Heroes and Villains

15 - Moving up

Michelle

It’s just another day, I guess. I wake up in a jolt then I get dressed in a hurry and run my way downtown to reach the bar as quickly as possible in order to avoid a beating.

Just like any other day… So, why do I feel so dejected?

It probably has nothing to do with the fact that I kissed Jack as Kitty Girl and he admitted to loving her. It definitely has nothing to do with finding out Monkey Paw is also Jack’s brother. And it most absolutely has nothing to do with me ‘accidentally’ kissing Monkey Paw back!

GRAHHHHH!

Did I shout that out loud?

Looking around at the surprised looks of the downtown citizens, I would say yes: I just shouted out loud like a lunatic.

Lowering my head, I continue running towards the bar. I am turning into a crazy person. It won’t take long until they come pick me up and shove me into an asylum.

However, when I get to the bar, I feel like I AM indeed getting crazy.

“What’s going on?” I ask at all the ruckus going at the bar.

Everything is getting moved out into a van, and I mean everything. All the wigs, makeup, sets, drinks…

“You’re late again” Stella’s irritating voice reaches me and I see her dumping a whole lot of stuff into the van.

“What is all this?” I ask.

“We’re moving uptown!” Harper, one of the girls who usually dances and sings with me shouts in excitement.

“Uptown?” I question, very confused.

“Mia!” Jaden’s voice calls me and I hurry to him inside the bar as he dispatches all the drinks from the cabinet. “Today is not a good day for you to get late”

“I noticed” I say. “What’s going on?”

“Cain wants to move us to the new facilities uptown today” He explains.

“And we’re only hearing this now?” I ask. “Wait, you knew there was a new bar?”

He looks a little guilty at this. “Cain asked me not to tell anyone, even you. But I didn’t know he was going to move us today”

“Why does he even want a new bar anyway?!” I ask, feeling dejected.

“It was a secret. Something he and his father are working on” Jaden tells me.

“His father?” I ask. “Since when does Itsuki Yoshiro care about this bar?”

“Since when did you start asking such questions?” Cain’s thunderous voice has me crouching down in a blink of an eye.

“Ah…” I mumble, scared. “I was just wondering, Cain… If… If this change is so important, why didn’t we hear about it?”

“If you weren’t always late, perhaps you would have heard what I said before” Cain says and grabs me by the collar, pulling me towards him.

I gulp as his face is only inches from mine and his threatening-looking eyes pear into me.

“I thought I told you that was my last warning, Michelle” He says, his voice menacing.

I can barely breathe with him pulling me by my collar like this. He is pulling me so hard, my feet are barely touching the ground.

His look shifts as he looks to the side and when he looks back at me, his expression has softened. He lets me go and I drop to the ground, gasping from my panic.

“You’re lucky you’re one of my best performers” Cain tells me, looking down at me. “If not, I wouldn’t even bother to take you with me”

Jaden rushes to my side when Cain leaves the scene. He caresses my back to try to calm me down.

“Is this really happening?” I ask to no one in particular. “Are we really moving uptown?”

“It seems so” Jaden answers, understanding my panic. “Cain has also had rooms built for every girl at the bar. You will be living up there too”

“What about you?” I ask, panicking that I won’t have him to support me like usual.

“I will be living there too, but will have my own place” He explains. “Mia, you need to calm down now and help with the moving before Cain loses his patience again”

I nod, knowing what he means. I can’t stress over what will change as soon as I start living up there. I will have time to worry about that. Right now, I need to worry about not getting killed by Cain.

As I help the other girls move all of the bar’s stuff into the van, my mind rampages on what I will have to do once we permanently move uptown. I’ll have to warn Luki. He will need to know where to go, but I guess I can warn him when I go to my apartment to get my things.

What is really troubling me is that now that we will be living in a place associated with the new bar, I won’t be able to sneak out so easily. How am I going to turn into Kitty Girl without anyone noticing I’m gone? I’ll have to warn Yumi about this too. Maybe she can help.

What am I thinking?... She can’t help. She can’t even see properly! I’ll just have to figure this out on my own. I wonder if it is too late for me to quit…. Cain would kill me on the spot…

Stella snaps her fingers in front of my face as I am still lost in my own little world of worry.

“Wake up!” She shouts. “We’re going now”

“N-Now?” I ask. “What about our things? And our apartments?”

“Cain says we can get those things later on” Stella answers. “Right now, we need to get going and get everything ready for tonight’s show”

“There’s gonna be a show tonight?” I ask, astonished.

“Of course there is!” Stella says, talking to me as if I’m stupid. “We have a show every night and tonight is no different”

“But we’re moving?...” I mumble on, not believing Cain wants us to pack our stuff, move uptown AND perform on the same night.

Stella just ignores me and moves to enter another van that is meant to take the girls to the new bar. Still astonished and feeling quite disheveled, I follow them and get onto the van sitting next to Jaden.

He touches my hand slightly and smiles at me to try to raise my spirits. I smile back but I know it doesn’t reach my eyes.

I am terrified by this change. I have no idea what I’m going to do about Kitty Girl now. What am I going to say to the mutants?... They are dependent on me. I’ll have to find a way to continue helping them.

The van starts moving and it doesn’t take too long until we are uptown and driving our way to the new bar. It is located on the not so fancy part of the city, near the stairway leading downtown. So, I got that going for me, which is nice.

As soon as we step out of the van, the first thing we notice is the bright lights spelling Cain’s Sins in such shiny redness it would make Satan feel jealous.

Looking at the fully built bar, I notice how bigger it is compared to the other one. Also, as we walk inside, I notice it has much more technology involved. It’s a step up, for sure, and it is certainly going to attract more clients seen that they no longer have to sneak downtown to see us.

What I am really wondering is if this is all necessary. We were doing fine down there. What happened for Cain to want to move us up here so suddenly and without previous notice?

Jaden said it was a project he and his dad have, but that makes even less sense. Why would Itsuki care about his son’s strip bar? I know he is the one financing this, but what does an important corporate employee from Hamato Industries have to with a strip bar?

My head fills with even more questions as Jaden drags me along with the other girls into the new dressing room. This one isn’t messy yet, but it will be soon enough.

However, Cain intercepts us both as we are about to walk inside.

“Michelle” His harsh voice calls me. “My office in five”

He walks away afterward, but the lump in my throat remains as I suddenly go numb. I know all too well what this means: A private session.

Cain has never really laid a hand on me that way. No, that’s how I knew he was probably gay even before I suspected he and Jaden have a thing. The problem with these private sessions is that he either scolds me too roughly or he has one of the more special clients over for a private lap dance that usually leads to something else.

I tremble, vividly remembering my first private session. I had just gotten into the bar. I was barely 16. It was horrible and were it not for Jack teaching me some of his ninja skills to help me through these sessions, I don’t know how I would have managed to survive.

 “Mia…” Jaden says, petting my face. “It will be alright, ok?”

“How can you be so sure?” I ask him, barely listening to my own voice.

“Trust me” He says, still patting my back, but I am not so sure.

It has been so long since I had a private session. So long, in fact, that I thought I would not have one ever again.

But, I guess with all my lateness I was bound to get some kind of punishment…

After getting dressed, with no real will of my own, Jaden points me the way to Cain’s new office and I slowly walk there, my feet dragging as if I am heading to my death.

I wish Jack was here. He would talk Cain out of this. He has done so before, but I haven’t seen him since that first night where I was almost captured by Monkey Paw and Yumi first appeared.

Scratch that, I did see him after that… Just not as Mia. I close my eyes and clench my fists, trying to eliminate that memory from my mind. It was our first kiss. The first time I fully admitted to myself how much I love him, and it wasn’t even me who really kissed him.

“Are you coming in or not?” Cain’s voice brings me back from my thoughts and I tremble with the dread of what has to happen next.

His cold dark eyes pear into me as I slowly walk into his office and he closes the door behind us.

I relax immediately when I see there is no one else in the room aside from the two of us. That probably means he doesn’t plan to punish me that way… But… It could also mean he plans to punish me in other more painful ways… Or there is a guy waiting outside to come in later on.

I am screwed in either scenario.

“Why are you always getting late, Mia?” Cain asks me, his voice as harsh as ever as he stands next to me.

Not looking at him, I focus my vision on his desk, noticing how it is already filled with stuff. He has probably been coming here before to get everything set for the grand opening tonight.

“You are going to have to answer me soon, Michelle” He continues and I sense his patience coming up short.

“I…” I stutter, scared of what he might do. “I fall asleep”

“Don’t you have an alarm clock?” He questions.

“I do, but…” I mumble, still not looking at him. “It doesn’t seem to work”

“Jaden has told me you have been working too hard lately” Cain says, completely surprising me as his tone of voice goes gentler. “Is that true?”

I feel like a rabbit caught in a trap. If I tell him yes, he will hit me because that would mean I am against him giving me so much work. If I tell him no, he will still hit me because I am contradicting what Jaden has told him.

“It doesn’t matter” He says before I can come up with an answer. I look surprised at him and his dark eyes watch me attentively.

“If you’re tired, this is your chance to get some rest” He says, confusing me even further. “I have rooms ready for all of you girls on the building next to the bar. Whenever you are not performing, you are to stay in there and rest”

“S-Stay in?...” I mumble, not wanting to believe what he just said.

“Yes. It is not safe for you to get out of the bar on your own for now” He tells me. “All of you girls are to stay inside the bar and the new apartments for the time being”

I think I’m going to be sick. My world has just crumbled under my feet. If I thought it was going to be hard for me to head out and work as Kitty Girl before, now it is just downright impossible.

And what does he mean, it’s not safe? Is he serious? Does he really think it was safe for us to walk around downtown but now that we are uptown, it is not? That makes no sense at all.

“W-what about my stuff?” I ask, trying to come up with a contingency plan. I can still try to run away and go live with the mutants again.

“I’ll have Jaden get them for you, don’t worry” He says, turning his back on me and about to open the door for me to leave.

“What about my cat?” I ask him, starting to get desperate.

“You have a cat?” He asks me, looking at me through his large shoulder.

“Y-Yes… Well, he’s a street cat, but I feed him” I say.

“I suppose Jaden can bring him out here too if he manages to grab him” Cain says, and for the first time I want to hit him for being nice to me in the worst time possible.

What happened to the brutal Cain that would tell me to get rid of my cat instead of having Jaden go get it?

Cain opens the door for me and almost pushes me out of his office.

“Get ready” He says. “You’re singing ‘I don’t wanna go to bed’ by Simple Plan today”

I don’t even get to say yes or nod before he closes the door on my nose. I collapse to the ground, not knowing what to do anymore. I can’t believe I am going to stay stuck in here.

How am I going to help the mutants? How am I going to prevent the destruction of the lair?

What am I gonna do?