Eric watched that amazing display and at the end the only thing he could think to do was applaud, and he did so, with a grin on his face. "Yes
ma'am!" he saluted and slapped the boy square on the ass as he passed him, then slid his hands back in his pockets and walked on cheerily; you'd almost expect him to whistle.
They walked on for a few more blocks, the bright neon-lit cheeriness of the shops fading to a darker, slightly more sinister feeling. The area started to become more direlect, more condemned buildings spotting the landscape than before and the pools of light the streetlamps provided became fewer and farther between. Eric didn't pause or stutter in his gait though, looking like he hadn't a care in the world, obviously expecting Mikey to keep up his pace and not dart ahead or fall behind. However, he did walk a little closer to the younger male when they passed the odd pedestrian, and one moment while they were walking by a tight knot of people dressed all in black and leather lounging at the mouth of an alley, his arm found its way around Mikey, pulled him closer and stayed there. He didn't turn his head or break his gait however, even when an odd, weak moan drifted from the middle of the cluster of people.
Soon he stopped in front of a non-descript building, which housed a door set low below ground, with steps leading down. There was no indication of any activity, the building and door riddled with graffiti, and not a soul in sight. Though if someone had
really good hearing, they might detect the faint sound of music wafting from the boarded-up windows. Amidst the graffiti was a red X painted onto the door, small and unobtrusive, but oddly enough prominant to the right set of eyes. Eric led Mikey down the steps and took his hand for the first time since they started out. "Stay close to me, okay?" he said softly, his tone light, but serious. He knocked six times on the door and suddenly there was a scraping sound and a pair of eyes peered out from the small sliding panel set above the red X that wasn't visible moments before. "Yes?" said a gruff voice from behind the door. Eric said nothing, only dug into his pocket and produced some sort of token, a gold disc that had a X scratched into it. He held it up in front of the door and the person behind merely grunted and slid the panel shut. Deadbolts were pushed open and the door swung inward, into a small foyer that was dark, but still faintly lit. Eric grinned and pulled Mikey in after him, nodding at the
huge man who held the door open. He nodded brusquely and then blinked at the site of Michael, raising an eyebrow but only rolled his eyes, giving a shrug and shut the door behind them, taking his place on a stool beside it. The foyer was papered with advertisements and -- strangely, missing persons reports, like the sort you might see in the post office -- and led to a little hallway off to the side. There was a cut-out in the wall, which housed an office, most likely a coat check and Eric stopped there. There was a pale woman with frosted blonde hair sitting at a desk behind the glass in the wall and she looked up at him without interest. "Name?" she said, yawning and then blinked at Mikey and stifled a grin behind her hand.
"Eric Amsterdam," the redhead said with a grin at Mikey and nodded towards him. "This is Michael Lupin." Oh, how clever he thought he was.
The girl nodded, writing down their names as Eric slipped off his coat. "You can check that jacket and hat if you want," he murmured to Mikey. "Don't have to, though."
"Fledgling, thrall or 'doll?" the girl continued in a bored tone, barely looking at them.
"Guest," Eric said firmly, reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a card with a strange symbol on it, a circle with a straight cross through it.
The girl actually looked up at him this time, her eyebrow raised in obvious disbelief. "
Seriously?" She looked Mikey up and down and then snorted. "Where's his token? He's not even a--"
"He doesn't need one," Eric said, stone cold, and slid his card in the little slot above the desk. "He's my guest, and is to be treated so." The girl looked at the symbol on the card and visibly blanched - or would have, if she weren't already ghostly pale. She cleared her throat, quietened in a heartbeat. "Yes sir," she said stiffly. "Let me get your identification...blue or black?"
"Black, I think. I don't feel much for conversation tonight."
The girl rose wordlessly -- she hadn't raised her eyes to either of them since seeing that card -- and moved to a back door, disappearing behind it for a moment. Eric smiled at Mikey and brushed his fingers through his hair, pushing it out of his face, then dropped his hand when the woman reappeared, holding a box with the same symbol on it. She opened it and pulled a black leather armband from it, which also held the symbol, and a matching white one. She slid the bands and the card back through the slot and Eric picked them up, fasting the white one around Mikey's right upper arm before doing the same to his own with the black. He left some money for the coat check and took the numbered slip, pushing it into his pocket and then slid his fingers through Mikey's against and squeezed them.
"Remember what I said," was all he said, softly, and then led the boy through the hallway, which grew progressively, the walls fairly papered in Missing Persons reports and other news briefs of various murders and even stranger crimes. Jokes, crude comments and perverse drawings were scribbled all over them. That faint music grew louder and louder, and after nodding another fellow who could be the front door guy's twin, Eric pushed open the double doors, blasting them with music, light and freezing cold air, leading Michael into one of the hottest underground S&M vampire clubs in the city.
I wanted to describe it but I'm too tired so I'll just do a quick descript here xD
It's dark and crowded like an underground club should be, but huuuge -- there's a bar at the front, in the middle and in the back. there's different levels too, a lower dance pit, and lounge areas that go down. There's a stage with a singer and a DJ, dancers up on poles in areas. There's a room that leads off to the left, with a curtain of leather strips -- that's the stuff where the outright sex and bdsm stuff happens, and there's a room to the right with a huge red X on it, and ...creeepy sounds come from there. Like moans and whimpers for help and stuff >u> . that's the VIP area. EVERYONE has a band around their upper arm.
black - vampire, blue - vampire Master (vip), silver - vampire fledgling, brown - human/other thrall (servant), red - blood doll (humans and SOME other but mostly humans), purple - employee, white - guest.
Guests are not to be touched by anybody, reds can have whatever anyone wants done to them, the others vary. Reds belong to either a clubgoer or the club, and you have to pay a blood fee to the owner of a doll, unless its own by the house. Every band has a symbol of a particular vampire 'house' - so you know who owns who. And it's also an S&M club so there's people being led around by leashes, people in full leather gear and gimp masks, etc.
8D I'll let you run rampant with your own major description, that's just the gist of it!