One Tainted Secret
Chapter Six: Halloween Party
By: Michelle
(Note: Mature content. Happy Halloween, everyone.)
In the myth, the angel conceived a child. As the child grew inside her small belly the angel knew, the day it borne, she would become a human being. Her body will be filled with blood and she will need to eat, she will need to rest. On the day the baby arrived she will bleed, heavily, lingering close to death unitl the baby emerged; she would have a son. To reverse her blunder of being the devil's love affair, she must raise this child lovingly and right, for this human boy carried within him the devil's gene. She must raise it the just way with the purest quality of humankind - love.
There was a fourth floor at the Mishima Manor. There are no stairs leading to the fourth floor. The only way to access it was through the passage behind the walls. The entrance door changed daily and was misleading, vanishing almost, appearing as a lone corner or bookshelf or picture frame. Xiaoyu had no knowledge of this; she had only needed to see the old Mishima at dinner. But the writing on the walls, a crooked calligraphy of a strange language, one day became legible.
One day, the entirety of it, Lucy noticed Xiaoyu staring into the air with a vague, unnatural look. She watched the young girl climb from her bed and stand next to the white wall, tracing it with a finger, running a hand over it, looking at her hand as if something rubbed off. The next day, when she came to inform dinner, Xiaoyu looked up at her with wide astonished eyes and said in a still voice, "There are passages behind the walls, did you know this?"
"What gave you such thought, dear?" Lucy asked.
"I read it."
"Have you picked up some old book in the library? I tell you my darling I have no idea where those books come from," Lucy laughed, having noticed the tendency of the girl's hide out at the Mishima's library. "I've worked for the Mishimas for many years and I swear those books seem to just appear."
Xiaoyu did not take her eyes off Lucy. She said flatly, "There's a fourth floor. It's all over the walls, how to access it, it tells you how. But you have to read it fast or it washes out. It melts away if you get too close."
Lucy paused in her rearrangement of the open curtains, she took a moment to calm the chill of what she had just heard. Her eyes shifted steadily from Xiao to the wall behind her - there was nothing. She changed the subject. "Sweetheart, you'll be glad to know tonight is the Halloween party."
Xiao blinked; her face restored to its usual look. She had forgotten what she had just said.
The Halloween party was held at the old cabins in Munro Woods, a popular site for regular campers and hikers, a twenty minute drive out of the city. Though it was a favored area for day time activities, nighttime was a different matter altogether. A stroll through Munro Woods, once the sun sets, pathways become difficult to tell apart, the terrain shifts, the trees move in closer, gravestones would appear randomly, bearing no name but the gruesome cause of death. These were the stories being told around all week, the hype of it quite gratifying.
The kids who came were in the upper division of school, old enough to drive and legal enough to rent a cabin as to not drive intoxicated back. Miharu's bunch, which included Xiao, were some of the youngest attending. Much obliged to Xiaoyu's personal driver, the bunch were dropped off and to be picked up at midnight sharp.
The driver took a turn off the main road onto a very narrow road with loose gravel, pumpkins lined both sides of the street. Fake dead heads hanging off of branches bumped against the windshield as they drove through the trees, drumming across the roof. The girls huddled close, fear exciting them; Xiao, alert, in the middle. There was thunder and lightning and enough rain to dress according to it.
A mummy appeared out of the darkness holding an umbrella. A white rabbit in a raincoat. People in costumes walking the direction of the party - cabin #44.
"All right ladies," Miharu was the first one to step out, dressed as a pumpkin. Her shoulders were bare and her legs were long, the dress poof that was the pumpkin barely covered her middle, as if it were a costume fit for a child. "It's going to be a muddy night."
Audrey and Pricilla held each other's hands, both wearing long booted heels with their petite pirate costumes, their pretty faces painted on to look smudgy. Both walked on tippy toes careful not to get their shoes stuck, the mud acting like an adhesive. All of them squealed as they squelched over the mud except for Xiao, who clomped behind assuredly in rain boots.
As they entered cabin #44 Xiao looked above her, her first time to a Halloween party. An elaborate decoration of skulls, bats, and body guts hanging from the ceiling. It was dark, the air above them covered in misty smoke, bright lights flashing blindly. Music and noise and loud party-hopping people made it difficult to follow behind Miharu, who was pushing through the crowd to get to the bar on the other side. Behind her Pricilla and Audrey were squealing happily, getting touched and grabbed by guys that passed by. On the floor, something shimmery like blood but dry, fake.
Xiao had on angel wings, but her costume was simply a long gossamer nightie that reached down to her ankles. Her hair braided loosely down one shoulder, on her head a fresh wreath of white hydrangeas Miharu had made.
When they finally made it to the bar they had already had two jello shots each from the bargirl who walked around with blinking necklaces and a tray full of test tubes with steam coming from the tops. Unaccustomed, Xiao held onto Miharu's hand, dizzy and unable to control leaning too far to the left. Her hands were fuzzy when she looked at them holding on to another shot of something Miharu insisted would make her feel better. If Xiao was to learn anything that night, it was that Grey Goose was the cleanest vodka and, along with Redbull, would keep her up all night with a clean buzz.
She smiled at that, never feeling this happy before, her stomach warming and her temples pulsing the rhythm of everyone's fists pumping up high to the music. She was still holding onto Miharu's hand, watching her conversation with some guy dressed as Ironman. Xiaoyu was amazed at what was being discussed - absolutely nothing. The guy was pointing to random pieces of jewelry Miharu wore with her costume. He was probably making fun of her because all of Miharu's responses were justifications on where she got it or who gave it to her and if she liked it or not.
Xiao was fond of Miharu but grew bored and hot, the alcohol now racing through her body, and reacting in ways she never felt - like dancing. She didn't need to know how, watching those on the dance floor not too far away, she slinked from Miharu unnoticed and lost herself in the sea of crazy youths and costumes.
"Hey angel!"
Xiao put her arms in the air, waved them crazily, pecked her head to the heavy bass, the lazar lights flashing and brilliant.
"Dance with me!"
Someone lifted her by her waist and she was high above everyone else. She put her arms out and soared in one spot, legs bent upward in pose. When she was back on the ground her feet did not stop thumping the floor along with the electronic beat, hands chopping the air above her. Someone, the same masked fellow who lifted her, grabbed her hand and twirled her. Her back landed against his chest and his face swooped down for a wet kiss on her neck. His breath smelled like mint gum. He twirled her out like a yo-yo. She rolled back to his chest, caught there in the tight brace of his arm.
"Nice one, angel," he cupped her breast, his thumb rubbing the hard center.
Xiao pushed away. She literally ran off the dance floor, going anywhere else. Something in her gut did not feel right, not with him. She had had this feeling before, a tingly sensation that crawled up her neck, that night when Jin hid in her bedroom, an attraction she felt so strong that she kissed him. An attraction, she was sure, that almost felt that it could be permanent. It was a crush she was not prepared for, and she would have missed him tragically if her schoolwork and practice did not keep her strict with duty and routine. This set her apart from her school friends, who went out of the way to seek attention of those they crushed, getting high from the emotional drama of young romance, getting spiraled out of control in the love game, getting "F's" on exams and papers due to negligence.
She found herself walking down a long crowded hallway. Every one, she noticed, had a mask on like the fellow on the dance floor. She tried not to look at the masked faces as she inched her way through, there was something creepy about only being able to see their eyes. The music didn't reach this area, Xiao realized she had stumbled into an entirely different cabin - cabin #45. Instead, she heard curious noises, moaning and groaning of rapture and of pain.
People stood around just as curiously, standing at doorways, watching but not entering. When Xiao passed by such door, she caught a glimpse of something for the first time. Naked bodies contorted in intercourse, their pelvises thrusting in a wild manner.
Xiao could only imagine, from the arousing noise they made, from the expression on their faces, how it was meant to feel. She thought of Jin, if this was his intention that night when he hid in her bedroom.
Embarrassed, she pushed her thighs together, as if she were holding in pee, she could not take her eyes away from the orchestra of pleasure. A sort of excitement took over her. She felt a warm wetness flush gently from her nether region, it's slow lingering effect making her shiver, her underwear became moist.
Shuffling away, she placed a hand over her chest, shocked at the reaction of her body. Her mind was fluttering with what she had seen.
"Audrey!"
Xiao turned her head at the familiar sound of her friend's name. Audrey was nowhere to be seen.
"She's in here," a masked guy, standing in line outside a doorway, informed another. "Wait in line, bro."
It was a bathroom. Inside, someone was with Audrey. She was leaning over, wearing a white mask, her elbows on the sink counter, and her pirate skirt was pulled up over her back. It looked like she was being pushed back and forth by someone from behind. Her long hair was loose and fell over her shoulders. She was cursing and saying Jin's name, telling him to do it harder.
Outside the rain began it's pour. People on the patio rushed inside, thunder and lightning distracting the hustle and bustle. It was midnight. Miharu was still talking to the same Ironman Xiao had left her with earlier. Her face was flushed and she had bloodshot eyes. She was carrying two drinks, one of which she immediately held out to Xiao.
"Help me, they keep making me drinks," said Miharu.
Xiao took the drink but didn't drink it, she was struggling with her breath. She had been running about trying to retrace back to cabin #44.
"Where'd you go?" Miharu asked.
"Have you seen Audrey?"
"Last I saw her was when we first took shots."
"Do you know what she's doing?" Xiao wanted to get it out quick.
"Why aren't you drinking?" Miharu noticed the drink still full in Xiao's hand. She clinked her glass to hers, "Cheers." She took a long swig and looked at Xiao with eyes gesturing her do the same.
Xiao took two large gulps, paused, then finished it off. She set the glass down heavily on the bar and said, "I just saw cabin #45." As she said this, the guy dressed as Ironman hooted, his fist pumping in the air. Around him others seemed just as excited at the mentioning of cabin #45.
Miharu held up a white mask, "They gave me this."
It was the same as the one Audrey had on. Xiao had ran off before she could see Jin having sex with Audrey, she couldn't bear to see it. She wanted to go home, a headache was coming in fast. She wanted to be in bed and sleep.
"Are you okay?" Miharu asked, noticing the color going away in Xiao's face.
"What was in that drink?" Xiao held her head.
"I don't know, Pricilla had three of them."
"Where is she?"
"She left wearing one of these," Miharu waved the white mask in the air.
Before Xiao could reply the crowd on the dance floor parted unexpectedly. Over the heavy music she heard cheers and applause, people whistling wildly in admiration.
Their attention was Jin, the gigantic span of black feathered wings behind him. He was wearing nothing but his karate gi trousers. His chest and stomach, exceptionally well-defined, had odd black markings. His forehead was bandaged, but there was no sign of blood, the wrappings clean as if it had been recently changed, except something seemed to be protruding from it. At a closer look, his lips were bruised, purple and bled slowly at a corner. One eye swollen shut looked like a plum fruit; the other one, slightly cracked open, stared absently.
Faces around him were in awe, the girls were nearly cross-eyed with magnetism. Xiao, at this point, was fully inebriated, visually impaired and functioned in a fugue state, her eyes dewy and shaking. Her heart raced, confused but enlivened Jin was here. Miharu held onto Xiao, probably out of protective impulse, for the look on Jin's face was eerie and barely controlled.
The applause halted when, without warning, Xiao's body shot over to Jin, as if she was thrown by some unusual force. Landing too hard against his chest, she collapsed down by his feet like a rag doll. He hovered over her possessively. The music stopped. Stunned with blurred vision, barely breathing, Xiao heard only her slow heartbeat, the dulled out screams wobbling in and out of her impaired ears. There were curses and loud objects being thrown and a herd of feet stampeding in one direction. There were hands trying to save her, Miharu it must've been, reaching if only for her finger to pull her out from behind Jin, but they were knocked off their feet by one powerful wallop of his wing. Xiao felt herself being raised, not by arms, by a warming sensation, purple covering around her. Once upright she stood slowly, walking like a cripple to Jin. She wrapped her puppet-like arms around his neck, her legs around his waist, her eyes closed just as he blasted through the ceiling.