Christine grabbed a watermelon flavoured vodka cruiser from the fridge and made her way back onto the dancefloor, sculling the drink straight from the bottle. She came to Raoul and began to dance with him, her body fluid and sinuous, his eyes goggling her long thin legs and gyrating behind.
"Chris" he whispered huskily into her ear and she turned to him, putting her arms around his neck as she kissed his ear slowly.
"What?" She whispered tenderly and he took her hand and leaned in closer to her, his pulsating body up against her own.
"Want to go upstairs?" he suggested, the warm desire melting in his voice like chocolate and she nodded, grabbing him by his shirt collar and leading him up the stairs of the large house.
They entered an empty dark bedroom, and the couple sat quietly on the still double bed. Raoul leaned in and began to kiss her luscious lips softly, slowly, as she opened her mouth, yearning for him.
Suddenly she pulled away and fiercely grabbed him firmly by his broad muscled shoulders, pushing him down to lie upon the bed, jumping on top of him to straddle his hips, kissing him faster, more passionate as his hands explored her body in such intense desire he felt as if he would eat her up completely as her hands edged skilfully towards his fly.
"Come on you little cunt!" came the shout of Meg's boyfriend, Brendan, from the window below in the backyard.
Christine sat up and ran to the window, knowing exactly whom she'd see Brendan attacking.
She watched in horror as she saw Erik being attacked by a gang of year eleven guys, the laughter of fellow partiers and onlookers making her shudder, a nauseous feeling entering her stomach.
"What is it?" Raoul said cantankerously, as he walked to the window, doing up his fly then placing his hand on Christine's bare shoulder.
"Brendan and his friend…they're attacking Erik" she said in choked horror and Raoul shrugged, unsure of why this upset her so much.
"So?" he asked; Brendan was that constant type who needed someone to push around, someone less capable than him. It wasn't fair, it didn't pretend to be; it was merely a matter of survival in highschool, making sure you and those you loved weren't the ones he decided to push.
Raoul didn't agree with it but he was content knowing he and Christine weren't the object of Brendan's drunken anger; if you got involved or tried to stop him it just made matters worse.
But Christine zipped up the side of her dress and ran from the room in a flash, leaving Raoul confused as to where she had gone. She trickled lightly down the stairs and burst out onto the veranda where most of the party had congregated, drinking as they laughed at the four strongly built guys, including Brendan, knocked the senses out of Erik.
She gaped in horror as she walked down the steps onto the soft green grass. She walked furiously to Brendan who was currently in the middle of repeatedly punching Erik in the face, laughing drunkly.
"Stop it" she screamed, pulling at his wide shoulders but Brendan was too drunk to be chastised. He turned and saw Christine's petite figure, standing defiantly with her hands on her hips, a scowl crossing her pretty face. He laughed at such a little girl approaching him so stupidly.
"Chris what are you doing you idiot?" screamed Jammes from the porch, too drunk to come to her friends aid but not drunk enough to not realise how much danger she was in.
Brendan laughed, snorting as he sprayed her face with spit, as Christine remained unmoved. He turned and dropped Erik to the floor, who cowered, clutching at his blood drenched face.
"Why?" he slurred as if it were some joke, some inconceivable joke that someone could possibly come to Erik's aid. Christine grew angry at the snorting drunken pig, the man who was no longer handsome and witty in her view; when she saw him all she could see was blood.
"You fucking bastard what'd he ever do to you?" she growled, slapping him hard across the laughing face, her nails scratching at his smooth skin, infuriating this drunken beast.
He threw a punch to her face, hitting her brutally in the eye and the force knocked her to the ground, her body a crumpled heap on the grass. Everyone bellowed in laughter at this as Brendan picked the bleeding Erik from the ground and put him into a gruelling headlock.
Erik gazed confusedly at the laughing crowd and instantly had a flash of the mob of teenagers, remembering something he once had read. They laughed as if they were medieval fools watching a bear being baited, swinging its giant paws at the vicious dogs who attacked him. The crowd would roar with laughter when the bear was finally pulled to the ground by the fiercest of the dammed dogs; Brendan was that dog, Erik the bear.
Christine was the outspoken lady of the court, who had talked out of turn, crying out against the inhumane actions of the people, hardly understanding that no matter what time, place or people it was that this sort of entertainment would always greatly thrill their society.
I hope she's okay…Suddenly Erik was jolted from his indescribable thoughts as Brendan began to yell at the crowd, laughing manically as he gestured towards Erik's blood-soaked mask.
"Lets see what Zorro here is hiding then!" Brendan roared and Erik felt a flash of blinding fear as the mask was ripped from his face and the entire guffawing crowd went utterly silent.
The onlookers stood in stunned silence as they took in the horror before their selfish greedy eyes. While the left side of his face was almost handsome his right was a shockingly horrific mess.
The skin was red and pockmarked, bubbling and taut like third degree burns, only deep brown gashes breaking the indented skin. There were incredible sweeps of sunken brown slashes, a large circular one below his cheek next to his mouth, a sunburst of cadaverous brown burns, almost the colour of dried blood. His eyebrow was devoid of hair, a mere bulging lump of skin deep-set over his empty black eye socket. No, not empty; in the darkness you could see the slight glint of a gaunt, deep-set eye, glinting almost yellow in the moonlight. The skin around his socket was lumpy and pinched, pasty white, almost yellow as it twisted and turned around the empty socket. The right side of his lip extended in blood red blemishes, boils ever present amongst these odd markings. But through this slight extension his top lip split an entire inch or two, revealing one of his teeth and inflamed red gums, the lip edges healed long ago, as if someone had gotten a pair of sharp scissors and snipped his lip in half. His right ear was almost nonexistent, a mere lump of unpleasant cartilage and singed skin. Everyone saw the fake prosthetic ear attached to the mask Brendan held in his hands. As if Erik's face wasn't ghastly enough Brendan had just broken his nose and the blood pumped from it fiercely, filling his mouth with red as he spluttered on the thick scarlet liquid.
I am ruined for sure…Slowly the tittering laughs began and soon the entire cluster of people on the veranda was hollering with thunderous laughter, clutching their stomaches in pain as they pointed and laughed at the freak; Erik.
Brendan dropped the deformed boy from the headlock and he crumpled to the ground, shuddering in pain as his body shook from fear. Brendan kicked him remorselessly in the stomach, Erik moaning in pain as Brendan spat on him with disgust. The gang sauntered off, hi-fiving each other and laughing as Joel threw the black soiled mask at Erik's feet.
The party slowly moved back inside to the music and food, still laughing at the atrocities they had just borne witness to.
Christine pulled herself to her feet, rubbing her face, which throbbed with pain, a headache already having set in. She walked to where Erik lay groaning, holding his nose which spurted blood. She kneeled, sitting on her feet as she pulled him for his head to rest in her lap.
"You okay?" she whispered sadly, knowing it was a useless question considering his state. She removed her jacket she had thrown on upon leaving Raoul in the bedroom and pushed it to his nose, putting pressure to it to soak up the blood.
"Yeh..." he groaned and she grimaced.
"Those bastards..." she sighed and Erik gave her a weak smile.
"Are you okay? They hit you hard" he asked, forever concerned about her and she blushed.
"I'm fine, I'm more worried about you at the moment though" she said as Raoul and Jammes rushed down, kneeling over Erik.
"Are you okay Christine?" Raoul asked her worriedly as Jammes took over caring for Erik, Raoul hugging Christine, looking at the bruised lump forming on her forehead.
"I'm fine, he didn't hit me too hard. We have to get Erik back to my place, it's closest, can you drive us?" she asked and as Raoul was about to reply a horrified scream came from the upstairs bedroom. Jammes stood up, her face going pale.
"That's Meg's scream, Raoul? Want to come get her...it came from a bedroom...might need your help" She said in shock and Raoul nodded, taking her hand but looked back at Christine pushing the blood-soaked jacket against Erik's bleeding face.
"Christine, you guys can go ahead, here's my car keys" he said, pulling his keys from his pocket.
"How then will you get home? And I don't have my license-Erik is in no state to drive. We'll walk" she said decidedly and Raoul gave her a worried look.
"You sure you'll be fine?" he asked and she nodded.
"Yep, can you call Aunt Annie to let her know we're coming and to call the doctor" Christine asked, and Raoul nodded, kissing her upon the cheek then running off to the house with Jammes, pulling out his phone as he went.
"Come on, let's get you up" Christine turned to Erik and helped him to his feet. He put his arm around her and tilted his head back, holding the jacket to it as he pinched his nose.
"Okay...ummm...how close is your house?" he asked nervously and she laughed.
"About ten minutes away, don't worry"
"Get off me!" Meg screeched as Brendan grabbed her as Angelina zipped up her dress.
"It's not what it looks" he begged, grabbing the girls thin shaking wrists as her face screwed up in anger.
"Not what it looks? I come in here to find you poking that slut? I come in here to find you moaning between the legs of a whore? So what was it if not that?" Meg spat at him in disgust and Angelina ran from the room unnoticed.
"It wasn't like that! God Meg! Why can't you just listen?" he shouted in her face and Meg tried to move from his grip.
"Stupid bastard!" she screamed and the drunken boy slapped her hard across the face. Then, picking her up he threw her down upon the bed, coming down upon her as she screamed.
"I make you listen" he muttered in desperation "No...please don't cry...I'm going to make it better" he pleaded as he set about unzipping her dress as she clawed at him.
"No Brendan" she pleaded and he looked at her.
"I'll make it better," he said desperately and suddenly his eyes rolled back into his head and he sprawled to the floor. Meg looked up, wiping her face as she saw Raoul and Jammes standing behind the unconscious Brendan.
"Oh my god..." he said in horror and helped Meg up, gathering her into his arms as she shook and cried while Jammes marched out to Angelina who was attempting to leave the party quietly.
"Oy slut!" she said, grabbing the strap of Angelina's dress and she turned to face Jammes.
"Yes?" she asked, with a slightly bored look entering her face.
"Next time don't just borrow without asking. It's just a little rude" she said and Angelina shrugged.
"You leave meat on a doorstep the cats are going to eat it aren't they?" she merely said and left, closing the front door behind her.
Jammes sighed and turned to see Raoul holding Meg.
"I guess we better get going"
"You okay? We're nearly there now, just around the next corner" Christine groaned as Erik's weight began to bear down upon her and he chuckled.
"Sorry, am I hurting you" he asked and she shook her head, grinning despite the situation.
"Nope, I'm fine, you're so fat though" she giggled, poking his skinny frame and he chuckled.
"Yep, I'm as fat as Raoul is black and Meg is quiet" he laughed and Christine laughed with him, her smile beautiful as he stared at her, becoming serious "I'm as fat as you are ugly"
Christine stopped laughing and blushed, looking down the road, as if watching out for cars and Erik blushed, knowing he'd pushed it.
"We're here" she said, turning him into the driveway and he smiled.
"Thanks" he said but before she could reply they were rushed in by Aunt Annie and Christine rubbed her eyes at the shock of the bright lights.
"Oh god, Doctor, will you come here, this is him" Annie said worriedly and the doctor came in and led Erik to the family room where his things were.
"A bit of a bump ey?" the doctor joked then gasped as he saw Erik's right side, still unmasked "Did they...oh god! Has that already dried? What did they do to you?" he exclaimed and Erik instantly rose his hand to his face protectively.
"No, no, this...my face...it's been like that since birth...a deformity" he muttered and the doctor cursed, having put his foot in it.
"It's okay, I normally wear a mask...I don't know where it is but" Erik said suddenly, looking around him and Christine shook her head, pulling the mask from her bag.
"I grabbed it before we left" she said, shrugging as she handed it to him and he smiled through the blood.
"Thanks"
As Erik was led off to be stitched up in the family room, Annie led Christine to the kitchen to ice the growing purpled bump upon her forehead.
"Luckily you'll be able to fix your hair to hide it" Annie said as she filled a bag with ice cubes and pressed it to Christine's forehead, ensuing a shocked gasp from Christine at the cold ice.
"Yeah" she said, squirming underneath the cold ice as Annie looked at her, fixing a drink of freshly brewed coffee.
"Here," she handed a mug of coffee to Christine "Now what exactly went on?"
Christine opened her mouth to explain but at that moment Raoul's voice came from the foyer.
"Hey, I have Meg and Jammes, is Christine and Erik back?" Raoul called out, entering the kitchen and running quickly over to Christine, kissing her cheek.
"Hey" she said softly and he smiled in relief.
"Thank god you made it home safely, where's Erik?" Raoul asked, looking about and Christine pointed to the family room.
"Getting his nose fixed by the doctor. Do you want to stay over? It's late" she asked and he nodded.
"That'd be great," he said then looking up at Anne "You wouldn't mind? I'll just crash on the couch"
"It'll be fine Raoul, Erik's also staying over and Jammes was going to stay over already. Just don't raid my liqueur cabinet" Anne laughed and looked around "Where's Meg?" she asked and Raoul bit his lip.
"She just went up to bed, she was pretty upset, she found...well...I'll explain later" Raoul said and Anne nodded. Christine stood, kissing all of them on the cheek as she announced she was going to bed as Jammes and Raoul crashed on the couch, watching MTV trash and Anne began to make herself a tea.
Christine arrived in her bedroom and didn't bother turning off the light or closing the door as she fell into bed, absolutely exhausted. All she could manage was to unzip her dress and throw it away. She was about to remove her bra when she fell into a deep sleep, her head aching.