New Year Eve - The Party Begins
Great Drinks Dance Bar, Manhattan, New York
December 31st 2022, 7:30 pm
The crowd in the dance bar was slowly increasing. This new year was special as the world was shaken in the past few years. As things were getting to normal, people wanted to unwind themselves this new year and party hard.
And in a city like New York, the fun got even better.
After Ray Pfieffer, Rachael's brother parked the car in the designated parking area of the dance bar, the three got down the car, while Ray locked the car.
The three of them walked towards the dance bar. When they had almost reached the venue, Rachael looked for her satchel to pull out the pass and she couldn't find the satchel. She realised that she had left it in the car.
She borrowed the car keys from Ray and asked both the men to stay back while she went back to fetch her satchel.
She unlocked the car and when she just held the door handle to open the car, she could hear thunder in the sky.
"Ouch" Rachael let out a cry while pulling her hand off the door handle. The lightning accompanying the thunder had struck her hand. And that was too fast for her to even realise and pull back her hand. She knew it was because she was holding the steel handle of the car.
The lightning was very mild and Rachael felt like a light electric shock. She looked up to see the clear sky. She hurried up before she could hear another thunder from far off.
She grabbed the satchel, closed the door and locked the car before hurrying back to where the men were standing.
As soon was she heard the loud music coming off the dance bar, she forgot to tell Ethan and Ray what just happened with her.
While they were about to enter the dance bar, Rachael saw another couple who was entering as well.
What caught Rachael's attention was that the girl seemed young. It looked like she had just passed out of school. But she had a peculiar aura around her and once anyone saw her, they couldn't forget her face. She was quite captivating.
The girl was dressed in a red and black gown and she looked very beautiful may be not as beautiful as Rachael. The guy looked charming as well. They made a good match.
After showing all their passes they all were finally let in.
The dance bar was semi-lit to create a party mood. The DJ was still setting up the instruments with his team. There was a light music playing in the background.
There were already quite a few couples who were dancing to the slow music on the floor. Rachael felt a little nervous as she wasn't sure if she could escape the closeness of Ethan
The three of them did not want to start immediately. They looked for a corner and comfortable seating. Rachael texted her friend Jason to see what time he would reach. And she got a response saying that they are already in and dancing.
She replied saying they just came in and were seated in the corner couch.
After few mins Jason and Janet came to where the three were seated. They had carried some appetiser for them to eat and offered it to three of them.
They took their seats adjacent to where the three of them were seated.
It was Ray who started the conversation.
"Hi Jason, how you've been ? I believe we met two years ago."
"We have been good. Meet my wife Janet or Natalie as Rachael knows. Just got hitched 2 months back. How have you guys been? "
Ray and Ethan were meeting Natalie for the first time and Rachael knew Natalie as a good friend but they were not too close.
"Hi Nat sorry Janet, good to see you after a long time" Rachael gave a warm smile to Janet.
"Good to see you Janet and Jason, you are beautiful couple" complemented Ethan.
"We are all doing very well Jason at least for the last two years and I can't seem to thank you enough for all the help" said Ray.
"Never mind, what are friends for?" said Jason as his eyes were lovingly staring at Rachael. Janet was confused thinking what help did her husband do. Her curious brain was ticking again.
Although Janet being a normal human could not see clearly in the semi- dark, Jason was not aware that Ethan could see in the dark.
Ethan noticed Jason staring at his wife and he being a possessive husband was not happy with what he saw.
Jason felt Ethan was looking at him and he just turned to look at Ethan, and saw that Ethan's eye glowed yellow as a warning just for two seconds. And with this Jason came to his senses.
He knew that Ethan may not be as powerful as Ray but he sure was powerful than him.
It was almost 20:00 hrs when they finished the introductions. And they heard the DJ announcing that they had set up various events for the couples and he was requesting all of them to gather near the dance floor.
Janet who was just giving a polite smile to all of them till now finally spoke up.
"Hey why don't we all get on the dance floor and have some fun."
"Sure you guys start off, Rachael, Ethan I just have something which came up. I'll be back in half an hour" said Ray as he got up and walked out.
Rachael had texted Jason earlier in the day, asking him to stay close to where she and Ethan may be dancing and Jason had agreed.
The DJ was announcing the couples to get to the dance floor.
Both the men offered their hands to their woman to lead them to the dance floor.
Rachael hesitated for a moment but finally placed her hand on Ethan's hand. While Ethan had offered his hand to her, she had noticed that Ethan had worn the ring given by her dad. She was glad that Ray had kept his word.
Although the ring did not go very well with his outfit, he had worn it as Ray had suggested him to wear it. He had told Ethan that he was curious to see if the ring showed up any mystery.
Both the couples walked to the dance floor.
The DJ gave a quick look around to see if the dance floor had good number of people and when he was satisfied he started announcing
"Ladies and Gentlemen, as we leave behind this beautiful year and usher the New Year in, let's say goodbye to the year 2022 and welcome 2023 in a joyous mood.
Today we have organised special dance events which will go on until 23:00 hrs and post that the dance floor will be open for requesting your favourite dance numbers and your DJ, that's me will be playing your favourite numbers.
And then " he paused "we have a surprise element."
The DJ looked at the crowd who were all ears to listen to what he was about to say next.
"And the surprise tonight , ladies and gentlemen please hold you breath as we invite on stage few of the most popular choreographers in the U.S today."
The stage was well lit and cheer rose up in the air, as they saw 4 popular choreographers walking up the stage.
The DJ waited for the noise created by the crowd to die down. The crowd cheering at the choreographers went on for few minutes as the choreographers continued to wave to the crowd.
"I hope you all loved the surprise element tonight and finally we have saved the best for the last.
As I mentioned earlier that we will be having special dance forms starting from the fast dance forms to the classic ones.
Before the start of each dance form, the distinguished guests out here on the stage will be showing you the dance steps and will be dancing along with you.
Please note if you feel tired anytime during the dance, request you to slowly move with the dance steps towards the corner before moving out of the dance floor. This was it would not distract or interrupt people who are continuing to dance"
A huge roar of applause was heard as the DJ finished announcing.
Rachael felt quite good at the way they had planned as she herself was a perfectionist. She looked at the time and noticed that it was half an hour since Ray had left and he had still not arrived.
From this point onwards the choreographers took over. One of the females from the four came forward to start the dance event
"As our DJ just announced, we will be taking you through a series of dance forms but before we begin, we will do a light warm up. As it's winter our muscles needs to be loosened before we start".
While she was announcing this, Rachael was slowly looking around and she finally spotted Ray with a beautiful girl. She saw him holding her hand.
She smiled thinking her brother had grown up and this was the reason he had got out.
[To be continued... ]
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Authors note: Dear Readers, the mystery begins to unfurls slowly in the next chapter and I may take some time to publish the next chapter
If you are interested to see Rachael's outfit for the party please follow me on my Instagram account: amateur_author_wn
Until then "Happy Reading! Cheers"