83 Gossip

As Asrael stood with a final decision to make, he stared blankly at the party of flashing lights and blasting music. Clearly, there was no care whatsoever for the neighbors they had.

There was no real choice up to this point for Asrael, as he already planned to go to the party, however, this was the only time he could still change his mind.

After finally making his way past excited highschoolers that littered the property, he entered. The party was noticeably highkey, even having a DJ.

Asrael watched the DJ, who was wearing a red jacket, and black denim jeans. He looked slightly older than a highschooler, and he observed the crowd carefully. It wasn't a surprising placement for a representative of Death Vendors.

In a swift movement, Asrael snatched a thin cotton jacket that was lying unattended on a leather couch. He put it on and pulled the hood to cover most of his face. After a look around, he began adventuring further into the hellish mess of adolescent absurdities.

In another room, Asrael found in one corner, another representative of Death Vendors that had isolated themselves in a cloud of marijuana. In that same room, a group of teens in their final year of school were playing a game called 'beer pong'.

Asrael had arrived early enough to witness only a handful of drunkards. It wasn't yet completely out of control.

At some point, Asrael noticed the complete lack of cameras, or at least ones that were visible. It wasn't an impossible situation, if every room had at least one person of Death Vendors present.

After taking a few more turns and going through a few more doorways, Asrael finally spotted Chrysa. He paused at the entrance to the room, watching silently as she and a group of others laughed and talked.

Asrael blocked out all the gossip he heard usually, but he heard enough to know that people wondered about him. Chrysa was rather popular, and so of course people knew of the connection she had with Asrael. As far as they knew, however, they were just friends.

Chrysa surprised Asrael by having a plastic cup, which he guessed contained alcohol. He saw that she handed it to Bethany briefly before stepping up onto a wooden coffee table and speaking about something that had to do with her gratefulness to her friends- err... something like that. Asrael wasn't really listening.

He noticed Bethany momentarily spin around so that Chrysa's cup was out of view, and it immediately set off red flags. He didn't move immediately though, and watched as Chrysa finished her speech, and then only to reach for the cup that Bethany passed over to her.

Chrysa was still standing on the coffee table when she raised the cup to her lips. Seeing her in position to chug it, Asrael decidedly stepped in to stop her, neglecting to think about not being recognized.

Asrael caught her wrist and while she was still unresponsive, took the cup from her and downed it. Chrysa looked at him in a daze, and was then suddenly caught off guard when he grabbed her and lifted her to the ground. There were about 15 people in the room and half of them were beyond themselves with new gossip. In addition, more than half of them seemed to be on good terms with Chrysa.

With a glance, he could immediately recognize Bethany's look of horror. Unfortunately, he wouldn't know until a bit later if there was definitely anything slipped into the drink.

After a quick scan of the room, Asrael spotted a shorty in a thin black jacket, which was likely made of something cheap. She had the hood covering her face, but Asrael could still recognize her.