Rachael was not the type of person to go to a nightclub. She liked staying home and watching a movie, maybe having a beer too, but she would rarely enjoying going out in the first place, but to be stuck with a huge group of strangers with music blasting everywhere. Not her forte.
She would have said the same for Eric, that was until a couple days ago.
Erica and Rachael were very similar, they usually woke up around the same time, they liked the same genres, music, everything. That’s why when Eric told Rachael he had the greatest night of his life at a nightclub, she was pretty surprised. And for the exact same reason, he was able to convince her to come with him.
“God I hope it’s still here,” Eric said, eagerly dragging Rachael by the arm behind him,
“Oww, stop tugging you’re gonna rip my skin off,” Rachael said, she was wearing a shortsleeved shirt, a pretty poor choice as it was quite chilly. She also wore jeans, less of a poor choice. She wore her usual red and white converse shoes,
“Oh stop complaining, we should be nearly there,” Eric said,
“What’s this place called again?” Rachael asked,
“It should be just around this corner,”
Rachael sighed at Eric’s ignoring her question. They turned a corner, Rachael looked around. A pretty normal line of stores, the last place you’d expect ‘the worlds most amazing nightclub’ (to quote Eric) to be.
“No. No!” Eric yelled, causing a few people to turn and face him. Rachael quickly yanked her arm out of his grasp, not enjoying the sudden attention he was attracting. This was so out of character for him, he’d never have done this before.
“C’mon Eric, it’s not here. You’ve remembered it wrong.”
“No! I haven’t!” Eric yelled back, “it was on this street, I remember it so perfectly,”
“Okay, okay just... just quiet down you’re...” Rachael said, she looked around, there were half a dozen eyes on the two of them, she crossed her arms tightly, her face turning a little red, “we’ll look again tomorrow, I have to go shopping anyway so...”
“B-b-but...”
“Okay, time to go,” Rachael said without thinking, the eyes piercing right through her. She grabbed Eric’s arm and pulled him away. He resisted for a moment before inevitably giving up, letting Rachael lead him back home.
On their walk back, seeing the building in which they lived in the distance, Rachael looked back at saw Eric’s face. His hands were in his pockets, his head hung low and lightly kicking the curb. He wasn’t acting awkward, he was clearly upset. Rachael slowed her walking, allowing herself to be next to him, she looked down at him,
“Hey,” she said, he moved his head as if to look up to her, but decided otherwise, letting it hand loose again. Rachael nudged his shoulder with her elbow, “hey. I said tomorrow I’m going shopping. If you wanna tag along we can look again. How’s that sound?” She asks him,
“Yeah I guess,” he replies, not moving his head up, “it’s just...” he said, his body language getting a little firmer, “I had literally the best night of my life there. I’ve had a lot of good days in my life,” his head was now lifted up to face outwards, “but it was just... I don’t know, it was just so... so...” he struggled to think of the word.
Rachael took her eyes off Eric and looked at the street on the other side. There was man standing there, he made direct eye contact with her, they seemed to sparkle. She couldn’t make out his face all the way, but he just seemed to be unbelievably attractive. Rachael wasn’t used to these feeling, in fact, she had pretty much never had them in the 22 years of her life, but she felt all tingly at those eyes. She was so distracted, she didn’t realise she had stopped walking,
“Rachael?” Eric called. Rachael immediately broke from her trance, she turned her head to face Eric, but quickly turned back to look at the man. He was still there. She half expected him to have disappeared into thin air like in a movie. She turned back to face Eric, “y-yeah sorry I just—”
“Holy shit!!” Eric yelled again, he pointed to the other street. Rachael quickly turned her head again, at this rate she was going to snap her own neck. He was pointing directly at the man. She looked at him again, but this time she looked around him, the building he was standing outside of. It was completely black, the only thing not black was the not too large silver sign that simply read, ‘nightclub’.
“Wait, this is the place you were talking about?” Rachael asked,
“Yes!” He replied happily,
“Dude.” She started, “this place looks like it could have burned down,”
“But it’s appealing, isn’t it,”
“No, there’s nothing... I mean... it’s kinda...” Rachael scratched her head, “yeah it is... that’s so weird,”
“Exactly!!” Eric said, he ran up to Rachael and grabbed her arm again, he dragged her across the street, not checking for my cars. Luckily there weren’t any, but again, very out of character for Eric. They made it across the street and walked up to the entrance. The man looked down at Eric,
“Hello again, Eric, if I remember correctly,”
“Yeah, that’s it,”
“And you brought a friend?” He asked,
“Yeah I did, her name is Rachael,”
“Eric!” Rachel blurted out, she quickly blushed, she looked up at the man, she blushed harder.
“It’s okay. It’s not going anywhere other than my mind, unless you count that as somewhere,”
“I... uh...” Rachael didn’t know how to respond, she was so distracted by him. She really didn’t know how to act in these situations,
“Sorry about her,” Eric said, “she wants to come in,”
Rachael looked at Eric, who was already right by the door. He was being confident in front of a guy, especially one attractive enough to make Rachael blush, it was virtually unheard of,
“I’m sorry, Eric. But I must hear the confirmation directly from her,” He said to Eric, “Rachael,” he started. Rachael quickly shot to attention,
“Y-yep,” she stood up completely straight, looking right into his eyes. Not realising her mouth was open. He smirked at her,
“Do you want to enter. I must say that once you enter you will not be the same person you were when you walked in.”
“Uhh...” Rachael was still a bit distracted, half listening, “yeah,”
“Excellent,” he said, “please follow your friend,” he finished, “we hope you have the greatest night of your life,”
“Oh... way ahead of you...” Rachael said. Her eyes went wide, “did I just say that out loud,”
The man smirked again, Eric grabbed her once again and dragged her inside.
“What just... what happened back there?” She asked herself,
“The same thing happened the first time I was here,” Eric replied,
“It’s so weird... I’ve never felt that way about a guy... or anyone before...” Rachael said,
“Yeah... anyway!” Eric said loudly. Rachael snapped out of her trance. She looked around the room. The walls were black, but the carpet was red. There was a red armchair with a coffee table in front of it, on the coffee table was a black flowerpot with a single blue flower placed inside. It was the highlight of the room. There were a curtain adjacent from the door they entered through,
Rachael too, her eyes off the flower and looked for Eric. She watched him go through the curtains,
“Eric, don’t you dare leave me here,”
She quickly followed, she moved the curtain out of the way and pushed the door in front of her open. Her eyes were very quickly blinded by light, she covered them with her arm. As they adjusted to the change of light, the first thing she saw was bright flashing lights of a variety of colours. As everything became clearer, she looked around the room.
That’s when she realised what she had just stepped into.