Jill shrugs, "Bit weird, then again we have about twenty Dracula's that tour the quarter so."

Millenia took the drink, "Thank you."
"Oh, I'm here for the Door. I guess I should pay the dancer some respects too."

She puts her bag on the table and goes through it pulling out some gold coins.
"Would you be a gentleman, and give these to her." Millenia gives a movie starlet smile.

  Dean takes the coins, looks at them briefly.  They're heavy.  Really heavy.  Way too heavy to be Mardi Gras throws from a Krewe.  Probably some painted or electroplated lead he figures, but hey, why not play along.  It didn't generally hurt to indulge somebody's role-playing.  Sometimes it was even amusing or interesting.  That's what New Orleans was for many, a good time, a fantasy.  It's what Vixens sold people.   He waves over the closest girl.

  "Hey Tori, the lady would like you to have these.  Here ya go, hon, try not to spend them all in one place."  he gives her a wink as he places them in her hand.  He knew that dancers hated it when people tried to slip things into their thongs.

  Ten minutes to closing now.  Dean gave the nod to the regulars and they began heading out.  Anyone who had ever seen Dean have to expel someone the hard way knew that they didn't ever want to go down that road.  One guy had pulled a knife on Dean once.  There was still a piece of the table that Dean broke with the guy's face nailed to the wall in the men's room with the date on it.  Right above the urinals.

  "The Door?  I'm not sure what you're getting at.  I don't think the boss has any openings for doorstaff right now, but he is always looking for servers and dancers.  I can get him if you want.  He should be back in his office."

The coins have strange markings and some language he can't place.

The girl takes them and gives them an odd look, "These actually worth anything ?" She asks Dean.

Millenia smiles when he comes back, <Red>"Oh, I shouldn't need him, though I am rather an excellent dancer. That Door though." She indicates with a motion of her head.

Dean remembers this place has a really odd door that no one could open. It's been a mystery since the place was new. The owner when he took over the place to remodel tried to get in there with no success. Locksmith no success, you and a crowbar no success and a broken crowbar tip and completely unscratched door.  He gave up on it after a few other tries when even a sledge hammer didn't put so much as a mar to the doors paint.

  Dean laughs.  "Oh, the old Sword in the Stone!  Yeah, it's behind the Coors silver bullet banner.  The owner used to hold contests to let guys try to open it.  There's a half dozen or so rumors circulating about it around the Quarter.  Door to the Dancer's Private Lounge, Door to the Stairway to Heaven, Gateway to Hell, Entryway into The Twilight Zone, A Voodoo Queen's Secret Vault.  There's probably a couple more.  I personally like the one about whomever opens it becomes a Ruler of the Universe.  You're welcome to give it a shot it you want." he says with a smile.

"Oh it's all those things !" then there is a moment where this woman goes from a sultry and confident woman to chewing her bottom lip but it doesn't seem to be about the door.

"I should like to give it a shot if you don't mind ?"

  Dean nods. "Of course you can.  Hang on a minute, let me get the banner out of the way."

  He pushes a chair over and stands on it, tucking the Coors banner up and out of the way.  He then removes the chair, and gestures with a flourish.

  "Have at it, Millenia.  I'll be behind you to catch you in case you fall."  Dean says easily.  The door had once been pretty popular, had gotten written up in the touristy gobbldey-gook that was right up there with ghost tours of the quarter.  Dean didn't remember when it's popularity had fallen off.

  He stands ready to catch her, just to make sure that nobody got sued.  Maybe that was why they stopped promoting it.

Millenia reaches out turns the knob (Which many others have done) Then opens it without so much as a rusty squeak or sound of a stuck door coming open. She gives a smile and hands him her glass. "Thanks handsome." She heads through the Door and closes it behind her.

Before it closes though an elegant hall comes into view with gorgeous paintings and lit by chandeliers in crystal which makes the light seem to reflect in a dozen different directions then click the Door is shut.

  The glass slips from Dean's hand, shattering on the floor.

  He whirls, looking to see if Jill or any of the dancers had seen what he just thought he had seen.

  "What the fuck??!" he exclaims.  He KNEW there was no elegant hall behind the door.  Near as anyone knew, the space beyond it was the storeroom of the little gift-shop next door.

  "Jill, you saw.....wait, you're punking me, right?"

Jill did see but no one else in the place did.

In fact Jill is so startled she doesn't even answer as she just looks at the door.

Jill comes out from behind the bar, "What is back there, how did she open it ? Open it back up Dean !"

  Dean starts to laugh. "Nicely done.  You gals got me real good.  Don't step on the glass there.  Oh ma, Fuckin A..."

  He grabs the door handle, turns it and pulls.

Gripping the handle no problem turning it no problem pulling it almost makes him pull a muscle as the door doesn't so much as budge a millimeter.

  He turns it the other way, pulls.  Tries with both hands.  Tries with a foot braced against the wall.

  Dean stops, begins shaking with laughter, turns to Jill.

  "Ok, you win.  You totally got me.  That was freakin' awesome!  How did you do that?"

  He's thinking maglocks with a switch behind the bar to release it.  He looks around for the cameras that must be filming this.

"What ! you can't open it. How did she get through." Jill tries opening it and almost falls on her back.

"It's not a joke Dean. If I thought she could actually do it I would have been over here to see what the heck was behind it. Well she has to come out it's probably full of cobwebs and old junk."

  Dean stops laughing.  "No, seriously Jill.  You saying you didn't set this up?  Then it had to be Rocco, right?  Shit, he got us both!  He musta found out about what we did on the bar after closing on Christmas Eve.  That bastard!"

  Dean took out his cellphone and dialed the owner, Rocco Riccio.  He expected to hear him laughing his ass off.  He wasn't.

  "So, Rocco....you saying you're not taking credit for setting us up with that door gag tonight?  No, you know what I'm talking about.  What?  Seriously?  No, check your cameras.  Just like two minutes ago.  Woman in red, redhead, going through the freakin' door?  No?  Oh, c'mon.  Yeah, no, okay.  Bye."

  Dean looks at Jill.  "He says he didn't know anything about it.  He ain't got a decent poker face either.  He shoulda been crackin' up."

"Even the place before Vixens, that door has never been opened. I honestly thought it was glued or cemented shut and there was a wall right behind it or a small closet I mean we are right against the shop next door."

"Rocco coming here ? Bet he will try and weasel out of paying since we haven't been advertising that for months now."

  Dean shakes his head.  “He isn’t coming.  Was sort of pissed off that I interrupted him, and didn’t believe me.  He thought Inwas yanking his chain.”

  He grabs a broom and dustpan to sweep up the broken glass as they talk.

  “Jill, I didn’t see a closet or a storeroom when she opened it.  This is gonna sound really fucked up, but it looked like a ballroom, with chandeliers and paintings.  No shit.  I know there’s no way it could have been, but that’s what it looked like.”

Jill gives Dean a look this time, "Ok, you pulling my leg this time ?"
She knocks on the door.  "Ok, you did it you opened the door but we are closing up here. You need to come out so we can lock up."

Several more knocks and ever increasing frustration from Jill and not a peep is heard from the door.

"I don't believe this ! I am not staying late here  Get Out Now !!!"

  Sitting down once the glass is swept up, Dean shakes his head.

  “Jill, this HAS to be Rocco punking us.  It’s GOTTA be!  No other explanation.  He set us up but good, so it’s on him.  Let’s just lock up and get outta here.   It’s on him if she gets locked in for the night.   I’ll walk you home.”


  There just wasn’t any other rational explanation for it.

"You sure Dean if she comes out and steals alcohol or from the safe it will be on us and you know it."

Some of the Dancers come out from the shouting, "What's going on ?"

  With a nod, Dean says “You’re right, Jill.  I wouldn’t put it past him.  Okay, you got studying to do, so take an Uber home and I’ll stay until she comes out, then see her out.”

  He looks to the dancers, “Nothing going on, just Rocco messing with us.  He musta had a contractor in and set up some kind of gag with the door..  Anybody see anyone in here doing any work recently?”

Jill nods and hugs Dean, "Thanks Dean."

Jill finishes up counting out the drawer and cleaning up then heading home.

The girls say they haven't seen anything surprised that he started up the door contest again.
They make calls getting rides home or walking home from the club.

The club looks almost depressing with no one there and only a couple lights on. Dean becoming aware of the glitter that never quite leaves his clothes or skin.

Once he’s made sure everyone has gotten their rides and headed out, Dean locks the doors behind them.   Dean pulls up a chair, gets himself a Diet Coke from the bar and waits about eight feet in front of the door.  While he does, he checks all the confirmation texts from the girls, letting him know that they made it home safe.  It was an extra step, and had gotten a lot of eye rolling at first, but it had eventually become routine.  They even checked in with him on his night off.  He was, after all, their protector.  It was just how he was wired.

  The place is quiet.  Too quiet.  Once the last girl has checked in he clicks on his Pandora.  His feed is stuff never heard in the club.  Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver, Abba, Kenny Rogers, Cher.

  As he sits there he looks at his hands, the glitter, the ring.  It was one of the few things he had left from his mother.  He got it, along with the dagger and iron knuckles from a safe deposit box after her death.  It still haunted him.

The entire night goes by without so much as a peep.

So it will be up to Dean how long he stays.

  Dean stays until 8 am.  The daytime cleaning crew came in then, preparing the club for it's 11am opening.  They had their own keys, and had had this gig since before Dean had started working there.

  Dean said hello to them on his way out.  Nice Creole-Cajun couple.

  As he hit the streets he could see shopkeepers hosing down the front sidewalks from where drunken revelers had relieved themselves.  The tourists were just starting to flock to the breakfast joints.  Dean didn't want to deal with crowds, so he just made his way home, texting Jill an update that there had been nothing.

  He looked again at the glitter, smiled.  It was better than the blood that had been dried into the edges of his nails during his time in the Corps.  He had been in some serious shit, done a lot of horrible things to bad people.  His ledger had a lot of red in it.

  He walked.  It was only about a half a mile.  He was looking forward to getting some sleep.  He'd have to be back in at 7 pm.