Time for the next chapter, where we go to the club the victims worked at.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this.
The Dark Among Us Ep 2 Smoke and Mirrors Chapter 4
The Ink & Thinner Club
We see Mephiles in the evening in a taxi that was taking him to the destination he needed to get to, a club that both victims Jade and Muffet worked at and owned by this Aran Ryan fellow, the Ink & Thinner. He sees it a head, a smalls side building with a neon girl sign.
As the taxi stops a woman smoking in the alley next to it notices, she was a completely black and white woman with medium length hair, lipsick with a slender frame with a small waist and fairly wide hips. She wears a black dress similar to that of a 1920's flapper dress with a short skirt with a white bow on the chest. She had pie cut eyes with a single eyelash each, and a small mole under her right eye, she also wore white gloves along with some black short arm sleeves, a pair of stockings with black laces, along with a couple of black pointed small-heeled shoes and also around her neck a black ribbon. Also, her head had two devil horns and above her head a halo. She was Alice Angel, a worker at the club though she was more second in command of the club after Aran Ryan.
Seeing the taxi possibly bringing a fresh customer, Alice puts out her cigarette and goes round to the front and sees Mephiles. She says "Oh! Sheriff, what a nice surprise. I'm not sure I've seen you here before." She approaches him "You're always welcome, of course. Is it business or pleasure? Or both?"
"Hello Alice, I have some questions for Aran." Mephiles said to her.
"Stright to business this time, then." Alice said with a sigh "You're in luck, he's here. Come on." She goes to the door and uses her key to unlock it. Before she opened it she says to Mephiles "I should warn you that Aran does not like to be bothered when he's working. And he's in kind of a…mood right now. I mean more so then usual."
"It'll be fine. I have a way with people." Mephiles said to her.
"So I've heard." Alice said with a grin. She opens the door and motions Mephiles to enter.
Mephiles walks in and see he is in a hall that was fairly simple, posters advertising workers at the club were on the wall.
Alice shuts the door and guides him to the main room while saying "Welcome to the Ink & Thinner, where we cater to the diverse tastes of the Fiction community. Your pleasure is our pleasure. Your desires are our desires. Your imagination is the menu, and discretion is our guarantee."
"Listen, you could be in danger." Mephiles said to Alice, he figured best to warn her since both victims apparently worked here.
"Oh, sweetie…we're all in danger." Alice said to him
As they enter the main floor area Mephiles could hear music being blasted from a boombox. Sitting on a couch was was a man with a mullet brown hair wearing green pants, a black tank top and boots and a black fedora, he was Aran Ryan a former boxer now nightclub boss, he also has several tatoos something he got since coming to the Mundy world.
He was watching a girl with a pole dance, she was an alien girl wearing a a mask like helmet and also black skin tight outfit that left little to the imagination. She was Tali'Zorah or Tali for short, a quarrion and another worker at the club, though she has to wear a suit to avoid getting sick due to a weak immune system, but that made her more desirable to some customers.
Also in the room sweeping was a man in a blue sparton like armour sweeping, he was Micheal J. Caboose an employee of the club though he was more a handyman, bouncer and janitor but he dreams to dance on stage on day.
"Aw god dammit." Aran said annoyed as he was not liking Tali's pole dancing. "What do you think you're doing? You look like you trying to cover up an embarrassment! Who's going to want that? No one going to want that! You lousy Alien girl!"
"Nice guy, seems like a real prince." Mephiles said to Alice sarcastically.
"You do have a sense of humour. That's good." Alice said with a smile. She then leaves telling Mephiles "Good luck." Mephiles nods and goes up to Aran.
"It's your face! You have to SMILE! I can tell you never SMILE behind that mask!" Aran said to Tali. "How many times do I have to say it?!"
Aran then stops as he hears the footsteps and looks to see Mephiles. He smiles and said "Oh, it's you. We're closed!" He looks to the stage and sees Tali stopping and orders her "Keep dancing you! I didn't say stop!" Tali doesn't move and Mephiles looks at her. "God dammit!" Aran said annoyed and stops the music. He points to Tali and says "You stay right there don't even think about sitting down. We're not finished."
"You Aran Ryan?" Mephiles asked him.
"Brilliant deduction, Sheriff." Aran said with a grin. He sits forward and asked "What do you want then? You here for a little taste?" Tali folds her arms and looks away "Tell you what, come back after midnight, maybe. I can hook you up. Or…knowing you…she might not be your style. You'd prefer someone who can take a bit of a beating. Tell me, do you prefer a stationary target, or one that can put up a fight? I can arrange whatever you like, for the right price."
"I'm not here for that." Mephiles told him firmly.
Oh, 'I'm not here for that.' Just stopped for the chips then?" Aran said mockingly. He sit back and adds "Jeez, Mephiles. You are so corny. I love it, though. No seriously I love it." Mephiles annoyed approaches him "Okay, alright, Sheriff. Just messing with you. Look, I know why you're here."
"When did you hear about it?" Mephiles asked him surprised a bit.
"Listen, Sheriff, around here we can't afford to wait for you and your swanky pals to take an interest." Aran states sitting forward "We have to look out for each other. When stuff happens, I hear about it, especially if it concerns my livelihood."
"In that case I assume you knew Muffet was glamoured." Melphiles said to him.
"Of course she was, you daft shadow being. She was a spider monster." Aran said with a shrug sitting back into his seat.
"No. I mean glamoured to look like another Fiction." Mephiles told him.
"Yeah? Well so what?" Aran asked him uncaring. "Who gives a toss? People get up to all kinds of things when nobody's watching. It's their own business."
"It's sick." Mephiles told him.
"Hah! That's quaint. Especially coming from you." Aran scoffs.
"The thirteenth floor would never provide a glamour like that. It's strictly black market stuff." Mephiles explained to him.
Oo, black market, is it? How exciting." Aran said mockingly. "This is exactly what I would expect from a thug like you. Storm in, throw around a bunch of accusations, try to scare people, but you got nothing at all to back it up." He spits on the floor "And we're all meant to jump any time the dark being shows his claws" Aran smirks looking at Tali and said "He used to be something, you know. Now look at him."
"Nothing to back it up? Well what the HFIL is this then?!" Mephiles said to Aran showing him the glamour box Muffet had.
"Get that out of my face." Aran said annoyed looking away.
"I found it on Muffet's body. It's definitely a back-alley job." Mephiles said to him annoyed "Where did she get it?"
"You got this all wrong. If Muffet was doing a special glamour, it wasn't for ME!" Aran told Mephiles "For all the gods sake I want that kind of heat?"
"Who was she doing it for then?" Mephiles asked him.
"She had cliants, Mephiles. Maybe one of them was into it." Aran told him "Lot of messed up people in Fictiontown since the exodus from the Homelands."
"Like who?" Mephiles asked him.
"Try looking in the mirror." Aran said smirking, Mephiles glares at him. "Anyway, nothing to do with me." He starts the music back up and said to Tali glaring "Go on then." Tali was nervous but begins to pole dance again.
"We're not done here." Mephiles told him annoyed.
"I think we are." Aran said smirking.
"I said we're NOT!" Mephiles said angry going up to him
Aran still smirking stands up and said "You're going to hit me? Go ahead. That's what you want to do, right? That's what you came here for, right? That's what you like!"
"One more time. Who. Hired. Her." Mephiles said suppressing the urge to hit him.
Aran motions to punch him but he has been out of practise for a while so he stumbles falling into his chair and knocking over the boonbox that slams onto the floor. It stops playing indicating it was broken.
"AW, NO! DAMMIT!" Aran said annoyed. He looks over at Tali and said "You! Take your sad looking masked face where I can't see it! Bloody darn jerk face!" Tali annoyed leaves the stage for the back room. Aran looks to Mephiles and asked "You proud of yourself mate? Proud of your little mess? Gosh dammit!" Aran picks up the boombox. Mephiles sees Caboose has come over. Aran seeing him shoves the boombox into his hands and said "Get lost, Caboose!"
Mephiles watches Caboose walk off and then calls out "Hold on a minute. Caboose is it?" Caboose places the Boombox on the bar counter.
"Caboose, just cleans up and provides a little muscle when we need it." Aran explained heading over to the bar "He's not going to know anything about the girls and their clients or any of that. No one knows, don't you get it? It's by design. 'Discretion is our guarantee,' right? And the way we guarantee that is that no one knows anything they don't have to know. Including me. I cover my eyes and take my cut, end of story."
"Why not look it up?" Caboose speaks up saying.
"What's that?" Mephiles asked looking over at him with Aran.
"Isn't there a little book with all the stuff about the girls and all that written in it?" Caboose said thinking "I seem to recall seeing one."
"You're a goddamn moron!" Aran said in annoyance.
"Show me." Mephiles told Aran.
"There is no book." Aran said and picks up a cricket bat marked with Crowd Control on it "and as for you Caboose, we need to work on your communication skills, and I've a fairly good idea where to start." Mephiles snatches the bat from him. "Hey, that's my personal property!" Mephiles eyes the bar and slams the bat onto it length ways. "Ha ha! Sure, go ahead. Do what comes naturally.
Mephiles begins moving slowly across it, knocking over the glasses on the counter as he gets closer to the Boombox. But stops just before it and said calmly "Tell me about the book."
"You haven't got the slightest clue about anything!" Aran said staying confident but was a bit nervous now especially since Mephiles eyes the cigarette machine behind him and approaches it, Aran moving back to block it "Hey now…"
"Cut it out, Aran. I want the book Caboose is talking about." Mephiles said to him.
"Caboose is confused. Again." Mephiles looks to the bar and sees the TV and goes to it. Aran moves to block the way again and said annoyed "Don't even think about it."
"Look Aran, why don't you just tell me where the book is?" Mephiles said to him.
"Can we please NOT go round and round with this? There is no book. End of story." Aran told him. He then moves backwards as Mephiles approches and, seeing Keg and places a foot on it to move it a bit "Do NOT touch that. You hear me? That's nothing to do with you." Aran said getting annoyed and nervous.
"There's still time for you to just cough it up." Mephiles said removing his foot.
"I'm sorry, Sheriff, but there's no handy magic book with everything you want to know jotted down inside. I sincerely wish there was. Maybe it would get you off my back." Aran told him.
Mephiles looks at the floor and sees the keg was hiding something on the floor. He moves it to see a covering with a key lock. Aran looked annoyed while Mephiles said with a smirking look "Well, well, what's this? Looks like a floor safe."
"I wouldn't know, it was here when we moved in, I don't have the key to it." Aran said walking away playing dumb. "Sheriff, will you come on! Gosh darn it, I've got to open this place in a few hours!"
Mephiles glares at him and said to him "Give it to me!" He approaches him
"You are a big shadowy demon jerk! We get it! Everyone's guilty! We all get it!" Aran said trying to remain brave and defiant. He then sees Mephiles eying the Ink & Thinner neon sign in the room and readies the bat. He moves back to block the way and said nervous "Geez! You killing me! I'm begging you! I'll pay you!"
"Two women are dead!" Mephiles told him.
"Then quit being a bloody idiot." Aran told him, Mephiles looks to the DJ booth and goes to it. "Come on mate. Leave it. There's nothing there for you." He said nervous as that booth was the most expensive thing in this place.
"You might want to stand back." Mephiles said to him darkly and readies to swing the bat.
"Alright, alright, ALRIGHT." Aran said to him giving in. Mephiles drops the bat while Aran gets the key from the DJ booth. "Bloody come on then! Jerk." He takes Mephiles back to the floor safe "Once again, don't get your hopes up. There's nothing in here that'll tell you anything, but it's a kick in the balls for me and my club, so you can be happy about that." Aran said as he opens up the floor safe. He takes out the book and hands it to him.
Mephiles notices the money also in the floor safe, fifty-eight exactly the amount he gave Jade, so she did make it back here on the night she was killed. He opens the book and looks through it and points saying "Here. This is Muffet's last entry. So tell me, Aran, who's this Mister Smith?"
"Oh dear. I'm afraid it might be a fake name, Mephiles." Aran said with a smirk. "Secrecy is how this all works. Even Caboose knows that."
"What's '207'? Room number?" Mephiles asked him.
"I don't really know, millimetres perhaps?" Aran said to him smirking.
"Don't joke me around, Aran! This is YOUR book! YOUR girls!" Mephiles said to him annoyed.
"But I'm not their god damn secretary." Aran told him "I give them a stage, I give them music, I provide an 'erotic venue to attract and retain clients…'" Aran said to him firmly, as he ranted Tali peeks out from the back room "But let's be clear on something the girls make the arrangements with their clients! Not me. The girls. They're the ones with the Mister Smiths, and Joneses, and Mister X types. Whatever happens outside the club that's on them…" Mephiles pockets the book and sees Tali who quickly goes back into the back room "I log the business, take me cut, and I'm out." Aran picks up a phone and adds as he dials "Now I've had quite enough of you and your bullying. Excuse me while I call your superiors to make a complaint."
Mephiles didn't mind, he moves away and goes to the back room, he isn't sure, but he feels if anyone will know Muffet's personal business, it would be one of her fellow girls like Tali. He goes to the back room.
Well Aran is being difficult, so maybe Tali will be more helpful. Find out next chapter.
Please Read, Review and Suggest. Thank you.