The Circle

15 | Townhouse allure

We left the living room and entered the busy corridor once more. The orcacle's worried face was imprinted on my mind; Cassandra's ominous vision swouldn't leave me alone. The words replayed over and over again as we left her behind, and images of a great storm formed in my imagination. She said it could be taken literally, and that made me feel a tiny bit better but I was smart enough not to cling to false illusions. 

The party looked like a coked-out video clip for an underground band. It had escalated since we entered the secluded room. People danced to the pounding techno, making out, feeling themselves. They were free. Anyone could so whatever they liked, nobody really cared. Their enjoyment was on the forefront of their minds, nothing else. 

The lamps near the walls shone with colorful lightbulbs,  casting shadows of blue and purple over Cassandra's home. A tall girl leaned against the wall, her red lips black under the lightning.  Her eyes were perceptively glazed over, but she stared at me while we made our way to the stairs, sizing me up. Telltale white powder painted her nose. The girl held onto the wall for support as we passed by, stumbling. 

"Kit, wait. Should we help her?"

He glanced at the girl and then back at me, "She's going to be fine. Human drugs leave our system in minutes. It's impossible to overdose."  

"Is she a demigod?"

"We're surrounded by our kind. Most people here are demigods apart from a few of Cassie's friends, and most of them know about us," he looks around, assessing the crowds. 

 My black jeans and green military jacket were nothing next to the intricate designs the guests had draped over their bodies. Girls stood tall in heels and shimmering dresses, others were clothed with metallic skirts and geometrical scraps that were used as shirts. Men wore flapper dresses and makeup, girls with long hair were clad in suits. You could be anyone you wanted at Cassandra's party: it was a gathering of excess and folly. 

Strange, fluorescent liquids served in crystal flutes were perched on the guests' hands. The liquid, which came in a variety of neon green, blue and pink, shone in the darkness like beacons of light. Champagne and Vodka also flowed throughout the party, glass cups full of hard liquor served by immaculately dressed waiters. Some party goers were doing the hard stuff, sniffing powder or placing crystals on their tongues out in the open, or swapping pills under the dance floor.

The atmosphere was contagious. The party was insane and fun and chaotic, different from anything I'd ever seen before. The people crammed into the posh townhouse were different too. Everyone there looked too good, way too beautiful to be normal. Kit was right: the house was crawling with demigods. I could feel their energy flowing around us, a faint whisper of the godliness within their bones. 

A DJ pinned vinyl records on the corner. The song he played was psychedelic, intense, it begged to enter your mind and make you lose yourself within the beat. Bodies moved on the dance floor, touching each other, feeling the reverberating bass. Maybe demigods needed a place to let off steam sometimes, God knows that human clubs wouldn't do the trick. The gathering was ethereal and electrifying, and I struggled taking everything in at once. 

Kit disappeared once we got to the living room, and for once it felt good to be apart. I hadn't been alone since before we left for the cabin. The events of the last twenty four hours ripped me apart, they turned my world upside down and threw me out. I am part of a new world, a place where people with divine blood gather in parties like these and let loose. I am not human. Goddamnit, electricity flowed beneath my skin like blood and it just tingled. Everything is just too much right now. 

I need a while to get used to this new reality, to the new me, and it's feels impossible with Kit's ever-sharp blue eyes analyzing my every move and having to deal with the fragility of his moods. Dealing with him drained all the energy in my body.