Queen of Spades

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I'm not sure if I am going to write this story out. I have 4 in the works that I need to finish but I've got so many more ideas kicking around in my head. So I'll let you guys decide. I'm going to write the first chapter or so, and if I get 10 whole votes, I'll write the next bit. If you leave comments, that'll motivate me even more.

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Suede's was not the sort of strip club you go to expecting high quality entertainment.

The facade of the building is tired gray/brown wood, dingy and boring while the neon lights proclaiming the establishment's name and attractions flickered and ticked in the dark. It was away from the main downtown core where there would be larger crowds, brighter lights and raucous laughter, and the only people that normally came here were those that couldn't be bothered looking for a better place. The women who danced there were mostly indifferently attractive, except for one or two who held the extremes. Alice 'Ace' Spade, was the youngest dancer there, and she was even younger than anyone suspected. They all thought she was a legal adult, if just and no one but her knew she wasn't allowed to vote yet, let alone take off her clothes for money. It wasn't that she wanted to be doing this, but in her world there were limited options and this was still a hell of a lot better than being a prostitute. Not that her boss didn't try to string her up and turn her out like he had a few of the others, but she always refused and reminded him that if he pushed it too hard, she had enough blackmail on him to land him in jail for a very long time.

At Suede's most of the regulars didn't care as much about the women as they did about the under the table dealings that went down almost nightly. Ace danced on stage, dark eyes slitted in imitation seduction while no less than three drug deals were going on. She shimmed and twirled, bored already and her night had only just begun. There were several girls on stage, doing opening group gyrations while bikers discussed the cut of heroin, businessmen pocketed roofies and low level mafia men scurried after the flavour of the week. The lighting was dim everywhere except for the stage. Pete said it was to encourage all eyes to be on the girls, but mostly Ace figured it was so no one saw how disgusting this place really was. The booths were all plastic, easily wiped clean and the table tops sticky and scarred.

Ace dove backstage as soon as the song ended and started to pull on her costume. She tried not to think of how much she would rather be sitting in class discussing Socrates or even cliched Shakespeare than rubbing body glitter into her skin. But for that to ever happen would mean she'd have to go back to them. And even prostituting herself would be better than that. Metallic glitter smoothed over her skin, catching at the rough edges of old scars and accentuating the details of her extensive tattoos. It cost money to put so much ink on her body, but the art covered the worst of the scars and let her strip without everyone knowing what had once been done to her.

As always her mind sought the safety of happier times, turning back to those few, brief and half remembered years where she was happy and safe. Strong hands pulled the layers of scintillating costume on while her mind fled back to smell of chili, the sounds of dad snoring and the dog harrumphing as he lay down. The overwhelming beat of the tin can music pounded around her, drowning out her pleasant memories and she looked at herself in the mirror and tried not to hate what she saw. She'd pulled on the angel/devil costume and it looked good on her, which she detested.

Her hair was long and wavy, a light brown with darker strands shooting throughout. Her skin was darker than her Caucasian father's and instead she was blessed with a natural tan to her skin that screamed Native. Alice didn't know what kind though, and neither had her father. A smile found it's way onto Ace's high cheek boned face and made her dark eyes flash briefly. Her favourite bedtime story growing up was her dad telling her how he met her mother. They'd both been young, still teenagers when they met and it'd been love at first sight. Not very long later and they were expecting a baby. They had run away together when their parents found out and tried to force them apart. Tried to force them to abort the pregnancy or give up the child. But they hadn't. Instead they'd put their faith in true love and Alice's mother had died in childbirth, leaving a very young, heart broken man ill prepared to raise his daughter alone. But he loved his daughter in a way that made the sky and moon jealous and the sun and stars sigh in envy because she was a special little girl who was the living evidence of true love. It was a sad story, for bedtime tales to a child not yet nine, but Alice had asked for it every night, and could repeat it herself verbatim. He'd been dead before she hit ten. Aneurysm burst inside his brain and he died instantly.

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