Messed 3
Alex stared at the closed door in shock her mouth opened and closed to form words but nothing came out. He left her there the bastard left her there. Wtf kind of hero was he? You don't leave the damsel in distress on her own without so much as a good luck. She pushed open the door and stared around her.
He really was gone.
"What the hell?" she said.
Finally finding her voice in her outrage. She walked down the stairs and onto the street. She had half a mind to track him down and give him a piece of her mind. Unfortunately she had no idea which direction his shop was in and doubted it was in the phone book.
She walked down the street until she came to a park. She walked in and sat down by the fountain. Part of her wanted to cry but that would do her no good. She put her hands over her face and leaned her elbows on her knees. She needed a plan of action if she was to survive long enough to get home. She sighed the first thing she would need is money then a place to stay.
She swore wishing she had worn the pants at least she had money in those pockets. Not that it would do her any good if they didn't use the same form of currency. She sighed and looked at her bracelets, glad for once she had expensive taste in jewelry. She got up and headed for the road again, looking for a pawn shop or a phone book so she could find one. She finally found one about three hours later and the creep behind the counter tried to gip her for her bracelets.
After some haggling she finally talked him into a decent price and walked away with cash in hand. Fortunately he hadn't asked for id at all. She found an old rickety hotel and got a room for a week. She passed out on top of the comforter not willing to trust the maid service in this place. She would look for work tomorrow she thought as she passed out for the night.
The next morning she hit the sidewalk and grabbed a newspaper first. It took most of the afternoon for her to find half the places. The other half for them to reject her, either because she couldn't furnish references or id. She was sitting across the street from her last chance. She had tried everything in the paper from dishwasher to maid.
Only one thing remained. She looked up at the flashing neon sign with the girl dancing on it. The add said waitress and dancers needed. She was hoping for the waitress position. She sighed well with a name like love planet it had to be friendly right? She walked up to the front door and stopped in front of the bouncer.
"I'm here for the job" said Alex
The bouncer looked her up and down and Alex almost turned on her heel and walked away right there. Thoroughly disgusted with herself for even considering this to begin with. The bouncer moved aside and pointed with his thumb for her to go inside. She swallowed and walked inside. The place was tacky as hell. Done up in a roman theme with bright fabrics and neon spaced liberally. A girl was dancing on the small stage.
Her moves were halting and lack luster. Her huge breasts bounced way too much and her waist was also bouncing a little.
"Enough stop, put your clothes back on" said a man
she turned to look at him. He was Italian or at least looked it. He was dressed conservatively and sporting a fedora on his head. The woman looked shocked as she redressed and stormed off the stage.
"Yeah you keep going baby the only thing they'll pay for with you is for you to keep your clothes on" said the man.
Alex's mouth dropped open in shock. Oh this couldn't be good at all. The Italian looked in her direction and she walked boldly forward. Better to get the rejection over with she thought.
"What get on stage already lets see what you got" he said
"ah I was actually applying for the waitress position" said Alex
he frowned at her.
"Already been filled sorry toots, its dancer or nothing" he said
Alex nodded in understanding. She turned on her heel and headed for the door.
"What you ain't gonna even try?" said the man
she stopped halfway to the door and looked at the stage. She sighed it was her last chance it was either that or starving. She couldn't do much worse than that last woman. She had taken dance as a child.
She knew how to belly dance and hula. She stepped up on the stage. After all the next step was a homeless shelter and she wasn't ready to admit defeat just yet. She swallowed the nervousness as the music started.
It was a sensuous beat that vaguely reminded her of when doves cry by prince. She started moving her hips in time to the music rolling them through the belly dancing positions. She slowly began to undress. She kept her mind elsewhere while she did it or she would have never had the courage to do so. For once she was glad she had worn the g strings instead of the granny undies.
When the last garment hit the floor the music stopped she opened her eyes and waited for the worst. She fought the urge to cover herself and just stood there. The Italian guy was staring at her with his mouth hanging open.
"You're hired" said Italian
she blinked in shock. She had expected to be ripped a new one convinced she was nothing special in her eyes.
"I'm Enzo, report back here tomorrow night, hey Michelle get her the paperwork, your over eighteen right?" said Enzo.
she nodded yes though she was only seventeen she didn't want to loose this chance. She pulled her clothes back on and followed Michelle to a back room. The woman dug through paperwork. She set some paper in front of Alex and handed her a pen.
"ah I don't have any id my purse was stolen is that going to be a problem?" she asked
"naw don't worry about it kid no one here uses their real names and we all get paid in cash, all you got to worry about is giving Enzo his ten percent at the end of the night, taxes you know" said Michelle.
By the questions on the paper I got the impression that the labor laws here were a lot less strict then back home.
I filled out the information I knew and asked Michelle when I should be here "show up early and do you have a change of clothes?" she asked
"ah no" Alex responded
"well don't worry about it we have some costumes in the back but if I were you stick with the gypsy theme its you" said Michelle
I thanked her and promised to be back the next night at seven. I walked out of there with a bounce to my step, even though my mother would have a cow about this job. She would be going home eventually and no one but her had to know she was ever a stripper in the devil may cry universe. She got a hot dog from a vendor on the street and ate it on the way back to the hotel.
The sun was going down and she didn't want to be out after dark in this town. She unlocked her door and slammed her hip against it to dislodge it and walked in. she flopped down on the bed. Thanking gawd she had found a job her money was almost gone and the end of the week was coming up. As soon as she had enough she would replace her guitar and work on her music while she was stuck here. Maybe she could even do some gigs on the side at one of those coffee houses she saw yesterday.
She sighed now all she had to do was decide what to do with the rest of the day tomorrow. Maybe she could find a scarf or something to turn this outfit into a suitable costume she sighed wishing she had her jewelry still it would match her theme very well. She tried watching TV for awhile and found that she didn't recognize a single thing on TV.
She ended up watching a love story or at least she thought it was one until the guy turned into a demon and tried to eat his bride. She changed the channel quickly and settled on a documentary on the history channel or at least it looked like one.
It turned out to be based on the legend of Sparda. She watched it most of the way through until parts of it sounded too sappy to be true. She finally shut it off and went to sleep, like she wanted to be reminded of Dante. The next day she decided to track down the local library hoping they had internet access there.
Unfortunately it apparently hadn't been invented in this universe yet. So she settled for looking up actual books. It took her a while to figure out the card catalog because surprise no computer database either. They didn't even have barcodes on the books and were still stamping the inside cover during check out. She shook her head and headed for the history section.
She was digging through the shelves looking for the books she had written down when she saw him. At first she mistook him for Dante but he was way too quiet to be him. She nervously went to another aisle until he left the row. She looked for the other items on her list and didn't stop until she had at least four books.
She dropped one on the way to the check out and she had to set the others down so she could reach down to get it. Her grab was intercepted by a pale male hand. She looked up at its owner and met the coldest blue eyes she had ever seen. Even when Dante had been angry at her his eyes hadn't freaked her out as badly as this mans' eyes did.
"you dropped this" he said calmly.
he glanced at the title and raised an eyebrow. Something about her choice intrigued him
"ah thanks" she said
taking the book from his hands she nervously stepped back.
"An interesting choice in subjects are you a student?" he asked calmly.
His voice was soothing calm and somewhat relaxing. But for some reason the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
"No just trying to learn a few things" she said.
she scooped up the other books and nervously made her exit. He smiled at her nervous gesture and watched as she quickly checked out the books she had chosen. Unlike most women she seemed to pick up that he wasn't approachable.
He partially admired her for that as well as her reluctance to share her choices with him. She wisely chose to back away from him instead of showing some trust and talking to a complete stranger. She was as intriguing as her choice of reading materials. He briefly wondered if she would have been so quick to flee if she had known he was Sparda's son, since she was reading at least one copy of the legend.