EC III-V: Red Ravin' Extended

Rachel was not a regular at any of the local clubs. She just felt adventurous and decided to go rave on her own time. Took her red dress she never dared to wear before and entered the local nightlife center with glorious intents.

To drink herself into oblivion? To pick up a guy for one night? To commit to the dance floor and rock it with no experience at all? Yeah, once there, Rachel was a little less courageous already. She just couldn‘t help but saw herself from aside, how awkward her presence there was, down to her attire.

Yes, these weren’t 2000s, many other girls were also wearing sneaks, but somehow they looked sexy on them and bland on her? Once she stopped her attempts to dance, a stranger two seats away from her was quick to diagnose her.

“Not feeling it, I presume? This usually helps.” — he slid his drink all the waytowards her right elbow. — “On me.” — he said before finishing the other one he had and jumping right back into the raving crowd, never to be seen again.

This gave Rachel the push she needed. She ordered another one, and was ready to have a good time at last. Freely speaking with strangers, committing to the moves, beats replacing doubts in her head. 

When she left the dance floor to have a single deep breath, she saw a pair of red heels standing in the corner. She was drunk enough to kick off her sneakers and slide her feet inside. They matched her dress perfectly, and she decided to roll with it. With a click, their ankle straps closed around her ankles, and the night continued...

***

Rachel was so exhausted that she was sobering up. Her fried brain was finally positive on going home, and so she stepped out of the club. However, she didn’t quite end up on the street as a result. Clearly, it was another club with more dancing people, but why would they build another one right in front of this one overnight?

Still very confused, the red raver wobbled past the crowd into the bathroom. A clock was hanging on the wall, attracting her attention. Rachel pulled out her phone and realized it was two hours earlier there! What was going on? She climbed onto a toilet to see into the tiny window up there, only to see another club, this time empty, with a lone janitor cleaning the place up.

Still not believing what she was seeing, Rachel ran as far as she could, clicking of her shoes drowned out by music. Every way out led to more clubs, all across the world. And when she finally ran out of strength and fell down to take off the red heels, she discovered that she could not. The seemingly flimsy strap was immune to all of her efforts and to the sharpest objects she could find. 

For a minute there, Rachel cried. But then stood up. The cursed shoes didn’t hurt. She wasn’t hungry, just thirsty for more drinks. Try as she might, she didn’t remember how to get back to the first club. It was probably closed anyway already, with the right door leading somewhere else.

The prospect of raving tirelessly for eternity all around the world conflicted Rachel greatly. How long before she forgets of the existence of a world left behind? What will she do when her credit card goes empty? She reached for it into her purse, but the purse itself was gone, and she stared with an absent stare at where it used to be.  

Did someone snatch it at her drunkest or did it slip off her shoulder during her frantic run through the clubs? Either way, it was gone for good along with her card, phone, ID and remote.

Remote?

Rachel touched her unfamiliarly bare shoulder with one hand, while the other one tried to pull the skirt down, but its rubbery surface flopped back, insisting on being dangerously close to flashing her panties. Clearly, this was not the dress she started partying in.

Some vague memories of switching dresses with another girl who just could not stop giggling flooded in. Rachel began pulling at the unyielding dress collar, but a mind as overwhelmed as hers was could not defeat the garment without the unobtainable remote. Greatly disadvantaged, she was not much of a fight. With her head up high, she went into another door to embrace the inevitable Activation on the floor, lost in every crowd in the world.