That night when I got home, I decided to stay in and watch T.V to try and get my mind off of things. Most of the channels were boring, and I couldn't concentrate on them, because of Riley snoring loudly on my lap. I looked at my watch and noticed it was only after seven. There was a silence as I turned off the T.V and then there was a buzz from the apartment phone. I jumped suddenly, scared of what it was, who it was. For what felt like a long time, I sat on the couch froze. Once I had finally had the courage to move, I walked over to the apartment phone and answered it. Suddenly the picture appeared on the screen and I almost dropped the phone in shock.
Sofia stood still at the front door of the building. Her hair was curled and she had dressed up in a dark dress.
"Hey," she said casually. "Can I come in?" I didn't answer. Should I let a psycho in to my apartment? It was stupid to think about it and even worse to bring it up. I was completely lost on what to do. "Hello?" she said because of the silence. I snapped out of the trance I was in and quickly muttered an answer.
"Yeah, come in." Crap. I didn't feel too proud about what I had just done. Instead of panicking more, I just went to open the door. Sofia stood there quietly, and perfectly. Her hair was lighter than usual. Maybe she had had it done? Her dress, which I could see better now, was a blood red and sequins made it sparkle in the bright light. She was beautiful.
As I was not happy she was here, I just opened the door and walked away from it. When I noticed Sofia wasn't behind me I instantly turned around to see her still standing at the door, her face glowing happily.
"Why aren't you coming in?" I asked as I creased my eyebrows.
"My family have brought me up with manners. It's not nice to walk in to someone's property without them inviting you in." She said it as though she had said it a thousand times.
"Oh, come in." She came in, shutting the door behind her. Her high heels made a soft tapping sound on the halls laminate. She came in to the apartment and scanned the whole of the scenery. She even started at the ceiling.
"This is a nice accommodation," she said with a perky smile. Her gaze was fixed on Riley, who sat on the couch lazily, unaware of our guest. Suddenly I remembered the cat, and gave her a wary glance, which she didn't see. She looked up at me and gave another one of her almost irresistible smiles. "I love dogs," she said with a wry smile. I felt stupid then, for letting her in to my house. Whatever her obsession with cats – well, it could be any type of animal, or house pet- was endangering one of my most valid friends, Riley. He, however, seemed oblivious to the fact that he was being stroked by a psycho.
I said nothing for a moment, the silence spread through the air like dust. Before it sank through the air, Sofia's phone rang, which came from her small bag. As the silence broke, I felt the tension go down by a couple of degrees.
"Hello?" she answered as she turned her back to me. I looked around the room, trying to keep my eyes off the attractive, yet portentously dangerous woman. "No, I know … yes I'll make sure that … yes I'm just going out for a few hours … ok mum, I'm hanging up now … bye mum." She flipped the phone back down and put it back in her bag.
"Are you going somewhere special tonight?" I asked, suggesting towards the dress that she had on. She nodded slightly and then grinned.
"We are going to a club I know!" She said this with excitement and I didn't feel the same way, though I tried to smile. I sighed, making sure it was heard.
"Look, Sofia-"
"I know," she sighed in return. I hoped she was going to explain everything to me, so I waited patiently. "What you may have seen makes me different. But I'm not a psycho, and not some weird person. I'm different, please just accept that." She looked sincere, and she almost looked sad, but it was hard to tell by her expression. What was I supposed to do? I felt stuck, and I couldn't help but give in.
"What are you?" I whispered really quiet, that it was almost to myself, but Sofia heard it because her head jerked up from the floor. She stared in to my eyes for a small moment that made my back shiver.
"I can't tell you that," she whispered a little louder. She spoke as though she meant it. Although the moment was intense, I could see how someone would find it utterly stupid to be talking to someone who could potentially be a threat, confronting them about who they were.
"So you expect me to go out with you, even though I know your some weird cat obsessed person?" And I didn't mean it in the loving way. I could tell she was offended by it, and she turned away to dab her eyes. She turned back around to me with a smile and a sigh.
"We are going out. Please, I really like you," she said softly. That wasn't something I heard every day. I stood back, surprised at what Sofia had said. I took a good look at her and tried to figure her out. If I put the psycho part aside, Sofia was really a lovely person. She was beautiful, and even though I hadn't known her that long, she had been really nice to me. I know something such as a psycho should put you off someone, but I started to see past it. What harm would it do to me? Good thing I wasn't a cat.
"So this thing you do, you can't eat normal food?" I asked half-joking and trying to be serious at the same time. She tried to smile at me, but I could see it was hard for her.
"Something like that. Have you got any other theories apart from psycho?" I shook my head in response, and I was telling her the truth, whether she liked it or not, I thought of her that way. "Come on, get something good on, we are going out!"
I fumbled in my bedroom for a good shirt and tie and some casual jeans. Sofia sat on the couch with Riley, and although I was mostly sure she wouldn't hurt him, I kept leaning over the banister to check on her. I felt so confused. I wanted to go out with her, and it was prominent that I was going with her, whether I liked it or not, but I couldn't help but be scared of her, because something like what I saw just doesn't go away that easily, how good your skills of clearing your memory is. I jogged down the spiralled stairs, fixing my tie at the same time.
"You clean up well Liam," Sofia said, looking at me in a funny way.
"You look good yourself." She smiled at me politely and we went out of my apartment to the car she had brought with her.
A Porsche. Typical. I couldn't help but smile at the large beautiful machine that many dreamed to drive. She saw me looking at it lovingly and she handed me the keys.
"Here," She said, placing the shiny keys firmly in my hands, "You can drive if you want." I grinned from ear to ear.
The car was a beauty, compared to my old beaten car, which if it could, would be glowering in envy right now. The pale cream leather seats crunched beneath us as we sat down, and I rubbed my hands over the steering wheel, rearing to get going. Sofia nodded at me and off we went down the streets to our destination. I suddenly came back to the real life and forgot to ask where we were going.
"Pure. It's a club down on West Street. You know it?" I shook my head whilst stile keeping my eyes on the road.
"I know West Street though. You can direct me when we get there." And surely enough, Sofia gave me directions to the club.
As I stepped out of the Porsche (a car would be too plain for the great roaring machine) the chilled wind hit the back of my neck and made the hairs on my body stand up. The street, which was busy during the day, was ominously quiet, so quiet I could almost hear the echo of my thoughts if I tried to.
I couldn't see the entrance to the club, but in front of me stood a tall building. Its grey exterior made it look like any other usual office building that was slaved over by day and silent at night. I couldn't even see a sign to let anybody know where the club was, which wasn't good for advertisement, or at least I thought so. I tried to search for another entrance, but I couldn't find one anywhere.
"Are you sure we are at the right place?" I asked, pointing a finger to the building. She didn't say anything a first, because she was gaping up at the very tall building, that was probably used for thousands of different businesses. I struggled to get an answer out of her, and for a minute, the silence bored in to me.
She smiled and said, "It's here." I didn't realise I was holding my breath until I let it out. I didn't even know why I was holding my breath.
We walked around the building until we were almost at the back behind the alleyway. By the way Sofia walked I could tell she knew the place well. The entrance, though hard to find, was a big metal door that looked strong enough to hold a bull back. PURE was stencilled in big black letters with a quip underneath that said 'the bar with a bite' and I tried hard not laugh at it, as the line was hardly original. I looked down at Sofia who seemed to be figuring out something in her head. Her eyes looked up as her eyebrows arched, and she was counting something on her fingers. Once she was finished, she gave a couple of knocks that sounded like a code, and I tried to remember it, placing it at the back of my mind for future reference. The door opened (whether it was by someone or it just happened to pop open is a mystery to me) and we seemed to face a long dark corridor with candle lights placed every now and then that made the place look elegant. From what I could see, the walls were painted black, and the carpets were a deep red, but what was beyond the double doors at the end was more magnificent.
I, myself, had never been in to the whole going-out-and-having-a-drink scene, but from what I could tell, and from my previous visits to bars with past girlfriends, is that this bar was beyond classy. It was set in an old fifties kind of style. The ceilings were high, with big pillars dotted around the room. The bar sat aristocratically to the left, and various tables and booths were placed around the room, keeping to the black and red theme. Most people in the bar were wearing expensive suits and extravagant dresses, which made me glad I at least looked half decent with my shirt and tie. Sofia seemed to blend in with the crowd as most of them seemed pale and looked very beautiful. As we entered the room, most of the pale people turned around to look at us, but the rest seemed to just ignore us, and it made me wonder why it was just the pale people who were interested.
"Why are they looking?" I asked out of sheer curiosity in a hushed tone, although I was pretty sure it was Sofia they were looking at. Her face seemed to relax and she put a hand on my chest.
"Because, just guess your one good-looking guy!" She said this with a huge grin, and we continued our way through the small crowd to a booth at the back. The table had a small red candle on it, light, that smelt like roses. If this place wasn't trying to entice young couples for a romantic drink, then they fooled me.
We sat down, and I struggled to take in my surroundings. It all seemed so different to me, and something felt off. Although I had my instincts to leave, I didn't, because it just wasn't courteous. The lights above us shined down on us, and it seemed to bounce off of Sofia's blanched skin, giving it a slight glow.
"Hey, Your skin glows," I said almost too careful to sound pleasant or kind. She looked at me deeply for a second, and then peeled her eyes from mine as she twisted her whole body out of the light, or at least trying to.
"Oh, no it's not, I, it's my new moisturiser I'm using," she stuttered immediately after trying to get out of the spotlight, and I let the moment pass with a sigh.
We ordered some drinks, at which Sofia ordered an unusual drink (something deep red that almost looked like blood, and she never even said what it was called" and after a while of listening to the music in the background and chatting about usual day-to-day life, a man came up to us and I felt Sofia shudder next to me. I turned to look at him to see what she was worried about.
As he walked towards us, I noticed he had a broad smile on him that could pass as any famous actors smile. He was small, well, smaller than me, and he wore a black leather jacket and some styled jeans that made him stand out from the rest of the classic and well-dressed crowd.
When he came closer, I noticed he was pale, like most of the people around here, and he had short dark tousled hair that he styled in to a casual look. His eyes were also dark, with dark circles around them which made him look as though he hadn't had much sleep the past few days. He was slim, and he had a defined jaw that shadowed his neck. Sofia gave a grim look as he stopped at our table, as though she had seen a ghost she just didn't want to see again.
I couldn't help but notice the difference in expressions between the two. It was obvious they were related, through the similarities in facial features. Sofia looked very unhappy, as though this was someone she hated all too much, where as the man looked pleased, maybe pleased for Sofia's unhappiness?
"Damian, what are you doing here?" Sofia swallowed hard, whilst staring at the table.
Damien replied with a peppy smile and a, "I'm here to see you silly!" His voice was sarcastic, but at the same time I took him very seriously. Sofia gave him a daring look and then turned to me, whilst gesturing her hand to Damien.
"This is Damien, my brother. Damien this is Liam-"
"Ah, your boyfriend? So you did find someone that would love you even though you're a va-" Before he could finish his sentence, Sofia cut him off quickly and made suggestions to him that I wasn't supposed to know about whatever she was, which made me more interested, and scared about what she was. I blushed. He shook my hand, and I twitched as I did so, because his hand was ice cold. He looked at me as though he was surprised, and Sofia gave a glance of horror whilst I was taken aback at the temperature of his hand.
"You're, I mean your hand is freezing." It was hard to finish the sentence. As much as I tried to point out something unusual, he just laughed it out with a sharp voice. I tried to do the same as well, but it was hard to laugh it off when it was so unusual. His skin was literally as cold as the ice in my freezer. He looked at Sofia and back at me.
"Damien, may I talk to you over there for a minute." She used a bony white finger to point towards a corner in the bar, which seemed to be dark, mainly because of the light shortage in that area.
As they walked over together, I felt like I was being kept from secrets. Even worse, Sofia had been the one who had invited me here, and then she had the cheek to walk away and talk behind my back. I felt angry at that, as childish as it seems. They talked in low whispers and Damien grabbed Sofia's left arm. Even from far away, you could see that he was tightening his grip, but Sofia shrugged him off as though he was just a twig that was caught on her dress. She gave one final sentence of anger, and then scurried back over to our table.
I was not impressed by her hosting skills, and even less impressed about her brother.
"You, never mentioned you had a brother." I spoke clearly so she knew I was angry.
"I thought I'd got rid of him," she snapped. I had had enough. As my mother use to say, if in doubt, let all hell loose.
"Another one of your weird secrets in which you fail to mention? Hmm? And what about the fact that you're so pale and you glow, you freaking glow!" I said this all in one blow, and as I did so, my hands banged the table in clenched fists. I could feel the attention being drawn to me, and although I didn't like it, I ignored it.
"Look, Liam-"
"No, I'm done guessing. I'm done with your insane life and you're deadly personality. Don't speak to me ever again." I thought I had handled that in a clear, yet outspoken, manner. Before I had a chance to walk away out of the door, and back to my comfy home where I'd crawl up in to bed and sleep forever, something drew me back. I rocked back on my feet and fell to the ground. An echoing bell sounded all around me, and the lights flickered between on and off. People started screaming, and they scampered around the room. Was it an earthquake? I had a strange feeling of someone pulling me back towards the booth from which I had came from, and I was right. Sofia hulled me backwards, her arms curling around my shoulders. She was very strong, and I could see she pulled me with ease. The wind whistled clearly through the doors, and it sounded like water gushing in from all sides of the room. Sofia huddled my in the booth under the table, and the lights went completely out, pitching us in to entire darkness.
"What's happening?" I groaned in a low tone, but Sofia didn't answer. Instead she put her finger to my lips.
The silence was pregnant and eerie. Only some lights at the bar flickered on and electricity seemed to buzz all around us like the place had been torn to shreds. When I looked closer in to the tangent darkness, I realised that was exactly what happened. The carpets were in shreds, the tables were flipped over and as far as I could see, there was something coming towards us. I panicked, and when the lights flickered back on slowly, there were three monsters in front of us.
