The molten wax dripped onto the skin of the woman, prompting her to gasp and then grit her teeth. Before she could collect herself, a sudden slap on her buttocks made her moan.
The woman was tied to a wooden contraption on a small stage, in her underwear. One man was holding some colored candles, dripping wax on her, punctuating each drip with a sharp slap.
Noara was at a table nearby, watching the scene while she ate fries and drank her favorite Monstrous energy drink.
There were other people in the bar. Some were watching the performance, some were just talking between themselves. At one corner, a couple was playing with some floggers, testing their newly acquired toys.
Noara tucked her black hair behind her ear and took her phone out for the tenth time since she sat at that table.
"Tsk. Twenty minutes to midnight, and she hasn't arrived yet."
Clara still hadn't answered her messages. Hell, she hadn't even received the messages yet.
"She swore she would be here at 23h. Why isn't she here yet…? If she stands me up tonight, I swear I'll haunt her for the rest of her life when I die."
Nobody could listen to her over the volume of the goth music on the bar's speakers. Yet, anyone could see that she was annoyed.
Noara was wearing simple goth fashion, with ripped jeans pants that let good portions of her legs be visible, a black tank top, black combat boots, and a jeans backpack. She had some dark makeup on her well-tanned face and lips colored with black lipstick.
Some customers cheered at a harsher slap, the sound cracking through the bar like a whip.
A guy approached her, reeking of alcohol.
"Hey pretty, are you alone tonight? Wanna have some fun? I have my ropes here, we could do some shibari play…"
Noara looked at him from head to toe.
Nice face, not gonna lie, but…
"I'm sorry, but mixing alcohol and any play is a hard no for me. Nobody can give true consent while drunk, not to mention safety concerns."
The guy tried to argue, but she was already done with him.
Clara, where are y-… Oh, there she is.
At that moment, a tall, muscular woman with platinum, undercut hair and a body full of tattoos of abstract shapes entered the bar. She scanned the place and then walked straight to the table where Noara was.
"I'm sorry for being late. The Ruby line of the train stopped for a whole hour, and I'm all out of internet credits, so I couldn't send you a message. How are you?"
The anger in Noara's face softened as soon as she heard those words.
"Hi, Clara. It's okay. I'm fine, and you?"
The newcomer pulled a chair and sat down on the opposite side from Noara and took a fry from the plate, cracking a smile.
The performance continued on the stage of the BDSM club, but Noara's attention was fully focused on her friend now.
"You don't have to fake it, guria. I can see you're barely holding together. I _am_ fine, but you… What's been haunting you?"
Noara let out a sigh, frowning.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Yes, it is."
"To be honest, I didn't call you here today to complain about my problems. I wanted to have a nice time and forget about them a bit."
Clara chuckled with an understanding smile, then gestured for the waitress to come.
"If you want to have a good time, let's have a good time, then. But we'll need something better than energy drinks for that."
"Hello, Clara. Nice to meet you here. What's your order?"
The waitress was a butch girl with a collar on her neck, with the name of her partner embroidered on it.
"I want a Bloody Mary. And you, Noara? Sex on the Beach?"
"I would take sex anywhere today, thank you. But for drinking, I would like a sangria."
The other two giggled, and the waitress wrote their orders and left.
Clara turned back to Noara.
"So, it's that kind of nice time that you're after? You should've called Lu, then, not me."
Noara chuckled, but it was a dry, sad chuckle. She didn't answer, switching the topic to something else. But the loneliness in her eyes was very visible to Clara
***
Noara and Clara were chatting idly, waiting for their orders and occasionally commenting on the performance, when everything changed.
It didn't begin with an explosion or an eruption of violence.
No.
It began with a sudden chill in everyone's spine. A silent wave of pressure that made everyone's hearts heavier for an instant.
The music glitched.
The lights blinked.
"What's that?"
A random voice asked the question that was in everyone's minds, but before anyone could answer, something appeared in front of Noara's eyes.
It was a floating screen, like the UI of a VR game.
Wha-
In the first moment, the screen is empty. But then another screen, like a pop-up window, appeared in front of the first.
[ SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE ]
The Sixth Cycle has begun.
The Layers have aligned.
Baseline Reality is no longer sovereign.
Mana Saturation: 3.1 → 74.9 µL/m³
Symbol Layer Integrity: FRACTURING
Mythic Layer: BREACH ACTIVE
A feeling of nausea and dizziness hit Noara, but she managed to control it and read the notification again and again, her mind running wild. She noticed an [X] button on the corner of that pop-up window, the well-known symbol for closing windows.
She thinks about clicking the button, and the click animation plays, along with a weird SFX inside her head. That pop-up disappears. The first window is still there, though. But now, it isn't empty anymore.
[STAT SCREEN]
Name: NOARA VASCONCELOS
Species: HUMAN
Awakening State: UNAWAKENED
Class Seed: UNDEFINED (Awaiting Trigger)
Bloodline: NONE
[ BASELINE STATS ]
STRENGTH: 9
VITALITY: 8
AGILITY: 11
MIND: 12
WILL: 13
PERCEPTION: 14
PRESENCE: 15
"Noara… Are you also seeing something weird?"
Noara looked at her friend Clara, but the stat screen blocked her vision. She blinked once, then wished the screen to close.
"Yeah… Does that mean that you have a stat screen too?"
Clara nodded, then looked around. The 'trust me' mask she usually wore had disappeared, her voice cracking with fear.
"I do… And it looks like everyone here is seeing it as well."
A new chilling wave passed through the place. But, this time, Noara could see the world shifting subtly around her. Reflections and shadows lagged behind when people moved. Not always, and not consistently, but it was there.
Suddenly, another pop-up appears in Noara's vision.
[ NEW ATTRIBUTE UNLOCKED ]
INTENT-SENSITIVITY: Dormant
She reads it before closing. Clara didn't seem to be staring at a screen at that moment, so Noara decided to ask.
"Did a new pop-up appear to you now as well?"
"Huh? No. Just the stats screen and a smaller window with the system initialization notifi-"
[ SURVIVAL DIRECTIVES ]
Don't freak out.
You freak out, you die.
Yet another message appears in her vision, cutting her words short.
It also disappeared on its own after a brief moment. Noara herself had barely enough time to read what was in it, but what she read left her heart heavy with dread.
And she could see that Clara had seen this one too, from the way she was eyeing the reflections on the mirrors, breathing too fast.
Fuck.
She noticed that, on the wall, a shadow that didn't belong to any person moved.