Experiment in Terror 03 Dead Sky Morning by Karina Halle

going on. Despite the comments and my parents and Creepy Clown Lady telling me people would be coming to take me away…
    OK, I probably shouldn’t have thought of that last one. Suddenly her face was all I saw. I shut my eyes hard, hoping to will it away, hoping her disembodied, foreign voice wouldn’t infiltrate my senses and barge into a place I had protected. I was at a strip club with Dex. That alone was enough for me to focus on.
    When I opened my eyes again I was shocked to see a woman standing in front of me. But it wasn’t Creepy Clown Lady – far from it. It was Marla, the redhaired ravisher. She was clothed again, this time in tight club gear. She smiled at me with perfect teeth, which had me calculating how much they would have cost and how much she made a night.
    I stared at her teeth for so long that she stepped forward and put her hand on the table, leaning forward.
    “So, how about this?” she purred, her voice somewhere between cat and lion.
    “Uhhh,” I stuttered, not sure what she meant.
    “It’s your call. Want to do it here?”
    “What?”
    “Your boyfriend bought me, silly. For you.”
    I looked over her shoulder and saw Dex slowly making his way over, another drink in his hand. He stopped a yard away, leaned against the wall and just watched us. It was…weird. Unnerving. Perverted.
    I gave the girl, Marla, an innocent look. “I don’t think he meant to buy you…least not for me.”
    She chuckled, rich and throaty. “It’s just a lap dance, sweetie.”
    She grabbed my arms and pulled me out so I was sitting at the edge of the booth. And she started moving, slowly, up and down like a silk–skinned snake. Ironically it was to a song called “Stripsearch.”
    I wanted to laugh. Badly. But I kept it in and watched it all unfold. After all, I didn’t have to do anything. I just had to sit and watch.
    Marla had some smooth moves (and smooth skin) with some intense eye contact action. It was enough that I had to look away half the time, especially when her clothes started coming off. Was that even part of the lap dance? Or did the rules not count because I was a girl?
    I brought my eyes over to Dex, who still stood behind Marla, watching the whole thing go down with a strange look on his face. It was conflicted. Maybe he wasn’t sure what he should be staring at. His quivering nervous partner or the quivering naked Marla with the excellent taste in music?
    He took a few steps forward and finally met my own eyes. He was chewing away on his lip, ignoring the underwear that she just discarded on the floor, ignoring the fact that she was stroking my knees and bending over in front of him.
    I don’t think I ever felt so awkward in my life. Keeping my attention on Dex instead of Marla was only helping marginally. Both felt off.
    There’s something wrong with him.
    The thought flashed through my brain, distracting me from Marla’s buoyant bosom that was waving in my face. She noticed this look. She reached for my head and slipped her hands into my hair. She brought her lips up to mine and I thought she was going to kiss me. All I could think about was how her red lipstick was going to make a mess of my face.
    But she just whispered, “Relax. This is really all for him. He wants to see you loosen up. Enjoy it.” She pulled away and winked at me.
    She danced for a few beats more to the driving guitar at the end of the tune. And then the song was over. She picked up a robe that had come from out of nowhere and walked past Dex without any acknowledgement. He followed her walk with his leering eyes. Then came back to the booth and plopped down in his seat.
    I stared at him, not amused. I know Dex was just being like any other guy, getting off on the idea of two chicks getting it on, or something close to that. But there was something off about him tonight. When I thought there was something wrong with him, there was a reason. He was being strange; I could see it in his eyes when he didn’t know I