[Cielo Nocturno]

The music pounds in sync with the beats of my heart. I can feel the bass reverberating in my chest –boom, boom– resounding loudly, guiding my pulse. The speakers' noise pierces through my body with relentless intensity, making my bones rattle.

"Didn't I tell ya?" Isabel nudges me to get my attention. 

I nod. "This place is incredible!" I have to shout to be heard over the booming music.

Cielo Nocturno is the most popular club in all of Tijuana, sleek and luxurious, but also highly exclusive, reserved solely for the high and mighty of society. I never expected to find myself here, so walking through its shinny gates makes me feel like an imposter. I have this nagging feeling that I don't belong, and the other patrons will sense it too. They will look down on me with condescending gazes, silently accusing me of intruding on their elite domain. "What are you doing here? No commoners allowed. Leave! And keep your grubby hands to yourself as you go, lest you soil our club's gleaming walls with your filthy fingers!"

Alright, obviously nothing like this is happening unless I am the naive protagonist of some pitiful telenovela, forever oppressed by the wealthy, which I'm not. Not by a long shot. And yet, the realization doesn't dispel the feeling tonight isn't my night; it belongs to someone else, and I've stolen it from her. If she knew, she'd send me back to my mundane life in an instant.

"Hey, what's with the shit face?" Isabel leans toward me, bringing her lips close to my ear so I can hear her without yelling.

"Mmm?" I mumble absentmindedly. "Huh?"

"I said, what's with the shit face?"

"What face?"

"This," Isabel points her finger at me. "You seem... elsewhere. Distracted. Discontent."

"Sorry," I reply. And I mean it. I don't want to ruin her night with my insecurities. I understand the significance of our presence here, the importance of this event. This is Isabel's work place and she's beyond excited to finally be sharing it with me. She always said how she'd like to bring me to Cielo Nocturno, to show me around, have fun with me. We haven't had any in years. I don't intend to waste the opportunity, but rather to seize it fully. So I feel a little bad when my doubts creep up and chip away at my determination. You shouldn't be so timid, I tell myself. 

So far, Isabel and I have been doing quite well, having managed to infiltrate the exclusive Cielo Nocturno while around sixty people still wait in line for the formidable bouncer's approval. Minutes ago, I followed Isabel, smiling apologetically at the disgruntled folks, both on her behalf and my own. She stood at the entrance, confidently engaging the unbending bouncer with the shaved head and the muscular arms adorned with intricate tattoos.

"Raul!" she squealed, her voice carrying a mixture of excitement and longing, "Como estas, amor?"

He looked at her as if he wanted to devour her with his eyes. "Isa!" his voice resonated with a deep and husky timbre, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. "Bienvenidos!"

He pulled her in a suffocating embrace and his colossal hands, large and strong, glided down her back. And then further down, and down some more. He reached her ass and grabbed and squeezed like he owned it. It was a lewd gesture. Indecent, offensive. It annoyed me.

Isabel, on the other hand, seemed unfazed. It was an act, of course, but she was good with people and she knew that sometimes in order to get what you wanted, you had to give something back. This was the case with Raul, so she took a step back, pulling away from the bouncer but in the same time rewarding him with a wide smile, putting on her best charm. I had to admit she was doing a phenomenal job. 

Raul seemed to agree, as he turned his attention to me. "And who would you be?"

I met his gaze defiantly, as if we were in a secret, unspoken competition for my body, and the winner would be the one who looked away last. I locked eyes with him, unblinking, refusing to back down."I–"

"This is my baby sis, Catalina Ferreiro," Isabel chipped in. "I thought to bring her along, show her a good time. She's never been to Cielo Nocturno before, you know?"

That caught him off guard. "She's never seen you perform?"

"Nope."

"Oh, you're in for a treat, baby Ferreiro," Raul winked at me as if he knew something I didn't.

"Whatever you say," I said, still uneasy with the way he kept staring intently at both of us.

"¡Pero, Raúl, ¿sabes qué?" Isabel went on: "Victor is expecting us and we're a little late. My number is getting close and you know how difficult it is to fit in and out of those tiny outfits, don't you, amor? Takes forever. Do you think you could let us in?"

"Sure thing, Isa," Raul grumbled. He looked over his shoulder at a barely visible girl standing behind him, hidden in the shadows of his massive form. "They're good," he informed her, moving aside to let us through, after an excruciatingly long moment of staring.

The girl living in his shadow reached out her hand and marked Isabel's palm with a deep purple stamp. Then, she proceeded to do the same to my hand. As I pulled it away from her grip, I noticed a crimson half moon, the letter "C" imprinted on the back of my palm.

Isabel let out another squeal of excitement. She hopped on her high-heeled boots and clapped her hands a few times, before dashing inside like a hurricane. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in disdain, and I followed right after her, unwilling to be stranded outside alone with the audacious doorman and his lifeless sidekick, branding people like livestock in a slaughterhouse. 

Together, Isabel and I, entered the club, leaving the unsettling encounter behind, as well as the irate crowd still waiting in the queue. But something lingered –a deep red symbol C imprinted on the back of my hand, as if it had been forcibly etched there with a sharp blade.

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