"Dude, happy birthday," Dan said in his typically low-key fashion as he handed Mike an envelope. Mike was partly surprised that Dan even knew about his birthday. His friends usually didn't keep track of those things.
Still, he couldn't resist giving Dan some crap, so he replied, "You do realize that you are a week early?"
"Oh, I don't think you'll mind," Dan replied with a smug grin.
Mike ripped open the envelope as his friends watched with the same cat-that-swallowed-the-canary look that Dan had. Clearly they all knew what was inside and were looking forward to Mike finding out. "Holy shit!" Mike exclaimed. "Are these real?"
"100%, good as gold," Dan replied trying to sound cool.
"How the fuck did you get your hands on these?" Mike asked in shock.
"I know a guy who has a friend that works there, and he owed me a favor. I figured what better way to celebrate your turning 21 than this?" Dan answered.
Mike stared at the tickets in his hand again in disbelief. The bold orange lettering across the top proudly declared, "No Limits Halloween Ball". His friends all broke into happy chatter and exchanged high fives as Dan went into the kitchen to grab another round of beers.
The No Limits Halloween Ball was infamous in the college town where Mike and his friends attended school. The legends and stories about the party were too numerous to count. According to the stories, the party was basically a drunken orgy of the rich. Stories about "a friend" who had gotten into the party ran wild around campus all through the weeks approaching and following Halloween. Invariably this "friend" returned with wild accounts of sexual depravity and fucking of all sorts and types.
Mike never was really sure if the stories were true and he never knew anyone who had actually gone. Due to the high price of the tickets none of the students from college could ever afford to go, at least none of the students that Mike knew. The tickets in his hand had a price of $1,000 each on them. There were obviously many people around for whom the cost of the tickets didn't matter because the tickets always sold out a few hours after they went on sale.
Mike was excited to find out if all the stories would live up to his reality in a week. Mike would be turning 21 the day before Halloween and so would be allowed to get in. The security at this event was also legendary and nobody under 21 was allowed with absolutely no exceptions. He was the last of his friends to turn 21 and so all five of them would be going together to find out the truth behind the legend.
The party took place at a very upscale resort on the edge of the town. Guests reportedly came from hundreds of miles away and would fill the hotel rooms the night after the party, as most were either too drunk or horny to go back home.
The week leading up to Halloween passed quickly. Mike and his friends talked excitedly every night about the big party on Thursday night. By the time of his birthday on Wednesday there really wasn't much of a celebration. Everyone was so excited and looking forward to the following day that they just sat around over a few beers talking about what might happen at the party.
Mike was so excited the night before the party he had a hard time sleeping. If the stories were even half-true then he surely would be in for the most amazing experience of his life. He and his friends had gone to Florida for Spring Break the previous year and they fully lived the Spring Break experience complete with lots of partying and lots of women. He expected that this night might top even that experience.
Other than looking forward to Halloween about the only other thing that happened on his birthday was that his mom called to wish him a happy birthday. As usual she would be coming up to visit him for his birthday. Every other year she came up on the day of his birthday, but this year she said she had some plans for Halloween so instead they arranged for her to arrive on Friday and stay for the weekend. She lived about a two-hour's drive from Mike's school so it wasn't impossible to drive up and back in the same day, but it made things much easier on her to spend the weekend.
Mike had casually asked what her plans were for Halloween and she had simply answered that she was going out with some friends. Mike didn't ask any other questions and was just happy to see her getting out again. His dad had walked out suddenly about a year and a half ago after telling her he'd been fucking one of his co-workers for nearly a year and he was going to move in with her.
Needless to say, Mike's mom was devastated and she and Mike spent a long time working to get her back to her normal, happy self. Mike had hardly talked to his dad since he left and neither Mike nor his dad really seemed to care. His dad never made an effort to contact him and Mike decided his dad had to be the biggest asshole in the world and so didn't care if he ever saw him or heard from him again.
Since he left Mike knew his mom hadn't been getting out much. He thought it would do her good to go out with some friends and have some fun so he was happy to hear of her Halloween plans.
The tickets to the party came with fairly specific directions. Every guest had to wear a mask at all times during the party. It seemed that the masks helped to unleash everyone's deepest inhibitions plus they had the added benefit of hiding the identities of more than a few prominent people who liked to attend the gala event.
The tickets also stated that every guest had to come in full costume. Apparently, it wasn't enough to simply come in a simple mask with no other costume. The tickets also made it very clear that the risk of violating either rule was to be ejected from the party with no hope of re-entry.
Mike and his friends all had to scramble to find costumes on such short notice but they all succeeded. By the time they gathered to meet the taxis for the drive out to the party they assembled as a surgeon, a gladiator, a Chippendale dancer, a bicyclist, and a fireman.
Ordinarily Mike wasn't much for dressing up in costumes like this, but he was so excited about what might happen tonight he didn't mind. He felt particularly odd wearing the black mask with his fireman costume but the directions on the tickets had been very clear and he wasn't about to risk missing out on this night.
For a while Mike and his friends were afraid they were going to be reduced to wearing the cheap little black masks that anyone can pick up at a corner store around Halloween. They would have been effective, but not quite the suave look they were going for. Fortunately, at the last minute Dan had located a store that still had a few fabric masks left. The material of the fabric felt odd on his face, but far better than any other mask he had ever worn. He readjusted the mask's knot on the back of his head as they sat in the cab on the ride to the party.
When they climbed out of the cab it looked like the resort had been absolutely taken over by the party. People in outlandish costumes and wild masks were milling about or walking toward the entrance. The entrance itself was elaborately decorated making it clear to anyone passing by what was happening there tonight.
The lobby of the resort made the decorations on the outside pale in comparison. It was decorated so elaborately that it was like walking into a different world. Mike and his friends wandered through looking at the wild decorations and at some of the other partygoers.
The security to actually enter the party was unlike anything Mike had ever seen before. The tickets were scrutinized closely for authenticity and their ID's were evaluated with the same care. Finally they were allowed inside.
After stepping through the heavy, velvet curtains Mike and his friends found themselves standing on a landing looking down at the party set up below them. To get to the party they had to descend a flight of open stairs.
Before going down Mike paused at the railing and looked around to get his bearings. The party was being held in a big open area spreading out below him. To his right was a large area that hosted the bar and many big tables full of fantastic looking food. The bar was already ringed with a big group of people getting the party started off right.