CHAPTER 8
Nate
I leaned against the exterior of the building, acknowledging the different Afterglow members. They strolled by as civilians, long coats hiding their fetish gear, and entered the building, transforming into their wildest fantasies, their shadow selves. Tonight, I was wearing black, my sleeves rolled up. I was always my shadow self. Professionalism exuded power. There was no need for leather or ties to prove my dominance.
Mara came around the corner, wearing the same black outfit she had worn at the Afterglow weeks earlier. A fitted black shirt that accentuated her curves, black jeans snug against her thighs. Based on how differently she dressed on campus, it was clear that she had read the usual customs for dungeons and had respected them. I appreciated that. Her weathered book bag was on her shoulder.
“No Hazel yet?” she asked. I shook my head. “I’m sure she’ll be here soon.”
Mara stood next to me, awkwardly peering at the different people as they passed, searching for Hazel, then followed suit in leaning against the building with me. We watched, acknowledging the members, including Lily and Kiley, old friends of mine, as they walked in. After half an hour, I shifted. I had had a feeling that this would happen.
“You want to go in?” I asked.
“Let me call her,” Mara said, fiddling with the deep pockets of the bag to find her phone. She dialed and stared off into the distance as she waited, then hung up. “Straight to voicemail.”
“Text her. Tell her to let us know when she’s outside,” I offered, though I knew the chances of Hazel actually showing up were slim.
“She’s not coming,” she said. “I mean, I’ll text her, but I doubt it’ll do any good.”
After giving the password, we entered the building. I opened a locker for her, but she stared at the cubby.
“What?” she asked.
“The book bag,” I said. “You can leave it here.”
“But I never go anywhere without it.”
I had noticed. “There couldn’t possibly be anything in it that you need in it right now.”
She looked hesitant, almost fearful, at the thought of letting it go. “If you need to keep it with you, that’s fine,” I said, “but the lockers are here for convenience.”
Mara quickly shoved the bag into a locker and slammed it shut. “Fuck,” she whispered, then followed behind me. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”
It was a strange reaction, one I would ask about it later, once I found the right moment. We walked into the warehouse section and wandered towards the lounge. I asked what she wanted, and Mara ordered water. With drinks in our hands, we sat at a high-top table.
“What happened with Hazel, anyway?” Mara asked. She sipped her water. “It sounds like it was bad.”
“She was involved with an evil person,” I said.
“An evil person?”
To describe Eric and his hold over others as ‘evil’ was an oversimplification. But it was easier to handle it that way from an outsider’s perspective. Eric wasn’t the only one who had left his mark, months after he had died. It was his followers too, his slaves, his friends, who were permanently changed, like me. To gain Eric’s trust, I had ruined Lisa, beat her within an inch of her life. I had been evil too. Regardless of if it had been consensual—Lisa and I had agreed to the same end goal, to gain information about Eric’s organization, no matter the cost, both of us full well knowing the violence he was capable of—Lisa had never been the same. Neither of us thought to question the violenceIwas capable of. Once I had been let into Eric’s circle, Lisa left his control and the Afterglow along with it. Investigations took place, one that almost ended in the revocation of my membership.
But Mara wasn’t asking about that.
“An Afterglow member got ahold of Hazel’s stash and ended up overdosing.” Mara’s eyes widened. “Eric’s stash. It didn’t end well for the Afterglow member, or for Hazel.” I scanned the room, faces of those marked by that evil man still haunted here, but the difference was that these people had survived. The others had not. Lisa had not. “A lot of people died, by Eric’s hands, or his followers. Luckily, a couple, master and slave, took him out.”
And now the two of them were out thru-hiking in the mountains for the next few weeks.
“And Hazel?” Mara asked.
“She was—” How did I put this lightly? “—apprehended by that same couple. The slave was Hazel’s sister.”
“She had to arrest her own sister? That’s messed up,” Mara said. “That’s good that the man was arrested in the end. It sounds like he was horrific.”
That he was arrested was an outright lie, but I wasn’t going to correct it. It was in the past now.
“Did you know him?” Mara asked. I furrowed my brow. “The evil guy?”
