The Triple Goddess

by Stephanie Hudson

  She kept saying that even though I was their prisoner, there was no reason we couldn’t have fun together. I had to smile at this. I think I could have picked worse kidnappers, although getting hit by a Demon was an experience I wanted to avoid again if I could help it. I suppose Pip and her quirky ways did prevent me from spending hours curled up in a puddle of self misery. It was hard to do when having a brighter than life firecracker jumping around and asking everything there was to know about my personal life. Everything from my first time having sex to having a twenty minute conversation about a goldfish I had once when I was six. She couldn’t understand why on earth I would call it Goldy and not Fred. She liked the name Fred, only for a girl not a boy…weird... much?

  When the plane landed Adam got ready to walk off the plane with Klaus. It was clear he didn’t trust him not to try and run, so he stuck to him like glitter to a Christmas card. Of course Pip stuck to me the same. There were two black SUV’s waiting for us and Pip jumped in the front of one and said,

  “Shotgun!” I envied her enthusiasm as I dragged my feet to the back seat. I got in and only when not moving did I again notice the bitter cold. I didn’t know how Pip hadn’t frozen to death but after asking her this question she simply said,

  “It’s hot in Hell!” Without a pin thread of amusement.

  I had never been to Germany before and with it once again being dark I didn’t think I was going to see much of it. It felt like I was living in a permanent state of darkness. The only light had been whilst flying over here but Pip had promptly walked around and pulled down all the blinds telling me how she didn’t like the light. Even when we refuelled I wasn’t allowed to get off the plane. So here I was, yet again, staring out into the night of yet another city. At least this time I knew where we were, unlike the city we had first travelled to and the city we refuelled at. I didn’t see any sense in keeping me in the dark about these things, it’s not as if I could get a secret message to Draven...what did they think, that I had some homing pigeon stuffed down my pants!

  As we made our way into the city Pip stayed unusually quiet, which was fine by me as it was the first chance I got to actually take in what was happening around me. What did I know so far? I was in Munich and I was on my way to Lucius’ club called Transfusion. I just hoped we stayed in the city as it would be easier for me, given the chance, for escape. You could quite easily lose yourself in a big city. I decided the best course of action was to play the good little prisoner and hope that they got lax in their guard, then I would make my move. I would run like the Meatloaf album and hide until I could contact Draven. Ok, so as far as plans went it wasn’t a master one by any stretch of the imagination but I just couldn’t lie down and die! I had to survive this! No other option was allowed to exist.

  I don’t know how long I was in my own bubble of escape but when we started to get closer to an amazing building that was lit up by an orange glow from the street lighting I couldn’t help but stare up in awe. It gave it an unearthly presence, glowing in the mist of the onyx black sky. It was a huge building that stamped such a presence in the city, like some castle someone had dropped down from heaven or a gothic palace that had pushed its way from Hell and broke through the human world’s surface, yeah, that was more fitting.

  We drove more slowly now as there were people everywhere, walking around the building, taking pictures or weighted down with Christmas shopping. I realised it couldn’t be much later than nine o’clock. I heard the automatic locks switch on and I jumped at the sound. I looked to Pip as she turned around to give me wink.

  “That building is amazing.” I said not being able to help the nagging need to know more about it. It came from both the historian and artist in me, as it was by far one of the most incredible buildings I had ever seen.

  “NeuesRathaus, the new town hall.” She said as she too took in its splendour. It had too many windows to count, hell it looked like it could be hundreds, all different sizes. On the walls the stone blocks were carved to look like one continuous rock sculpture that formed a building. There were arches all entwined with gargoyles and inter-laced with fancy stone balustrades carved into intricate patterns that made it look like tree branches frozen in time. The hexagon turrets were given stone guards carved onto elegant plinths. All held swords in their hands that went up to two thirds of their body. Even though the gargoyles were in some parts eroded by weather it didn’t take away their features. Faces of mischief were holding their fingers to their mouths to entice passersby with untold secrets. Off set to one side was the imposing clock tower that seemed to reach out to the skies with its many spires, like hands trying to claw their way into heaven.

  “The bay of the tower contains statues of the first four Bavarian Kings,” stated Pip as she pointed to the centre of the tower which indeed held a cut out section that housed different statues.

  “The third one along was an asshole.” She added like she was talking about an annoying neighbour with a yappy dog she once had. I had to shake my head to men-tally clear the image of Pip being at court in a long dress bitching about royalty.

  “See the dragon?” She said pointing to one of the corner bits closer to the ground.

  “Lucius made them add that and the terrified humans that are trying to get away...he laughs whenever we drive by,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, like it was a mystery she had never solved.

  I was pretty sure we weren’t allowed to be driving right past the building but no-one stopped us or got in our way. Even after we drove round an enormous Christmas tree did anyone even bat an eye. It was as if no-one even saw us.

  After weaving in and out of narrow streets we headed further out of the busier part of the city and instead of happy late night shoppers we had people dressed with one thing on their mind...sex. It was a nightlife I had forgotten since leaving Europe and moving to a remote town in the mountains. I wasn’t in Kansas anymore and Toto had been replaced by a green haired Imp named Pip!

  “Here we are!” Pip announced with way too much enthusiasm than what my queasy stomach could cope with. It felt like your usual butterflies had been replaced with ones made of metal and they were rock banging in my stomach.

  We had pulled up outside a five story building made of black brick and thick smoky grey stonework carved around the windows and doors. It was angled so that the front door was on the corner and each way it went out to the sides for ten sets of windows all reaching up to the top. All windows seemed to be blacked out and held wrought iron art work at the top of each stone arch. The bottom windows held huge metal flowers that wilted down like they had died long ago. These were lamps that deflected red light from the black windows causing a freaky glow onto the street level below. I looked up and saw the top windows all had thick, lush looking curtains in blood red velvet.

  Around the door, a metal vine as thick as my wrist came from the ground and spread out and up the wall, surrounding the opening. It curled outwards to the second and third floor piercing the brick with bloody spikes the size of rugby balls. Above the door the red and black metal words were designed in elegant calligraphy spelling out the name,

  ‘Transfusion’

  A single drop of blood dripped down the elongated F in the middle of the word and it made my spine tingle. The car had stopped right outside the door and the line of people waiting in the cold, barely dressed, looked at us as if they were expecting someone famous was about to step out of the car. The two doormen stood like unstoppable forces in the night, one held a clipboard and eyed the next clubber waiting to get in with scepticism. He checked his clipboard and then shook his head, pointing to the back of the line. I wished at that moment I was that girl and I would be refused admittance too, but as the door to our SUV opened, reality hit me and I knew that was just a pipe dream.

  Pip stood waiting for me and when I hesitated she said,

  “Come on Toots, you’re not getting any younger.” I made an umff sound as I shuffled across the seat and out into the chilling
night. I could see both Adam and Klaus stood there and Klaus looked a little pale. Pip just looked excited and looked up whispering the word, “home” before gently grabbing my arm and pulling me with her. Adam and Klaus went in first and Pip nearly had to drag me up the steps because I couldn’t help my heels from digging in.

  “Keira, please don’t cause a scene, it would look odd, don’t you think, if someone my size just slung you over my shoulder and skipped in... and I totally would you know...I love skipping.” She said in that sing song voice of hers. She reminded me of what I imagined a forest nymph would look like, only instead of luring people into the water drowning them while listening to a pretty little sing song, she would lure people into a deadly wood, where creatures lurked ready and waiting to pick and lick your bones dry. Ok, I know my imagination was doing overtime right about now but when you’ve spent as many years as I have seeing things that even the brothers Grimm got wrong, well then these images were kind of hotwired into my brain with very little required to bring them out to play.

  We walked through the doors and Pip winked at each of the muscle clad doormen with a flamboyant flick of her hair. Each winked back and Adam, who was in front of us growled, making the doormen wince back and eyes find their feet. I wondered not only how he had known about the wink but also what it was about Adam that had everyone cowering. All except for Pip that was. I mean, to look at him he would be the least scary one out of the lot but I knew in this supernatural game, it wasn’t what vessel you wore it was what was inside the vessel that counted. I reminded myself to keep my mental guards up at all times, especially around Adam.

  I followed Pip up a staircase and noticed all along the walls were paintings of dead artists. As in, famous artists that had their dead bodies painted in the styles they were famous for. There was Salvador Dali being smothered with melting clocks and little clockwork pieces sticking out of his eyes and piercing his skin. There was also Van Gogh on the floor bleeding into a bed of dying sunflowers with one made of metal protruding out of his chest. I walked on and shivered seeing one of Andy Warhol’s severed head half sticking out of a Campbell soup can, which put a whole new swing on tomato soup! There were others, about ten in total, all with two things in common....Death and the fact that they were creepy as hell!

  The stairs were high polished dark wood with a plush red carpet border. The hand rails matched the wrought iron theme outside and when the staircase opened up wider at the top, I could see it ran throughout the whole club. The heavy dance music was some sort of mixture between rock, rap and techno beat. There was the main stage on this level in a curved half-moon shape with great metal columns reaching the roof, with a dance floor on the lower floor below us. We had entered a wraparound balcony wide enough to drive a bus down and the floor from the stairs continued around the room. There were numerous metal staircases leading both below and above as the club was on many levels. We walked to the right and as I got closer to the twisted metal railings I looked down at hundreds of dancing bodies all jumping and moving as one. They sang in a different language to the band’s main singer and when he started screaming out the next set of lyrics the crowd went wild and crazy. There was a set of metal stairs that looked more suited to a warehouse building and that’s when I noticed the mix of old world elegance and harsh industrial grunge that made up the clubs interior.

  I noted where the band was, at the opposite side to us and the staircase that was packed with bodies so that the band could be seen better, situated next to the stage below and above. The strobe lights lit below like some sci-fi horror flick in both flashes of green and laser lines of blue. There was a bar set off to one side but most of it was hidden under the balcony we were on.

  “Keep up Toots, some people here bite.” She said as she snapped her jaw twice to mimic the action. Like I needed to be any more freaked out, I thought sarcastically.

  We followed the two men in front and I could see they were taking us up to the next level. These stairs had a thick black carpet with the same red border and the handrails were now high polished brass with twisted soot black iron. It kind of re-minded me of an evil force trying to destroy the nicer, posh parts of this place. The walls up here had classic wallpaper with thick, black velvet swirls on a deep red background colour, whereas downstairs the walls were a mixture of dark brick and brushed steel sheets with pentagrams hammered into them. Blue strip lighting was situated under the fixed furniture and gave the floor a glossy water look as it reflected off the high gloss marble.

  My head was everywhere, taking everything in as quickly as I could. I thought nowhere on earth could match Afterlife on the wow factor but this was just as incredible. What was it with supernatural Lords anyway? They all seemed to own an alternative club and they all tried to outdo each other on a grand scale.

  At the bottom of these stairs another two colossal guards stood like an impending doom waiting to crush skulls and disembowel at the first sight of trouble. Adam waited and held Klaus back with one hand placed at his chest. Even though Klaus was clearly much bigger he didn’t struggle or even move from under the less threatening hand. Pip skipped past blowing Adam a kiss and took my hand in hers to lead me upstairs. When I passed the guards they growled down at me and I hurried up the next few steps so that Pip’s arms didn’t extend behind her as much.

  At the top, the next level was just as impressive as the rest of the décor but in a completely different way. Up here was clearly meant for one thing....playing!

  The walls were a mix with box lighting that held dancing girls behind, causing shadow dancers to play with the mind. One minute they didn’t look real as arms, legs and fingers would grow longer and thinner. There were seven in total, all with different colour lighting and a very different shadow behind. There were all sizes ranging from a size six to a size twenty plus. Curves of all sizes and hair both long, touching the back of the knees, to buzz cuts with large curved Mohicans. All the girls had one thing in common and it made me blush as I walked past the wall of bodies, they were all clearly naked.

  The next section had swags of material in lush reds, burnt oranges and fire yellows hanging from the walls, some of which hid different sections to make more private areas where people were obviously doing more than sipping fine wine and talking about the weather. I wasn’t looking where I was going and nearly walked into a half-naked girl on a swing mid-motion. It was a half-moon curl of clear plastic that had little diamonds sparkling around the edge, this matched her nipples which were encrusted with gems. After muttering a brief apology Pip laughed at my burning face,

  “Come on Slick, games to play...I just love jumping on the pogo sticks,” she said clapping at herself and I heard Adam behind me chuckle. This was when I turned round to find I was being closely followed by Adam and Klaus. He nodded to me and I turned to see where I was going so that I wouldn’t run into any other horny people. I felt like I was running the gauntlet only instead of getting out of the way from big metal balls filled with spikes and tree trunks slamming me into a thinner version of myself I was trying to avoid skin and sin hanging from the walls and ceilings. Literally there were half naked bodies draped over some form of surface, whether it was furniture or chains coming from the beams above that were cuffed to wrists and ankles. The room was filled with people that were all enjoying some form of entertainment. Tables were set about the room keeping a clear path which we walked down, but I couldn’t help where my eyes drifted to. One man lay naked on a long table and was surrounded by both men and women licking both cream and was that...blood off his body? His hands were tied above his head attached to a metal ring on the floor. He didn’t look like he was there against his will.

  Another table had a small Asian women sat cross-legged in the centre and was smoking from a long pipe the length of my arm. She would then blow out the smoke into different long tailed smoke creatures that would attack each other and the surrounding guests would lay down money as if placing bets. I watched as one destroyed the other by rippi
ng off a smoking head with non-existent talons. This club made Afterlife look like Disneyland, while this would be a theme park from the ‘Nightmare before Christmas’!

  We rounded a corner and now along the wall were five person length cages that also held half naked girls. They were surrounded by little round tables that sat one person each. The girls were dancing enthusiastically trying everything in their power to entice the people at the tables, all men apart from one very butch female Goth. It soon became clear that all the girls were human, unlike most in this part of the club. One of the girls had even written ‘Come play with me’ in black marker on her stomach, either that or it was a tattoo...You would never know in a place like this. Another of the girls had ‘Bite me’ with an arrow pointing to her neck and when she spun round it had the words ‘I told you I tasted good’ written down her spine. I shuddered as one of the men walked up to that girl and fed what looked like a note into a slot by the door. The cage swung open and the excited girl sprang free into the tall man whose arms shot out to catch her. He hauled her over his strong looking shoulder and walked past me with a quick glance combined with a handsome wink, before disappearing behind one of the curtained areas.

  When I finally tore my eyes away I was finally seeing my horror in the flesh. I looked to where Pip was running to, like an excited puppy seeing its owner. It had widened into a larger part of the upstairs which jutted out over the floors below. The huge metal columns that were attached to the stage came up to this section and in between the steel was thick glass frosted at the bottom in a tribal pattern which reminded me of a design a pub regular at home had tattooed all up one arm. We seemed to be directly above the stage and you could see the dance floor two floors down.