by Jared Stone
Lucian slowly closed his book. “It’s only been two weeks so far,” he said.
“Even more reason to do it now,” Blake continued, “before things get really crazy busy. There’s this party tonight that I heard about from a guy in one of my classes today. We should go. I need some more fun in my life, man! And we don’t even have classes tomorrow! C’mon! Come be my wingman!”
Lucian laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of what his roommate was proposing. He stopped to weigh his options for a moment. On the one hand, he could stay home alone and continue to read for a class he didn’t have until next week. This was assuredly the safe, predictable, boring option he normally would have chosen. He was also planning on going over to Sam’s later that night, and he certainly didn’t want anything to stand in the way of that. On the other hand, he could go out with Blake and stand there feeling awkward while his roommate got drunk and tried to pick up girls. It honestly wasn’t much of a debate for him. He reminded himself, however, that they might very well need to track down that key sealing in an ancient evil this weekend as well, so this might be the last opportunity he’d ever have to be invited to a college party before death. Looking over at Blake’s pleading eyes, he could tell that the boy desperately needed a night out.
“Fiiiine,” Lucian consented reluctantly. “But you’re gonna have to give me a few minutes to get ready.”
“C’mon, man! You already look fine!” Blake argued. “It’s not like we’re going to a freakin’ fashion show or something! You’ll be the best looking one there as is!”
Lucian shook his head. “I’m not going out in public looking like this,” he insisted, standing up to grab his toiletries from the desk and walk to the bathroom. “Give me 15 minutes, then we can go.”
* * *
An hour later, Lucian and Blake left their dorm to go to one of the upper-classmen houses on the other side of campus. This party was apparently a weekly event where a lot of students drank before heading out to clubs in the city, and it was in an off-campus house, meaning that it was one of the few places where the younger students could drink without any fear of being busted by campus police. Without a fake ID to his name, this was Lucian's only real option for the night, much to Blake's disappointment. Lucian had worn his tightest pair of jeans for the occasion, per Blake’s recommendation, and he now shifted around uncomfortably as he walked down the pathways to the house. He was feeling extremely nervous as they approached the front door and Blake knocked.
“Okay, man, just follow my lead,” Blake instructed as they waited for the door to be opened. “They tend to be a little picky about who they let in, so….”
Just then, the door swung open, and a muscular older student with brown hair stood there in front of them. “Yeah?” he asked gruffly over the banging music issuing forth through the open spaces around him.
“Hey, man!” Blake greeted him with a big smile and arms held out to the side. “Remember me?”
The guy in the doorway eyed Blake up and down. “No,” he concluded.
Blake just laughed it off. “I was here last week, man!” Blake continued. “You don’t remember me? I was the one with that girl and the cup and the ping pong ball! HA!” As Blake continued to laugh, Lucian couldn’t tell whether or not his roommate was telling the truth about any of this; but it seemed to put enough of a kernel of doubt in the door guardian’s mind to make him quietly entertain the notion.
“Anyway, man,” Blake said, “Kevin told me to stop by tonight. Said you got another great thing going on. Oh! That’s him over there! Hey, Kevin!”
As Blake shouted for the friend he apparently saw from across the crowded room, he squeezed past the muscular form in the doorway and dragged Lucian through with him. Much to Lucian’s surprise, the guard didn’t even attempt to stop them, apparently so perplexed by Blake’s confident assertions that he thought it best not to argue. As Lucian was pulled past him by Blake’s strong arm, he squeaked out a timid “Thanks!”
Blake and Lucian forced their way through dozens of drunk students packed tightly into the living room of the house. Music pounded loudly around them, and Lucian found himself wondering why anyone would want to be around so many people when it was too loud to even talk with any of them. He was reminded of how much he preferred quiet evenings at home, sitting on his bed with his computer and Gus sleeping next to him. This was basically the exact opposite of that. Once they had made it to the other side, Blake stopped and faced Lucian.
“I’m gonna go get a drink!” he yelled over the deep bass of the song vibrating in their chests. He had apparently abandoned the façade of greeting his good friend Kevin somewhere in this mass of bodies. “You want anything?”
Lucian thought about it for a moment. “Ginger-ale?” he suggested.
“What you want in it?” Blake asked.
“Ummmm…, ice?” Lucian said.
Blake stared at him for a second in confusion before shrugging and turning to cleave his way through the crowd once more. Lucian found himself standing there awkwardly alone, trying to move his head and upper body along with the beat of the song while simultaneously making himself as small as possible. He really disliked having so many people so close to him.
After several minutes of very nerve-racking waiting, fearing that someone was going to turn and try and talk to him, Lucian finally saw Blake’s head making its way back through the crowd toward him. Once Blake had arrived, he handed Lucian a red cup filled with ginger-ale and ice.
“This is pretty great, huh?” Blake asked him over the din. The dark haired boy began moving his head and shoulders to the beat of the music, casting his gaze over the whole scene with a grin.
Lucian smiled back at him as genuinely as he could muster, though he imagined it must look as painful from the outside as it felt to him on the inside. “It’s something, alright!” he agreed.
The two of them continued to stand there for some time in silence, shifting around in a strange half-dance and occasionally sipping their drinks. Lucian wondered how this could be fun for anyone, even Blake, who seemed as awkward and out of place as he himself felt. Lucian was just about to ask Blake if they should maybe leave when two girls squeezed their way through the crowd in front of them and came up to Blake.
“Oh my God, Blake!?” one of them asked, laying her hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Haha! It’s soooo great to see you again!”
“Oh!” Blake exclaimed. “Sylvia! What’s up?”
The girl stepped back. “I’m Sabrina,” she reminded him with a hint of irritation on her face.
“Ohhhh, yeah! That’s what I meant!” Blake laughed nervously.
“And who’s your cute friend here?” the other girl asked loudly, coming up to Lucian’s side and looking him up and down. “Hi! I’m Natalie!”
“I’m Lucian,” Lucian said to her without amusement. “And we’ve met before, actually. That time you both came over to our room together.”
Natalie’s eyes grew wide with sudden recognition. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Yeah! You were that blonde guy!”
Lucian just stood there silently. He didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Let’s get outta here,” Sabrina then whined to Blake. “This party is totally lame!”
Blake cast his gaze toward Lucian, as if searching for approval. Lucian just shrugged. For once, he was in total agreement with Sabrina.
“Okay,” Blake agreed.
Each girl grabbed one of the boys by the arm and started pulling them back through the party, toward the front door. Lucian was surprised by Natalie’s strength as she tugged him along after her, and he really wished she would just let go and allow him to walk on his own. Once they had reached the door and made it outside, both of the girls went running down the front steps.
“It’s soooooooo nice out tonight!” Sabrina squealed, throwing her hands into the air above her head. She twirled around a few times before stumbling and almost falling over with a laugh. Natalie joined in on t
he amusement, and the two of them fell into each other’s arms, giggling uncontrollably. Lucian stood there, feeling the cold air seeping once again through his jacket, and he wasn’t sure why the girls in the very, very short skirts thought it felt so nice.
“So, where are we going now?” Blake asked the girls with a grin.
Sabrina stumbled over to him and latched onto his arm. “I wanna go to your room,” she whispered very loudly.
Blake just looked at her and smiled a big smile. “Heh, alright,” he said.
“I don’t think tonight’s a good night for that, Blake,” Lucian cut in grumpily. “I’m pretty sure we were planning on going back soon to talk about what to do this weekend, remember?”
Blake glared at him. “No, I think that was our plan for tomorrow, buddy,” he said shortly.
“Preeeetty sure it was tonight,” Lucian shot back.
Blake narrowed his eyes at his roommate. “Lucian, can I chat with you for a sec?” he requested, peeling Sabrina off of his arm. Once free from her clutches, he walked over to Lucian, threw his arm over the boy’s shoulders, and turned away from the two girls.
“Dude, this is exactly why we went out tonight!” Blake whispered to Lucian, hunched over like they were in some sort of huddle. “To pick up girls. You totally suck as a wingman.”
“You said you wanted to go to a party with me,” Lucian whispered back. “I was just coming out to keep you company and be a good friend!”
Blake patted him on the back. “Yeah, and we did that and it was great,” he stated quickly. “But now this girl wants me to take her back to our place, and I really really wanna do that, too.”
Lucian sighed. “And what the heck am I supposed to do while you two are doing… whatever… back at the room?” he asked.
“Go keep the friend busy,” Blake instructed. “She’s not really my type, and she seems totally into you.”
Lucian just stared at his roommate. “I am so not gonna do that!” he protested. “Do you have any idea how awkward that’s gonna be? She’s gonna expect something, and she will definitely not be getting anything from me!”
“Please, man,” Blake begged, looking into Lucian’s eyes like Gus did when he wanted a treat. “Just this once. Before we maybe die this weekend….”
Lucian was silent as he debated what he should do next. Eventually, the generous side of him won over.
“Fine!” he conceded. “But you totally owe me for this.”
“Thanks, man!” Blake said, patting Lucian lightly on the back once more.
Standing up straight again and turning, Blake jogged back over to Sabrina. “Alright, let’s go,” he said, sticking his arm out for her to once again latch onto like some sort of desperate screech owl.
“And come on, Natalie…,” Lucian said blandly with a lackluster wave of his hand. “Let’s go take a walk or whatever.”
Natalie came running over to Lucian’s side as Blake and Sabrina both sauntered away in the opposite direction. Lucian just started walking forward, star-ing straight ahead, not sure of what to say without making things even more awkward than they already were. They went on for about a minute like this in silence. He could see Natalie staring at him the whole way out of the corner of his eye, and so he eventually turned his head and smiled at her.
“Where are we going?” she asked him.
“I have no idea…,” Lucian admitted, continuing to walk forward. “I figured we could just take some time to enjoy a night walk.” Even as he said this, he could feel his ears losing more and more of their feeling by the second, and he suddenly realized that he and Blake had never established an okay time for him to head back to the dorm. He’d have to text him soon to see when he could come back. Lucian hoped it wouldn’t be too long.
Natalie looked disappointed. “But it’s soooooo cold out here!” she whined. “I’m literally freezing!”
That is soooooo not the proper usage of that word…, Lucian thought to himself in irritation.
“Let’s go back to my room!” Natalie urged, grabbing onto Lucian’s arm once again. He stopped walking and looked down at her.
“No, I don’t think that’s such a good idea…,” Lucian said uncomfortably. “Why don’t we just stay out here for a bit?”
Natalie looked up at him with a big pout on her lips. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Don’t you like me?”
“Look, it’s nothing against you…,” Lucian began. “It’s just….”
Before he could even finish, the girl tugged with all her weight against his arm, yanking him off the path and behind the wall of one of the buildings beside them. Lucian, caught completely off guard, had no choice but to stumble along with her. Pushing him up against the cold bricks, she held her face close to his.
“Then kiss me!” she urged, sticking her lips out, near his.
Lucian tried to gently push her off of him, but the girl remained latched on tightly. “What? No! Stop!” he told her. “I don’t wanna kiss you!”
“Kiss me!” she commanded more forcefully, now jabbing her lips at him like he was the victim of some sort of stabbing attack. Lucian turned his head away from her assault.
“I said stop!” he repeated, struggling to slip out of her iron grasp. “I don’t like you like that! I’m gay!”
Even this didn’t seem to dissuade the relentless girl. “I said kiss me!” she screamed at him, grabbing onto his chin firmly with one of her hands and powerfully twisting his face back toward hers.
“Stop!” Lucian finally cried out, pushing against her as an explosion of bright white light erupted from his palms. The girl went sailing through the air and landed hard on the dirt path several feet away. Lucian stood there, mortified, as the light faded inside of him once again.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed, rushing over toward the girl on the ground. “I didn’t mean to….”
Natalie looked up at him with rage in her glowing purple eyes. Lucian staggered back toward the wall.
“W-What-?” he stuttered in shock.
Without an answer, the girl climbed onto her hands and knees as long fissures of purple energy cracked open along her back. From these fissures, hooked tips of something pushed their way out, extending all the way down to the ground. She dug her fingers into the dirt as they grew long and sharp, and the thin straps of her shoes burst open to make way for clawed talons. From her forehead, two points burst forth and twisted upwards into long, spiraled horns. Unfurling the long appendages which now stretched out of her shoulder blades, the girl beat wings that looked like those of a giant bat and rose into the air.
“Of course…,” Lucian muttered under his breath, staring up at the winged monster before him.
Before he could say any more, the creature swooped down toward him, her claws outstretched. Lucian jumped to the side to avoid her attack, and he could hear the scraping of talons against brick and feel the gust of beating wings as she collided with the wall behind him. Lucian ran along the base of the wall, hunched over, until the monster had once again flown back into the air.
“What do you want?” Lucian yelled out to her. She only shrieked back in return before diving at him again. Once more, Lucian dropped low to the ground, this time rolling over to avoid the claws that came much closer to tearing into his flesh. Once he was on his knees again, he saw her swoop around through the air and take aim.
Sorry, Natalie, he thought to himself before closing his eyes. With a deep breath through his nose, his mind was immediately emptied of thoughts, and he felt the familiar tingling sensation in his limbs that accompanied his generation of qi. As soon as he had opened his eyes again, he saw the angry beast flying directly at him.
“Get away!” he shouted, throwing his arms out in front of him. From both palms, blasts of white light shot forth, colliding with the left side of the monster and exploding in a shower of sparks. Thrown off her course, she spun through the air and collided face-first with the ground only a few feet from where Lucian stood. Dirt eru
pted in a great plume and landed on Lucian’s arm as Natalie came to a skidding stop.
Lucian lowered his hands and cautiously glanced over at the crumpled heap of wings, horns, and claws on the ground. Seeing that she was no longer moving, Lucian took a step over toward her.
“Natalie?” he asked timidly.
Without warning, the girl’s whole body just liquefied into a puddle of black ooze. It entirely filled up the crater her face had made in the dirt and trickled over the sides to flow down the slight incline of the dirt path in tiny rivers. Lucian took a step to the side to prevent them from running over his shoe, then sighed.
What the heck was that? he questioned to himself, still staring into the pitch black pool that had once been Natalie. Was that another one of the masked man’s plans to kill us? Why would anyone think that something like that would work? I mean, she was so obvious and desperate about it. It would take a complete idiot to fall for that sort of….
Lucian’s eyes suddenly grew wide with a revelation. Oh my God! Blake!
* * *
Lucian sprinted as fast as he could along the paths of campus to get to his dorm on the other side. Charging through the door after swiping his student access card, he bounded up the stairs to the second floor two at a time and raced down the hall. Arriving at his door, Lucian banged his fist against it.
“Blake!” he yelled through the thick wooden barrier. “Blake! Open up!”
He heard some rustling from inside but received no answer.
“Blake!” Lucian shouted again, hastily reaching into his pocket for the key. “Blake, I’m coming in!”
Just as he was about to stick the key in the lock, the doorknob turned back and forth a few times before the door jolted inwards. Lucian looked up in alarm, but it was only Blake who stood before him, wearing nothing but sweatpants and looking very irritated.