Part Six 

I entered the Casino lobby at ten PM. I was met with the faint smell of smoke and the sound of coin machines echoing throughout the floor. There’s no cover charge. I ask a waitress if I can speak with Rich Boyd the owner of BoydCasinos. She laughs inmy face and walks away with her tray. I walk up to a table where they’re playing Black Jack. I join in on the game and am met with a subtle look of nonchalance by the host and the other two party members, one of which is wearing a gray suit and the other still in his pajamas who looks like he rolled right out of bed. Another big chested waitress approaches me and ask what I want to drink. I tell her I’ll have a Heineken. The game goes on for about thirty minutes and I hardly know what I’m doing. I look to my right and near the ceiling is a CCTV camera looking right over the table. I get an idea.

“Sir, do you want to draw or stay?” the card dealer asks monotonously.  

“Draw” he throws me a card. “I mean stay.”

“Sir you can not retract the draw you just made.”

“Oh can I not? I asked for a fucking stay and you threw me a card.”

“Sir?” his voice remaining calm. 

I throw the chips all over the table in frustration, upon which the two gentlemen I’m playing with grab me by my leather jacket and lift me into the air. Within seconds security rushes to the scene. I’m whisked away from the table and before I know it being escorted down the halls of the casino by two security guards towards the back street of the casino. The metallic door flies open and I’m thrown into the guttural street. I immediately spring into action and try to throw a swing at one of the guards and I hit him in the ear. He screams assault and the other guard runs to his aid and pins me down on the ground.

“You just assaulted a casino employee. We will hold you for that til the police can arrive.”

I’m brought to an office where I sit tied to a chair.  There’s a calendar of a nude model and on the desk a cactus plant.  The two guards laugh at me while I struggle with my nose bleeding all over my white shirt. 

“Don’t worry tiger…” The guard I hit says. “A swing like that will get you a nice criminal charge.” He starts ranting more about fines and whatnot until the words escape from my mouth “Tana Molnar.”

Silence.

“What?” one of the guards says “What did you say?

“I came here to talk to Rich Boyd about Tana Molnar.”

I’m uncuffed by the guard I punched and once again hauled into a hallway, which leads to a suite on the fourth floor. They put me in a chair where I’m sat across from a finely groomed man wearing a suit, his leg folded over the other and his hairline somewhat receded.

“I am Rick Boyd” he says.

He gives me a tissue to stuff my nose.

“I came here to talk to you about Tana” I say, my voice muffled as I apply the knotted Kleenex into my nostril. “She used to work here.”

“Indeed she did.” Replies Boyd. “But that doesn’t give you the right to break the rules and trash the casino floor.”

“I’m sorry.” I’m exhausted. “It was very foolish of me.”

“Anyway you have it Tana is dead. The whole community is grieving over this. Why Would you come to our establishment and ask about her?”

Silence.

“Because I know you were one of her clients as a high end call girl.

“So what if I was?” He smirks. “What has that got to do with anything?”

“You could be implicated in sex trafficking if people suspected it… You could have saved her and instead you chose to use her as a sex object like everyone else. As far as I’m concerned, we all have blood on her hands.”

“But I didn’t kill Tana. Someone else did. And If I knew who had done it I would gladly join you in wrangling their neck. Now quit it with the school-boy heroics and go home. We will dismiss what you did to my employee if you promise to stay off the casino grounds.”

“Wait….” I say “Did you really have sex with Tana?”

Boyd smiles. “Many times.”

Boyd told me about all the degenerate acts Tana would perform. She was willingly to do everything and anything. Once again I felt a mixture of envy, resentment and passion. Passion that had and never will be mine for Tana. I was foolish for my school boy infatuation. Tana was no angel. If anything, she had the heart of seasoned harlot and the mind of a criminal.

“No, I didn’t kill Tana, my dear boy. Tana was a good employee. We all loved her,” he begins to cry profusely. “And I can’t imagine what her poor parents are feeling, or wondering if her double life will emerge in the public eye.”

“One last thing” I say defeated. “Do you know anything about Dream Rabbit.”

“Dream Rabbit?” says Boyd “No. But I did talked to Tana about a client who scared her….”

According to Rick, Tana had met a man named Otis Blackwood who was into more extreme forms of sex.

“He was a connoisseur of extreme porno films” The security guard says. “Have you ever seen a snuff film?”

“No.” I say.

“Otis Blackwood is a distributor of pornographic bondage films. He owns a sex shop in the city called ‘Sex Machines'”

I took out my Tanas black book. Otis is listed as a client.

“I’ll check it out.” I add.

I leave Rich a crying mess and start towards the nearest hospital for my potentially broken nose. It was in the early morning hours of night I approach Sex Machines, the rain coming down hard against a jet black sky. I hadn’t been in contact with my mother in over a week. I checked my text and had one from Rose Kay with only three words:

 

 HE’S WATCHING YOU!

 

I try to send her a message back but the service from my cell  phone is in a dead zone. I’d panic, but I know it’s no flub. Someone IS watching me. I can feel it. I go into Sex Machines. The store was across from a parking garage in the middle of a metropolis. The whole place smells of rubber and candles. It’s vacant. I ring a bell that sits on the glass countertop of the front desk. Inside the shelves are sex toys and poppers. Other sex stimulants and gas station viagra. A man in leather emerges from behind a red curtain in a backroom. He’s in his mid-forties and gaunt like a skeleton dressed in bondage gear with a handlebar mustache.

“Are you Otis Blackwood?” I ask.

“Yeah man.” He smiles with an unnerving presence. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m into Serfdom.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I ask who told you to tell me that?”

“A girl named Night Nocturne.”

“Step this way” He says as he pulls the curtain back which leads to another hallway, booths of televisions playing pornographic films. Another black man stands at the endof the hallway keeping watch. “I’ll take you to our special booth.” Otis says.

All I can hear is the barely audible sound of women orgasms coming from the televisions. The hallways are dank and dark. We approach the black man who stands in front of the final door.

“My new friend.” Otis tells the bald black man, his arms fold and his facial expression deadly serious. The black man steps aside and we go into the studio room which has a big seventy inch HD television equipped with surround sound and a DVD player. Otis goes to pop in a DVD. I sit on the couch.

“Wait til you see this shit man.” Otis remarks.

The video starts as incomprehensible pixelated images flash across the screen until it suddenly stops flickering and the camera focuses on a woman tied up in bondage against a table sitting on a wall. First she is whipped. She seems to enjoy it. Then a a man in a mask comes into frame. He has a large hunting knife. He puts it to her throat. Suddenly she becomes on edge, but she’s bound and can do nothing about it so she tries to relax. The man then socks her in the face, leaving a large bruise near her cheekbone. She starts to cry. The gimp makes his mark by cutting into one of her breast and making it bleed. I look at Otis who watches in a daze.

“We haven’t even gotten to the good part man.” He says. 

I immediately stand up as I can no longer watch what’s happening on screen. Otis shuts the film off.

“Hey I told you this was some extreme shit. Still, even though you didn’t watch til the end you still gotta pay.”

I throw him eighty dollars and tell him I want out of the shop. I feel my face start to redden. I’m sweating, unable to hide my anxiety. He can tell I’m on edge.

“What was the name of that girl that sent you here?”

“Night Nocturne” I gulp.

“Here you go, bro.” Otis hands me a business phone. A Verizon flip phone. He tells me to go to the contacts. I do and I see a number for Dream Rabbit. I take the card and run out the studio door and through the hallway past the black man who screams at me to slow my pace. I make it back to the parking garage and whip out my own phone. First I go to call Rose Kay but once again it says service is disabled. I try to call Tana’s Parents, but the service is a no go. I’ve searched and uncovered all their is to uncover. But none of the calls go through. I call the number for Dream Rabbit from the flip phone. It goes through. A man with one of the deepest sounding, almost inhumanly so, voices I’ve ever encountered answers. I recognize his voice from a dream I had about Tana.

“Hello, Vincent.” He says. 

“You know my name.” I reply, my voice stoic and without trembling.

“I’ve been watching you.”

Pause.

He continues “My name is Mr. Henry.

“I know who I’m speaking with. Your reputation precedes itself.”

“I’m in a high rise building on Samson street, the fiftieth floor. The top floor. I wish to speak with you as soon as possible.” He continues “I wanna talk about Tana.”

“I’ll be there.” I say. 

It’s two AM when I make my way past an intersection and I am surprised by how desolate the streets are, almost apocalyptically so.  I arrive at Samson street and come to realize it’s a construction zone and there likely isn’t a police unit for five blocks. I look up at the building, a brooding monolith, it stands erect like a fierce dragon. I’m surprised to find the glass front door open and when I enter I close it quietly behind me and head past the marble lobby and towards the elevator. The place is seemingly empty, or is it? I go in and push the fiftieth floor. The elevator doors close and it goes up weightlessly and without any real effort.

I stand in the elevator soaking wet, my hair dripping. As it rises I can see all of the city below me sparklingly vibrant and without a sound. The doors open and that’s when I notice the big scar on his face, the overwhelming whiteness of his eyes. I approach him cautiously. Mr. Henry. His sky rise is posh and free from any blemishes. Mr. Henry himself is rather fit and proper. I notice there’s a fireplace and beside it a bar with every kind of liquor known to man. I feel out of place and on the defense. I imagine there’s spooks hiding in some corner of the room ready to guard him, but after further inspection it looks as if it’s only the two of us. He eventually turns from staring out the window at the rainy dark and we lock eyes for the first time. 

“Mr. Henry?”

“You are, Mr. Black, I presume?”

“Yes.” I say shivering. 

“I want to explain to you my philosophy of pleasure.”

Silence.

“You see, the only real thing worth pursuing in life is carnal euphoria. Nothing else really matters. Everything you hold sentimental to you is but a distraction. Your family, your work your artistic pursuits. “ He continues, “ All of it pales in comparison to the sexual limits one can reach. Not even the greatest sunset or the most breathtaking view can compare. And I think you know this to be true.

“I’m listening” I reply.

“You want to talk about Tana Molnar, don’t you.”

“That’s why I’m here.” I say, “Do you care if I smoke?”

“Go right ahead.” He laughs.

“Tana was one of my dearest girls. I was watching her when she was just sixteen. I knew of all her troubles. Her depression, her suicidal thoughts, Her forced institutionalization.”

He pours himself a drink, “Tana, initially showed interest in ‘crossing over’ but her heart was too pure for it and that was her undoing.”

“Crossing over?”

“The Outer Rim, yes.” Mr. Henry Continues “You see, there exist another world outside of this one. Few people can reach it. I possess the power to do so. It’s a place of never ending sexual pleasures with young nymphets who are eager and willing. The violence and the brutality of this world ceases to exist there.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“It is.”

“Then why did Tana reject it?”

He ignores my questions and goes back to his sermon.

“You’re whole life has been a lie, Vincent. Pleasure will always triumph over justice. Deep down you are like me. And soon you’ll have realized what a waste of time this whole silly adventure has been trying to get to the bottom of Tana’s death. Tana takes the appearance of a lamb, but deep down she is a dog who will always surrender to her evolutionary biology. Hedonism is the only real..”

I cut him off.

“Why did you murder Tana?”

“Because of the ‘goodness of her heart…’ he mocks her “…won over paradise.” Tana disagreed with my interpretation of the world. I may have had corrupted her, but I couldn’t corrupt her unselfish spirit. She still wanted to stay here to help the needy, the downtrodden and lesser beings.The commonwealth I wish to make my slaves. 

“That doesn’t explain why you killed her.” I shout.

“She knew too much about The Outer Rim. I feared she would expose me. She became a liability.” He continues “Which is why I brought you here today Mr. Black… To relay to you the same message. If you continue on this path, you will be killed.”

Paused.

“Mr. Henry continues. “ Dream Rabbit is a large organization. We’ve been handling girls for many years, all of which respect or at least fear us. Some are happy to leave this world and go to The Outer Rim.”

“I know all about it.” I say “You’re a cult leader.”

“If you don’t back down, I’m afraid your life will be also treated as a liability for our organization.”

I think for a moment. I think of something profound to say but the only thing I can muster is “What about Rose? Will she be okay? Will she be safe from harm?”

“She’s safe as long as the two of you give up your inquiries and turn the other cheek.”
He stares at me for an uncomfortably long time and then walks towards me, almost as if he’s gliding and goes to shake my hand. Reluctantly, I see no other choice but to meet his gesture. “What about Mr. and Mrs. Molnar. What will I tell them?” I say weakly. 

“You are never to talk to them again. In time, they will understand and hopefully see you in a favorable light for trying.”
Pause. 

He continues “Now go out and enjoy life. You have a great new girlfriend. It would be a shame to throw that all away.” 

I took the elevator downstairs. My phone was still out of service so I hit up a nearby dive bar and grabbed a drink, defeated. A woman my age tried  to chat me up but I was too distracted by Tana and what Mr. Henry had told me I barely registered her talking to me. I walked the cobbled streets of the city and saw an entrance way for a subway. I sat at the wooden bench waiting for the train. Thirty minutes later it arrived and I sat in the back booth by myself. When my stop came I noticed a group of Frat boys smiling at me from a distance. I was in no mood to fight. They probably thought I had cash. I didn’t. I had no more than forty bucks left in my wallet. When the first one jumps on me he strikes me across the face with a weight that nearly knocks me off my feet. The second one kicks me in the gut and the third one rolls me over and takes out my wallet from my rear back pocket.

“Forty bucks!” the leader exclaims “You broke faggot.”

They take turns wailing on me and I’m honestly too tired other then to just roll up in a ball and try to protect my face. They eventually get tired and run off once another a woman spots them wailing on me. I spit up blood then puke in a nearby trash can. In the guttural street, the dawn rising, blood and bruised I remember Tana and proclaim my eternal love for her.