The Ifrit - Page 4

As Brad continued down the hall a familiar sound truly put his mind at ease. A dull, thumping bass line was getting louder and louder with each step he took. Finally, after he could feel the bass in his chest and after what seemed to Brad like he had walked the length of two city blocks (which was impossible given the size of the building) he had arrived at the belly of the beast.
From the dark entranceway Brad Pitzer emerged wide-eyed and positively grinning. In front of him was a massive room filled with people, most of them were all crowded onto a vast dance floor in the middle of the room and most of them were women; beautiful, exotic-looking women. Around the sides of the dance floor were little niches with long couches which wrapped around small tables with slate-gray surfaces. Over-stuffed ashtrays and half empty bottles of whatever the occupants had been drinking covered many of the tables in each niche.

At one of the more reclusive tables in the far corner, Brad noticed a man wrapped from head to toe in what looked like Persian silks. Only a small bit of flesh was showing from an opening around his eyes and for a moment Brad swore the man’s skin was blue and his eyes purple but he quickly dismissed it once he realized that the entire room had been lit up with different colored lights. But still, the man seemed out of place and strangely unnoticed by anyone else.
At the far end of the room, opposite to Brad, there was a large stage where three DJs were set up. Each DJ was identical, three young women with platinum-blond hair and faces so beautiful they could only be described as ethereal. Glowing and soft, their features were calming to look at. “Triplets!” Thought Brad excitedly.

Behind them was an enormous projection screen displaying a mash-up of Japanese animation and various action sequences from a number of 80’s movies, all choreographed to the music. Far across the room, in front of the booth, Brad noticed a small group of men staring up at the three DJs, dancing slowly and without much purpose…All of their attention seemed to be on the DJs as if nothing else in the universe existed at all. Brad himself found it difficult to turn his gaze; the longer he looked at the three women the more unconcerned he felt towards anything but the music and their beauty.
With a great effort Brad turned his eyes away from the DJ booth and shook his head violently. It felt fuzzy, like he had spent the morning drinking and had just woken up from a resulting nap. Looking around the room, slightly confused but highly intrigued, Brad noticed two steel framed spiral stairwells with black and red marble-patterned steps on either side of the room, close to the arching entrance he now stood in. At the top of each stairwell was a shallow balcony.

He could see that most of the floor space on the balcony had been taken up by a long U-shaped bar. The incredible piece of furniture had a base completely made of a dark gray stone with a highly polished surface. The bar stretched around the entire balcony and had tiny fluorescent lights dangling above it from thin metal cords, just barely illuminating the dark red and heavily veneered cherry wood countertop. Steel barstools sat all along the front of the bar and almost every spot was taken. “Now how in the hell have I not heard of this place?” Brad said to himself as he put on his biggest salesman smile and walked over to the closest stairwell. “Well, first things first…I need a drink.”