Beyond Heroes: August Part One

Masks

"Sorry!" The man apologized, descending and shaking off the fire on his hands. "I have always been the one to love an exciting entrance!" Once the fire was gone I could see that the usher's fingers were bone thin and his nails were long and sharp like the blade of a knife. Even though his voice didn't sound as evil as Abraxas's I was for some reason still scared. I gave Kira an odd glance. She simply smiled back. "It's fine." She whispered warmly. "He's the usher."

"You... You're like Abraxas?" I asked hesitantly. The usher laughed and I stepped back in fear. I bumped into Valentine who chuckled on contact.

"No my boy! I am a demon of a completely different caliber!" The usher proudly announced. I was confused for a second. Then I realized that Abraxas and the usher being demons made perfect sense. The scary voices, creepy physical appearance, and the deathly look in their eyes. The only thing that didn't make sense was the fact that they both didn't look like what I thought a demon should look like. There were no extra limbs or slimy scales or oversized body parts. Not even a tail! Minus the strange little features, they actually looked a little human. Even the proper way they spoke was not how I imagined a demon sounding.

"My name is Andromache!" The demon usher introduced himself. "I own this establishment you have graced your presence with. On the outside the appearance can be seen as distasteful. The outer shell is simply a mask for the eyes of the mundane. The basement is where the real festivities take place!"

"Just one question." I said. "You're not going to try to kill me right? The last demon I met before you did."

"As I said before, I am a demon of a completely different caliber." Andromache winked.

"Don't worry August, he's a good demon!" Valentine explained while smiling like he always does. "Wow. Even as I said that it sounded weird." Andromache motioned for us to follow him. All four of us followed him to a broken wooden wall near the stage. Andromache waved his hand over the woodened mess of a wall. Gradually the wooden planks began to fix themselves. The missing pieces began to appear in the space they were once nonexistent. The pieces that were broken lifted up and magically reattached themselves to their other half. The magic repair continued until the wooden wall looked brand new as if it wasn't decaying with the rest of the building.

Andromache knocked on the wood three times. Nothing happened for a few seconds until Andromache knocked three more times. That's when a common house door appeared on the wood. It was one of those doors you'd find in the house from the suburbs. Andromache opened the door to reveal and bright white light. An eerie smile broke across his face as he motioned for us to walk through. I looked at Kira and Valentine for reassurance. Ryland just looked annoyed. Kira smiled and encouraged me to go on.

I took a deep breath and walked through the door into the light. My eyes were closed but my ears were shaking with noise. All I heard was loud club music. I opened my eyes and there were people everywhere! Just dancing to the beat of the song in the center of the glass platform. If they weren't dancing they were by the bar drinking, talking, or laughing at each other. There was a group of small booths covered in leather to our right. A medium sized table was placed in the empty space in the center. Each booth was filled with people laughing and eating bowls of food. The main lights were kind of dim, if it weren't for the multi colored strobe lights flying everywhere the club would've been completely dark.

I looked behind me to see Kira, Valentine, and Ryland steeping through the door. After Ryland stepped through, the door vanished leaving nothing but the wall in its place. They encircled me except for Ryland who went straight to the bar.