Halloween Night

The devil is never as black as he is painted.

Halloween Night

I went to see Ábel. Only rarely did I have the mindset to actually open the door of his room, though I had turned up there many times. I just didn't feel strong enough to reach for the handle.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me without a sound, even though this caution was not necessary. It would not have woken him.

He lay peacefully in bed, his face showing no sign of emotion or pain. The sight of him made me feel as if he were asleep. Although you couldn't see much because the blanket pulled up to his shoulders, there were tubes running from his chest and the pale veins in his hands to the beeping instruments. These instruments were the only thing keeping him alive. He was in a coma.

I sat down in the chair by his bed and held his hand the whole time, hoping that he would squeeze my hand or at least move his finger a tiny bit. The doctor tried to persuade me to turn the machines off. I wouldn't let him. For some reason, no matter how much time passed, I kept trusting that he would wake up one day.

About an hour later, I left for school. Coffee started showing up at school more and more. Most of the time she would just sit quietly and take notes or standing silently next to us during breaks. She was never the best company. Alex tried to cheer her up, of course, and assured her that the Halloween party would be the perfect opportunity to finally have a good time. Of course, Coffee was not so inclined, and said no multiple times, but Alex himself seemed adamant.

It's been a week since I took care of the football team — after that if the Brushhead and his gang saw me in the hallway, they'd quickly turn a hundred and eighty degrees and run screaming.

This had a lot of consequences. I saved dear Mose's life — for he did not have to live his life in terror anymore. Since I didn't send him to warmer climes, but simply told him to shut up, he might have been a little emboldened.

I was the one who suffered the most because he tried to talk to me whenever he could. I tried to ignore his existence, but he wouldn't budge. Then he recognized my soft spot, so he brought me a pizza from the buffet, which I shouldn't have wasted, so I ate it. He watched me boredly chewing the edge of the pizza slice with transfixed, almost teary eyes.

He kept saying how grateful he was and how much he wanted to be my friend. I told him it was okay, he could pay me back if he did the idiotic drawing task for me. Although he immediately refused, he eventually helped me enough that I could argue he had done it after all. Of course, on the subject of friendship, I growled "Don't even dream about it", but he seemed unflappable. By the end, I didn't even have the strength for a normal response.

"Give me a chance, please?" he asked, staring at me in awe.

He seemed quite cheerful, and I concluded in my head that the kid must be pretty optimistic if he could infer from a simple shrug that I might consider what he said. It was a sort of "don't-care-do-what-you-want" gesture on my part.

"No," I said, and now he looked miserable.

I should call him Misarable Mose instead of Misfortune Mose.

Some speak their mind well, Alex, he wore his opinion on his face. He usually said more than a hundred words with a single expression. Now he was strongly implying that I was an asshole. And what was really gross was that from one look, for a moment, I seriously believed I was an asshole. But not the typical asshole who is cool and all into the pranks and crimes.

Well, no, in his eyes, I was the asshole, who had nothing better to do in his terribly monotonous life than to torture the unfortunate and hate the world. Well, I could agree wholeheartedly with the second statement. I hated the world, the world hated me — so we lived in perfect symbiosis. But, I had better things to do than to break the heart of Miserable Moses to pieces, and to prove it, after an offended grunt, I got up to head for the cafeteria and finally get my coke — on someone else's tab, of course.

(...)

With Wednesday's Halloween party fast approaching, Alex decided to have an antihero costume that didn't fit his personality at all. Naturally, he then dragged me to Luna's to get his costume.

"Why do I have to go?" I grumbled.

"To get a discount for me, of course," he smiled, "Your girlfriend, isn't she?"

"No," I replied, and although Alex frowned, he didn't ask me anymore about my private life. "and no."

"But Shay," he whined like an eight-year-old girl. "if you don't come with me, I might have to spend half our month's income on my costume!"

"What?" I suddenly glanced at him threateningly.

"These things are expensive," he replied, "and I don't think she'll give me a discount! Gypsies are real thieves!"

I got up from my chair and, without a word, walked to the rack and grabbed my leather jacket. There is only one way to silence Alex's annoying pleas and save my wallet at the same time.

"Yay!" the wolf muttered under his breath, and I shot him a piercing look.

He merely smiled softly. "You're the best, mate."

"Hurry up," I ordered, "I don't want to waste much time."

"Yes, sir," Alex said jokingly and started pulling on his shoes.

I merely sighed.

When we got there, some of the gypsies were working on their future house, so they just nodded at me. The beat tamer Mu was hammering something on the roof of the house and a raven flew up to him with a few nails in its beak.

"What brings you here, your M..."

"You want to die, Lustist? I interrupted the guy, who was up to his neck in spackle before he could say the m-word.

He grinned cheekily and merely gestured towards the flower-patterned trailer.

The dancer girls, dressed in normal clothes this time, waved at us. Alex waved back fiercely, poor thing, perhaps he thought he was the one being greeted so kindly. The girls actually giggled a little at Alex's attempts at flirtation, but the wolf must have seen that as embarrassment. Of course, I knew there were few things that could embarrass the dancer girls.

I found Luna in her trailer, preparing some pungent-smelling concoction for a customer.

"Hello," she greeted us as we entered the room with the spatial expansion magic.

"Hi," I replied almost simultaneously with Alex.

"How can I help you?" she asked as she turned off the stove.

"I'm here because of the idiot," I said, pointing my thumb at the werewolf standing behind me.

Alex, of course, was staring around the spacious room in utter dismay, he had obviously not expected a room this large given the size of the trailer. Of course, when he had finished staring, he began to outline the feeble reason he had dragged me away from home.

"Halloween party?" Luna's eyes immediately lit up.

"Yes," Alex replied with a similar madness in his eyes, "that's why I'm looking for a costume."

Alex elaborated on his wish, a Deadpool costume. Of course, after that, they discussed some details, like when Alex would pick it up.

"And your costume?" Luna suddenly turned to me.

I pursed my lips. "I'm not going to this lame party."

That was my opinion on the whole silly costume thing.

(...)

Of course, the next afternoon Alex set off alone to the gypsies. Since he borrowed the costume and I didn't have to spend a penny on his idiotic Halloween party, I just waved him off with the greatest peace of mind.

That peace of mind lasted until he got back from Luna. Along with the costume, I was given some face paint with my name purposefully written on it.

Alex, of course, just grinned like a madman at my wry expression.

"Whose idea was this?" I demanded, but I couldn't make out the answer from Alex's happy grin.

"Get dressed, Shay," he said, already heading for the stairs, "Izzi needs our support."

I looked at the werewolf in shock. It wasn't until years later that I learned that the wolf had said something quite similar to this to the vampire girl about me to get her to come to the evening. Who would have thought Alex could pull a stunt like that?

Anyway, I decided on a vampire costume in the end. I didn't really have much to work with, so I didn't have much choice. What could be scarier than a vampire burning to ashes?

I made the second set of teeth for the vampire costume out of sheets of paper and smeared a bit of yellow face paint on it to make it more lifelike. For a while, I tried to see how wide I had to open my mouth to get the second set of teeth to open. Perfect!

I then glued paper towels to the neck and most of my face and plastered them up in places, then smeared the black paste over them. There was only one thing left, the fake blood...

Which the miserable cat had just stolen right in front of my eyes. It must have sensed trouble, because slowly, very slowly, it turned his head towards me. In his yellow-green eyes, I saw then all the malice that had been crammed into this tiny body.

"If you give it to me now, I'll only half-kill you," I offered calmly and held out my palm purposefully towards the cat.

The demon cat looked blankly at me for a moment. And then, guess what! The cursed creature jumped off the table with the utmost elegance. Then chaos broke out. I chased the demon cat all over the house.

The damned four-legged spiritual terrorist, meanwhile, was mercilessly pushing everything in its path and everything that wasn't in its path. Two cups and a vase were broken, and the coffee pot, phones, and a small lamp were caught by me.

"You son of a bitch!" I shouted, running after the abomination.

I kept trying to kill the cat until Alex appeared. Of course, oblivious to my suffering, he let the demon cat out the door.

"What are you doing?" I snarled, to which Alex looked up at me, puzzled, as I approached him, balancing the coffee pot, lamp, and both our cell phones in my hands.

"I could ask the same," he said.

"That wretched cat ran off with my fake blood!" I growled.

Alex muttered something unintelligible in reply, while I nobly shoved the stuff into his hands to point at the door as if the wooden board was responsible for my anger.

"The pest stole my fake blood!" I repeated, with an element of resentment in my voice.

"Your costume is very good without it," Alex complimented, hoping to soften my heart.

Well, he didn't really succeed.

"Ungrateful pest!" I growled. "Next time I'll get it and rip its spine out!"

Well, Alex gave me a cutting look for that, but I didn't care.

(...)

A few hours later, I was walking around a noisy room that smelled of alcohol.

Coffee was the first person I saw, as she herself had pulled to the side and was obviously waiting. When she saw us at the entrance to the room, I could see the reassurance in her eyes. She must have been thanking the heavens that she didn't have to endure this social event, known to others as a Halloween party, alone.

Coffee was wearing a surprisingly short black skirt, her legs covered in dark stockings, yet I smiled at the cute little shoes that instantly killed her sex appeal. Of course, she had also put on a cape, which was a little big on her, and I was sure she had stolen it from her father. Her hair was brushed away from her face, which looked unusually porcelain white. A trail of blood ran from her lips to her chin line, and when she spoke to me, I saw the plastic vampire teeth.

Oh, how original.

She immediately recognized my costume but said nothing. Although we both dressed up as the same species, we looked very different.

After that, Alice came up to us, his hair carrot red.

"Ron Weasly?" I frowned.

Alice nodded. "Venom?"

I looked at him like he was crazy.

"I'm a vampire," I replied clearly offended.

"But then why is half your neck and half your face black?" he was puzzled.

"Because I'm a vampire burning to a crisp!" I snarled.

Shortly afterwards, another person joined us. Moses was wearing a pointed hat, carrying a robe and a magic wand. When he saw me, his eyes widened for a moment, then flashed with recognition. At the time, I thought he recognized Venom in me. Only later did I realize how wrong I had been.

Alex soon got divinely drunk and I noticed him teleporting across the room and dancing like an idiot. I sighed deeply and downed another cuppa. I'm too sober for all this.

Alice, meanwhile, was trying to rebuff the occasional girl who wandered towards him, but his polite refusal must have been misunderstood and he eventually pulled away from us. Even Moses himself, after downing some vodka, slapped his face as if preparing for the toughest fight of his life, and then threw himself into the writhing crowd. Such a suicide mission...

I, meanwhile, was trying to get terribly drunk so that I could appreciate the commotion around me and just stared with lifeless eyes as Alex jumped, danced and raved with no one in mind. For a moment even I felt dizzy as he began to spin, or maybe it was just the effects of the copious amounts of alcohol I had consumed while standing for half an hour.

Of course, Alex would occasionally rush over to me laughing maniacally to bring more alcohol and push another cup into my hand. Then, seeing that I showed no inclination for the madness he was doing, he danced back into the crowd.

I took another shot. Coffee, still swallowing small sips, stood beside me and stared in disbelief at the crowd. Sure, she took the occasional sip of alcohol, but she'd been sipping the same shot since the party started. It wasn't that I was worried, vampires can drink alcohol, she just didn't seem to want to overdo it. I didn't push it.

While I was thinking about these things and analyzing the drinking habits of vampires, I suddenly noticed that my body began to sway on its own. I was listening to some idiotic Katy Perry song, the music was awful, but somehow at that moment it didn't bother me in the least... in fact, my body was swaying to the rhythm.

The next thing I knew, I found myself bouncing alongside Alex. Moreover, I could feel a slow, demented grin slowly spreading across my lips. Sometimes I spun the girls who wandered towards me, and even then I didn't grimace as they continued to dance with me, wanting more.

Then, sure enough, I had a world-destroying idea and quickly swayed to Alex's side. The wolf grinned in anticipation as if he could read my mind. Or maybe he just knew me too well. I whispered in his ear my then seemingly brilliant yet fundamentally fatal plan. Alex began to nod vigorously, with a vigour that made me think his head was going to fall off. In any case, even that could not have dampened my spirits in that state.

We headed towards the unsuspecting vampire girl. At first, Coffee just stared at me, calmly, if only she had any idea what I was thinking she would have run for her life. In any case, she merely looked at me in disbelief and said:

"Who are you and where has Shay gone?"

I just laughed and put my hand on one of her wrists. Coffee must have guessed my plan by then because she turned even paler! Alex grabbed her other hand and we pulled her into the crowd, despite the vampire girl's protests. There we let go and Alex and I started dancing. Of course, Coffee just stood there for a moment in shock, as if she couldn't believe what was happening. Then I saw the tiny spark of determination in her eyes and knew she would run.

Grinning, I caught her hand and spun her around. Every time she tried to make a move, I would grab her hand, spin her and dance to stop her. I could see in her face that she was scared to death, but since I thought no one had ever died in a dance before, I didn't let go.

Then the music slowed down and Alex disappeared somewhere. As everyone around me was huddled together, I, in a sudden fit of insanity, pulled Coffee closer to me. Coffee just blinked at me wide-eyed, and I took advantage of her surprise and started to direct her movements. We couldn't just stand there.

At one point I spotted the Deadpool costume and realized that Alex had drifted across the room with the crowd at some point. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the wolf, oblivious to the change in the music, frolicking and jumping with the same enthusiasm.

"What are you doing?" demanded Coffee, "Let go of me!"

"It's just a dance," I smiled. "It won't hurt at all."

I could see on Coffee's face that she had a different opinion. All the same, the vampire girl did not make a scene and try to escape from my arms, as I would have expected. I was sure, however, that Coffee was doing some complicated mathematical calculations in her head to work out how many seconds were left from this slow song. We had been rocking for a while, and the idyllic scene was only disturbed by Alex's bouncing in the background.

I looked again at the girl in my arms. At that moment, the alcohol made her a little desirable in my eyes, if she hadn't been one of my friends...

"Don't even think about it," Coffee filtered darkly through her teeth.

I just shrugged and pulled my gaze away from her.

"You're drunk, you idiot," the vampire girl continued.

"It feels good," I said, looking into her eyes, "Maybe you should try it sometime."

As soon as the song ended, Coffee slipped out of my arms with ease and, as if her life depended on it, hurried off towards the corner of the room.

"Thanks for the dance," I shouted after her, satisfied.

I knew she would hear me perfectly, despite the hum of the music. When Coffee stopped and turned back in disbelief, I winked and looked for another victim.

(...)

The next morning, when I woke up with a terrible headache, I didn't want to remember the night and hoped no one else would either. When I grabbed my phone to check the time, I noticed all the Facebook messages. What the hell?

I opened the messages and oh gods, I wish I hadn't! Right away the first picture was me posing with a girl, it was obvious that neither of us were sober, especially since I don't hug anyone like that by default.

In other pictures, I was having a drinking contest with a bunch of idiots, and they were standing around as I downed my umpteenth beer in a row. In another picture, I have no memory of how I ended up in Alex's neck. Oh, my God...

Even Alice sent me a photo, but at least he spared me the drunken gibberish and forwarded it without any comment. In this picture, I was standing on stage. Oh, I forgot, I won the costume contest.

Of course, it annoyed me that they thought I was dressed as Venom, but I couldn't say I was impersonating a vampire burning to a crisp. So, resigned to my fate, when asked for my costume, I as curtly and as briefly as possible, in a single word, said Venom. But where had the cake I had won gone?

The answer was in the following pictures: Alex, me and even Alice were neck-deep in cake. Alice looked as if he couldn't have been any more disturbed by the situation, from the picture I could almost hear Alex's maniacal laughter and I was grinning wickedly. How could this have happened?! My cake!

I fell into bed and decided that okay, I wasn't going to school that day. I picked up my phone and opened the Kaleidoscope. My eyes went wild: I couldn't read the articles. I kept blinking, but I still couldn't read it. What, am I not completely sober yet? I sat up and took another look at the text and the headline proclaimed:

[Strange weather anomalies reported around the world]

I wiped my eyes. I collapsed back on the bed.

Lordling had reduced our meetings again lately, although I would have liked to ask him why I was seeing mirror writing everywhere. No, it wasn't the first time. I had noticed it once on the bus, when I glanced at the stop display, also when the teacher was writing something on the blackboard. It scared me.

I rested for a while and then got ready to leave. Of course, I still wasn't too enthusiastic about the idea of learning, but there was nothing I could do.

To my surprise, on the way to school, I was greeted by many people.

"Hi!" grinned a girl I could have sworn I'd never seen before.

Anyway, the greeting was nothing compared to the others. Another girl waved, and since I remembered dancing with her a couple of times, I didn't want to be rude and waved back.

"Party was awesome!" a kid shouted and just as I was about to drop my hand to my side, he high-fived me.

Is he crazy?

"Yep," another guy came up to me and boldly put his hand around my neck. "I'm having a party next week, come!"

I took his hand off my shoulders and left without a word. Could it get any worse?!

Fortunately, nothing strange happened that day, apart from Mose's nonsense of course. The guy kept trying to make friends with my humble self or Alex, he wasn't naive enough to approach Coffee.

Slowly it became commonplace for him to fall on his stomach next to us, seriously, I wasn't even surprised when he fell on his back in front of me — I just stepped over him. Sometimes he'd buy a hot chocolate from the vending machine, only to burn his tongue or spill it on himself. I just sighed in resignation.