"Kaz, is this your idea of a joke?"
Wylan shook his head, letting himself take in the reality of what he was seeing. From one of the light fixtures, a thick reddish liquid was dripping at a steady rate. A dark red stain was growing on both the ceiling and the floor.
He took a step back, taking a deep breath in to soothe his nerves. It wasn't blood, surely? No, it had to be one of the others, pulling a cruel Halloween joke on him.
He sighed. The party had been going so well. Nina had invited them all over to her house, but for once, there hadn't been one mention of magic, or battle, or anything like that. No, this time the party had been more like… a reunion, really. It had been normal, or, well, as normal as it could get with the five of them. He guessed this was just Jesper or Kaz pulling another prank on them, but, well, this wasn't very funny. In fact, it was downright terrifying, though he would never tell Jesper that.
"What, Dirtyhands made a joke? Now this I have to see." It was Jesper. Wylan could hear his footsteps, and another set, getting louder and louder as they approached him, then stopped dead in their tracks.
He felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. "Holy shit. What the fuck is that?"
"Language," Nina said firmly, as Wylan whirled around to face them.
He frowned. "But wait, it wasn't you?" he said, more nervously. "Was it Kaz?"
"I wasn't aware Kaz had a sense of humor at all, but I suppose if he did, this would be his idea of a joke," Jesper admitted, shrugging. "I'm not sure."
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. The blood, or whatever it was, kept dripping down, never ceasing in its hypnotizing rhythm.
"I don't know. This seems a little bit too dramatic to be Kaz." Nina said, and Jesper nodded in agreement.
Wylan felt a shiver go up his spine watching the blood drip down. Whatever this was, it didn't feel natural to him.
He saw Nina taking a deep breath, and she said, "I'm going to go upstairs to see what's going on." She looked around. "Anyone want to come with me?"
Well. That was unusual. He didn't think Nina was one to be afraid of a little blood. She had death powers, after all. Oh, well. Maybe she was just uncomfortable about the fact that it was in her house.
"Nope, hon, you can raise the dead, you don't need any help from me," Jesper scoffed. "No, I'll stay. Wylan, however, would be more than happy to come with you," he winked.
"What'd I do?!" Wylan exclaimed, punching Jesper squarely in the chest. He pushed Jesper and Nina out of the kitchen into the sitting room, where Inej and Kaz played Kaz. "Aw, come on, Kaz, you can't do that!" he said, noticing how Kaz was playing.
"You see, Kaz?" Inej said, grinning mischievously at them. "I was warned against playing Kaz, but I've found the experience enlightening so far. Besides, someone here is learning that cheaters don't always win." She frowned. "I suppose this means you'll be playing Kaz next."
"But not if you come with me," Nina said brightly. "If you come, Inej will just keep playing Kaz, and Kaz will keep losing." Kaz glared at her and Wylan felt a pang of sympathy for Nina. It was short-lived, though. After all, it was only Kaz.
"See, Wy? I'm really doing you a favor," Jesper said.
Nina firmly hooked arms with Wylan. "Come on, Wylan, let's go," she said, moving toward the stairs abruptly. She paused, noticing Kaz, who was coldly surveying his cards for the next round of whatever they were playing. "It wasn't you, was it?" she asked him.
Kaz made no motion of any sort to acknowledge her presence. She rolled her eyes. Wylan shook his head. Would it really kill him to answer her?
He looked at Nina. "Fine, I'll come," he said. "But this is unfair punishment for eating the last cookie."
"Hey, I called dibs on that cookie," Nina said. "It was rightfully mine. Besides, Jesper volunteered you. And you did want to get out of that card game, didn't you?" She surveyed him patronizingly.
"I guess," he shrugged, looking back at the living room, where Inej and Kaz' game was now in full swing. "Poor Inej," he added.
"She'll be fine, she's the Wraith," Nina replied. "She more than matches Kaz in spirit. And she's already beaten him several times. We, on the other hand, may not be fine, but then again, between us and Inej, we do have the easier task," she admitted.
Wylan grinned. "There's not much we can't do, what with, y'know, magical death powers? So let's just go for it," he replied.
"That's the spirit, Wy," Nina said, and they began climbing the stairs.
"Nothing?" Nina looked around her bedroom. Aside from a half-eaten slice of cake, a few old candy wrappers, and various hair accessories, the floor was completely barren. "Oh, I forgot about that," Nina said, picking up the cake with a fond smile on her face and taking a bite. "Don't look at me like that," she added, catching Wylan's horrified expression. "It's only from this morning."
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Wylan asked instead.
"Positive," she replied confidently. "The kitchen is below my bedroom. Remember that time Jesper shot a hole through the floor, here, and the bullet went straight through the kitchen ceiling and landed right in the leftover soup?" She shook her head. "Oh, Zoya was not pleased. She still owns this place, you know, even though I'm the only one who lives here."
"Could she, uh, be behind the blood?" Wylan questioned, fingering something in his pocket.
"Who, Zoya?" He nodded. "Please, She doesn't have time to play childish pranks on us."
He nodded thoughtfully, then frowned. "So what next?" he asked, gesturing to the floor, which was conspicuously absent of blood. He reached into his pocket to finger that something again.
Nina shrugged, pulling apart her carefully braided hair and shaking her auburn waves out. She started attacking her cake again. "Food helps me think," she explained through bites.
At length, once the cake was completely demolished, she spoke. "If the blood isn't seeping through the floor here and dripping down the ceiling, it's probably coming from inside the ceiling, in the light fixture," she said.
"Oh, no," Wylan said. An idea was growing on him, but Saints, he did not want to implement it. "How are we going to get in there?" he asked.
He could tell she was figuring it out. "Well, what's your idea?" she said, turning on him. His mortification rose as he felt the color rise to his cheeks. "Oh, come on, don't give me that look," she chided. "Obviously you have an idea. You're terrible at keeping secrets. So let's hear it."
He looked at the floor. "You said this was Zoya's house, right?"
Oh, yes. Judging by the look she was giving him, she knew exactly what he was planning. "Yeah," she said.
Sheepishly, Wylan pulled out the object in his pocket that he had been fingering so feverishly. It was a greyish powder, somewhat resembling flint. Nina grinned.
"Let's blow up the ceiling, Wylan," she said.
"Now there's a sentence you don't hear every day," he managed to say, letting out a huge sigh of relief. Thank the Saints she hadn't killed him. "Are you sure, though?" he said. "You said Zoya wasn't pleased last time… and last time was a much smaller hole." Actually, there were so many things that could go wrong with this plan.
"Eh," Nina shrugged. "Let's live a little, merchling." She scrambled to pick up all her hair ties from the floor and dumped them on her bed. "Work your magic, demo master." She winked.
Jesper had told him to have a little more confidence in his own ideas. And anyway, what was the worst that could happen? "Okay," Wylan replied hesitantly, "stand back." He proceeded to set up the demo around the area she had pointed at while she stood back a distance, twirling her hair around her finger.
"What are the chances," he muttered, "that Inej somehow climbs onto the ceiling just as we make it explode?"
"Good point," Nina noted. "OY! INEJ!" she called. "GET OFF THE CEILING!"
After a while, he heard Inej reply. "You insult me, Nina. You think I would back out of a game of cards with Kaz to investigate?"
"WELL, THEN, BEAT KAZ!" she responded.
"Kaz says that's unfair bias on your part," Inej replied. "I say he's just a sore loser."
She was about to reply again when Wylan finally finished setting the demo up and came toward her, extremely anxious. "Get downstairs!" he said, pushing her out of her bedroom.
"Oh!" They both scrambled down the stairs, reaching the ground just as they heard a bang.
"Holy burning hell. What just happened?" Jesper asked.
"Blew up the ceiling," Nina said matter-of-factly. Wylan looked at Kaz and Inej for a reaction. Nothing. Not even a flicker.
"Guys, you have to come see this. Like, right now," Jesper said urgently.
"Did it work?" Nina said excitedly, hurrying over to the kitchen. Hesitantly, Wylan followed suit, seeing the rest of his friends do so as well.
"Holy burning hell is right," Wylan said, gaping at what lay before him.
The ceiling indeed had exploded right around the light fixture, and rubble lay all over the kitchen floor. However, blood, or whatever it was, still fell from the hole above them, seemingly from no particular source.
He looked around at his friends. They were all reacting differently. Inej was smiling knowingly, while Jesper seemed conflicted. Kaz, of course, was wearing his usual glare, and Nina - what was up with Nina? She looked terrified to the point of dramatics.
"Is it a Halloween spirit?" Wylan said hesitantly. "I mean, it's coming out of nowhere…"
"Well, whatever it is, I don't like it," Jesper snapped, gripping Wylan's hand.
"There has to be an explanation for this," Kaz muttered, pacing back and forth.
"There is," Inej grinned. "A very simple one."
Kaz said nothing, continuing to pace back and forth, occasionally looking at the blood. He was figuring it out, Wylan knew. Or at least, he was trying.
"Shit." Nina took a deep breath. "This… you know what? Let's leave this to Kaz. We'll… go sit in the other room."
"Come on, Kaz," Inej whispered to him, winking.
"I'll solve this one, just you wait and see," Kaz growled.
"Aw, come on, Inej, please just tell us!" Jesper said.
"Sorry, no can do," Inej said.
"Oh, please? This is terrifying," Nina pleaded.
"What happened to the fearless Nina I knew?" Inej smiled at her. "Nope, I'm not telling any of you."
"But why not?" Wylan asked.
"I already told you why. It's not my secret to tell. Plus, I should give all of you a fair chance, shouldn't I?" Not her secret to tell? Was it Kaz after all?
"We've all given up," Jesper said. "Please, tell me. Why is there goddamn blood dripping from a fucking hole in the ceiling?"
"Language," Inej said. "The answer is right before your eyes, but you're just not seeing it."
"I bet it's a ghost," Nina said. "I bet it's Matthias' ghost, in fact. He's here to reprimand us for not following proper drüskelle Halloween celebration protocol."
"I'm with Nina," Wylan said jokingly. "Matthias is here to haunt us." They were all still recovering from the loss… but they were doing remarkably. Especially Nina. He was surprised at how quickly she quit mourning, claiming that Matthias wouldn't want the waterworks and proceeding to honoring his memory at every turn.
"It's not that," Inej rolled her eyes. "Matthias would never do that to us."
"You'd be surprised," Nina said.
Kaz finally stalked into the room, his expression livid. "It's impossible," he said. Oh, he was with Kaz on this one. But it was so un-Kaz-like to give up on something that he just had to savor the moment. He smiled.
"No, it's not," Inej said.
"Yes, it is," Kaz said. "We must be having a hallucination."
"Please," Jesper scoffed. "Even I don't believe that. All five of us having the same hallucination?"
"Tell me the answer, Inej," Kaz snapped.
"Do you give up?" she said.
"Tell me the fucking answer," he repeated.
"She won't until you say you give up," Jesper said. Everyone else nodded in unison. Oh, this was going to be good.
"Tell. Me. The. Fucking. Answer," he said slowly, enunciating every word.
"Say it," Jesper said, raising his eyebrows.
He glared at them, his mouth opening and closing as if he were waging an internal battle. At length, the desired words were spoken.
"Fine. I give up. But it's impossible, Inej. Even you have to admit that."
"You're going to call this impossible after all that happened with the six of us? After parem? Even in the presence of two Grisha?" She said that last sentence like a hint. Was it Jesper, then? He was going to kill his boyfriend.
Kaz looked at Jesper, then at Nina. He stopped, focusing his gaze and all his anger on her.
"It was you," he said.
"Took you long enough, didn't it?" Nina said, grinning. "I bet Inej knew from the get-go."
"I may not take the time to learn tricks like Kaz, but I do take the time to learn my friends," Inej said, a look of triumph on your face.
Wylan, however, stared at her with a look of horror. "I can't believe you!" he exclaimed. "How could you do something like that?"
"It was simple," Nina said cheerfully. "I found a dead cow, drained it of its blood, directed the blood into the light fixtures, and slowly had the blood fall down." She shrugged. "What's Halloween without a little fun?"
Oh, Saints. He knew what she was capable of. Saints, she was Nina Zenik. And it also explained her overly dramatic terror - she wasn't actually terrified.
"But - but you let me blow up your ceiling," Wylan said stubbornly, refusing to believe that he had been conned.
"Like I told you, Wylan, live a little," she grinned.
"Nina Zenik, I cannot believe you," Jesper said.
"For Kaz's expression, it was worth every lie," Nina replied, looking at Kaz's face again. Sure enough, he was glaring daggers at her.
"So worth it," Inej agreed, high-fiving Nina.
"I - saints," Jesper said, words failing him. "Kaz! What do you have to say about this?"
"I knew that," he said. "I let Nina get away with it. I have more important things to do."
Really, Kaz? Even he didn't believe that lie, and he was fairly new to this dishonesty business. But why couldn't Kaz just appreciate his friends? Wylan knew he did for sure. Nina, Inej, Kaz, and Jesper… they meant the world to him. He knew how much Kaz really cared for them, but… for crying out loud, Brekker, just admit it.
"Sure," Jesper rolled his eyes.
"Happy Halloween," Nina said, a wicked grin on her face.
It was.
Hey readers! What did you think?
One of my friends challenged me to write a story where blood was dripping down the ceiling. I was skeptical initially, but... ideas clicked, and here we have it. This story is in celebration of Halloween coming up, I hope you like it!
As always, thanks to SpellCleaver for betaing! If you like it, please review!
That's all, and stay beautiful! :)
Edit: Thank you to rowaelinfeyrhys for pointing out an error!