It was a nightclub.

A huge nightclub that could've easily passed off as a century-old mansion if I hadn't already asked Ryder about it.

"It's no one's house," he'd said, eyes on the road and jaw clenched. "Just a club."

Except that it wasn't just a club. It was a giant fucking nightclub in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Because all I remembered was seeing the wide stretch of woods on either side of us as Ryder drove his car and the next thing I knew, we were here.

It was almost like someone had decided to patch up an old abandoned building on the outskirts of town and turned it into a nightclub. A nightclub in the middle of nowhere. All I could see for miles were tall, looming trees and a patch of a road leading into the dark.

A cold shudder went through me when I got out of the car and looked over at the old, medieval building at some distance. People were either leaving the premises or going inside. Lights were strobing out of the opened doors--the same ones that I could see were guarded by two muscled men in black. Bouncers? I guessed since this was technically a nightclub even though it looked nothing like one.

The Devourer, it read in big dark letters at the very top. It wasn't a very nice name for a scary-looking club in the middle of nowhere.

Ryder had his phone out by the time he joined beside me, gaze somewhat sharp as it flickered over the screen. I let a second pass by and then two more before I spoke up, "Is there something I should know before we go in there?"

His eyes snapped up to mine and he blinked. The whole entire ride till here had been painfully silent except for a question or two I'd directed at him. Ryder's answers had only been short and clipped as if he couldn't care less where he was taking me. I dearly hoped that wasn't the case, though. I hoped he did care at least a little even though his blank, confused gaze suggested otherwise.

"Just do as I say and everything will be fine." He stated carefully, eyes on me.

"Yes, but." I swallowed. "Can't you tell me what we're really here for?" It won't be so daunting if I knew what we're here for.

"I will." And then his phone was ringing and he was answering it, answering the unknown person on the other end with the same short, clipped answers he'd been giving me.

I once again looked over at the building at some distance and wondered how tonight was going to end. It was pitch dark out here save for the nightclub and I was pretty sure I knew no one here except Ryder.

"Come on." He spoke to me this time, switching off his phone and putting it away. "We're going in from the back."

From the back. A loose dark strand of his hair fell over his forehead and I made a tiny sound at the back of my throat. Ryder looked at me and I blurted out, "Okay."

The back entrance wasn't really a back entrance. Instead, it was a broken glass window.

The back of the building was empty and surrounded by gnarly trees. There were a series of windows that weren't too high and one of them happened to be broken rather drastically. I guess we were breaking in then. I shuddered once again and tried my hardest to ignore the rustle of leaves behind me, and focused directly on Ryder as he pushed up the window pane and slid inside with an ease that suggested he'd done this before. Many times.

Broken windows or broken into someone's personal property?

Another loud rustle like someone was particularly hiding within the leaves came from somewhere behind me and I looked over my shoulder, breath hitching. But there wasn't anyone out there in the utter darkness.

"Alice." I jumped in fright and saw that Ryder was on the other side of the paned window, looking at me with a small furrow between his brows. He held a hand out. "Come on."

I took his hand, warm fingers gripping my wrist as I heaved myself inside. A few broken pieces of glass fell on my head at the same moment Ryder snatched his hand away. I grimaced.

"Why couldn't we have gone from the front like everyone else?" I asked him as he started walking ahead. We were in a darkened hallway and I couldn't quite make out what was on the other end of it.

"I told you I wasn't invited." He replied.

"Why aren't you?"

"Because we're not acquaintances."

I frowned. "Then why are you here?"

He said something that I didn't hear, not really when I noticed that the hallway wasn't so narrow anymore and there were red flickering LED lights on the ceiling. A soft thud resounded from somewhere on my left and I only just caught a glimpse of a girl and a guy making out heavily against the wall before picking my pace and following Ryder.

I took another step near him, staying only inches away from his back. And God, I almost nearly jumped out of my skin once again when a loud giggle echoed from somewhere around us. The air was heavy and smelled an awful lot like booze and sex. There was someone behind me, beside me, and I was a bundle of nerves.

"Ryder," I whispered, eyes wide.

He reached out and softly tugged on my right jacket sleeve--his suit jacket--and it wasn't nearly as grounding as his warm fingers around my bare wrist, but it was something at least. I wasn't complaining.

It took us a few more seconds before we stepped into the main area, the ceiling disappearing from view and a lot higher now than it was back in that hallway. The dancefloor and the bar were crowded. I hadn't ever felt the need to shy away from crowds before but for some reason, right now, I couldn't decide whether I hated the dark we'd just left behind us more or the crowd that waited ahead.

My eyes darted from one person to another and I noticed pretty quickly that the crowd here wasn't anything like the clubs I usually hung around in. Men were in suits, mostly older and with gazes so sharp and almost predatory. They were almost as bad as the bouncers I'd seen standing outside the building's entrance. Most crowded the huge bar and all of them, every single one of them, seemed to ooze this sense of money. Rich bastards. At least that's what Ryder had called them.

I squeezed past a bunch of people with unease, following Ryder to wherever he was taking me and only stopping when he let go of my sleeve. We were at the bar by then, an obsidian counter reflecting the colorful strobing lights above. The corner we stopped at also seemed to be the only empty space in the otherwise crowded bar.

"Raff." I heard Ryder speaking, but not to me. A man in a dark burgundy suit turned around from the bar counter, only a few inches shorter than Ryder's tall stature, and I saw his eyes sparkling the same instant a huge grin formed on his lips.

"Octavio, my man!" I think he meant to pull Ryder in a big--pretty friendly--hug, but Ryder stepped aside at the very last moment.

"Don't you fucking dare." I stared at Ryder and the bewildered disgust on his face. The nerves within me, the ones that held me in a big tight knot, untangled and I almost nearly laughed.

"Fine, you old bastard. The only time I wasted a hug on you was also the only time you came anywhere near shooting me in the face." Raff rolled his eyes dramatically, almost as if he couldn't believe he was saying this, before pushing his glossy dark curls back from his forehead. His eyes trailed down Ryder's face and I couldn't help but stare as he smirked. "Mi amigo, is that Chase's stolen lighter in your pocket, or are you just so very excited to see me?"

A strangled, somewhat choking noise left my lips when I followed Raff's gaze and noticed a noticeable bulge in Ryder's left pant pocket. That also resulted in Raff looking at me, eyes widening just a tad bit as if he hadn't expected to see me or anyone with Ryder before he continued grinning.

"It wasn't your face. I ruined you three inches above the kneecap." Ryder didn't look much fazed as he slid his hand inside his pocket and took out a...a gun. "And I've never been excited to see you, Rafael."

I blanched at the sight of the glistening black pistol in Ryder's hand. I think it looked--fuck no, I was sure of it--the same as the one Ryder held when he'd saved me from that underground cellar. I don't know why it surprised me so much then. It was almost as if I'd forgotten who Ryder really was and where I'd really met him the first time.

It was purely out of instinct (and maybe even a little bit of my paranoia) when I took a cautious step away from him, away from Ryder. And he didn't miss it as he glanced at me with a somewhat puzzled frown.

I glanced down at the gun in his hand and he followed my gaze down to it.

"Y que puta sorpresa, you brought a beautiful lady with you!" Raff broke the tense atmosphere, the crown of curls bouncing at the top of his head as he stepped towards me. He grinned that dazzling grin, one that left me blinking, and took a graceful bow. "Rafael at your service, m'lady."

I only just stared at him, eyes wide and tense. I usually wasn't this slow to react.

"¿He sido demasiado abrumador?" He asked sheepishly.

"Um...si?" I cringed. I had no idea what he'd just said.

He laughed merrily at that and bounded over to give me the same hug he'd just been about to throw at Ryder. I let out a small oomf and only just managed to not stumble back as I grabbed his elbows.

And then he pulled away, or was yanked away, almost instantly. Ryder pushed him backwards and glared before handing him the gun. "Stop fucking messing around and do what I called you here for."

"Yes sir." Raff saluted. It seemed like he was used to not taking Ryder's blunt harshness to his heart.

I took a tiny step back once again when my eyes fell on the black pistol, now in Raff's hands. I almost nearly stumbled into a woman in a pretty champagne dress and her elbow dug into my spine. I looked over my shoulder to mumble a small sorry. She glared at me but it went away just as quickly when she looked over at Ryder and Raff, both, in an appreciative manner.

"I mean it, Rafael." His voice hardened but lowered at the same time. As if he didn't want anyone else within hearing reach to listen. "Don't mess it up. This is the only chance I'm going to get so don't ruin it. You'll make sure Ashby fucking Wallace is distracted. That's the only thing I'm asking of you."

"Not," Raff spoke, "the only thing."

Ryder glared at him before turning it on me. He took a step towards me when he noticed the distance between us and spoke, "You're staying with him."

I stared. "What? Why? Where are you going?" For a second, I forgot there were people around us. I didn't however forget that they were just strangers. Ryder was the only one I knew. Why was he leaving me here alone?

"I'm...looking for someone, all right?" He seemed to hesitate. "He's dangerous and I need to find him. It's important, for everyone's sake, that I find him."

I opened my mouth to say something, probably ask him once again to not just leave me alone, but Raff cut me off.

"I'll tell her the rest." He assured. "You probably should check on the...um...rooms upstairs before Ashby gets the scent of it, yeah?"

Ryder nodded, though his gaze didn't waver from mine. Not at that moment. What was frustrating was that I couldn't see the blue of his eyes under all the absurd lights in here. "You'll be fine, querida."

"Querida, eh?" Raff was grinning again.

Ryder stepped away from me and turned one last time towards Rafael. "You'll keep her out of danger and I won't have to mess your other knee."

Raff nodded solemnly and we both watched as Ryder stepped around us and disappeared somewhere within the crowd.

"Querida." Rafael grinned at me. I swallowed, anxiously tugging on my left jacket sleeve. "Sorry, it's just not normal that I hear Octavio calling pretty little ladies like yourself that. I only ever see him on the Seventh and even then he's always in such a pissy mood."

The Seventh? "Octavio?" I asked softly.

He laughed. "That's his middle name. He hates it because it connects him back to his father's side of the family, whom he hates by the way. Like really hates them. And since I like to annoy him, I naturally call him by it."

I blinked, trying to keep up with everything that he was saying.

"You're friends." I finally said. "Close friends?"

"Childhood friends." Raff shrugged and it was probably the first time I saw his smile dimming a little. He raked his hands through his hair again and pushed them back. "Acquaintances, if you will ask him. He's just allergic to the f word."

I raised my brows and nodded. Every time Ryder had ever introduced someone close to him, he had referred to them as an acquaintance. Never a friend.

"Fuck, está bien," he muttered and got busy ordering drinks from one of the bartenders. When he was finished, he turned back towards me. "You see that blond little bitch right over there?"

I looked where he seemed to be discreetly pointing and only managed to glimpse at a fair-haired head, right near the dark spiral staircase at the far corner, before it disappeared within the crowd.

"I can't really." I furrowed my brows.

"Don't worry, we'll go near him soon enough." He replied right before handing me a martini glass filled with...something so vibrantly blue. "Liquid courage. Cheers." And then he was gulping down his own.

I took a tiny sip and grimaced at the strong aftertaste. "Um."

Raff laughed and nudged me gently towards the dancefloor. "Come on up. All you will have to do is distract him a little. Because Ryder needs to go past him and his men, but especially him, and if Ashby and his men catch even a glimpse of Ryder...well, let's just say things won't go so well. We want them to go well. What do you say, querida?"

"Don't call me that." I blurted out, then added just as quickly and anxiously, "Sorry."

Raff didn't look like he'd minded it even the littlest. "You only want to be his dearest, I get it."

"I didn't mean that."

"Hey, there's no shame in admitting--"

"I didn't mean that," I repeated once again, eyes wide. "It's not like that. I promise."

Rafael almost looked disappointed. "Well, he calls you querida, doesn't he?"

"Yes, but he also doesn't like having me near him. He practically jumps away any time I come anywhere near him or accidentally touch him." Uh oh, the alcohol was already acting up, wasn't it?

Biting back a wince at what I'd just said, I took another huge sip of the blue drink.

Rafael made a sad, contemplating sound. "But he does call you querida."

I licked my lips. "A lot of people have called me sweet names before. Doesn't really mean anything."

His smile dimmed again and I sighed, finishing the rest of my drink in one go.

"That is sad. But we're also wasting precious time here." He tugged on my arm again. "Come on...?"

"Alice." I offered sheepishly.

"Alice, we must keep Ashby Wallace distracted or Ryder might get caught."

"Distract him how?" I asked.

This time he tugged on my jacket sleeve. "Take this off. Work your charm or whatever. I've heard Ashby's got it bad for big marrón eyes."

I blinked, a little dazed as I shrugged Ryder's jacket from my shoulders. It was getting a little too hot in here anyway.

"I'm not seducing him," I murmured, then frowned as I handed Raff the empty martini glass. "Is that...is that why I'm here?"

Oh. Oh.

"I think so." His eyes were darting curiously all around us, hardening as they landed back on the dark staircase.

"Ryder brought me here to...do this?" I repeated like a moron. "Seduce someone named Ashby Wallace?"

"Well, not exactly." Raff was still looking around. "But you did say nothing is going on between you two and he still brought you here anyway, which he normally doesn't. I wasn't expecting him to bring anyone along tonight. The Seventh makes him even more of an impassive asshole than he normally is."

"The Seventh?" I asked weakly.

Raff blinked at me but didn't really answer the question.

Ashby Wallace then, I found myself thinking. Ryder brought me here to distract him. Maybe because he'd known, just like Raff here, that Ashby had a thing for big brown eyes. Isn't that what Raff had said?

A heavy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Uneasy, restless, sad. I felt sad.

I do owe him after all that he had to put up with during my family dinner, I thought. But I'd just not expected...

What exactly had I expected?

"Can I maybe have a little more of this liquid courage first?" I asked Raff.

He nodded and ordered me another drink. I practically inhaled that one in seconds, and the familiar buzz was already settling within me. I felt warm and light by the time I was done, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

The next few minutes passed by in a blur, which, in retrospect, should've probably alarmed me. But I was familiar with being drunk. I knew how that went. It was almost a comfort in this strange, unfamiliar place.

Raff introduced me to Ashby (call me Ash, he said when he was done with the leering) and I could very well see Raff taking his beaming smile to a whole new level as he pretended to be Ashby's newest buddy. Ashby wasn't one to fall for it so easily, though. I noticed how his sharp gaze kept glancing around, maybe even a little alert, and I could see two men in black gear standing at some distance. They looked like Ashby's personal bodyguards. Did this nightclub belong to him?

It was, however, a little too easy to gain his attention by the time Raff stepped away (but not too far). Ashby didn't seem to notice my act, mainly because his silver eyes seemed stuck on me, appreciative and lingering in all the places that I knew was wrong but fuck it. It was right. I'd been here before a hundred times.

I could almost pretend that I was at one of the college parties, drunk and having fun. I could pretend Ryder wasn't here, that he wasn't looking for someone who was supposedly a danger to everyone here, and that there was no loaded pistol in Rafael's pocket.

I glanced over at the suit jacket that Raff held over one arm--Ryder's suit jacket that I'd been wearing only minutes ago--and told myself it was fine. I can shrug it back on when Ryder and I will be leaving, I told myself. And I won't have to let go of it so soon.

I was a little too pathetic and clingy when I was drunk. More than one person had told me that.

"I've never seen you here before." Ashby--Ash--had one arm around my waist and I hadn't even noticed. "Can't imagine not noticing such a beautiful, gorgeous woman right before me."

"Just tagging along with a friend." I leaned against his sturdy chest, getting a whiff of some kind of expensive manly cologne, and wondered for an awkward second what I should be doing with my hands. "An acquaintance."

Ashby's silver eyes darkened and I mentally backtracked. "I mean--"

He softly brushed the back of his fingers along my cheek, and my hair, pushing them back over my shoulder and holding me by the nape of my neck. "I'd love to be an acquaintance of yours as well, gorgeous. What do you say?"

"Sure." I grinned dazedly. At least somebody was willing to be my acquaintance.

I could faintly hear Raff's overly enthusiastic voice at the back of my head. Or not really the back of my head but somewhere near us, chatting with the ladies who'd been draped all over Ashby just minutes ago, like I was now.

He was beautiful. Ashby, I mean. Such flawless features and such softness of his blond locks. I did think I'd had my hands in his hair at one point. He had a boyish smirk, knowing and pretty. He looked like a model straight out of a magazine.

Except that he didn't have those blue eyes. Dark blue. A scattered ocean and the loveliest of storms. He didn't have any of that dark ink tattooed on his skin. No words or foreign letters running up his forearm and peeking out so blatantly from his unbuttoned shirt collar. No, nothing like that. He wasn't quite anything like Ryder.

"What a shame," I mumbled to myself.

Ashby chuckled and the next thing I knew, he'd had my head tipped up towards him, and then his soft lips were over mine. Pressing and pressing and pressing until the kiss wasn't so soft, but firm.

He pulled away, just a few inches, and stared down at me. "Such a fiery, exquisite lady."

My back hit a flat wall, a little too hard to make me wince, but the next kiss caught the painful grimace right from between my lips, fingers digging into my sides until a groan left my lips.

I blinked open my eyes, dazed, as his lips worked their kisses down my jaw and near my neck. Hard and sucking marks into my hot, bare skin.

I could see that Raff was standing a huge distance away. Everyone was. We were somewhat behind that godforsaken black staircase. Away from it. Hadn't that what Raff had said? Get Ashby away from the staircase? Get him to let his guard down? I could very well see that he didn't have any of his guards up right now. Ashby Wallace was distracted. I guess I had been useful after all.

You're only good for this, Alice.

Hands grabbing my hips, he yanked me closer and I could feel the cool air on my thighs as he tried to tug up the hem of my dress, teeth biting down near my collarbone. I winced loudly this time.

"Hush, gorgeous. Don't want anyone else to feel envious." Ashby murmured against my bruised, tender skin.

My heart raced and my eyes flew open in alarm.

Stay silent, Alice, I remembered. And no one will know.

My head thudded back against the wall, hands on my waist, my bare arms, squeezing fists into my dress.

No one will hurt.

He forced my legs apart with one knee, fingers grabbing a fistful of my hair.

No one will blame you. It wasn't my inner voice. It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't. It was Michael's voice, Michael's touch on me. You'll keep your mouth shut and no one will know anything about this. And it won't hurt. I promise it won't.

I was shrugging his hands off of me, pushing Ashby away, shoving him away from me without even realizing. He looked stunned, a little surprised, and called after me. But he didn't even know my name so he didn't go too far. I stumbled into the crowd and asked around for the exit? A restroom? Any restroom?

There wasn't any restroom, but someone did direct me to a door and I practically threw it open, gasping as cool night air hit me from every direction.

I was outside. Outside. Outside. Eyes wildly searching around, it felt like every inch of my skin was on fire.

I staggered away from the few people that were there, walking and stumbling until I was once again standing at the back of the building, right near those broken windows.

I leaned heavily against the brick wall and pressed my palms on either side of me, heaving.

I breathed out, then breathed in again a little too fast. I couldn't see. My head was spinning, everything was a blur, and I could see Michael. I could see Michael in the trees ahead.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

I inhaled once again and forgot to exhale. Should've exhaled first. Running shaky fingers through my hair, I squeezed my eyes shut.

No one will know if you stay silent, Alice.

It felt like something heavy, something so painfully strong had its grip around my throat. It wasn't right. It wasn't right. I wiped my eyes with my free hand, fingers digging into the sockets, and exhaled shakily.

Michael isn't here, I tried telling myself, kept repeating it in my head. Why was I finding it so hard to breathe properly?

I squeezed my eyes shut until it hurt. And the next time I opened them, I was on the ground. My knees were shaking and had given up on myself. There was cool soil beneath my fingertips.

"Go away." I breathed out shakily, chest aching. "Go away." There's no one here to go away.

A loud, crashing thud came from somewhere--somewhere a little too far away, and it would've made me jump if I hadn't been so out of it.

I looked up in front of me, at the tall looming trees ahead, and sniffled, blinking and blinking until the black spots in my vision didn't feel so suffocating anymore.

Then came another crash, louder than the previous one. I stopped breathing altogether and realized it wasn't just that. There were voices, raised voices, alarmed voices? People shouting out. What was happening?

Ryder, I thought. Where's Ryder?

I patted my sides like a moron, still shaking (panic coupled with cold wasn't a good thing) until I remembered that I didn't fucking have my phone. I couldn't phone Ryder or even text him because I'd left my phone back at my dorm.

Wiping my clammy hands on my dress, I noticed the hem was torn and my chin quivered. I closed my eyes, a tear managing to brush down my cheek, and pulled my knees to my chest.

I didn't want to be here. I wanted to go back home but not to my dorm or my parent's house back in Hayward. I wanted to go back to the one home that had felt like a...like a home when I'd been a kid.

I wanted to be out of here.

This time I did jump, however, when a loud booming sound erupted from inside the nightclub. I stood up in an instant, head spinning as I grabbed the wall behind me for support.

Paranoia nearly crippled me from the inside when I heard a scream. Something was really really wrong.

I stepped away and retraced my steps, heading for the doors and the cause of all this sudden commotion. Except that I got to take no more than a few steps because I felt it, an awful prickly feeling at the back of my neck like someone was behind me. I whipped around fast, knowing there wasn't anyone out there within the trees, knowing there was no way I wouldn't have heard someone stepping behind me.

But I was wrong. I must've missed it amidst the panic that was still running through my veins because there was someone else there with me.

Someone stood just a few steps away, still, watching me from between two of the darkest trees. The first thing, the most obvious thing, I noticed was the horrendous gas mask he wore.

I could barely make out the eyes behind it. And they were watching me.

I froze, eyes going wide, and my hand reached out behind me, for something, anything. It was a he, I think, dressed in black gear that camouflaged well in the dark of the night. Shorn hair, dark, but that gas mask...that gas mask...

"What--"

The instant he started walking towards me, running towards me, and finishing the distance between us in seconds, I screamed. A terrifying sound that was muffled by gloved hands as he pushed me back against the brick wall. I struggled in panic, in dread, hands clawing at his wrist, his sleeve, anything that could get me out of there.

Oh God, oh God, oh God. This was happening again. That dark underground cellar was happening all over again. Fear was clawing at my skin.

I screamed again, throat going raw, but then the back of my head was slammed into the bricks behind me, and the pain there, the sudden pain left me stunned and numb and dizzy for the longest of horrifying moments.

The next thing I knew I was slumped on the ground, on the dirty cool soil, leaning against the wall, and my left arm--my left forearm--hurt. The man with the gas mask was still looming over me, his tight fist in my hair going slack, gloved fingers softly stroking my hair. Once. Twice. I blinked, dazed, and my mouth tasted like blood as I looked up at him. I was going to throw up.

Dark, dark eyes stared back at me through the eye holes of the gas mask. Dark, a shade of black, and so so sad.

He leaned close, closer towards my ear, and I felt bile rising up my throat when the gas mask grazed the side of my face.

"Death," he rasped, "will have its revenge."

He stood up, walking over my slumped form, and I saw, I heard his heavy booted footsteps fading back into the trees.

He disappeared.

But those eerie, cold words that he'd whispered in my ear didn't.