The chronicals of Elderon. B.R. Schlüter
only could I feel the probing stares on me, but I could also hear the sneering comments.
"Look, here comes Miss Double Zero, has several zeros in her account, but also has 0 respect for the common folk."
"Oh look, Madame thinks she is something better, just don't get in line and wait out here with".
Others, however, again pulled out their cell phones to take an exclusive photo of me.
When we arrived at the entrance, the bouncer, a man like a cupboard, with an emotionless mine, looked at us urgently. Then he opened the barrier tape for us and greeted me with a small smile. "Welcome Miss Nightmoon" and waved us through.
Inside we went straight to our regular table.
A small cordoned off area on a pedestal, so that one could overlook the complete club.
I looked over to the bar, where a familiar picture presented itself to me.
The waiters played scissors, stone, paper. The winner was then "allowed" to serve our table tonight.
After all, there was always a good tip from us.
And again it was Luna who emerged as the winner. With a broad grin on her face, she sauntered over to our table.
We greeted each other with a warm embrace.
Luna had been a year below me at college, studying archaeology and history.
By now she was one of the most recognized and youngest archaeologist , in the whole country.
But since there weren't new excavation sites every day, she worked as a waitress at the Triangle in between.
"As usual, the usual?" she asked us happily.
"Yes," Lilly and I replied in sync.
"How can you guys like this colorful stuff? It looks like a rainbow that fell from the sky, doesn't it?" Luna asked us.
I just shrugged my shoulders and answered her that it's not the looks that matter, it's the taste.
"Okay. All right, two Fantastic Lagoon, coming right up!" she said, turning directly toward the bar to relay our order to the bartender.
Once Luna was out of earshot, I turned to Lilly with my arms crossed.
"So now, out with it! Why exactly did you want to come here today of all days? Our monthly trip here , actually would have been next weekend."
"Well, um....how should I best tell you this now?" she just stammered.
My gaze darkened and I lowered my head to look a little more threatening.
Finally, her masquerade broke down and she opened up to me about the reason for our visit here.
"Tonight is date night. And before you start snorting around and rolling your eyes again...You've barely looked at another guy since we broke up with Brandon..."
Yes Brandon, my first love who betrayed and disappointed me so extremely.
"Should I have continued to provide with this hypocrite who loved my family's money more than me?!
After all, he now felt he was cheating on me with my roommate Kelly after I refused to buy him a sports car."
I massaged my temples because I got a headache as soon as I thought about Brandon.
"Besides, I just had a date last week."
Lilly widened her eyes and looked at me in disbelief.
"And why didn't I know about it?" she asked me, both outraged and horrified at the same time.
"Because there was nothing to tell. Jack had chosen the most expensive restaurant in town and once ordered half the menu. He wolfed down the meal and then demanded that I pay the bill at the end. From then on, the date was over for me," I told her and shrugged my shoulders.
She saw my sad face and grabbed my hand to pull me onto the dance floor.
"Come on, let's go dance a little. The singles stuff doesn't start until midnight anyway,so we still have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. Besides, you clearly need to clear your head."
Right when we got to the dance floor, the DJ played our favorite song and we half danced our hearts out.
We swung our bodies around wildly, to the beat of the music. After a good half hour, I pointed to our place and made a pantomime movement with my hand, as if I was going to drink something.
So we went back to our table , where 2 ice cold Fantastic Lagoon were already waiting for us.
I took the straw in my mouth and drank almost half of it in one go.
Lilly stared at me somewhat incredulously and we both had to start laughing.
At midnight sharp, the DJ turned off the music and announced that date night would now begin.
Instantly, masses of men poured out of the club, to our table.
It could be compared to a lush meadow and a swarm of locusts, I was them meadow.
The manager of the Triangle saw the commotion and asked the men to behave in a civilized manner and not to regard me as a piece of meat. Otherwise, they could leave his club and receive a one-year suspension.
"Date night or not, there will be no riot here!" he said, scowling at the crowd.
I listened to one life story after another.
There were stories about sick family members who needed expensive treatment, to heirs who were also rich, where a merger of the businesses and between us could be very beneficial. I had heard all these stories so many times now and I was tired of it always being about the money.
I was sitting bored at the table, sipping my third Fantastic Lagoon, when suddenly I saw a black shadow flit by in the corner of my eye. I looked up to see the figure that had so suddenly caught my attention. Standing in the back corner to the storage room was her. She looked like the woman I had been dreaming about for weeks. She nodded at me briefly and disappeared behind the next door.
I stood up with a jerk, so that the table began to sway threateningly. Lilly and the gentleman sitting across from us looked at me in confusion.
This could not possibly be real, I was awake!
I had to get to the bottom of this.
I walked around the table and ran across the dance floor, toward the storage rooms.
Lilly was having trouble keeping up with me.
When she finally caught up with me, she asked me, all out of breath, what had suddenly gotten into me.
"You're going to love this, I just saw the woman from my dreams, she was walking towards the storage room. Think I'm completely nuts, but I want to know what's going on now.
I finally want answers!"
Shortly after I said these words, we heard a purring voice telling us to follow her.
"Did you hear that too?" I asked, and Lilly nodded at me.
Since I wasn't the only one who had heard that voice, I was sure I hadn't lost my mind. We continued to creep towards the storage room.
As we entered the room, I could still see the tip of a coat darting around the next corner.
We went after it. Behind that corner was a huge, magnificent mirror, with strange runes on the sides.
This language should have been unknown to me, but as soon as I touched the frame, the runes unraveled before my eyes and I could read it.
It said, "The gateway between worlds."
I actually read it only to myself, but shortly after I had pronounced the last syllable, the mirror suddenly shone and and our reflection changed.
Before us now stood no longer our mirror images but a picture of a fairy and an elf.
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