Previously...

Forgetting all about his victim, the serial killer (who remained nameless) then turned and began to run, but Kaiba, using his vampire speed, soon caught up with him. 

"And just where do you think you're going, young man?" Kaiba queried. The tone in his voice was all calm and collected, like he had all the time in the world, maybe. 

Not wanting to answer, the serial killer then turned and tried to run again, only to find himself suddenly up against the wall of the alley, with his arms pinned to his sides and his legs frozen. Kaiba had pinned him there by the shoulders, the deadly smirk still on his handsome visage. 

"I should've known you were the kind of guy that goes after and murders innocent people." He paused before adding, "Well, I won't have that. Not one bit at all, that is. 

"You see, my dear friend," Kaiba added after yet another moment's pause as he then began to work his powers of both hypnotism and mind manipulation on his criminal victim, "this is why you and your fellow criminals should never tangle with a vampire. Especially a vampire such as myself that feeds on criminals and killers such as you."

Whatever the killer wanted to say, witty or otherwise, had instantly vanished — along with his life a few moments later. 

Another criminal had been executed, vampire style.

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Makin' a living the old hard way
Takin' and giving by day by day
I dig snow and the rain and the bright sunshine
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

My dog Sam eats purple flowers
We ain't got much but what we got's ours
We dig snow and the rain and the bright sunshine
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

~Beat Goes Bang, Draggin' the Line

*********************************************

The world's oldest profession. 

Buffy shook her head as she recalled that very phrase. If she had heard those words once, she had heard them a thousand times, probably. She believed that, if they were going to talk about the secret work they did to earn money in the city, then they should've just called it by what it really was — prostitution. 

Or, as she preferred to call it, her work.

Her work. 

Almost everybody who gave her a passing glance (either short or long) as they either walked by her on the street or stared at her from their expensive-looking cars would give her either disapproving glares or shake their heads in disappointment. Even the men who came to her and paid for her services disapproved of her work as well. 

She knew they knew what she was because of how she looked and what she was wearing. Clothes were important to her work, of course. 

At the moment, Buffy was wearing a black low cut top covered by a pink PVC jacket and a short, tight black leather skirt around her hips. Mesh stockings, also black in color, covered her legs. To top it all off, she wore shoes with 4-inch heels, which she had picked out because, in her view, she disliked being short. It was a real pain in the neck; she knew that for sure. To top it all off, her blond hair was teased out big time. 

It was true that Buffy was not ugly, and was perhaps quite prettier than most of the other girls that turned tricks on the streets — especially those who were older (usually either nineteen or twenty). And, of course, she had figured out early on that leather — the real leather and not the fake kind — was what really lured the men to her. After all, the only night she could remember was when a man found her wandering the streets. 

Buffy sighed as her thoughts then turned to the events that had transpired before she became what she was. Her backstory, to be precise..

She had nowhere else to go, and her real home — the one in Sunnyvale — wasn't an option, since her mother had been driven to the bottle after her father died a few weeks after Buffy's sixteenth birthday.

Then, to top it all off, the jobs she wanted to take — which was the kind of work that, she had heard, was definitely OK and didn't earn her looks of the disappointed or lecherous kind, but rather the encouraging and proud kind (especially if she did her best at it) — had already been filled up by other young girls and women before she had come to Los Angeles, much to her disappointment. 

And so this work — the sucking, the fisting, the rubbing and being intimate with so many men who soon became just the customers or faces without names but only as long as they wore protection, which they accepted knowing what she meant when they noticed how serious she looked when mentioning sexually transmitted diseases — was all she could find so she could not only earn her keep, but also a good meal and a warm bed as well. 

The man that found her had a nice-looking face with black hair that looked very natural and nice blue eyes, and was wearing business clothes consisting of a black suit and matching slacks. He introduced himself as Jackie to her, and said he was the owner of a call girl ring. 

"My name's Elizabeth Anne Summers, but you can call me Buffy," she said. 

Then, after hearing her age, he had smiled and complimented her on how beautiful her name was to him. She had smiled and thanked him in return. Finally, he explained that he could use her help. 

"What is it, Jackie?" Buffy had queried. "Maybe I can help you out. That is, if you want me to."

"Oh, that's so thoughtful, Buffy; thank you. You see," he said, now looking very serious as he spoke, and at the same time wondering how to tell her what was currently on his mind, while Buffy listened intently, "I have a problem. One of my girls, Cheryl, left on Friday of last week; she wanted to get a new job somewhere else. Of course, I wished her all the best of luck and let her go." 

He looked sad, and Buffy reached out and patted his shoulder. He looked up and smiled tearfully at the compassion he saw in those emerald eyes. 

"Thanks. Well, anyway, her absence means I now have an empty spot for someone new. So I went out walking today, and that was when I saw you. So I said to myself, ‛Ah, I bet that she could be the person to fill the empty spot that Cheryl left behind'." 

Buffy thought for a few seconds before querying, "May I have time to consider your generous offer?" 

Jackie smiled. "Oh, absolutely. Take as long as you need. There's no need to rush into a decision such as this one, of course. After all, I have heard that it is best to take your time with decisions like these." 

"Thanks, Jackie," Buffy replied, grinning herself this time. 

"You're welcome," he replied. 

Then, as though a thought had struck him, Jackie said, "Oh, just so you know, the money you earn goes to you. After all, it just wouldn't be fair for me to take all the earnings you got, and I've seen how the pimps treat the other call girls as well, and very badly at that. Kind of mean, don't you think?"

Buffy remembered nodding in agreement with that, while at the same time thanking him for telling her to keep any money she would earn.

***********************************************

However, now that she looked back on it, deep down Buffy wished she hadn't taken Jackie up on his offer of taking Cheryl's position in the first place. It was at that moment she wished she could turn back time — namely, back to that fateful moment when she and Jackie had met. Then, she could've changed some things simply by saying a few different words or suddenly getting an idea of her own. Or, better yet, she could've suggested to Jackie that he take all the money he was earning from his call girl ring and start a new business — and hopefully a respectable and legal one at that. 

Somehow, Buffy sensed that, if given the choice between a profession of being a prostitute and being an exotic dancer, she would definitely have chosen the job of dancing around a pole for money over selling her body if she had gotten the chance; she knew that. At least she knew the difference between prostitution and exotic dancing. Prostitutes would usually be intimate with men for money, while exotic dancers, on the other hand, would dance around a pole in a strip joint before stripping off their clothing or giving the regulars lap dances. 

Of course, it wasn't always like that in the strip clubs, though. Buffy knew this; after all, she had heard stories where the dancers would talk to the regulars and ask them about their lives. Of course, that was usually if the dancers didn't feel like giving a lap dance, or if the regulars wanted someone to talk to, which was about their problems in the regulars' personal lives. Usually it was a combination of both.

Then another thought came to her. Not all prostitutes were girls or women, either. If the prostitutes were boys or men, it was a different story altogether. Their customers were usually female, and the male prostitutes were referred to as 'gigolos' or 'rent boys'. 

It seems prostitution isn't just for girls and women anymore. Now, it looks like the guys are also getting into the act of selling their bodies for money on the streets too, Buffy thought. 

Apparently that was true. It was not just women selling their bodies on the streets. Now it seemed there were also men working the street corners. 

It used to be that, a long time ago — before my dad or my mom were born, that is — the only kind of people who would and/or were able to do this kind of work were women who were single, were stuck in a bad situation, had nowhere else to go, or had a son or daughter to support. Now, times have changed since then.

As soon as those thoughts came to Buffy, she realized that they were true.

She then looked up at the sky from where she was standing and noticed that while she had been getting lost in her thoughts — and discovering new things to ponder while she was at it — the sun had set. Now, it was getting dark all of a sudden. Upon noticing this, Buffy mentally scolded herself for losing track of time and not watching the position of the sun as it made its way across the sky. 

She then looked over to her right, and her eyes widened in surprise upon seeing a group of four men walking along the sidewalk. What was worse was that they were coming straight towards her. 

Uh-oh, Buffy thought, worried. What's going to happen to me now?

Unfortunately for her, the look in the eyes of the men gave away their intentions upon their suddenly seeing her. Even more unfortunate was that those intentions were anything but good, moral and ethical..

Uh-oh. What will happen to Buffy? And how will Yami, Joey and Kaiba sense this and save her? 

Wait until the next chapter to find out. 

And as usual, nice feedback is appreciated, of course. :)