My eyes move to the clothes on the bed, then back to Beth as she refuses to leave.
"It's something light to get you through the night," she tells me. It sounds like a plea for me to come out of the room.
“Are there cameras in the room?” I ask as I look up into the corners.
"No, not in here or in the bathroom." She takes another step closer, but still stands an arm’s distance away. "I know this might all be crazy, you have no idea what is happening, but one thing I do promise you is, he will never hurt you; he will worship the ground you walk on. Please come down for some food." Her voice comes out a little broken like she's holding back tears, and I look at her for a moment, we exchange no words, and watch her eyes moving along my face. Beth gives me one more smile then leaves.
What the hell is happening?
I ended up having a shower, I needed to freshen up and have a clear head. I fought with myself for a long time, debating if I should go have some food. In the end, I relented that I have to eat; I need to take my meds, and I need a full stomach for that. I don’t know when I last took them.
A part of me kept saying no. I mean; this is what he wants me to do; to do everything he tells me to. Then I thought if I didn't, he would get angry. That he would come back up here with the Candle and the Clock; and one of them managed to knock me out and kidnap me in the first place. What chance would I have against them both, and all three? I've not seen him yet, but the idea of that scared me more. What would he do to me? There is also the fact that my stomach is hurting, as I’m getting hungry. I don’t know when I last ate.
My hand trembles as I open the bedroom door and look left and right in the hallway. Where the hell do, I go from here? I look around, the floor is marbled, again white walls all the way through. It’s a very open space, which makes me wonder how big this place is.
I hear some voices downstairs; well, I guess I will follow the sound of them. I can’t help but chuckle to myself when I hear their conversation.
“Why do you get to be the Candle?”
“Because the Candle gets all the girls, and we both know that I get them all.”
"Like fuck, you do."
As I get to the bottom of the stairs, I see Beth, who is smiling at me.
"I’m so happy that you chose to come," she says. Both Candle and Clock stop arguing and glance over at me.
"Let's get some dinner, the dining room is this way," she continues. I take my eyes off the two men and turn to Beth as she starts walking, and I stand there for a moment. "I will be in the room with you." Her voice is soothing, reassuring.
“The Candle and Clock?” I ask.
She starts laughing as she looks over at them. "Are you two joining us, or not?" She asks them, I don't hear anything from them as I continue to look at Beth; she nods her head. I follow her to the dining room.
Beth opens the door, and it takes me a moment to get my feet to move. I can feel my body tremble as I take the first step. I lock my eyes onto the man who stood with his back to me. The door closes behind me, and I jump. I take a few more steps into the room and wait.
As he turns around, I move my eyes up his chest; I can feel my breathing getting rapid as I see his lips again. And then I lock eyes with him. I press my lips together to stop myself from screaming as a piercing fear hits me like an icicle to the heart.
I could pick those blue eyes out of a baseball crowd if I were standing on the pitcher’s mound. I've dreamt about them every night. Now they are standing in front of me.
I instantly take a step back, my mind blank; my eyes are wide as I stare at him in horror. My mouth gapes open.
It can't be him, the man of my dreams, but it is.
My heart beating far too fast, faster than it should be; my stomach feels heavy, despite it being so empty. What is happening?
I swallow the lump in my throat; but I feel like my body is turning on me, it's making me ache. The scary thing is, I feel like it's aching to touch him. I know those blue eyes. My breathing is out of control, and I run out of the room, back into the bedroom I woke up in. Kneeling on the floor, I empty my bag, everything falls out as I shake it.
I flick through the pages of my drawing pad; each has the eyes drawn on them. It's him. But why?
I take in a deep breath, and slowly let it out, but it stutters as it leaves my lungs. My lips tremble with confusion on what is happening, why did he bring me here? Who is he? I should run, run as far as I can; but I know that if I did, I'd be haunted by these eyes. Just like I have been, until now.
I close the pad, throwing it back into my bag. I lean against the wall, and stare at nothing.
I grab the controller and turn all the lights off and sit in the darkness. Right now, I feel hopeless. I feel lost.
It’s not easy getting things you want in life, I should know. I wasn’t given this club because my father worked hard and gave it to me, fuck no. I got this because I worked hard. I worked so fucking hard that I didn’t sleep for days; I was only hungry to make my dream of this club become my reality.
Beth worked on the streets, whilst I worked in a restaurant as a waiter in the day. I hated that she was sleeping in an apartment, on the rough side of the city. I wouldn’t even call it an apartment, it looked like a dump yard, but she said it had a bed and hot water, and that it was home for her. I told her that she could sleep on the couch at my place, but she wasn’t comfortable with it. I might not have liked it, but she wasn’t changing her mind, and that only made me want to work harder and get her out of that life quicker. In those days I worked at a strip club at night, tending the bar; that is where I met a lot of different men. Married men that weren’t happy in their marriages.
They were the ones I asked: if they could act out any fantasy, what would it be? The answers were different for every man, but they all had some similarities. From there, I made a list of the rooms I wanted, needed, in my club.
While I worked those two jobs, Aiden and Rhys were doing their own thing for a while. They knew I wanted the club, but they still thought I was crazy. We would meet up every night before my shift started at the strip club, to see how our days were, and I would tell them what new things I had come up with; this is when Rhys knew that I was going to make it, one way or the other. After working for two years, they both said that if I ever needed anything, money or help with other things, I could call them; they would help, and I took them up on their offer. I asked them to help me buy the girls an apartment, something simple, a two-bedroom place, that they could share. The four girls that agreed to work with me, all lived in shitholes. So, I wanted them to all be in one place, and somewhere I felt it would be safe for them too.
For four years I worked at the strip club, talking to man after man, businessman after businessman, collecting business cards along the way. I knew the club I wanted, I needed some professionals that knew what to do, with money and to help me stay inside the law; I knew I’d need a lawyer to get my contracts in place before anything else.
Four long years working there, scrimping and saving every cent; four years looking after my girls making sure they were safe.
When I finally got enough money to buy a house, that was where my business began. The club was born.
The first person I called was this one man that came to the strip club every night. Same time, same girl. He was a lawyer and said he was miserable with his wife; work was crazy, and his wife was always asleep when he got back. He came to the club to be as close to pleasure as he could get, he never slept with the girl, mainly because that wasn’t their job, but you could see that he was there to have a good time, but that was it. He told me that he loved his wife even though they had rough times, when he’d had a few drinks in him, then he would talk non-stop, but I learned a lot from him. He wanted to be able to get himself off, around another woman, and still feel good that he didn’t cheat on his wife.