You can applaud if you wanna

“Not much to do?” Vito asked with a roll of his dark colored eyes before leaning against the table, keeping his eyes on hers, always searching deep within them. He took his glass back from her and brought it to his lips to swallow some of the drink before sliding it back over to her, “Maybe you’re just bored because you won’t even dance. Ever consider that, doll? You need to… let go”- Vito opened his hands as he spoke to prove his point – “for once. A sip of alcohol isn’t enough. Ooooh, shocking right?” he mocked, throwing in a bit of sarcasm. “I wont have sex with you when you get yourself drunk, if that’s what your worried about,” Vito smirked and held up his little finger, as if saying pinky promise.

The man bit the inside of his cheeks as he eyed her for a moment before turning his attention over to the people whom were enjoying themselves on the dance floor. Vito wasn’t one to care about the happiness of others, but when it came to his club, he was rather satisfied to see the people who made him as rich as he was, drinking and dancing as if they would not live to see another day. Vito shook his head, amusement filling his eyes to the brim; they probably wouldn’t live to see another day if they kept it up.

Vito himself never danced along with them, for he felt that he were in a higher class than them- hell, he was, there was nothing more to it. He found it more enjoyable to spend his time allowing the pounding music to deafen him, and watching, as if he were on top of the world, and he was just waiting for the opportunity to cause some chaos in order to make things more entertaining.

But Vito had already caused chaos that evening, and he was actually fine where he was, sitting on top of the world, dangling his legs over the edge as he drank until the night was over. There was a balance to things that only Vito’s could find perfect- well, everything was just about fine and dandy… the dance floor was, after all, still lacking one Jaquellene Dyllan, and Vito could feel his eyes drooping slightly as exhaustion started to sink in, but, you know, other than those minor details...

Jack stared back at him, everything in her nature telling her not to get up and dance; it was just not something she did. Especially with all these people. She did not care what people thought of the person she really was, but she did care if people assumed things about her that was not in her nature. She did not want them to think she was a fool, like them.

But here Vito went, challenging her. In all fairness, if she were able to be able to manipulate him, it was only fair that he could do the same. Though fairness really had no place in their rivalry. It did not change the fact, though, that there was now this burning desire in her to prove the smirking poltergeist wrong. Even if it did mean dancing.

Then there was her other motive, trying to delve deeper and find out more about this mysterious creator that was obviously causing Vito so much pain. She did not know why it mattered so much to her, or why she wanted to figure it out so bad, but she knew that she really did. It would bother her forever if she did not at least try to get to the bottom of this.

She took another sip of the alcohol, pursing her lips so no liquid actually reached her throat this time. She did not think that was Vito's aims, they were enemies, she doubted that was his intentions. She knew though he would not blink before trying to ruin her pride or reputation.

It was a gamble. Risk getting screwed over, or possible solve this strange and puzzling mystery. Unfortunately, her curiosity far outweighed her caution, and she made up her mind. There was one more hitch, but it might work to her advantage. Trade her embarrassing information for some of Vito's. Still, she could not look at him as she said, "I don't know how to dance." She took a drink. It was so cliche and irritating that Jack almost wanted to punch herself in the face.

Her excuse made him laugh, but that time, it hadn’t been a laugh that he had tried to repress, it had been one that he had allowed her to hear, in order to prove to her that it really had been a poor attempt to get out of the situation.

Yes, he had seen something in her eyes, she had been contemplating it for a moment; she may not have shown fear in her eyes when he had gone on a violent rampage, but she sure wasn’t good at it when she was thinking as hard as she had been. Vito wondered monetarily, why on earth she had even considered dancing, but figured he would find it out sooner than later; “Jack, my darling, can you not see that all of the people up there on that dance floor can neither dance nor keep themselves from falling over? Besides, I know you would never do it; face it, you’ve always had a guard up, and as much as I hate to admit it, I know you’ll never let anyone see you with that guard of yours moved out of the way,” Vito said smoothly, daring her to prove him wrong with every word that fell from his lips. He did want to see that side of her, even if it did mean that she could claim that she had proved him wrong that once. Now, he honestly didn’t expect anything of the sort until she had at least finished a bottle, but it was fun to test her.

The egotistical man smirked, Go on, prove me wrong, you know you want more than anything to rub something like that in my face. He hoped his offer was at least somewhat tempting- after all, Jack had always been a rather stubborn person, almost as stubborn as himself, though, not in the cruel way Vito was.

Though, in a way, Vito couldn’t really help the fact that he was cruel, or came off as a heartless being; he had been created by the strong emotions of hate, fear, and many other dark feelings, and he had kept with him each of those traits every time he had ended the lives of his creators. It was a rather complicated process, but Vito knew the story, and the rules, by heart.

Vito messed around with the collar of his shirt absentmindedly, fixing it so that it was perfectly set, and whistled in an annoying pitch- on purpose to irritate Jack, of course- in sync with the song that was playing.

Jack stared at Vito, blinking after he finished his little speech about her and she kept a blank face, but she felt strange. Wow. He sure had seen through her. Most people wrote her off as a jerk, a hermit, a shrew, a...well, let's not get into the more...er, colorful names. Those did not need to be reviewed.

The fact was, she did put up a ridiculous amount of barriers between people, to where she was not even the same person. She was probably moderately pleasant...somewhere. But her pride stopped her. She was not afraid of getting close to people. She was just suspicious of them. Obviously, nothing good would come of people.

She took a swig of the alcohol, forgetting to close her mouth. She sputtered and slammed the glass down, covering her mouth. Damn it. Her eyes watered and she gulped. At least that masked her momentary shock at Vito's frightening insight into her own character. She wrinkled her nose and sighed.

He was obviously challenging her, but the barriers were up. She would rather protect herself then defend her honor right now, though she knew it would not stay that way for long. She crossed her arms and leaned back, her head already beginning to feel lighter. "What are you up to, Vito?"

He grinned when Jack practically choked on her drink, and then slammed it down on the table. Vito knew he had hit a nerve, and it filled him with a sense of pride- not that he needed any more pride, being as egotistical as he was…

There it was; the suspicion from her that he had been waiting for; she always guessed correctly when he was up to something, but he didn’t really mind after a while, it just made every conversation that much more interesting. Vito leaned forward slowly on his elbow, “Believe it or not, Jack, I’m being straightforward with you at the moment,” he said, just waiting to see what her reaction would be, “Oh, but that drink of yours from earlier- yeah, that water- that had some pretty strong alcohol in it.”

Why was Vito telling Jack that he had mixed her water with alcohol? Honestly, he wanted to see what she would do. He wanted to hear her witty remark and watch her look at him with frustration in her eyes, because that was the two of them did. It felt natural after all the times they had toyed with each other’s minds, or ended up self-destructing because of something the other said.

“But you expect that from me, right?” he asked mockingly, revealing his white teeth for a moment to grin icily in her direction.

Jack stared back at him as he said he was simply telling her the simple truth, and she shook her head. He was messing with her. He was trying to manipulate her into something. She was trying to manipulate him into spilling his secret. She knew what she was up to, she had no idea what he was.

He admitted to adding some alcohol to her water and she cursed herself; she had known something was weird about it, why had she been stupid enough to continue. She got a look on her face like she was going to be sick, though not because of the alcohol, but because she was sick with herself. She pushed the other glass of alcohol away from her. She did not need that, then.

She looked back at him and saw that taunting look in his eye. He was trying to get a rise out of her, she knew it. She cocked her head and scratched her her ear. "Y'know, I should have expected that, but I was foolish enough to think for one second that you would not be completely foul." She shook her head, biting her lips bitterly. "Huh." She shook her head and tightened her crossed arms, leaning back and shaking her head as though she could not believe it.

Again, she did not know why she was being honest with him, but she had momentarily forgotten her own aims. She slammed her hands down on the tables suddenly, eyes flashing dangerously. "You are terrible, you know that. Just nasty. You are not as charming or cool as you think you are. You are just a bastard."

She had snapped. She was tired of putting up those barriers that he seemed to be able to demolish. He should not be so good at getting to her, no one really could. And yet, here she was, shaking with fury, trying not to punch him. If she did, she would be that much closer to be murdered.

Ouch.

Even when he had expected an insult from Jack after admitting to what he had done, it still didn’t keep him from feeling as if he had been punched in the gut when she spoke against his charm. Vito took the alcohol she had pushed away from herself and finished it off; that would be the last of the stuff for the evening if he wanted to steer clear of drunken confessions about his life and a hangover in the morning, and he certainly did.

“Don’t you get it by now? I am not ever going to act kindly towards you, Jack. Why? Well, for the same reasons you won’t get up there and dance; it isn’t what we do. You mess with my head, and I mess with yours. It’s a game, and I would have hoped you knew the rules this far into it,” Vito explained his views on the matter calmly, even though he could see the fire flickering In the female’s eyes; he assumed she wouldn’t act on her anger- it was only an assumption, but he would bet a lot of money that he was correct.

Vito was still rather taken aback by the fact that she had shown some honesty towards him for a short moment, but he made a genuine effort to keep any such expression off of his face in order to seem indifferent; that wasn’t a part of the game, it never had been… neither had honesty, even if he himself had broken that rules a couple of times that evening, it had always been to the benefit of himself.

Maybe Vito needed to play a new card. Maybe now that Jack knew that he was angered so very much by the subject of his past, a new element should be thrown into the mix. He thought about it for a moment’s time, drumming his fingers against his leg as he considered both possible outcomes of such an action; if in any way, choosing to throw a curveball Jack’s way benefitted her, she would have something to use against him, and that certainly wasn’t something Vito wanted- but then again, at the same time it would make things more interesting, and there was a good chance that Jack wouldn’t be able to turn the tables on him.

Vito smirked in a rather menacing way before speaking again, “Then why, my dear, are you so interested in me? Why on earth do you spend time around me when you know nothing good will come out of it, hmmm?” it was just that type of question that got people thinking- heck, even questioning themselves sometimes. Now, this wasn’t Vito’s hand, it was simply the dealing of the cards, how good of a hand Vito received, depended on Jack’s next reaction.

But there was always that theory that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and that seemed like a very common one when it came to Vito and Jack.

Jack shook her head at his explanation if why and she hissed, in a low, unsteady voice that was holding back her rage and frustration, "It's not kindness, fool, it's fricking respect. No matter how far we always g there was always that line and you crossed it." She was really beginning to question whether there was a line anyway; if so, tonight it had been crossed, recrossed, danced upon, and lit on fire. And she doubted 'respect' was the right word. It might have been 'fear' or 'common sense' that kept them from doing anything too horrible.

But Jack had a feeling that, now, all bets were off. She had a feeling that after tonight, the invisible, immovable boundaries that had kept Jack and Vito from making the other person completely self destruct were gone. Hell, she was beginning to doubt they had ever been there in the first place. It was a mistake. Just as feeling sorry for the punk poltergeist had been a mistake. But she had learned a lot tonight.

She could see something formulating on his face. some terrible new plot to mess with her no doubt, so Jack leaned back, trying to get past her waves of anger (and the weird feelings the alcohol were creating) and calm herself down long enough to focus. She still had a chance to piss him off, and because of her anger (and the alcohol) she was beginning to forget, or perhaps pretend to forget, just how bad of a temper Vito had.

Then he threw something at her she did not expect; so that is why he had looked so pleased with himself. He asked why she wanted to know so much about him and for a second she just stared at him, slightly caught off-guard. She, herself, had no idea why either. She could always say it was to use against him, but she did not think that was it, and then he would never release the information.

She had no idea herself, so she had not the slightest clue on how to answer. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it. Her face worked through her emotions and then she sighed. That's when she thought of it. She looked up, a cold expression on her face, as she totally disregarded the fact that this could make Vito angrier than she had ever seen him. She leaned forward, the smallest hint of a smile on her triumphant face. In a low voice she said, "Oh, no big reason. Just wanted to know what could cause a dignified man such as youself to act like a little child and through a temper tantrum."

Vito hadn’t a clue that his question had actually gotten Jack thinking due to her answer, and it was after that point that thoughts were no longer necessary to the poltergeist. The rules? They would be broken. The game? Vito would win. There was no more to it than that.

He had always had a temper, and Jack had known so ever since the very first time they had met, but for some reason, she seemed very interested in pushing him until he snapped that evening as the two of them shared a booth in the middle of the noisy club. Part of the reason Vito exploded so easily was most likely because of the fact that he felt the need to be considered perfect in every aspect, but was reminded so many times a day that perfection was untouchable; not even he could reach that level of flawlessness- perhaps with his appearance and his finances, but not when it came to his personality…

The poltergeist narrowed his eyes at the female before him and shook his head twice, as if saying ‘no, Jack, you shouldn’t have done that,’ before he shot forward with his hand and wrapped his fingers around her throat until the skin above his knuckles turned so white that the skin looked as if it would tear. Despite the fact that his eyes were filled with hatred, the rest of his face appeared eerily calm, only making himself appear that much more threatening, without even meaning to.

There was still a small, rectangular table in-between the two of them, but that really didn’t make a difference to Vito as he leaned forward, making sure that his face was as close to Jack’s face as he could manage, “Feel that hatred in your heart right now that is just begging to take over you completely, and get back at me? Hmmm? Wish you could hurt me? Want to see me defeated?” Vito asked, whispering slowly in her ear, venom dripping from every word that fell from his lips, “Those feelings of hatred and spite are the only thing keeping me alive; some b!tchy teenager like yourself wakes up one morning planning on lighting the world on fire, and I appear. I’m suppose to frighten them and shake them up until they fear the word rather than hate it, but that is not what I do. I manipulate them. Make them break. Toy with their sanity. Oh, and then I watch while they kill themselves. And if they don’t? I murder them myself, because it’s fun,” Vito explained, tightening his grip around her throat, enjoying the feeling of relief that washed over him upon hurting her in such a way.

He had never told that story to anyone in his ‘life’, but at that moment, he had been so extremely pissed off, that it had seemed like a punishment for the female to hear what exactly made him such a heartless man. Oh, but what if Jack used it against Vito?- He didn’t care anymore, he just wanted to never again hear her voice in his ears.

Vito released his grip on her throat- reluctantly –and shot her one last glare before speaking once more, “Leave, now, and this time, don’t disobey me, unless you want to do me a favor and let me end your life,” he said darkly, ready to fallow through with his threat the second she disagreed with him.

Jack realized the error of her ways about a tiny split second before Vito's hand shot out towards her, but by then, it was past too late. His hand tightened around her throat and all of the air was forced out of her lungs and her throat. She coughed and spluttered, her eyes bulging slightly.

He brought himself close and whispered his tale. Through her panic, she could not realize what this meant at the moment, but she knew she had won...though it could possibly be a very short triumph. Her eyes desperately searched his face, trying to find any clues as to if he would ever let go, or if he would let her die.

Her hands finally went up to his throat, grabbing at his hand, shaking and trembling as she tried in vain to pry his fingers from her throat. Her eyes pleaded slightly with his, because there was no room for pride when you were this close to dying. Her vision began to spot, and the room began to spin...

Finally his hand slipped from her throat and she gasped, falling over onto the table, resting her cheek on it as she gasped for air like a fish out of water. As oxygen rushed into her brain and her lungs, she was filled with anger and triumph. She had achieved her goal but Vito had gone crazy. No one needed to be that psycho...

Then the true meaning of his words swept over her. He was created by hate; he had no other choice but to be evil. And it was humanity's fault for hating in the first place. As she gasped for another breath she pulled her head off of the table and met Vito's gaze. He demanded she get out. For a moment, she sat there, chest heaving. Finally, she slipped out of the booth and shakily stood, taking up her usual straight expression. She took a step back, but something was bothering her...

Something about the hate building in her heart. She finally realized the key difference between Vito that made them too different for their rivalry to be friendly. Still breathing heavily, she said quietly, "I don't hate you." She turned on her heel and began walking away, with customers staring in her wake. She pushed open the door and headed out of Satin's.