Chapter 3: Bite
The walk to the bus stop seemed quite unnatural, it was quiet downtown, even Fei and Siren did not speak. The sky gave an ominous feeling to the scene, as it was almost ghostly white with the falling snow. Fei smiled to himself at the feeling of peace.
They arrived at the bus stop within ten minutes about two shy of their record, and seated themselves silently on one of the small wooden benches. But their comfort was short lived as the bus pulled up about thirty seconds later.
"Lucky!" Siren shouted stepping in with Fei smiling quietly behind her. They took a seat in the middle of the bus, where the seats were turned so that they could see the people sitting opposite them. A few more people stepped in after them, but only a few, leaving the vehicle in a state of relative emptiness that was uncommon for this form of public transportation, especially in the small nameless town known as Lakeside, which had not been small for about three years, with all the tourists moving in.
Arriving at the next stop took them all of thirteen minutes, and Fei and Siren were off to Wrinkles house about a block away. Fei still stayed completely silent until they arrived at the small yellow brick house with the annoying baby doll pink shutters that begged to be torn from the walls and burnt.
"Okay, I did it, you owe me ten bucks!" He shouted loudly.
"Bastard…" She mumbled, shuffling in her hoodie pockets and handing him all the change she had on her, which it turned out was about a quarter over.
"Here," He said handing her quarter back with a look of superiority on his face, "you can have your quarter back, it is no good to me." To which she just grinned and flipped him a lovely bird.
As they stepped up to the door they could here the familiar sound of trumpets and electric guitars inside, which he knew meant Kelly's band had arrived early. As Fei reached to ring the door bell the door swung open causing him to jump and let out a high pitched yelp.
"Ha, made ya scream!" Shouted a tall, bald man with a Scottish accent.
"That wasn't a scream, it was a yelp." Fei retorted, "You will never be associated with my screaming." He said pushing past him and into the living room with a five piece band in Clockwork orange makeup and suits.
"So how bout you?" Fei heard Wrinkles scream from behind him.
"No fucking chance." Siren growled, pushing him out of the way.
Fei quickly stepped around the back of the makeshift stage in the living room, and into a small bathroom where Kelly sat on the toilet, chewing at her labret piercing and staring deeply into a notebook filled with the scribble that she called handwriting.
"So, you're doing your Adicts impression?" Fei asked, more trying to get under her skin than actually asking, he knew she hated impressions.
"No… we just watched A Clockwork Orange last night." She huffed at him, biting her lip piercing a little harder than she meant to and letting out a small moan of pain.
"Watch your temper," Fei laughed, waving a finger in her face, "you know what the doctor said."
"Fuck off, cunt!" She screamed, giving him the finger and kicking him in the ass as he ran out the door.
"Jesus tap dancing Christ on a cracker!" Fei screamed as he fell in to the living room, "What the fuck is her problem?"
"Hormones, period, anal leakage, take your pick." Wrinkles smiled, kneeling down and lifting Fei to his feet, "She's been a bitch since she got here."
"FUCK YOU!" Came a scream from the bathroom.
"You already did." He whispered back, trying not to incur the anger of bitch monster.
The day went on much like that, people arriving and Kelly and Wrinkles fighting like dogs over sausage. Alcohol poured in through the evening in droves, their were kegs, cases, bottles, packs, and whatever the fuck else anyone could put firewater in. The alcohol was followed by cigarettes and the cigarettes followed by blunts, doobies, roaches, or whatever the fuck they were called.
Siren now sat at the back of the party next to her boyfriend Olevi, who never seemed to enjoy partying much and always sat there and talked, even when the music began. But Fei, he was in the middle of the action, seated on the floor with Wrinkles legs over his shoulders, he had a large glass of whiskey and apple juice cupped in his small hands, he wasn't really drinking it as much as taking small sips and then sniffing it.
"Like it?" Wrinkles said, leaning down and stealing a large gulp from the cup.
"I guess, never been much for alcohol though." He voice felt a little odd to him as he spoke the words, almost disembodied, and it sounded deathly sickly. But no one else seemed to notice even the people he talked to through the rest of the night, they just listened at talked back to him like normal.
The party was now ending though, and Fei could now feel the exhaustion squeezing in on him. It started at his limbs as he was picking up the trash, and then started taking hold of his torso when he began helping load the instruments into Kelly's van, and as he walked back in the house to get Siren and go home it grabbed hold of his head. This fatigue made the world spin all around him, he could only make out the screaming shapes of his nightmare last night from all the spinning.
He walked towards the couch and took a seat, pressing his fingers to his temples as he sat down, and that's the last thing he remembered except for the feeling of weightlessness and the sound of screaming.
And that was were it all fell down.