Euphoria

The deep bass pounded so heavily the floor shook. Bodies writhed and gyrated in perfect time to the music. Desire burned hot under a heavy cloud of perfume and cigarette smoke. Supple flesh and hard muscle flashed in a tantalizing kaleidoscope under strobing lights. Faces were indistinct and names were soon forgotten here.

I stepped into the party and instantly felt the music begin to affect me. I walked in time with the music and bobbed my head. I glanced around, taking in the decadent scene. This was the party that never ended at the coolest club in the city. Getting in was incredibly difficult but it was well worth the effort. A massive bar surrounded half of the club and the other half was surrounded by private rooms where a couple who got along on the dance floor could enjoy some time alone together in private. Scattered here and there around the outside were people caught in the throes of drug-induced euphoria, discarded needles lying beside their twitching hands.

There were no tables. The entire club was a massive dance floor and every single person on it was moving in perfect time to the music. Well, except for the people who were too high to stand up. But those people were ignored. They were the dregs of society that had somehow drifted in here, their bodies stepped over or walked around as though they were not there at all.

As soon as I walked onto the floor my eyes made contact with a gorgeous young woman who seemed to move with more grace and spirit than anyone else. She gestured for me to join her. I smirked and approached her, moving my body with hers in time to the music. We danced for three, four, five songs before I asked if she wanted a drink.

We both made our way to the massive bar along the outside and I ordered a couple of beers. We downed them in a few seconds and I ordered a second one. We drank those, not talking because the music was too loud for actual conversation. After we finished our drinks we sauntered back out to the dance floor.

Uncounted songs later I looked around for a clock but couldn’t find one. I checked my pockets, but my phone wasn’t in either of them. I asked the girl if she knew what time it was and she shook her head. I told her I was going home and she grabbed my hand begging me to stay but I shook my head. It was late and I was tired.

I turned to make my way back toward the door and as I did I thought I saw a strange look cross her face. It was only for a moment but for a second she looked utterly feral, as though she wanted to tear my throat out with her teeth. A moment later she went back to dancing by herself.

I started to make my way toward the door and noticed that other people were giving me strange looks as well. Shadows of raw animal hatred crossed their faces before being obscured by flashing lights and smoke. I started pushing my way toward the door even faster and noticed another person attempting to do the same. I was surprised to see a look of terror on his face. I looked away and moved toward the door, but I couldn’t find it in the writhing mass of bodies surrounding me. I looked back at the terrified person and was shocked to see two men and a woman closing in on him. The woman was the one I had danced with all night.

I nearly collided with the man being chased and he looked at me with terror in his eyes before the two men caught him and dragged him away. He started screaming, but his voice was lost amidst the pounding bass. A moment later he was gone from sight. I pushed my way forward, trying to find him again and a few seconds later I found the two men and the woman who had been following him. The man was gone, but the three of them were drinking something from shot glasses.

The woman danced her way over to me again, her hair whipping about her face wildly. She grabbed my hands and tried to get me to dance, but I was numb with horror.

Her lips were covered in something crimson.

She pulled me close enough to put her lips next to my ear. She whispered, but somehow the music faded enough for me to hear her clearly. “This party never ends. Do you understand? No one leaves. Never.”

She moved her mouth from my ear to my lips and pulled me into a deep, heated kiss. The crimson covering her lips was sweet and I began to feel dizzy. I pulled her hips hard against mine and I could feel her lips curl into a smile. “Mm. Much better.”

She pulled back from the kiss and my head swam. My eyes were blurry and the music had somehow gotten even deeper and slower. I followed her as she led me to one of the rooms on the outside of the club and shut the door. The room was empty except for a bed in the middle. She pushed me onto the bed and pulled her shirt off before straddling me. She leaned in and kissed me again, hard. She still had some crimson on her lips and I drank in the taste at first with hesitation, then with lust.

We started tearing our clothes off and I grabbed her by the waist and flipped her onto her back. I pushed myself hard into her and she gasped with pleasure. She rocked her hips hard against me and I began to feel a feverish heat burn through me. I pushed faster and she began to moan. And then she sank her teeth into my neck.

I groaned in pleasure as fire raced through my entire body and I thrust harder into her until the bed shook. The pounding of the bass had been replaced by the pounding of my pulse in my head. I pulled away from her, her teeth leaving my neck and then I leaned in and sank my teeth into her neck. I drank in the sweet, hot blood that poured from her and my body was flooded with toxic desire for more. She screamed as the pounding bass shook us in climax. Hot fire burned us and for a moment all that existed was the pleasure of taking her and her blood. What seemed like hours later we collapsed into a limp pile of limbs, our breath heavy against each other’s naked skin.

She rolled her head over to look at me with lazy eyes drowsy with pleasure and said, “See? Why would you want to leave this party? It never has to end. Stay with me.”

So I did. We dressed and went back out to the club and ordered drinks. They gave us blood red shots of something that filled me with heavy euphoria and we danced again. Someone tried to leave and I chased him with her. We drained the blood from his neck and left his body on the floor, soon lost amidst the dancing faceless bodies around him and returned to the room.

And again we did this. Over and over.  Until I noticed that the music was slowing.

“The music. What’s happening to it?”

She looked and me and smiled. “The party is almost over.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand. The party never ends. Never. You said never!”

She threw her head back and laughed. “I lied! Everything ends. Even this party. But it’s funny, because it’s already over and you just don’t remember.”

I backed away from her. “What do you mean?”

She grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. “Look! There’s no one there!”

I shook my head and turned back to her. There were dancers there, the party was still going. But as I turned back to her I noticed that there were fewer people. As the music slowed, the people began to fade. I had never noticed because they didn’t have faces and they didn’t have names. But they were leaving.

I looked at her but she was gone. I spun and with every second people disappeared. In moments there were only a handful of people dancing and the music was hollow and echoing. Another second and the dancers were gone. The club was empty and broken, the windows boarded up, dust floating through the air in a dark ruin. I turned around one more time and there she was. I smiled in relief and walked toward her. At least she was still here.

She smiled and said, “Look! There’s no one there!”

I paused and frowned. She was standing there, but her face was blank and her eyes were empty. “But you’re here. Aren’t you? You’re still here!” I ran forward and grabbed her by the arms and shook her.

She fell limp in my arms and said “Look! There’s no one there!” And then she was silent, nothing more than an empty clockwork doll in my arms. I let her fall to the ground. The rotten floor splintered beneath her and she fell into a black hole and vanished.

I stepped back from her and looked around. The music was still echoing in my head, but the club was a dusty, rotten ruin and there was no one here. I nearly collapsed as the pleasure and strength I had felt in the party drained from me, leaving me wasted and hollow. I staggered around, looking for the door when I tripped over a body.

There was someone here.

It was the twitching body of someone racked with the pleasure of being lost in drugs and he was lying in a pile of empty needles. I couldn’t see his face and I didn’t know his name. I didn’t care. Because he had a full needle lying next to him and all I cared about was that needle. I kicked his body away and grabbed the syringe and looked at the golden fluid inside. For a second I could see her face reflected in it and the music grew slightly louder.

I stabbed the needle in my arm and closed my eyes.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then I opened my eyes.

The deep bass pounded so heavily the floor shook. Bodies writhed and gyrated in perfect time to the music. Desire burned hot under a heavy cloud of perfume and cigarette smoke. Supple flesh and hard muscle flashed in a tantalizing kaleidoscope under strobing lights. Faces were indistinct and no one had a name here.

I stepped into the party and began to dance.