Chapter 4 — The Red Lantern Encounter

Mia Diaz

The Red Lantern Club glowed like a fever dream in the city’s dark heart. Crimson light poured from sconces hidden behind velvet drapes, pooling in shadowed corners and refracting off mirrored walls. The bass-heavy pulse of music throbbed through the air, a second heartbeat vibrating in Mia’s chest. The mingled scents of expensive perfume, sweat, and whiskey coiled into a heady haze that clung to her senses. Every detail—the calculated glamour, the oppressive heat, the flickering neon that seemed to shrink the room—reinforced what Mia already knew: this wasn’t just a nightclub. It was a monument to power, corruption, and everything she despised.