Endless Night
saw his jaw muscles flex in the shimmering light from the stage and knew he was clenching it in concentration.
    “For your viewing pleasure, I present to you, Madam Azelie. The snake charmer.” The large man on stage bowed and held his hand out with a flourish, welcoming the performer to the stage.
    The little woman took the stage with such presence I hardly believed there was just one small woman exuding that much confidence. My favorite Cajun voodoo priestess entered stage left with a big ass snake draped around her petite form.
    Just fucking fantastic!
    Serious pyrotechnics ignited on either side of the stage and silence fell over the crowd. A moment later, the rhythmic beat of a drum began. The woman’s hips swayed with an ease you rarely saw in a human being. Something more cat-like than human movement. Her hands rose and lifted each end of the snake with them. The multilayered skirt that clung to her hips, swished with her movement. Back and forth it swayed, exposing bare legs and feet through its shorter layers. Around her midsection, an interesting tattoo wrapped and nearly met at her belly button. The skirt hit at her hips, hardly covering her crotch, and I feared it might fall off; it hung so low. Her body continued its undulation and I began to grow even more annoyed by the little bitch. Not only had she all but strung me up by my neck in her tiny witch room, she was now distracting my pseudo date from his thoughts of kissing me. I decided two things then, first, that bitch was on my list, and second, I was going to kiss those perfect fucking lips if I had to tie the boy down to do it. Well, I might tie him down anyway.
    A woman passed, carrying a tray of drinks, and I swiped two. One slid down the hatch and the other waited its turn in my trembling hand. I never understood why he showed me the slightest bit of interest. Why he’d ever wasted his time on a fatty like me, I didn’t know. When I first met Cyrus, I thought he was full of shit, hell maybe he still was, but I was at the point I didn’t really care. But, he was pretty and I wanted him. End of story.
    I waited a good thirty seconds before I shoved the waiting glass to my lips. The hot liquid slid over my tongue and burned my throat on the way down. My eyes closed from the sensation and a shiver shook my core. Cyrus watched the woman on stage and I watched him. Though his eyes were fixed on her, they didn’t appear to hold a sense of longing or attraction. I thought, for a second, I saw fear. Just a second and it was gone. It reminded me of the time he’d been so scared of Dominika. The thought of that crazy bitch pissed me off even more. Luckily for me, she wasn’t staying in that house with us, but I was sure she was in attendance nonetheless. That was the last thing I wanted to deal with.
    The woman on stage lifted the snake off her shoulders and allowed it to wrap itself around her waist. The snake was nearly all white, with the exception of splotches of yellow, and likely a python of some kind. I wasn’t a snake fan so I didn’t really know. It was scaly and had no legs; it was a fucking snake.
    Her bare arms showed off bands of inked designs from wrist to shoulder. Her costume was revealing, hardly covering her nipples, allowing the world to see she was covered in simple black-line tattoos. The hip hugging skirt coupled with the mesh string bikini style top left little to the imagination. On the forefront, for all to see, the tiny girl bore markings of ink on her body that resembled those on her lovely sign hanging in front of her shop of bullshit. I’d had the pleasure of seeing most of those tattoos close up and personal, but even if I hadn’t, they were obvious against her creamy skin. Dangling from her wrist, right where it’d been when I’d seen her last was her black rosary.
    The sight of that woman pissed me off. She really hadn’t done anything to me, aside from accuse me of murder, but that was enough to put her on my shit

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