Four Days Later…
It was a rainy night in Chicago as Elijah stepped out of a cab on the strip near Lincoln Park.
"Thank you," he said matter-of-factly to the cab driver through the half open passenger window, handing him a hundred dollar bill.
"Hey, Dude! It's only forty!" the grungy young man in his early thirties cried out the window after Elijah in a voice already gruff from smoking too many cigarettes, but the original didn't hear him, he was already walking quickly up the sidewalk, stepping under the building overhang to keep dry.
As he approached his destination, he could hear the voices of a loud crowd and the thumping of a bass through the brick walls and a line was forming on the sidewalk outside the nightclub.
Well, this is a snag... Elijah thought as he rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, stepping into form at the end of the line and studied the Saturday night crowd of middle age singles and college students dressed in scantily clad clothes.
He glanced down at his own apparel—a dark black sport coat and pants and red velvet colored dress shirt with a red tie—and chuckled at how completely out of place he must look to any passerby.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one who had noticed.
One of the college girls standing in front of him had broken away from her friends' conversation and was eying him with a smirk.
She looked barely of drinking age and had multiple piercings and blue streaked hair, and her black mini skirt went higher than Elijah wanted to think about.
"Hey," she said, nodding toward Elijah as she crossed her arms over her Creedence Clearwater Revival t-shirt and popped the gum in her mouth, "you look like you're here for business, not to party."
"I am." Elijah smirked
"You with the band?" the girl asked, cocking an eyebrow
"The band?" Elijah asked, genuinely confused
"Yeah," the girl said, jerking her head toward the nightclub, "John Fogerty's playing tonight—you look like his manger or something."
"No." Elijah said
The girl slowly nodded, processing this as she eyed Elijah's outfit again for a moment.
"Well, you stick out like a sore thumb back here." She smiled
"Yes, I'm starting to noticed that…" Elijah cocked an eyebrow, "I think it's the shirt."
The girl chuckled, then pointed to the head of the line, "You should talk to Steve, he's the bouncer here. If you've got business, he'll let you in. And if you get desperate, just say you're with the band. I think he'll believe you."
"Thanks," Elijah said as he stepped out of line, "By the way, I like your necklace."
The girl looked down to the glow stick around her neck and smiled, trying to hold back her laughter as she popped a large gum bubble, "Um…Thanks, I guess…"
Moments later, when Elijah reached the head of the line, he came face to face with a tall, muscular, middle aged, mulatto man in a tight black t-shirt and designer jeans, whom he presumed was Steve.
His logic was confirmed when he saw the bouncer's name badge.
The man closed the door behind four night life regulars and turned back to the front of the crowd, coming face to face with Elijah.
"Hey, GQ," Steve said, eying Elijah's outfit, "You got a hot girlfriend in there or something?"
Elijah furrowed his brow, "No."
Steve cocked an eyebrow, "Boyfriend?"
Why did everyone think he was gay? Note to self: no more red-velvet colored dress shirts.
"No." He confirmed
"Then what can I do for you pretty boy?" Steve asked, straightening to his full height.
Elijah smirked to himself for a moment as he glanced toward the back of the line and to the girl he had spoken to earlier, then his eyes moved back to Steve.
"Actually, I'm with the band," he said, casually straightening his jacket
Steve studied Elijah for a moment, then shrugged and stepped back
"Cool, man…" he said pulling the door open and holding it for Elijah as he passed
But before he crossed the threshold, Elijah reached into his front jacket pocket and peeled off two hundred dollar bills, holding them up to the bouncer between his first and second fingers.
"The girl with the blue hair at the back of the line…let her and her friends through."
"You got it." Steve said as he plucked the money out of Elijah's hand and watched him cross into the abyss.
In his thousand years on this earth, Elijah had never been a very social creature. Even in the last century, he hardly frequented public gathering places like bars, restaurants or nightclubs. Niklaus loved them and so did Rebekah. Elijah mostly stayed and home while his sibling ventured out.
His first observations as he looked around the dark, crowded, and noisy room with strange colored lights, was that he really hadn't missed anything special a these centuries.
It smelled of blood and sweat and alcohol…charming. But, if he was going to find who he was looking for, this was the place.
Suddenly, a noise emanated from the stage nearby and the crowd on the dance floor roared as an electric guitar amp tuned and a man in his fifties stepped to the microphone.
It was John Fogerty.
Elijah smiled.
Well, at least he could say he had aged better than John Fogerty.
The former Creedence Clearwater Revival front man raised his beer in a salute then his eyes dilated and Elijah knew that he had been compelled.
"This is by special request." the musician said
He then took a swig of the beer and set it on top of a nearby amp as the band started playing the opening chords of the classic song and the cheers got louder.
Elijah recognized it immediately and raised an eyebrow, looking around the room.
He knew the special request was for him and he knew just who had requested it.
"Whoa, there was a nightmare, low it all so true…
They told me don't go walkin' slow, the devil's on the loose…
Better run through the jungle…
Better run through the jungle...
Better run through the jungle and don't look back to see."
Elijah opened his senses as he began to weave his way through the crowd toward the bar on the other side of the room.
"Thought I heard a rumblin', callin' to my name…
Two hundred million guns are loaded, Satan cries 'take aim!'…
Better run through the jungle…
Better run through the jungle…
Better run through the jungle and don't look back to see."
A young couple moved off of a pair of bar stools to dance as Elijah approached and he easily slid on to one of them, tapping the counter to the rhythm of the song as he waited for the bartender, a tall, blonde young man, who looked like a walking Abercrombie and Fitch advertisement, to come down to his end.
When he finally did, he smiled as he tossed a coaster in front of Elijah, "What's the poison going to be GQ?"
Elijah smirked and opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, another bartender turned around from the other side of the counter, throwing a towel over his shoulder as he patted 'Abercrombie and Fitch' on the back.
"Hey, Trevor, I got this one."
Elijah smiled and folded his hands, leaning forward across the bar as the blonde shrugged and his younger brother came into view.
"Hello, Kol." Elijah said in good humor
"Damn, GPS tracking device…I should have known…" Kol said under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief as he pulled a bottle of bourbon and a tumbler from underneath the counter and poured his older brother a drink.