Page 2 of Marked By Feral Monsters
And so, The Monster Playhouse was born. A pleasure club destigmatized within the monster community.
But humans are still prudes.
I'mstill a prude.
So, what the hell am I doing here?
My steps feel stiff as I follow my boss down the long, winding white hallway at the back of the building, while I wonder if I've taken my reinvention too far. It's not too late to back out. I can leave any time. And, given the nature of the work, I've been told more than once I should leave if I don't feel like this is the place for me.
But that nervous feeling, the one that makes me feel out of place—that's the reason I stay.
Mara pauses in front of the door at the end of the hall, holding it open. The room is just as sterile as the halls, with generic drop ceiling tiles and more fluorescent lights. There's a futuristic-looking round table at the center, with matching, bulbous chairs.
I walk in and sit down, and she hands me a pamphlet. "This is your bible. Study it. I'll be back in an hour."
Then she pauses halfway out the door, leaning her head back in, tapping her long fingernails along the frame. "Those who stay, who thrive… they find this place to be quite rewarding. I hope you'll give it a chance." Then she winks and disappears.
I take a seat in the awkwardly large, round chair and flip through the pamphlet, reading about all the different monsters that come through this place, about their anatomy,their genders, some fluid and changeable, about their likes and dislikes. I learn what the Sandman does when his lover falls asleep. What the gnomes get up to under the tables. I read about the orcs and the minotaurs, and all the cryptids.
My fingers itch to take notes. With a quick glance around the room, I find drawers with inset handles beneath the counters, which run along one wall. After opening a few, I find what I'm looking for, and sit back down.
Swallowing the knot in my throat, I use the highlighters and pens I found to take notes about the hybrids, the ones who've bred with humans, and their unique anatomy. Half-krakens, gargoyles, and mer-people. I cut and repurpose the Post-it notes to make tab-dividers, creating my own organization system so I can remember the details more easily. It helps make the strangeness of reading about body parts a little more palatable.
"Oh, hun, that's gonna take you forever."
Startled, I didn't even hear the door open, I drop the highlighter cap out of my mouth. A cute pixie girl, smiling wide, comes in to join me. Her blonde hair is cut short, fashionably swept back, with giant sparkly earrings showing off the slight points at the shell of her ears. A man, her mirror image, follows behind, sits down beside her, then reaches out and snatches my pamphlet.
They must be twins. They're nearly identical. Both delicate and beautiful, wearing flawless over-the-top sparkly eyeshadow and lipstick, fishnet clothing, and smelling like intoxicating perfume. Their irises swirl unnaturally, skin a little too perfect.Fae.
"You work here?" I ask.
The girl nods. "Private rooms and main floor, mostly."
The man beside her flips through my homework and gripes, "I don't know why they keep giving the newbies these booklets. Half the information is—" his lips trill, and they both let outa bright, tinkling laugh. He tosses the pamphlet onto the table between us.
"It's not accurate?" I ask, feeling a little perturbed. I've already done quite a bit of organizing in my notes. If there's one thing I hate, it's incompetence.
He shrugs. "It's not that it's inaccurate. There's just no nuance. Take the gnomes, for example. It says they like to mount together, but it doesn't specify that they prefer orgies over shared partners. They all like to be together, not together with the same partner. Make sense?"
"That… seems like an important distinction."
"Right? I'm Braden, by the way. And this is Keely." He leans forward and takes my hand. His touch is cool, and I try to pull away, embarrassed. My hands are still clammy, leftover from the whirlwind of nerves I've been riding since I got here.
"I'm Lily," I say.
But Braden doesn't let go of my hand after introductions. He stares so long I'm forced to meet his eyes. They're mesmerizing. The swirl draws me in, and a shiver runs through me. It's subtle and warm. Heady. I find myself relaxing, at odds with how I felt a minute ago.
Keely slaps Braden's shoulder, and he pulls his hands from mine. "What? I'm just introducing myself," he defends.
"Quit trying to sleep with the new girl. You have plenty of other creatures you can fuck." She waves her hand in the air, indicating the rest of the building.
"So, you do have sex with the monsters, then?" I whisper, somehow scandalized, even though I knew that was exactly what I was walking into before I came here.
This should have felt real when I went online and searched for the nearest pleasure house. When I filled out the application. When I signed the waivers. When I came to my interview and, somehow, still got the job, even though my answers were allstuck in my throat, and I was clearly out of my depth and terrified.
I definitely should have understood the reality of my new job when I came in for orientation an hour ago and had to sign even more waivers, submit proof of birth control and an STI test. Or when I was handed my new "bible" and on page one, saw a detailed drawing of a werelizard with three cocks.
But somehow, here, in the back of the house, with these two employees, in this quiet room, casually mentioning fucking the monsters, makes it feelreallyreal.
