by R. L. Naquin
The competition, as Jyll had explained it to me before she’d been pulled away to put out another proverbial fire, was run sort of like a mixture of a fashion show and a talent contest. The beginners went first, showing off their creations and doing a little skit. The pros went next, and their costumes were expected to be far better constructed and their performances fancier. People came on either as an individual or in a group.
Ash chose to go on by herself, and Tahm and I would be considered a group. Because of the level of our costumes, Jyll made us enter as pros. She said it wouldn’t be fair to the beginners. In fact, Sister’s costumes were the reason they’d created the beginner competition in the first place. It wasn’t fair.
When Jyll came back, the lights dimmed and the show began. She stepped into the warmth of a spotlight and spoke into a microphone. “Welcome to the CanDorCon Masquerade! Is everyone enjoying the con?”
The audience applauded and roared. I moved toward the side so I could watch the audience instead of Jyll. There were enough of us planted around the room that if someone made a wrong move, one of us would see it. Dotted around the crowd, stray light glinted off mirrored sunglasses.
Movement at my elbow caught my eye, and I turned, expecting to see Ash or Tahm. Pete stood beside me, grinning like a fool. Apparently, he was enjoying himself, at least. How long had he been out wandering around?
He pointed to the open ceiling far above our heads. Wendy and Felicia sat with their legs dangling, their bodies emitting a soft glow. For their final masquerade, they’d dressed as the White Queen and the Queen of Hearts. Instead of long gowns, they’d gone with tutus that had long, trailing trains that blew gently below them. They made a lovely sight far above us, as if they were trapeze artists taking a break. They waved when they noticed me looking.
I waved back. “Well. I guess we’re all here. Any idea where Sister is?” I assumed if Pete had known, he’d have pointed her out. But I had to ask.
He shook his head.
Music started, and lights pointed at the stage. Two samurai wearing what looked like bathrobes danced in a clumsy fight with broadswords. They appeared to be having a blast, despite all the mistakes in their costumes and their play fighting. The crowd was warm and encouraging, and when the music stopped, the two men stood panting and grinning. They held up their plastic swords that had probably come from a toy store, and the crowd cheered.
The next twenty minutes were a blur of Pokémon, a couple of Klingons and a bunch of anime girls I couldn’t name.
Sister still hadn’t shown. Pete stayed next to me the whole time, and my two lost souls swung their legs overhead while watching the show they’d expected to star in before their lives had been taken from them.
The pro-level skits began, and my stomach did flips. I was a flamboyant person. I wasn’t shy. Normally, if I needed to go onstage, I wouldn’t have thought twice. This was different, though.
The first one to come out was Penelope in her gorgeous gown from Labyrinth. I expected her to dance or sing or something. The movie had a lot of great songs. Instead, she stepped out on the stage lit by a single spotlight, holding a small book. She recited the words the character had begun the movie with and later used to save herself and her brother from the Goblin King. “Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered...” Her voice was soft.
The audience completely lost their minds. They were so excited to hear this piece of pop-culture gold, it was impossible to hear the rest of it. When she was finished and the cheering died down, she dropped a low curtsy and swooshed offstage.
Good thing I hadn’t hoped to win. Terrified or not, she was taking home all the prizes.
Next, a breakdancing Transformer held everyone’s attention. He stomped offstage, and Ash took his place. New music started, and my girl shocked the hell out of me. She sang “Someday My Prince Will Come” in exactly the same voice as the original Snow White. I had no idea she could sing, let alone do impressions. It was beautiful, a little haunting and so surprising, I didn’t realize it was over until Tahm grabbed my hand and pulled me onstage.
He put his free hand on my waist and leaned close. “Trust me.”
I nodded and swallowed, then picked up the edge of my skirt with my free hand.
The first notes of “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” began, and he danced me into a waltz I didn’t know I knew. We whirled around the stage, gazing into each other’s eyes, and I felt so loved. I knew it couldn’t be real, but just for that moment, I let myself believe that it was. There was no audience. There was no arranged marriage. There was no duty to fulfill. And there was no serial killer somewhere in the room watching us.
There was only Tahm and Kam.
As the last notes played out, he dipped me and bent as if to press his lips to mine. I froze. Would it mean anything if he did? Should I let it happen and worry about the consequences later?
He stopped and pulled me upright. A figure shuffled across the stage toward us. Our time must’ve been up. The next competitor must be taking over. We moved offstage out of her way.
The next woman was the old lady with the glasses and bulbous bouffant. It hit me then where I’d seen her before. She’d been in the Craft Shack the day River had died. She’d been picking out artificial chrysanthemums.
What an odd detail to remember all of a sudden.
She took the mic and held it to her face while she peered out at the audience. She didn’t appear to have a costume, but then again, that bouffant was kind of zany. Maybe she was playing a character I wasn’t familiar with.
“Look at all of you.” She spat her words out like sunflower seeds. “Cheering and yelling for a pack of lies.”
A chill ran up my spine. I glanced behind me and saw Penelope arranging her skirts to comfortably sit for the rest of the show.
I caught Tyrell’s attention a few feet next to her. “Get her out of here.” I tried to use a stage whisper, but I wasn’t very good at being quiet.
Ash and Tyrell whisked Penelope away from the stage and out of my line of vision.
The lady on the stage heard me. “Go ahead.” She waved her hand in our direction in a dismissive motion. “I’ll deal with Penelope later. I have plenty of time. But you!” She turned and looked directly at me through her thick glasses. “You didn’t pay for that dress, did you? Took it off a dead girl. Shame, shame.” She wagged her finger at me.
On the other side of the stage, Jyll stepped away from the podium as if to slip off unnoticed.
The woman spun around. “And you!” She gave Jyll the same ominous finger wag. “You knew what was going on here. You’re not innocent. If it drew crowds to see my creations, you let them claim my work for their own. And I didn’t mind continuing, either, as long as I was well paid. But now things are different. I can come, too. I don’t have to be stuck at home while everyone else passes for human and gets to play.” She lowered her voice to a hissing whisper. “Pretending I don’t matter.”
Some idiot in the audience let out a loud “Whoop!” A few people around him laughed, but several others shushed him.
The audience appeared to think this was all a skit. And they were mesmerized.
Jyll stepped forward with her arms held up. “Sister, what can I do to make things right?”
“You could have let me compete in the professional class, that’s what.”
Jyll stood in the spotlight blinking in confusion. “What?”
“I was perfectly happy to continue to be everyone’s anonymous seamstress, as long as I could finally get to compete, too. Things are different in the world now. This year, I could go out into the world, too. I applied to be in the masquerade. You put me in the beginner category. Me! It didn’t matter that my costumes have been taking Best in Show for years. It was my first year, so you put me with the bathrobes and the plastic swords.” She reached up and pulled off her horrible wig. Live snakes, black and shiny,
poured out from under it. “I should have been Cosplay Guest of Honor after all the years I’ve put into all this. But instead, you stuck me with the beginners.” She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped a diagonal swath of thick foundation from her face, revealing green-tinged skin. From what I could see, she was probably lovely under all that old-age makeup. This was why she’d been able to fool me and Ash into believing she was human. Rather than put on a magical human overlay, she’d used makeup and a wig to change her appearance.
I had to wonder why she hadn’t simply done that before for prior masquerades. She’d created her own problems by pretending she couldn’t cover up her Hidden-ness.
Poor Jyll froze in place, so close she was only a few steps from being bitten like River had been. Wendy circled above us, moaning like a cartoon ghost as Sister drew closer to Jyll.
I moved toward the front of the stage and waved my arms to distract the gorgon. “Hey, Louise. I have questions for you.”
She swung her head around, her expression fierce. “How do you know that name?”
I gave her a matter-of-fact shrug. “I read your texts with your boyfriend.”
Her eyes widened. “Those were private.”
“Not after you murdered him.” I kept eye contact with her while I clutched my mirrored glasses in my hand, but I was paying closer attention to Jyll. She still wasn’t moving. I was distracting Sister—Louise—so Jyll could get away. Why wasn’t she getting out of the way?
Louise’s lip quivered. “I didn’t go over there to kill him. I just wanted to show him what I looked like.” She paused and sighed. “I wanted to know if he could love me...like I really am.” The snakes on her head drooped and hissed softly. “But he didn’t want any part of me. He was afraid. And when I asked him to at least speak up for me so I could take my place as a pro at the masquerade, he said he didn’t want to rock the boat. That I should just pay my dues.”
I’d always tried to be sensitive to other people’s pain. Heartbreak could happen to anybody. I tried to feel bad for her. I wanted to feel sympathy. Nope. She was crazy, and she’d killed a lot of people. And the first one, Felicia, had happened before Simon had rejected her, so this explanation of why she’d killed everyone didn’t make sense.
“I bet that angered you, didn’t it, Louise? He broke your heart and then insulted you.”
Her eyes were filled with unshed tears, but her smile was like a grimace. “Angry doesn’t even begin to cover it. So, yeah. I killed him. I took his meds from him so he collapsed right there in front of me. He had so many damn allergies, he went into shock before the venom even kicked in. If he’d used the injector, he might have made it to the hospital for antivenin. I couldn’t let that happen, now could I?” She curled her lip. “I could do better anyway. I’m way out of his league.”
Jyll still hadn’t moved. I was running out of things to keep Louise talking. Her attention started to waver, and I thought of something else. “I have one more question.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why won’t you let it go? My gods. Yes. I killed him. I killed Jackie. That one was a surprise. I’d never stoned a gargoyle before. Kind of hilarious, actually.”
My stomach churned at the thought of poor Jackie blowing up. “The epinephrine pen. You took it with you.”
“Yeah. I already said that.” She shifted her weight, and her snakes tumbled over each other like boiling oil.
Behind me, the crowd murmured and whispered in confusion, still unsure whether this was theater or something else. I couldn’t find Tahm anywhere.
“Why did you bring it back?” I couldn’t figure out why the injector had disappeared, then reappeared when I arrived.
She smiled. “Don’t you think I knew you were trampling all over town following my trail? I put it back so you’d know I’d been there. Apparently, you’re as stupid as Simon was.” She chuckled. “And Tracy. She was the stupidest one yet. All I had to do was call her up and tell her I had her costume. I told her to come and get it. And she came. The stupidest of all, except for one.”
I saw her muscles tense and knew what she was about to do. I could see the whole thing play out in slow motion, but I couldn’t get there in time. Louise swung around and darted her arm out to grab Jyll.
Doug dashed out on the stage, full fantasy armor clanking, and put himself between Louise and Jyll. The first snake struck his cheek before my foot landed on the first step. The black mambas hissed and struck over and over, faster than my eye could follow. Tahm dropped from an overhead scaffolding out of nowhere, breathing heavily, and caught Doug as he fell, then dragged him offstage, where I couldn’t see them anymore.
The audience gasped and was eerily silent for a moment, then a rumble moved through the crowd and gained volume. Above us, Wendy’s ghostly moans grew louder and shriller. No longer a warning, the banshee was crying someone’s death.
As she reached her highest pitch, things became far worse than they already were. The mirrored glasses I clutched in my hand for security shattered.
Someone pulled the fire alarm, and Tyrell’s deep voice reverberated through the auditorium. “Everyone, please make your way to the exit quickly and carefully. We hope you enjoyed the show and apologize for the interruption. There’s no need to panic, but there’s a fire backstage and you’re all in danger if you don’t exit the building.”
I stood stupidly onstage watching how quickly the crowd disappeared, not knowing what to do next, who to protect or where to look without becoming a statue myself. As far as I knew, Louise was still right behind me and could be coming for me with her snakes ready to attack. Wendy continued to wail above us, and Pete appeared in front of me, gesturing wildly. He gestured behind me with one hand and covered his eyes with the other, then pointed two fingers at my eyes, then at his own.
“You’re going to be my eyes?” The thudding of my heart didn’t slow much, but I felt a little safe knowing Pete was watching behind me.
He nodded and waved at me to move backward toward the center of the stage.
Snakes hissed behind me.
As if reading from a script, the crazy gorgon lady cackled like a Hollywood witch. “What’s the matter, Jyll? Out of assistants to help you?”
Pete’s eyes grew wide and he signaled for me to follow and keep my eyes on him. He turned us around to face Louise and helped me navigate my way toward her without making eye contact.
“Jyll, close your eyes!” I gathered my skirts in one hand and ran. I kept my head low to avoid the snakes and the gorgon’s eyes, and hit Louise in the stomach with my shoulder. She flew backward, knocking over the painted background.
I made it to Jyll before the snakes did, but not before she’d locked gazes with Louise’s deadly eyes.
Cursing, I dove for Jyll and tackled her to get her out of the way. She grew heavier as we fell and was stone by the time we landed on the stage.
I climbed to my feet, horrified to have failed and terrified that Louise would kill someone else. Pete glanced down at Jyll’s stony figure and sighed, shoulders slumping. He turned his attention to the space behind me and drew his eyebrows up in surprise, then nodded at me to look.
Louise sat on the floor of the stage, cursing and swatting at the air around her head and in front of her face.
Felicia flew around Louise in circles, distracting her. Brody slipped quietly behind her, carrying several of the canvas bags with the convention logo on them. Before Louise knew what was happening, he slipped them over her head, covering the black snakes and her stony eyes. The goblin soul glanced at me, saw and nodded. I nodded back. She floated to the ceiling and took a seat to watch.
Louise thrashed and fought, but Brody was far bigger than she was. She wasn’t going anywhere.
* * *
Tahm stood beside me in his princely finery, now marred with dirt and blood. “Are you okay?”
I nodded and
glanced at Jyll. “I couldn’t save her. I was too slow.”
He guided me off the stage to where Ash sat with Penelope, soothing her with soft noises.
Behind them, Tyrell led his dwarf emergency team, Poppy and Goat, toward a back exit. They carried Doug away on a stretcher, probably the same one they’d used to take River away in the back of the Craft Shack.
A lump formed in my throat, and I shivered. “Is Doug...?” I couldn’t finish the sentence. Tears fell on my beautiful, borrowed dress, and I didn’t care. Doug had sacrificed himself for Jyll, and I hadn’t even saved her. Both lives were gone because I’d been too slow.
Tahm put his arm around me and tried to warm away the shivers. “He’s okay, Kam. Doug’s going to be fine. We had plenty of antivenin on hand. That’s why I got him out of there so fast.”
I stared up at him, relief washing over me. “Oh, thank the gods. I thought he was—” I stopped short.
Out of nowhere, fear washed over me, so intense my throat constricted and my stomach turned to jelly inside. My eyes watered, and I glanced around the backstage area, searching.
Tahm’s eyes flashed. “What the hells?”
Ash’s face went white. “Kam?”
I couldn’t stop the physical sensations, but I didn’t have to succumb to the fear itself. “Hang on, everybody. Breathe through it. It’s not real.” I rose and searched the backstage area. “Where’s Brody?” I followed the fear until it grew so intense it was difficult to suck in any air.
He kneeled on the floor over Louise’s unmoving body. When he lifted his head to look at me, he had no face—only a bottomless pit filled with every terrifying thing imaginable. His only feature was a tube in the center of the blackness, a proboscis like a butterfly uses to suck nectar from a flower. Except his was used to suck emotion from a person.
Or a gorgon.
She wasn’t dead. He’d have to feed a very long time for someone to die. But she wouldn’t be hurting anyone again anytime soon. It helped that I’d worked with Brody’s cousin, Darius, for so long. He’d been my friend. I’d trusted him, even though he’d turned into this scary creature every night at sundown. Brody was my friend, too. And sundown had come just in time.