"I remember standing on the corner at midnight
Trying to get my courage up
There was this long lovely dancer in a little club downtown
I loved to watch her do her stuff
Through the long lonely nights she filled my sleep
Her body softly swaying to that smoky beat
Down on mainstreet

In the pool halls, the hustlers and the losers
I used to watch 'em through the glass
Well I'd stand outside at closing time
Just to watch her walk on past
Unlike all the other ladies, she looked so young and sweet
As she made her way alone down that empty street
Down on mainstreet"

"Mainstreet" – Bob Seger

Snake had come to the Erotique again. Today he wasn't even that interested in the girls. He sat staring blankly at the half empty glass. Sure he had fucked plenty of girls, in the back of his humvee, in the alleys, the whore houses and strip club back rooms. He was a wanted criminal, amoral, immoral even by government standards. It attracted the women who wanted the baddest of the bad-ass boys.

Snake was sick of it all. He was getting older now and he craved something more then a quick bang in the dark. As much as he hated to admit it he wanted a lover. The word implied its intention. There had to be love for someone to be a lover at least that is what Snake believed. It wasn't that there had never been a woman who could fill that position; there had been plenty who could have been lovers. He noticed them perhaps too late or maybe he was cursed. The moment he felt that he could be interested they were all killed. Hell, usually within minutes of the thought they were dying in his arms, out of his reach.

There had been Sophia and the blonde in New York, Maggie and the redhead in Jersey. No, the redhead might have survived but Snake hadn't looked back to find out. He didn't want to know. He couldn't bear to see another dead woman in his wake. If she survived, she was better off that he didn't look back at her. There was a girl here too. He said nothing to her of his feelings and he wouldn't touch her again. He was afraid if he did she would die.

Snake never thought of women that way anymore. He went on his way, disappearing into the night as quickly as he appeared. Most of all he never thought of them again. He locked them away, forgot their names and tried to forget their faces. In his mind it had gone so far that he desperately struggled to separate desire and sex from the physical body. It left only aggression and lust. Just one more thing the world had stripped from him. One more part of his humanity that was lost to the insanity of the world he had been thrust into.

Snake had come here with the desire to feel someone close to him, it had been too long and he missed the warmth. He wasn't so sure that was what he wanted anymore. He just wanted to be alone with his thoughts and fears.

His eye drifted back to the stage as she slide down to the floor. Snake felt a knot in his chest as he stood and looked away. He wouldn't condemn her. He couldn't watch her die. Snake walked toward the door struggling to ignore the quickening click of heels on the floor behind him. He frowned as he threw a blue back at the bartender and continued to focus on the door.

"SNAKE!" The voice was strained and on the verge of tears.

He didn't look back as he pushed the door open and stepped into the cold Jersey night. Snake didn't look back, he didn't want to. He knew he would stay if he saw her again. Snake never looked back even as her voice called to him a second time. Snake would walk alone as he had since he had lost himself to the world.