Lucinda Deleanu

Hunter entered the complex laughing at his friend’s joke as well as the rest of the group was doing. They were eight men in total, all o them ready to celebrate a bachelor party, the first one of them who would tie the not. Honestly, Hunter had never thought about marriage, kids and houses with white picket fences, he knew he wanted them -maybe not the fence- but he didn’t think he was ready for all that  just yet, especially not ready to share his candies with a kid who couldn’t say no because it was your own. However, since he found out Ren would get married, Hunter had not stopped thinking about certain woman named Katrina Addams, sure, they barely met each other, and they only had two dates but he didn’t dislike the idea of marrying her in a future. Some would say it was typical of him, given his romantic and impulsive personality and he would forget about the idea as soon as Katrina kicked him out of her life, but he had plans so that didn’t happen.

The group moved around the strip club, Hunter didn’t understand why they had decided to come to a club instead of throwing a more private party but whatever, damn him if he wasn’t going to have fun anyway. A girl, much younger than him was and barely dressed, welcomed them and led them to the booth they had reserved and as the walked there, most received dirty glances and sly smiles from the women in there and Hunter want oblivious to the ones directed to him and far from him to deny a beautiful woman a smile or a wink. His charm would be his downfall sometime.

Lucinda had been halfway through her pole dance routine(3:00-4:30) and paid little to no attention to her audience since the woman focused on giving her best performance with her skill level of pole dancing. Lucinda smirked to herself as she landed a specific move that required her upper body strength and flexibility for long seconds and finally released her hands as she twirled down the pole and lifted her face with a sexy look on her face and flipped her red wig and winked at a random group of people who had walked in and taken a seat. Due to the light beams that were constantly on her face, Lucinda never saw anyones face clearly unless she was up and close to the edges of the stage. Turning to face the pole in, Lucinda continued through the song knowing it would soon come to an end and held the smirk on her face when she went up and down the pole and finally ended back on the ground with her face held up high knowing her blue eyes would be the ones calling the most attention even if she had on a bright red wig; the eyes always won. After a loud applause she bowed and went to the back to change out of her outfit.

Sighing, Lucinda took a seat in front of her vanity and shook her hair out of the wig. “Great performance baby! Never fail to impress us and the audience.” A  coworker complimented and winked at her before going out to give another dance. “Thanks...” Lucinda whispered quietly and was ready to remove her lipstick and some of her makeup when her manager came backstage and said, “Stop! Oh no no sweetheart, you’re not done yet.” Lucinda frowned and looked at her. “What are you talking about? My shift just ended...remember that was my last number?” Her manager shook her head and waved off her explanation as she stood behind Lucinda and stared at her straight into the mirror. “We’ve got a bachelor party and one of them asked for a special performance.” Lucinda groaned and pouted, “Ugh! Get someone else to do it! They’d be more than happy to get the extra tips....” She argued but had no choice as soon as her manager answered, “No. We need you and one of your dance performances....doesn't matter if its an old one, though we all know we love your new ones too, and relax! It’s not a lap dance, they just want a nice little sexy show. Flash some cleavage here, shake your butt in front of the bachelor and be done with it. You can even take some girls with you on stage to make it more mouthwatering....” She joked with a wink.

Lucinda hated when they did this to her. Always. Letting out another sigh she stared back at her manager and said, “How many are they?”

After the manager told her the number, Lucinda moved towards the other dancers and played her part well in order to get the other seven dancers to join her. During rehearsals, Lucinda taught the others the dance routines incase situations like these raised and incase Lucinda couldn’t make it to a show. The girls changed their clothes until they all wore slightly similar yet different outfits and Lucinda ran a hand through her black hair and had applied black lipstick knowing black hair and lipstick paired with her crystal blue eyes was her signature look to any regulars here at the strip club. The ladies stood ready by the sides of the stage and waited for their cue to walk onto the stage. “Now, give it up to our amazing dancer, the one who many of you love, and the one who captivates every soul with her exotic crystal blue eyes and pitch black hair! Black Raven!” The announcer yelled into the microphone and while the stage went black, Lucinda and her dancers got into their positions.

The dance routine was simple but also sensual which was what any bachelor wanted on his last night before getting married. The song Buttons by The Pussy Cat Dolls was an oldie but goodie when it came to that. Lucinda was upfront and center while she danced and smirked looking straight head, knowing that’s where the manager had told her the table of eight men sat with the bachelor in the center. And once Lucinda was close enough and on the floor to view the bachelor and those around him she realized what a mistake that had been.

Hunter Deleanu.

Her younger brother was among the group and Lucinda had no other choice but to keep her pokerface on and finish the dance with a wink and blow of a kiss towards the bachelor. The applause only grew louder as the song was over and as the girls bowed and went backstage.

(Characters include: Audrey, Hunter, Katrina, Lucinda, and Mitch)

Black Cat: Are you superstitious? If so, what are you superstitious about?

Broomstick: If you could travel anywhere in the world where would it be?

Candy Corn: What food disgusts you the most?

Cauldron: What is your favorite thing to cook?

Cobwebs: One place you would never want to get lost in in the dark?

Coffin: Are you claustrophobic?

Demon: What is your worst flaw?

Eerie: One thing that always creeps you out?

Fright: What is your biggest fear?

Ghost: If you could be reincarnated, would you come back as another human or an animal? If an animal, what kind?

Gravestone: Ideal way you’d like to die?

Haunted House: If you could be roommates with anyone of your choice, who would you pick?

Hocus Pocus: What is the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard?

Howel: Your favorite kind of dog?

Jack-o’-lantern: Do you have any scars? If so, how many?

Monster: What is your favorite scary movie to watch in the dark?

Mummy: Would you rather be buried or cremated when you die?

Potion: What is your favorite thing to drink? Alcoholic and non alcoholic?

Pumpkin: What is your favorite food around the holidays?

Scream: Easiest way to scare you?

Skeleton: Tell me one of your biggest secrets?

Spooky: What was your last nightmare about?

Trick or Treat: Tell me about the greatest prank you’ve ever pulled?

Vampire: Which one are you? Early bird or night owl?

Witch: If could have the power to cast any kind of spell, what kind of spell would you cast?

Hunter stopped dead on his tracks when he heard Lucinda shouting at him and had it not been for her calling him by his second name, he would still be walking away from her. “The victim? Please, don’t come with that shit. Why the fuck do you think I asked your name? Because I thought you looked familiar, even if the last time I saw you you were standing on the sidewalk while I was being taken away. I was six. I still recognized you. It’s more than what you can say.”  Hunter wasn’t sure why he was still there, this shouldn’t keep him in his place since as far as he was concerned his relationship with Lucinda was meaningless and what she said to him had not weight on him at all. But there he was, still facing her and wondering why the hell did the woman think he was really going to look for her. “Are you fucking serious? You really think  I was going to look for you when I waited almost five years for you?” His words were coming out in between clenched teeth as he closed the little distance between them. “I went through a hell of five years. Waiting, hoping, you’d come for me. In the end I gave up. Why was I going to go and look for you when obviously, you didn’t want to know about me.” As he spoke, Hunter could feel all over again those first beatings given to him by his adoptive father, so much so that the scars left on his back started itching; he had to shrug his shoulder to get rid of the sensations.

Looking at her with a stoic face, watching her fight against words, Hunter tried to walk away again. The sooner the better. When Lucinda finally spoke, he stood in silence for a couple of seconds while memories and thoughts long forgotten ran though his mind. “No. I don’t wanna fucking talk.  Not to you. I don’t wanna hear anything you have to say. You moved on with your life and you’re alive so it obviously went well and I’m alive, too so rest assured knowing it. Whatever you have to say, it’s twenty-one years late. Move on, sister,” The word came out in a mocking and derogatory tone. “I moved on long time ago.” Looking at her blue eyes for one more second, Hunter glanced down at Fang and then slwly turned around to keep walking. 

Okay, so maybe Hunter had a point. Maybe she hadn’t recognized who he was at first but something did feel different from the moment she laid eyes on him. She knew that but she wasn’t about to go telling someone who used to be a close relative that. There were reasons certain emotions didn’t come up to surface for Lucinda and that only coincided with her title: PokerFace.

“I was barley eight years old Sebastian! Barley! What the hell could I do?! Nothing! Blame the damn system Deleanu! Not me! And what, you think you were the only one going through a shit life during those five years? You think I didn’t think about going to get you or that maybe you were better off without me!?” Lucinda swallowed hard and forced her face to remain neutral and show as little emotions as was possible. Fuck, she thought and continued on. “And what if I had gone to find you huh? What then? We’d live off the streets and hiding from the authority figures. What kind of life would that have been Sebastian?!” But there was no wining this argument. From either side really-no one would win. The only thing that would happen would be harsh words passing through one another and emotional walls growing taller and taller, unable to be broken. And the only thing Lucinda could sense no matter how hard Hunter had been hiding it, was anger and abandonment. Why did she know or could sense those feelings? Because Lucinda Deleanu had felt those exact emotions when both her brother and her had been taken away from their parents. She assumed the emotions had hit her harder then her younger brother at the time, but now Lucinda realized that Hunter was feeling the same thing. The only difference was that Lucinda had inflicted that pain on Hunter. Fuck, she thought once more-it appeared that she was no different then her parents. Lucinda Deleanu could only hold in her emotions for so long and she was near her breaking point. Hence, why she said, “Goodbye Hunter.” Hunter, she thought. The name that she told him she’d never call him back then. However Lucinda now found it appropriate given that he was no longer the little boy she had watched over and because it seemed that the name Hunter was what he had decided to go by the other day at the park. How funny was that?