Chapter 4. After Dark

<<THE BLOB - PVRIS, Lights>>

Both guards had obviously been assigned to oversee the smooth opening of the first co-ed nightclub and as such, appeared to be chosen for their intimidating physiques. They stood just a little taller than Love, but where her body was slender yet toned, theirs were broad and thick with large muscles that radiated brute strength.

Their faces however, were nondescript masks of professional indifference as they quietly watched each person pass over the threshold.

Surprisingly, this display calmed Love's beating heart as their turn came at the front of the queue. 

After a quick glance at the holograms they pulled up above their communicators, the bouncer nodded once and stepped aside. As the red door opened Love's normally expressionless face winced slightly, and her finger tapped against her thigh. The music spilled out onto the streets, thumping loud enough that it resonated inside of her chest, and the entryway seemed to descend down sharply to basement level. Love couldn't help but feel as though it were a hungry maw waiting to swallow her whole.

She shook her head slightly at the irrational thoughts and with a final reassuring glance at the two armoured guards, Love turned towards the dark entrance and started to descend.

The music thumped louder as they stepped down the stairs approaching another door, this one black in colour, at their base. Before either were able to reach for the handle, the door was opened from the other side, and Love locked eyes with the man on the other side of it. For the past 15 years, each time she had been forced into proximity with a vampire, Love would smell the scent of blood and hear the whimpering of a small child as if from a great distance.

With repeated exposure she had been able to distil this effect to some extent and with every new encounter she had found it easier on her tired mind, but this was not to say that she was now immune to the effects of PTSD. Sometimes it could be the scent or sight of blood itself, sometimes the sounds of children crying, and sometimes the images of an old cartoon that she'd watched through the cracks of the shutters across the room from her mother's body. But each time her body would tense and her heart would race.

Simply encountering a vampire however, was now a far easier experience, after years of practised desensitisation. This was why the first encounter with a vampire inside this particular venue did not immediately cause Love to freeze. Instead she felt only the slightest increase in her heart rate.

He was dressed in all black, with the sleeves of his silk shirt rolled up just past his elbows and exposing the pale snow-white skin and wiry muscles underneath. He had a small earpiece hanging from his ear, and had bowed his head slightly before opening the door wider to let the two women pass.

As they passed through the doors the thumping of the bass grew louder and Love saw rather than heard Elora's squeal of delight beside her. Shaking her head, Love looked around the wide expanse of the basement. The club, being underground, had no windows but its black walls were draped in blood red curtains with small spotlights across the sides of the ceiling, casting a soft almost ethereal red glow across the dancefloor.

There were also a lot of bodies.

At first glance there was a relatively even mix of both men and women, of which there were around 50. As for the vampires, Love could spot around a dozen at a quick estimation, the lower ratio likely being a deliberate calculation from the hosts to put the humans more at ease.

They were easy to spot, not by their appearance, which was more difficult to ascertain under the soft lighting, but more so by the way in which they moved. There was no pretence or necessity to act human here, and so their movements were distinctly and utterly inhuman. The difference was both subtle and starkly apparent, with limbs that were a little too lithe and too graceful as they danced just a little too fast. Occasionally, one would move from one end of the floor to the other a little too fast to follow with human eyes, making Love's senses spike slightly in alarm.

Her chest tightened a little, feeling strangely claustrophobic; as if she had found herself suddenly trapped inside a tiger's enclosure. Love found herself glancing back longingly to the black door that they had just entered through, but Elora was already pulling her hand tightly across the dance floor.

Elora was smiling widely whilst sporadically glancing back to Love beaming. She was excitedly pointing towards the long bar that almost completely took up the entire length of the back of the club. Love was dragged towards it, as she adjusted herself to the sensory overload of the music, the sounds of excited voices and the clinking of glasses.

Thump. Thump. Thump. 

Love no longer knew if the loud reverberations were caused by the music or her heart as they approached the bar and Elora immediately hopped up onto a red velvet barstool that was almost a little too tall for her 5 feet of height. She grabbed a menu of expensive looking cocktails and Love leaned across to read it beside her, her face paling slightly at the number of credits. Her account would continue to take a hit as the night progressed it seemed.

At that moment Love spotted the bartender, who was currently leaning to listen to another patrons drink order a few metres down and her heartbeat once again began to come a little quicker. He was dark skinned with short black hair, which contrasted starkly and beautifully against his crisp white shirt. His features were full of sharp edges and he stood taller than Love with large muscles covered in intricate tattoos.

Love inhaled and exhaled deeply and her heart slowed the more she focused on the vampire behind the bar, waiting for their turn to be served. Reflexively though, her finger began to drum against the top of the bar.

"Hello there, what would you like to drink? It's on the house."

Her finger stilled and relaxed against the bar, as a melodic and soothing voice cut through the music, but it came from the wrong direction. Love turned to her left and her eyes widened in shock as they connected with another vampire who had appeared beside her.

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