Tap Dancer
Written By: Antonio Flores, aka TonyX and Ayane Matrix
Artwork by: The Andrade Brothers

“Man...” thought a young girl working in a bar. “I swear that I can't get a gig anywhere in this town!” She turned and picked up some beer bottles that had been sitting on the counter of the bar. “At least I have a job for the time being, even if it sucks.”

“Shawn!” called the bartender and owner of the drinking pub. “There's a new case out back that needs to be moved to the fridge in the front, can you get it for me?”

“Not a problem sir!”

Shawn, a talented tap dancer in a small town out in the middle of the nowhere, well, she considers it to be "nowhere" as she's very gifted in her craft, has trouble getting gigs doing her profession. For the moment, she's working in a bar to pay her day to day expenses.

But today, a very tall man dressed in Armoni, accompanied by a polished titanium briefcase, came to the town to give her the first real break that she has ever had. While looking as if he had some serious money, he looked a bit out of place as he scanned the drinking pub looking for someone in particular.

“Excuse me, sir?” the man asked with a British accent. “I'm looking for someone and I'm not sure if I'm in the right place.”

“Well, considering this place is pretty much the central hub for all things that go on in this town,” said the pub owner quite cheerfully, “I could probably help you out.”

“Wonderful!” the man pulled out a small notepad and read something from it. “The person that I'm looking for specializes in tap dancing, is strikingly gorgeous, and ...” His voice trailed off as he looked closer at his notes.

As she was coming back from placing the case in the fridge and she couldn't believe what she was hearing! Someone was actually looking for her for a possible gig! She couldn't help but to smile as she walked back to the bar.

“Well, if you've got a name to match the face, that'll make everything easier!” The owner of the pub started to laugh a bit as he waited for the man to say what he knew already.

“Oh, sorry about that,” the man said as he found what he was looking for. “Her name is Shawn Esper, a friend of hers suggested I look her up for a performance.”

“Well, well,” the bar owner said eyed Shawn from afar, “you're in luck, she works here and she's coming up behind you. Good luck!” and he returned to doing his bar tending duties.

The man turned around and looked at Shawn from head to toe, and coughed slightly as he nearly forgot what he was there for.

“Miss Esper, am I correct?”

“Yup,” she said cheerfully and with a bit of bounce, “that's me! I hear that you were looking for me?”

“Yes, you're quite right madam.” He placed the briefcase on the counter as he started to relax. “And as I had already your mentioned to your boss, I'm interested in your tap dancing services; for a small private party in the next town over, of course.

“Hm...” Shawn said as she sat on a bar stool next to the man.

“And just so that the offer is appealing to you,” he leaned in somewhat, began to whisper and opened the briefcase he had been tapping for the last moment. “I'm willing to pay you $10,000 in cash right here, on the spot if you accept the offer.

“Wha...?!” Shawn couldn't believe what she had just heard from the man. It was more money that she's ever seen at once and her face betrayed that little fact.

“Of course, the offer is only good for the next 20 minutes as I am on a very tight schedule.”

Looking from the case of money, to her boss, and back to the man, Shawn just sat there bewildered. She looked back at her bosses face and saw that he nodded in agreement with whatever decision she chose. With that and being crazy not to accept the large pile of cash, Shawn hastily accepted the offer without muttering a word or asking for all of the details.

“Don't worry about work hun,” he boss said while giving her a wink from his left eye, “I can handle things here. Just do what you need to do!”

"Absolutely perfect," said the man, "and by the way, my name is Patrick Stickler. If you would be so kind as to accompany me to the area where the party is, you can perform your act." Then the man had a smirk on his face. "And if you wish, you can join in the party and have... fun."

"And what about my tap dancing costume? I'd have to go home to get it before we go."

"Not to worry miss, that has been taken care of and everything you will need will be at the private party. Shall we go?"

Not wanting to waste more time, Shawn followed Patrick out the bar and into his stretch limousine. For the next 15 minutes, she was roughly briefed on the sort of party that was going on, one for a personal friend and client, and some of what she was expected to do. All the while, she wondered why she was given such a large amount of money for a simple show; yet, all of her worries vanished when she touched the suitcase with the $10,000 inside.

Once they arrived at the place, which looked more like a resort hotel than a club, Shawn was taken to the back of the building, so that no one noticed who she was or what she was supposed to do. She then followed Patrick to a lavish dressing room and was given a selection of costumes to wear for her performance.

Wanting it to be simple yet sexy, she chose regular beige stockings, a black bodysuit, blue dress shirt with ruffles on the ends of the arms, and a top hat to set off the costume. She opted to leave her black choker on to further accent the look and found a pair of tap shoes that fit. When she came out to greet him, Patrick had a look of sedated joy.

"Good to see that you found something that fit," he waved his hand toward the direction of the stage. "The stage is that way and I'll go ahead to announce you."

Moment's later, music started to play and the lights dimmed slightly, alerting Shawn to her big moment. While she was not in the best position to hear the announcement, the rest of the crowd could hear.

"Hello everyone,” Patrick said with giant smile on his face, “glad you could make it to this little private party we've put together on such short notice!" Applause. "I have a special treat in store for you. Tonight, we are going to have an excellent performance by someone of exceptional talent and skill!" More applause and cheering. "This is what you have been waiting for, and now I give it to you, Shawn, come out and do a number for us!" The crowd did more cheering and applauding as they waited for Shawn to make her appearance.

Following the beat of the music, Shawn came out tap dancing her way out to the view of the crowd. Feeling that she was essentially wooing everyone, she danced and danced to the extent of her ability. When the music was finally over, she walked over to the center of the stage and bowed for everyone.

"Well, that was a very nice performance there Shawn, what did you guys think?" The small crowd cheered and applauded. "I guess they enjoyed the show!" Shawn smiled and blushed slightly. But Shawn, the show isn't over and there is still more you can do for us!"

While she and Patrick were standing in front of the audience, one of the stage hands had placed an elaborate amount of glue over Shawn's tap dancing shoes, but was careful enough not to place any on her pantyhose. Knowing what was really going on, the small audience cheered at the sight and made Shawn blush even more.

"What do you mean the show isn't over?” She said while still trying to contain her cheerfulness and wave to the people in the audience at the same time. “I just finished a whole show!"

"Well, Shawn, you're in a for a rude awakening!"

Not really knowing what she had literally stepped into, Shawn attempted to walk off the stage, but the soon realized that she was not going anywhere.

"What the...?!" She proclaimed as she tried to lift her feet from the floor. "My shoes, they're glued to the floor!?” Once again, she tried to lift her feet from the floor, but was unsuccessful as the glue stretched a few inches and pulled her shoes back to the floor. “Patrick, help me!"

But, when she looked around, all she could see was the crowd and lights. Apparently, no one from the party was interested in helping her out, so she made the attempt to get out on her own.

After what appeared to be an eternity with the audience cheering and hooting at the scene, Shawn carefully slid her stockinged feet out of her glued tap shoes.

"What's wrong with you people?! How come non of you wanted to help me?"

Patrick made his appearance behind Shawn. "Well, miss, it seems that when you accepted the offer to perform at this little party of ours, you failed to ask me all of the details. Oh the woes of greed!" Patrick then flashed a very devious grin. "And it's not even part of the show that we have in mind!"

Feeling dread at what she had accepted to do, Shawn backed up from Patrick. While she had on her tap shoes, she didn't notice that the floors were really slick, but now that she was no longer wearing them, she almost instantly slid off her stockinged feet, hitting her butt to the floor. Instinctively, she tried to rub away the pain, but only achieved having the audience cheer more.

At that moment, a layer of glue came through a hidden section in her hat and slushed onto her head. Feeling the glue coming into contact with her hair, Shawn made a failed attempt to remove the hat, only to have it stretch 3 inches and squish back to it's original position. Panicking, she tried again and again to remove the hat, but got nowhere.

"Oh, don't worry too much about that, a little warm water and a good shampoo will make all of that go away." Patrick then motioned his arm and two men came out of the crowd to pick Shawn off the floor and toward the curtains.

The curtains opened up to reveal an expensive gold trimmed bed with four ropes lying on it. Not knowing what they men planned to do to her, Shawn bucked and screamed as they tied her down.

"Now I know what you're thinking," Patrick said to the microphone as he nonchalantly walked around the bed. "You think we're going to do these awful things to you, but to be quite frank, what has and will happen is going to be relatively harmless." He grinned and turned back to the audience. "At least it will be anyway. Now on with the rest of our show!"

“You people are sick!” she cried as she tried to get free of the ropes. “I never would have agreed to this!”

“But in accepting the payment I offered, you did! But that's long since passed and we're here continuing the show, isn't that right everyone?” The audience applauded heavily in reply.

“So, everyone, here comes the choice,” said Patrick as he walked around the bed, every so often touching the bars on the bed post, “we have here a beautiful woman tied to a bed, what should we do? Should we,” an illustration of a woman being dunked in a tank appeared from the darkness, “drop her in a tank of glue?”

Some of the audience cheered while most of them booed at the suggestion. “Okay, maybe that's a tad bit overdone these days. Then what about...” another illustration appeared depicting another woman being sprayed some sticky substance. More people cheered, but there were still more people that booed.

“Hm... that one is a bit messy, maybe we'll save that one for later?” The audience cheered in agreement. “Now that we have exhausted our first two choices, we still have our old stand-by...” the last illustration appeared, depicted a woman struggling to free herself from the floor, “THE FLOOR!”

As if almost on cue, the audience cheered and hooted wildly as this was what they had waited for during the entire night.

“And oh!” Patrick said as he could barely hold back his own excitement. “We have such a great bonus for you all tonight! Tonight, we have another member joining in on the fun! Two for the price of one!”

A moment later, another girl, about Shawn's age, came out on the stage wearing an over sized shirt, windbreaker pants and thin shower throngs on her feet. For a moment, Shawn almost thought that she recognized her, but dismissed this as she couldn't think of anyone willing to participate in such an event.

“Thank you for joining us on such short notice madam,” Patrick took a small bow and kissed her hand; the audience laughed in response. “Let's clear out of the way as the last part of our performance is setup.”

Shawn was finally untied, but since the show wasn't over yet, she was not allowed to leave the area. Using what little amount of the time she had left before the next and last part of the show was ready, she decided to see who the new girl was.

“Excuse me, but I swear I've seen you from somewhere before,” Shawn said as she presented one hand to shake, and the other constantly trying to remove her hat. “The name is Shawn.”

“Shawn?!” The girl hugged her for a moment. “Oh my goodness! I almost didn't expect to see you here!” She pulled back so Shawn for get a better look at her face. “It's me Alex! We took the same tap dancing lessons together, remember?”

“Alex? But...” Shawn's face held a look of confusion and perplexed anxiety. “why? And what are you doing here?”

“Oh, this is sort of my day job.” Alex motioned her right hand toward Patrick. “He sets me up on all sorts of these things and it really pays well. Plus, it's safe and fun!”

“But these guys are sick! Just look at what they did to me!” She pointed at her glued on hat, but Alex only chuckled.

“Like Patrick said, it'll come off, so don't worry too much about it!” Alex watched as Shawn grumbled and couldn't help but laugh. “Oh well, I'll catch up with you some more after this is over.”

Just as Alex finished, the curtains opened and they were both pushed toward the audience, only to be greeted with some resistance from the floor. Panicking at this sudden change, Shawn couldn't help but attempt to get away from her predicament. She took a few steps in her stalking covered feet, but with each step, she found it harder and harder to lift her feet from the floor. She grabbed her left leg and began to pull as hard as she could and succeeded in prying it away from the floor by a few inches, but lost her balance in the process. Not wanting to have her butt stuck to floor, she leaned forward and got only her left knee stuck.

Now with her knee throbbing in a slight sharp pain, she tried to stand up, only to find that her stocking covered knee was stuck to the floor. Thinking quickly, she ran one of her finger nails over her nylons one the same thigh, and torn it just a bit, allowing her to rip them and let her stand.

While Shawn was doing this, her friend Alex calmly walked into the glue on the floor. First, she placed one of her throng covered feet into the glue and tried to walk toward Shawn. Once she mockingly realized that both of the throngs were well beyond being stuck, she made a fool hardily attempt to pull them from the floor. They stayed where they were and stretched just a bit as she tried and tried to free them.

The audience was loving every minute of the last part of show. Every time both of the girls tried to free themselves from their problem, they became more and more stuck and they reacted. The biggest applause came when Alex tried to reach out to Shawn as she tried to rip her way to freedom, but was brushed away and fell onto her well shaped tush with a shocked look on her face. More of the men in the audience cheered even more as the watched Alex struggle and forcibly rip her windbreaker pants to shreds to get off the glue covered floor. The end result was her showing her long athletic legs and butt to the world.

Forgetting about the glue on the floor and about her stuck throngs, Alex moved besides Shawn and helped her out of her stuck kneeling position, finally ripping nylon, but leaving her left leg and foot bare. With her stalking ripped and covered in glue, she was left with her barefoot waving in the air, but quickly planted to the floor as Alex accidentally bumped her from behind.

“Alex!!” Shawn exclaimed as she tried to free her barefoot from the floor's grasp. “What the hell?!”

More and more time passed as the girls kept trying to pull their feet from the floor. Shawn ended up getting her other barefoot stuck in the glue and Alex having fun with her situation.

“Well, everyone, I know that you've enjoyed this magnificent show,” Patrick walked out to the ground floor, away from the glue covered floor where the girls were, “but like all things, it all must come to an end, but that doesn't mean that it won't end like this!”

Patrick raised his hands and when he dropped them, two hoses dropped from the ceiling and proceeded to shoot dark colored goo all over both girls starting from their feet to their necks. Whoever was at the controls of the hoses, they made sure to cover both of them from the front and to the back; and made sure to apply liberal amounts everywhere else until they looked like dark blobs rather than girls.

“AND THAT,” Patrick exclaimed cheerfully, “is the end of our show! Have a goodnight!”

Later on that night...

“I can't believe that this happened! This was the grossest thing ever!” Shawn said as she clean off he last of the glue from her body and feet.

“But wasn't it fun? Plus, where else can you make this sort of money?” Alex said from the shower stall next to Shawn.

“Yeah, it was easy money, but... I really wished I had gotten all of the details first.”

“That would have helped, but it actually made for a better performance in the long run. Didn't you hear how the crowd reacted to you? You're a natural!”

Shawn laughed as she heard her friend say that, but she couldn't help but think that she might have been right.

“Say, Alex, how often do you do this sort of thing?”

“Um, it's pretty much every few weeks or so. Patrick usually sets up everything and gives me a call when he has people that are interested in this sort of thing.”

“Hm...”

There was a soft knock on the door to the showers and then Patrick's voice could be heard. “Hey, lady's when you're done, I'd like to talk to you in the dressing room.”

They quickly finished their showers and got dressed in bath robs and went out to meet Patrick.

“First off, this was our best turnout and performance yet! The crowd was going wild and I have never seen such a reaction.” He turned to look at Shawn's face. “It would mean a lot to me if you could do this on a regular basis, and we'll even pair the two of you up together every time! What do you say?”

“Well,” Shawn glanced over to Alex, who was grinning, “it appears that I have a new calling!”