin with, that place made her even more dented than she already was, she felt out of place, as if someone was living her life and she just watched it from behind a TV screen. Her reality simply sucked, she couldn't complain, others might have it even harder.

In the distance she heard a woman's voice, begging someone to stop. She clenched her fists and marched towards the place where the sounds came from, gathering all the courage she could muster. If someone was in trouble she wasn't going to turn her back on them. When she reached the corner of the building, she saw a man keeping a woman captive between his body and the wall. She ran to them and pushed him off of her.

"Go inside now." She yelled at the distressed girl. The girl ran away, leaving her with him.

"If I can't have her, I'll have you." The man said through gritted teeth. He wasn't pleased with the interruption. He caught her by the hair and pinned her to the wall.

The girl rushed inside the club and she went straight to Jimin, as a new employee she had only met him so far, it was her first day in and she already had enough of the place.