Dark Dream

4. Boneyard III.

"Do you think?" Steve sounded alarmed.

"Na, only kidding," he admitted, trying not to think too hard on what might be under the floors.

"Hey, it's not funny. Maybe you're right. Maybe I'll keep the door open."

"If anyone rushes me, I'll send them back to the stone age!"

Steve crept theatrically into the room, a big grin across his face.

"You do that, Steve."

"And remember to get their names so we can compare them against the tombstones outside."

"Will do, Charley."

"I always get my victim's name!" he said cheerily, disappearing out of sight.

He reappeared by the bathroom door, his own hand around his neck. His arm hidden behind the door, he contorted his face as if he were being pulled to his death.

Nodding his head in amused dismay, Charley headed back down the stone hallway.

When he got back into the main dance area, the strobe lights were off and the smoke machines were belching it out.

The thought of all the bodies under the floor made him shudder. He imagined skeletal hands rising up through the dense fog and grabbing the legs of the dancers.

The thought of the living, pulled under by the dead, stayed with him. It was as if it were a sign, but of what he couldn't say.

He shrugged it off because it only made him feel more unhinged than he already did.

As he made his way towards Jennet, he picked his path carefully, not wishing contact with any naked dancers. Perhaps they noticed his underlying mood because they often went before he had to lay a hand on them.

"Charley, glad you joined me," Jennet said, fighting to raise her voice over the noise of the room. "I thought you'd gone to sleep on the toilet?"

"No such luck. I was hoping we could get a break?"

"Sure." She signalled Steve, who was making his way back safely from the toilet.

He nodded, while putting his hands in the air in mock fear.

"What's that all about?"

"Long story," he shouted back as they made their way through interconnecting rooms and the hallway beyond.

In the reception area, they passed locked cabinets full of assorted sex toys and fetish items. All of the items had hefty price tags on them.

The open doors pulled him on and he could feel the fresh air as it seeped through.

It was bliss.

"Charley, me old cocker!" exclaimed one of the larger men as they made their way outside.

The other guy was less familiar, but he nodded his head at Charley and Jennet, by way of a hello, while rubbing his hands together in an attempt to get the circulation going.

"Boss, do you need us, only me and Jennet could do with a break?"

"We're fine for now, Charley."

"Might need you back out in a bit though."

"Mikie's getting frostbite out here, aren't you Mikie?"

Mikie just nodded, looking pained and accepting of his lot.

"Sure, we won't be long."

"Take as long as you want, Charley," he said winking, a broad smile breaking his face.