Elfric felt that his ears were about to bleed from the loud music. His head banged in rhyme with the tempo of the bass oozing out of the sound system, which was embedded in every corner of the club.
There was no escaping it.
The air was dense with the strong smell of sweat and alcohol, and sex, mixed with the sweet aroma of perfume all around him; the smell was so intoxicating that he felt his head lighten up.
"CHRIS!" Elfric called out. His friend was pushing through the crowd a few steps ahead of him.
"We aren't supposed to be here!" he yelled out, as he tried to grab his friend's attention, but the music swallowed his voice.
He figured that his friend was not hearing him – or chose not to, he still couldn't decide which. He covered the distance between them in long strides before grabbing his friend by his black leather jacket, yanking him around to finally gain his attention.
"I thought you said we were going to a nightclub, Chris!" he protested, pointing to his surroundings, which screamed nightclub at every corner, and that made no sense.
"Bro, cool down," Chris chuckled. "We are in a nightclub! Look around you."
He opened both of his arms wide as he gestured to the whole confined space, he was a little too excited.
Elfric didn't bother to look and rolled his bicolored eyes, completely ignorant of the stares that were piercing him. It was something he was used to. He was an albino with bi-colored, violet-yellow eyes, hair as pale as the moon, big deal.
"A nightclub, Chris!" he hissed, narrowing his eye, pulling his friend in closer. "Not the Devil's Den Nightclub!"
Chris raised an eyebrow before sighing. Elfric was backing down now when he was the one who pestered him all morning in school to hit a nightclub after they were done.
"You seriously don't believe all that shit, do you?" he asked, keeping one of his eyebrows raised as his green eyes scanned his friend's frustrated expression.
"That there is some devil-worshiping cult in here, do you?"
"You heard the rumors, Chris. If there wasn't some truth to it, the rumor wouldn't have started!" Elfric said, his violet eye shimmered when the neon light touched it.
"Then don't you want to see the stories for yourself?!" Chris exclaimed, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.
He is changing tactics to persuade him to stay. From the sparkle that found its way to Elfric's expression, he knew that it was working.
"I mean, we will only take a look down in the basement and leave, I promise!"
Elfric scanned his friend, and honestly, he was thinking of a reason not to agree with this mess, but he couldn't find any. A deep part of him was screaming to go with him; the only thing that was holding him back was his family.
His mother and sister. If anything were to happen to him, who would take care of them?
But the first was louder and more dominant. He nodded his head once, watching as his friend yelped in excitement.
Elfric knew he would come to regret this.
But the moment Elfric agreed with his friend, he gave in to the temptations in his head, and the adrenaline started to rush in his veins, following Chris to the back of the club.
The crowd broke around them like the sea of Moses, till finally, they reached the back of the club. The only door that separated them from what they sought was guarded by two heavy-looking men dressed in black who didn't bother to spare them a glance.
"This, my friend, is when I shamelessly take advantage of your ethereal," Christopher muttered under his breath loud enough for Elfric to hear him.
"W-What…"
Before Elfric could resist in any sort of way, Chris bumped him forward and into the guards. His long, middle-lengthened white hair fell on his face as he staggered forward, almost slamming into one of the guards' chests.
Elfric jolted his head back up and straightened his posture as he was mentally prepared to be kicked out. But…the guards just stood there looking at his face.
It wasn't something new to him. People who saw him for the first time took a long, good stare at his face. His shoulder-length white hair and heterochromic eyes; the right was light violet color like lilacs, and the other was honey-tinted.
A long second passed, and Elfric didn't dare to take his eyes off the guards as he anticipated their next move.
They smoothly moved to the side as they opened the door.
Before Elfric could protest, Chris grabbed him and dragged him through the door.
"Thanks, folks!" Chris said to the guards, but they didn't spare him a glance.
"W-What the hell was that?" Elfric whispered, his heartbeat echoing in the back of his mind.
"Well, this is a demon cult, and there is nothing more convincing than a supernatural-looking dude," Chris stated with a wink that sent shivers down the other boy's spine.
"It's not supernatural, it's a genetic condition," Elfric argued, but it fell on deaf ears. Soon, he was also sucked into the darkness. The only light source in this place was the bright red lights at the end of the staircase.
Faint echoes were heard as they got lower and lower underground; the only thing guiding their path was the lights embedded in each stair.
Louder and louder the voices started echoing in their chests. It was deep and inhuman, unlike anything they had ever heard. Unsettling music was backing the voices up.
Elfric noticed that Chris had lost all the excitement that he had had a minute ago, replaced cruelly by anxiety or fear, he couldn't tell.
There they were, standing a few steps behind the circle of masked men and women, their hands raised above their heads as they clenched on something hard. Elfric narrowed his eyes; he saw blades shining in the dim candlelit room.
Each one of these freaks was holding one. Elfric wanted to say something, but he felt the words get stuck in the back of his throat. Their voices were now a mere mumble, going back and forth in keys.
'What are they saying?' he puzzled as he got closer, they weren't talking in English…or any other language that he had ever heard.
"W-We should get out of here," Chris stated to Elfric's surprise. The last thing that they thought they would find was psychopathic cult members with daggers and funny face covers.
"Wait," Elfric breathed out, leaving his friend's side and walking in closer to the open arena where the crowd gathered around something in the center.
The closer he got, the heavier the crowd got. He glanced up to the second floor, where other cult members were holding the same daggers. There was no way to tell them apart. They were nobles or commoners; there was no knowing.
Their black outfits matched along with the masks they were wearing, which made Elfric's stand out. Yet somehow, he was walking by unnoticed.
"You who live in the dark,"
They all said at once, making Elfric snap out of his daze. He cursed under his breath as he completely forgot about Christopher. He glanced over his shoulder, and there was nothing but the crowd of black people; the only thing that he could do was hope that he found his way out of here.
"You who live in the dark, we hereby ask you to come forth,"
They continued chanting, the voice got rougher as he started to reach the center…finally, his eyes fell on the altar, the focal point of their attention.
More precisely, the child on the altar.
Elfric watched a man on top of the altar wearing the same black robe, with a similar silver dagger, pointing to the child's chest. He dressed in a plain, ragged white top that went over the knees, with hair that was recklessly shaved off.
The child was squirming around the restraints on his limbs. His cries of help and mercy were swallowed in the enchantment. Elfric hoped hard that this was some sort of sick prank, but the child's horror said otherwise.
"You who live in the dark, we hereby ask you to come forth from the depths of hell, fulfill min call,"
The echoes were now at the point of turning evil; there was nothing on earth that sounded like this, nothing…
"Accept min sacrifice, and heed my call!"
The dagger leaped through the air, piercing exactly over the boy's heart.
"No!" Elfric screamed, reaching out for the child. But it was useless.
Elfric heard the silenced scream of death escaping the child, as his eyes dilated. His fragile body went limp instantly as the blood poured out of his body.
The altar was now tinted with the crimson color of blood, slowly dripping to the floor and down the step to the same level as the rest of the crowd, creating a pool of the victim's blood.
Elfric found himself falling to the floor, tumbling between people's legs, silent gasps escaping his throat as he felt the warmth of the blood as it reached his fingers. His eyes were fixed on the boy's eyes…finally, they were shut, saving the fragile being from further torment.
Elfric released another loud gasp as he struggled for air. Completely losing his sense of surroundings, not even when a fire took hold of the whole place, blue flames tinted the frame of the room.
One after another, he saw the members fall as they caught fire. Things were going too fast, screams and cries coated the air heavily. The smell of blood was dense in the air along with the smoke and still…
Elfric couldn't take his eyes off the boy as he lay there still. There was no way that he just saw a child get killed so coldheartedly!
"WEAKLINGS!"
The ground shook underneath him with the roar that pierced the air.
It was a sight that Elfric couldn't explain. Darkness was gathering on top of the body of the dead child, slowly taking form into something that resembled a human…a human's shadow.
"You are all weaklings," the shadow spoke again.
Its voice echoing in Elfric's chest, he watched as it moved swiftly over the ground to approach him. It left death in its wake, one after another, they fell.
"HEAR MY CALL!"
"OH, THE DEVIL!"
"TAKE MY SOUL!"
The screams were sickening as their owner fell to its doom. And finally, there was only Elfric in the room.
The shadow halted right before him, towering over him as he looked up at the shadow that seemed to be looking back at him, diving deep into his soul.
It slowly raised its hands, taking a tight hold of Elfric's jaw. He dared not breathe as he gazed right into the darkness that looked right at him. He felt a cold chill down his spine as the fingers moved through his silver hair; the other was firmly holding his jaw in place.
Almost delicately, it moved the locks of hair that covered his right violet eyes.
"I see darkness in thee that I have never witnessed before," the voice rang in Elfric's head.
"I shall hear thee call."