Paying the Price (RP)

Persephone followed Emma as she walked with the man toward the door, hoping to avoid any further questioning as well. She added only, "I'm sorry, I don't know his name."

She nodded in agreement when Emma asked him to let her know if there's any sign of her and turned to leave.

"You're going to make me think you don't want us to sign with you" it was very odd of Gene to try to dissuade them after the 'audition' back at Sarah's apartment. She gave him a once over, before nodding "We're already here, so we might as well meet your boss and see what he has to offer us"

Emma briefly scanned the room, taking in the disorganization and general lack of care. Papers scattered across the desk, the unsophisticated approach to business. This club clearly wasn’t raking in the big money. The 'boss' (who hadn't even thought to introduce himself), didn't ask for any ID to make sure they were of age, if only to make sure he covered his fat ass. His lax attitude said it all; she had no illusions that this was a high-end establishment, and she wouldn't be surprised if there were a few illicit activities going on in the back rooms.

There was no point trying to interrogate this guy; he was too busy running things into the ground to answer their questions, and they could only raise his suspicion by staying in his office. She would have have better luck searching the locker room or any backrooms they might have for clues. Maybe some of the other dancers had seen or heard something useful.

"Sure; where do we change?"

Persephone followed along with Emma, wondering why they were doing this. When told they could perform immediately, Persephone froze. She stood there silently and watched Emma truly commit to this, going further than Persephone was willing to go. She did not share that now, however. Rather, she planned to accompany Emma to the changing area and speak to her about it there.

The first thing Emma noticed when she stepped into the changeroom was the smell. It was stale and musky, barely hidden beneath a thick cloud of cheap perfume. The room itself was small, rundown, and clearly hadn’t been properly maintained in ages. The walls were lined with lockers—some labeled, some with their names scratched out. A few lockers were piled high with discarded outfits, forgotten socks, and old shoes. A large metal hanger stood in the center, holding a collection of skimpy outfits, and Emma immediately made a beeline for it.

"You know" she spoke to Pers as she picked through the clothes "at first I thought maybe one of the clients was a vampire feeding on the strippers, but the more I think about it, the less it makes sense." She pulled out a naughty schoolgirl outfit, holding it up to examine. She had half a mind to swipe it, but then quickly dismissed the idea. She didn’t have a bag to hide it in. "But that would attract too much attention, right? If one of the dancers had to call in sick every time he visited"


She flipped through the rack, pausing to study each outfit more closely "So maybe it’s one of the dancers themselves. It's like having dinner delivered right to your door every night. If one of the customers gets a bit too worn out after his backroom visit, she could always blame it on the alcohol."


Her fingers brushed against the next outfit, scanning the fabric for any signs. Any smudge or stain. Blood was hard to get out, even if the outfits were sent to the wash regularly. She knew from experience that feeding wasn’t always as clean as people liked to think, especially if it was done in a hurry.

"Check the drawers of the vanity" she suggested to Pers, while she was looking through the outfits "..and maybe the trashcans"

Persephone followed Gene and Emma to the club. By the time they entered, Pers was walking with her arms wrapped around her, a look of discomfort on her face. When Gene turned to them and asked if they were sure they wanted to do this, Persephone looked immediately to Emma, who stuck with her story.

They shuffled in to meet the boss, an odious man in a filthy office. Ew. This scumbag can't be a vampire, can he? Persephone realized she had absolutely no idea if vampires looked like sexy aristocrats, like in Anne Rice, or anachronistic and unsettling menaces, like in Bram Stoker, or hideous monsters, like in the film Nosferatu.

They filed out of the office and headed to the changing room. Along the way, Gene apologized for Ray's behavior. Persephone glanced at Emma, arched an eyebrow, and replied, "The owner doesn't seem very nice... I guess being the owner comes with a lot of financial stress? Oh wait, he is the owner, right? Or just the manager?"

When they arrived at the changing room, she waited for Gene to leave before turning to Emma, who immediately went to the rack of probably used and sweaty stripper clothes. She stepped next to her to get her attention and said, "Emma! What are you doing?! Are you gonna go through with this??"

As Persephone spoke, Emma whirled through the area, and it dawned on Pers what she was up to. A search! Oh my god she thinks she's Nancy Drew. Honey, this is no game... Concern for her friend in her voice, Persephone added more softly, "Don't you think this has gone far enough?" She sighed, rolled her eyes, and acquiesced, with a "OK fine, but let's just be quick and then get out, ok?"

As Emma proposed her hypotheses, Persephone scanned the place. She listened to Emma and then replied, "I have no idea... I mean, aren't vampires rich and powerful? Why would one want to be a stripper? I'd guess it's the owner, which definitely is not that Ray guy, not another dancer."

She continued her scan of the area.

"No, not all vampires are rich. In fact, many of them aren't. It’s really not that important to them. Money, I mean. Most of them don’t care for it the way humans do" She lowered her voice "Some barely scrape by. And then there's a whole other class of vampires. The ones I call 'Morlocks.' They're… crazy. Seriously. They live underground, in the sewers mostly. You can’t even really call them people anymore. They're ancient, older than most of us, and they kidnap humans to feed on. And yeah - they’re completely insane. The older they get, the worse it is"

She sighed in frustration as she scanned the rows of outfits again. Nothing. Not a single clue. No blood stains, no signs of anything unusual. This was a total waste of time. She hadn’t expected much, but she was still disappointed to come up empty-handed.

"Well, that was a bust" she muttered under her breath, and with a nod to Pers, started heading toward the door "- Let’s get out of here."

Persephone smiled at the cook and said, "Not sure yet? Hey hon, is that Ray guy the owner? 'Cause he wasn't very nice... I figured, if I could maybe... get on the good side of his boss, if you know what I mean -- the owner, I assume? -- it might be easier for me here. Do you know who they are, or is it just Ray?"

"You know, that was actually kinda fun" Emma's excitement was palpable once they were back out on the street. She got a rush out of lying her way into the club, and the spark of exhilaration in her eyes was unmistakable "If only we could find something useful in there. Oh well!"

She lead the two back toward Sarah's apartment. Now that Gene was gone, they could try their own luck with Chablis. She pulled her phone out from her purse and dialed her number, but no one picked up, and it was dead quiet on the other side of the door. No faint ring of a phone. Nothing.

With a small, teasing smile, she pulled a couple of bobby pins from her purse "Learned this trick from someone. Watch my back, I'll only need a couple of minutes" and without hesitation, she knelt down in front of the lock, bending the pins then working them into the mechanism.

Persephone followed Emma, but couldn't help feeling like she was being pulled along faster than she was comfortable with. How does Emma do this? She just... dives in and nothing phases her. I am still trying to wrap my head around vampires... It took me months to come to terms with being a demon. OK, well, that may still be a work in progress, but still... It's like she was born to this world...

They arrived back at Sarah's apartment to find it locked. Emma pulled a hairpin out, or something, and knelt before the door to supposedly unlock it. "Hon, this isn't the movies, you can't just..."

*Click!* The lock opened, to Persephone's great surprise.

"What in the..."

She put her hand on Emma's shoulder an got her to turn and face her. She looked at her with disbelief and said, "Who are you? How is all this -- vampires, demons, picking a lock -- normal for you? You're like a character in Scooby Doo! But, like, with Velma's brain in Daphne's body!"

Another rush of excitement surged through her as she heard the click of the lock opening. Cheeks flushed from the thrill, she gave Pers a tight-lipped smile: "Come on, this is no different than when we snuck into the Arctic Monkeys concert and ended up meeting Andy backstage. We can't just sit at home all day and expect something amazing to happen."

She turned, pushing the door handle down and peeked inside "Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?"

She had always managed to skirt by on her looks and charm since she was a teen, finding ways to dodge any consequences even when she did get caught. It had become second nature to her, so she didn’t question it anymore, assuming she will always be able to get away with it all. Besides, she was too addicted to the thrill of doing something dangerous, and enthralled by all the secrets she uncovered, to ever give up that part of her life.

Waiting for Persephone to follow her in, she quietly closed the door behind them and turned on the light switch, eager to start their search through the apartment.