Missing Women First

"Some women have gone missing," Lois Lane said, then sipped at the champagne. "They were last seen at the club again. Their names are..."

"Diana Reynolds," Angelica Blaze said evenly. "Tonya Wong, Mara de la Cruz, and Jenny Dunlap."

The reporter's nostrils flared, a little chill going down her spine, journalistic instincts screaming...

"You know them."

Blaze nodded.

"You knew I was coming?"

The owner of the club tilted her head, long dark hair falling over one shoulder. "Not...specifically. This business tends to set up...ripples." She tapped her glass for emphasis. "Actions have consequences, come back to you eventually."

"'This business'" Lois quoted. "You mean the club..."

"Curses," Ella Lane cut in, setting her empty glass down and reaching for the bottle. "Miss Blaze deals in curses...casting them, removing them, and sometimes...satisfying them."

She filled her glass, then leaned over and filled her daughter's.

"The Black Door sits at a nexus between worlds. Energies flow here from the higher and lower realms. It makes the manifestation of spirits like your mother's easier, as well as the kind of traffic I indulge in." Angelica Blaze's fingers hovered over the bowl of strawberries, and selected one. "The women you are seeking were more second through fifth clients."

Lois Lane sipped her champagne, mind ablaze, tummy bubbling from the bubbly.

"Are they alive?" She asked at last.

"And well." Blaze confirmed, swallowing the small red fruit.

"Can I see them? Talk to them?" Lois pressed.

Angelica reached into her dress and, like a magician, seemed to pull a card from someplace that didn't look big enough to conceal it. "I have their contact information."

She held it out, and Lois took it from the woman's hand. Their fingers brushed for just the most fleeting of moments, yet Lois felt a flush go through her body.

"T-thank you," the reporter managed.

"Not at all. It is why you came here, isn't it?"

"Y-yes."

"Good." Angelica Blaze smiled sweetly. She reached for the bottle, and instinctively Lois held out her glass. The reporter noticed her hand wobbling slightly as the pale, bubbly wine filled it up.

"Now there is only the matter of my first client—"

"Who is that?" Lois asked, blinking as she felt the room spin slightly. She realized she might have overdone it on the champagne, on top of the other drinks.