Chapter 8
EUCLID entered the club where his partner was, but the bouncer at the entrance blocked him, asking for his VIP pass. He checked his watch. It’s already two-thirty in the morning.
“What I only got is a pass for the weekend show,” he said in a lower voice. “Can I just buy for tonight’s pass?”
“I’m sorry, sir. All the tickets for tonight were sold out,” the huge man in a black t-shirt said. With his massive arms, he could fold him into eight.
But, Euclid wouldn’t let him touch him. “Is it because Magdalene is performing tonight?” he asked, fishing something on his back pocket.
The bouncer looked alarmed and was about to twist his arm when he showed him a thousand bills. “Let me in. I’ll give you this.”
The man hesitated. Euclid took out another blue bill and slid it on the man’s pocket. “Show me the ticket booth.”
“I told you, tickets were sold out,” he said, then looked inside the dark alley going to the club. “Give me another two thousand, I will let you see Magdalene in five minutes.”
Euclid laughed. “I want to see her dance naked—”
“Don’t you want to see what’s behind that mask?” The bouncer waggled his brows at him. “Nobody has laid an eye to her.”
“You’re shitting me. She’s been sleeping with customers—”
“With the mask on,” he cut off, “Magdalene was strict about remaining her identity hidden.”
“Then why are you negotiating with me? You’re breaking the rules.” Euclid placed his hands in his pocket. “You need money?”
“Just tell me if you want or not,” the man said. “Four thousand, and you’ll see Magdalene.”
Euclid smirked. “That’s thrice the price of the pass.”
“Three thousand.”
Euclid took out another blue bill. “Take me to Magdalene.”
*
“YOU haven’t slept, where are you going?” Wendy asked when she noticed her packing her things.
“I’ll be back before three a.m,” she said and kissed her sleeping daughter’s cheeks.
“What?” she looked at their wall clock. “It’s just eleven p.m. Where are you going? Don’t tell me you’ll go to the club again?”
“Demi texted me, there’s a lot of customers that wanted to see me—”
“So? I thought your last night will be on the weekend? It’s just Friday,” Wendy countered. “What if Sara looked for you? What am I going to tell her?”
Maria looked at her daughter. “Wendy, I need to do this.”
Wendy sat up from their bed. “You know, I have an idea. Why don’t you just seduce Sara’s doctor? If he fell for you and became his girlfriend, then your problem with Sara’s hospitalization is solved. I can see that Dr. Connor truly cares for Sara, he even bought her gifts in his every visit here.”
“Don’t say that, Wendy. Dr. Connor is a good person. We shouldn’t include him on my list,” Maria said as she put on her hood. “And, he’s just blinded by my fake identity.”
Wendy laughed. “He thought you’re a hardworking single mom that works as a night shift cashier in a convenience store to support her daughter’s medication.”
Maria’s chest tightened. She’s still not used to these kinds of remarks towards her, and she guessed she’ll never be. “Little did he know that when the dark came, I am transforming into a hungry butterfly that sipped the nectars on every flower waiting to be noticed by me.”
Wendy fell silent as she watched her put on her makeup base. “We’ll get over this, Maria.”
Maria smiled bitterly. “I doubt it, Wendy. My body has been stained. And, those stains cannot be erased even by the strongest detergent. It will remain in my skin, a forever scar in my soul.”
*
THE bouncer brought Euclid to the back door used by the club’s women. At, first Euclid was suspicious that the guy was just tricking him, but when a woman in a white night dress came out walking hip to hip with an old man, he felt excited, not by the fact that the stupid bouncer revealed to him another entrance but by the chance that he could really see Magdalene.
Euclid knew that what he was doing was unnecessary. Stalking Magdalene is out of their assignment, but he doesn’t understand why and where he’s getting this strong feeling that he needed to see her.
“Have you seen her face?” he asked the man.
“Who? Magdalene?” he nodded, then grinned maliciously. “Her stage name suits her perfectly. She has an angelic innocent face. That’s why all our customers here, big-time, or even the small-time was dying to get a touch.”
“I thought nobody has seen her face?” he asked. He suddenly felt irAnneted by what he said.
“There’s one time that her mask fell accidentally while she was dancing on the stage,” he began. “For one second, the crowd fell silent, and then the lights went off.”
“She’s really mysterious…” he commented, but his mind was out of the conversation.
That woman reminded him of an innocent girl from her past. Euclid quickly shook off the unnecessary thoughts. It’s not the right time to think about the things that happened in his past. Everything was gone, and cannot be undone. That girl will just remain hidden to the darkest side of his heart.
“There she is,” the bouncer told him. “That’s Magdalene.”
Euclid looked at the door. A tall and slender woman in a red hoodie and jeans walked out, she wasn’t wearing her feathery mask anymore, but half of her face was still covered by a cloth facemask. The woman turned to their direction but wasn’t shocked to see them.
The bouncer called her. “Hey, tramp! Booking,” he said and pointed to him.
Euclid focused his eyes on her face. The street was dark, and the only faint light that lit the alley was the distant light post. The woman walked towards them, clutching her bag on the side, she hooked to his arm, making sure her breasts were pressing to him.
“What a lucky night,” she purred. “I need some honey.”
Euclid looked at the woman, and when the faint light cast on her eyes, Euclid saw it. She wasn’t the woman with sad brown eyes on the tarpaulin that has a name, Magdalene.
***
