Ad Nauseam - By C. W. LaSart Page 0,44

the windows covered by boards. It looked to have been closed up for a while, and Chad couldn’t immediately tell what sort of business it had housed when open. Glancing up and down the street, he saw that more businesses were boarded up than not.

“Well, this is 122, but I don’t see a 122 ½. Usually it would be an apartment above the actual business in a place like this, but there’s only one floor. I guess it doesn’t exist.” He was a little pissed at the old man for sending him on a wild goose chase, but at least Lily’s company had been nice.

“Maybe it’s down there?” Lily pointed down a narrow alley south of the building which was barely wide enough to let them enter side by side.

“I suppose it could be. You want to check it out?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on. If it’s not there, we’ll come right back out. And if it is, I’ll buy you a drink.”

“You’d owe me more than one drink for going down that creepy alley.”

“Okay, I’ll buy you as many drinks as you want.” He held out a hand to her, grinning in the most disarming way he could when she didn’t take it. “It’s okay. I’ll protect you.”

Lily snorted, her eyebrows raised as she made a show of looking him up and down, clearly not reassured by his fancy clothes and lean build.

Chad laughed and shrugged, pulling his hand back.

“We’ll be a team. If someone attacks us, I’ll distract them while you take off one of those high heels and stab them with it.”

“I’ll go down there with you on one condition. If we don’t find anything, you walk me back to my place and pay for a date.”

“That sounds fair. If we don’t find anything, I might just want that date after all.” Chad winked and held his hand out again, and after only a moment of hesitation, Lily took it.

***

The light from the street barely illuminated the narrow alley and they had to proceed slowly to keep from tripping over trash that littered the ground. A heavy stink of urine and garbage made them breathe through their mouths, and Chad had to squeeze Lily’s hand to keep her from fleeing when a rat squeaked at them from atop a pile of refuse. Chad was about to give up and turn around when the thump of heavy bass reached him, more a feeling than a sound. A few yards down, they came upon the door.

Set flush with the brick, the heavy steel door was huge, easily twice the size of an average one, with no discernible knob or handle. Spray painted in black letters across it were two words: CLUB CARNAL. The music came from behind the door.

Looking over his shoulder at Lily, Chad raised his eyebrows in question. She shrugged, squeezing his hand lightly. He raised his other fist and rapped on the door, expecting a hollow gonging noise to reverberate down the alley, but hearing only a soft knock. After several moments he turned to Lily.

“There’s no way anyone will hear us knocking over that music. Maybe there’s another way in.”

The door squealed on unseen hinges as it opened inward, revealing a man in a stained white t-shirt and snug jeans with homemade tattoos covering nearly every inch of exposed skin, including his face and neck. Ignoring Chad and Lily, the guy leaned out and surveyed the alley with narrowed eyes, before allowing them to enter.

Inside it was dark, the only illumination coming from a black light that caused neon graffiti on the walls to glow crude etchings and misspelled words that shocked the eyes in day-glow pinks, greens and yellows. The music was loud and heavy.

Turning toward Chad, the big man said nothing, just held out a scarred hand, eyebrows raised.

“Oh yeah.” Chad said, his voice swallowed up by the beat as he patted first one pocket, then the other with a frantic certainty he had lost the ticket and they would be thrown back out into the alley with the rats and garbage. He jumped when Lily slid her small hand into his front pocket, her fingertips grazing his balls as she retrieved the ticket deep within and laid it in the bouncer’s palm. She winked at Chad as they waited for the man to inspect the stub.

Satisfied with what he saw, the guy opened an interior door and ushered them past the entrance.

Chad’s first impression of Club Carnal was one of sensory overload as he