I rode down the road a few blocks to the bar and parked my bike around the corner. The nightlife of the city was in full swing, with people of every shape and size going in and out of cabs and bars like it was their job. The few clubs that were here were packed, the lines stretching down the sidewalks waiting their turn to get inside. A lot of the women I saw were in costumes, dressed as everything from nurses to cops, all barely leaving anything to the imagination. I even saw a few of them dressed up in sexy zombie costumes, walking in one group like the walking dead. I couldn't help but laugh to myself when the thought of all of them doing the Thriller dance when they walked by. Then the thought warped into a strange sort of strip tease, hot bodies painted up in zombie paint and covered in blood. Women grinding against each other, rubbing each other. I quickly changed my thoughts to just waiting for Tyler, trying desperately to not get too distracted while I sat here.
A few of them stared and pointed at me, some of them waved and smiled. I tried waving back once, but the woman's male companion ushered her down the street and flipped me off. In my old life, I would've gone right up to him, kicked his ass, then left with his girl. But I don't think that would go over so well these days, considering if I really wanted to, I could end his life with one easy swing. And I probably don't have the pull I used to with women, especially sober women. The more I watched the groups of women wander down the streets and in and out of bars, the more I realized how out of practice I was with how to approach people in general. I had gotten so introverted that the thought of just having a conversation with someone was kinda nerve racking.
Before I could think too deeply about it, Tyler rolled up beside me and climbed out of the driver's seat. I couldn't help but notice he had quite a few marks on his face, including a nasty black eye beginning to form on his left cheek. "Alright, here I am", he said, "where we drinkin?". "You alright man?", I ask him. He nodded my concern off with a half wave, "I'm fine, where we headed". I climbed off my bike and pointed towards the corner, "it's just around the corner. How are you gonna drink? I thought you said you were seventeen?". "And I am indeed seventeen, but I have one of these", he said pulling out his wallet. He handed me an impressive fake ID that had the age set to twenty two. "Not bad", I said, handing it back to him. Tyler shrugged and pushed it back into its place in his wallet, "well, I'm never getting older, so it was either this or never drinking. And I'm sorry, but I'm not not gonna drink and live forever. Not happening".
As we made our way through the crowds of people coming down the street, I could see Tyler's eyes darting between every female he saw. They seemed to like him too, a few of them touching his shoulders and giggling as they made their way past us. "You seem to have a few admirers", I tell him, "I wish I still had that super power. It's been a long minute for me, if you catch my drift". He just kept walking, "yeah, well, some of them would be repeat offenders, if YOU catch MY drift", he said grinning. I couldn't believe it, "are you serious? Some of these girls look double your age, if not slightly older". He just laughed at me and my point, "it doesn't matter how old I am or how old they think I am. As long as they leave satisfied, everyone's happy". He gave me a sideways look, "so, how long are we talking? With the whole no sex situation", he asked. I sighed. I hadn't even thought about it in a long while. "If I had to sum it up, I think it's been about six months. And five of those were when I was still technically alive", I told him. He grabbed my arm and stopped us in the middle of the street, "you're telling me you haven't got your dick wet in six months? How the fuck do you live with yourself?", he asked me, a little too involved with my sex life now.
I got his hand off my arm and kept walking. "Look man, the type of women I used to roll around with weren't exactly what you'd call decent. Most of them were more fucked up than me on all that shit. Not to mention requiring payment up front sometimes", I told him. He gave me another look, one that almost looked disgusted by the mere thought of such things. Or even pity that I had to stoop to such levels. "It was easier to pay then to find a woman with low enough self esteem that would have sex with a heroin addict for free".
We finally made it to the bar and stood in line for a few minutes. A few of the women ahead of us kept looking at me up and down, then making comments to each other. Tyler slapped me on the back, "see, you still got something to give....or pay for", he said laughing. "Would you shut the fuck up", I said, trying not to smile as we finally got to the door and got our IDs checked.
We walked inside with no issues and grabbed a couple seats in the back of the room. A waitress came over and took our drink order and wandered over to the bar for our beers. While we waited for her we watched people dance and make fools of themselves on the dance floor. The lights flashed in beat with the music as more people made their way onto the dance floor. We kept watching as the waitress brought us our beers, giving Tyler the flirtiest eyes as she sat them on our table. He smiled back at her as she walked away, chugging down his entire drink in one go and slamming the empty glass down on the table.
"How'd your night go?", I asked him. He sighed heavily, "not bad, not great. This guy just wouldn't go down. He'd been to prison a couple of times, so he got a few good shots in. But I got him in the end". I took a drink and had to ask, "how'd you finally get him down?". "My boot knife", he said smiling again. He threw one of his boots on the table with a heavy thud and pulled out a small but very sharp looking pocket knife, folding it out and showing it off. "Dude never saw it coming", he said. The blade still had spots of the man's blood staining the shiny metal, even in between the jagged edge. I smiled and laughed a little bit, "is that where all this came from?", I asked while pointing around his face. He put the blade away and swung his foot back down, "like I said, he got me a couple times, but I'm all good. Just a job hazard". "Where'd you finally get him?", I ask. "Main artery in the thigh. He had me on the ground and I got a small opportunity to catch him off guard and just thrust it up into his leg. Fuckin blood went everywhere, he started yelling. I had to gag him with one of his socks and zip tie his ass so nobody would hear him. Then you called and he almost took that opportunity to get away. I had to slit his throat before he managed to get out of any of it, so he's dead dead either way". The longer he talked about his night, the more I was thankful that the music was loud enough that nobody could hear us.
A few hours and a few more beers later, I could feel a strong buzz coming on and I was ready to call it a night. "Alright man, let's get out of here", I tell Tyler as I get to my feet. "Awe, are you sleepy, baby pie?", he said in very slurred words, "can't kee....keep up with me?". I patted him on his shoulder, "no, you can't keep up with yourself", I say as I help him to his feet, "I'll get us a ride and a hotel room. There's no way we're making it all the way to the church tonight". "Wait", he said, "I have...I have an apartment we can crash in. I just have to remember where the keeeey is in my car". I couldn't believe it, "you've had an apartment this whole time? Why haven't we been using it?", I ask him as we stumble through the crowded dance floor. He pushed the doors to the front of the bar open and started towards his car. "Because Chasssse", he said as he stumbled down the sidewalk, "I only use it for hooking up with women. When you take a girl back to a creepy ass church in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, it tends to freak them out". He almost tripped off the edge of the sidewalk as he continued, "it's like some horror movie shit to them. Plus, they can't go all the way in to the actual building anyway. Side effect of being totally human, and no woman wants to throw down in rotten pews".
We finally made it to his car and started fumbling through every pocket and seat looking for his damn keys. After looking for a good fifteen minutes, I was already ready to say fuck it and sleep in the car. "Dude, it's obviously not in here", I tell him, "if it exists at all". "It does exist, it's just hiding from me", he argued as he continued to look, "here key. I need you to come out now". The fact that he was calling to the key told me how fucked up he really was. I couldn't help but laugh at him under my breath. "You are so drunk", I said as I got out of the car. I pulled my cigarettes out of my pocket, letting him look on his own.
As I smoked my cigarette I started to notice that I didn't feel that buzzed anymore. I couldn't even taste the aftertaste of beer in my mouth anymore. Tyler finally emerged from the floor of the backseat as the last of the ashes fell off the end of the butt. "I found it! I knew the son of a bitch was in there somewhere. It somehow got stuck in the track under the front seat", he said. I looked into his eyes while he was talking and realized they had started to clear almost completely. "Are you even still drunk?", I asked him. He shrugged, "not really. Buzzed maybe, but not smashed. It never lasts very long. It's the same thing that happens whenever I try to get high. It's aggravating".
I walked over and leaned against the seat of my bike. "So let me make sure I have this straight", I started, "I can drink to the point of alcohol poisoning, I can do drugs until I overdose and die. Hell, I can literally be murdered or killed in any way thinkable. And even after all that....I'm still gonna come back like nothing fuckin happened". "Yup", Tyler said, "we get a life without consequences ....but we still have to do what we agreed to do. Helping others find their peace, or their downfall". I tossed the butt of my dead cigarette on the pavement, "new plan, fuck nut. We aren't stopping yet. I wanna party like i used to, maybe until i die again. You comin with me or goin home?". Tyler didn't even try to argue, "Fuck yes, let's fuckin go. I'm taking you down the rabbit hole and it starts now". He started walking down the sidewalk towards downtown before I could ask where he was headed. Before he got too far, I had to ask, "and what happens if we don't? What happens if we refuse to help the living become the dead?". Tyler turned around and shrugged his shoulders as he walked backwards, "no ones ever tried".
*
The effects of the alcohol had all but disappeared from our bodies as we made our way down the street. I had a new mission. I wanted to see exactly how far I could go before my body decided enough was enough. We started to make our way towards downtown when we started to hear music. A couple streets later, we finally found the source of the music and started smelling delicious fumes filling the air. The opening ceremonies of the Halloween carnival had begun.
As we started to make our way into the sea of people, every sense in my body was overloaded. The sights, the smells, even the textures of costumes and outfits against my skin sent multiple sensations directly to my brain. Every color was vibrant, like looking into a kaleidoscope of Halloween. If I blinked, I felt like I might miss something. The smells, from cotton candy to random charred meats being sold out of random booths made my nose feel like it had come alive for the first time.
Then suddenly, I was starving.
I turned my head to say something to Tyler, but he apparently had the same mindset. "Dude, we need to get in on this shit, like, yesterday", he said excitedly, "come on".
I followed behind him as best I could, weaving our way through more people than I'd ever seen in one place before. Lines upon lines trying to get on rides, go through haunted houses, and plenty more trying to get food or simply get into a bathroom. Not to mention all the different vendors trying to sell their products and services, from face painting all the way down to plushy toys, all packed with kids and adults alike. I even noticed the local tattoo shop had a line at their door, offering Halloween flash tattoos for fifty bucks all week.
Some of the lights that had been hung days ago pulsed in rhythm with the loud music coming from the large speakers over our heads. They got so fast at one point I wondered if I'd see someone have a seizure at some point. The bass was pumping so hard I could literally see them moving. Dancers dressed in the tiniest of outfits danced inside cages, reaching through the bars acting like they were trying to drag you in with them. Actors dressed as every monster I could have thought of roamed the streets, stalking and scaring unsuspecting visitors from the shadows. It was the wildest thing I'd ever been to in a very long time, and I actually wanted to enjoy myself.
Tyler was basically dancing his way down the street with a few barely dressed she devil's when I finally caught up enough to catch him. I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around to face me. "Dude, this shit is insane", I tell him, "I don't even know where to start". Tyler looked around for a few seconds then started pulling me towards the sidewalk. "I know exactly where to start", he said. We made our way through the sea of people behind the tents and stopped in front of a costume shop. He put his hands in the air as if he was dramatically announcing the store. "Let's blend in", he proclaimed and pushed the door open and led me inside.
We spent a good thirty minutes in the store looking through the many racks of costumes and I couldn't find anything. I hadn't dressed up for Halloween in so many years, it just felt very strange to be trying to do it now. Dressing up as a goblin or a ghost? Not my thing anymore. I eventually found myself grabbing a black hoodie with some demonic skulls on the back and some dark distressed jeans and called it a costume. Tyler, on the other hand, found a full ghostface costume and couldn't stop himself from buying it. He came out of the dressing room, plastic knife in hand, and acted like he was going to stab me. "What's your favorite scary movie?", he asked laughing. I shook my head at him as he took his mask off and looked at me like I was covered in spiders.
"What's with the face?", I asked him. "This", he said, motioning his plastic knife up and down at me, "this is what you went with?". I shrugged, "I think it's fine. I don't really wanna dress up anyway. It's not a big deal". It is a big deal", he said, "it's Halloween week and you're acting like we're shopping on an average fuckin Tuesday". "We're already scary enough", I tell him, "we're literal grim reapers. There's nothing scarier than an actual grim reaper and no one knowing".
At that point Tyler got the biggest smile on his face and excitement overtook his entire body. "You just gave me the best fucking idea! Go wait in the dressing room and I'll be right back!", he said excitedly. Before I could protest, he ran down one of the aisles and disappeared. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the dressing room and pulled the curtain closer behind me. I sat in the small chair in the corner and waited for Tyler to return, not really sure what his brain had come up with, which in itself made me nervous.
I was starting to think he might have ditched me when the curtain came flying open. Tyler had returned with several different pieces of jewelry, as well as a pair of thick black boots and two studded belts. He got in the dressing room with me and could barely get the curtain closer behind him. "What's all this shit?", I asked as I looked through everything he had brought. A lot of the necklaces were metal chains with intricate crosses on them that had weight to them. He sat most of them down where he could, "this shit is going to make an actual costume for you, old man. And this isn't even the best part", and reached just outside the curtain and pulled a very elaborate scythe into the small room with us. I glanced between him and the scythe for a few seconds before finally saying, "are you fucking kidding me?".
He leaned the scythe against the wall and explained his idea. "Look", he started, "you're right. We are probably the scariest motherfuckers in this whole damn city. But here's the thing, no one fucking knows that. So, my idea is simple: use what you already got, and have some fucking fun with it".
He started decorating me like a damn Christmas tree with different jewelry until he was satisfied. I wouldn't admit it to him, but I did think I looked cool. He yanked my hood up over my head and handed me the scythe when he was done and I realized that it was made out of real wood and metal. The whole thing was slightly taller than me, and the blade wasn't really sharp. It was quite dull. "Where'd you find this thing? It looks like it's made of driftwood or something", I tell him, "very old world looking". "It was just kinda out there with the props and shit. I thought it looked cool". He stood back and looked me up and down like he had to approve before we left the dressing room. "One last thing", I said as he checked outside the curtain before turning back to me. I relaxed and felt the mist over my skin, letting the reaper skull take over my face.
I was messing with the studs on the leather bracelet he put on me when I asked, "what do you think?". "Your reaper face man", he said, "are you sure you wanna flaunt that out in public like that?". "What's gonna happen? Everybody will probably just think it's really good make up. Besides", I say, motioning towards the floor, "the fuck's he gonna do? Kill me?".
Tyler bailed out of the dressing room after putting his mask back on, but I took one last look at myself in the mirror. The whole thing did come together really good, but seeing myself as death would never be something I could get used to. Plus the added cross made it even more daunting. Tyler had circled back to me like an impatient child, "come on bro! Let's fuckin go!".
As I exited the dressing room Tyler was hopping in place like a child waiting to go trick or treating. But, as soon as he took a good look at me under the better lighting, he was beaming. "Dude, you look fucking sick!", he told me, "let's roam this party like we're gonna die tomorrow....because odds are, we will".
*
We wandered through the festival like we were everyday people. I kept my hood up for the first few minutes of our walk, not really wanting people to stare at me. But, when I finally did, no one even looked at us. We faded into the crowd like it was nothing. No one looked at me like I was there to kill them, I was just another guy in halloween make up. No one looked at Tyler under his ghostface mask. Everyone he came into contact with treated him like any other hyper teenager out for the holiday. A few girls dressed as sexy zombies even hit on us while we were waiting in line for an elephant ear. They were touching on Tylers arms and asking if he wanted to party with them later after the festival died down. I grabbed our food while he acted like a cat in heat, almost following them when they grabbed theirs. I practically had to drag him away from them so we could continue on. We continued to walk further through the street when I smelled something all too familiar. We followed it around the back of a tent when I found a couple of people smoking weed and eating cotton candy. They were thrown off by us at first, but came around quickly when I asked for a couple hits. They didn't mind at all. After a few hits, I was better than ever, the smoke in my lungs feeling so familiar from my life before. Tyler hit it a couple times, but it didn't seem to do much to him. I hadn't been high in so long that I had forgotten what it felt like. I felt more relaxed than I had in weeks.
We were about to test out our ring toss skills when every light suddenly started to flicker and go out, a low voice crackling over the loudspeakers. "Sorry to interrupt the mischief and mayhem", the voice said, "but the midnight hour is upon us, and we must make our sacrifice to the god of death. Make your way to the main stage, and prepare your souls for corruption".
As the announcer finished speaking, all the lights in the festival had gone out, leaving the scattered jack-o-lanterns as our only source of light. Everyone started to make their way down the block to the main stage, almost everyone seeming to know what was coming but us. As Tyler and I made our way with the crowd I started to notice quite a few parents starting to pack up their kids and all their candy and toys and making their way in the opposite direction as us. The way they were trying to leave as fast as they were made me fully aware that what was about to happen was not going to be child friendly.
A large crowd had already formed in front of the stage in anticipation for whatever was going to happen. Tyler and I stayed a good distance back, trying to decipher what type of entertainment could be coming our way. Since the last time I was down in this part of the city they had apparently installed two large screens on either side of the stage. So whatever was happening they wanted everyone to see up close and personal. I checked the time on my phone, two minutes to midnight.
Right as I was about to put my phone back in my pocket, someone rammed into my back as they were passing me and sent it into the pavement. My head instantly started to hurt and a ringing pierced straight into my ear drums. I snatched up my phone and turned to see who had run into me and came face to face with a guy dressed in a clown outfit. "Damn, sorry man", the guy said, "maybe you should watch where the fuck you're going". The rage that took over my body flowed through me effortlessly. "Maybe you should wipe the makeup out of your eyes so you can fuckin see past that round ass nose", I snapped back. At that point I had really pissed him off. He grabbed me by my hoodie with both hands and started threatening to kick my ass. The words were fuzzy as he was yelling at me, like I was trying to hear him under water. I tried to focus on his face, but everything kept flashing between his face and something else. A red haze showed this random clown seeming to attack a random woman and rob her. She looked very young, maybe sixteen. And she looked terrified.
A flash of him running at her was the last thing I saw before coming back to reality, sore and on the pavement. Tyler had apparently pushed him hard enough that the clown shoved me to the ground so he could deal with him instead. They shouted for a good minute before the guy decided it wasn't worth his time and left as Tyler helped me off the ground. Tyler took his mask off as i got to my feet, "what the fuck was that?", he asked. Once I was solid again I was fully ready to pick a fight. My eyes refocused on the sea of people around me and, unfortunately, the clown had disappeared. "Where'd the clown go?", I asked, looking around but finding no trace of him. Tyler threw his arms up in confusion, "I don't know man. I saw him get you by the collar, I reacted and pushed him, then he took off when I was helping you".
At the obvious pain on my face, he asked if I was okay. "I saw something", I told him, "he attacked someone, some girl. It all happened so fast I didn't have time to process it". "Sounds like he's one of the marked", he said, turning his attention back to the stage. "What the hell does that mean?", I ask, trying to calm myself down. "Basically", he said, "they aren't dead yet, but they will be soon enough". We made ourselves comfortable in our spot in the crowd, waiting for the show to start. "And that rage you just felt", he continued, "that's the rage inside us that drives us to take out real evil in the world. And that girl you said you saw, that's probably just the tip of the iceberg for that guy". I gave up looking for the clown for now, finally calmed down and able to focus completely. If what Tyler said was true, then he wouldn't be long for this world anyway. And with any luck, I'd be the one who gets to put him down.
At that moment, loud cathedral bell sounds began to ring through the air, fog seeming to start to roll through the street and over the stage itself. The noise was accompanied by a roar of cheering and clapping from the crowd around us. The stage had been set up to look like a dead forest, dead trees and dead bushes all over. A stormy sky had been painted in the background to make it look more ominous. We started watching the stage as the ceremony was starting. The stage lit up with low red lighting as several fire dancers made their way over the stage. The men and women put on quite the show until the main announcer came into view. A very tall man dressed head to toe in black robes and gray and white makeup, six inch horns perched on top of his forehead. The large screens had his face front and center as his commanding voice boomed over the crowd.
"Hellooooo Stonewall City!", he yelled into his headset, "It's me, death incarnate! And I'm here to twist your souls and make you smile as I do!". I turned to Tyler right as he was turning towards me, both of us giving each other a sideways look. "I guess he's shit out of luck whenever he gets to us", Tyler said, both of us laughing as the so-called god of death continued to speak. "On this night, on this devil's night we celebrate the dead. We reveal in the darkness, and even bathe in the blood of the innocent", he said as the fire dancers started to dance in unison around him. We watched on the monitors as the flames came so close to the man's robes I thought they might catch on fire. "Tonight", he announced, "you will give me.....blood for blood".
From the left side of the stage we watched as two large shirtless men dragged a woman over to the announcer. She was thin with long dark hair. The cameras focused on her face as they stopped her next to the man, her pale skin seeming to illuminate around her. Her white outfit only made her look more angelic, the sheer white skirt dancing around her legs as she acted like she was struggling against them. As they stopped her, all the lighting on the stage went dark, only the fire from the fire dancers and a single spot light showed us what was happening. Tyler nudged me with his elbow, "how much you wanna bet they're getting ready to sacrifice her ass?". I shrugged my shoulders, "it's a halloween show. Might as well make it entertaining with human sacrifice". "At least the sacrifice in question is hot", he said. He started grinning like a super villain as we kept watching the show.
I watched as the man took the woman's chin into his gray hand, forcing her to look him in his eyes. "And what is your name, my beauty?", he asked her. She shook her head away before answering him into her own headset, "my name is Eve". "Of the garden of eden? The beauty who destroyed our chance of salvation from this wicked world?", he asked. She glared up at him, "no, I did not. Adam did it, and blamed me". The man laughed, and so did the crowd. "Just like a woman to lie", he said. "Yeah", she said, "that's why men have the Adam's apple caught in their throats, because they aren't choking on their own lies, right?". At that point he grabbed her by the throat and got very close to her face, "and those are the words you will die on". "I refuse to be a part of this depravity! Let me go!", she yelled. She started to struggle against the men once more. It made me laugh to myself a little bit at how cheesy this whole thing was, but I couldn't help but keep watching her. I admired her commitment to being the damsel in distress and her willingness to go all in on it. I watched as the man dressed as death took her away from the two shirtless men and dragged her over to the middle of the stage where a huge pire had been set up in the darkness. He tossed her over to several fire dancers who then quickly tied her to it, her hands bound above her head as she stood in the center of it. She looked like a witch about to be burned at the stake as the fire dancers gathered around it and the announcer raised his arms into the air. "Death comes for all, and in all forms", he said, "with this maiden's blood, we beg you......rain your mercy down on us, and bless our dark hearts".
The man let his arms fall to his sides, and as he did, on command, all the fire dancers around Eve breathed fire onto the pire. Eve began to scream in terror as the crowd went wild. The higher the flames went, the louder the crowd cheered. Just as I started to feel actual panic setting into my chest, I saw the woman suddenly drop as the flames overtook the entire pire. A magic trick, but when the flames disappeared and everyone realized she was gone, they lost their minds in amazement.
As all the fire dancers rearranged themselves I started to hear thunder begin to roll out of the speakers, along with the beginning of music again. The announcer looked to the sky with glee and started to laugh with joy. "Our sacrifice has been accepted! Her soul has been accepted into the other side! Her blood serves us in our way forward! Let there be blood!".
As his words echoed throughout the crowd, the thunder from the speakers grew louder and the music amplified. I randomly felt something wet hit my cheek, like a rain drop had actually fallen from the sky. But, when I wiped it from my face, the drop was dark red. I looked up and realized the sprinkler system had started and dark red drops were starting to go everywhere. Everyone in the crowd, including Tyler and myself, were now being covered in what looked like blood from the sprinklers. I was still a little high, but the whole thing was strangely beautiful in a way that my brain couldn't comprehend. I watched as people started to dance in the blood, looking like a deranged version of dancing in the rain. I pulled my hood down and let it run all over my head. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes for a moment, pretending it was an actual baptism by blood.
Before I could really enjoy the moment, I heard the crowd start cheering loudly again as Tyler grabbed my arm and started to shake it, desperate to get my attention. I opened my eyes and looked back to the stage and saw what everyone was yelling about. Eve had reemerged from below the stage, only this time with a very different look. She was now in an outfit of black lingerie with knee high combat boots. Her make up had turned dark against her bright green eyes. She made her way across the stage, dancing with the fire dancers and all over the pire that she had been sacrificed on.
Then finally, the music dropped and the main song of the event blasted. The lights started flashing, everyone started dancing, and the real party started.
"There will be blood!
Run for your life!
You'll never make it, never make it
Through the night!
There will be blood!
You're gonna die!
Go on and say, go on and say
Your last goodbyes!
There will be blood!".
ns216.73.216.143da2
and then Add to home screen.