The moon was a sliver that hung in the sky, leaving the earth to wallow in the darkness of night. Crickets called and fireflies danced through the blackness, giving a grand concert complete with light show.
Dana lay under a tree staring up at the starless sky, thinking of how the summer had flown by much to fast. She would be starting her senior year in a matter of weeks, and she was still living a life of nocturnal bliss. She had found her way into the network of teenage dance clubs that were held in her city at the wee hours, but so far had escaped the clutches of the local law. Dana looked at her watch and decide it was time to move, she grabbed her backpack and rose to her feet. The rave was to be held down by the wharf tonight, in an old abandoned fish hatchery. Dana had brought a change of clothes with her, for when she got to her friend Shell's house. Telling her parents a lie had been easy, they trusted their daughter when she told them she was studying at a friend's house. Dana's grades were top notch and she never failed to make honors, something that she found much too easy to maintain.
As she walked a tune ran through her head, something she had heard on the radio the other night. The local college played death metal and dark industrial music after midnight, and her friend Roy always played the station in his car when the party wasn't close enough to walk to. Checking her watch again she hurried her step, it was 12:18 and she was meeting Roy at Shell's house at 1:00. Another block or two and she would be there with time enough to change and put on her makeup.
Not that it mattered as she would sweat it off ten minutes after they got there. As Dana walked through her friend's neighborhood, she felt a pair of eyes tracking her and spun around clenching her can of pepper spray tightly. Only to be greeted by a the whimsical look of a black German Shepherd, that happened to be lying in the front yard of an old Victorian house.
The houses in Shell's neighborhood were older than the ones in Dana's, and had a run down look about them. The dog looked as if it were laughing at her, panting with his tongue stuck out between his teeth.
"Stupid dog," she mumbled to herself, as she continued on to her friend's house.
Dana climbed in through Shell's window, and was immediately surrounded in marijuana smoke.
"Jesus Shelly you're gonna die of smoke inhalation one of these days!" Dana exclaimed leaving the window open while drawing the shades.
"Sorry babe clam bake in progress!" Shelly spat out between coughing and gasping.
Dana grabbed the bong as Shelly almost spilled it on her back pack, fired up the bowl and inhaled deeply. They still had a couple minutes before Roy got there and she wanted a buzz for the drive downtown, Roy always had beer to drink but Dana wasn't into anything that light. Shelly offered her a bottle of snake bite, which Dana drank deeply from. Dana took off her top and started to change, while Shelly made comments about her parents and their need to unclench their sphincters.
"What a bunch of retards! They ground me for a month knowing that as soon as the clock strikes twelve I'm out of here. My moronic father even gave me my allowance early this week." Dana laughed and grinned at Shelly as she made faces while she talked. Shelly smacked Dana's ass while she was putting on her black jeans, eliciting a cry of protest and a mock slap fight.
The sound of Roy's Chevelle coming down the street broke their reverie, and caused both girls to scramble for their things. Shelly grabbed her cigarette case and a shoulder purse, and scrambled for the window sill while Dana hurredily threw the rest of her clothes on. They jumped into Roy's car to the wailing guitar of an older Megadeath tune, Roy was screaming "Sweating bullets!" as the girls got in.
