𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑, 𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗆𝖺𝗌

11| searching for the group

Brenda furrows her brows. "Uh, no. We're looking for Marcus. This is his place, isn't it?"

"This is my place." Another voice calls out.

Having heard the quite deeper and more masculine voice, the looked back in the direction they had been walking towards while the woman slightly pushed them forward. Y/n examines the man in front of him, noticing his messy dirty blonde hair as he wore a button-up shirt, necklaces draping down his chest and around his neck as he wore a suit jacket over top of his button-up. The man looked between the group of three as he took a gulp of his alcohol, walking over while playing with the rings on his fingers.

"Are you Marcus?" Thomas questions.

"Marcus doesn't live here anymore." The man tells them after a moment.

"Do you know where we can find him?" Brenda asks.

The man nods. "Sure, sure. He's over in Zone B."

Y/n gulps, feeling the woman's fingers trailing along her shoulders. "Okay. What's Zone B?"

"It's where they burn the bodies." The woman whispers in her ear.

"Okay, look, has anyone else been by here looking for him? Group of kids around our age? They had a girl with them. Dark hair." Y/n describes, stepping forward.

"You know, I think they might be inside. Here." The man begins as he digs into his jacket pocket, bringing out a bottle of liquid and undoing the cap before holding it towards her. "Drink this."

Thomas narrows his eyes on it, pulling Y/n back. "What is it?"

"The price of admission." The man replies.

There was a moment as Y/n and Thomas only stared at it, making him frustrated as he demanded for them to drink it just when Brenda grabbed ahold of the bottle and took a gulp of the liquid, making the man chuckle when she let out a groan at the taste. Thomas hesitantly took it when the man looked at him, slowly taking a gulp of it and coughing afterwards. Finally, all eyes turned to Y/n as she shakily let herself take the bottle. When the tip of the bottle touched her lips, the woman used her hand to move it up as the girl had began drinking it.

Y/n's eyes widened as she had no choice but to gulp down quite a bit of it before Thomas quickly took it away, not trusting these people around him. He let the woman take the bottle from him while the man moved behind the three teenagers, pushing them through the curtains and in the direction of where the muffled music was coming from. It was dark as Y/n pushed against the curtains, walking in between Thomas and Brenda until they walked through as the music got louder, people being seen all around as they danced and sat together.

"Maybe we should split up." Brenda suggests, turning to them. "See if we can find the others. Don't drink anything else."

Y/n felt herself nod, having heard Brenda's voice like an echo before she was stepping off before Thomas could say anything. The boy felt as if he should go after her and stay close to her, but knowing they needed to find the others, he walked off in another direction. Feeling somewhat dizzy, Y/n blinked a couple times as she found herself pushing through a crowd of dancing bodies. As she felt sweat begin to trickle down her forehead and around her neck, she pulls on the sleeves of her jacket as she moves her arms, starting to shrug it off of her in hopes of cooling down a bit.

The jacket soon sat in the grip of her hand as she could hear echoing laughter all around her, looking around to see the man from before standing there, laughing loudly. At the sight of him, she stumbled back and through the crowd, turning around in hopes of finding someone from her group. It was then that she caught sight of Thomas within the crowd, seeing him look around just when Brenda came up behind him and he bumped into her. Thomas spun around, seeing Brenda before looking around in search of Y/n. After he had been feeling weird, he changed his plan to find Y/n.