Alrighty, last chapter time. A lot of you may know a lot of my stories are coming to an end right now. If you want a full update about the status of all my stories, please go over to my Twitter or Instagram for a link to a post about it. If you want another stripper Ghorror to read after this, I suggest "Puppets" by BabyGhost6 <3 Incase you missed it, her, myself, and a few others started a collab account called ScrantondailKittens :D

Thank you all for your amazing support on this story. As always with last chapters, I do ask that you spam me with comments! I hope you all have enjoyed this story. There will not be a sequel so please do not ask. However, what will be replacing this in my regular updates is a new story I just released called "The Rain". Thank you all again for your support, comments, votes, and love! -Nona

| Devin's POV |

The phone rang multiple times until I heard it pick up. A moment of quiet lingered before a broken voice answered, "Hello?"

"Hey, Ange, it's Devin. I just saw the news. What's going on? Is everyone okay?" I asked.

Another pause. He then said, "Chris and Ben are okay. Ben wants you and the others back down here. So does Chris, I guess. They'll talk about it when you get here."

"By others, you mean Ricky and I? Or everyone from Voodoo?"

"Everyone from Voodoo. Chris said you need to go by the cathouse on the way here and get everyone there that was from Voodoo originally. The others will be taken to Witchcraft or Hocus Pocus soon. That location and another are getting shut down. It goes into this whole situation. Just, get yourselves down here. Your rooms are still as you left them at the apartment complex."

"Okay," I responded, "I'm glad to hear things are okay. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Be careful." He said.

I glanced back at Ricky, who was waiting for me to get off the phone. "We will. Take care, Ange."

"You too, Dev."

I hung up the phone on it's hook. With a sigh, I fell into the wall beside me. Ricky jumped down from the bar stool he was on. He didn't say a word and hugged me. I relaxed into his arms, embracing the feeling of our heartbeats next to each other.

| | |

It was late at night when we got into Scranton. I've missed this town. When I found out what happened to the others at the whore house, I was disgusted. Why didn't Ricky tell me they were hurting him like that? I had a feeling, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions. It's not exactly an easy thing to ask someone about either. I assume that's why he didn't tell me. He didn't want to talk about it.

We are going to talk about it. Just not now. The others were dropped off at Voodoo, but we kept driving towards the hospital. I got a ton of looks when we walked in, yet they seemed to know exactly who we were here to see. A nurse gave us the room number. I followed behind Ricky as he lead us there.

On our way there, we passed another room that I caught a familiar face in. I stopped and peered in through the cracked door. Ricky turned around when he realized I was no longer following him. He walked over to where I stood and pushed the door open more to see.

"Go head. I'll meet you down the hall." He softly said to me.

I looked over at him and numbly smiled. Ricky earned the same bittersweet smile and walked away. At this point, I had caught Cameron's attention. He stood from where he sat at the bedside and walked over to the door.

"What are you doing here?" Cam asked me.

"I called Angelo when I heard. Chris wanted us to come down." I responded, "May I see him, please?"

Cameron glanced back at Ben. Then he nodded my way and let me past him. He moved outside the door to act as a guard. I walked to Ben's bedside, setting my hands on the rail along the edge of the bed. He was pale and I could see the weakness in his eyes.

"Hello Kitten. I wasn't expecting to see you tonight." Ben said, his voice lacking it's normal dominance.

"I hope it's okay that I came down without your permission." I murmured.

"It's fine. I'm happy to see you. Lean down so I can kiss you."

I did as I was asked. His lips always felt nice, but the sensation was hollow. It was nothing like Ricky's kisses. As he kissed me he wrapped his hand around the back of my neck. Suddenly I felt my collar loosen and broke the kiss to make sure it wasn't slipping. I felt it fall from my neck as Ben's hand did the same. It took me a second to realize he had untied it. I just looked at him awaiting an explanation.

"Sometimes we think our problems are a mountain when they're truly a grain of sand." Ben said, "I had so much on my plate that I took away your happiness for me to have an escape. I was preventing you from having happiness of your own. Chris and I knew for awhile that some of our business partners were rotten. That's why he sent you to me, to protect you until we smoothed things out. I hurt you just as badly though."

"You didn't hurt me. I needed time without Ricky to realize how much I truly loved him. And, I did enjoy our time together. Thank you." I smiled.

He copied my grin, "You're very welcome, and thank you. Please, go be with Ricky and your friends. You deserve it after all you've done."

"I will. I'll come see you soon again though."

"Good, Cam is boring company." He joked.

"Ey!" Cameron scoffed from the door.

We laughed for a moment. I gave him a small wave as I walked out of the room. Cameron shut the door behind me and I continued to Chris' hospital room. I took a moment to enjoy the odd feeling of the air on my bare neck. I've worn a collar so much for so long that it felt weird, but not in a bad way. It felt like freedom.

Carefully, I pushed open the door to Chris' room. It was no surprise that Angelo was laying on the bed with him. They loved each other so much, despite their disagreements and power struggle. I'm sure in the wake of current events, those fights seem so small. Ricky sat on the large window as he made small talk with them.

"Hey Beautiful." Ricky greeted me. He scooched over a bit and pat the space next to him, "Your collar is gone."

I sat down in the space he provided as I said, "Ben took it off. He, um, he's let me go I guess you could say."

"You were meant to come back to Voodoo once it was safe again, which it should be now that the threat is behind bars." Chris told us.

"What exactly did happen?" Ricky asked.

He sighed, "I knew for a long time coming that two of the whorehouses were being corrupt by those running them. Ben and I were starting to get death threats. Me more than him, so I decided to send away my weaker dancers to protect them until we figured out what was going on. I know you all thought I was the biggest asshole for tearing you apart like I did. The truth is, I was only doing it to protect you. We called a meeting of the managers to tell them we were shutting them down. They pulled a gun on us and now, we're here."

"I'm sorry we acted the way we did, but we had no idea." I responded, "Why would you send Ricky there if you knew it was bad?"

"I didn't know they were abusing the staff as bad as they were. I just thought they were ripping off people. I'm so sorry they did that to you, Ricky. I never meant for anyone to get hurt, but it's a dangerous business." He explained.

"We know. We have been in it since we hit puberty." I chuckled. Then I leaned my head on Ricky's shoulder and he grabbed my hand.

"When does Voodoo reopen? Because, I think someone has been a little depressed not getting to dance." Ricky said, referring to me.

Angelo looked up at Chris with a raised eyebrow, "Why didn't he get to dance? I thought you sent him to Hocus Pocus to be a dancer there."

"I did..."

Ricky and I looked at each other. I guess Ben didn't mention that part. You'd think he would, but maybe he didn't want to say anything.

"It's a long story." I said, just as we saw Ryan and Balz come walking in.

"Life's a long story." Balz stated as he fell into the chair in the corner of the room.

Ryan leaned against the wall, "When did you two get back?"

"About thirty minutes ago." Ricky responded, "And Chris, you still didn't answer my question."

"When I feel like it." Chris groaned.

Angelo shook his head, "You get shot but you're still being an asshole."

He chuckled, "But I'm your asshole. Well, by technicalities your the bottom so-"

"TMI." Balz interrupted. "We might be straight allies but we don't want to hear it."

"Pussies." He snit, "I don't know. If I have enough dancers to come back, I can open tomorrow. I don't get discharged for two days though and I don't like the club being opened after a tragedy without me there."

"I think we can handle it. The princess misses his pole." Ricky said, then pecked my lips, "And I miss seeing him on it."

I bit my lip, "Maybe tonight I'll give you a private show."

He snickered as he turned in for another kiss, "I'd love that."

"What did I just say?" Balz scoffed.

I laughed, both from his comment and Ricky's hand tickling my side sneakily. I pushed him back and he beamed beautifully.

"You're gorgeous." He told me.

"Shut up." I giggled because he was still touching the most ticklish part of my body.

My laugh made him laugh, "I love you."

I smiled, "I love you too."