Snippet #1688060

"Huh...?"

Rei stared up at the neon-lit sign above his head that read "Live Show Tonight" with a provocative figure of a woman sitting cross-legged above the text. The checkered walls from the room where he was earlier was gone, replaced by what seemed to be a wallpaper full of hearts and stripes with a palette of pink, magenta, black and white. It seemed to be nighttime wherever this place was though there was very little illumination and most of the light seemed to be tinted pink, giving the place a suggestive theme to it. The floor looked a lot more like a runway or dance floor as the middle portion of it was raised slightly with its sides adorned by small bulbs of light. The middle path was made out of tiles that were lit up and they changed colors every second or so. Lastly the smell of cigarette, booze, and a perfume of sorts was prevalent in the air. It left the young man wandering what he got himself into.

"And me without my fake ID." sighed Rei as he gripped his weapon tighter, pushing past the rouge red double door in front of him. As he did, he noticed that he was holding something in his right hand though he could clearly remember that he came here with an empty right hand. Looking up to see what was in his palm, it was a card of sorts with a mask drawn on it. The front of the card had a frame but there was no picture inside the frame. The number "0" was written on the bottom portion of the frame. "Well it's no fake ID but it may come in handy."

Venturing deeper into the strange realm, Rei began encountering booth doors with heart shaped doorknobs on them. He also noticed a small sign hanging from each of the doorknob that read "Do not disturb~!" written in a very feminine penmanship. What bothered Rei about them though was the sound of hoarse breathing and gasps coming from the other side of some of the doors along with a faint creaking sound. He started to wonder if there were people inside the door and if perhaps the one he was looking for was inside one of them.

"One way to find out." he breathed out before stepping down from the middle path and approaching one of the doors.

The door was only slightly ajar before something tackled Rei, causing him to stagger back and almost falling back on his bottom. Rei's heartbeat started racing as he watched the door open slowly. Out from the room came what looked like shadow with the consistency of a puddle of slime with a blue mask in its form, the Roman number "XII" written in its head. The thing let out a deep horrible croak as it spotted the young man. Two hands sprouted out from the thing's slimy body and it used it to slowly crawl towards its potential victom Without second though, Rei readied himself for combat, holding his pipe in a way he would with a yari (spear). Now more than ever, he was glad that his father had asked him to join the Sojutsu club back when he was in high school.

Before he can make his move though, the other booth doors slammed open. From each one of them crawled out the same shadowy creature that he was facing right now. Swallowing his throat, Rei looked back at the one in front of him wondering if accepting Ioannes' request was a good decision.