When I woke up, my head was pounding and I was laying on the cold, wet, hard ground of an alley way. My limbs felt shaky so I pulled myself up using the old brick wall of a building next to me. Lining it were fluorescent lights, illuminating the darkness. The where the sky should have been was dark mass and seemed to move, and after staring at it, I realized that the moving was a huge swarm of locusts.

"It takes a day or two to adjust." Jake materialized out of the shadows and came to stand next to me. He reached out to touch me, but I flinched back and he sighed, "Until then you may experience some disorientation or dry throat."

"What have you done?"

"There's no need for alarm. Azrael, I promise you're in no danger."

"I have to be back on earth. I'm the angel of death; I have a job to do!"

"Relax. You're here as my guest and I've taken care of everything to ensure that your stay is a pleasant one." In that moment, he almost looked like a child, hoping for approval from an older sibling or a parent, and I didn't know how to respond to it. "Don't worry, this place can be a lot of fun when you're with the right people."

He took my wrist carefully and began walking. Not having anywhere else to go, I let him lead me down the alley. I got the feeling that I was safer with him than anything else lurking in the darkness. As the saying goes, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. We walked until I could hear loud-though muffled music, and the ground seemed to vibrate with the rhythm. We came to two big steel doors, that looked like they belonged on a maximum security prison. The word 'Pride' was in blue neon above it, set on a black marble slab. The end of the letter 'P' trailed off of the word to form intricate decoration.

"Pride is one of our most popular clubs" Jake told me as I arched an eyebrow at the gaudy sign. "And it's the only way in. Shall we?" I didn't move, so Jake placed his hand on the small of my back and pulled me over to the door. The fog cleared a bit to reveal a man and a woman standing guard outside of the door. They were both heavily made up and decked out in leather, studs, piercings and chains.

"Well, well, "Th woman purred. "Look what the cat dragged in. It's a glow in the dark doll"

"I don't. Glow." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Oh, look. It talks." She smirked.

"Good evening, Larissa...Elliott." Jake greeted them.

Elliott looked at me approvingly, "Seems someone took something that doesn't belong to them."

Jake gave him a gloating smile, "Oh, I think she belongs to me."

"Well, she certainly does now!" Larissa cackled.

"I don't belong to anyone, especially not Jake."

"Can we move this along, please?" Jake sighed, suddenly bored.

"Of course. Since you're VIPs you can go right in." Elliot chuckled and held out his hand for my wrist.'

When I didn't move Jake leaned down to whisper in my ear, "You'll be fine," He murmured, "I'll look after you." I by no means trusted him, but I wasn't an idiot. My best chance of surviving this little nightmare was to stay on Jake's good side...even if this was his fault... I held out my wrist and while Elliott held it still, Larissa pressed a smiley face stamp on it. She then pressed a buzzer on the wall behind her and the big doors slid open. Jake ushered me inside, into a huge foyer with many tunnels, steps and a main stair case leading down. I looked back toward the closing doors and as if reading my mind, Jake wrapped his arm around my shoulders with a smirk, "It's too late to change your mind, sweetheart. Welcome to my world."