“ Hey, do you mind?”

“Sorry” I apologized as I moved over to the side. My eyes continued assessing the place the same way a mad scientist would at a new invention. I wasn’t sure if I recognized the place anymore, it was much darker and murkier than I remembered. It was like the demon’s own backyard. And the customers, they made my hairs stand on its edges, giving me chills every time they looked my way, and not the good kind of chills. I almost imagined myself as a meal to them.

“Are you gonna order a drink or just act like an awkward tourist?”  My attention was drawn back to the gothic-looking female bartender. Both her outer ear linings were pierced with expensive silver ear rings making it hard not to stare at her. As if the about dozen piercings on her ears weren’t enough, she had both her nostrils pierced. Fascinating colored tattoos swathed large patches of her exposed arms and neck. I made out a snake tattoo disappearing into her breasts from her neck, I wondered where it ended.  I was more than sure that she was into hard-rock after I gauged her long shiny black hair. She was dangerously attractive like a brightly colored conspicuous poisonous flower.

“Uhm I…” I stuttered a reply

“You look like you could use one” she smiled as she expertly assorted a glass of a couple diversified drinks. Looked expensive though.

“I don’t have money to pay for that” I bitterly replied

“Then you shouldn’t be in here at all. People come in bars to squander their money extravagantly, you know that, don’t you?”

“I actually came to….”

“It’s on me” she interjected with a wide bright blinding smile “Do you know the result when a hobo and a trashcan have sex?”

“No?” I was perplexed

“You,” she chuckled “you look like the offspring of a hobo and a trashcan. I’ll settle the drink”

I was at a loss whether to be offended or grateful. Either way, I took the free drink and sipped it.

After a couple of seconds,

“I’m…”

“Lost” the bartender interrupted “finish up and leave before darkness sets in”

She draped a wiping towel on her shoulder and slightly leaned forward to count some cash. My eyes were involuntarily drawn towards her attention-grabbing bosom, I obviously couldn’t help it since I had been used to seeing boys in the past three years and a one not so captivating large woman.

“I’ll have your eyes gouged out, pervert” she said abruptly, consequentially making a red flush down my cheeks. There was actually nothing more embarrassing than being caught gawking, no excuse would sound valid.

“I’m sorry…”

“Just finish up and leave” she smiled, a playful smile lingering on her lips

“Will you first hear me out?” I edged closer to her, not in her personal space though “please”

“You have five seconds” she stood akimbo

“I’m…” I started before she rudely interrupted me yet again for the hundredth time

“Ethan Blaze, I know who you are”

I was hugely taken aback with surprise

“The last living member of that doomed family. Your dad owned this place before he passed, well, before he got killed. You actually resemble him a lot”

“ It’s been almost ten years” she surely wouldn’t recognize my face after that long, no one would logically speaking, I was more than sure my appearance had changed a lot.

“You have an unforgettable scent” she replied “and I was kinda close with your dad”

Creepy and you’d be a middle-aged woman if not an old one if you were saying the truth

My eyes widened a second later as I deliberated on her last sentence “ Are you my mom?”

“What?” she shrieked “no, hell no. Do I look like a mother to you? Fuckin asshole”

“No” I gulped, she was quiet young to be my mom

“Word of advice, flee this place before night sets in. You don’t want your father’s genetics to end with you, do you?”

“I have nowhere else to go” I gulped

“This is the last place you want to be in if it’s a sanctuary that you seek”

“I don’t want a safe sanctuary, I want a job” I shrugged

Her eyes widened gradually in surprise before she broke into a hearty laugher “a what?”

“I just came to town and I’ll do anything to earn some bucks”

Appearing still in disbelief at my request, she took my arm and sniffed it. She had an obvious frown as she examined my neck. I played along to her strange assessment without a word of protest.

“Are you insane?” she snapped, a bit of an overreaction considering that she was the one eerily checking out my body parts

“You are too untainted and pure to be here”

“Well that’s a weird thing to say” I frowned

“You can’t be in here” she said seriously

“I need a job and I couldn’t think of a place any better, without it I…”

“No, no” she vigorously shook her head “big no”

“Please, “I pleaded “for the sake of my dad’s memory. I’m sincerely out of options”

“Look, it’s not like I don’t want to help you, it’s just that you are…human” she said with a bit of hesitation

“So are you” I retorted, slightly upset by her weak choice of excuse to deny me a job

“That’s actually really cute and flattering”

“I’m being serious”

“You seriously don’t know who I am?” she raised both her eyebrows

“I don’t know your name if that’s what you are asking”

“Not my name, my identity”

“Oh” I smiled as the realization hit me “whatever you identify as, I have no problem with it. If you are into girls, I’m okay with it, I won’t try to hit on you or anything. And I have no issue if you don’t find me attractive in any way, I just need a job”

“Wow” she sighed after staring at me for quite some while “you really have no clue”

“I can protect myself if that’s what you are worried about”

“You can fight?”

“I can throw a punch” I said “and I’ve had my fair share of fights in my life, I don’t fear getting hurt”

“You’d be literally dead in a day”

“I don’t fear death” my shoulders hunched “sometimes, I feel like it fears me instead”

“Well, that’s a first” she sighed as she held her chin thoughtfully

“Your dad, he gave me a job while he was still in charge over here, he was like my father too. But things have changed ever since he died, you seriously can’t be in here…”

“At night” I smiled “please, I will do anything, even go to the extremes like stripping…”

“We don’t strip over here” she chuckled

“I don’t strip too” I sighed “what I’m saying is that I’m really desperate for a job”

“Okay” she said

“Okay?” I asked excitedly

“ You will take the day shift, be here tomorrow morning by seven sharp”