At 11:58 that night, Artie finds himself getting into a taxi. He doesn't know what to expect. What does, bring an open mind mean?

"Where to?" asks the driver?

"137 Rue Nord Pierrefonds, please." says Artie.

The driver chuckles under his breath.

"Is something funny?" asks Artie?

"Nope, not at all, Personne répugnante." says the driver.

"Personne répugnante?"

The driver drops him off outside a building that looks like some sort of sleazy factory. The only light is coming from a small sign that flashes the word Magnifique every few seconds, and a dimly lit hallway, which starts below street level. He pays the driver and starts toward the door. He is struck by the pungent smell of musty garbage. Classy joint, he thinks to himself.

He looks again at this "club". The building itself appears to only have two floors. It looks to Artie as if this place hadn't been used in a decade. The stairway in front of him goes down into a hallway. Off to the left of the building is a fenced in area, which looked like a parking lot from when the factory was in use. Some small trees and other such plants were growing up through the cracks in the pavement.

He walks down seven steps into what appears to be a hallway leading to a basement. The hallway is fairly well lit. As he walks along he sees flyers on the ground. The same flyers that he normally sees at strip clubs. He navigates around modest puddles with his imported Italian shoes.

Artie comes to a door marked in. He is in the right place. He knocks on the large steel brown door. It makes a very hollow thumping sound. It is the only sound he can hear.

The door opens up, and a loud rush of heavy death metal hits Artie's ears and startles him. A giant man, larger than Clarke, approaches Artie, and through the deafening music he shouts, "Where the fuck did you hear of this place?"

"A girl named Beth invited me." shouts Artie.

The two stand toe to toe. The man sizes up Artie for a second, and then steps aside and points to the booth where there is a woman who is dressed in a highly fetish / bondage outfit. She is the cashier.

As Artie passes the giant man, he looks back and says to the man "Word to the wise.watch your fucking mouth."

The woman looks at Artie and says "15".

The giant man closes the door behind Artie and approaches the booth. He looks at the cashier and says "10. Besides, he's with Beth. He's the one."

What does that mean? Artie thought.

Artie pays his 10 and is led to a seat near the back of the club. The club is really dark. There is a small stage with two poles leading from the floor to the ceiling. Surrounding the stage is a single tube of pink neon light, which traces the edge of the stage from wall to wall. There are six tables lined up around the room including the one that he is sitting at.

There are two other people there. They are extremely drunk. Artie watches as these two men make fools of themselves. He realizes why Beth had told him to bring an open mind. She invited him to a fetish sex club.

As Artie focuses in on one of the men, he sees that there are no rules in this establishment. He realizes this because there is a stripper sitting on her head with her legs spread, straddling one of the men. The only article of clothing that she has on is a corset that starts below her breasts and ends above her waste line. The intoxicated man's tongue is completely inside of this stripper's vagina.

What the fuck am I doing here? Artie asks himself. This is disgusting. Artie decides to leave. Right as Artie stands, a man comes up behind him and hands him a drink.

"This is from Beth. She wanted me to tell you that she'll be out in about two minutes."

Artie sits back down. He daydreams so that he doesn't have to see the horrifying activities that are taking place around him. He starts thinking about Arya again. He sips his drink, not knowing what it was. It's got vodka, that's quite obvious. Vodka is his favorite drink. It's also got some cranberry juice in it, which would make it a Cape Codder, but there is another flavor present. Artie can't figure out what the flavor is, but it's different.

He continues to sip his drink and think of Arya. Why couldn't Arya see things my way? Artie thinks to himself. Things would be so different right now if she had seen him the way he saw her.

The bartender brings over another one of the tainted Cape Codders. Artie drinks this one down fast. He starts to feel the effects of it already.

A woman sits down across from Artie. She smiles at him. "I'm glad you came." she says. It is Beth. She is hardly recognizable with her bondage outfit on. "Come on soldier, let's go out back and talk."

Artie is really feeling the Cape Codders. He thinks that the foreign flavor has something to do with it. It must be some sort of other hard liquor. Maybe it's absinth. He heard of this stuff before in novels. It is illegal in the United States because the drink contains oil of wormwood, which is what gives marijuana its kick.

As they stand, Artie stumbles a bit. Beth points to Artie while looking at the bartender. The bartender nods and starts to prepare another drink for Artie. She takes him to a room out back. The room is lit with only red colored lights. He remembers that red was Arya's favorite color.

The room is small, barely large enough to fit the mattress and the recliner that are in there. The mattress is to the left. It is up against a wall that is made entirely out of mirrors.

Artie feels very dizzy now. He falls to the bed. Beth closes the door behind them. She grabs a bottle of sanitizing hand lotion from a small table across from the bed. She puts some of the lotion on her hands.

There is a knock at the door. Beth opens the door, and the bartender reaches in and hands her another drink. Beth places the drink on the floor next the mattress by Artie's head. He reaches for the drink, and sips from it.

"This is the last one." Artie says. It took him a long time to get the words out because his mouth was numb. He knows this can't be a good thing. But he kept drinking. He needs to keep drinking if he wants to be able to go through with this. Artie would never think of having sex with a prostitute. It's just something that he would never think of himself as needing, like a colon cleansing.

Artie finishes his last drink. Beth says "Artie? Artie are you ok?"

He understands what she is saying, but he can't complete a thought in his head to answer.

"Just nod if you can understand me baby." says Beth.

Artie nods.

"I think we need something to spice this situation up."

Artie nods.

Beth opens the door, and walks out for a second. When she returns, she looks at him and says, "I think you two have already met."

Artie glances behind Beth, and he sees what she is bringing in to spice things up. Out of the shadows, comes a tall dark figure, definitely male. Artie can't move. He tries to lift his head to get a better look at the person, but his head does not go up. He starts to feel uneasy. He tries to lift his arm so he can roll himself over. His arm doesn't move either. What the hell is this stuff? He thought.

He lets out a tiny pathetic sounding yelp, like a weak starving dog who's tail had just been stepped on. A small tear forms at the bottom of Artie's eye. He is not sad or even scared, but he is intensely frustrated.

The dark figure leans down and says "Hey pussy".

It's Clarke. This can't be right. Artie thinks to himself. How would Clarke know that Artie was here? How embarrassing this is going to be. How is he ever going to explain this to David and Meg? How would he explain Clarke finding him in a whorehouse and having to drag him back to the hotel?

Clarke looks at Beth says, "Have a seat sweetie and do your thing. I'll only be a minute."

Beth looks kind of confused. She looks at the chair, regardless, and does what she is told.

Clarke gets on one knee and says, "Want to know what this is all about?"

Artie lets out another yelp. Beth sits down in the recliner and begins to insert a vibrator inside of her.

"Let me explain something to you Arthur." says Clarke, "I am not entirely who you think I am."

Artie doesn't know what this conversation is going to be about. All Artie can think about is how he is going to perform sexually if he can't move.

"You see," Clarke continues, "I know what really happened with you and Arya, and I have an interest in setting things right."

Artie can feel his penis growing in his pants. Perhaps he won't be as useless as he originally thought.

"You might be able to fool some people into believing that you loved her, but I can't be fooled. I know what happened that night by the Starbucks in Central Square. You took Arya out for coffee. After you left, you two walked towards the ImprovBoston. You stopped at one of Cambridge's many slummy parks. You sat on a swing and discussed how much you loved her." Says Clarke.

Artie stares at the vibrator that is being plummeted in and out of Beth's pussy, but at the same time he is listening to Clarke's every word growing more and more afraid by the accuracy of what Clarke is saying.

Clarke continues, "She became uncomfortable and asked you to take her home. But you didn't, did you? No, instead, you begged for her to have sex with you. She tried to run away, but you tripped her from behind, and tore her clothes off, and raped her. You even went so far as to tie your gray button down shirt around her head so she couldn't scream."

Artie lets out another yelp. This time Artie's tears were of fear. How could Clarke know all of this information? He must have been there.

"When you were finished ravaging her for nearly an hour while she bounced in and out of consciousness, you hit her in the head with a piece of sidewalk that had been broken off. You left her for dead."

Artie is scarred, terrified. He can't figure out why Clarke is doing this to him. It was a mistake that was made a long time ago. Clarke is supposed to be Artie's friend. Friends don't bring up past pains and share them with complete strangers.

Beth removes the vibrator and shuts it off. She seems more frightened by what Clarke was saying than Artie was.

"Well, guess what you dick? She didn't die. She was left in a coma for 7 months. You did that to her." Clarke says with his anger rising, "You almost killed Arya. You raped her! YOU RAPED MY SISTER!!"

Sister? Arya was Clarke's sister? Artie cries. It's true. Artie did rape Arya, but as far as he was concerned, she deserved it for dressing the way she did that night, and then not having sex with him. Artie is very happy that he can't speak right now.

"Well, I had the bartender slip you some of these." Clarke pulls a bottle from his pocket. "Apparently Rohypnol is a very common date rape drug. I'd say it works pretty well, how about you there Artie? It's the stuff that's making you an invalid right now."

Artie is pissed and frightened at the same time. He doesn't know what Clarke is going to do to him.

"You tried to kill my sister. I'm going to try to kill you. Ever since you and I met 3 months ago, what is the one thing that separates us Artie? It is that you always fail, and I always do what I set out to do. I don't half ass it. I wanted to find you. I wanted to get David and Meg to invite you to a nice weekend in Harton City, and I wanted Beth to get you into a sex club where you would let your guard down and I could do this."

Artie feels a burning sensation all of the sudden throughout his neck and head. He feels his fingers getting cold. He goes to breathe but he can't. He feels a fluid rush his lungs where there is usually air. He coughs a bit. He realizes that the fluid that he now tastes in his mouth is very metallic. It is his own blood.

Clarke stands up. Beth is turned away with her face buried in the corner. She is crying. Clarke walks out the door.

Artie can't breathe. He can't even think anymore. He sees Beth run from the corner to escape the room. Artie was slowly fading out of consciousness. All he could see was the red light. All he could taste was blood. All he could feel was pain. He feels pain for the woman who he was in love with, but raped. He feels pain for the way that he hurt an entire family by raping someone's daughter, and someone's sister. Mostly right now though, he feels pain for the seven-inch blade that is sticking out of the left side of his neck.

Artie thinks maybe if I repent now, I can still go to heaven. Maybe I'll be forgiven. But before he could repent to a God that he didn't believe in.Artie's heart stops.