Reveille (The Hybrid Disasters, Book One)

Chapter 3: Heads Will Roll

The nightclub was nothing like I'd imagined. The place was huge. There had to be over a thousand people piled into the old, steel warehouse building that stood before me. We walked out of the raised entrance where we had left our belongings and down onto a wide, open concrete floor. The edges of the large room were lined with a dozen or so fully staffed bars. In the center of the room stood a large, slightly raised dance floor. Surrounding the dance floor were several high-top tables and stools. Drawing my gaze upwards, hanging from rafters on the ceiling, were at least twenty scantily clad girls dancing erotically in individual steel cages. Along the walls above the bars hung a series of balconies that were heavily curtained.

Trevor noticed the direction of my gaze and chuckled. "It's the VIP section," he grinned. "I bet you a hundred bucks that some of the city's most prominent figures are getting private dances up there." I immediately pictured my and Donny's dads up there and paled. 

Donny pushed Trevor lightly upon my reaction. "Not cool, man." 

With one last glance at the balconies above, we pushed further into the club. Although I kept my eyes straight ahead, I could not help but wonder what it took to become a VIP in a place as exclusive as this.

Black-light strobe lights flashed from all around, illuminating the glow-in-the-dark paint we had placed on our bodies earlier. I continued to follow my line of friends as we made our way over to the nearest bar. Donny had not let go of my hand, and for that I was thankful. The club was packed. Most of the men were dressed in white or black. Others were missing shirts entirely, and some of them were in nothing but tight, leather briefs. The women appeared to be a little less burlesque and a lot more boudoir than us, but I was okay with that. I noticed the majority of the clubbers wore masks and wigs, and I wondered if we should have taken more care to conceal our identities as well. 

Donny broke me from my scrutiny of the club and handed me a Long Island iced tea. A woman with glow sticks came by and handed the group of us tiny packaged mints from a small bowl she was carrying. I assumed it was drugs, so I handed mine to Donny.

"It's ecstasy," Mac shouted above the music. "This shit will make you dance 'til you're dead." She opened the packet and popped the tiny pill into her mouth. Trevor copied her, and AB looked at me briefly before she shrugged and did the same. 

I looked at Donny to see if he intended on taking it too, but he had stepped away to catch the woman who'd given us the drugs. I watched as she took Donny's pill back from him, tossed it back in her bowl, and handed him a different pill from a red coin purse hanging from her hip. Donny caught my stare as he rushed back over. 

"The one she gave me was already open," he explained emphatically. He held up his freshly sealed pill for good measure. Only, the packaging on the one he held had a shiny, golden 'X' marked on it, instead of the plain black 'X' that marked the one I'd been given. I pointed out that Donny's new pill was packaged differently and came from a different container. He feigned confusion and pulled the one I'd given him out of his pocket and compared the two. After a moment, he simply shrugged. Clearly, he didn't think it was an issue. I frowned.

"Look, Addy," he yelled over the music. "I can see you're really worried about it. If you think one of us shouldn't take anything, then you can take yours, and I won't take mine," Donny offered. He held my original pill back out to me.

"No, you go ahead," I answered, pushing his hand away. "I'll see how you react, and if it's okay, then I'll consider taking mine too."

He grinned in response. He was clearly excited that I was being open and willing to accept the full club experience we were being offered here tonight. I watched as he opened the gold marked package and popped the small pill into his mouth. After he swallowed, he took my 'mint' and stuck it in the top of my left stocking.