The Party, Spelled: P.A.R.T.A.Y.

[dantekings]

On the outside of the front doors read simply "CLOSE FOR PRIVATE PARTY"

It was one of those events that just those of the lower club knew of. Down the Rabbit Hole, to most, was a high energy night club, dancing, drinks, loud music, strobe lights, the occasional bubble dance, laser dance, you name it, Down the Rabbit Hole had it. But tonight, tonight was special.

You see, the upper club held dances, while through a vacant bathroom stall behind the forth brick to the right, was a passageway. A Passageway to something much grander. Below was a mirror image of the club above, but soundproof from the ears above and, shall we say a little madder.

Below the lights were brighter, the music was better, the drinks were stronger, the women were hotter and gambling, drinks and maybe even a little risque business was prime. It was in this "Hole" that had made it's way upstairs for the night.

Dante looked his part. He wore heavy eye make up, an ornate golden grown with a red jewel at the front, shimmering under the strobing, colored lights. The rest of his dark hair was spiked and he wore a sleeveless, tattered shirt, exposing his muscular, tattooed arms. Around his neck, white fur lined a red velvet vest, buttoned tightly with golden buttons. His jeans were black, tight and ripped along the thighs and calves, cut into strips in the shape of hearts down his legs, showing just enough skin. On his arms, ostentatious rings, and playing on his smooth, young features, was a smirk.

Only those who had a special invitation were allowed through the doors tonight. Mardi Gras, the biggest party this side of Halloween. The lights were dimmed, the music pulsed and Dante leaned against the door frame waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive.

The women were dressed in crimson and emerald top hats, white cuffs and matching neck ties, along with their thigh high stiletto boots.

Dante's blue eyes darted around the room, pushing off of his post. His long legs taking a few strides around the room, ducking around the people milling around in ornate costumes and masks. His only mask was the heavy make up, it hid his features enough, but dangling from his fingers was a red mask encrusted with jewels, real of course, only the best for Dante Kings. The Bar tender slid a cherry drink across the bar to him, a small plastic sword skewering two olives. He nodded his thanks and sauntered back to the front doors. The party was about to start, one that would rock the night.

[alliejennings]

Allie walked up to the club, wearing her highest high heels, which only made her about 5'2. They would have to do, as she couldn't walk in anything higher. And at least she only looked *somewhat * like a midget. She shivered in her short white sequined dress, and wrapped her small arms tightly around herself. Glitter made her hair shine like thousands of tiny lightbulbs, and she was wearing a sparkly white Mardi Gras mask she had found on the ground somewhere by the club. Whatever, whoever's it was wouldn't miss it.


Nobody really saw Allie as a 'club' girl, but it was one of Allie's favorite escapes. Here, she could be anybody she wanted. Nobody knew who she was, nobody saw her as the short strange girl with the weird hobbies. One of her favorite activities was thinking of an identity for herself for the evening: tonight she was Olivia Murrow, a 19 year old aspiring actress visiting from Hollywood.


But still, nobody in their right mind would think Allie was 21. So Allie had made a... 'deal' with one of the bodyguards at the beginning of the year. It wasn't that Allie was a slut, she just...couldn't find the right guy at the moment. And if he was cute and could get her into a club infinitely, why not?


Allie finally made it to the doors, and pushed her hair back as she flashed her signature quirky smile at her favorite bodyguard. She ignored the flabbergasted stares of the other people waiting in line and walked confidently into the club.


Jeez, it was loud in here. I mean, she knew it would be loud, but it still shocked her every time. It was like a whole other world: there were strobe lights everywhere, colorful groups of people dancing, and a variety of fancy drinks being passed around. After getting over the original disorienting feeling, Allie immersed herself in the crowd and just started dancing. It
wasn't long until the bass of the music was soon in sync with her heartbeat, and it was almost like she and the music had combined into one.



This was going to be one hell of a night.

[dantekings]

Dante was in his element, the throbbing music, the flashing lights. He was king of this world and all worshiped him as their sovereign. It was wonderful. The people here seemed to be enjoying themselves and each other. All in all he'd call it a success.

He recognized most of them, most came nightly, but there was one...a little thing of the female variety. Motioning to one of the bar tenders, he leaned in, speaking with him inaudibly over the music. The bar tender nodded, soon after handing Dante a platter of drinks which he skillfully hoisted to his shoulder and walked through the crowd and dance floor, offering the drinks to the people. Slowly, he was making his way to the small girl.

"Drink?" he asked, handing a delicate class with a light cherry liquid to her. "I haven't seen you around before, are you new to the Rabbit Hole?" He asked. Always, Dante had other things on his mind. Call it a hunch, but he'd play on it. Life wasn't worth living if you didn't take risks anyway. And Dante was a person of playing odds.

[alliejennings]

Allie was in her own world now, she closed her eyes and just forgot everything. Although she wasn't coordinated, it didn't take much skill to dance to techno. She just kind of moved along with the music, and nobody ever commented on it. There were puddles of people gathering on the floor, either passed out or high. Everyone was either wearing masks or weird eye makeup, which Allie liked. The mystery of it all was exciting. Here, people had personas completely different from their real life selves.

Allie quickly turned around at the sound of a male voice, although she could barely hear it over the roaring music. She gave him a quizzical look as she cautiously took the drink from his hand.

"Um yes, I'm new. My name is....Olivia. I'm visiting from LA." Allie screamed over the loud bass. She cringed slightly at the lie, but got over it quickly. She was used to it.

Allie examined the man closely now. He looked somewhat familiar, she felt like she had seen him when she'd been at the club a few times before. He was cute, even if it was in a bit of a...bizarre way. He looked more royal than the others, more expensive. It was a bit hard to describe. Allie was curious. Who was he?

[dantekings]

A smile curled on Dante's lips, and he bowed his head to the small girl. "Welcome tot he Rabbit Olivia." He shouted over the music. It was one of those moments were he couldn't help but let out a laugh. He had never tried to talk to anyone so close to the speakers of the stage and now upon trying he found it rather hard.

The thing is, he usually knew everyone that came in, she was familiar, but some how not. Make up perhaps? She was a small thing, elegant in her own way. He could take things in like that, always could. Poor thing probably got made fun of in high school...possible she still was in high school.

Some other dancer came buy, swiping the whole rest of the tray of drinks from him, taking them over to a band of dancers sacked out on a large red couch. Dante shook his head. "Some people are all about the drinks," he grinned, "Not that I blame them, we make a mean Knave of Hearts."

[alliejennings]

"Thank you very much, Mr....what was it again?" Allie knew he hadn't told her his name, but it was better to pretend she missed it then to blatantly ask why he hadn't mentioned it. When he laughed, Allie assumed it was at her. What did she do? Was it because she was short? It was because she was short. It had to be. There was no other explanation. "It must be great to be tall, isn't it?" He had to be a good foot taller than her. And that was with 4 inch heels. Jeez.

Where did she know him from? His makeup covered too much of his face to be completely recognizable. It was very weird, to feel like you knew someone and yet not know them.

Allie grinned at the man's response. Oh, so he worked here. That made sense. She tilted her head and bit her lip coyly "So you work here? You're dressed up a bit too...nicely for a waiter, aren't you?" Allie wasn't normally that much of a flirt, but hey, who said Olivia wasn't? She could be anybody she wanted here. It was basically an unwritten rule of clubs.

[dantekings]

"King, milady, Dante Bastion Kings," he said bowing deeply, sweeping down in an over drawn, stupidly ostentatious, bow. "King of the house, King of the bar," He winked, "And King of hearts, at your service my little Olivia. And by little I don't mean to be derogatory, merely charming, which I fear I've always failed at quite horribly. Laughing at myself, I've never tried to talk to anyone over..." just as he said "music" the music died and twelve long tones rang out from the bass player, signaling midnight. The whole place fell silent, watching at the guitarist strummed slowly, in rhythmic time.

Once the twelfth strum rung out, a slow song, eons quieter then the last few hours had been started. Dante stuck his pinkie in his ear, rubbing his ear violently. "Never did get used to the silence after all that music. Where were we now that I can actually hear myself respond? " His blue eyes stared at the ceiling, searching, upon finding his thoughts he nodded, "oh yes, height. Height isn't everything, being tall you always have to watch for low ceilings, or door frames or fitting in cars. Then you're always tripping over children....makes for bad times at parks....Nothing's scarier then running away from a middle aged woman with a heavy handbag.

[alliejennings]

"Dante Kings? As in....the owner, Dante Kings?" Allie asked, her big brown eyes widening in shock. Shit shit shit shit shit. This was not good. Not good at all. He could ban her from the club forever if he found out about the whole bodyguard shindig. In fact, he could have her arrested if he even found out how old she was. Oh dear. Ohhhh dear. Okay, she had to calm down. She could play it cool. If he hadn't said anything already, then what were the chances he was going to ask anything in the future? And maybe he was cool with all of it! Yes, there had to be tons of underage girls that slept with bodyguards in order to get into clubs. That was much more likely. Of course it was! It was New York City! There were no rules here!


"Yes, umm...good." Allie replied vaguely, looking down at her feet and teetering on her heels. At least there was loud music playing, if he asked her anything she didn't want to answer she could just pretend she didn't hear him. She tuned Dante out as soon as he started talking about him being charming or something like that....she couldn't even believe the situation she was in. And just as she thought it couldn't get worse, it did. The music got quiet, and a slow song came on. Oh jeez. This was HORRIBLE. This was worse than that time she was almost kidnapped by that Mexican gang. Or that time she was offered a job as a dancer only to find out it was some strange strip club. Okay, maybe it wasn't as bad as that. That was pretty bad. Allie snickered at herself as she looked back up at Dante and caught a couple words about her height. Wow, that was original. Guess he was lying about that whole charming thing, charming guys usually knew to stay away from that subject. Allie tuned out for a couple more minutes as she looked around the club. Were there cops? Was this a trap? Damn it, of course it was! She was on an episode of Dateline. This was it. Goodbye world, hello jail. Allie shook her head in frustration and looked back at Dante. Oh my god, he was still talking about her height. Fuckkkkk.

[dantekings]

Noting her change, Dante looked around. As he did so, his whimsical smile faded, his eyes narrowing. Sure, he had a way of having two personalities, the bright cheerful side that seemed t not have a care in the world, and the serious, darker side that new every shadow, every nightmare and ever horrible thing that one could do to another.

"Yes...." he said slowly, "is something wrong?" He asked, looking back to her, cocking an eyebrow. His long fingers curled around his drink, strumming the sides of it as he looked at her. "Yes I'm the owner," he smiled. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to bite your head off for being in high school."

[alliejennings]

"No, n-nothing's wrong. Nothing at all," Allie said, while fidgeting with a silver bangle on her tiny wrist. If there was an award for bad luck, she would have won it, hands down. Her life was getting more and more like a Comedy Central special.

Wait, oh god. He didn't just point her out as a high schooler. Nope, that didn't just happen. It was all in her head. It was all just a horrible nightmare. She was going to wake up in her dorm room with her mice and everything was going to be alright. And then she'd just turn to Gwen and say 'Wow, I just had this strange dream that I was caught sneaking into a club and went to jail.' And they would laugh about it and it would be all over.

Allie pinched herself. Nope, this was for real.

Then she did a double take. Did he just say 'I'm not going to bite your head off?' He did! Well, that was fantastic! She knew he would be fine with it, deep down. He was a good guy. Allie gave a huge sigh of relief as she said "Well, in that case, I'm Allie Jennings. I'm a Baum Academy Senior. Nice to meet you. Again."

[dantekings]

Dante smirked, nodding his head. "Pleasure to meet you Allie. I'm afraid I'm still just Dante Kings, no changes here. But nice to know you've come clean. " He pointed out a younger couple in the corner, a man with a limp arm, "those two are from the same academy. We have lots of you here, older, younger. " He smiled again, laughing. "As long as we don't serve things...too strong while the law might find out, we'll be okay."

He lowered himself into a comfortable chair on the side of the dance floor, resting back and lifting the glass to his lips. "The Rabbit is open to all...it's the Hole that is for the special guests."

[alliejennings]

"Nice to meet you again, Dante Kings." Allie said as she held out her hand. Might as well be formal, he was the owner of the club, after all. If he wasn't going to throw her out, she might as well make a good impression. Maybe she wouldn't have to deal with Adam the bodyguard anymore. That would be a relief, he was getting just a tad annoying. "Are they really?" Allie added, as she looked towards the couple. How strange! She hadn't known other Baum kids came to the Rabbit. Allie squinted as she tried to get a closer look, but she didn't recognize them.

Allie crossed her ankles, and tilted her head slightly as she asked "And what might this....'Hole' be?" She had never heard of that. It had always been just the Rabbit, she had never known there was another...half. She was curious. Very, very curious. And when Allie got curious, she was going to get answers. No matter what it took.

[dantekings]

Dante waved a hand around the room, "All you see here are return customers of the Hole, an...almost, identical night club under ground. It's a rather more intense club. We are more used to the younger crowd and we like having a grand, merry time. " He smirked again, leaning his head back on the chair and crossing his legs. The ceiling was painted dark colors and the strobe lights shimmering, rotating around and pulsing.

"The Rabbit is the Club the word sees, the clean, law abiding club. The Hole, is a high energy, gambling place of excitement and good times. No matter what you want, you can find it down there, whatever your heart desires."

[alliejennings]

Allie looked around the club. It did seem more...wild tonight. Not like it usually was. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed it before. The music was louder, the lights were brighter, the drinks were stronger. People were going around passing trays of little colorful pills, and Allie could have sworn that was not regular smoke coming out of the smoke machines. Yes, this was definitely not the same club she was used to...it was almost like she was in a different world.

Allie took a couple more sips of the elegant red drink Dante had given her. It was strong, but still had a hint of sweetness. Nothing like she had ever tasted before. How...odd. This whole place was odd, but in a good way. It was exciting. Allie looked at Dante with a look of wonder and curiosity as she softly said "Whatever my heart desires, huh?"