STORY BEGINS HERE

The Auction

“The Auction House?” Wyatt steps toward the SUV from where his buddy Terrence had just called him over. “What's that?”

“It's some new club or disco or something that Damien's taking us to.” Terrence replies as he smooths his suit jacket. “Very posh. Very upscale. Very exclusive.”

“Very mysterious.” Janette cuts in from the passenger seat. “Damien won't tell us a thing about it. He just said to dress dapper and to be there at midnight.”

“Dapper?”

Jan laughs. “You know how D talks.”

“The Auction House?” Wyatt thinks. “Never heard of it. And I've been everywhere.”

“Yeah, us neither.” Comes another voice. “He promised us it would be a good time though.”

“Oh shit, Kayla. That you back there?” Wyatt leans down to rest his elbows on the driver's side door.

“Yeah. They dragged me along too.” Kayla smooths out her flowing black gown. “I think I came along just as an excuse to dress up.”

“You're looking...good.” Wyatt smiles. “I've never seen you without your glasses before.”

“Thank you.” Kayla squirms and looks away bashfully.

Terrence and Jan shoot an amused look to each other. They both knew Wyatt and Kayla had a thing for each other, everybody did, though neither would ever express it openly.

“Come with us!” Says Kat from other end of the rear seat. Kat, Kayla's older and far more gregarious sister, was a self confessed slut and her interest in bringing Wyatt along couldn't have been more obvious. Not so subtly she tugs the cleavage of her skin tight dress a bit lower and gives Wyatt the eyes. “Three gals and two guys, sounds like we need one more. Don't you agree Wyatt?”

Looking around Wyatt says. “I only count one guy.”

“Damien's meeting us there.” Kat says. “So really it's three to one. Damien is like super, duper, mega gay.”

“He is not!” Terrence chuckles. “You are terrible.”

“Nothing wrong with it.” Kat says. “And gay bars are the funnest!”

“He's not taking us to a gay bar.”

“Anyway. With big D batting queer...”

“Oh my God.” Terrence face palms.

“...it does leave us a bit light in the man department. I'm not sure old Terry here can handle all of us. We're a lot of woman for any man.”

“Terrence is just fine with one woman thank you very much. You keep your claws off you hussy.” The ever jealous Janette says, jokingly yet dead serious at the same time. “He's spoken for!” Terrence laughs and takes his fiance's hand to reassure her.

“Come on man.” Terrence says. “Jump in. Damien said we can bring whoever we want.”

Wyatt mulls it over. After a glance toward Kayla he asks. “You think I'm...dapper enough?”

“You look hot as fuck.” Kat says. “Now get in.”

“What the hell.” Wyatt slaps the side of the car. “I got nothing to do better tonight.”

At Kat's insistence Wyatt takes the center seat in the back. Flanked by the two sisters, each single and each the polar opposite of the other, he sits up tall and wonders what the night will bring.

They pull up to the address provided to them from Damien to find it a rather plain looking six story office building. The place looked deserted except for the tall, slender, tuxedo clad man smoking a cigarette near the main doors.

“There he is.”

“God, he even stands gay. Look at him.”

“Shut up Kat.” Terrence says.

“I'm just sayin!” Kat pinches Janette's shoulder. “It might not be me you have worry about princess. I heard guys give better head than...”

“Shut up Kat!” They all say in unison.

Damien sees them and waves them around toward the door to the underground parking. Terrence creeps along as he rolls down his window. Damien walks along beside them, his polished shoes clacking along the sidewalk.

“Hey man. You sure this is the place?” Terrence says. “It looks abandoned.”

Damien takes a draw of his smoke, the glowing red tip lighting up his dark eyes. “Trust me.”

They pull down the ramp, Damien still walking beside, and as they near the garage door it clatters to life and rolls open. Pulling into the underground lot they see vehicles lined up in the stalls ranging from family sedans to gleaming Italian sports cars and everything in between. The place was packed. In fact the only open spot was the handicap spot right near the elevator.

As they pile out Terrence asks. “You sure it's cool that we park here?”

“Terrence, always the law abiding good boy.” Damien smiles his dashing smile and winks at him. “Live a little.”

Kat elbows Wyatt and points at Damien with a 'told you so' look. Wyatt rolls his eyes and chuckles. The five of them follow Damien to the elevator.

“I don't hear any music.” Jan clutches to Terrence's arm.

“Why would you?” Damien asks.

“You said you were taking us out.”

“And here we are.” He says. “Out. Isn't this grand?”

“You're so weird.”

Ding! The elevator opens.

As the others look about at each other, a sense of unease slowly growing, Kat was already in the elevator. She turns to look at her friends. “Come on! It's midnight and I'm not even drunk yet.” She claps her hands. “Let's goooo!”

The group enters. Damien says. “Going down.”

“Down!?”

“ALLLLL the way down.” Damien says ominously...before laughing and hitting floor 6. “I'm kidding. Top floor. Some really stunning views of the city up there. You'll love it.”

When the doors open again the group is stunned to see not the drab hallways of an office building but an opulent ballroom that looked like it had just come out of the pages of the Great Gatsby. A big band at the far end of the room played upbeat jazz as people, all dressed in their best, bustled about the room with flutes of champagne. Men and women from college age to middle age mingle and chat at the tables that surrounded the central dance floor that dominated the center of the room. The entire right wall was windowed and the night time view of the city beyond was as spectacular as Damien said it was.

“Yeahhhh.” Kat bobs her head to the music as she enters the room. “This is wild! Different, but awesome.” Spotting the ornate bar along the left wall she calls over her shoulder. “I'll catch up with y'all.”

“Wait!” Kayla calls after her, squinting hard to make out the room in front of her, but her sister was already gone.

Damien waves them in. “There's a table reserved for you.”

“Reserved?” Terrence says, surprised. “You really planned this out, huh?”

Distracted by various men and women around the room nodding or waving his way Damien says. “I'll be with you all shortly.” With that he wanders off as well.

The rest of them look at each other, not quite believing what they were seeing. The infectiously merry mood lifts their spirit as they make their way into the room. It doesn't take long for them to find their table as it was the only one still empty. They had a nice central location right up against the dance floor.

“Why isn't anybody dancing?” Jan wonders.

“Maybe that happens later.” Terrence shrugs. “I guess we'll find out.”

“What is that paddle for?” Jan asks, pointing to what looked to be a plain black table tennis racket sitting at the center of the table.

Terrence smirks. “I can think of one good use for it.”

“Kinky.” Wyatt laughs.

Jan guffaws and blushes. “I'll use it on you if you don't stop!”

“Ooo, promise?” Her boyfriend grins. “I've been a very bad boy.”

“You're the worst.” Janette giggles. “Looks like all the tables have one.”

Wyatt reaches in and takes the paddle. An awkward Kayla beside him looks everywhere except the item they'd just been joking about being a sex toy. He turns it over to see that it was red on the other side and equally blank. “Weird.” He mutters then looks to the next table over. “Anybody for ping-pong?” The group laughs and raises their glasses to him.

It doesn't take long before Kat is hurrying up to take her seat with a tray of six glasses and two open bottles of very expensive looking champagne in her hands.

She puts it down on the table and starts pouring. “All they offer is bubbly right now. But it will do the trick! Ha ha!”

“Kat, how much did that cost you?” Her sister squints hard at the bottles.

“Nothing.” Kat grins. “Totally free. I just had to show the bartender my tits.”

“What!?”

“Don't worry, he was cute.”

“What's that got to do with anything?”

“Hey. I had to do something. He refused to take money but he still wanted something for the drinks.”

“Wouldn't take money?”

“I gave him a show instead.” Kat downs a half glass of the fizzy beverage even before she starts to pour flutes for the others. “Free booze baby! I am gonna get LIT!”

“Kat.” Kayla says. “Let's take it easy tonight. Okay?”

“You do you little sister.” Kat replies. “But I am getting fucked up and dicked down tonight.” She winks at Wyatt as she slides a full glass his way. “Not necessarily in that order.”

Terrence looks at Damien who was just then rejoining them after a glad-handing tour around the room. “You seem popular.”

“We are all friends here.”

“This place doesn't take money? What's with that? Who's footing the bill for all this?”

“Not all that glitters is gold my friend.” Damien slaps his shoulder. “No cash, no credit, no crypto taken.”

“Then how do you pay? Is this place even legal?”

“You worry too much Terrence.” He says, taking a glass of champagne from Kat as she passes it to him. “Have a drink. Relax. It's about to begin.”

“What's about to begin?”

“The auction of course.”

“Auction?”

“This is The Auction House after all.”

“I thought that was just a name.” Jan gripes. “You said this would be fun D. This doesn't sound fun.”

“An auction?” Curiosity getting the better of her Kayla finally fishes out her glasses from her handbag to get a proper look around. She studies the lavish furnishings, the glittering chandelier, and the well-groomed strangers. Something about all this just did not sit right with her. “What kind of auction is this?”

“An auction unlike any other.” He says with a sly grin. “You'll see.” He then nods to the small balding man who was standing at the front of the dance floor where a wooden lectern had just been placed. As he shuffles some papers and takes up a gavel the band stops playing. “Shhh, here we go.”

After just a few moments the crowd quiets though a buzz of excitement still permeated the room.

“Greeting ladies and gentleman and welcome to The Auction House.” The little man says in a loud, shrill voice. With only that as any sort of introduction he sets straight into the business at hand. “The first lot up on the block is...”