After the sky grew dark, everyone scattered feverishly as a few of them went to open a door at the other end of the room. Black smoke soon began filling the room, as a few of the characters brought in tables with covered trays. At first Jacuzzi was thrilled at the prospect of food, but his enthusiasm turned to revulsion when he saw what was under the trays: cookies and cake made from brains, goblets full of custard and eyeballs, and what looked like severed zombie hands, among other things. Just then, Keiichi called him over: "Come eat with us!"

"Um… okay?" Jacuzzi wasn't sure how to reply. The other characters all looked perfectly happy eating this weird food, and so he steeled himself and started exploring the buffet tables. He picked up an unassuming pumpkin-shaped cookie and took a small bite. "It's actually not too bad," he admitted. Then he took a bigger bite, and gagged as his teeth touched something slimy and gross. "Aagh!" he screamed, "What is in this thing?"

"Oh, those pumpkin cookies," Keiichi smiled at him knowingly, "Made with frog guts." Jacuzzi was too stunned to speak. But he simply gave a sigh and went to look for other foods. Eventually his eyes landed on the orange-haired woman from earlier, who was mixing a milkshake. Something about the bright-red shake appealed to Jacuzzi, who in a sudden burst of daring walked over. Unable to muster enough courage to actually speak, he simply eyed the drink until the woman looked at him incredulously, and handed it over. As Jacuzzi sipped from the straw, he couldn't help but notice a vaguely metallic taste. Living in a violent gangster scene, he knew only too well what it was. "D-does this have b-blood in it?" he gasped to the woman.

"Yes, it does," she replied in a bored tone.

"Don't you guys have any real food?" Jacuzzi gasped.

"I'm a vampire; this is my real food," the woman explained.

"What can a guy like me eat here?" Jacuzzi protested.

"What would you normally eat?" asked the woman, "If you could."

"I'd eat roast turkey and mashed potatoes and green salad and cranberry sauce and wheat rolls and toffee apples and pumpkin pie…."

"Pumpkin pie, you say?" said the woman.

"Yeah..."

"Oh, we have those," said the woman, pointing to some small pastries in individual pie cups.

"Okay…," said Jacuzzi, "And… would those have anything… in them?" he gulped.

"I don't know," the woman sighed, "I've never eaten them. But they shouldn't."

Still wary, Jacuzzi walked over to the table with the pumpkin treats, and picked one up. He bit into it carefully. It tasted a little spicy, but did seem to be made from real pumpkins. Having consumed one of these pumpkin pies, Jacuzzi felt thirsty, and so turned his attention to some orange-and-black shakes sitting on a nearby table. He warily picked one up, and started sipping from it. It tasted sweet and creamy, with no strange textures or objects. So he slowly finished the shake, and went to look for other items he could eat.

The next second, Jacuzzi saw someone out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see Shinji, holding a plate loaded with food. "I noticed you were looking for something more… normal to eat," said Shinji, in a small and almost apologetic voice, "So… I got you everything I could come up with."

"Oh… t-thanks," said Jacuzzi, cautiously taking the plate from Shinji. He examined the various offerings. Among them were spiders made from peanut butter, candy corn in the shape of fangs, some of the gummy rats, and rather suspicious-looking corn-on-the-cob covered in red sauce, which Jacuzzi was happy to see was made from tomatoes. Shinji himself was eating soup which gave off a bright-orange flame, and eyeball custard. "Y-you eat eyeballs…?" Jacuzzi stammered.

"Yeah," said Shinji, "The custard is delicious; it's a shame I'm lactose-intolerant."

"Huh?" said Jacuzzi.

"I can't digest milk."

"You're eating eyeball custard even though you can't digest milk?"

"It's that good!" Shinji insisted.

Jacuzzi, moved by Shinji's endorsement, went over to the cold eyeball custards and began eating from one of them. It was actually quite good, if you could ignore the eyeballs.

Just then, Misato appeared behind the two boys. "Hey, Shinji!" she said, eyeing Jacuzzi, "You seem to have made a friend."

"Yeah, I…," Shinji sighed.

"Excellent!" said Misato. "It's always good to see Shinji talking to new people," she said to Jacuzzi, "The poor guy just doesn't get many opportunities to socialize."

"Okay," said Jacuzzi, not sure what else to say.

"Shinji," said Misato, "Why don't you show Jacuzzi around?"

"Oh… okay," said Shinji. He turned to Jacuzzi again, "So… uh… we'll be heading into the other room shortly for… ah… games and… drugs."

"Drugs?" said Jacuzzi. "You mean like, medicine?"

"No," said Shinji, "I mean, really hard drugs. You'll see once we get into the other room."

"Okay," said Jacuzzi, "And then what happens?"

Shinji stood up a little straighter now, and he cracked a small smile. "The haunted house."

"The haunted house?" said Jacuzzi, "What's that?"

"It's this big structure that's attached to the library, just for us," Shinji went on. "It's full of all sorts of scary things. And it stays open until midnight, when Halloween's over."

"It's the last part of this party," said Rei, who was just now approaching the table.

"And it's the best," said Shinji, who now looked almost cheerful.

Just then, Asuka approached them. When she saw Jacuzzi, she scowled, "Why are you all hanging out with this loser?"

Jacuzzi opened his mouth to speak, but Shinji shook his head.

"Bah, whatever," said Asuka, "Who needs you morons anyway? I'm going into the other room." She stalked off.

"She… she d-doesn't seem very… nice," Jacuzzi whispered to Shinji.

"She isn't," Shinji replied, even more softly. "B-but… it isn't her fault; she has it really hard. So do all of us."

"Really?" said Jacuzzi, "Do you get beaten up a lot? I know I do!"

"Well… we don't get physically beaten up much, unless we're fighting supernatural enemies," Shinji explained. "But… we don't need to. Instead we get mind-raped and scared to death and traumatized in all sorts of other ways. It's not fun to be a Neon Genesis Evangelion character, believe me!"

"Gee…" said Jacuzzi.

"In fact," said Misato, "Just about everyone here regularly faces all sorts of scary situations."

"So… why would you want to scare yourselves even more?" asked Jacuzzi.

"Most of the things we see and do here don't actually scare us," said Misato, "We just pretend they do. It takes our mind off of the real horrors we have to confront. Our time to relax and hang out."

"Really?" said Jacuzzi, "And that's why you come to the library?"

"Pretty much," said Shinji.

"When we come to the library," said Jacuzzi, "It's always to throw parties that bring us closer together. We're all very social… except me." He hung his head.

Nobody got a chance to comment on that, however, because just then Rei murmured: "I think people are heading toward the other room."

"Okay, let's go!" said Misato, standing up. She turned to Jacuzzi. "Are you coming?"

"I… sure," said Jacuzzi, who finished the last few bites of food on his plate and dragged his feet toward the door into a dark room, as terror once again began to rise in his throat.