Once he felt composed enough to return, he slipped out of the bathroom, feeling the darkness of the room outside as if it were awaiting his return.
Fear blossomed in his paranoid mind as he rushed through the cluttered interior.
He found the door still locked. Not real, he thought with relief, thinking about the long-fingered creature that had stood behind him in the mirror.
A rustling noise came from behind.
The key slipped from his hand and he bent down to find it. His hand searched blindly along what he knew to be worn linoleum and he prayed it hadn't slid under the door.
The worst thing would be for him to knock it under the gap of the door in panic.
He'd never live it down.
Working slowly, his fingers blindly brushed across the floor and finally found it.
Unlocking the door, he darted through, just as he heard his name whispered from within.
His heart pounded as he went through the same gut-wrenching process of locking it behind him. Sweat beaded his forehead.
With his brow pressed firmly against the solid door, he heard a scratching noise that sounded like a frustrated teacher clawing their nails down a chalkboard.
"Charley!"
Charley jumped, despite himself.
It was Steve, one of the other bouncers. "Do you have to sneak up on people, Steve?"
"Sorry, mate, this place gives me the creeps, too!"
"I hear there's bodies buried under the main dance floor."
Steve gave a matter of fact look and pulled his shoulders back in readiness for an expected argument.
Charley always thought Steve's bouncer suit looked a couple of sizes too small.
Maybe it was the biggest size the management could find for his overly large build or he'd found himself caught out in the rain while wearing it.
"I wouldn't believe everything you hear," he said, noticing the echo of his voice and not quite believing his own words as they came back at him.
There probably were dead bodies in here, as well as in the grounds outside.
How they'd acquired a license to turn a church or chapel into a fetish club was a mystery to him. He'd heard that it had just been a standard nightclub at first, so he guessed that it was a natural progression to turn the place into a fetish club.
Seeing a church converted into a mere playground must have been quite a draw. They were a colourful lot, always looking for something new and exciting to satisfy their jaded tastes.
"Jennet sent me to find you." Steve said, looking around as if expecting to see a ghost.
"And now that I have, I think I'll take a leak. Do you have the key?"
"Sure." Charley retrieved the key from his jacket pocket, noting that his hand still had a slight tremor.
Steve took the key and opened the door.
The darkness was the same, with no boxes out-of-place that he could see.
"Someone needs to fix that light, someone's going to trip and break their necks one of these days."
"See you in a bit."
"Yeah, take care in there, Steve."
"Hey, maybe they ran out of space and put some bodies under that floor too?"
"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.
"Oh, and if you see Danny, tell him to get his arse out of his comfy seat and get it outside so this lad can toast his toes on the dance floor with Steve."
"Sure, will do." he said and made his way after Jennet, who'd already gone ahead to make the most of her break.
Just as he moved to follow, he stopped in mid stride.
Above his head, he heard something move in the darkness.
Looking up, his eyes made out a shifting presence that went suddenly still.
Two red lights, the size of golf balls, shone in the darkness. Still and steady, and set apart from one another.
Charley had the strange feeling they were intently watching him. It struck him that maybe it was some newly installed security device that he'd not been told about.
Maybe some sort of alarm or night vision camera but he felt sure that no device would give off that kind of light.
"What the...." he breathed and then, "Hey, does anyone else see this?"
He looked around to see if they were taking notice.
It took only a second but when he looked back, it was gone. The eyes, the hulking shape he thought he'd seen; there was nothing there.
"What is it, Charley?" his Boss asked.
"Oh, nothing; I just thought I saw something up there," he said, nodding above the twenty-foot high doorway.
"Might have been a bat," he said dismissively, not wanting to say what he thought he'd seen.
"Yeah, you get them around here. Maybe they live in the church tower or that big Yew tree over there?" Charley's boss said, pointing at the hollowed out gnarly tree some fifty feet away. "Damn things swoop down on us sometimes"
"You never had that happen, Charley?"
"Never," he conceded and started walking into the church.
He arrived as Jennet was setting out two coffees.
"You were a while?" She said, while handing a cup.
"Yeah, I thought I saw something outside. Bats, I think."
"Thanks, Jennet," he took the offered drink and spotted Danny lounging in one of the two sofas.
"Danny, boss wants you on the door with him."
Folding the newspaper, he muttered and stood up. "No rest for the wicked, Charley?"
Struck by how right this saying was, given his lack of sleep lately, he nodded in agreement.
"And no work for Danny, if the Boss finds you slacking again."
Danny laughed, "I'll make it up to him when you lot go home; give him his own personal lap-dance, I will. He likes that, helps him wind down after a long day."
"If he hears you saying that he'll bounce you out the door with your P45 stuck up your arse," he said lightly.
He knew that wouldn't happen, of course. They were always winding each other up over one-thing-or-another.
Danny's sister put him up for the job and Danny's sister happened to be married to their Boss.
There was no getting away from that.
Once Danny had gone, he settled down on the sofa where he'd been.
On the far wall there was a flat CCTV screen that recorded the static cameras inside and outside the club. No one took much notice of them until there was a problem.
Because there was rarely a problem, they just consumed electricity.
"Nice and warm," he said, wiggling his bum into the comfy-sofa.
"Yeah, from his farts," she said bemusedly. "I think I'll sit over here, if you don't mind?"
Charley looked as if he was sitting on a landmine.
Jennet laughed because she knew it was just an act for her sake.
"You may have a point," he said, sitting back and putting his legs up on the scruffy coffee table, "but I ain't moving."
He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and looked at the black and white CCTV monitor that had many different views from around the place.
Danny and his Boss were on the door.
He figured the New Boy must be with Steve.
Most of the monitors were too dark to make out.
One showed the DJ area and the Apprentice Pillar and another showed the main entrance around the side. It was outside this service exit that he'd sworn he'd seen something move.
Pointing straight down, the CCTV showed mostly tarmac with a few cars poking into the frame.
No cars were allowed to park directly outside these large double doors, in the event that a fire or riot broke out. A yellow square with diagonal lines warned people about parking in this area.
A no parking sign had also been screwed to the door as a further warning.
"What is it, Charley?" Jennet asked curiously.
"I don't know, I thought I saw something move by the service entrance."
"Must have been a stray cat or a fox," she said, looking at Charley's intense stare.
"We are in the countryside, after all."
He hardly heard; he'd just spotted a head move into the bottom part of the camera.
"Look!" he said, leaning forward.
"Ewww—what's that?"
"I don't know," he said, eyes still fixed to the screen.
A head, with jet-black hair and pale face, smiled back at them; its eyes looked hollow and gaunt.
Charley felt a slight shudder.
It reminded him of what he'd seen in the mirror and he didn't like the recent memory one bit.
"Maybe they're clubbers up to no-good.....or local kids?"
"You know most of the people here would have sex in the middle of the dance floor before going out in the cold."
"Anyway, all the local kids are too scared to come here when the clubs open. They think we're all devil worshippers."
Charley nodded but could barely hear her.
The head suddenly moved out of view and his attention snapped back. His eyes released from the invisible tug of the strange figure.
"I better check it out," he said and put his drink down on the coffee table.
He took a quick look at the inset monitors as he headed for the door.
His Boss and Danny were in their place by the club entrance.
Nothing seemed out-of-sorts with them.
"I'll come with you."
"No, you stay here and watch the monitors. If anything happens, call the police."
Jennet didn't like Charley's demand but she knew it made sense. If she saw something kick off, she would call the cops and then run out to help.
"Okay, Charley, but be careful."
He didn't reply.
As he approached the door, he saw a figure come into view on the club entrance camera.
He'd seen Danny and his Boss close ranks, stopping any chance of the figure entering the building.
His pace quickened. He couldn't shake the bad feeling that he had.