The feeling of unease sweeps through me as the bartender confidently walks away to serve a crowd of scantily clad women. I slip my phone in my pocket and leave the bar to search for Brit.
"Watch it!" A girl hisses as I accidently bump into her, still searching the room for a gaze that I'm not sure I will recognize. The mans image from tinder flashes to my mind, giving me a shiver of unease.
I look at the girl to apologize, but the air leaves my lungs as I catch a look at the girl in front of me.
"Mia..." The girl in front of me has striking blue eyes, blond straight hair, and is sixteen.
My sisters eye's widen at the realization that her older sister just caught her.
"Piper... Hey!" Her face is smiling, but her eyes have widened and she looks like she just got busted. Because she did. "What are you doing here?" She asks me, looking around the club and avoiding eye contact.
"I was going to ask you the same thing." I deadpanned. "Mia, your sixteen!" My voice has risen and a few clubgoers glance over at us with curious expressions.
She worriedly glances around and grabs my arm, "what the heck!" She hisses at me, moving me over to a less crowded area.
We end up near one of the hanging cages and a women inside is peering at us, raising her shackles and putting on a show. The lights reflect off her leather ensemble and she smiles a slow hypnotizing smile.
I glance away from the women in the cage, my face heating up, embarrassed at being caught looking at her.
"Mia, you need to leave. How did you even get in here?" I ask my youngest sister, startled and a little pissed that she was here. That's when I notice that she has on a very short, very clingy silver dress that leaves little to the imagination. "And what are you wearing?"
She glances down at her outfit as if she forgot that she had it on. "Oh this old thing." She grins at me, but the look on my face is not moved. My sister sighs in exasperation and rolls her eyes, "Piper, look, I know that you probably think that I shouldn't be here, but its fine! Really, you don't need to worry, I'm here all the time. It's not a big deal."
I look at her in shock, "No big deal?" What in the world is the matter with her! I know that I haven't seen much of her since I was away at college, but I don't remember her having such an attitude. This is a drastic change from when she was little, she has always been a bit of a drama queen, but nothing like this.
She rolls her eyes, "its not. I come here all the time."
Now I understand why she hasn't been home in the last week. I've probably only seen her twice since I've been back, always saying she is going to a friends.
"Mia, you are sixteen! When I was sixteen I was reading books and having sleepovers! Not out galivanting in shady clubs, illegally-- I might add." My gaze narrows on her. What if she gets caught?
"Yeah, I know, when you were sixteen." She sniggers, looking me up and down with an amused expression, almost like she is making fun of me.
"Exact- wait, why do you say it like that?" I narrow my eyes at her, not liking her tone.
"Piper, we are different people entirely. You like stuff like books and you know, boring stuff. I like dancing, and partying, and meeting cute guys. We may have the same parents and look slightly alike, but that's where our similarities die." She says, smiling at a guy that passed by, giving him a flirtatious wave.
I stare at my sister. "You think I'm boring?" What the hell. At this moment I feel my anger rising, but also a feeling in the pit of my stomach. Am I boring?
"Piper, its just who you are. You are the cute librarian type that will go off and marry a sweet professor, or scientist, or something equally as boring and you will have a normal life that will make you happy. That's not me, but that's okay. The point is, its okay that I'm here, mom knows and she is fine with it. This is what I like to do. I'm actually surprised that your here." She glances at me and looks me up and down, hiding an eye roll at my covered skin.
My eyebrows shoot up. "Mom knows your here?"
She gives me a little smirk and shrugs, "it's more of an 'under the rug' kind of thing. But don't worry, I-" She cuts off abruptly and gazes at her phone. She smirks at her phone and continues, "listen, I have to go. But, seriously, don't worry about me. I know what I'm doing." She smiles at me and winks. Then she slinks off into the crowd.
In the state of rage and confusion that I am in, I don't notice that the woman in the cage has been listening to our entire conversation. I glance up startled to see that she is on the floor of the cage, her eyes holding mine. She smiles at me slowly when I meet her heated gaze directly in front of me.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Kitty, you are too pretty to be boring." The women enclosed in the metal trap purrs at me, examining me from head to toe. Her gaze makes me feel warm and uncomfortable. Sensing my discomfort, she laughs.
"Well, my baby sister has more of a life than I do, so I think she may be on to something." I reply dryly, finding it odd that she is talking to me.
"Hmmm well if you want some help letting lose, I think that I know just the person." Her smile gets hotter and I feel my face warm even more.
"Um, I'm sorry but, I'm not..." I stutter and the woman throws her head back and laughs. The light catches off her black studded collar and I notice for the first time that she is actually very young. Maybe around my age with dark red hair and catlike eyes.
"I am not the teacher, Kitten." She says with a chuckle and looks at me closer, examining my red face and awkward posture. "But I know him. You, little kitty, are dying for some excitement. Your little sissy may think that you resemble a librarian, but I see the little kitty cat in there." She draws closer to the bars of her cage and whispers, "and kitties have claws."
For a moment I am left speechless. This woman just seems to exude confidence and seduction. The embodiment of desire. She is fascinating, terrifying, and exciting.
She notices me studying her and she draws away from the bars, slowly crawling back into the cage.
"The teacher is upstairs in his office. If you want to learn anything, he is usually always happy to help." With that, she reaches out to grasp the bars and dances her way up. Her eyes never leave mine as she sways, bringing attention to the chains on her hips.
"Piper!" I am too busy watching the women in the cage to notice that Brit and Dan have been calling my name for awhile now. I tear my gaze from the dancer and see that Brit is drunkenly swaying to the music, yelling my name like its part of the song. "Piiiiiper!" She serenades and giggles when I look at her.
"Hey! Mia said you were over here! Who were you talking to?" She looks around squinting trying to see who I was chatting with.
I glance up at the women in the cage, but she is dancing on the other side now, drawing a crowd, seeming oblivious to her audience.
I change the subject. "Brit! You know Mia is here? You know that she comes to places like this?" I ask my sister, still trying to wrap my head around the idea that my sixteen year old sister has more of a life than I do.
My sister gives me a look, trying to judge my feelings about it. "Yes... I take it that it surprises you?"
I look at her like she is crazy. "She is sixteen! Why are you guys acting like this is normal?"
Brit just looks at me, "well, I was probably doing worse things than this at sixteen, so I'm not gonna sit here and judge."
"What!" My mind races. How can Brit have done worse than sneak into a club scantily dressed and consuming alcohol by the age of sixteen?
"Piper, not all of us were saints like you!" She says exasperated with a silly eye roll. "Dear sister, don't worry about it. Not all of us like the party scene and that's okay. To each their own, but I am glad that you came out tonight, it was a shocker!" She laughs, and does a little twirl. She wobbles a bit and Dan has to catch her before she falls.
"Hey now, are you falling for me again?" He says after he catches her. I roll my eyes at the way my sister giggles and squeals at the line, like it was the cutest thing on earth.
"I think I need another drink." I murmur, still processing how unbelievable this night has been.
Brit squeals at that and raises her arm. "In celebration of Piper actually coming out with us, I'm buying a round of shots!" She declares with a jump and barrels toward the bar, grabbing my arm and dragging me with her.
The crowd at the bar has thinned and we easily grab seats in the center. The bartender is making a drink for someone else at the moment, but pauses and smiles at us as he pours the shaken liquid in a martini glass. Handing it to the beautiful women next to us, he turns, "What can I get you."
"Shots!" My sister cries, giggling like a child. I roll my eyes at an already toasted Brit. "Six shots of Patron!" She clarifies and I whip my head around to stare at her.
"Six shots? You are already drunk and Dan has to drive us home!" I hiss at my sister, irritated at how she is acting.
She frowns at me, scrunching up her face. "Come on Piper! Live a little! It's two for each of us, I'm not that drunk and Dan can drive after only two shots." She rolls her eyes at me like I'm the one being ridiculous.
"Drinking and driving! I will not get into a car with him after he has a drink." My outraged expression seemed to annoy her.
She gets a look of irritation, "I knew this was too good to be true! Ugh! You were doing so good. I just want you to let loose and have fun! What's the point of living life when you don't have fun. It seems so pathetic and boring."
Her drunken words slam into me, and from the look on Brits face she knew she crossed a line. Her eyes widen and she put her hand up to her mouth.
"Piper..." She says, trying to reach for me like she was worried I would break.
My livid expression must have startled her and she flinches away from me at the exact moment that all six shots were set in front of us.
What's the point of living life when you don't have fun. It seems so pathetic and boring.
Pathetic. Boring.
Both of my younger sisters think that I am boring. Pathetic.
In a red haze I grab a shot and down it, throwing it back like I had a vendetta against it. I slam the shot down with too much force and repeat the process. Fire burns in my throat as the second shot joins the first, adding gas to the flames burning in my veins. My sister is staring at me like she doesn't know whether to applaud or be worried.
Pathetic.
Boring.
I snatch another shot off the bar and throw my head back, barely feeling the burn of the tequila because my entire body is a flaming pit of rage.
A flash of concern shoots across my sisters face as I meet her gaze, slamming the third shot down.
"Sorry to be a drag, I'm going to take my pathetic, boring ass to the dance floor." I hiss and jump from the chair.
My sister has a look of regret and shock as I leave them at the bar and make my way to the crowded floor of body parts and sweat.
A song that I don't know is playing and in the midst of the crowd, I feel the bass thump inside me. My rage fuels me until I get to the center of the platform and I start laughing. Its not a pretty laugh. The sound that comes from my mouth is manic, unhinged, it sounds crazy. The alcohol is finally kicking in and I find myself swaying to the rhythm. The crowd is all around me, pulsing and breathing like its own organism. I have never danced like this, and a fleeting shot of worry makes me embarrassed that I don't know what I'm doing. I open my eyes and the feeling slowly fades as I meet a pair of cat eyes watching me.
She is like a panther in a cage, mimicking my movements with a predator's gaze. Her hips seem to mirror mine as she raises her shackles to grip the bars. I raise my hands to the ceiling, leaving all worry behind as my eyes are hypnotized by her. She is the most fierce woman I have ever seen. She radiates darkness, like a succubus prowling for her next meal.
Her words replay in my mind, "You, little kitty, are dying for some excitement. Your little sissy may think that you resemble a librarian, but I see the little kitty cat in there."
I want to be like her.
I want to let whatever beast is inside me out.
She tilts her head to the side and I let my gaze follow hers to the stairs by the wall. In a trance, I stare at the stairs that are covered in shadows and leads to the second floor balcony. In the darkness I can see figures up there, viewing the crowd from above. Observing us. Watching us.
My gaze returns to the women in the cage, she still has her head tilted to the side watching me. She nods again and winks, letting her body sway seductively with the music. Before I know what I am doing, my feet are taking me over to where she was looking. Out of the pulsating throng of bodies, up the flight of stairs, and overlooking the crowd that I was in the center of moments ago, reality hits.
What am I doing?
My gaze lands on the dark room that I have now entered, the thumping of the music pounds in my ears and the red walls seem to ooze toxic desire and secrets. The few guests up her are scattered in small groups. Woman seeming to be entertaining men in outfits similar to the woman in the cage downstairs. A few curious glances sway my way, but none linger too long. A huge hulking mass of dark fabric moves and I realized that a man is standing on the other side of the room, almost blending into the shadows. His gaze is unwavering while he studies me. As my eyes meet his, the man nods and steps to the side reveling a door that was hidden behind him. His arm gestures to the door, beckoning me to enter.
The pulsing in my ears doubles as I realize that I am heading toward him. Toward the door that is covered in shadows so thick the entrance seems to lead to another world, black and ominous. The huge man opens the door for me, and I walk into the darkness. Leaving the pulsing light of the club, the throbbing beat of the bass, and the whisper of conversation.
............
Okay here is the second part! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!
**Authors note**
Clearing some confusion. Sorry if last chapter was a bit fuzzy.
Setting up the story is the hardest part of writing for me, I really want to get down and dirty with action right off rip but I need everyone to understand where Piper is coming from starting with her two sisters. Her sixteen year old sister--Mia-- shocks Piper when she see's her at the club and when she confronts her eighteen year old sister about it, she is shocked to realize that Brit is also not as good as Piper once believed. And she is more shocked when she realizes that both of her baby sisters have experienced more than Piper. Her realization and frustration with how her life is turning out is guiding her into the next part of her life that will hold a lot of darkness and seduction, will Piper thrive in the new situations that she will be forced into, or will she want to go back to boring Piper?
Again, thank you for reading and as always I ask you to please, please--
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