Everybody Scream

It's the 31st of October. It's Halloween. The time is 7 pm.

Safe to say that both Zack and Grieco have disappointed me with their costumes this year. I mean Zack's costume isn't that bad but Grieco hasn't put any damn effort into his. He could have bought a shitty vampire costume or gone as a werewolf. But no. So I am heading to the party with Michael Myers and some shithead with an American Horror Story t-shirt and fake blood. This year I thought we would go as 'traditional' supernatural beings, but nope. Zack has gone as a character from Halloween (like I said, not really that bad) and Grieco has essentially gone as himself twenty minutes in the future when I punch him. And here I am as a zombie. You can never go wrong as a zombie in my opinion. Dirty and ripped white shirt with fake blood on it, a tatty faded green jacket, skinny jeans, worn converse, hair even messier than usual which is quite an achievement, and a bit of make-up which Cass helped me with. Her and Rian left for the party a little bit before us, the two of them dressed as scarecrows.

As much as I want to be annoyed at Grieco in particular, I will refrain because it's Halloween after all. A night to dress up and have fun with your mates. Also to get drunk. So incredibly drunk.

**********

The party was in full swing when we arrived. Music was blaring so loudly that you could hear it down the street. Upon entering the house with alcohol to add to the large quantity already swamping the kitchen, we greeted Phil and immediately started drinking.

It's now 10pm and a fifth bottle of beer has appeared in my hand. There are bright lights and the music is still just as loud as it was when I arrived. Grieco is talking to some girl in the kitchen, Zack is talking about fitness with some guy who I think is called Lee, and I've been dancing with Cass and Rian. Having two left feet and awkward limbs doesn't help with my dance skills, but I'm having far too much fun to care.

That's when I feel someone staring at me.

I try my best to ignore, but the feeling doesn't go away. Stepping to the side a minute, I take a small sip of my beer and cast a look around the room. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I swear that someone was (and still is) staring at me. After a moment the feeling goes away. It's odd. I was absolutely positive someone was staring, but it might just be paranoia or the drink after all. Just as I'm about to go back to dancing, a gap is made between a few dancers and someone catches my eye. In the corner standing alone is some guy around my age staring down at the red solo cup in his hand, and I have to admit that he isn't all that bad looking. He appears to be dressed as some sort of devil with a crimson tail and small horns poking out from under his fringe. His costume consists of black skinny jeans that hug his legs, a pair of battered converse shoes, a black fitted tail coat with a red lining, a candy apple red button up that remains untucked and the top button undone with a thin black tie knotted loosely.

As I continue to admire this stranger, he snaps his eyes up to look at me. As soon as his eyes look with mine it takes my breath away. From across the room I can see his irises are a glowing blood red. Must be some pretty good contact lenses. Some time passes as we continue to look at each other before he smiles wickedly at me, revealing what appears to be a set of fangs. I instantly look away and make my way back towards Cass who is currently laughing her ass off at something Rian said. Something about the stranger makes me feel incredibly uneasy yet oddly curious. I decided to ask both Rian and Cass if they knew who the strange boy in the corner dressed in candy apple red was, but both frowned and shrugged their shoulders.

**********

It has been almost an hour and I can't stop thinking about the boy in candy apple red. The image of his face and that wicked smile intrudes my thoughts and distracts me. At first I thought it was just down to the uneasy feeling in my chest, but as time went on the uneasy feeling dwindled slightly but the thoughts didn't. In the midst of a conversation that damn smile will appear in my head and I have to ask the other person to repeat themselves. A couple of times the thoughts cause me to stop moving for a second. It's like he's burning through my head. It's all incredibly weird and now I think it's time for my sixth beer.

The kitchen isn't crowded but there are still a fair amount of people in here. I make a beeline for the table with unopened beer bottles. grabbing one without looking at the label. I feel that someone is staring at me again but I just brush it. After all, it turned out to be nothing last time. Sat on the corner of the table is the bottle opener, and I fiddle around with that for a moment before successfully removing the bottle cap. I make a small noise of triumph, putting down the bottle opener and taking a sip of the newly opened beer. I turn around to start my adventure to find Zack but before I can take a single step the candy apple red stranger stops me in his tracks. I have no idea how long he has been standing there for, but clearly he must have been the person staring at me. I note that he's a little bit shorter than I am as he looks up at me with those horrifically bright eyes, his head cocked to the side and a slight smile on his face as he sways his upper body slightly. I make no effort to move. I am speechless and feel as if I am frozen on the spot.

"Hi." He says as he continues to smile, and I notice that the fangs he has are scarily realistic.

"Hey." Is all I can think to say. I glance down at his cup that he's still holding and I note that it is empty.

"Would you like another drink?" I ask and obviously that was the right question to ask as his smile turns into a grin.

"If you wouldn't mind. A Bloody Mary please. From the punch bowl."

"Sure thing. Give me a minute."

It's not difficult to find the punch bowl; it's rather large and half full of a red liquid that could only be Bloody Mary. I grab the ladle and start to fill the boy's cup. I always thought that Bloody Mary always looked like tomato juice which is probably why I don't really drink it. Once the cup is full, I stupidly let the ladle fall into the bowl which causes a large splash which gets some of the drink on my shirt. Any other time I would be annoyed, but thankfully this white shirt is already covered in fake blood and dirt. I make my way back to the peculiar boy who thanks me for the drink.

"Nice zombie costume, but not enough blood in my opinion." He criticises, taking a sip of his drink without breaking eye contact.

"Really?" I look down at my shirt which is splattered with what I thought was way too much fake blood. Such an odd comment to make...'not enough blood'.

"Yeah. A lot of it looks dried when some of it should be fresh and some more should be somewhere in the middle."

"Sorry I didn't step right off the set of The Walking Dead. Are you just here to criticise my costume?" I joke, including a chuckle for good measure.

"Maybe."

"Well, what are you supposed to be then?" I ask as I take a sip of my beer, raising a single eyebrow.

"Something creepy." Is all he answers with a smirk. The uneasy feeling is back but the curiosity is drowning it out at the moment.

This boy dressed in candy apple red is such a mystery.

**********

An hour has passed and I haven't left the side of the strange boy. We've just been talking and we still haven't introduced ourselves, but oddly I'm okay with that. Alarms have been going off in the back of my mind but I decide to ignore them. There's nothing about the guy that I should be afraid of. It's not like he's going to murder me or anything. He is polite and the conversations I have been having with him have been amazing. He knows so much about different things; like space and mythology. I hang onto his every word, enthralled by all of the odd knowledge he possesses. It's as if I'm in some weird trance. He is absolutely mesmerising.

Suddenly he stops talking about the rich history of witches. Surveying the room quickly, he looks at me with that wicked smile again.

"I know a place where we can disappear to for a while."

"And where would that be?"

"The graveyard."

"The graveyard?" I question, confused as to why he would want to leave the warmth of the party to a cold graveyard.

"Yes! Nothing screams 'Halloween' more than a graveyard!"

"I can think of a lost of things..." I murmur under my breath as I take the final sip from this bottle of beer.

"Oh come on. It will be fun!" He pulls at my sleeve, looking up at me with those eyes filled with hell-fire and a smirk that reveals some of his fangs. I'm starting to think that those fangs aren't fake...

"I don't know. Wouldn't it be disrespectful."

"They're dead, they won't mind."

It appears that I don't have a say in the matter as the brunette with fire in his eyes grabs me by the arm and leads me out of the house and towards the graveyard. I clumsily place my bottle on some sort of surface before I'm dragged out. He doesn't even give me time to tell my friends where I'm going. Hopefully we won't be long.

**********

"Why are we here again?"

The graveyard ended up being a ten minute walk away from Phil's house. The chill of the late October breeze sends tingles down my spine and numbs my fingers, causing them to turn a pinky-red colour. A full moon hangs in a starless sky with long, misty clouds. Everything appears monochrome. The grass is a dark grey, the trees look black and bare of any leaves save for a couple, and the gravestones are crumbling and decaying like the bodies in the caskets six feet below them for which they serve as a marker for. Flowers, cards, stuffed bears, and other miscellaneous objects rest at the base of the gravestones. Most of the flowers are dead, the cards are ruined, the teddy bears are stained with dirt and dampened with rain, and a few spinning windmills halfheartedly sway slightly in the late night breeze. The uneasy feeling is back and worse than ever.

Again, it begs the question: why the fuck are we here?

"To get into the spirit of Halloween."

"Gonna be honest here, I was already in the spirit of Halloween when the month started."

"Seriously?" He appears to find amusement in that, chuckling slightly as he weaves around a gravestone.

"Yep. It's not easy being the Pumpkin King."

"You nerd."

"I'd rather be a nerd than some creep who thinks it's cool to hang out in a graveyard." I joke...I think.

"Shut up and dance with me, zombie boy."

With a smile he grabs my hands and begins to spin around. I'm unsure what to do, so I just let him dance his battered converse off. It's weird. Why are we dancing? And in a graveyard of all places. There's not even any music to dance to. The only sounds are that of hooting owls, screeching ravens, distant music from house parties, and dogs barking and howling in backyards. Maybe I should have stayed at the party...

"You're as stiff as a corpse. Come on, loosen up!" Alex exclaims, giggling as he raises my arm and spins around under it.

This is all incredibly odd. The setting. The dancing. Especially the boy dancing before me. The glowing eyes that look like they hide hell behind them that look at me as if they're trying to take my soul. I'm starting to doubt that they're contacts. The fangs that could probably tear through flesh. I doubt that they are fake. His choice of vocabulary throws me off as well. The criticism of 'not enough blood', not giving me a straight answer as to what his costume is, that the graveyard will be 'fun', and the way he compares me to a 'corpse'. It all puts me on edge. This was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

The boy stops dancing and steps back, letting go of my hands. He tilts his head to the side with wide eyes, a look of confusion and maybe hurt moulding his features.

"Did I do something?"

"No! No, it's not you. I've just...got a lot on my mind right now."

This causes an instant mood change in him, and once again the wicked grin is back as if it never left. Grabbing my hands once again, he begins to sway. He doesn't say anything, just looks at me dead in the eye. Slowly I start to sway as well. Then I shuffle my feet. Soon I'm dancing just as oddly as him. We spin around, we do some weird rendition of the waltz, we tango, we do the macarena, and soon I'm laughing my ass off. The uneasy feeling shifts to the back of my head as the two of us laugh and dance together.

Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.