Magnus said he didn't mind me going out with Zach and Imasu on Halloween. The plans were made before we were really together, so Magnus said that he would go party with his friends instead. I couldn't stress enough how much I'd rather spend the evening with him but what was done was done.
Imasu was already in the car when Zach came to pick me up. The Doctor drove us to an old bookshop, with no trace of a party in sight. I was very confused and almost frightened until I saw that Imasu was just as dumbfounded as I was.
Zach lead the way to a door marked 'Out of Order'. I'd assumed it was a disused bathroom until my Boss opened the door to reveal a dark stairwell.
"Tonight, boys, we hit The Bone City." He announced with some pride; like this was a great accomplishment.
I had no idea what was going on but Imasu seemed impressed. He even gave a little gasp of appreciation.
"You know the way to The Bone City?" He asked. He peered down the winding staircase as if that darkness held the mysteries of the universe. "How?"
"I used to work there." Said Zach with a grin.
Once again he was the one to lead us. We descended the steps slowly; it was difficult to see in the dark. I tripped once and Zach caught me. From that point on I was very careful.
As it turned out The Bone City was a club; an extremely exclusive club that even kept its entrances a secret. It was a lot like an old speak-easy, in that you had to go through a hidden entryway to get there, but according to Zach this place had a whole bunch of passages which lead to it. Some of them wound on for a whole half hour. Ours would only take five minutes.
The longer we walked the better we could see. The lights on the walls were in the shape of small human skulls, lit up from the inside like morbid jack-o-lanterns. Very creepy and perfect for Halloween… Although I had to wonder what kind of people frequented the place outside of October.
"Rich people have this party every year." Zach explained in a rather snarky way. "It's always a masquerade; they go and pretend we commoners don't know where they are."
"So... We're party-crashing?" Imasu asked, although his tone didn't suggest that he found anything morally wrong with that. He sounded quite excited, in fact.
"The Staff expect people normal people like us to turn up." Zach laughed. "It's hardly crashing."
"But the guests don't? Expect us, I mean." I questioned.
After a pause, Zach responded with a belated: "No."
I'd never done anything like that before; I wasn't sure how I felt about it either. It was too late to think about it, though. We'd already arrived.
The balcony we stepped out onto was teeming with people in extravagant outfits. The real party, however, seemed to be happening on the floor below. The sparkling dance floor was filled with revellers who danced the way people did before 'grinding' became a thing. The music had a pulse to it that set an inexplicably dangerous kind of atmosphere over the club.
It was glamorous; in a dark kind of way. The next staircase we encountered was wrought iron. This time I could see where I was going by twinkling, spinning white lights.
The bar on the bottom floor was extravagantly decorated; carved to look as though it was constructed from bone. The Bone City had certainly taken its namesake and ran with it.
Imasu took his drink and made a swift escape into the masked crowd. His departure had been prompted by a pointed look from Zach. I don't think my Boss knew I'd noticed.
I felt my stomach drop.
The control on the music volume in The Bone City was a lot better than it was at Pandemonium most nights. Zach didn't need to yell over anything when he started to speak to me.
"I feel like I need to say something." He said.
Drink couldn't calm my nerves fast enough; but I threw back half my glass a lot faster than I should have all the same. Letting Zach think I was a heavy drinker wasn't big on my list of concerns just then.
Besides, he was already talking again.
"When I invited you out..." Zach tried to explain. "I hadn't wanted it to be as a group."
My hand gripped the half-empty glass I was holding little tighter. I didn't know what to say to Zach. The words 'no shit' came to mind, but they didn't seem appropriate. I tried to conjure up my more oblivious smile. Then I worried it might come off wrong; as if I was glad to hear that Zach had wanted me alone.
"I don't think you've noticed that I like you a great deal." Zach continued, sounding regretful. I cast my eyes downward to the bar.
I hated that moment. Listening to a doomed confession was awful. Horrible. Like when you see that somebody is about to get hit in the face with a frisbee but you can't stop it from happening.
"And every time I see you, I just..." Zach faltered, then touched his fingers to my chin and tilted me to look at him. "I want to..."
Zach never told me aloud what he wanted. Instead he pressed his lips to mine and everything seemed to freeze.
I closed my eyes and felt him there. I wasn't kissing back, but I wasn't stopping him either. As he usually did, Zach took passiveness for encouragement, and twined one of his hands into my hair. That was when I snapped out of it and pushed him away, horrified with myself.
I should have flinched away the second Zach had touched me, not stayed still and allowed it to happen. Now I couldn't get out of my seat fast enough.
I span and turned directly into somebody's back. I felt like I was on an elevator when the chord snaps. The intricate body art of Caterina Loss was instantly recognisable; and when Zach called my name after me, she knew immediately who I was.
Caterina flipped my mask up off my face with a gasp. Her own eyes were covered by a lace ribbon which complimented her dress but must have been annoying to see through.
"How on earth did you end up in here?" She smiled in astonishment.
My reply caught in my throat. Caterina was stood beside Camille, Woolsey and a man who had little green horns attached to his mask. He was looking right at me with this frown on his face. I had no doubt at all that he'd seen Zach kiss me; although I wasn't sure about the others.
"Party crashing are we?" Camille seemed surprised. Her blood red lips pouted and I saw that she had a little minimalist line of fake blood running down her chin. I imagined Camille was one of the guests under the illusion we poor nobodies couldn't find her in the Bone City.
I felt Zach seize my arm. Having a group surround me was awful in itself but with the costumes and the setting and the dizzying lights... The night was turning into a completely surreal nightmare.
"How naughty of you!" Woolsey grinned. His tone was suggestive, but from what I'd gathered when we last met, that's what Woolsey always sounded like.
"Ragnor, this is Alexander!" Caterina introduced me excitedly.
"And who is Alexander's date?" Asked 'Ragnor', the man dressed in green. He sounded nothing but unimpressed. Maybe a tiny bit bored.
I didn't think my boyfriend had had this sort of thing in mind when he talked about Ragnor being a bit of a bother. Thinking of Magnus only made my worry rise.
Magnus had said he'd be with friends that night. I whipped my head around, dreading that I might see him stood there. Were these the friends he'd gone out with?
Instead of finding Magnus, my eyes landed on Zach. That brought me back to the here-and-now.
"This is my Boss," I told the others, trying to make it clear that I wasn't on some kind of secret date. "Our co-worker is here somewhere. We're a trio."
"Ooh, I do love trios." Camille grinned slyly.
Woolsey agreed with her and the rest of us stood by awkwardly as the two of them struck up a conversation about their 'most interesting' three ways. With most of the group suitably distracted by a topic which was rapidly becoming more and more discomforting, I decided that it was time to get away. I stuttered an 'excuse me' and walked away from the group.
It was no surprise that Zach followed after me. Much as I hated how the night was turning out; it was too late. If my Boss wanted to talk about whatever feelings he professed to have for me then that was what we had to talk about.
No matter how uncomfortable it made me, or how much I hated myself at that moment.
I hope this chapter read okay, I had to keep editing and hacking away at it trying to make it work. Thank you for reading and for your lovely reviews. The next chapter 'The Moment' will be posted soon.