Chapter 3

Cassie stared at herself in the smudged mirror. Tired blue eyes stared back at her. The eyeliner and mascara that she had failed to wipe off from the previous night had smeared into a messy blob, making her eye bags appear more gruesome than they actually were. The appearance of her collarbones and cheekbones were heightened by the lack of a proper diet. That and her dainty wrists served as stark evidence of how little and infrequently she ate. Her brown hair hung limply over her shoulder, the tips riddled with split ends. She was in desperate need of a proper salon treatment but that was something she couldn’t afford. The only form of hair treatment she could afford were dollar store hair dye and two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. She was still dressed in yesterday’s clothes – a white sleeveless button down shirt with sparkly skin tight pants. Considering the weather, it wasn’t exactly her first choice in fashion but it was the waitress uniform at one of her three jobs - Club Indigo, the night club she worked in.

She stole a glance at the heirloom grandfather clock – unarguably one of the most expensive items in the entire house - in the corner. Soon, its piercing ring would announce that it was seven o’clock. Then she would have to trudge across the badly carpeted hallway to the room her siblings shared to wake them up. That was almost a whole day’s effort.

She padded along the floor in her mismatched socks towards the kitchen. The small space couldn’t really be regarded as a kitchen. It had always been more of a kitchenette. What was left of the doors of the termite ridden cupboards hung on only by duct tape and the sheer hope from the house’s inhabitants. Yellowing wallpaper had already begun to peel off at the edges. Another thing that was due for replacement she couldn’t afford to pay for. The appliances present were limited to a gas cooker with two burners, a microwave and a mini fridge. Back when they were alive and she was still the only child, her parents had bought the mini fridge themselves with promises of how they would soon get a bigger and better one. They had never gotten around to fulfilling their promise. Still, it was a miracle how the fridge had survived so many years. She had bought the gas cooker by herself after the old one finally gave up the ghost. The second hand microwave had been her reward for being the employee of the month back when The Bean House was still a more popular coffee shop.

She fluttered around the kitchenette, opening and closing doors as she gathered all that she needed to make breakfast for herself and her siblings. She was just about to crack another egg into a bowl when the grandfather clock chimed, startling her half to death and causing her to drop the egg into the skin. Woefully, she watched as the egg broke on impact and its contents slink into the drain. She gripped the corners of the counter firmly to prevent herself from screaming out in frustration. After she had sufficiently calmed herself down, she padded over to her siblings’ room.

Aaron and Lily were still curled up in their shared beds. She started the process of shaking them awake, remembering to calm herself when they didn’t wake up even after being shaken for ten minutes. Being more than a decade younger than her, they needed the sleep way more than she did.

Finally, they woke up, both of them grumbling at having their sleep disturbed on the weekend.

“It’s probably five in the morning.” Aaron groaned as he attempted to cover his eyes with his arm. “Why are you waking us up this early?”

Cassie made a disapproving sound at the back of her throat. “You’re wrong buddy. It’s already seven. And you better get up or I’m going to eat all of the pancakes.”

At the mention of pancakes, the twins shot up and rubbed the sleep out of their eyes.

“We’re awake!” Lily declared. “Don’t eat all the pancakes. We need them more than you do. We’re still growing.”

Cassie chuckled and drew herself up to her full height. “Well,” She began. “If you do all of your chores super-fast, I will make one, no two, extra pancakes for both of you.”

The two of them needed no further persuasion, zipping around their room to put away clothes and toys. Cassie snuck back into the kitchen and continued the process of making breakfast. Just as she was laying the freshly prepared pancakes out, the twins took their seat on the table.

Lily sighed contentedly as she bit into her pancake. “Do we have whipped cream?’ She asked, her eyes shining in anticipation.

Forking hovering close to her mouth, Cassie bit her lip. They had run out of whipped cream months ago, something she had avoided cooking anything that whipped cream could be eaten with; that included pancakes and waffles. She hated telling them that they had run out of something. “No.” She stated solemnly.

Knowing better than to throw a tantrum over something as insignificant as whipped cream, Lily nodded and continued with her breakfast.

*****

Multiple strobe lights flashed around giving the Club Indigo and its patrons a mythical otherworldly glow. Most of the women present were dressed in skimpy attire with the ones of them who were staff dancing on poles or twerking on a customer’s lap. Drinks and drugs of all kinds flowed freely with multiple individuals bent over tables doing lines of cocaine. Cassie moved around the club balancing four drinks on a tray, careful to avoid bumping into any of the dancing half-naked workers or the perverted patrons. Loud music thumped from the bass speakers. When she had first started working at Club Indigo, she had needed to take painkillers after every shift on account of how shitty the music made her head feel. Now, she was used to the loudness. Over the music, she heard someone shout her name.

Dressed in a skimpy bodysuit so sparkly, that her eyes were almost blinded, Isabel strutted over. To the patrons, she was known as Shine and lived up to her nickname by always wearing something that was glittery. Dollar bills were sticking out from the various cutouts of her outfit. The bills sticking out of her outfit served as a form of advertisement to potential customers letting them know that Isabel was good at what she did. The ever changing strobe lights cast ethereal glow on her golden brown skin.

Cassie smiled as her best friend enveloped her in a warm hug, ignoring how the sequins on her friend’s outfit scratched her skin.

“How are my babies?” She yelled over the music. Despite the fact that the two of them were almost eleven years old, Isabel still liked to refer to Lily and Aaron as ‘her babies’.

Cassie shot her a sweet smile. “They’re alright. If I know them well, they are probably watching some cheesy animated movie on N*****x. Thank you once again for giving us those passwords.”

Isabel responded with a dismissal wave. “I’ve told you over and over again chica. Stop thanking me for that. You would have done the same for me.”

Cassie had always worked at Club Indigo as a worker and Isabel had always worked there as a stripper/prostitute. Cassie’s waitressing position didn’t pay as much as Isabel’s. Her friend needed the money more than she did. Isabel was born to immigrant parents and was an undocumented US resident. After her parents had died, she had been saddled with the responsibility of paying off their many debts while still having to purchase insulin for her newly diagnosed diabetes. There was no way Isabel would have been able to make the kind of money she needed on the waitress' salary. It was in that regard that Cassie counted herself luckier than her friend. Her own parents had been able to pay off whatever debts they owed before they had died. Currently, the only money she owed were her student loans which she planned to pay back once she got a more decently paying job offer.

A few nights after they first met, a drunken Cassie had been complaining about how much she hated leaving her siblings behind in an empty house without any form of entertainment, Isabel had jumped to the rescue and provided Cassie with a list of N*****x passwords that she had curated from her various clients.

Smiling wildly, Isabel fished out a bill from her dress and placed it on the tray Cassie was carrying. She plucked off a drink and then paused before bringing it to her lips. “And how about you? How are you holding up?” She asked.

Cassie was about to answer Isabel's question when the unmistakable sounds of gunshot rang through the air. There was a chorus of panicked screams as staff and customers alike began to run in all directions.