7

While driving, I listened to the soft music on the radio and shifted nervously in the seat. Outside I saw lanterns passing by the window, which brought us a little light on the otherwise dark streets and only when Rudi took a deep breath did I look ahead at him again.

"We're here. I wish you a lot of fun and don't mess around." He parked at the edge of the street and my eyes immediately fell curiously on the entrance of the Wialtrama, where quite a lot of smokers cavorted and talked in a good mood. My pulse was racing with excitement and I couldn't wait to finally dance. It's been a long time since I've been out, let alone drinking and then in a new town surrounded by strangers. It was an exhilarating feeling accompanied by a tiny touch of fear of the unknown.

I quickly took a last sip of sparkling wine and tried to wash away the bad thoughts and looked around again.

There were older people, but also younger ones. The crowd at this place seemed to be a diverse mix of people and I realized Lili could have joined us as there seemed to be enough of her age represented here.

"Are you coming?" Chace startled me with his touch on my arm and I jumped a little. "Calm down." He raised his hands innocently and I let out a relieved breath. "I was thinking and yes we can go."

He got out smiling and I didn't even wait for him to hold the door open for me, but took the initiative myself and opened the door, only to be stared at by everyone outside. "I'll call you then.", Chace knocked on Rudi's roof and then turned to me after the car was no longer visible.

"Are you alright?" he asked, scrutinizing my gaze, but I just nodded and avoided his gaze to take a closer look at the building.

It wasn't big, but it was well lit. The entrance consisted of black double doors with an ashtray on the left, around which most of the faces whispering about me were gathered.

I tried not to focus on her but looked at the tall man dressed in black sitting on a red stool to the right of the door, typing away on his cell phone with concentration.

"This is Eddie, our bouncer." Chace must have noticed my staring at the black man and I caught his eye in confusion. "Your bouncer?" "Well, I mean from the bar here.", he stammered and then started walking slowly, always looking back at me to see if I was keeping up.

"Hey, Eddie." "Chace," the tall one nodded at him, then cocked his head to look at me and stand up. "Who is that?" he then turned back to Chace, who stepped close to whisper something in his ear.

Slowly but surely, my good mood and my self-confidence disappeared, because now not only the strangers from the smoking corner were whispering about me, but also the two men directly in front of me. My hands are sweating even though I was freezing in the dress and nervously I padded from one foot to the other until the door of the club opened and Ludwig stepped out.

My uncertain mine disappeared and what remained was an excited smile, which he replied as soon as he spotted me. "Who do you have there? So you accepted my invitation." He approached me happily and hugged me in greeting, which Chace only watched with frustration.

"Yes and I brought someone else.", I nodded towards Chace after the blonde had let go of me, but the two didn't even look at each other, both pairs of eyes were only directed at me. "See you inside. We don't want him to become an animal with excitement.", the blonde whispered in my ear and disappeared back inside without looking back. All I was left with was its lovely minty smell, which had relieved me of the stench of nicotine, at least for a short time.

"Let's have a drink. I could really use something right now." Chace gave me a signal with his hand to follow him and he held one of the double doors open for me and I found myself entering a narrow, dark hallway with curtains at the end blocking the view inside.

It wasn't until the brown-haired man let the door shut behind me that I noticed that to my left was a tall, pale woman with almost white hair who smiled at me in a friendly way. There was a small sign above her that said 》Cloakroom《, but since we had come without jackets anyway, I just walked on and nervously opened the curtain while Chace seemed to be still talking to the woman at the counter.

As if the process were soundproof, loud music hit my ears immediately after standing in this huge room full of people. Various neon colors were flashing and blinking everywhere and I could make out a long black bar along the wall to the left with lots of seating at the counter, but although there were so many, they all seemed occupied.

My gaze fell to the other side, where there were several small round tables with chairs on which some were playing cards and others were apparently trying to arm wrestle. I had to smile briefly about everything and only then did my eyes fall right in front of me.

There was plenty of room to dance between the bar and the tables, but that wasn't what intrigued me, it was the back stage with a beautiful woman dancing on a pole. You could have called it stripping, but it looked far too elegant for that and she was still almost fully dressed.

Without taking my eyes off the black-haired beauty, I walked a few steps towards the bar and unexpectedly bumped into something hard. "I'm so sorry," I stammered, embarrassed, looking up from his chest, which immediately froze me and took my breath away.

Ice blue eyes looked at me.

The same eyes that haunted me night after night.

The same eyes that drew me in and scared me at the same time and communicated their pain to me, so much so that even after waking up I couldn't shake it off.

And now he was standing in front of me and all I could do was stare at his face in my rigidity.

He looked at me dismissively. A crushing look that I would never forget and then he disappeared past me towards the exit. I looked after him confused, not knowing whether to run after him or not, or what to make of his reaction.

Questions tumbled in my head. who was he? Why does he appear in my dreams? Why do I feel a connection to him?

It really was too much for me and I tried to convince myself that it was all in my imagination. The champagne had probably already attached itself to my mind and was now playing tricks on me.

As soon as I calmed down, Chace came through the curtain and toward me. "You look like you've seen a ghost." His look at me was full of concern, but there was also curiosity in him. "No. I'm okay. I was just looking around," I stammered, forcing a smile that hopefully would tempt him to stop asking me any more questions. "Then let's order something to drink."

We walked over to the bar together, ordered drinks and then looked for a free table. As soon as we were seated, two men the age of Chace came and sat down with us. "Who is that?" the taller Chace asked, only glancing at me briefly. He had an air that made me kind of nervous with the leather jacket and the messy dark hair. daredevil. That's how I would rate him based on first impressions.

"I'm Chiara." I answered him confidently, drawing his gaze back to me, which changed immediately. "You're Chiara?" asked the black-haired man sitting across from me, who looked a bit smaller and chubby than the other two, but was the only one with a warm expression in his eyes.

I was surprised that he seemed to know me, but Chace had probably already been telling everyone who the new girl in town was. "And you are?" I then looked back and forth between the two while the music in the club changed and the lights flashed faster.

"Samuel.", the black-haired one said and pointed to the big one. "This is Ethan." I took a closer look at both of them, but Ethan said he had to talk to Chace and Samuel about something important. So all three of them looked at me again and then disappeared over to the bar. This whole evening seemed really strange to me.

I turned my gaze back to the stage, where this woman was still dancing, and picked up my glass to sip it from time to time, bored. Luckily the music was to my liking. At least something positive.

When I was about to get up to get something new to drink, I was happy to see Ludwig coming towards me with two glasses in his hand. "Did you get rid of your attachment?" he grinned smugly and sat down across from me. "Not by choice. Apparently I have the gift of scaring everyone away." I rolled my eyes playfully and then gave him my grateful smile as he handed me one of the drinks.

"I don't believe you." He shook his head in disbelief and leaned a little further towards me to look deep into my eyes. "It really is. Although I don't know anyone here, most of them seem to avoid or even despise me."

As soon as I said those words, I avoided Ludwig's gaze and looked over to the exit, through which the man with the ice-blue eyes had disappeared. "It's definitely not your fault. Believe me." The blonde put his hand on mine, drawing my attention back to him. It felt nice to feel his touch, but I withdrew my hand anyway after a short while, also because I saw Chace coming again.

"See you." Ludwig winked and disappeared again. He couldn't see Chace coming behind him at all, so I was amazed that he seemed to know exactly when the Chaser was coming back. But I didn't give it any more thought.

"You should stay away from Ludwig." Chace said and put more drinks on the table. I looked up at him in surprise, but he avoided my gaze. "And why should I?" I asked curiously, I wouldn't stick to that anyway. I just wanted to know why. "Because you don't belong to him."

Whenever I thought I couldn't get more confused, this place and its people upped the ante. "What do you mean belong? I'm nobody's property!" I was getting angry at the thought that Chace and his friends must have made bets on me.

"Of course not. I didn't mean it like that." "What did you mean then?" I didn't give up, but he looked at the stage and didn't answer me anymore. If he thought I was someone you could just ignore and then let it be, he was wrong.

Disappointed by his ignorance, I stood up, gave him a cold look when he looked up at me and then walked towards the exit. "Where are you going?" Ludwig came to the curtain and held my arm, but I tore myself away and kept walking.

All I wanted at that moment was to be completely alone. All these impressions were too much for me. There was something really crazy about the guys here and around. It felt like a studel full of secrets and I would be the only one who wasn't privy to.

When I got outside, the guy with the ice blue eyes stood by Eddie and together they smoked cigarettes and looked at me in amazement.

I walked past them into the cold without looking at them again and tried to orient myself when I got to the street.

"Hi," came a voice behind me that I didn't recognize, but I knew immediately who was speaking. I didn't turn around because I had to deal with the goosebumps on my body first, which I didn't know if it or the cold was causing them. "Are you alright?" he then asked and at that moment I turned to him and the ice blue eyes stared at me questioningly. A moment that seemed forever.