Her Soul in the Devil's Hands

“ELLIE!” a familiar voice screamed over the pumping music in the bar, causing me to lose focus and stop in the middle of a move - to the disappointment of the men who were staring at me with hungry eyes. I scanned the crowd trying to find where her voice had come from. Standing on the pedestal as I was, made it a lot easier to spot her luscious hair, bopping up and down as she made her way over to where I was. The men were starting to complain that I wasn’t moving, so as to not lose any more money, I slowly began moving my hips to the rhythm of the music, dancing around the pole next to me. The men cheered happily. Jess finally made her way over to me - having had to push her way through the crowd around my pedestal. “Ellie! Didn’t you hear me call?” she almost yelled, since the music would have drowned out her words otherwise. “Yes. I did, in fact. But as you can see, I’m working.” “I know that! But this is more important!” she said with angry eyes. I knew she wasn’t really angry with me, she just wanted to let me know that she was unhappy with my work. She would never let me forget that she disapproved of this lifestyle. But I had bills to pay and savings to do and she knew that. Still, she wished I would find some other way to make money. I shrugged. “Can’t it wait? Break’s in five.” I said as I bent down, knees spread wide and my arms above my head, wrapped around the pole. The crowd cheered. I had to continue while I was still on, no matter the interruptions. “Fine! I’ll wait out back.” she said, and pushed her way back through the crowd again. I rolled my eyes as I turned away, doing some more moves while the crowd cheered. After the five minutes were up, I walked around the pedestal, crouching down so that the men could put some money in the straps of my underwear. They booed as a stepped down, but I was soon replaced by the next girl, who – to my pleasure – didn’t get nearly as much attention as I did. In this kind of workplace, the more adored you were, the more money you made. Apparently, I was one of the favorites. Not only was I considered attractive, but I was also very good at dancing. I walked through the door labeled 'staff only' to take my well-deserved break and to find out what was so important to Jess that she had to interrupt me at work. She was waiting for me as she said she would, tapping her foot impatiently. As soon as she saw me walking through the door, she got up and grabbed my shoulders with an iron grip. “You seriously need to find a better job than this! I worry about you, you know?” she said with worry written all over her face. “You keep telling me. But you know I…” “Yeah, yeah, I know. ‘You have bills to pay and savings to do’. I get that. I do. But that doesn’t stop me from worrying about you.” She said, sighing at my stubbornness. “Anyways, that’s not what I came here to talk about.” “Yeah, what is so urgent it couldn’t wait until I got off?” “Well, you’ll be happy to know that, Ben… finally… proposed to me.” She said slowly, emphasizing the word ‘finally’ for dramatic effect. My eyes widened in surprise as I squealed, pulling her into a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you. A thousand congratulations to the both of you!” She reciprocated my enthusiasm, squealing along with me and hugging me back. I gasped, pulling away from her. “The ring! Let me see the ring!” I almost screamed. She showed me her left hand where a nice little ring with three small diamonds sat on her ring finger. I was awestruck. The ring might not look like much, but it suited her. It was perfect. “You are so lucky to have found someone who loves you this much.” I said, my voice nearly inaudible. You could almost hear the envy in my voice, though I tried to hide it. She didn’t need to feel bad for me that I didn’t have someone like that. This was about her, not me. But unfortunately, she wasn’t fooled. She knew me too well to fall for my act. “You’ll find someone too one day. Just wait.” She sounded so confident about it. “I wish I had your confidence in that matter,” I sighed. Her eyes looked at me sadly as she pulled me into another hug. This time with less happiness and more empathy. “I have to go. Ben is waiting for me.” She said as she pulled away, keeping her hands on my shoulders for a last reassuring squeeze. “Will you be okay?” I nodded. “Of course, who do you take me for?” I smirked as I lifted an eyebrow at her. She gave me a quick peck on the cheek, said bye and left with a smile. As the door closed behind her, my smile faded. Jessica and Ben had been together for 3 years now, so it wasn’t a complete surprise that he proposed. It still stung though, that she had found someone special, while I, on the other hand, never seemed able to find a meaningful relationship. They never lasted more than a couple of weeks before I grew tired of them. My break was almost over, but I didn’t feel like going back out there. I just had to keep going for a couple more hours and then I could return home. I sighed and left the breakroom with a heavy heart. The girl I had to switch with looked very happy to finally be able to take a break. I smiled at her. She received her tips and stepped up on the pedestal as soon as she had gotten down. My smile as I danced seemed forced to me, but the crowd didn’t seem to notice. As my eyes wandered, the crowd never settling on one place for too long, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. It was a devilish handsome man staring directly at me, still as a statue. He wasn’t smiling and his eyes didn’t seem to want to swallow me whole like the rest of the crowd. In fact, he almost seemed bored of my moves, and yet his eyes never strayed from me. It was unnerving, but I couldn’t look away from him. My moves had slowed, though I never fully stopped dancing. As I blinked, he disappeared. One moment he was there and the next… gone. Had I just imagined it? Was I really that tired already? I shook my head to clear my mind and continued dancing for the rest of my shift. But I couldn’t seem to get the image of him and his strange glare out of my head.