Heroes and Villains

2 - Sweet dreams are made of this

Meooooooooooooow…

What?

Meeeeoooooooooow!!

“Huh?” I mumble as I roll over and end up falling face-first onto the floor. “Ow…”

I fell from my own bed. That was all just a dream. Scratch that. It was a freaking nightmare.

“Good, you’re up” I hear a voice right next to my head. “Feed me”

“Luki?...” I mumble, still dazed from my sudden wakening while I rub the forming bump on my head. “What time is it?”

“Time to eat” A grey cat responds, jumping to sit at my nightstand and turning off my annoying alarm clock with his paw.

You’re probably wondering why there’s a grey cat in my room. Well, he’s my cat. I’ve had him since I was a wee little girl.

Oh? You were just wondering how he can talk?

The answer to that question is radiation. Lots and lots of radiation.

I get up from the floor, trying not to trip on the many things scattered around my small room/home. This is the tiny place I can afford in this immense city, but it has everything I need for me to live.

Besides, I barely spend any time here at all so I don’t really mind that I only have a room with a made-up oven, along with a single toilet in the corner, to live in.  Though, I really need to find some time to clean this place.

Clumsily crossing my way through the room, I get to the place where I keep Luki’s things. I pull out his food package and drop a few pebbles onto his dish.

“This is it?” He asks me, condescendingly looking up at me. “Where’s the tuna?”

“Don’t complain” I respond. “You’ve had tuna yesterday”

He huffs before starting to eat his food. “Shouldn’t you be going now?”

“What time is it?” I question myself again as Luki quietly eats his food.

I nearly have a heart attack when I check my clock.

“Oh no!” I shout, quickly heading to the door. “I’m so late! Cain is going to kill me!”

Luki looks up at me with an uninterested look. “Should you be going out with those clothes?”

I pause just before opening the door to look down at myself. I am still in the clothing I wear to head out into the night. A tight black tank top and black shorts. This kind of clothes wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t reveal my other persona.

Who’s my other persona? You’ll find out soon enough.

Heading back into the room, I strip in a rush and put on a pair of jeans and a dirty shirt, then run out the door as fast as I can.

The sun descends into the city at this time of the afternoon, but down here it gets darker a lot faster than up there.

I live in the downtown part of Chicago city. The place where the poor portion of the citizens live in, along with all the mutants.

Now, I know it is a bit much to take in but let me explain. 50 years ago, a meteor struck this city, destroying everything for miles, but that was not the worst part of it. The worst was the radiation that emanated from the meteor after it crashed.

It turned any survivor of the crash to gruesome animalistic creatures. Most died, but the few that lived through were cast aside as monsters.

That’s when Hamato Industries arrived and took over. They controlled the radiation leak coming from the meteor and built their new facilities around it so they could study the meteor and its particular components in peace, away from the government’s nosy eyes.

As the years passed by, Hamato Industries grew powerful in the city, even coming to rebuild the city around their facilities in their own image.

The city above is filled with technology and is known as the most advanced city in the USA. It’s sincerely beautiful up there, but none of us poor people who live downtown are allowed to go up. They are too afraid of a mutant uprising. As if that would ever happen.

But enough of our world history for now. You’re probably getting bored at this point.

Back to my late ass, I run through the city to get to the bar I work in as darkness starts engulfing downtown while the sun keeps shining in the tech-filled platforms above.

Sighting the bright letters reading ‘Cain’s Sins’, I pick up speed and finally reach the main door that is already getting filled with ugly middle-aged men drooling for attention.

Knowing I can’t enter through here, I run around the bar and into the alleyway next to it.

“Mia!” I hear Jaden’s voice calling me.

I reach him in no time, smiling apologetically at him but he just shakes his head and stuffs a piece of bread in my mouth. He knows I haven’t eaten anything yet.

Jaden is my best friend since I can remember. He is a few years older than me and he has helped me survive in the streets since I woke up in the beach one day.

I don’t know if I would have made it without him.

“You’re so late” He tells me, his vibrant green eyes gleaming with amusement. “Did you oversleep again?”

“No” I defend myself, after gulping down the piece of bread. “I just fell off my bed and got a seizure. You’re all lucky I’m still alive”

Jaden chuckles, his bright red hair jiggling along with his head, the curls falling more into his forehead. I need to give this guy a haircut. I can’t remember when was the last time.

“Mia?” An annoying voice calls from inside. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me” I say. “You must be so disappointed”

An angry-looking brunette woman comes out of another room and looks at me up and down. She is already dressed in our performing clothes, filled with sparkles and not leaving much to the imagination.

“You’re still in those clothes?” She spits at me. “You’re so screwed when Cain finds out”

“I’m here now and I’ll get dressed in a jiffy” I respond, entering the packed room.

This is the room the girls use to get ready for the show. As you might imagine, it is a mess filled with wigs and makeup. Clothes and performing suits are thrown around everywhere as none of us girls really have the time to clean the place up. Jaden usually does that whenever he can.

If Cain knows I got here so late, he will kill me. Not figuratively, but quite literally. Cain is not to be messed with. He is the owner of this bar and the one who brought us girls to work here. He took us out of the streets, gave us a place to live and work to do.

It’s just a pity that work involves dancing half-naked and serving drinks to already drunken men. It sometimes involves doing other types of nasty things, but I’ll save you that image.

Jaden hands me my stage clothes and without another thought, I strip again and get on the sparkly tight jumpsuit with shades of black and gold.

Now, don’t get shocked that I am stripping in front of a guy without a second thought. Jaden is as much of a girl as any of us.

“What am I singing tonight?” I whisper to Jaden. If any of the other girls suspects I am this clueless, I’ll be hearing from Cain.

“Sweet Dreams, by Eurythmics” He tells me, helping me set up my hair, but the brush gets stuck in my messy brown hair. “When was the last time you brushed this bush?”

I shrug and then wince from the pain when he finally manages to work the brush through the knots. The curls haven’t been brushed in God knows how long.

“Last week?” I answer, but my mind is already thinking about the song I’ll have to sing and perform.

You see, I am not only one of the dancers of this cabaret bar. I am also the lead singer and every night I have to give my best performance under the scrutinizing eyes of Cain.

“Guess who else is going to be watching tonight?” Jaden tells me with a smile.

I blush, knowing exactly who she is referring to: Jack, my longtime friend.

Suddenly nervous at the thought of having him watch my performance tonight, I finish getting ready and walk out of the room with a quick wave to Jaden.

“Where were you?” A deep threatening voice makes the hairs in the back of my head curl as I am about to reach the main stage.

“Ah, Cain…” I start, looking shyly at him. “I’m sorry”

I avoid looking directly at his face, knowing that will only get me into more trouble.

Cain is a very tall man who must go to the Gym often by the way his body looks. His dark skin shines against his toned muscles and I gulp, imagining what he can do to me with the force those muscles must have.

“Don’t get late again” He threatens. “This is my last warning, Michelle”

I nod, knowing it’s all I can do right now to avoid getting hit. Cain is the only one who calls me by my full name. But it’s not like Michelle is my real name either. Jaden was the one who chose it for me.

“Go” He tells me, his voice sounding like thunder. “Don’t make my costumers wait any longer”

I nod again, still not looking at his dark eyes, and rush to get to the stage. The music starts playing and I put on my figurative mask.

Right now, I am just the lead singer. Mia Rose, of the angelic voice. Mia Rose, of the hypnotizing dancing.

Following the initial rhythm of the music, I dance across the stage just before adjusting the wireless microphone to my ear. I move my hands across my body to the tune of the music as I sing the lyrics I know by heart.

The lights nearly blind me as they focus on me and then at the two girls dancing next to me. I walk across the stage making sure the men down there can see the extent of my naked legs, all while I continue singing.

Our main stage is filled with tech from Hamato Industries, probably because Cain is one of the adopted sons of Itsuki Yoshiro, the current manager of their facilities here in Chicago.

The lights move and change color as I dance slowly and sing with the other girls on stage, our moves in sync as we repeat the choreography we rehearsed so many times before.

It is almost hypnotic, the way we sing and dance across the stage with the lights and the moving platforms.

Stepping onto my own platform, I prepare myself for the final part of the song, where I have to balance myself on aerial silk atop the costumers.

Moving up, I wrap my legs and arms on the golden silk as I am lifted higher and higher. I move my legs freely in the air, trying to ignore the looks from those below me as the lights continue fixated on me.

As part of the show, I pretend to almost fall, only to grab the silk at the last minute and take balance, so I can jump to another platform. I finish the song as the light dwindles and the sound fades away.

As soon as the light fades, the applause echoes through the bar, but I couldn’t care less about their appreciation.

There’s only one person’s opinion I care to hear about my performances.