MHOS Part 32: Pick me up after close

Alastor sits me in a booth and walks behind the bar and puts in an order for a single burger platter and makes 2 whiskey rocks and sits down across from me at the booth.

He sets an ashtray down between us and hands me my drink. I grab 2 pre rolls and hand him one as I light mine. We smoke at the table and he says as the tiny waitress approaches with a single burger platter and puts it on my side of the table. She crawls up my lap and grabs me by the collar "Your secret admirer is Husk" and she giggles. Alastor scoops her up in his arms and says "Indeed" as he lowers her to the ground and she toddles away.

I smile down at her as she leaves and say "She's great" as I glance up at the bar and Husk is busy with customers. Alastor interrupts the beginning of my daydream with "She's Niffty" I look back at the table and ask "Nifty? I didn't think that was a part of your regular speech pattern." I look down at the single platter "Wait. You're not eating?" as I put my pre roll out to eat. Alastor looks at me, then looks down at the burger and says "Niffty is her name my dear, and what I want, isn't on the menu" and I get a chill of excitement though my body as he says it. No Ella! I scold myself in my own head. He looks down at my mouth as I take a bite of my burger and after a moment he puts his pre roll out and says "If you'll excuse me" and walks away. "Where are you going?" I ask after him and he says in a dark voice "To eat" and disappears into the shadows.

I finish my meal alone, people watching with no notepad, it's not quite as satisfying when I don't have a pencil and a pad. I finish up my burger and bring the dishes to the bar to greet Husk and he smiles. "Day one with Alastor huh?" I set the dishes down and say "Whiskey sour" as I nod yes. He puts the dishes in the overpass and someone removes them from sight as Husk makes me my drink.

"I have been practicing my hand and becoming a psychic" and I chuckle and say "Oh yeah, are you going to read me, my future?" He places the whiskey sour in front of me "The search for your so called target is going to take a long time & just when you think you've run out of places to search and that you'll never find him, he'll appear.. And Alastor will have you in his clutches for another entire year as your mentor."

A man sits on the open barstool beside me and flashes me a smile trying to catch my eye.

I look up at Husk and reply "I searched the entire first lake in a day and when I finished I told him I needed to eat, fight, and fuck before bed tonight and he fed me.. and left me alone with you.. again." Husks eyes shoot up to meet mine and his jealousy is replaced with desire. "I'm taking you home with me tonight" he says. Not quietly, but like we were the only two people in the room.

The man who was waiting for me to notice him, stands up, and walks back into the crowded tavern behind me.

I smile and say, "I'm gonna do a little hunting before you take me home tonight" as I slide off the bar and lift my feet individually as I lean forward. I hold out my hand to Husk as tho I am about to pay for my tab and he waves "On the house" I take his hands in mine and it's not money he feels in his hands. I reply "Keep the change" as he closes his hands around the familiar soft fabric, smiles at me knowingly & slides it into his pocket. "Come grab me after close tonight" I say as I walk out into the crowd to take out a few bad men

I slide through the dance floor looking for predators when the same man from the bar grabs my arm and says "You turned him down did you?" I look down at his hand on my forearm holding on just a little too hard. I smile lifting my arm and curling it up pulling his still gripping hand in closer to me.

He smiles and says "Going for the upgrade was the right decision Dollface." Pulling me into his arms as he drags me to the dance floor and begins kissing at me spinning me on the floor in an attempt to make me uncomfortable enough to just go with it. Husk notices and his eyes turn red as I slide my arms around the disgusting little man seemingly returning his embrace.

I wrap my hand in the man's hair making him look me in the eyes before kissing him and bury his face in my neck. As he nuzzles, I look over his shoulder raising my other hand, telling Husk to stop. He scowls, but carries on serving people at the bar. He watches me sway and move as the man openly paws at me & I take the man by the hand pulling him toward the bathrooms.

Husk stops working and openly stares as I take the man down the back hall until someone snaps him out of it by ordering a drink. He leans over the bar to see me slipping out the back door with the man and turns around to serve his customer.

I'm outside in the back of the tavern by the dumpster with the man whose grip is too tight and hands are too handsy. He presses me against the dumpster and starts pulling up my skirt and feels that I'm not wearing any underwear and says "Oh yeahhh" I say "Oh yeah you like that?" as I wrap my legs around his waist, purposefully over top of his belt and he says "Oh yeahhh" as he tries reaching around my thighs to undo his belt.

I ask "How about this?" As I kiss my way down his face and reach his neck, sliding my hand up his shirt and he says "Oh, fuck, yeah." As I tear his throat out with my teeth, digging my hand into his torso and land on top of him as he falls backward. I sit up straddling him and he looks into my eyes, shocked that he got, got. And as the light fades from his eyes I swallow what's in my mouth and whisper in his ear "Was it good for you too?" And listen to his last breath leave his body.

I pick up the body with my tentacles and drop it in the dumpster with a thud as I lick the blood of my fingers, cleaning up my mess behind me this time. Alastor will have no cause to complain if I leave the place the way I found it.

I slip into the bathroom to clean up before entering the bar again and as I walk out of the bathroom and back into the hallway I feel a hand on my shoulder coming from behind me. One of my tentacles whips out of my hair and grabs the person out from behind me and slams them against the wall as I look up to find a stunned Husk and I immediately apologize.

I make my tentacle let go but it refuses to go away, floating between us like protective seaweed. "Are you okay?" I ask Husk as I try to wave it away. He looks down at the slight discolouration that is blood on my dress and he asks "Are you?" as he searches me for injuries and says "That disgusting man" I cut him off "Is my target demographic sweetie." I grab my tentacle trying to shove it behind me as I say "I'm a vengeance demon, seducing and destroying men just like him every single day." He looks at me with realization as he walks me back to my seat.. "That's why you sit at the bar isn't it?" he looks at the mirrors behind the bar. "You were hunting WHILE you were flirting with me that night? And I didn't notice? Smooth." My tentacle starts investigating Husk again and I wave it away embarrassed.

With that the mood lightens as I say "I'm sorry they've never done this before." Husk smiles down at it and raises his hand to it. The tip darts down to the palm of his hand and gently touches it and despite the fact that I'm not controlling it, I can feel the palm of Husks hand as the tentacle makes contact. He pets it with his other hand and It feels like there is no threat and suddenly I am in control of it again.. I slide it back in my hair like it wasn't just traumatizing Husk

Husk looks at me with admiration, "You're getting stronger and discovering new powers. Have you read your lore book?" I sigh saying "I started to, then I made the deal with Alastor.. and even if I get a year of mentorship and I get stronger, I feel like he was still pulling the wool over my eyes somehow. So I grabbed the book on deals and decided to do further research." Husk nods in understanding. "Another drink?" Husk asks "Anything you want to make me." I reply. Husk smiles as he starts to mix and hands me a delicious looking blue drink and he says "Blue Monday"

I grab the drink turn around and lean my back on the bar, openly watching the crowd as I sip on the new drink. I find a man looking for a shy girl to prey on and act surprised and embarrassed as he makes eye contact with me. I turn back to the bar and cock and eyebrow at an onlooking Husk before returning to an embarrassed shy demure woman as the man approaches me and whispers something he thinks is charming in my ear as he holds my waist close. I look up at him and smile uncomfortably as he takes a seat next to me.

Husk continues to watch through his peripherals fascinated at how easily I became exactly what another man wanted so soon after killing the first. He admires the appetite for the hunt. He sees the man drop something in my drink as he whispers in my ear and kisses me and as he's about to intervene he see's my hand raise to stop him tho my face is not in sight. As he moves back I go to grab the drink and accidentally spill it on his shirt as I do and start apologizing profusely. I grab him by the shirt and say "Here, let's go to the bathroom and I'll clean you right off"

I pick up the glass holding it upside-down saying "Umm bartender, I accidentally spilled my drink and gotta go clean off, can you please make me a new one please? I will be right back." Husk hides his amusement as he goes to clean up the mess at the bar watching as I let the man take me out the backdoor as he kisses my neck saying he knows how I can make it up to him and Husk smiles. His seedy little tavern is a good hunting ground for a hunter like me indeed. It's symbiotic too, getting rid of those perverts is good for business. Husk starts making another Blue Monday and as I get back to the bar he hands it to me.

He notices his bowtie back in my hair and asks "Where did that come from?" I reply, "It was holding a dagger in a sheath under my skirt." and he nods his head. "And the dagger?" he asks "The handle broke off so I threw it away" and he grins and says "I hate it when that happens." and I wink at him and say "I have one more thing I need to do to make my night complete" and Husk leans in my ear saying "Oh yeah? What's that?" As we're interrupted by:

beep beep beep

I look down at my watch.. turning off the alarm and look back up at him and remind him "Pick me up after close" and kiss him deeply right there over the bar before I turn around to make my way over to Peaches house.