The Flicker

Over a thousand screens painted the walls of the main auditorium. In a way that both made her anxious and extremely thankful for the cover, many clubgoers were pouring in from the hallways in anticipation for the swiftly coming night. Concessions were ludicrously expensive, even for Kidneyland, yet they were so good people bought them anyway. Some snacked, some talked, many rested on the incredible amount of seating provided that took up the entire floor. It looked like you were supposed to dance in here, but she wasn’t sure where you were supposed to do it.

Frankie had simultaneously everywhere and nowhere to hide. There wasn’t currently some other way out of the building as far as she could see. The kids here (they called themselves “Flicks”) were better dressed than her and otherwise acted nothing like the poor tourist. There were bathrooms and many hallways to go down but none looked to be anything more than a dead end.

Before she knew it she was running all over the place like she was aimlessly wandering a dream. Thankfully most Flicks were too distracted with their own business to notice the panicked lass, though this also meant not a single one would come up to help her.

In the labyrinth of halls making up the single-floor building, she found what was clearly a gift shop- brightly colored as everything else inside but with twice the price tags- Frankie took solace in the familiarity. In a streak of impulse, she rang up two armfuls of items picked out from the store and took them into the restroom with her.

This can’t be it.

This can’t be it.

This can’t be the end.

Please god don’t let this be the end.

I’ll never do anything bad ever again.

When she left the stall and looked in the mirror, she really wasn’t too much different. The gaudy Flicker merchandise she was now decked out in did little hide her full likeness that, even though caked in makeup, had already been seen in broad daylight by Coaster Bozo himself.

She tucked as much of her dark hair as she could under an ugly new hat that, like most of the club, looked like a dance floor from some nebulous time BNG, having left her old choice of headwear off when she got her makeover that afternoon. However, even this didn’t inspire much confidence in the fugitive that she wouldn’t eventually be caught once Bozo found a way in here.

When she left the bathroom, passing by a stall that clearly had more than one person inside- neither using it for its intended purpose, by the sound of it- she came across a sight that made every hair on her body stand straight on end. Two staff security members marched down the curvy halls, just past her when she escaped the commode. On their intercoms, they hissed updates.

“We can’t find her anywhere. When the hell are we getting that guest list?”

“Freddie, this Dinah. She’s not in the giftshop. Where are you?”

Creeping the other way, the crook briefly considered hiding in a broom closet nearby before coming to her terrified, barely functioning senses. Up ahead in the main hall, the screens were lighting up with music videos and the seating in the room was sinking into the ground as the dance floor revealed itself. The lights were dimming, and soon it would be much, much harder for anyone to make out her face in a crowd-

A burly hand landed on her shoulder.

“Sorry, miss?” His deep, unfamiliar voice sounded. “I’m Freddie from club security. Can you turn around for just one second?”

I’m dead.

Frankie’s teeth chattered. All the options left in her head began to disappear and the employee started trying to lean in and see who it was he’d gotten ahold of, and if he was about to be the one to end this little situation right here and now.

There was no intelligent solution. There was no escape route.

All there was were stupid teenagers.

Frankie took a deep breath just as everyone on the floor had started to come together, right before the opening of the night’s first song.

“HEY EVERYBODY! FREE DRINKS ON ME! COME AND GET ‘EM!”

Even after all his training, Freddie had little idea what to do about the horde of over one hundred teenagers rushing towards him.