Tom: Chapter 6: ‘Arrival’
“To Requiem, Ike.” Jordan calls to his driver. “Ike this is Tom. Tom, Ike.”
Ike swivels around in his seat, gives a slight nod, and in a strong Irish accent replies, “Nice to meet you Tom”,
Ike is a tough looking man, probably early 30s, Tom thinks. Buff, lean, and black tattoos around his neck and over his bald scalp. A long full red, but clean, beard covers the lower part of his face, and the rest of his body dressed down in a tuxedo. Tom notices large silver rings on most of the fingers of his right hand gripping the shifter knob. His pushes the shifter forward, and the car starts slowly moving, back onto the road.
Jordan pulls down the mini table formed into the middle seat, and reaches into his blazer pocket for a cigarette case. Out of the case he pulls out a small baggy of white powder. He looks up at Tom and gives a small smile and a wink.
“Want some?”
“Well if you insist.” Tom replied.
Jordan emptied half the bag onto the table and pulled out one of his credit cards to start chopping the powder up into very neat, liberal, lines. Looking like coke by Tom’s best judgement.
“I got as much at the club as you’ll need. On the house.” Jordan said.
“Well a friend with drugs is a friend in deed.”
“I don’t say this to anyone, but, the elves kinda run the drugs in the city here. Well, for the most part, the world. The Angels sell some too, but theirs is shit. You can always tell when you buy product from them. Nothing like elven purity.”
“You live up to your word, Jordan of the elves?” Tom said royally.
Jordan laughed. “Always.”
“Here, guests honor” He continued.
Jordan gave Tom a hundred dollar bill that he had rolled up already in the cig case. Tightly wrapped with an elastic band around the middle. Putting the bill to his right nostril, he covered his left nostril with his finger. Going down to take the rip, he sucked back as much as he could, feeling the coke fire off all his sensors in his naval canal on route to his brain.
Leaning back wide eyed and a crackling voice, Tom let out a, “Wow”.
“I stick to my word.” Jordan said with a grin as Tom handed him the bill.
Jordan went down and took the second longest line. Down and up like a pro.
After a couple sniffles and a nose twitch, Jordan asked “Cigarette?”
“Yes please.” Tom replied.
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It was about 1:30am when Ike pulled up to The Requiem, just under a 45min drive from the golf spot. Plenty of time for the two guys to get ready. The whiskey bottle now almost gone between the both of them two. They didn’t feel any of it with the amount of coke that they put back.
Outside, The Requiem did not stand out. A dark gray brick building with a few steps and a walk way into it. Muffled music could be heard from the outside, a steady rhythm of what sounded like EDM. White lights hung along the roof, and graffiti was painted all along the brickwork. A large mermaid stood out along the artwork, but the eyes she had were not the innocent type. No, her eyes knew something. They looked like they knew you, way more than you know yourself.
A large black man with dreads and sunglasses was in front of the door. He recognized Jordan right away, they fist bumped. “He’s with me”, Jordan said directing his glance and finger at Tom. The guard gave a small nod and as Tom walked past, he tilted his sunglasses forward to cast his gaze at Tom. His eyes were pitch white with no pupil. As Tom met his gaze, the guard just gave him a conniving grin. Tom couldn’t tell if it was one of evil or not.
When they stepped in, the whole scene changed. What looked like a plain building on the outside, turned into this crazy energetical club. The music was blaring throughout, and you couldn’t hear the movement of anything. Neon lights of all colors were flashing and strobing all over the room. Everything dark in between flashes. Tom could only see it, bend and move in front of him like the whole scene was in a blur. People headbanging to the beat of the EDM song that was on. Hair flung back slow motion, and sweat flying off. Model level girls everywhere. Grinding, amongst guys, and amongst themselves. Jordan and Tom walked past a group of girls. The girls looking at them and smiling. Tom gave a smile back. The one girl he could swear was on the big Chanel billboard he seen down Sunset a few days ago.
Looking forward to the left, another group of people were sitting at one of the long sofas. Drinks and bottles all around. A few girls twerking against each other, another two making out of the sofa. A couple guys were in the group. Tom recognized one of them. A rap artist who just released an album. Tom can’t turn on the radio once without hearing his songs on.
Tom usually favors his own choice of music, but sometimes he throws on the radio for filler noise. Usually is just the same shit on the radio all day long. But, nevertheless, he respects the artist.
The guys kept walking, Jordan looking back and pointing to a large silver spiral staircase twisting up to the left side of the room to the second level platform.
Two more body guards are on either level of the stairwell. Both dressed up in black looking like they could be from the Matrix. They see Jordan and pull the rope down to let him through. Jordan signals at Tom again to let him through. Both guards drop their sunglasses down, just like the last guard, to reveal their white eyes.
Tom waits until they’re up on the second level to ask Jordan about the eyes. He goes right up to him and yells so he can hear.
“What’s with their eyes?”
“It’s a spell put over them. They’re humans but its an elven defensive spell. It lets them see the true intentions of the soul they peer into. Gotta protect the business ya know.”
Tom understanding, “Makes sense”.
No one else was up on the second level. Most of this floor was open to the lower level except for a wall that was built around this door Jordan approached.
He tapped on the right side, and this ancient script surfaced, what Tom presumed to be Elvish. Jordan went in closer and whispered something in his Elven tongue. Soft, smooth words that could’ve been mistaken for the wind blowing through trees. The scripture lit up blue then quickly faded. The door opened.
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Inside the door was a stone walkway, surrounded by grass. At first Tom thought it to be fake grass, but a closer look at how lush it look revealed it to be natural. Rounded stone walls surrounded both men, as they walked through this tall tunnel. Along the walls were littered with Elven scripture and symbols. Ivory vines hung down from the top, down along the sides over some of the scripture as if they were walking alongside an old Babylonian temple.
The door closed softly behind them and now everything was quiet, except the ringing that was in Tom’s ears from the other room. Some distance ahead there was bright light coming down the tunnel and Tom could hear the soft sound of running water and what sounded like women singing. Lovely.
Only a few moments later, as the sound got louder and louder, then Jordan and Tom came under the light of the tunnel. It came from an opening in the stone roof, replaced by a crystalline glass window. The sun sparkling through felt purer and more warm than the sun outside.
“Welcome to ‘The Requiem”, said Jordan, looking back and smiling at Tom.
