[ WP ] There is a place where all who enter die , without exception . Describe it in such a way that I would still jump at the opportunity to go , without question .

Today was ordinary. The walls of the office moaned their pale blue, the coffee reeked of unloved drip, and all of Matt's associates typed and clicked and sighed at their cubicles in unison. Were it not for a rogue corruption, tomorrow would be normal. This could never be, though, for at 3:43 PM - more than an hour early- Julia had Matt's secretary call for him. It had been routine for years for the two to get hot popcorn and chilly beers after work on Friday, but it was known that Matt held a tight schedule just so that he'd never have to take any of the workplace-burden out with him. She would n't cut out of work early for no reason, but Matt still had to put on his First Mate act. 
 
 `` Thank you for calling Best Things Inc., this is Matt speaking. How may I help you?'' 
 
 `` Hi, Matt. This is your best friend. You've got to come with me. Now.'' Her tone was anxious. Matt could feel her bunniness chasing a carrot. 
 
 `` Pushy. I just mistook you for my mother.'' 
 
 
 `` You know I do n't fuck around son,'' Julia snarked. 
 
 `` Your language,'' Matt sighed. `` You have 30 seconds to tell me why I'm not going to wait for my 4:30 meeting. Your story better be good, but do n't beat yourself up about it. I just need to hear why I should n't listen to Rob drone on about sales figures and exponential growth.'' 
 
 `` Dude, this shit's for real. I found the best place to go. The best music, the best food, the best I-need-you-to-fucking-wingman. The Cavern Blazen.'' Julia's breathing hastened at the word `` Blazen'' as though all the capacity for excitement in the world existed between its beginning and end. 
 
 `` All right, I'm listening and, so far, it sounds like Ben all over again.'' 
 
 `` Low blow. $ 10 to get in. Everything they have in there is one-off. No corporate crap, no restaurant depot, no mass-produced nothing. They have beers you will only be able to taste once, burger beef from world record cows, onions that make the idiots next door cry, and a staff with their sexiness set to kill. Your greatest dreams ca n't compare to this.'' 
 
 `` That does sound like my dreams, but ca n't it just wait?'' Matt was already signing off, but he wanted to make her squirm a little. 
 
 `` Get real. This is n't for everyone. The owner came in to my work today. He wanted to get an appointment set up for his daughter, but we schmoozed and dug on the same stuff. Apparently, his place is out of the way and exclusive.'' 
 
 Matt twisted the aged phone cord without too much thought. `` Relax, you're starting to skip details. If this is uncharted territory, I'm in. Bragging rights are where it's at. Be right down.'' 
 
 `` For sure,'' she started to say as Matt dropped the phone in it's place. 
 
 He strode over to secretary Gia and told her he had to leave early because there had been a family emergency. She gave a look like she knew better but responded `` All right, then. John will take your calls for you. Have a great weekend.'' Matt smiled, nodded, nearly forgot his suitcase, and left. 
 
 The elevator opened to the lobby lined with enormous slabs of marble and guarded by four serious looking men in serious looking uniforms. The place was big and well-lit enough to appear as an atrium, but it was just a regular over-the-top facade for the ugliness of what the greed-belly churned within. There she was beyond the security checkpoint, understating her tenacity and beauty as she loved to in one of her washcloth colored linen dresses with a purposefully tacky bow glowing green atop her half-done hair. 
 
 When Matt saw her, he was reminded of the famous questions, `` Why are n't you two together? Are you, like, gay or something?'' On the phone, she sounded like she could n't control herself from smiling. In person, her lips were straighter than usual. Not pursed, but definitely not smiling. She ran her eyes over his twice-worn clothes. His maroon dress shirt complemented his oily birch complexion, but it wrinkled like it was slept in. His slacks and blazer *almost* got along, but it was easy to tell they were n't a match set. He did n't bother with a tie today, either. Poor form, you partying bastard, Julia thought to herself. 
 
 While Matt got on with the security routine, Julia chided with `` Come on, fucker,'' and `` Hurry! They're going to board up before we get there.'' Other ruder things were said, but more important was the look of incredulity the guard nearest her gave. She may as well have lit a Bible on fire and started hitting him with it. Having finished the signoff, the two embraced. Matt twirled two full circles holding her and she feigned barfing on him. After pretending to slip on some of it, he put her down. 
 
 `` Tell me, Jules. What's this all about?'' 
 
 `` So, the dude's already here. His ride is the actual dopest, so we're going to get to Cavern Blazen in style. Lambo limo and shit.'' Her eyes narrowed like she was looking inside Matt for answers to unasked questions. 
 
 `` Are you keeping something from me? You're a little off today,'' Matt inquired, gathering from history her defense mechanisms. 
 
 `` Nah, I'm playing straight, son. I'm just all'fuck yeah!' right now.'' She gestured a convincing celebration. `` Come on, we ca n't keep him waiting anymore.'' 
 
 The truth was she was keeping everything from Matt. The man did n't bump into her by chance at her parlor; he stalked her to her home. He was n't a chummy well-to-do sort; he was the modern analog of a sorcerer. Cavern Blazen was n't a four star dream restaurant; it was a vault of corrupted bloodstone carved by malice and subterfuge, forged in the ritual of luring sacrifices with promises of power. 
 _______ 
 
 `` Good evening, m'lady,'' whispered a voice into Julia's wrong ear. She stepped back from the door to her house with the key still in it, terrified of late-blooming schizophrenia. Talking doors? Fantastic. `` No, behind you.'' As she turned and screamed, an impossibly thin figure gave a backhanded wave at her mouth. A stringy translucent iridescence leapt from hand to mouth, silencing her. `` Now, now. No need for fright. I have some wonderful news for-'' 
 
 Julia threw her weight at the figure, pinning him against the dimlit concrete walkway in spite of her petite frame. His surprised gasp sounded as a night sky of bats screeching their way home. Crows and wolves loosed their battlesounds as claws gaped flesh and razor beaks stripped meat. The shroud of death was spread across a shallow but vast grave, millions of mourners cried for their loved ones, brands hissed their mark onto the butts of the countless indentured. Overwhelmed, Julia retreated in a ramping bewilderment. 
 
 Without an appearance of effort, the man raised himself. `` Now, as I was saying,'' he resumed as he opened her door and pointed an order inside, `` There is some news I believe you'd like to hear. You have been chosen. You will become Anointed in power.'' Since Julia did not budge, he willed her inside. Her feet dangled inches off the ground as she was gently propelled towards the doorway. He snickered when her arm caught on the side of the door, setting her into a spin. He was a whisp with an ancient grace. Clad in jasper robes that rose to points above his shoulders and fell tattered to his naked and gnarled feet, his insubstantial flesh etched with ebon runes rippled that which was behind him. He saw her mouthing the word `` ghost'' repeatedly, and he laughed a laugh more haunting than his scream. 
 
 `` You. We've been watching you for quite a time. Ages ago, we lived in peril, fearing that a soul like yours would never again come to be. Our scrying failed us and Najvechi ate himself so that one would not eat him for his power first. Without leadership, our organization began eating itself alive, too. Were it not for one outsider who chanced upon our lair, we would have perished. This man was full of fear and began running in horror before we slayed him in his tracks for sport. As the mud seeped into his clothes and his blood drained from his body, we felt invigorated and repurposed. While we no longer had the infinite power dissipated by Najvechi, the blood of the stranger gave us considerable strength that lasted for centuries. 
 
 `` In all of our experimentation, we learned that we can not kill more for more power nor is all blood exactly the same. We learned that we're not distantly related to humans, but rather closely related. Other blood animals will sustain us just as well, but every so often your kind has the genetic wherewithal to become one of us. Like you.'' 
 
 By now, Julia had been plopped onto the ground where she panicked and thrashed her way into the corner of her living room, listening as she shook her head no, no, no. A force beyond her control stood her up. She was pale to begin with, but even that color was draining. 
 
 `` I know what's missing, my dear. You like trial accounts and test drives. Taste the power of Lazhliv.'' At once, Julia's world morphed around her. The television melted and reformed into the impossibly expensive model she had dreamt about. Her faded linoleum floors began glowing from their transformation into lacqueured walnut. She envisioned Lazhliv burning, and so he did. Purple flames swallowed him as he howled his terrible howl. She imagined rare treasures piling upon her floor, and so they did. The magnificence, the power, the adrenaline rush... how it moved her. A helicopter delicately airdropped a convertible Lamborghini convertible limousine in her complex's parking lot as the keys became real in her hand. Her fears whimpered before they vanished then obsession sang her its song. Julia found she could even speak again, remembering she could as she trembled a cackling fit. As she regained her compusure, her eyes narrowed and flickered darkness. She put out Lazhliv's fire. 

