ON YOUR KNEES DON

The Big Bucks Casino!!!

I am utterly rustled by an overwhelming sense of dread as we go in, but my desire to learn the menacing secrets encoded here propels me on. 

"So, what exactly are we doing here, Irma?" Mary quizzes in a hushed tone as we enter the club.

My eyes get restless as we search for a table. My sister's voice is fervently echoing in my thoughts, beseeching me not to give up on this mission. My eyes fail to pick up anything strange, as always, and we finally settle down in the middle of this God-cursed casino.

She was last spotted here in this casino on the ill-fated night she vanished two weeks ago. She was the last of the thirty females to be victimized by the unidentified creature - the evil that has been roaming in this city for months now.

Nobody knows this monster, and if there is, then they are too scared to the core to even whisper the monster's name even in their sleep. But I am daring to unmask every single secret just to find my sister.

"You know why we are here, Mary," I say, still restlessly cruising my eyes around the place.

"Yes. But I don't get it, Irma. Why do you keep coming here even when you know that no single soul is willing to say anything to you?" Mary speaks again.

Yeah. No one is willing to talk. Underline that. Because I believe she put it just right...they don't want to talk. But there is surely something dubious about this place.

"That is the point, Mary. The workers here are scared to hell the minute you bring up this issue. One thing is clear - something is fishy." I respond.

"How long, though, do you intend to continue doing this, Irma? I mean, coming here every day and getting nothing at the end of it. Why don't you reroute your search somewhere else?" Mary again, and she is beginning to aggravate my demons.

I lean on the table, ready to send this friend of mine back home if she does not want to help me,  but I restrain myself when two glasses of wine are brought down in front of us.

We have not ordered anything, as far as I can recall.

I raise my head, and I don't have to struggle so much as a male figure perches on the third seat around our table.

"I would listen to your friend if I were you." My ears are tickled by Don Emilio's irritating hush grumble.

Him? Here at our table?