Another scream rang out, and as my eyes took in the entire room, I realized this place wasn’t a bar, but rather some sort of a brothel. Mayhem had said he owned many women. I presumed this was where he’d stashed all the many. Down in his brothel for entertainment.
I paid attention to their wrists. Paulina spoke the truth. Same as the girls hopping from lap to lap, I didn’t have cuffs. During the auction, I recalled now, one girl got cuffed.
Mayhem must share his property, because the women here wiggled and giggled while hopping from one beast’s lap to another. Uncomfortable with all this nudity and the way whiskey made me hot, I shifted in my chair. Though the women didn’t seem distressed, they must fear the claws scraping their skin. I thought I’d seen it all during my years in the circus. Clearly, I hadn’t seen much.
A tap on the shoulder, and Paulina whispered in my ear, “There’s ya man.” She pointed at the door. “If you don’t want to take part in this, run. He won’t chase after you. Go.”
Mayhem stomped into the room and leapt onto a table. People sitting around it hollered. He swept the room with burning heat in his eyes.
“Do you know what happens if I refuse him anal?” I asked. “Is he going to force me?”
“Nah, he’ll pass you on.”
Paulina’s voice disappeared into the background. All the voices, the music, the laughter, and the screams disappeared as I homed in on Mayhem. He leapt off the table and walked to another one. He peered under it. Moving the chair in his way, he peered under another table. Then he walked to his right and looked behind the red velvet curtain.
A beast approached him. He handed him something and slapped Mayhem on the back. I leaned forward to see better what he’d handed him. I couldn’t tell what it was. After he’d inspected under most of the tables in the room, people started to pay more attention to him and beasts shook off the girls. They began stomping their feet with the bass of the music. What now?
The crowd of naked women collected around the bar area in front of me. He couldn’t see me past the bodies. For a second, I thought he might be looking for me, but dismissed that thought as soon as it raised its ugly head. It was hope. Hope someone would, in fact, look for me. Though, he had told me to stay in the office.
Mayhem hopped on a table, and I sat up straight to see over the crowds.
He shook out his arm and uncoiled a bullwhip.
He flicked the edge of the table and bellowed, “Reagaaaan!”
Oh amigo. Maybe he was looking for me. But not in a good way. I hunched down in my chair, then decided the best course of action was to return to his office and pretend like nothing happened. The crowds blocked the exit from the bar, but if I circled the place, I’d come at it from the other side. I slid down the high chair and crouched under the bar behind the chair. Someone sat on it. Great. More bodies to hide mine. Nobody would find me here, nobody would see. I would magically appear back in his office, tell him I’d looked for another bathroom and got lost. Or something like it. When the damn secret passage opened, I should’ve stayed and not gone down here.
“Little mouse, little mouse, don’t make me hunt you down!”
The beasts roared. It was a sound somewhere between a wolf’s howl and a lion roar. I didn’t know what it meant, but it couldn’t be good for the mouse. Nothing was good for the mouse except a hole and a bit of cheese. About a hundred feet stomped, the noise making me uneasy. What was this? What were they doing? Then it hit me. Hunters of Mayhem were animals, and they probably considered this a hunt.
On all fours, I scrambled down the end of the bar and took a left trying to get to the red curtain as fast as possible. I needed out of there. All this stomping noise sounded like a lamb was being sacrificed and a tribe of wild men danced and hooted around the fire pit. I was no lamb, or at least I didn’t want to become one.
At the end of the bar, I reached a plush red curtain. I hid behind it and breathed deep, trying to calm down. The curtain swayed over my breasts, and I looked up to see it trailing away. They were opening the curtains! Shit. What now? I ran to the left and reached the end where this part of the curtains had already opened, leaving behind a bare wall. If I ran, he’d see me. I looked up again.
The ceiling was high, probably about fifty feet. I pulled the curtain. It held for a bit, but I didn’t think it would hold my weight. Hmm. The ends of these types of curtains always had long ropes so they could manually open and close in case the mechanics failed.
I patted the corner and found the rope. I took it in both hands and pulled, testing. It would hold me. I hoped. I stepped on the wall and walked it while putting one hand before the other on the rope. Near the ceiling, I gripped the metal bolt.