The club was full of people and noise. Music thrummed through the air. The dance floor was most crowded, with most others clustered in small groups, around tables, or at the bar.

Behind one of the bartenders, on the top shelf of drinks. a bright green and gold spider skittered over and behind a bottle.

Down a small hall was a lounge with far fewer people. There was only one bartender, and a handful of guests.

A trio of men hung out around the bar, and a group was gathered around a pool table.

In the corner there was a woman in a booth, leaning away from an older man, as he was leaning towards her. She held her purse up in her lap between them. The man's sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing a portion of twin khopesh tattoos on each arm.

The man smiled, pinching some of the woman's hair between his fingers. He started to speak, but stopped when the music blaring outside the room was replaced by multiple gunshots and people began screaming.

Everyone in the lounge went quiet and remained completely still for a few moments before the bartender ducked behind the counter. The three men at the bar joined them. The crowd around the pool table scrambled. Some of them ducked behind the table, others ran to hide behind furniture or to get behind the counter as well.

The woman in the corner ducked under the table as the man next to her crouched down on the ground next to the booth, watching the door.

The room was quiet, as voices grew closer from outside.

"Go check the rooms." The first voice said.

"Whatever am I checking them for? I doubt they have rodent problems here."

"For people, dipshit."

"I was just checking, no need to be rude."

There were footsteps approaching the door, followed by a quick, rapping knock. "Is anyone hiding in there? Please do speak up, I can't hear very well through the door."

"Just open the fucking door and look!"

"Must I? You have a dozen other men with guns. One of them can do this."

"Go!"

"Fine, fine." The door opened inwards and as Bee stepped inside, and the man burst forward, pulling the khopeshes from his arms.

Bee shut the door with the end of his cane before he snatched the man's wrists with both hands. Bee yanked the man forward, leaning down so they were practically nose to nose. Bee held his cane clasped behind his back. Bee smiled, "I highly suggest that you put those away, sir. It would be a shame if everyone here died because of your own incompetence."

The man's weapons eventually faded, reforming on his arms, and Bee let go of his wrists, straightening slowly and resting both of his hands on the top of his cane. "Good boy."

Bee looked around the room. "Some of you are much better at hiding than others." In a few long strides, he was standing by the pool table, rapping on the far end of it with his cane. "Hello?"

Eventually one of the people hiding behind the pool table peeked out. "...Hi?"

"There's no need to be scared, stand up." Bee beamed. "What might your name be, dear?"

They glanced around, slowly standing up. "Alex?"

"What a lovely name." Bee placed a hand to his chest. "You may call be Bee."

Alex shifted on their feet, nodding with a thin smile. "What's going to happen to us?"

"That, my love, is something entirely determined by what all of you do." Bee picked up one of the billiard balls off the table. "I don't have much reason to harm any of you." he paused, "Well, neither do my friends, I suppose. Most of them just find a sick pleasure in the gore."

"Well, no matter," Bee shook his head. "I don't care to hurt you. My friends would like nothing more than to hurt you."

Alex seemed to wilt at this. "So we're just going to die?"

"Oh, of course not, doll. I see no reason why you all have to die here." Bee paused, "Well, as long as you all agreed that I was never here."

"I can do that." Alex nodded. "If you can get me out of here, I'll forget I ever met you."

Another person, a young woman, peeked over the pool table, lifting her hand. "Me, too. I don't want to die."

"How do you plan to get us out?" The bartender was standing now, their arms crossed, "Your friends are right outside the door."

"Whoever said anything about using the door?" Bee tittered, tilting his head. "What sort of fool would try that?"

Alex looked around the room. "...But there isn't any other way out."

"Not yet, perhaps." Bee looked at the bartender. "Would I be correct to assume there's a fire escape or a service ladder that would allow one to reach the ground from the roof?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"You'd be right." The bartender crossed their arms. "But the only door to the roof is down the hall in a locked storage closet. Only the managers and owners have keys to get up there."

"That won't be a problem." Bee raised his cane, tapping the end on the ceiling tiles, one at a time.

The tiles each drifted towards the ground, as though weighted like feathers, and stopped in midair, making a staircase into a now open hole that led straight up to the roof. A murky night sky could be seen through it, and Bee gestured towards the makeshift staircase. "No doors necessary."

Alex was the first up the staircase, looking up with awe.

The others were more hesitant, one woman circled the staircase twice before climbing up.

The man with the khopesh swords attempted to climb the stairs, but Bee grabbed his shoulder with a smile. "A man as brave as yourself should wait. In case my friends come in. Who else will protect these innocent people?"

The man glanced towards the door, then back to Bee, whose smile never wavered. The woman who had been sitting with him in the booth paused to look up at Bee. "...Are you going to get in trouble for helping us?"

Bee tilted his head. "Whatever do you mean, little miss? My friend only ever said to check and see if anyone was inside this room. He said nothing about what I was supposed to do if I found anyone."

The woman eventually nodded. "Thank you."

"Of course." Bee smile softened. "Did you come here alone tonight?"

"I," the woman shook her head, "no, but the friends I came with were out dancing when your... friends showed up. I have the feeling you aren't going to be able to help them the same way."

"I'm afraid not." Bee reached into his coat, pulling out a few dollar bills. He held them out to her. "Call yourself a taxi, little one. I could hardly call myself a gentleman if I let a young woman walk home at night all alone."

The woman took the money slowly. "Thank you."

"My pleasure." Bee looked down at the man, then back at the woman, pointedly. "There are far too many vile men in this realm, isn't there."

The woman smiled slightly. "Yeah, there are." She squeezed her bag closer, quickly climbing up the stairs.

Bee smiled up after her as she disappeared from sight, his expression never changing as the ceiling tiles rose up again and returning to their original place.

The man looked at Bee. "You said you'd help us get away."

"Curious, I don't ever remember saying anything of the sort." Bee tapped his chin. "I remember saying it would be a shame if everyone were to die, but I don't recall saying anything about helping."

"But you-" The man gestured towards where the stairs had just been. "You just helped them!"

"I did. But I didn't say I would." Bee hooked his cane over his arm. "Besides, it'd be too suspicious if the room was entirely empty."

The man swiveled to face Bee. "If you bring me out there I swear I'll tell them what you did."

"Really? You would sentence them all to death, solely because you had to die, too."

"Yeah. I would."

Bee hummed, "May I tell you something?"

"Do I get a choice?"

"That would be why I asked." Bee crossed his arms, resting his head in one of his hands, a third eye opening underneath his left eye.

The man hesitated, taking a step away from Bee. "What the hell are you?"

"I'll take that as a yes." Bee's smile stretched a bit too wide, with a few too many teeth that were just a bit too sharp. "I'm not from here, if that wasn't already obvious." Bee wrapped two arms around the man's shoulders and grasped the back of his neck with a hand. "My homeland is much different. Our rules are a bit different, and I might be biased, but I believe they're better."

"Then why don't you go home?" The man was leaning away from Bee.

"In my home, we believe that any entity capable of thought and choice has the right to choose. The right to consent, you might say. Do you want to know what happens to those who ignore this right?"

"What's your point?"

Bee's grip on the back of the man's neck tightened and his smile faded. "I saw where you ran from when you attacked me, boy. I could hear that girl's soul even before I walked into this building. You are worth less than the worms hidden within the dirt."

The shadows around the room opened their eyes as Bee's jaw unhinged and swung apart in two separate pieces. Two barbed mandibles tore through his throat and out of his mouth, grabbing the man's face. Dark green-blue veins spread down the man's throat as he convulsed and when Bee let go of the man, chunks of his flesh and his lower jaw tore away, caught in Bee's mandibles.

The shadows at Bee's feet lapped at the man's body as his flesh seemed to melt from his bones and Bee pulled the man's jaw out of his mandibles. His mandibles retracted back into his throat, his jaw snapping back together and he pulled a handkerchief from his coat, dabbing away the blood on his face.

He held the man's jawbone out in the light, turning it around in his hand. He dropped the jaw to the ground, with the rest of the man's bones, now completely clean of flesh. The shadows had returned to normal.

Bee walked over to the bar, taking a bottle off the top shelf and a glass. He poured himself a drink, just as War came into the room.

"Beelzebub!"

Bee sipped his drink, smiling. "Yes, sir?"

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"I checked the room, there was only one person here." He gestured to the pile of bones on the floor. "Did you need something else?"

"Why did it take you so long to check?"

"I thought you'd want me to be thorough." Bee gestured around. "You're free to double-check."

War and Bee stood on opposite sides of the room in silence for a long moment. Bee drank silently, and War glared. Bee set his glass down, his smile never wavering even as the lights flickered and the shadows behind War writhed and reached towards War without ever actually reaching him.

"That'll be fine. Just stop sitting on your ass."

Bee tittered, "Whatever else would I sit on, dear?"

War rolled his eyes with a scoff as he left the room, and Bee followed. Behind them, spindly limbs curled around the bones on the floor, pulling them into the shadows.

Characters:

Bee:

8'7", 200lbs. A gaunt Caucasian man with short white-blonde hair and unnaturally green eyes. Those fuckers are radioactive. He definitely only has two arms. Humans only have two arms. Why would he, a very human human, have more than two? Bee likes to skirt the very edge of the uncanny valley. His fashion is luxurious and expensive, but eccentric. Similar color scheme of an Orchard Orbweaver.

War:

6'2", 250lbs. A burly Caucasian man dressed kinda like if you made a spartan warrior a bit more cyberpunk. Red, black, and gold color scheme. His entire head is hidden under a helmet. Has four arms, with one set under the other.