Hector slammed the dumpster lid shut with his full strength. He’d agreed to work a few extra hours this weekend, but for what, really? Maybe $20, $30 extra bucks in his paycheck? Maybe a promotion to cashier?
His brother had always known what to do. And he’d always worked extra hours to help make ends meet.
He’d come home late at night after driving one of the overnight routes, and he’d wake Hector up to show him how much he’d made.
“Hey, little brother, look at this!” He’d say. “Now we don’t have to worry.”
Hector wasn’t as optimistic.
“Mom’s bills are more than this, Alex, what does this get us?”
Most nights, his brother would laugh it off. But the night before he disappeared, he didn’t.
Instead, he’d exploded at Hector, screamed about how he was an ungrateful little shit, lazy, and never did anything for their family.
He’d thrown the money into Hectors face and stormed out of the house.
That was the last he’d seen Alex.
Hector pushed the mask off his face and lit a cigarette. Titling his head back, he closed his eyes and listened to the distant sounds of the city, all the cars and people and dogs and machines.
He was listening so deeply, he heard the rustle of the weird woman as she stood next to him, a sound he was almost sure she made as a courtesy to him.
Without opening his eyes, he said, “yeah?”
“Your brother was a gambler.”
His heart started to beat a little faster. Ramey could sense this was new information to him, exciting somehow, even though he kept his face neutral.
Hector took a drag of his cigarette. “Yeah, so what?”
“I thought maybe you’d know where.”
He did. Alex had pointed it out to him many times. He could see it clearly in his mind: the rusted red door, and small navy blue sign next to it.
Oak Room – Members Only
No trespassing
“I know it,” he said, pulling off his apron and his gloves and tossing them on a stack of wooden pallets. “And im coming with you.”
—
Ramey was uncomfortable, to say the least. Embarrassment and awkward tension was not good food for the demon, so it was pretty unhappy, too.
The club – The Oak Room – was only a few minutes away. But somehow, the walk seemed to stretch into hours.
She tried not to read people too often. They didn’t know she was doing it, but that actually made it somehow worse. What would they think about if they knew someone was listening?
So instead, she said nothing, did nothing.
This increased the awkwardness considerably.
Finally, they reached the Oak Room. They stood staring at the door for some moments.
Hector looked at Ramie expectantly.
Her eyebrows shifted up ever so slightly in surprise.
“You’re not gonna knock?” He said, gesturing towards the door.
“Why should I knock,” she said.
Hector looked at her like she had just said she was running for president.
“You’re the one with magic powers and the super strength and everything!”
Ramie turned her full body towards him and crossed her arms over her chest.
“He’s your brother,” she said.
Throwing his hands up in the air, Hector said, “Fine!” And reached to knock on the door.
Before he could, it swung open.
A man stood in front of them. He saw them and smiled, and leaned casually against the doorframe. He had marble black eyes and wavy black hair that came to about his shoulders and was tied back in a messy pony tail.
He was stunning, with the effortless look of a model just styled for a magazine.
He lifted up and apple, and then a small but no less menacing knife and began to cut slices off the apple and eat them.
“Welcome to the Oak Room,” he said. “How can we help you today?”
Ramie and Hector titled their heads up to check the sign, then looked back down at the man.
“We’re looking for–” Ramie started, but Hector cut her off.
“We’re looking for a good time. You know where we could find it?”
The man squinted like he was thinking, and are an apple slice off his knife.
“Nope, sorry man… Ain’t got a clue where you could find that.”
Ramie and the demon growled, but Hector put his hand up to stop her. He moved in a little closer to the man, who feigned a “who, me?” expression.
“Look, I got a little money burning a hole in my pocket, and I kinda want to turn it into more money. You know?”
The man furrowed his brow in a very concerned expression, nodding his head in understanding.
“Yeah, man, I think I get you. The only problem is, I don’t know where you gonna do that.”
He smiled and popped another apple slice in his mouth.
Ramie could read the feelings of frustration and annoyance radiating from Hector. There’s was something else, too: a longing. Without reading his mind, she couldn’t know for what.
She was about to dig a little deeper when Hector said, “Alex told me to stop by.”
The man in the doorway’s demeanor changed slightly. He still looked like he didn’t care, but it felt like he was really listening now.
“Alex who?” The man said, looking off to the side.
“Herrera,” Hector said.
The man nodded his head slowly. “Mmhmm, mmhmm… He come here sometimes. Hasnt been around in awhile though.”
The three of them stood in silence while the man chewed an apple slice.
“I know his mom was real sick,” the man finally said. “You know her?”
He looked up at Hector. Understanding passed between them. Hector let out a breath.
“Yeah, I do.”
The man kept looking at him for a few more seconds before he moved aside and motioned for them to come inside.
They walked down a long, rickety brick hallway that looked unfinished and unstable. There were little widows along the way, and a few doors, blacked out with old newspapers and yellowing plastic.
Down at the ol farthest end of the hallway was a doorway that said “employees only please” with the faint sound of something happening on the other side.
The man pushed open the door and stepped back so they could walk inside. Hector turned and wiggled his eyebrows at Ramie, a “see? I got skills” gesture.
In front of them was a group of men laughing, talking, looking at their cell phones around piles and piles of cash.
“Oh shi-” Hector turned to run and slammed right into Ramie, her expression sour.
Behind her, the man from the doorway was now blocking their path, and had put away his knife for a handgun.
Ramie turned her head to look at what Hector was staring at.
She growled, long and low.
“Kenny, what the fuck is this?” One of the men said.
“They were snooping around outside, talking some shit about somebody named Alex and some fucking money or some shit,” the man said.
“Gambling! I thought this was like some illegal gambling place! That’s all, man, I swear!”
Some of the men laughed.
“Kenny,” the other man said, “what do you expect to do with these two now, huh? This was a stupid plan, man, before they didn’t know anything, and now they know everything, how stupid can you be? G said to lie low, is this lying low to you?”
The man from the doorways face fell. The cockiness and swagger was gone.
“We didn’t see nothing man, I swear, we’re just trying to find my missing brother.”
The other man sighed and ran his hand over his face.
“Alright, tie these two up, I gotta call G,” he said, taking a phone out of his pocket.
Two of the men approached while Kenny walked forward with his gun in the air.
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” Ramie said.
“Oh no? Whatchu gonna do, skinny?” Kenny said, as one of the men grabbed hectors arms and the other reached out to grab hers.
In the span of a few seconds, a few things happened: Kenny flew back into the door, and his gun spun across the floor to a corner, where it slide under a deep shelf. The two men were thrown backwards into the piles of cash, knocking the tables over, and sending the other men flying. The cell phone flew out of the fat mans hand and Hector, pulling himself up from the floor, caught it.
“Hello? You there, ricky?” Said a voice on he phone.
“Hang up,” ramie said, moving past Hector towards the man. He frantically searched for the red button to end the call, finally just throwing down the phone and stomping on it.
“It’s clear there’s been a misunderstanding,” ramie said, slowly walking towards the man. “We are here for information. Have you seen this man?”
She took out the missing persons flier and held it in front of his face.
“N-n-no, I don’t know him,” the man said, still posed as if he was holding a phone to his ear.
“Does anyone else know this man?” She said, going from body to body with the flier.
Finally, she reached Kenny, struggling against the force holding him to the door.
He looked at the flier and shook his head.
Ramie put the flier back on her jacket and the turned back to the rest of the room.
“As you can imagine, I do not want anyone to know who I am or what I can do, just as you probably want the same thing. Can we agree to keep each other’s secrets?” She looked around the room, from face to face.
All of a sudden, she spun around and flew at Kenny still up against the door, grabbing his face with her hand.
He struggled against her hand and the weight pushing against him, holding him on the door. His breathing was fast, and flecks of spit sprayed from his lips that were pushed together like he was making a fish face.
She stared into his eyes as he struggled. The longer she looked, the more he tried to get away, even though he had yet to move even an inch.
“You are an interesting guy, Kenny Castaneda, 32, of 415 114th street. Do you want to know what’s so interesting about you?” Never taking her hand off his face, she turned to the rest of the room, all the men still frozen on their places.
“You are interesting because you have a lot of secrets. Secrets you have not shared with your friends.”
His eyes went wide. He started shaking his head.
Hector heard a noise come from ramie, like a growl or a moan, like her stomach was making noise, but… It wasn’t a noise he’d ever heard before.
“Kenny, I can tell you friends your secret, or I can keep your secret, which is it?”
He tried to move his lips to speak. She loosen her grip on his face just enough for him to speak.
“Keep, keep,” he said.
She released his face and gave him an almost playful slap on the face.
“Good,” she said.
She turned back to the room.
“We’re going to leave now. Tell whoever your boss is that he doesn’t have to worry about us.” She motioned for Hector to walk with her out the door.
The door opened without her touching it, or without Kennys body needing to move.
Ramie walked at a brisk pace. Hector called after her, “hey! Wait up!” She closed her eyes as as walked down the long hallway.
The door to the outside flew open and she walked quickly down the street. Hector could barely keep up with her; he practically ran to be beside her.
“What is happening? What happened in there?”
Ramie didn’t respond.
“What ARE you?”
Still no response.
They turned a corner, and ramie collapsed.