When the music finally cut to a hum, the silence felt heavier than the bass. Silas finished his drink, the "unholy" rhythm still ringing in his ears, a frantic ghost of a melody that refused to slow down.
Silas leaned over the railing. The song was a secret told at 150 beats per minute. It was the sound of a scandal moving too fast to be caught, a dirty little thrill wrapped in sugar-sweet, high-octane production. As the beat dropped for the final time, the room seemed to contract, the Nightcore melody spiraling higher and higher until the ceiling felt like it might burst.
Down in the dark, "Daddy" was doing something unholy, but up here, under the strobe lights, it felt like a religion. The lyrics flashed on the giant LED screens behind the booth, the words "Body Shop" glowing in a toxic, radioactive pink.
The high-pitched vocals sliced through the smoke like a razor. To Silas, the speed felt honest. It matched the way his pulse jumped every time the heavy brass drop hit. In the middle of the floor, a girl in a jagged silver dress—Kim, or someone who looked like her—was moving with a sharp, mechanical grace. She looked like a glitch in the matrix, her movements perfectly synchronized with the hyper-speed tempo.
The neon pulse of the underground club, The Altar , didn’t just beat; it vibrated at a frequency that made teeth ache. High above the dance floor, tucked into a velvet-lined booth, Silas watched the crowd move in a blur of synthetic leather and sweat.
