Chapter 1

There is a big rave party held once a month in the North Atlanta metro area. No one seems to know who organizes the rave. It just seems to happen. The site changes each month. There is supposedly a web site which provides the location and other information about the rave, but the URL changes every month, and it never shows up in a google search. Word spreads from person to person. No one is quite sure how the word-of-mouth gets started. But information about the next rave does manage to get around for people who are part of the scene.

All kinds of people come to the rave. In addition to the normal or “mundane” people, there will be punks, goths, and other “alternative” crowds. The rave starts at 8:00 and goes all night long. In a way, they’re like two parties in one. Mostly high school and college students during the evening. But around midnight, the party transitions to an older crowd, people in their 20’s and early 30’s. Most of the high school and college kids are gone by then.

These raves have acquired a reputation for getting really wild late at night. A notorious reputation. There have been stories.

Tonight, five students from Sprayberry High School, in affluent East Cobb, are on their way to the rave. Three boys and two girls. Two of the boys are seniors, the other boy is a junior. The girls are also juniors. Both are 16. Nobody is with anybody, it’s all casual.

All of them have been to at least one of these raves.

The girl riding in front is a raven-haired beauty named Kelly Choice. The long black hair falling past her shoulders is cut a little shorter on the sides, and treated with a straightener. Electric blue highlights give the left side of her head an exotic radiance.

Her blue eyes are encircled with black liquid eye liner, and her eyelids are painted with electric blue eye shadow. Her lips shine with a black lip gloss. All the black and blue forms quite a contrast with Kelly’s fair complexion. She has silver stub earrings, and a pewter nose ring in her left nostril.

The girl in the back is Kelly’s BFF, a gorgeous brunette named Courtney Cantrell. Her long brown hair has long streaks of red in it. Her brown eyes are also encircled with black liquid eye liner, with a maroon eye shadow covering her eyelids. Extending from the right eyelid, she has a maroon-colored tattoo with an artistic, curlicue design. The tattoo is temporary, but makes of her pretty face a work of art. A white foundation gives her cheeks a pale tone. The ruby red lip gloss matches her shirt. Courtney has a gold stub in her right nostril and three gold loop earrings in her left ear.

Kelly and Courtney are goth chicks, although their embrace of goth style is somewhat superficial. They like the goth mystique, as well as goth fashion and some of the body art. They also like the music that is popular with the goth crowd in North Atlanta, such as industrial and techno -- the music of choice at the raves -- and a form of heavy rock music known as death rock. The goth attitude is also appealing to the girls, especially when they’re in a mood.

Tonight, both girls are in a mood. Kelly just broke up with her boyfriend after she found out he was fucking some of the biggest sluts in the school. And to think she gave it up for that asshole! Courtney was nearly date-raped at a party last weekend. She was going down on the guy she was with, but he decided he wanted more, and the creep tried to force her. She is nervous about going to the rave ... guys outnumber girls three to one ... but she is determined to have a good time tonight. Kelly agrees they should stay close and keep an eye on each other. Because tonight, the girls just want to have fun. They’re not looking to hook up with a guy. They just want to party, and dance ... and get high on ecstasy.

Ecstasy is sold at all the raves. Other so-called club drugs, like meth and ketamine, are also available. No alcohol is sold there and its use is frowned upon. People aren’t even allowed to drink outside. Drugs like ecstasy are mostly sold by several dealers people in the scene have come to recognize. One well-known dealer is a man known only as “Race.” Most people don’t know he is also one of the shadowy organizers of the raves. But they know he sells ecstasy.

Another thing most people don’t know about this man. He actually sells two different kinds of ecstasy. He offers straight X to guys, couples, and women or girls who don’t particularly turn him on. Race also makes a special blend he likes to sell early in the evening. He makes a small quantity before each rave. It’s reserved for a few smoking hot young babes ... mostly high school or college students ... but he only sells it to a girl who comes by herself, or with another girl, which probably means she didn’t come to the rave with a boyfriend. This “special blend” combines ecstasy with GHB. Race likes to call it Brand X.

Mixing GHB with ecstasy enhances the sensual and emotional intensity of the high.

It is also mildly sedating, so the girl feels more relaxed and uninhibited. It attenuates the dysphoric effects of ecstasy, leaving this high and unhibited babe ready to party.

But it also makes her disoriented, leaving her open to being used and manipulated.

Because she is more vulnerable to emotional and sexual domination, she may wind up sharing her sensuality in ways she never intended. Race adds 500 mg of GHB to the ecstasy, a dose small enough to avoid overly sedating a girl primed to become a source of erotic entertainment later tonight. He sells his Brand X to a few of these hot young babes early in the rave.

This potent mixture plays a significant, if mostly underappreciated, role in creating the reputation the raves have for getting really wild late at night. Some of those stories are true. Especially the ones about a “fellatio-girl.”

The students from Sprayberry High travel on State Highway 120 through Marietta and across Cobb County to an abandoned warehouse complex near Powder Springs, a small town on the far side of the county from where they live. Kelly spots the sign first.

“West Cobb Industrial Park.” They pull off the country highway into a desolate parking lot. From there, finding the rave is easy. They can see lights way in the back. As they get closer to the right warehouse, they hear the music. The fast, driving rhythm has all of them excited by the time the car stops.

They arrive at 8:30. Lots of cars in the weed-filled parking lot, many of them late-model cars bought by the parents of the people inside. The excited teens approach a dingy old warehouse. Inside, the party is already going full blast, with loud industrial music, and pulsating lights that seem to match the rapid beat. A large, boisterous crowd of young people is yelling, dancing, and partying.

The interior of the warehouse is about 120 feet long and forty feet wide. There are not enough lights, and most of them are strobing, so the whole place is a mixture of bright light and shadows. Towards the back of the main hall, a secondary hall opens to the left. The side hall is about 40 feet long and 20 feet wide, and illuminated only by the flashing light coming from the main hall. Luminosity is diminished and the shadows are longer. But the music is still plenty loud.