Page 89 of Cruel Legacy

Okay, so maybe I misread things, and he wasn’t here to try to intimidate me after all. This building is in closer proximity to the parking lot than The Circle is. I guess if they’re leaving campus; it makes more sense for them to meet here.

I turn to smile at Austin, who’s been talking this whole time, unaware that I was distracted by the enemy. My shoulders relax and I tease him about the disastrous date he had while he walks me to my next class.

Chapter42

Thea

Iclimb out of the cab and walk across the street to the place I heard about at one of the fight nights. It’s a club where everyone comes for the after party.

I have class in the morning and maybe a pop quiz. Staying out late and drinking when I should be in the dorms studying is reckless, but you only live once, right?

Considering the shit I’ve been dealing with, I’m overdue for some recklessness in my life.

The club looks unassuming from the outside, even though the entrance is in the middle of an alley. I step through the doors of PyroTech, and just like the sign outside suggests, I quickly check my expectations at the door. The club entrance is on the top level. I’m standing on a balcony peering down over what looks like a three-ring circus.

The DJ is in the middle ring on a raised platform with neon lights that look like flames swirling around her. She’s wearing leather hot pants and a black bra, her green hair slicked up into a spiky Mohawk.

While I’m watching, the second ring lowers about twenty feet, and the outside of it erupts in flames. Turning my head to the third ring, I watch as it lifts to a few feet below where I’m standing.

A collective gasp and applause breaks out on my right. I watch as dancers unfurl themselves from the curtains suspended from the ceiling.

They drop down onto the first level, then dive forward, grabbing another set of curtains before twirling and spinning down to the second, and again to the last, level. Once they hit the bottom, the silken fabric pulls them all the way back to the top, to start again.

It truly is like a circus in here. My laughter bubbles over as I watch the dancers in action. I would love to go spinning through the air like that. I wonder if they’d let me.

I’m sure there’s more to see, so after a few minutes of gawking at their aerial skills, I walk down the steps to the second level. I find a bar, order my drink, and listen to the conversations going on around me.

Someone mentioning a mask gets my attention, because I saw people in masks when I came in. I finish my drink, order a second and take that with me as I move down to the last level, which leads me deeper into the club.

The further down I go, the darker the lighting gets. As for the masks, there are people sitting at tables wearing them, but the majority of the masked patrons seem to be heading in the same direction. To a curtained off area in the back of the room.

I head that way too. When I reach the curtain, a woman standing at a maÎtre d’ stand, greets me. “Hello there, beautiful.”

“Hey, yourself.” I try to see through the curtain, but it’s impossibly thick and no gaps show. “Is there a separate cover charge to get back there?”

She looks me up and down and gives me a knowing smile. “The cover is the mask we require our friends to wear. The charge is whatever spark you choose to ignite. But the windows to the soul aren’t the only thing keeping record of tonight’s darkly delicious delights.”

She reaches underneath the stand and pulls out a red face mask with jewels around the eyehole. It’s a partial mask, created to cover one half of your face.

“Do you wish entrance, beautiful?” She’s smirking at me like she expects me to say no. I grab the mask and tie it on. My answering smirk letting her know I’m ready to see what’s behind the door.

She stands and pulls back the curtain. She places a hand on my shoulder right before I step through. “I hope you have a fabulous time.”

“Thank you.”

“And if you don’t, come see me and we’ll see what we can do to make it better for you next time.”

“You assume I’ll want a next time.”

“Beautiful, our friendsalwayswant a next time.”

I step through the heavy brocade curtain, passing from the club into a long hallway. I walk until I reach a dead end, then look left and right to see which way to go. There’s a wall to the right, so I turn left and pass several rooms. The doors are closed, to most of them, so I walk into the first one I reach with an open door.

The room is outfitted with couches along the walls and chairs interspersed between them. There’s a weird shaped chair in the middle of the room. The slides slope down, forming a deep groove in the middle.

I turn to look back at the door I just came through. Above it, there’s a neon sign that says, “On Air”. It’s off. Right above it is a camera with several more mounted in the corners where the ceiling meets the wall. That must be what the hostess meant by keeping records. The club is recording whatever happens in this room.

I spot a beverage cart over in the corner. I snag a bottle of water off of it and walk towards the open doors on the other side of this room, wondering if they somehow connect to the other rooms down the hall. They don’t. Each door leads to a room with a partition set up in the middle of it, cutting the space in half, but the only way in or out is through the door I used.

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