Preface: Wrong place, Wrong time

Of all of my countless lousy luck, I had a strange feeling that I wouldn't get out of this one.

People can do monstrous things to others, and you sometimes think it couldn't happen to you.

I'm here to tell you, my dear,

you're mistaken.

***

I had just gotten off from work, making my way from the stage around to the locker room to change for the evening. The dance scene was my life; it has been my life since I was sixteen, and it felt a little late to try and break the habit.

I was making perfect money for myself; I had a stable income, was going to school, growing more potent as a person. Though, strangely enough, I could taste the tension in the air, it was evident that something outrageous was going to happen soon and whether it was in the club or on the way back home, I didn't want any part of it.

"Hey, Horus?" I was distinctively aware I was being called out by my stage name but was too far gone in my head to acknowledge the person. They'd call out to me again before they realized there was no point in trying to catch my attention.

I preoccupied my time counting the money I made on stage tonight with a Cheshire grin on my face. "Horus?" This time I looked up to see the partner that I didn't get to work with tonight; she had a smile on her face. " For whatever reason, you had business booming tonight. I haven't seen this much money in over a long time." She sat next to me and bumped her shoulder into mine.

A strange visitor, one with an eye you could tell was sightless and glass, had a silver tongue, and he wasn't afraid to use it. I found him eyeing me specifically, not that I have any problems with older men, and I could see that in his younger days, he was a beauty, but it was how he leered at me with interest.

He specifically and one other threw over ten grand at all of us dancers tonight, and when it was my time to dance, they both blew the rest of their money all over the stage, encouraging others to do the same.

I made over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and that was more than I've made being here in an entire two years.

"I'm scared to take all of this honestly," I muttered after a while. "I feel like I'm in someone else debt." I watched from the corner of my eye as she turned to look at me, her expression fixed into one of confusion. "You know, sometimes you say the weirdest shit." She squeezed my shoulder and sighed before getting up, leaving my side. "Be safe going home. Goodnight." she managed to get out before she disappeared from my view.

I had changed out of my skimpy work clothing, reaching for my more comfortable wear, getting dressed quickly and with ease.

I sensed it before while I was inside, and I chose to pay it no mind, but the moment my skin met the humid summer air, my arm hairs lifted, and I stared straight across the parking lot

Overall, standing in an empty sketchy parking lot behind a club would make anyone feel unsafe, but what I saw was him, the very man who bounced a stack off my ass to see it flip.

"Good evening, my dear." He walked with confidence, his silver tongue-speaking in a way that would make any women pine over him, but I knew the deal.. I wasn't falling for it.

"Good night, sir." I turned on the heel of my shoe and started walking away from him. " not just yet." He managed to make it to my side with ease, grabbing hold of my wrist in a firm grip. I slowly turned and stared at him before looking down at my wrist and back at him. I didn't have to say it; whenever I was touched, something always happened... Something strange.

Almost immediately, he flinched back, his eyes widening before he resumed his confident facade.

" A beautiful woman such as yourself doesn't need to sully herself with the foolishness of a place like this one." He quirked a brow, tilting his head towards the club. " I'm guessing a troubled past, a fight for survival? Learning to be empowered because you were mistreated by the men you trusted?" He circled me for a moment before he stood in front of me.

I could tell already that his familiarity with me was going to get him killed and be killed, I mean a couple of knives to the chest. He was hitting every nail on the head, but I never let it slip that he knew what he was talking about. If anything, I kept my face smooth and unreadable. " In case I ever cross paths with you again," the air around us seems to shimmer, and my arm hairs rose again, my nostrils flaring as I stared at him. For whatever reason, he stepped back in shock as if he saw something on me he didn't expect. "Don't ever place your hands on me, or you'll see for yourself what I did to those men I trusted... With your head removed from your shoulders."

Without even a goodbye, I walked on about my way and to my car, driving to a bar to clear my head of the spectacle that just happened.