Life and Death

Chapter 8

AN: I've never been to a nightclub so I'm sorry if this is inaccurate.

We park the car in the parking garage next to the club. Seishi must have some serious money if he can afford a ride like this. I get snapped out of my thoughts by a rush of cool air. Seishi is standing by the open door on my side. He waits for me to get out while Alex emerges from the passenger side.

"Thank you," I say with a red face, getting out of the expensive car. Seishi closes the door behind me. After the hour-long ride, it felt good to stretch my legs.

"Ready?" Alex wiggles their eyebrows at me.

"As ready as I'll every be," I say with concern. I can feel myself getting nervous.

The club comes into view after a couple seconds of walking, it must be at least four stories high.

We walk to the front of the nightclub where there is a huge line of people wrapping all the way around the building. The bouncer is at the very front, letting people in by unhooking a chain running across the doorway.

"It must be a popular club," I say out loud.

"Yeah, even on weekdays it's a sight to behold," Seishi responds.

We walk past all the people waiting in line, getting to the front almost immediately.

"Line starts all the way back there," the bouncer states while still looking to all the people standing in line, pointing to wherever the line must stop.

"I'm Jacob's friend," Seishi says while holding up his ID.

The bouncer finally looks at him, then looks at the card. He nods his head towards Alex and I, "Are these two with you?"

"Yep," Seishi gives the bouncer a smirk. Seems like he's done this several times.

The bouncer unhooks the chain while holding back the line. I can hear many people grumbling about our quick entry.

Alex looks at their brother. "Dude! Since when did you become all badass!?" they say in shock.

Seishi ignores his sibling.

"Fine, be like that."

We enter the building. That's weird, it looks like a business lobby for some reason.

"Are we in the right place?" I ask, not sure if we were being kidnapped by Alex's brother.

Alex and Seishi both turn to me, smirks plastered on their face and are trying not to laugh. They both then turn back at the same time. Well, that wasn't at all creepy. I guess they have a strong sibling bond.

We arrive at the back of the lobby at the desk and behind it is an elevator. Seishi pushes the "up" button.

DING

The elevator doors open and all three of us step inside. There are mirrors covering all sides of the elevator. This creeps me out. Seishi pushes another button, the second floor one. We start to move upwards and after a couple seconds, we come to a stop again. I can hear music coming from just beyond the elevator. I close my eyes and take a deep breath trying to ready myself for whatever may be behind those doors.

"Hey, are you sure you want to do this?" Seishi asks me one last time. Alex turns to me with a concerned look on their face.

"Yeah."

"Ok then." As Alex says this, the doors slide open to reveal the inside of the club.

My eyes widen. There are so many people here. Alex grabs my hand, and we step out into the crowd.

This club is insane; it takes up four levels of the building. The bottom level has the DJ and dance floor while the second, third, and fourth levels are all open, so that you can look over the railing surrounding all four sides and see the bottom level.

"No matter what keep moving," Seishi shouts to Alex and me over the music.

I nod my head and Alex and I start walking past people. Seishi goes the opposite way.

Suddenly, a large group of partiers come out of nowhere towards us. The path we were taking to get around was very narrow, and it didn't seem like there was another. I stopped in my tracks. Bad idea. My hand is torn from Alex's, and we get separated from each other. I get shoved towards a corner of the club.

I can feel a panic attack coming on. My breath starts to quicken, and my eyes start to tear up.

Shit! All that hard work Alex did for my face is going to be ruined if I let the tears fall.

I stare at the ground and try to count backwards from twenty. 20...19...18...17...

A hand grabs my wrist and starts to pull me towards the stairwell. I look up to see who it is, but there is so many people and flashing lights it's impossible to make out who it is. I try to writhe my hand from their grip, but they just tighten their hand around my wrist.

We arrive at the second floor and squeeze our way through the crowd of never-ending people. We stop at a door, and it opens. The mystery person pushes me gently through it. I feel a gust of wind on my face and see the lights of other buildings. I must be outside.

"Here."

I turn to see Seishi holding out a napkin and a glass of water.

"But how- "

"Drink the water first."

"Oh, ok."

I down the glass of water. I didn't realize I was this thirsty. Seishi takes it from my hands and sets it on a table.

"How did you get separated from Alex?" Seishi asks while I find a seat on the balcony. There was a black couch by the table with the glass on it.

"Umm...A bunch of people were walking towards us. Alex got through them, but I made the mistake of stopping and I was shoved into the corner where you found me. I'm sorry, I know you said to keep moving and I did the exact opposite," I say in a guilty tone.

"It happens. No need to feel guilty about it," he smiles. "The important thing is that you're ok."

My face goes red.

"Do you want me to find Alex for you?" Seishi asks.

"Oh, no it's fine. I think I'm ok now though, so you can go back inside if you want."

"No, I don't want to leave you out here by yourself, you never know what might happen at a club." Seishi pauses, "Do you want me to take you home?"

"What? No. No." I look at him confused. "You came all this way to the club; I don't want you to have to go back home as soon as you get here."

"It's no problem really."

The door to the balcony opens.

AN: Hello again, its been a really hectic week 😅. I just wanted to say thank you again for reading this book and to let me know if there are any mistakes.

-Jayden