Den of Sins

In the few rare times when I had watched a horror movie, I would make fun of characters, usually the women and children, who screamed in the presence of a monster, essentially broadcasting their positions to the antagonist. It wasn’t as if the scream could be used as an attack.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I’m too handsome to die young!” I dove into Mamie’s arms, knocking her tablet to the floor. Mamie flashed her scowl at me, but I didn’t feel guilty at all. I had been acting as the normal one here. There was a literal (potential) murderer at our door, and all she could think about was her notes?

Oh, how it got worse. She covered my mouth and muffled my cry for help. At this point, I had a thought that lately I had been squealing like a child more frequently, and also that maybe I shouldn’t bite down on her hand, since I wouldn’t want to be involuntarily castrated.

Besides, a bit of rationality had decided to bless me with its presence again. Mamie had been unfazed by the sudden intrusion of that stranger at the door. That likely meant that she had expected the person to barge in like this. My justified anxiety stemming from this den of sins must have driven me to become hypervigilant to danger. And yes, karaoke bars deserved the label for feeding the egos of tone-deaf people.

I halted my scream as the stranger peeked outside before gently closing the door. Sensing that I had calmed from hysteria, Mamie removed her palm from my mouth. I inhaled deeply to make up for the oxygen I had missed out on, and my mind spun for an excuse for my pathetic display.

But then, I recognized a soft surface under my cheek, judging by where my head was relative to Mamie’s body.

Oh, this was another, more pressing matter to make excuses about.

Trying my hardest to hide the panic, I winked at Mamie. “You pass. You should have no problems acing the Expressive Arts practical tests.” With as much confidence as I could muster, I removed my head from the comfort of Mamie’s boobs and sat up, crossing my arms and nodding.

“You could have just apologized, you know.”

I pretended not to hear Mamie and smiled at the newcomer. “How can we help you?”

The mysterious person took off their sunglasses, revealing a pair of large, dark-gray eyes with long, styled lashes. “Mamie-chan, who is this person?”

“He’s my kohai.”

“My condolences.”

Before I could protest, the stranger, who apparently was a woman, dropped the duffel bag next to Mamie and already turned to leave.

“Good luck.” She put her sunglasses back on and slipped out of the room.

“You too,” Mamie said under her breath and reached for her tablet on the floor.

Wait. This was it? It ended… already?

Sensing the seriousness that hung in the air, I gave up complaining about the verbal abuse that I had endured. Instead, my focus shifted to the bag. “What’s in it? Can you tell me?”

Mamie examined the bag’s contents, her body blocking my line of sight. I had a feeling that the insides of the bag were off-limits for me, so I abstained from peeking. After all, I didn’t want to end up in one of these bags myself.

She exhaled after zipping the bag up. “It’s evidence of crimes.”

I felt my jaw dropped like Mamie’s tablet had. “Huh? You’re joking, right?”

“No. Licensed brothels usually treat the workers well, but there are a number of them, along with illegal ones, who abuse and exploit the employed escorts.”

My blood froze. I had never thought about this issue, and so far, none of the college courses had mentioned it. “So, why are you the one getting your hands on this? I thought this was the Union’s responsibility.”

“The Union is involved. But direct contact with the Union’s people is too risky for the insiders and victims.”

I found my entire torso heating up, even more so than when Mamie and the stranger dissed me. “You are just a bystander. You shouldn’t have to bear this risk.”

Mamie stared at me for a moment with an inscrutable expression. Then, laughter burst out from her. “Do you want to order anything?”

“Why don’t we just leave?”

“The Union is paying.”

“You’re right. We should stay.”

We both chose honey black tea, for some reason. A symbol of solidarity, perhaps. I thought Mamie would start picking songs to sing too, but she went back to studying her tablet notes again. If I were more comfortable, maybe I would have enjoyed this hour of ‘karaoke experience’ to its fullest. Nope, my eyes were only on Mamie, as if watching her revise would improve my grades.

There was no way I could focus in this atmosphere, filled with random thuds and faint noises that sounded like bird calls. Yep, they must have been bird calls.

“How can you study in a creepy place like this?” I took a sip of my drink after asking. Wow, beverages paid for by others really tasted better. No wonder people so often buy drinks for others in bars.

“Creepy? Have you been to a karaoke place? They are all like this.”

“Um, are we comparing this to a normal location when we have a bag of dangerous documents with us? Not gonna lie. It feels like a ticking bomb.”

The dim, blue lighting and the dark walls didn’t help sell the image that this was a safe place. Maybe getting the right music could help. Were there lullabies I could pick to play? Or some chill opening song from a forgotten slice-of-life anime? “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are sex dungeons that look like this,” I added.

“Trust me. They don’t.”

Well, that was an ominous reply. I decided to change the topic. “How are you calm enough to review your notes here?”

“I don’t know. I’m usually more vigilant.”

“Huh?” I scanned Mamie’s body from head to toe. Lax pose. Crossed legs. Head leaning against her shoulders. If a 100-year-old lady picked a fight with her now, the old lady would still lose, but Mamie might get hit once or twice.

What I meant was that this shouldn’t be how a person behaves when this menacing room had so much danger lurking in the shadows.

“I can only relax and study here because you are with me.” What Mamie said in such a matter-of-fact way still caught me off guard, even though I was as prepared for ambushes as I could be.

The only noise I made after that was incomprehensible stuttering.

Once I had recovered to coherent speech, Mamie checked the time on her phone and declared, “We’ve stayed long enough to not invite suspicion.” I wondered who would be suspicious of us, and for what, but I wouldn’t complain since we could finally leave.

Mamie hauled the duffel bag over her shoulder, and then we made our way out of the establishment. I remained on edge, darting my eyes around the streets for any trace of stalkers. Mamie seemed to have noticed my unease, because she grabbed onto my upper arm. “A cute girl has caught onto your arm. Don’t freak out.”

I wasn’t going to. But her touch served as a great distraction from my paranoia, and my attention went to my climbing heart rate. Oh, maybe I was freaking out.

And did she call herself cute? She wasn’t basing it on nothing, I guess.

After several of my futile attempts to soothe my heart, we made it out of Kabukicho alive. Just when I thought it would be smooth sailing from here back to the college, fate had to stick its grubby fingers into our lives once again and flick us towards the worst scenario possible.

We came face-to-face with my high school friends.