“Strobe Lights”

With every passing minute the walls of the club felt more and more like they were closing in on me. With each bass drop the crowd would enhance. The sweaty masses were growing but their faces weren’t clear. Bodies in motion but going nowhere in complete darkness. And then the lights came on. Neon lights kept flashing before my eyes. Each blast of green and purple coming quicker and quicker blinding without illuminating anything. But with each flash something became evident: the crowd seemed to lessen as if the masses expanded in the dark and contracted in the light. The lights kept coming but at a slower pace, slower and longer each time. And with each flash came new clarity these bodies these people they weren’t dancing they weren’t moving at all. They were still. Motionless. I still couldn’t make out the details of their faces but their body types and shapes were all so similar. Then I realized something. They were all facing me. Why were they facing me and not the stage. Oh God why are they all facing me moving closer and closer and closer. I still can’t make out their faces why can’t I see the faces in the blinding neon lights. Why is the music getting louder what is the music I can’t make out these songs why is it so loud who are these people why can’t I see them——now the lights are on. Everything is clear. Bodies are all on the floor around me but those still standing have surrounded me in a circle. There’s no one in the DJ booth yet music still keeps playing. Now with them coming in closer and closer and closer I can finally understand what it was I couldn’t before. I can’t tell the details of their faces because they don’t have any.