Chapter I: Friday Night

Ramsey opened the door to the freezer and stopped in her tracks. Every shelf was in place and lined with thick slabs of meat. With the door ajar, she turned to a chef who was working over a nearby stove.

“Are we no longer using this as access to the Under Lounge?” she asked.

“Guess not,” the chef responded not looking up.

“Well, where’s the next closest entrance?”

“No idea. . . I don’t think there’s much going on down there anyway.”

“You’re telling me it’s the weekend and no one is celebrating?”

“Guess not . . . it’s muddy down there right now. People probably don’t want to bother with it.”

“Yeah right,” Ramsey took another look into the freezer, deciding if she should just remove all the shelves and food. She’d been using this entrance for years. There’d never been anything in this freezer except a cold light and a door at the very back, access to the tunnels that connected to the Under Lounge. Eventually she slammed the door shut and huffed away to see what else she could find.

Ramsey wandered the halls of the building, annoyed, trying to remember if she had ever heard anyone mention anything about another entrance in the area. The Under Lounge was right under her feet but she could no longer easily access it. Which entrance was everyone else using now? The halls were empty, everyone had gone home or out for the night, so she finally gave up and headed outside toward the main entrance in the middle of the city. This was going to take forever.

She contemplated just going home as she walked in heavy rain to the central terminal at the city’s center. She could try just going to sleep but sleep was almost never restful. There was nothing but a bed at home for her. There was certainly no one to talk to and nothing to alter her consciousness, to allow her escape. She decided against it and trudged on, her hood pulled tightly down over her head.

Soaked completely through, Ramsey finally arrived at the central terminal and pushed open the tall glass, smudge-covered doors. The terminal was almost completely deserted. Trains no longer used these tracks but the building was still shelter for many. She pulled her hood off and wrung her dark, wet hair out onto the tile floor. She saw a few people meandering about. They did not seem to notice her.

She took the stairs to the lower level and walked along one of the empty lines until she found a big metal door. She took a step back from the door and looked around. There was no one in sight this time. She pushed the door open, the bottom scraping on the concrete floor. Ramsey winced at the sound. She took one last glance around to make sure she hadn’t been seen and then disappeared into the dark.

Once through the door, Ramsey followed the long, dimly lit tunnel as it sloped further into the Under Ground. Eventually, it opened to a large room with a high arched ceiling. The room was not much more brightly lit than the tunnel. There were multiple tunnels intersecting the room at different levels, and a low, wooden platform in the center. Someone was already standing there, waiting. Ramsey pulled her hood back over her head before stepping into the light and climbing the wooden stairs that led to the opposite end of the platform. She and the other person half glanced at each other in acknowledgement, but did not remove their hoods and did not speak.

After awhile, two beings with faces of men but with with wings and tails of dragons and smooth skin between their legs in place of genitalia, swooped down from one of the tunnels several stories above the platform. They landed expertly on the platform beside each of the patrons. Words were not exchanged. Ramsey silently handed over a token and received a sweet smile in return. The being then stepped behind her, positioning Ramsey so her back was against the being’s front, strapping Ramsey into a harness on its body. As soon as Ramsey was secure in the harness, the being took off back down the tunnel from whence it came.

The ride was jolting. Ramsey was grateful for the harness as it kept her in place against the being’s body. This was the closest she had been to anyone in months. The tunnel was just large enough to accommodate the being’s wingspan and therefore not large enough for it to fly smoothly. But this option was still much quicker and much less effort than walking all the way back to the Under Lounge from the central terminal.

When they landed, they were in a long high-ceilinged room with a large, dark stained wooden bar on each end. Small white lights lit up many of the bottles of elixir, providing much of the light for the room. On the other side of a frosted glass wall was a second smaller room with a dozen small tables, lit by candlelight in colorful glass jars. An electronic jazz band occupied the stage, the members enthusiastically communing with their instruments.

And there were people here. People laughing and talking. Eyes smiling brightly. People enjoying beverages and moving their heads to the rhythm of the music.

Ramsey smiled, relieved. Once freed from the harness, she thanked her transport and headed to the nearest bar.

“A swilley, please,” she told the bartender once she caught her attention. She tapped her fingers on the bar absentmindedly to the music while she waited, soaking in her surroundings. Strings of lights along each shelf taking on colors of all kinds as the light passed through the liquids in the bottles.

The bartender returned, setting a large jar on the bar, already sweating from the cold, vibrant red elixir it contained. Ramsey thanked the bartender, and left a few tokens tip on the counter before making her way toward one of the two entrances to the room where the music was calling to her. Pausing in the doorway, she leaned her hip and shoulder against the frosted glass wall and took a sip of her drink as she examined the room. Settling on an empty table near the stage, she made her way to the front of the room and sat down. Finally, she could relax.