Slowly, Eva and Juliana nodded and agreed to go as well. Good. They’ve been spending too much time worrying. Maybe a bit of fun will help.
“Excellent,” Jordan said. “It is at The Vertex right in the entertainment plaza. Shouldn’t be hard to find.”
“I’ve never been to a real party before. Anything I should know?”
“Never one?” Irene asked.
Shalise shook her head. “Just some things with some of my family.”
“Well, costumes are allowed. Encouraged even. Apart from that,” Irene shrugged, “just have fun, I guess.”
“Right. I can do fun. Hopefully. What are you dressing as?”
“Ah-ah,” Jordan said, “that would ruin the surprise.”
Shalise nodded.
Skeletons and zombies were right out as costumes. What else was there? Vampires, perhaps. Were vampires real? Did they care that tons of people dressed up as them?
Probably not. Shalise didn’t think she’d care if she were a vampire. If even half the legends were true then they were old, powerful, and had mostly apathy for mortals. Maybe she’d go as one of them.
She’d check with Juliana and Eva first and make sure she wasn’t about to get killed for insulting powerful creatures.
— — —
Arachne fumed.
Halloween was supposed to be their day.
The one day a year, before this year at least, that Arachne got to spend with her Eva without Devon hounding her.
It was true they had been spending every day and every night together for the past few months, but Halloween was still their day. Halloween was the one day outside of Eva’s treatments or the rare job they both were taken on that Arachne saw Eva.
Pop.
The cow’s skull exploded in her hand. Blood, viscera, and brains splattered over her. The rest oozed to the ground.
She reveled in it.
The smell calmed her. The blood dripping off of her was cathartic in a way only blood could be.
Arachne wanted more.
And she got it.
A fat pig cowered in the back of its pen. As well it should. Arachne imagined its squeals were those of the fat pig that hung off her master’s friends like a leech.
She held it still with extra legs that sprouted from her back. She stroked it. Patted it. She calmed it until the squeals ceased.
Two sharp fingers dug into its eye sockets. And it screamed.
Arachne listened to the pleasant shrieks even as she liberated its insides from the cruel prison they were trapped in. She waited until the last twitches of the fat creature died down and then turned to find another stress release.
She had told Eva that she was heading back to the prison to see if Devon had returned. And she would. Later.
Now Arachne was having too much fun.
The skeletons had been a decent workout, no matter how much her Eva worried about the superficial wounds they gave Arachne. It was nice having the concern without Eva being upset at causing the wounds. Even if the concern was completely misplaced.
Arachne had lived forever and she would live forever more.
That was the main reason she had run for five hours to find this remote farm. Hurting the people her Eva perceived as friends would never be forgiven. Arachne knew that.
That was not something she wanted to risk.
Arachne stepped over the six corpses lying around the field. A squish sounded as she crushed the stomach of a headless lamb.
The little girl who accepted the party invitation bothered Arachne the most. If she hadn’t been there, Arachne would be walking around the room like normal. If she hadn’t been there, this Halloween party wouldn’t be a thing.
Arachne clacked her claws together. Her bloodlust subsided along with her anger as a sudden thought occurred to Arachne.
Uh-uh. This could work. A grin revealed her sharp teeth. Not every mistake is a foolish one, even when the little girl was nothing but a fool.
This was a costume party. Arachne could go. She couldn’t walk in with her Eva. Too many questions about a sudden extra friend. Eva would be met at the party.
And what do humans do at parties? They dance.
Her grin spread wider. Oh yes, they dance. Arachne never once had danced with Eva. That would change this Halloween. It would still be their night. There just might be other people around.
Other people would see her magnificence just like Juliana had. That girl acted differently since the skeleton cave. She now looked at Arachne with a bit of respect and a lot of trepidation. Not once had the girl called her harmless.
The few times they had spoken while Arachne was in her usual form left Arachne with the impression that the girl had become frightened of her. She spoke politely, but never at any length.
And that suited Arachne just fine. She had no desire to speak to anyone but her Eva. And occasionally Devon if he was needed.
Though, Arachne thought, maybe I will say thanks to the little sheep who accepted the invite. The thought of dancing with Eva threw Arachne into a jovial mood. The thought of terrifying the little girl while appearing polite and even courteous in front of her Eva only added to that.
Her grin left her ears as it slipped into a slight frown.
The corpses would be a mess to clean up. Even then, the animals would be found missing. Arachne didn’t want to raise any suspicions even several hours away at her top sprint.
It might delay her returning to the dorms, but this was her mess to clean up. They had wolves in Montana right? Or lions? She’d dump a few of them around the farm. They would eat at least some of the corpses. The crushed skulls wouldn’t even be looked at. Humans never looked farther than the obvious answers.
Arachne bit what passed for her lips.
Yeah. That will work.
Chapter 018
“This is a nightmare.”
“How did things come to this?”
Eva shared a glance with Juliana. Beads of sweat dripped down her forehead despite the cold October air.
“If only you’d have done this earlier,” Shalise said at their backs.
The two sighed at the same time and each turned back to their current enemy.
“I don’t even think that one has a chest,” Juliana said with a look of disgust. “This is supposed to be a school. For kids. How can they let something like this happen.”
“No. It just got knocked off. Look,” Eva pointed, “it is lying on the floor over there.”
“That barely covers anything.”
“Yeah. Let’s go check the men’s section.”
Juliana and Shalise trudged along behind Eva.
“I can’t believe you don’t know any good monsters. I mean, you know Rach.”
“First,” Eva said, “Rach isn’t a monster.” Although Arachne was making Eva nervous. She hadn’t seen the demon all day. Eva had planned on spending most of the day hanging out with her and not dressing up for the party. Arachne apparently had plans and left Eva to go shopping with Juliana.
The fact that she had something planned for Halloween made Eva a bit sad. It was supposed to be their day after all.
“She’s very nice,” Eva continued. “Second, I know of plenty of ‘monsters’ but I wouldn’t know where to start making costumes of them. That’s assuming we had longer than a few hours as well.”
“I don’t know why you two waited. I’ve had my costume for a week,” Shalise grinned at the two. “There was a much better selection when I was here too. Now you’re stuck with all the things everyone else didn’t want.”
“You sneaked off on your own,” Juliana said as she started picking through the men’s racks. “You didn’t even invite us.”
Eva shuffled through the racks. She didn’t want to wear a costume. She barely wanted to party. The situation with the grimoire had gone nowhere. Zoe Baxter hadn’t managed to destroy even a single page.