After we finished our delicious meal, Martha and I walked to Club Novus. It was around the same time I arrived the previous night. The same bouncer stood out front, underneath the glowing blue neon sign. I thought he might chit-chat with me or say something like, “back again, huh?”

But nothing like that happened. I don’t even think he recognized me.

“Do you have a pass?” The bouncer asked Martha.

Martha pointed at me.

“Yes, and this is my guest I brought with me.” I pulled out my wallet and handed the bouncer the blue slip.

We went through the ID exchange as he studied everything meticulously with his flashlight.

“Come on in.” The bouncer let us through, and we went inside.

Entering the club, everything was nearly identical to the previous night. The droning industrial music blaring, the rainbow panels on the dance floor shining, people mindlessly dancing with each other, servers walking around with giant masks hardly wearing anything, and tons of fog.

“Wow, no wonder this place draws a good crowd every night. If I was younger, I’d be coming here every night.” Martha chuckled.

There was a different server that approached us; he was tall and muscular, 6-pack abs. “Would you two like a booth?”

“Yes, that would be great,” I said.

The server beckoned and escorted us to a booth near the table I sat at the previous night.

“Can I get you two anything to drink?” He asked.

“The house cocktail, please. For both of us,” I said.

“Of course.”

He strode off, and Martha turned around to check him out as he walked away.

“Good grief, this place is wild, huh?” Martha said. “I need to come here more often. Was he your server last night?”

I snickered. “No, it was someone else. But I haven’t seen her around, but then again, I can’t really see any faces here.”

“Yeah, what’s with the whole mask thing? They look amazing, but it’s definitely creepy.”

“Did you notice something else about him?”

“His buns of steel?” Martha smirked.

I laughed. “No, his tattoo on his arm. It looked like it was a minotaur.”

“What’s your analysis there?”

“Well, it looks like almost all the servers have a tattoo on their arm. It’s hard to tell what it is with the fog and what little their outfit is covering, but the server last night had a Cerberus tattoo. Both of which are Greek mythological creatures.”

“Huh. That’s a little bizarre.”

The server came back with two drinks and dropped them off at our table. “Enjoy.”

“Excuse me, but I have a quick question I wanted to ask you,” I said.

He stopped and stared at me. “Please make it quick. I have other tables to tend to.”

“Is that a tattoo of a Minotaur?”

“It is.”

“That’s nice; I think it looks great. May I ask where you got your tattoo from?”

“A friend of mine gave it to me. Is there anything else you need?”

“Uh, yes. I suppose there’s one other thing on my mind. I was here last night with a friend, she left early, but I stayed back, yet I don’t have any memory of what happened when I went on the dance floor. Have you heard of anyone going through any memory loss as they’re here?”

“No, I haven’t. Now excuse me.” The server walked away from our table.

“Wow, you laid it all out there,” Martha said.

“I was just curious to see what he might say. That was hardly a reaction.”

“The man seems pretty busy.” Martha shrugged. “Let’s try our drinks, shall we?”

“Good idea. The moment of truth.” I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out two straws. Reading the instructions, if the straw turns purple, the drink was tainted with a substance. I opened up both straws and gave one to Martha.

We plopped the straws in our drinks and left them in for a minute before pulling them out.

“Looks like they didn’t turn any different color. Dammit.” I sighed.

“You’re upset that your drink wasn’t tampered with?”

“I was hoping to be one step closer. Proof of the tainted drink would have blown this case wide open.”

“Since neither of those are tainted, I’ll be a team player and drink ‘em both. That way, even if there is something sneaky in here, you’ll at least remember the night.”

“Or we don’t have to drink either of them. How about that?” I said.

“Eh, don’t want them to go to waste though.” Martha winked. “I guess I shouldn’t though."

“I’m still going to take this drink with me and send it for some testing. It’s not a bad idea to see if there might be something that the straw can’t detect.”

I pulled out a small plastic container and scooped it up full of the cocktail.

“Say g-man, where do you think those people are going?” Martha pointed with her head at the dance floor. I turned and looked to see a few people get approached by servers, who held the hands of someone and ushered them to the back of the club.

“I’m not sure. Last night I can only remember going up to the dance floor, and that’s where things started to get fuzzy.”

“Everyone on the dance floor seems to be having a good time. I notice that everyone seems to be in their own zone, almost hypnotized.”

“Perhaps they’re just really enjoying the music.” I shrugged. It was hard to tell if something abnormal was going on with the twenty people dancing with each other in a pit, especially with all of the fog.

Our server came back to our table after we were watching the dance floor for a little while.

“Was there a problem with your drinks?” He asked.

“No, we’re just taking our time with these. Thank you, though,” Martha said. “While you’re here, I have another question of my own.”

“I have other tables to tend to.”

“I’ll make it quick!” Martha snapped. “Where are you taking those people?” She pointed at another server taking a couple to the back of the club.

“I have no idea.” He replied and stormed off, but Martha grabbed his arm, and my jaw dropped.

“You must have an inkling of what’s happening, correct?”

“Get your hands off of me, or your ass is getting bounced,” the server muttered.

Martha let go of his arm, and marched into the thick of the fog.

“I’m sorry about that, g-man, he was just being a brat, and it was driving me up a wall.” Martha frowned.

“It’s okay. I think we’ll be all right. They seem to be doing something bizarre here anyways. Perhaps we should ask another server where they’re taking them.”

“Good idea.”

The two of us slid out of the booth and approached another roaming server close to the dance floor. The music was louder, so I had to raise my voice so the waitress could hear me. “Excuse me, I’m not really familiar with this place, but I was just curious where the staff is taking some of the people on the dance floor?”

“We have some private suites in the back for people to enjoy a drink with some of the club’s VIPs,” she responded.

“Thank you, do you know how it’s decided who is picked to go?”

“Those people are just regulars. They receive a special invite and show their pass to their server.”

“Got it, thank you.” I turned to Martha. “Did you get all that?”

Martha nodded and––

Opening my eyes, I found myself in a dark room. It took me a moment to realize I was just sleeping.

I’m in my bed in the inn, tucked in by the sheet and comforter, wearing pajamas.

I turned on the bedside lamp and scrambled up, checking my phone, plugged into the charger. There were no messages nor any missed calls; it was 5:00 AM. My heart pounded in my chest as my hands became shakey.

No, no, no! It happened again! What was the last thing I remembered?

I sealed my eyes shut and forced myself to recall everything that led up to this point, but the only thing I could think of was talking with Martha in the club.

That’s the last memory I have.

Jumping out of bed, I opened up my laptop tablet and looked at my daily notes page, and it appeared I had filled in everything coherently. I also noticed I had an email from St Mary’s hospital.

Nothing in my blood suggested any foreign substances were added to my drink on Sunday night.

Good, but, damn. Another dead end. I looked through the notes I had written a handful of hours ago.

Martha and I went to the club, just the two of us. Neither of us drank the cocktail nor any alcohol, for that matter. We found out why people go in the back rooms, and then we left shortly after walking around a little bit more. The next objective will be to get an invite to the back rooms, but getting an invitation into Club Novus is hard enough. Martha and I each got in our respective cars and drove home.

I tried calling Martha, the phone rang a few times and went to voicemail.

“Hi, you’ve reached Sheriff Martha. Leave a voicemail.”

“Hey, it’s Eddie. Call me back as soon as possible. It happened again, and I want to know if it happened to you too?”

I ended the call and paced back and forth in front of the bed. I gazed out the window, hoping that looking at the street while still dark would jog any memories.

The sun was poking its way from the horizon. I couldn’t think of anything. As I walked to the bathroom, I noticed there was an envelope on the floor. Someone must’ve slid it underneath my door, or perhaps I brought it in with me and dropped it on the ground. I picked it up; it was sealed. Opening it, there was a letter inside.

I THINK IT’S TIME WE MEET. I CAN HELP YOU. I’VE WANTED TO HELP YOU, BUT IT CAN BE DIFFICULT FOR ME. MY SINCEREST APOLOGIES. THE BEST WAY I COULD BE OF ASSISTANCE IS IF YOU MET WITH ME AT MY HOUSE.

1179 QUARRY RD WILTON, INDIANA.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, DO NOT PARK IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE. IT WOULD BE IDEAL IF YOU WERE DROPPED OFF. IF YOU MUST DRIVE, PARK BEHIND MY GARAGE. SORRY FOR THE MESS. BUT COME IMMEDIATELY INTO THE BACKYARD AND HOP THE FENCE. DO NOT APPROACH THE PORCH.

SOMEONE MIGHT BE WATCHING.

COME SEE ME THIS AFTERNOON WHEN YOU’RE FEELING BETTER, 1:00 PM WOULD BE IDEAL. THERE’S A LOT I CAN EXPLAIN.

-C.R.G.

I put the letter back in the envelope. Getting dressed, I rushed down to the lobby and saw Elizabeth getting ready to head out the door.

“Oh, hey, Eddie! I’m glad you’re here. I just finished up writing a note to leave for my dad for when he saw you next,” Elizabeth said.

“Elizabeth, hey, thank you so much. Look, what can you tell me that happened tonight when I came in?”

“Oh no, you forgot what happened again, didn’t you? I kinda thought so. You came in with eyes glazed over and were very quiet and just wanted to go back to your room, so I didn’t want to bother you, but something weird happened about five minutes after you came in. Another person came in an older man with gray hair and beard. He wasn’t the most charming person to talk to, but this is how the conversation went:’Hi, the man who just walked in, I have a letter I must give him,’ he said.

‘Okay, sure. I can give him the letter when I see him next,’ I replied.

‘No. I need you to go up to his room and slide this letter under his door immediately.’

‘But I can’t leave the desk.’

‘You must do so immediately. It must get to him. Thank you. His safety relies on it. I’ll watch the desk for you if you’d like.’

“I said I’d slide the letter under your door, and he agreed to leave. He didn’t leave a name with me, though. I locked the door after he left and ran up to your room. Sorry I don’t have more for you, Eddie.”

“That’s fine; you did wonderfully. Thank you very much. I got everything I need.” I ran back to the elevator, went back into my room, and reread the note from C.R.G.