I held my phone, displaying two concert tickets to a goth and industrial concert in New York City. I hadn’t been to the city in years, but my friend and I agreed to split a hotel room for the night. The hot summer sun was setting into a warm night, and the smell of asphalt and car exhaust wafted through the air.
The streets were teeming with people, the buildings so high they got lost in the clouds. My neck craned to reach the tops of the bright buildings covered in fog. The bus stopped at the hotel we were staying at. Jackie was waiting patiently for me, her dark hair blended into bright blue pigtails, and goggles sat upon her head. She had a fishnet top over a tank top, bondage pants, and huge platform boots.
“This concert is going to be lit, Mel!” she said as she bounced on her toes and gave me a tight bear hug.
I wore a burgundy slip dress, fishnets, and Doc Martin boots. I had streaked my blond, curly hair with Manic Panic blue and purple. It was like old times, the times when we were in our twenties and went out to concerts and raves until the early hours of dawn.
I worked a full-time office job and lived with my husband; we rescued cats and had a small house in the country. We gardened, and he would occasionally go out hunting and fishing. Our most lively night out in a while was playing the occasional DND game with online friends. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the peace, but I missed the revelry of my youth.
Jackie’s phone buzzed.
“Hey sweety, I love you! Mommy is just going to be out for a night with her old friend, can you put daddy on the line?
Hon, make sure Cassidy gets to bed on time, and that her homework gets finished?”
Jackie nudged me, “he wants to say hi,” she whispered while pointing the phone at me. Her husband, Dave on the other line, his blond hair had turned partially white and pulled back in a ponytail, but it was the same Dave that I remembered.
“Good to see you, Dave, and Cassidy,” I said waving at the little girl with platinum locks in pajamas.
“You girls have a good time, and say hi to Spencer for me, it’s been years, we should all hang out sometime,” he said while ruffling Cassidy’s hair.
“Me casa tu casa,” I said.
Jackie and Dave talked a few more minutes about mundane married life before she hung up the phone.
“She’s darling,” I said.
“She’s a handful.”
“Dave’s a handful as it is,” I laughed as we headed into the hotel.
It had bright purple walls and crisp white flooring. The Violet was one of the fanciest hotels I had ever stayed at. Jackie talked to a handsome hotel clerk that checked us in and took our bags.
“Bellboys still exist?” I asked.
“Look, we saved our bonuses to be this bougie for once, and we’re going to see KMFDM, Ministry, Thrill Kill Kult, and The Birthday Massacre, it’s going to be so lit!” beamed Jackie.
We went to the elevators. Our room rested on the second to the top floor. The hallways had the same generic drab appearance many hotels had. I shrugged thinking our room would be generic as well.
Jackie swiped her card in the key holder and the room opened to purple walls and white shag carpeting. The coffee table comprised a white plastic triangle, and even the bathroom followed the same color scheme. It gave the room the late 80s, early 90s vibe. I remembered being twelve around that time, staying up late to watch weird alternative music videos, anime, and films on MTV. Or even watching British comedy shows on PBS. Jackie and I dressed in our pajamas. Now the world was a completely different place, with weird films and music videos streamed 24/7 on smartphones.
We unpacked and put our clothes into the shiny white dresser. We were planning to go to the concert tonight and go sightseeing tomorrow before heading back to our lives.
“What should we eat in the City that Never Sleeps?” I asked.
“Girl, stick to Chinese food or pizza, it’s cheap and delicious, trust me,” said Jackie.
Jackie had traveled to New York several times before, but always for business. I had opted to stay in the country only traveling to a small town for work. It was years since I visited any kind of city. I opened the window and glanced out, tall buildings as far as my eyes could see.
“Come on Mel, or we’ll miss the show!”
I grabbed my purse, and we both headed down the hallway. A small pizza place sat by our hotel, and Jackie was right, the giant slice was both inexpensive and some of the best pizza of my life.
We took the subway to the concert; I puzzled over the map with a confused expression but Jackie rolled her eyes and yanked me onto the next train.
“Trust me, babe, I got you,” she chuckled.
They packed the subway car with so many people it was standing room only. I couldn’t grab the rings at the top of the car and had to use Jackie to steady myself on the ride. We shuffled between several trains before getting out in Greenwich Village. We walked for blocks, through crowds of people and bright lights before seeing the Pyramid Club. A line of Goths snaking out the door.
A wave of nostalgia washed over me and I remembered taking the D.C. metro to go clubbing. We used to go out every weekend until D.C. built a stadium over Nation, the main venue in D.C., tanking the local scene. The concerts and club nights had moved to Philadelphia and NYC and we had gotten jobs and families and moved on with our lives. But tonight, was our return to the past, just for one time.
Most of the people in line were my age or older. Still decked out with wild hair and makeup. I breathed a sigh of relief when a group of younger people stood behind us in line. A young woman with dark skin and golden contacts, her hair bound in yarn dreads, and her boyfriend with a bright red Mohawk.
“It seems like the Elders are out in droves,” she said under her breath.
I sighed as Jackie bounced on her toes until we finally reached the entry point. A bouncer with a shaved head and a thick Bronx accent checked our IDs and our purses before passing us through the door.
We walked into the cramped venue like old times, and the music played. We sang along with lyrics, but the singers have all aged. The crowd still enthusiastically sang and requested songs several decades old.
After the last set the announcer stated there was a guest band on the ticket, and they were going to play their set.
Jackie raised an eyebrow, “ I thought they brought out new bands as an opener?”
“Meh, let’s give them a chance. We should do this again, but maybe with some up-and-coming bands, you know, give the scene some support,” I said.
“You’re feeling old. Same,” she said, rolling her eyes.
The next set was a band name Return to R’lyeh. All the band members wore robes of purple, black, and midnight blue with hoods disguising their faces. The set had a strange triangular symbol covered with ornate sigils.
“Looks Avant-Garde. I like it!” said Jackie.
The rest of the crowd nodded in agreement with curious stares towards the new band. There were no instruments, and they chanted, their voices low and throbbing.
“Huh, must be some sort of Gregorian Chant, awesome!” I said. Had I known what they were chanting I would have changed my mind.
I stood, enthralled by their words, warmth flooded over me and it felt like time went still. The last chanter made a strange symbol with his hands and vanished into a fog. A lot of the bands had smoke machines, leaving the stage foggy. But when I turned around, I saw nothing but fog. The club stood empty behind me.
“Jackie!” I called, but there was no answer. There was no one, nothing. I was alone. I ran out of the club into the city night. The streets were empty, the traffic lights clicked on in silence. No cars drove on the summer streets.
I ran blindly through Greenwich village to the subway station. It was empty but the trains still ran. I swallowed, trying to remember the combination of trains that lead us here. As I boarded the car, one chanter stood fully in his robe.
“What the hell happened? Have you seen a tall woman with dark hair and platform boots in all black?” I realized how stupid that question was after leaving a Goth club.
The robed person stood and chanted, I could feel pressure form of me, and squeezed my eyes shut. The subway stopped at an empty station. I fished out my hotel key card and read the address. I deciphered the chart as best I could and went on several empty cars until I found the hotel.
Jackie knew this city better than I did, if I could find my way here, she shouldn’t have a problem. I checked my phone, it now had a pyramid symbol surrounded by sigils. What the fuck.
There must have been acid in the absinthe I drank that night. I would go to sleep and wake up with a pounding headache. Jackie would ream me out for leaving her at the club. We would go to Chinatown for lunch and sightseeing and buy tacky souvenirs, it would be fine.
But nothing was fine, everything was empty and alone. I entered the hotel, and the lobby was dark. The elevator buttons had strange symbols. Heart pounding, I pressed the one that had a pyramid in the center. The elevator seemed like it was taking hours to reach the floor. A cold hand touched my back, I turned around and saw a robed figure behind me; it pointed toward the door and chanted.
The elevator dinged and opened and I ran out into the hallway as fast as I could. The hallway looked the same, generic with a patterned rug and flickering fluorescent lights. I searched desperately for our room number, but no room number appeared. The hallway was endless.
This was a dream, I would wake up and take the long bus ride home, my husband would pick me up and I’d be home with Silky and Lacey looking up with their big green eyes, meowing for their dinner.
But my room was nowhere in sight. Tears clouded my vision as I ran down the hallway. All the doors and rooms were identical, After several hours I found another elevator.
I pressed all the buttons and sat in the box’s corner. The elevator went at normal speed and all the buttons dinged; the doors opened to the empty hallway after empty hallway until I reached the top floor.
When I came out another robed figure chanted and pointed. I felt numb as I walked toward a large ornate door. My key card fit into the door and it opened onto a terrible cosmos. Words cannot comprehend what lie beyond the door , and once I stepped through, there was no coming back.