Tricks

One more prostitute negotiates one more deal with one more "John".

There is no gray in the night. In the night,  the seediest, most run down part of town is just another dark corner. The people of the night fear the daylight just as much as the work-a-day people fear the darkness. Jennifer Connolly had ceased being Jennifer four years ago when she stepped into the night and became Crystal. Her days were spent hiding from the light in whatever flop was available, abandoned factory buildings, beneath highway overpasses and whenever she could tolerate the preaching, one of the local homeless shelters. Hunger always stalked her, snarling at her from the pit of her emaciated stomach. This ravening hunger was often the reason she claimed that she smoked the crack that Little Geo sold to her most days. She told anyone that asked that she could quit the crack whenever she wanted, but it took the edge off of the hunger. But the truth was that it erased the past. The more that she remembered the past, the more she longed to go back to it and the more it burned in her soul. If only she had listened when her parents warned her about the dangers of alcohol and pot. But at fourteen, she knew everything, especially how very lame the old people were. What did they know about life? What did they know about the world. In her moments of clarity, the memories of the life that seemed to be a hundred years ago gnawed at her like the rats gnawed at the garbage in the places where she often slept. But there was no time for the memories. Night was falling and it was time to work. As the dark mini-van pulled slowly down the ally, Crystal stepped from the shadows and leaned into the open window. The man inside was like her last fifty customers, probably some suburban husband who wasn’t getting his johnson polished at home. He was fortyish, with nerdy glasses and a hairline that was in full retreat. He wore light colored slacks, probably khaki, but it was too dark to tell and a darker polo shirt.

“Want a date?”

“I don’t know, I might not be able to afford a date,” he said with a sheepish grin.

Crystal didn’t want to lose out on the first customer of the night so she bartered a bit.

“If you have fifteen bucks, we can have a nice date.”

Even before the words had escaped her lips, the sinking feeling reached the pit of her stomach and pulled it down a bit more. B*****d!, she thought as he reached for his visor and pulled out the badge.

Within minutes she was cuffed and trying to talk her way out of arrest from the back seat of his van. She worked so hard at trying to talk her way out of trouble that she didn’t see the duct tape and length of rope in the cloth bag that he rested his hand on as they pulled away.

“Hey,” she protested, “where are we going? The downtown precinct is the other way.”

Reviews

[Clarisse Nanoit]

Nice! There are a few grammar and spelling things that nagged at me about this ("loose" instead of "lose"), but the story is a good one. I thought it was fishy that she was arrested on such little evidence--normally cops have much more elaborate stings for prositutes, and by the end, my question was answered! I think you could have dragged this out a little more, providing more between bein arrested and noticing something wasn't right--perhaps more details about the cuffing process, more conversation with the "cop". This would give a chance to do a little more foreshadowing, which is always pleasant for the reader. Give them that "soemthing isn't right..." creepy-crawly feeling they really want. I do love this, though, overall. Thanks for entering this into the HOOKERS! contest and good luck!
KH

[The Pain Stays Fresh]

Creepy. I love it. Couple grammar issues, but I won't deduct too many points. :)

[Hayley]

Wow, my attention was kept the whole way through. I really got insight into the psyche of this prostitute. The ending was a shocker too! So scary yet eye opening. Great work, here!