Chapter 1.

The pavement was damp outside as the group of young twenty-something ladies gathered outside the brand new and somehow insanely popular nightclub known as the "Underground". The name itself was reason enough to assume it was amazing, but its location was what made the name all the cooler, as it was quite literally, underground. . . There was a door, old and wooden, with a small round window around eye-level. The door was painted a dark brick-red and the window was thick and foggy in an antique way. Two of the girls simply giggled in a semi-hushed way as they neared the door, no doorman was present, no line, no sign even indicating that they had reached their destination. The third member of the small party simply stared at the door while her friends giggled and looked around, partially amused, partially already buzzed, and partially confused. She was nearly completely confused, yet, fascinated, but mostly suspicious that whoever had told her roommate's (one of the two giggling, a ash-blonde with pink streaks) co-worker (other one giggling, hair that was practically white and cut –very- short) about this place, had simply sent them on a wild goose chase to get a good laugh. She looked around, tucking the left side of her dark brown hair behind her ear for a moment, it was strange, surely such a popular club would have people outside waiting to get in.

"Penny, that just looks like an old door attached to an old brick building in the middle of downtown, stuck in a damp ally, that I actually hope is uninhabited." She looked at her friend, green eyes showing that she was a tish annoyed. They were dressed like bimbos, and she had even let them talk her into wearing a stupid 'little black dress' with heels, she had lace tights on at least, but –their-legs were as bare as they day they were born.

"Oh c'mon Sarah the guy told Rae that we'd have to go in to see any action, it's part of what makes it so cool!" Penny tugged on her co-worker's arm, Rae nodded a little and simply grinned widely as they both headed over to the door.
Sarah let out a defeated sigh, moving over to the door as well, "There isn't even a light on in there, the building looks like it has been empty for decades. . . " Really she was talking to herself now more than anything, mumbling under her breath like she was trying to simply figure this out. The situation itself was fairly out of her element, going to a 'club' wasn't something she normally did. She was a drama major, she did acting on a stage and made costumes and hung out with people that did the same, usually huddled around at someone's apartment watching old movies and joking. Drinking sometimes was involved along with other party-ish things, but generally there were only a few of them, and they were just, sitting around laughing or talking about things in overly-dramatic ways. –This- situation was simply, foreign.

"I thought you –liked- old things Sarah~ you took history and mythology and stuff before and seemed all into it~" Penny stuck out her tongue a little before reaching for the doorknob, a perfectly round knob made of crystal, it was the only thing about the door that didn't look ancient, it looked brand new. It practically glowed, no light bulb or anything, but yet it seemed to glow, even more so when Sarah's roommate turned it and pulled open the door, revealing nothing but a slim hall, only about a yard and a half long, brick walls on both sides, black, possibly just because it was so dark.

The three girls moved forward, door closing gracefully behind them, their footsteps becoming almost creepily loud just because of how silent it was. Then, as they moved forward, there was a light, a faded, small bit of light. They all looked down, there were stairs, seemingly a lot of stairs, but at the bottom of the stairs they could make out a light. "Look –see-! I told you that it was a legit thing!" Rae said triumphantly, though really they weren't down there yet, and even though there was some sort of noise, (that was almost indescribable, as really they couldn't hear it, yet they knew it was there) there was no real proof of life at the bottom. Yet, Sarah shrugged and moved down first, the other two following close behind. . . If they were walking in on something dangerous and possibly illegal, they were all toast already probably, might as well go all the way in. . .

The walls on both sides of the stairs had mirrors on them, like funhouse mirrors, twisting and turning their reflections. The steps were made of stone and the closer they got to the light they appeared to be covered in some sort of glitter, the stones themselves a light grey. As they neared the bottom the noise grew, and music actually became clear along with the sound of people. When they reached the bottom they were all speechless. . . It was in fact a club, filled with people, music made the whole place seem to pulse, like it was alive. Parts of the walls had mirrors on them, mostly though they were brick and glittered, the floor was a fairly normal dance floor except parts of it lit up when one stood on it. There were strobe lights of every color, and a large disco ball in the center of the 'dance floor' which most of the club appeared to be.

"This place is. . . certainly something" Sarah once again was mainly speaking to herself, but the other two happened to be there and thus they responded with nodding, Rae pulling Penny towards what appeared to be the bar, "We should get good and drunk before dancing~" She quickly reaching out and tugged on Sarah's arm as well, but didn't pull and in the end Rae and Penny went without her through the crowd. It wasn't –too- crowded, but there were clusters of people spread throughout the place, and weaving in and out of them were these people in costume, strange costumes, like a masquerade ball. Some of those with masks had trays with drinks on them and other things, making it clear that they worked there. . . The whole place made her head hurt, things were so familiar to her, yet, she had no idea why, it was a memory, there was a memory, she could feel it, yet, it was like she couldn't get to it. Like with a computer, there was a folder, but it was password protected and she had –no- idea what the password was, but she knew that what she needed was in that folder. . . She gripped her bag tighter and made her way further into the place, noting the crystal balls that hung from the ceiling, they were above everyone's heads, and along with the music some of them would glow and fade. . . The music, it was strange, it wasn't anything she had heard anywhere around, but it sounded like party music from the late 80s, with some disco/techno stuck in there. Like stuff she would've grown up listening to when she was in her early teens.

Half and hour later, and the place still gave Sarah this strange feeling, so much so she had actually agreed to get a strong alcoholic fruity-tea flavored beverage, she didn't catch the name, but the way her roommate ordered them indicated that it was probably a very sexual name as she winked at the fellow making the drinks after asking for them. She didn't see his reaction of course though, as he had a strange and twisted masquerade mask on just like the others, the costume was less extreme, and glittery, but just as frilly.

It wasn't long after she begun to drink that the noise went down a little, thus causing people to pay attention to the stage that was on the opposite side of the place from where Sarah happened to be, seated on a bar stool, which was less interesting looking than the bar itself. Above the bar, coming out of the ceiling and the wall that the bar was up against was the shape of a large hand, black like a glove, fingers curled slightly, and from the tips of the fingers dripped black glittery lace like it was being poured out of the fingers, the bar counter was a half-circle and simply pure black but cold at the top for drinks, behind the counter were the bottles of alcohol all lined up beautifully. Really, other than the large hand above them, the bar was far less weird looking than the rest of the place.

Anyway, back to the other side, the stage, where there was now someone standing, a slim man that was around average height for men, 5'10"-ish give or take an inch. The man wasn't dressed like the others that worked there, he wore a very detailed black leather jacket unzipped with a glittery grey t-shirt underneath and black skinny pants tucked into black leather boots that were similarly detailed to the jacket, buckles, though the jacket had spikes on the shoulders, and there were no spikes on the boots. His hair was light blonde with tan speckled feathers spread throughout, sticking out willy-nilly, all the hair feathered at the top and trickling down at the sides of his face, the back longer part pulled into a thin ponytail. His face was edgy and pointed, he made Sarah think of a bird for some reason, most particularly a speckled barn owl, like the one she'd seen around her old home town when she was young. . . Ow!. . .She winced slightly, hand moving to the side of her face, possibly just a brain freeze, but damn it hurt.

The man took the microphone and smirked before speaking, "Hello and welcome I am your host and the King which is what you may all call me~ Simply fear me, love me, do as I say and I shall be your slave~!" He bowed slightly and then the music began again, and along with it he sang, he had an amazing voice, smooth, cool, and hip just like the music, which was just as fun and great to dance to as before, and still, strangely familiar. It was fun music, upbeat, the sort one dances to and has a grand-spanking good time, yet, his voice to her was haunting, as was the music, like something from a dream, something almost from a nightmare. . . Those words he said, his eyes, mismatched, one dark and one light, the place was oddly familiar, but this guy, she knew him! Somehow she had seen him somewhere before! She put her drink down and left her purse by it, not much caring if it was stolen as it only had a little cash and some makeup and the purse itself was cheap. She moved to the dance floor, and was instantly swooped up by the group, a masked worker pulling her further in and moving her around by her hands, others gathering around her and moving with her. She wanted to get closer to stage, closer to the 'King' but here she was, trapped in a crowd of people moving in such a way that she couldn't move, dancing with a strange masked fellow. When she tried to speak the music seemed to become louder, when she tried to move forward everyone else moved back, when she tried to move back everyone else moved forward, in the end she was stuck where she was, a slave to the crowd and trapped, surrounded by unfamiliar faces, some masked, some not.

She looked up, towards the stage, he was still singing, and staring right at her, and she couldn't look away. . . "Who are you?" She whispered under her breath, as she couldn't hear her thoughts or her words anymore so it didn't matter. All he did was smile, widely, almost deviously, mouth filled with teeth that were. . . Pointed? . . . He danced, sang, and looked right at her the whole time, his words were familiar, haunting, his voice like the voice of someone that had been in her head, he was putting her in some sort of trance, and she could feel it happening. It wasn't like he was making her go into it though, her whole self was going along with it somehow, letting it happen, giving in to the movement of the crowd and the words sung by the strange club owner. . . Because in this strange place, somehow, she knew it all, it was all something that she knew, like something out of a strange dream, just, a dream she couldn't remember.