"So I says, do we really need those foreigners, comin' to our country, stealin' our jobs, eatin' our dogs and what do I know? It's about time somebody does somethin' about that, and if we needs to break some international laws, so what? Not our fault that those stinkin' fishguzzlers are too stupid to keep their own country runnin', namsayn? You with me there, right?" the cabdriver asked Ioana, while she was busy staring out of the windows and acting as if she hadn't heard a single word he had said in the last couple of minutes.
"Mh, sure." she answered, eager not to provoke another monologue about "the future of the country" and how he "wasn't no racist, but..." while thinking about the things that were waiting for her. Damn, she was almost as nervous as that one time in high school, when she had asked her crush if he wanted to go eat some ice cream with her. His rejection had definitely left a mark on her and even though she hadn't completely given up dating, Mr. Right was still bidding his time.
"...and so me cousin says to me, if we don't eat them, they be eatin' us, namsayn?" the cabdriver put her out of her daydream and back into reality. "Anyways, we're here, this be the address you gave me. I'll be getting' fitty bucks please."
"Already? I mean, sure, just a second." Ioana murmured and fished six bills out of her purse. She gave it to the cabdriver, murmuring a "Keep the rest." and started turning around before he could continue his political rambling.
"Thanks, Ma'am, too generous of you. And if you needs a lift home, just be callin' me, kay? Captain's Cab-Service, where you be there, before you even starteded. I wish you good funs and remember: Keep Our Country Awesome." he answered, tipped his yellow KOCA-basecap and gave his car's engine a loud roar, before disappearing in a big cloud of exhaustion fumes.
"Fucking weirdos, no wonder the country is going down the drain..." Ioana said to herself, dusting of the dirt that was swirled up by the speeding car. She looked down at herself, her miniskirt was a bit wrinkled from the trip, but a few strokes of her hand made her look presentable again. Her red pumps gave her a sensual, but not too slutty look, which was accentuated by her yellow blouse. Yes, she could be either an innocent schoolgirl, or play a sultry seductress with that look. That's what she thought at least, her experiences as a luring temptress were ... limited, to say the least.
She looked up from her clothes and finally took in the location where the cabdriver had dropped her off. To call it a nice place would be the same as calling Mount Everest "of adequate height". No, she stood in front of the biggest mansion she had ever seen outside of TLC. Four floors with more windows than she could count, balconies and little towers as well as a long maze-like garden made it as if appeared directly from a fantasy movie. She wondered if the goblin king would take her, should she enter the big steel gate...
Ioana shook her head, was this really the right place? She fumbled the small business card out of her pocket and compared the address on the door sign with the one on the paper. It had a simple design, with the words "The Pink Cauldron" written in a cursive font and the slogan "Give in to pleasure" beneath it. The bright pink lettering stood in stark contrast with the black background, but other than those words and the address on the backside, the business card was completely devoid of any information.
"Oh well, the address matches, here goes nothing." Ioana said to herself and rang the bell. Only a couple seconds later a man in a black smoking appeared in front of the gate and opened it a bit. For a few moments nobody said a word, the man looking at Ioana, who just stared back. Finally the butler/bellboy/doorman broke the silence.
"You are here." he stated matter-of-factly, but made no move to let her in. "Yes, you see, I have this business card and..." Ioana replied, but was silenced by a sharp "Come!" from the man, who opened the door of the fence and let her enter the premises, rushing towards the big entrance door of the mansion. She had actually trouble keeping up the pace and only barely registered the expensive cars that were parked in the driveway. "It seems I am the only one to take a cab." Ioana thought to herself, trying to keep up.
As they arrived, the doorman opened the huge entrance door and ushered the confused Ioana inside, only to lock the portal again behind her. He seemed to expect an armed assault of a small army, because the gargantuan door had no less than 19 locks, each of which he used to seal the door as best as possible. All the while he muttered "Better safe than sorry, we don't want a repetition of the humdinger incident..."
After he finally seemed to be satisfied with the latching, the doorman turned back to Ioana and gave her another long look. Ioana felt a bit uncomfortable by the way his eyes seemed to linger a tad too long on her bosom and the way his tongue licked over his dry lips as he took in her curvy hips and long legs.
"Sit down." he suddenly commanded and pointed to a chair on the side, only to disappear behind a red curtain probably leading to a different room. Not wanting to be rude, Ioana sat down on the richly ornamented armchair and finally had a look around in the room her host had brought her.
The lobby had the dimensions of a small single-family house and was designed with expensive carpets. A big door in the middle of the opposite wall led to an adjoining room and Ioana could hear faint music coming from there. The walls of the lobby were decorated with paintings of famous movie posters, but something seemed ... odd about them.
There was the notorious poster of
American Beauty
, but ... was Mena Suvari really that busty in that movie? And weren't there supposed to be rose petals covering her naughty parts, instead of the rest of her body? She remembered the iconic scene of Stanley Kubrick's
The Shining
. But something about Jack Nicholson kicking in the door and screaming "Here's my Johnny!" seemed off to her. And wasn't
The Thing from another World