Chapter 1 - Friday Night on the Town
"How about this one?"
My roommate April was browsing the back pages of the local underground newspaper. "
Grand Opening
," she read out. "
Club Latex! Love to dominate? Live to serve? Or just curious? Everyone welcome!
"
I looked up from my book. "Are you nuts? I just suggested we try something a little different tonight. Say maybe Thai food. Not, like, let's go rent us some whips and chains!"
"We don't need to rent anything. Listen:
Prizes for best costumes! Or, come as you are - exotic clothing available for loan to budding adventurers
."
"You're serious, aren't you?"
"Why not? No big deal, Lori. We can go around the corner to check out the Irish Alehouse, if this place creeps us out."
"You ARE serious." The nightclub sounded way too kinky for my tastes. Still, owing to a series of unworthy boyfriends, the two of us were currently in a 'men are worms' phase. So I thought, hey, maybe it'd be fun to stop by this joint on the way to the pub. With luck we'd see a few lame guys wearing crappy vampire costumes. "All right - but if we finish up buying memberships, I'm blaming you."
Evening found us in a downtown alley in our edgiest gauzy blouses and short skirts, standing in front of a door that had recently been painted dark red. A techno rhythm from inside was making it vibrate.
It was April's turn to doubt. "You sure you want to go in there?"
I laughed. "Of course I'm not sure. I'm the shy one, remember? I'm relying on you to lead me astray. Just open the door!"
But the door swung open before either of us touched it. A burly figure appeared, nearly filling the frame, and we jumped back as what looked like a caveman in a cheap tuxedo gave us a formal bow.
"Welcome to Club Latex," he rumbled. "Come in."
Feeling silly that we were so easily spooked, we squeezed past the uni-browed doorman. The short hallway beyond was perfectly ordinary, apart from the loud music and flashing lights bouncing from around the far corner. In the wall next to us was a side door, blocked with a counter on which leaned a gum-chewing girl. She was scantily clad in hot pants and an extremely tight latex shirt, which made her look like she'd been hired away from her post at some nearby street corner. The words 'Coat Check' were crudely lettered on a sign above her head.
"Can I take care of your coats and purses, ladies? No charge."
I suddenly realized I was clutching both items grimly in front of me, and that there would probably be no safer place to leave them. April and I exchanged our stuff for numbered discs and then carried on down the hall. What we saw around the bend brought us up short.
The room beyond was bigger than I'd expected. It had a gothic theme going on - dark, with some rough wooden tables, and benches along the sides. There were coarse tapestries on the walls and a scattering of cushions to offset the cellar dungeon look of the place. There was also a mirror ball over the unused dance floor, apparently left over from whatever club had previously operated on the premises. At the far end were some big speakers blaring out canned music, and a bar.
But it wasn't the place's dΓ©cor that was shocking, rather the crowd that occupied it. Shocking, and also just a bit exciting. I'd set out feeling a little too slutty looking, but in here we looked like choirgirls. We stood frozen in our tracks, our jaws slack. Around us about thirty people in various rubber or leather costumes were drinking and ... other stuff.
Weird stuff, mostly. A couple next to April just posed. The woman had long, black Morticia Addams hair, and wore a bustiere, crotchless latex pants, and fingerless gloves that came up well past her elbows. Her top didn't cover her large breasts so much as support them, thereby displaying a green dragon tattooed as though it was just about to bite one nipple. The emerging tail of the monster could be seen in the gap of her trousers, inked onto her shaved mound. She - the girl, not the dragon - was caressing the shoulder of a large 'muscle-man' in a black wife-beater vest and a rubber thong. He was standing with his back to the room and flexing his biceps.
The trio beside me was much scarier. A gaunt woman stood in a peaked SS death's-head hat and a tightly tailored black uniform, complete with leather gloves and a riding crop tucked neatly in her belt. She grimly held her drink in one hand and two leashes in the other. These led to spiked leather collars that were buckled onto a pair of crouching men, who wore nothing else but dog masks. One of these 'dogs' was actually sniffing my shoe. The other seemed to be attempting to lick his own cock.
Meanwhile, at the nearest table sat an older man dressed in a conservatively cut dark wool suit. He would have passed unnoticed at the mall, except for the token red latex tie ... and the pair of girls who were attending him. Both wore latex versions of Japanese schoolgirl uniforms, and collars. One held his drink, and the other popped morsels of food into his mouth; I could see her bum when she bent over to feed her master.