Chapter 36
“We all need light,” Creo informed, his eyes sparkling. His fingers continued to mingle with the green laser beams above his head. “Besides it allowing life to exist, it reminds us of love, truth, happiness. Darkness cues death, coldness, hate.”
As a social worker trained to be sensitive to racial groups, Sharon took offense to Creo’s words. “Isn’t that symbolism a bit insensitive coming from a Black man?”
“This has nothing to do with skin color. Believe me, there are people out there much blacker than me on the inside.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about much deeper things than skin. Besides, no Black person is truly black. Skin color comes from reflection of light. If we can see anything then light is being reflected.”
“What’re you doing here?” Sharon didn’t trust him. She didn’t assume so faithfully like Laif that Creo was good. “Why does such a philosophical man come to a rave party? For God’s sake, drugs are outside!”
“Inside as well,” he assured. “You just have to look closely at people’s eyes. Hallucinogens are most common. But really look around you.” His arms waved as though to display the theater. “Look at all the contrasts of light and dark.”
She scanned the auditorium. Laser beams drilled through smoke and shadow; strobe lights chased away darkness for only milliseconds.
“This place is like a temple for me. It’s a study. People here are a microcosm of society. Some live lives with masks, while others show their true colors. Some live life altering reality with hallucinogens, some choose to stay sober. In society, people use defenses to alter reality. Amongst all of us, both good and bad, there is a uniting beat. A powerful music that goes on and on, touching each of us.”
She looked at him with his pad and pen resting on his right leg, excitement glittering his black eyes, his flaming red hair erect. It was impossible to see how big his pupils were. “You aren’t high, are you?”
“Like I told you, this place is of great learning and inspiration for me. It clarifies the outside world. It’s the lens that sharpens thought.” He pointed to the stage. “Look at the go-go dancers. They are symbols of sexuality, and look at all the men and women who watch them, some lusting, others learning, others admiring.”
“Okay, enough. Let’s leave.”
“Sharon and I are in danger here,” Laif urged, looking around warily. “Dark mists.”
“Is that why you’re wearing that wig and silly mask?”
She felt annoyed. “You’re the one with spiked red hair.”
“It blends well with the crowd, don’t you think?”
Suddenly the entire room became silent.
Instead of trance music, colors of the rainbow cascaded from the speakers, splashing the people dancing directly in front, creating ripples in the light as it flowed past their bodies to others, streaming hair back behind heads as blue wind, pulling their clothes with sharp orange and red tints, violet waves crashing into the backs of other people and surging back toward the stage.
It was the most beautiful and terrifying thing she ever saw.
She felt dizzy and swayed.
Laif caught her. His lips moved but only purple light smoked from them, slowly evaporating in the darkness.
She looked at Creo. He was smiling. Was he the cause of this? She still felt dizzy in Laif’s arms. Did Creo slip her a drug? How? She didn’t drink anything.
As people jumped and stepped to the nonexistent trance music, their shoes splashed yellow light. When people clapped and snapped, yellow dust fell from their hands.
It slowly dawned on Sharon what was happening. Sound had turned into a completely visual experience. Somehow it mixed with her sense of sight, leaving her hearing blank. Was this what Laif saw? Was this what he was talking about when one of his senses melts into another, when he said he could taste a sunrise?
With a numbing flash, sound shot back into her ears and her vision dulled back to normal, despite the desperate arousing attempts of lasers, strobe lights, and colored lamps throughout the auditorium.
Creo informed, “Imagine if your sixth sense, however much you possess, was melded with another, say sight. When you sensed evil, it would most likely appear in your vision as darkness. You might develop a fear of the dark. Children, having higher access to the sixth sense, often have this sensory confusion. During the day, they see suggestions of darkness in people. At bedtime, they fear all the darkness experienced from the day, imaging the worst.”
“Did you make that happen to me, with the sound and light?”
“Imagine if your sixth sense crossed into your sense of sound. What kind of noises would evil make? It would probably come as growls and voices of exceptional hatred, furious swears.”
“So what?”
“Imagine if you didn’t understand this. What would you think was happening?”
“You’d think you were going crazy.”
Creo looked down. His shoulders slumped, and a cloak of sadness seemed to surround him. He scribbled something on his pad. “Perhaps we should go now.”