There was a tinge of pink in the sky, but it was dark and smeared and not a friendly hue. The rest of the sky was murky � the kind of murky, which came from mixing paint until the only color left was off-black. This was the end of dusk.

A girlish figure in flowing white entered a room. It was a living room. She was the only person there. The room was cloaked in shadows with the dull gloom of emerging night flooding through the open windows. She stumbled towards a wooden cabinet, mahogany, teak or something like that, they were all the same to her, and grabbed the nearest bottle. The bottle was filled with brown liquid. She unscrewed the cap and visibly relaxed as she caught a whiff of the familiar smell. Familiar and comforting. She poured herself a glass and, in her eagerness, spilled a little over her hand and onto the carpet. The carpet was egg-shell cream, that�s what the interior decorator had said. It stained. She licked her hand, cleaned it. Then she dropped to her knees and bent down. Head low and tilted. Mouth opened. So close to the ground her lips could almost feel the wool fibers. Then�

Bright, bright, bright light. Too bright. She blinked. And a voice: �What are you doing?�

The voice was cold and disapproving. She blinked again. And prostrate on the carpet floor she saw polished black shoes. She could feel the figure looming over her. Her tongue darted out and she tasted alcohol and wool.

�Get up!�

She was hauled to her feet. The glass slipped from her grasp and there was more alcohol and carpet and stained egg-shell cream. Then a hand hovered over her arm and clamped down. Her long blonde hair, too long, tangled between arm and hand. She yelped and the sound reverberated � waves, waves, waves rolling through the air.

�Shut up!�

�You�re hurting me, Je-rooo-meee.� She drawled out his name and deliberately mispronounced it. He frowned and she giggled before biting his hand. Hard.

�Shit! Louisa!�

Now he was the one yelping, and he had let go of her arm. And free, Louisa Holt ran, ran, ran. Ran right out of the pretty mansion that was her prison. Somewhere behind her, Jerome Parker was cursing and she hated him and loved him and felt everything for him.

*****

Night had fallen and darkness was her friend. Their friend. In polite old-fashioned society they were called the ladies of the night. They walked the streets with purpose, dressed in glitter they waited for the gold. Some cluttered in groups talking, smoking, drinking, fighting over a pink feather boa. Others, all alone, leaned against cars or walls and batted their eyelashes, flicked their hair. The more assertive, aggressive, desperate prowled so that the line between predator and prey blurred. She was sparkly and red � her clothes appropriately cut too high or too low � and she liked the solitude and the few feet before a stoplight the best. They were all different and yet they were all the same. They all came alive with the flash of headlights�

A black convertible.

�Can I help you, sir?� She was the first to approach the dirty blonde in the flash car; the others scowled but backed away, acknowledging her claim.

�What�s your name, darling?� he drawled.

�Joey.� Her name came out in a purr but there was the slightest hint of tiredness tinged in with the sound.

�Jo-ey.� The man paused reflectively, tasting her name, devouring it. �Joey. It�s a nice name. Very nice. What do you say that you and I get to know one another better, Joey?�

�What you got in mind?�

His voice dropped to what was meant to be a husky, seductive tone. �I know a nice little place a few blocks away.�

�It�ll cost you.�

�Of course.�

�Three-fifty cash.�

He opened the passenger door and she hopped in. His car was like the cars of so many others before him. Leather interior, fancy stereo equipment, rah, rah, rah. The cars never impressed her but she thought at least it meant he had money and he would be quite a catch tonight. He made small talk as the tires screeched and she replied. There was the stench of burning rubber wafting in the air as his hand slyly crept higher and higher up her thigh, and wasn't there a saying about men in flash cars who drove too fast?

�Not �til you paid,� Joey told him and pointedly removed his hand.

He grumbled, said they were almost there, but kept his hands to himself until the convertible was parked and they were up in the room. The room was far from nice but she hadn�t really been expecting the Hilton. She noticed how the light bulb flickered when he curled his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. She shoved him away, demanding payment.

�Business before pleasure, huh?� He chuckled, amused with his own joke, as he pulled out his wallet and counted the notes out onto the bedside table. �I was thinking a blow-job first and then we�ll see if you fuck as good as you look.�

She pushed him on the bed and asked, �What name shall I scream?�

�Call me Steven. And Joey, baby, I like it hard and fast. Nothing�s too kinky for me,� he leered at her.

His smile grew broader as Joey produced a pair of handcuffs.

*****

Jerome Parker had a secret: he was scared of the night. The night meant moon and dark, and Louisa had yet to come home. He picked up the glass she had dropped earlier this evening and wished her there. If she�d only come home then he would tell her he loved her. He would tell her that things would be different and he had the cruise boat tickets to Bahamas to prove it.

The clock struck one.

All the lights had been switched on so he noticed it almost immediately: black and to the corner of the room and the shape of a head, arms, legs and body. A shadow.

�Louisa? Is that you? Where have you been? You�ve been to that place again, haven�t you? How many times have I told you�Hey! What are you� �

Jerome Parker never managed to finish his sentence. He did manage several screams as the shadow hand, gripping a pointy object and raised up high, came crashing down. Motion repeated: up, down, up, down, up, down. And Jerome stumbled and fell as the shadow play was enacted out to its final conclusion.

Outside a neighbor�s dog howled at the moon. Inside the lights were switched off and then there was only darkness and night.

*****

To Be Continued...