Creature of the Nightclub

Synthetic beats pounded through the air, and coloured lights snaked through the crowd like entities with their own vices and desires. A crowd of bodies flailed and spun in the flashes of colour between longer stretches of darkness. Hookah smoke drifted above the dancing guests, and intricate Persian-style patterns covered the walls. Outside, the bustling streets of New York hummed with energy. Dinah had come up to the city to meet with one of her friends working in the nightclub. It was Tuesday night – the regular slot during which her friend would work as a DJ. What might otherwise have been a riveting night of bacchanalian revelry was about to be interrupted, however, by a strange character who seemed to be anything but human...

## Dinah's Disco Devil

The nightclub in question was seemingly the Falucka Lounge in Greenwich Village – and when Dinah arrived, she was quickly met with quite a few people who she knew before being introduced to some new people as well. It was all looking as if it was going to be an eventful night. One of these new acquaintances was an Asian woman who had come with her boyfriend. Dinah reckoned that she must’ve been from Japan, seeing as she had mentioned that she wanted the DJ to visit Japan. As the night went on, the Japanese woman kept commenting on how pretty Dinah was, and would often touch her face as if she was ‘*examining*’ her. This examination would consist of her grabbing Dinah’s chin as if she was a small child being looked at by an adoring parent, meaning that her sharp nails would painfully poke her. At first, Dinah resolved to put her odd behaviour up to cultural differences – but this would soon change. The woman moved in a ‘very masculine’ way and was described as being abnormally stiff when she danced – ‘*not fluid*’.

Further on into the evening, Dinah started to feel more and more uncomfortable. This weird woman was continually invading her personal space – and she just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something exceedingly bizarre about her. The woman’s boyfriend never said anything, instead just standing there and watching them. Nervously, and perhaps wanting to escape from her alarming admirer, Dinah approached the small dance-floor – hoping to enjoy some music to take her mind off the situation. She has apparently known that she was somewhat sensitive to the supernatural for as long as she can remember, and so whenever something odd happens she normally just tries her best to brush it off and move on. A few years back, she had realised that she sometimes ends up praying when she dances (her words, not mine – I have no idea what this could mean) and that her energy field expands during this act as well. She claims to have had people approach her and ask to touch her after having seen her aura. It is thus clear that what was about to happen wasn’t going to be her only inexplicable experience.

Anyway, Dinah was now on the dance floor – and her sinister stalker had caught up with her once again. The woman approached her and started dancing with her while her boyfriend watched. She continued her behaviour of deliberately getting far too close for comfort with Dinah – and Dinah was now starting to get annoyed by the situation, taking action by casually turning away from the odd woman while they were dancing. However, the invasive stranger clearly wasn’t taking no for an answer – grabbing Dinah’s waist and spinning her back around ‘*as if* (she) *was a feather*’. She was shocked and more than a little scared by this – seeing as she had previously thought of herself as being quite sure-footed and strong for her size, and the Asian woman was quite petite compared to her. It didn’t make sense that she had been able to move Dinah as if she ‘*didn’t weigh anything*’.

Almost as soon as Dinah had been forced to face the woman again, she suddenly found herself keeling over and clutching at her stomach. It felt like she had been punched in the stomach ‘*in reverse*’. She felt as if the woman had somehow sucked all her energy out through her groin and stomach area. Looking up at her from her pained position, she saw the woman snickering with laughter as her face morphed into something inhuman. Her mouth elongated on one side, reaching up towards her ear, and her eyes glowed like those of an animal in headlights. It was ‘*like they were creating their own light*’. They had changed shape and colour, and half her face no longer looked human. Dinah was horrified – and it was at this point when the woman seemingly realised that she had been exposed, turning to her boyfriend and stating ‘*she can see*’.

Feeling that she was now in danger, Dinah bolted upstairs and found her friends in the DJ booth, which was on a small loft platform just above the dance floor. Panicked, she tried to tell her friends about what was going on but they didn’t believe her – concluding instead that she must’ve been drinking despite her insistence that she didn’t ever drink. Under five minutes later, the shapeshifter and her boyfriend had ascended the ladder to sit in the DJ booth area with Dinah and her friends. Dinah described feeling ‘*like a trapped animal*’. If she wanted to escape from the booth, she would now need to pass directly in front of the shapeshifting woman. Preparing to face her fears, her girlfriend made eye contact with her to provide reassurance before she tried to squeeze past the mysterious woman towards safety. Predictably, however, the woman reached out to touch her as she passed – prompting her to stand up to her by saying ‘*don’t fucking touch me*’. The shapeshifter simply laughed and smiled at this – and it was this action which seemingly gave her malevolent intentions away to Dinah’s watching girlfriend, prompting her to start believing her about the odd nature of the frightening stranger. Dinah quickly left the lounge and hasn’t returned since then.

However, the consequences of the events that night weren’t going to be so easily gotten rid of. The places on Dinah’s chin where the woman had touched her started to itch and burn as if she was having an allergic reaction, and she later broke out in hives. Even as the physical symptoms receded, the fear that she had been left with had doggedly stayed with her right up until (and presumably beyond) when she divulged the details of her bizarre encounter to paranormal investigator David Weatherly.