Chapter 6 – Dig a Grave

Edward and I are amicable the rest of the weekend. He doesn't make any comments about my work, but Rose had told me at closing the night I did his makeup that he told her how impressed he was with what I did for him.

It wasn't told directly to me, but baby steps.

Alice and I have a party this Friday night at our friend Jess's place. We can't stay for the whole party since we need to go back to help out with clean up, but some party is better than no party. I just need to make sure Alice doesn't get shit faced.

There won't be any time to change before we head back to Field of Screams since Alice and I want to spend as much time at Jess's as possible before leaving so we have to choose costumes we'd be okay with making an appearance at Field of Screams.

So tonight, I am one with the dead, inspiration courtesy of Edward Cullen. The lovely Hela. My eye makeup is smeared and my hair is a little frizzier. I added some blots of blood for good measure. I'm repurposing my Voldermort cloak because my lazy ass wasn't about to find a skin tight jump suit like thing or craft a ridiculous helmet. Originally, I was going to go with Bellatrix to keep with the Harry Potter theme, but then realized I'd need a perm or a wig or there'd be hell to pay. That just didn't sit well in my gut.

Yeah, I can already hear his voice in my head.

"Bella, let's go!"

When I see Alice, I stop in my tracks. She's the exact opposite of what I expected her to be. No, she's not terrifying or cute. She looks…normal. Well, besides the fact she's wearing a red silk robe with black combat books.

"Alice, are you feeling okay?" Most of her hair is up in a high bun with some sort of fancy hair tie that has a fire emblem in the front of it. Two tendrils frame the front of her face. "This isn't what you told me you were going to go as."

She smiles as she waves me to walk to her car. "We're going to play a game with Edward tonight. Neither of us look that terrifying on the outside, but we are two women you'd never want to be locked in a room with."

"And who are you supposed to be?"

"I have an exiled brother, my uncle is a coward and disgrace to my nation who followed him, Mother left without so much as a letter, and Father is ruler of my nation," she hints, clearly thinking I should know whoever she is supposed to be.

"I give up, Alice."

She narrows her eyes at me. "Bella, I told you a million times to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender! It has been on Netflix for months so there's no excuse for you not to watch it! I am Azula, princess of the Fire Nation!" Ah, she loved that show as a child when it came out and went nuts when it returned to Netflix. I just never got around to watching it.

"And why don't I want to be locked in a room with you?"

"Watch the damn show and you'd understand!"

When Jess opens her door, she's dressed as an angel. She apparently knows right away who Alice is when she opens her door. "Princess Azula, please come in." She does a little bow and hand gesture with her left hand straight up while her right is in a fist pushed together as if she was praying. She straightens out and takes a moment to appraise me. "You're Bellatrix, right?"

That's about how my night goes. Some people think I'm Bellatrix and others think I'm some sort of keeper for the Grim Reaper. The cloak is throwing people off. Maybe I should've just came as a cat.

I'm alone in Jess's kitchen. The rest of the party is only ten feet away, but I need a moment to myself. My thoughts betray me as they wonder to Edward. He's scaring some poor teenage girl right now. Thinking of that, I'm not really sure what he's supposed to be. Scary? Sure. But is he supposed to acting like a certain character like Rose and Emmett or is he just some psychotic patient so it doesn't matter if his looks drastically change from one night to another?

The first time I met him, he had an axe and those Wolverine-like wounds. Maybe a tormented lumberjack? The images morph into us at Dafno's for dinner where he was devastatingly handsome. I wonder if he'd like this party. For looks, he'd definitely not approve. It looks Halloweeny, but definitely not something someone would piss their pants at.

I'm so lost in my thoughts about Edward that I fail to hear anyone join me in the kitchen, sneaking up on me and coming so close to me that he could whisper in my ear. "Boo!"

"Fuck!" I jump up, clutching my heart. Level One and Two are achieved there. I turn around to find the core of my hatred. "Mike, what the fuck?"

Oh, did I forget to mention that Mike "followed" me to college and is now dating Jess?

He laughs in his toga. "Oh, lighten up, Scaredy Swan. You're still not bent out of shape for scaring you when we were kids, are you?"

The death glare I throw at him is enough to shut him up. "You do realize that traumatizing events are the hardest to erase from your memory, right? Maybe if you listened in your psych class, you'd know a thing or two."

The shuffling of his feet show me he's uncomfortable now. What's he even want? I see him from time to time when I hang out with Jess, but we generally don't converse with one another directly unless it's in a group.

"So, um, Jess was telling me how you and Alice are volunteering at Field of Screams this year?"

"Yeah, we are. We're both in makeup."

"I was thinking of taking Jess there next week. Now, how scary is it really? All the shit they post on social media is exaggerated."

The screams and pleads I hear every weekend ring in my ears. The buzzing and banging of various weapons. I think about telling him the truth, but then decide against it. Time for a little payback. "Well, I'm volunteering there. Isn't that answer enough for you?"

He looks real proud of himself. "Definitely. I know you wouldn't last one minute on the premise if it was really that scary. Good chat, Bella."

As he walks back to the party, my lips curl up. I don't really know Mike that well, but I do know he's full of himself. If he takes Jess there, she'll be the one holding his hand as he cries and tries to bargain with the actors.

At Field of Screams, I'm otherwise occupied in my mind again. Big, beefy hands grab my shoulders, making me shriek and hit the offender who only laughs at me.

"Good thing I didn't pick you up like I originally planned, Bella," Emmett laughs. "Stay on your toes and stay alive," he winks, walking away to his regular makeup artist.

Rose and every one of the other actors shuffle through the removal process until it looks like Alice and I are the only ones left in costume. Our little group is congregated in one corner, waiting for Edward.

"How have you not seen ATLA, Bella? That is the show to watch. Everything is connected. It's a bonus the girls were pretty hot too for cartoons." Emmett wiggles his eyebrows at me which results in him getting slapped in the back of the head by Rose and me rolling my eyes. I'm the only one who hasn't seen it. "Eddie had a bit of a crush on Azula growing up. He may make a hit on Alice."

"Anyway," Rose diverts the conversation, "speaking of Edward, you never told me how your date with him was."

I wanted to avoid this conversation. Stupid Emmett bringing up Edward's childhood cartoon crush.

"It was fine. We got to know each other a little better, and he paid so I got a free meal out of it." Hearing those words come out of my mouth make me sound shallow as hell, and I instantly regret how I tried to play that nonchalantly. "He's a cool guy when he's not obsessing over petrifying people."

I see Alice biting her lip out of the corner of my eye. My story time with her after the date may have given more typical first date vibes in contrast to my neutral statements here.

"And what's wrong with that?" Speak of the devil. "Princess Azula, it is a great honor to be in your presence. May I ask who your lovely friend is?" He bows the same way Jess did.

"This is the lovely Hela of Asgard, firstborn of Odin, the Goddess of the Dead and ruler of Hel."

He appraises the both of us while Emmett and Rose just watch. The heat of his stare is becoming unnerving. Neither of us look scary on the outside, but it's the personalities of the characters that will terrify someone.

"I'll give you two props on choosing costumes that definitely not scary, it's the whole character that makes you both malevolent. Hela, you're ambitious and looking to conquer the whole damn world. Azula, you're fourteen and the apple of your father's eye and are fucking insane." He smiles at us and laughs. "Physical costume, Alice wins though."

We all get sick of standing and talking so we hit the diner again for a late night snack. This time it's not horrible since I look semi-normal besides the smeared makeup. We get on the topic of Azula again, courtesy of Emmett.

"Please, don't lie, Eddie. I know you secretly jacked off to Azula in the bathroom. She's hot, but Ty Lee was hotter. Did you not see the boobs they gave her and showed in a bikini? The creators can't expected a bunch of teenage guys not to jack off to them!" Emmett gets another smack from Rose.

"Can we stop talking about boy issues when I'm eating and dressed as said character?" Alice pleads, looking like she's going to vomit the half of sandwich she already consumed.

"Fine," Emmett relents, turning his attention to me. "Let's kidnap this one and force her to watch ATLA. She can't be our age and not have seen it."

"You haven't seen it?" Edward questions, looking aghast. "Why are there so many things you've missed out on in life?"

"Excuse me," I spit. The way he said that made it seem like I have major issues. "Just because I don't want to go in scary ass haunted houses and haven't watched a show, I have issues?"

"Oh, speaking of haunted houses, Mike and Jess said they're coming to Field of Screams next weekend. I told him that we'd gladly join him that night."

I blink at Alice like she's the one who's gone insane. "You said what?" I shriek.

"You can't volunteer in makeup and not see the finished product of the makeup artists in action. You know both Mike and I will drag you through all the attractions kicking and screaming."

I am going to kill Mike.

I am going to need a shovel to dig his grave.

I am going to kill Alice.

I am going to need a shovel to dig her grave.

I am going to kick Edward in his balls because of that damn smirk on his face.

Posted: October 9, 2020

So, if you can't tell, I wrote this around the time ATLA was released on Netflix. If you haven't watched it before, go do it now! It's great for kids and adults alike. There's also a sequel, Legend of Korra, that's a little darker and more gauged towards teens and young adults who grew up with ATLA and it's not completely necessary that you watch ATLA beforehand. Go watch ATLA and LoK by yourself, with your friends, with your family, just do it! If you'd like to further discuss ATLA or LoK, please PM for further details lol.

Anywho, back to Twilight. How do you think the true experience of Field of Screams will go for Bella?