Reservoir

I start walking back to my house. I have no reason to be here, so I'll just go. I arrive at my house. I go inside, and walk to my room. I take my clothes off and get in my bed. I lay there thinking about Priyan. I keep replaying the events of the night before in my head. Is it possible that he's telling the truth? No, that's crazy. But then again, is it? I hear my phone ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Utah."

It was Jesse.

"What's up?"

"I don't have work today, so I was thinking we all have lunch at the diner today."

"Sounds good to me. I'll gather Rex and Priyan at the motel."

"Perfect. See you there."

I start walking back to the motel and to tell Rex and Priyan the plans for the day.

I get there, and knock on Rex's door.

He answers, "Hey Utah, I was wondering where you were."

"Jesse wants us to meet at the diner for lunch."

"Sounds cool. He doesn't have work today?"

I nod my head.

"Should we tell Priyan?"

"Yeah, let's tell him!"

We walk over to his room and knock on the door.

"Hey Priyan!" I yell "Jesse wants us to meet at the diner!"

"I know, I heard" he yells back.

"Alright, just wanted to tell you. We leave at noon!"

Rex and I walk back to his room.

I get in and lie down.

"What do you want to do until it's time?" I ask.

"I have no idea," Rex says. "I think I'm going to take a nap."

"Good idea," I say.

I close my eyes and fall asleep within minutes.

---

I wake up to someone shaking my shoulder.

"Hey," Rex says "It's noon. It's time to go."

I get up and go to Rex's car.

Jesse and Priyan are already there when we get there. We get in and get seated. The waitress, Janice is already taking the order of a jackal, who we recognize as Preston, a boy who went to school with us during our childhood. Janice then came over to our table.

"Hey boys, what can I get for you today?"

"I'll order a vannila milkshake and some fries." I say

"I'll get a ham and egg sandwich." Jesse orders

"I'll have a bacon and egg biscuit." Priyan orders.

"I'll have a chocolate and vanilla sundae with extra whip." Rex orders.

"Alright, I'll be back with your food in just a second." Janice leaves.

"Why did you want to order a vannila milkshake?" Rex asks.

"I don't know. Why did you want to order a chocolate and vanilla sundae?"

"Because I crave sugar."

His fur had gotten all battered up, but he still looked better than most of the town's citizens.

He finally speaks up, "Rex? Priyan? When did you guys come back to town?"

"Saturday." I answer for them.

"Really?"

"How is your stepmom?" I ask.

He goes on to say that his stepmom has been sick, but is better now. We continue to talk for a bit about ourselves. Then, Janice brings our food out. We all dig in immediately.

"Hey..." Preston asks for our attention.

I look at him.

"I'm going to a bar later and I think you guys might like it."

"What's it called?" Jesse asked

"It doesn't really have a name, but it's near the casino in the fennec fox reservations." He goes on.

We all nod. "Alright, we'll check it out."

I finish eating my food.

"Time to go," Priyan says.

We get up and leave the diner.

"So, what do you guys want to do until we get there?" Jesse asks.

"I have no idea." Priyan says.

"I'm sure we could think of something."

We go back to Priyan's room. I lay down and fall asleep.

---

"Oh, you're up," Rex says.

"Eh...?"

"We're going to that bar Preston told us about now."

I get up and we go to Priyan's car. Priyan drives, I sit in the front, and Rex and Jesse sit in the back.

---

We arrive at the reservation. We park Priyan's car in a secluded area.

"Alright," Priyan says.

We get out of the car.

"This is it."

"I know."

"Alright," I say. "Let's see what this place is all about."

"No," Jesse says. "We go in there."

We all turn to look at him.

"What?"

"You heard me. Let's go in there and rock."

We all start laughing.

"You're crazy," I say.

"You guys are crazy. Let's just go in there and get it over with."

The exterior shows a long red building that is very dilapidated with the wood siding falling apart in places. There are only two windows. Both covered by colored construction paper making it unable to see inside. We walk up to the door and stop. There is a metal sheeting with something engraved on it.

"So you've heard of us" it says.

There's a winking smiley face engraved under the words. For a second I am unsure if this is the right place. Everything about it seems so creepy. I look at my friends. It seems they feel the same way.

Our gazes meet. There's a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"What is it?" Jesse asks.

"I think we should go home," Rex says.

"I'm serious," he continues. "We're just a little nervous."

"But you also know the old saying, 'Never trust a book by it's cover?'" Priyan says "I trust this is the right place. Let's just go in there and do it."

"Alright," I say. "But if you think it's too scary, you can leave."

Jesse grabs the handle, and the door opens with ease. The smell of cigarette smoke and dust hits my nostrils the moment I step inside. Everything near the bar counter is lit in a dim green light, while the rest of the room is lit in red light. Otherwise, the bar is mostly dark.

The walls are decorated with faded 1950s beer adverts, and a mounted CTR moniter seems to be streaming old commercials during the time period it was from. There seem to be no bartenders or waiters in sight.

We move over to the nearest table and sit down. It is really dark. Two bovines in their 50s appear to be playing a game of pool while a third one watches.

Nearby the three, sitting at a table with a bright red light above, was a jackal about our age. Preston. He doesn't seem to be paying attention to us, and we don't try to get his attention either. We all just sit in our seats.

After a few minutes of silent discomfort from our group, I finally stand up and start making my way towards Preston's table. I don't know if the billards group is aware of me, but it feels like they are. Nothing about this seems okay. Preston finally takes notice of me.

"So you actually came." He chuckled "I was mostly talking to Rex when I reccomend this place."

"Rex?"

Preston nods. "Is he here with you?"

"Yeah, he's with the rest of the gang over there." I point over to the table they were sitting at.

"That's alright. I don't mind you all being here."

"Thank you?"

A fennec fox then walks out from a corner of the room too dark to see. He has a ribbon or belt tied to his head, and wearing an black short sleeved shirt over a white long sleeved shirt. He then starts chatting up with the older group. They begin to speak a different language, but he doesn't seem to understand them. They then turn to Preston. One of the billiards players pulls out a cigarette and offers it to Preston.

Preston accepts it gladly. The fennec then approaches Preston and tickles his chest flirtatiously. In response, Preston kisses the fennec. The fox then grabs Preston's left pec as if it were a boob.

Something inside me told me to gather up the gang and get out of here as quickly as we could, but I didn't. I stood my ground.

"You want a drink?" One of the bovines asked from behind me.

I turned around and saw him standing there.

"Uh... I'll have a shot of whatever cheap vodka you have, I guess..."

"Sure. Let me find the bartender for you."

"Rob's in The Smoke Room." Preston says, pointing to a wooden door in the corner of the room next to a potted plastic saguro.

The man starts heading towards the so called "Smoke Room" and disappears.

Preston crosses his legs and rolls his head from side to side before speaking up.

"Bring me Rex."

"What?"

"You heard me."

I get up and go back to the table the rest are at.

"So how'd it go?" Jesse asks.

"Preston wants Rex." I say to him.

"What? Why?" Rex asks, shocked.

"I don't know. He just wants you."

Rex gets up and follows me back to Preston's table.

"Glad you're here Rex."

"What do you want Preston?" Rex asks, confused and nervous.

"I just want to catch up with you."

"We've already..."

"Never mind."

"Just go into the Smoke Room and find me there."

"What's going on?"

"I don't know, but we're about to find out."

Preston winks at Rex and takes his hand. The two of them walk towards the Smoke Room with the fennec following behind. I watch the three of them disappear behind the wooden door, and once they're gone, I walk back to the table where Jesse and Priyan are sitting, and plant my face on the table.

I hear someone take the now empty seat, one of the other bovines sits down at our table. I put my head back up.

"I'm assuming you kids are new here." He says to us.

His voice seems to indicate that he moved here from Detroit or somewhere near there.

"Anyways, Roger brang this back for you."

He hands me the drink he had in his hand. I see that it's the vodka I ordered.

"Th-thanks." I accept the drink and sit it down on the table. He crosses his arms, and makes a small huff, that still sounds a bit rough due to his size.

"You babes are looking too cute to be in a place like this." He says. "Now I'm not normally one for the 'boys will be boys' mentality, but I'm going to make an exception."

Before I can think of what to respond, he continues "I have to be in Payton tomorrow so I thought I might as well party here for the night."

"You're in Payton?" I ask, still in shock.

"Yeah. My name is Lawrence, by the way. I'm sure you already knew that."

"Uh, no. Sorry."

I took a sip of my vodka. It's a bit too warm, but it tastes fine.

"So Lawrence, how did you find this place?"

"I was wondering the same thing about you kids."

"Preston told us about this place." I tell him. "What about you?"

"Well. I used one of those websites on the net where you go and meet up with people for sex."

"Excuse me." Priyan comments

"So on this website this guy starts chatting me up, you know, Roger, the one I was just with." He gives glances at all three of us. "And so he invites me to this place so we can get it on, right? There was tons of fennec in here earlier."

He points to the wooden door. "They all went in there though."

"So this is a gay bar, right?" Jesse asks.

"Yeah, I suppose. That's okay with you, right?"

"Oh yeah, that's fine. I'm gay myself actually." Jesse says.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"One more question. How big can you take?"

Jesse puts on a face indicating he's horrified at Lawrence's question.

"I-uh-uh..."

"I'm just joking kid." Lawrence laughs. "It's a joke. No one takes it seriously."

"You know what, I'm going in there." I finally say. "I don't know what Preston is doing with Rex in there, and I want to know."

I go towards the wooden door to the Smoke Room. "You guys stay here and don't get into trouble. I'll be right back."

There's a "No Smoking" sign hanging from the door, which is ironic considering it's name. I take a deep breath and step inside.

I feel my feet touch what I feel is bare soil. It isn't though. It's a wooden floor covered in dirt, grime, and peanut shells. The smell is strong of beer, cigarettes, and other shit I can make out. I see Preston and the fennec not to far from me in the middle of the room. They're fucking. I don't see Rex though.

The lights flicker at a fast rate. It goes from dark to bright, to dark again, to bright again in only one second. There are no windows to be seen. The voices around me let me know that there are a good amount of people here. A majority of them are naked.

I see gay porn play on a mounted television screen. Speakers pound with the drone of weird music. The lights begin to strobe red. The whole room is uncomfortably overstimulating to my senses. I squint through the smoke around me.

"Rex, where are you?"

I can't hear my own voice through the loud music. Everything goes black again. Preston looks at me, his tongue hanging from the side of his maw. He looks completely blissed out.

"Glad you decided to come in, Utah." He says

I was hesitant to go closer to him, as he was recieving a blowjob from someone else. Preston bucks hard into the fennec's maw, causing the fennec to gag. The smaller fox curls his fingers against Preston's feet. The only clothes on his body being black low cut socks. Preston however, is fully clothed except for his red cock sticking out from his pants and into the fox's mouth. The fennec turns his head and gags, but doesn't stop the blowjob. The strobe effect from the flashing lights makes me nauseous. I close my eyes.

When I open my eyes, I catch the silhouette of a dog sitting in the corner of the room. Rex. I make my way towards him. I am relieved that I was able to find him. I sit down next to him.