An invitation for a party put on by the Kappa Alpha frat house appears on various university bulletin boards. It's slated to start at 6pm on Saturday with a different address in each city. Each leading to a recently or not-officially opened building.
Lysander loves theme parties. He spends a few days looking for the right ensemble, but it's worth it. Any guy who isn't impressed by the work he put in isn't his type.
He arrives fashionably late.
Stiles and Greg are on time, just barely. He ended up convincing her it was a bad idea to break into the Kappa Alpha house while everyone was out, and now she's stuck going to this stupid party.
They arrive at the building, there's still construction framework around some of the upper floors but the revolving door is unlocked and the lobby looks welcoming, there's a table to the side of an elevator with drink bowls and cups set out. Beside the table is a sign that in big friendly letter says "Have a drink, choose an access code and enter a party." A table on the other side of the elevator has little pieces of paper with colored text that has song names and alpha-numeric codes written underneath them.
The six songs are
Red) It's My Party
White) Great Balls of Fire,
Blue) House of the Rising Sun
Green) I Can See Clearly Now,
Black) In the Year 2525, and
Yellow) Stairway to Heaven
...so he probably misunderstood the theme, but that's fine. He pours himself a cup and reads the red-colored slip.
"C'mon Stiles, it'll be fun. Look, it's some kind of puzzle, you love puzzles."
Greg looks around the empty lobby, mildly surprised that everyone is already inside. They weren't that late.
She examines the slips.
"White for you, blue for me."
They walk to the elevator.
The door opens when they press the call button revealing a very modern looking elevator with a keyboard mounted into the back wall with a display above it and no other buttons.
He drinks. He pours himself another.
He heads to the elevator and enters his code.
The elevator doors close behind Lysander and he feels a slight turning sensation for the boring minute long elevator ride before the elevator opens onto a lounge with red trim and plush leather couches. Off to the side is a buffet table with standard buffets set up. One of the buffets stands is open revealing a salad. At the back of the room there is a counter and a doorway to a kitchen area.
And behind the counter are a man and a woman of about college age arguing. "This doesn't look anything like the city Alice, we aren't going to get home safely by rushing off in the first direction to come to mind."
"I realize that Zahn but that doesn't mean we should sit here and relax, we have no guarantee that this place is safe."
Meanwhile, the elevator doors close behind Stiles and Greg. Stiles is immediately afflicted with a sense of vertigo and a splitting headache while Greg simply feels a strange turning sensation, weirdly the remaining drink in his cup isn't so much as quivering.
They're not even slightly dressed up. What a waste of a good outfit.
"Did everyone else read a different flier? I think you're both underdressed."
They both look up abruptly. "You're asking about dresscode? Haven't you... oh, you just got out of the elevator. You don't know yet." She turns back to her companion. "Zahn you explain, you're better at that."
Her companion shoots her a betrayed look and then pauses a moment to collect himself. "To begin with, as she just said I'm Zahn and she is Alice. We've been here for a while and the view out that window there," he points with one hand towards a large window in the kitchen behind him. "Does not remotely correspond with the surroundings on the other side of the elevator. The same elevator with no button for a return trip."
After about a minute, Stiles's headache and vertigo recede and the elevator doors open. Beyond is a lushly appointed lounge with blue trim. There are comfy chairs, tasteful lamps and a buffet table set out to the side with enough containers for several entrees.
"Right. Can I talk to the host? This isn't exactly what I was expecting, I'm not into the whole LARP thing."
"You can look out the window yourself. If you don't believe us. As for the host, neither of us have seen anyone else."