A/N: Woo, life's crazy huh
Chapter 20
Sophia POV
We were all once again gathered in Henrietta's room going over our plan for confronting the vamp kids. It didn't escape anyone's notice the way Michael and Raven sat as far away from each other as the room would allow.
"Alright, says here Makowski wants to meet tonight in the Sodosopa parking garage. And I'm pretty sure he tried writing a threat but it's all smeared at the bottom." Pete shrugged, tossing aside the napkin. "We're going to need a plan because those vamp kids definitely don't like us." He flipped the bangs out of his face.
"Who cares if they don't like us, we just need to make them shit themselves enough that they'll do what we say." Henrietta rolled her eyes, lighting a cigarette.
"It shouldn't be too hard, they're a bunch of pussies." Firkle looked up from where he was writing in a journal.
"Makowski already knows we don't make empty threats, so why don't we just go in and make him do what we want?" Michael rolled his eyes, lighting a cigarette.
"We could, but it feels too easy." Pete flipped his bangs out of his face pensively. "And his head's probably up his ass again since he has an army of middle schoolers to worship him."
"We should do something to make a statement." I suddenly spoke up, extending my legs from where I had them pulled into my chest.
"Like what?" Henrietta raised an eyebrow.
"Why don't we bring them a gift, something that they have to accept." A small smirk spread across my lips.
"I don't want to give those assholes a gift." Firkle protested.
"Well, they're vampires, right?" I asked only a bit sarcastically. "It'd be rude for us to show up empty handed, so why don't we take them what vampires love most." Henrietta smirked wickedly.
"I see where you're going with this." She took a long drag of her cigarette. "So now we just need to prepare." She stood up, snuffing her cigarette into a nearby ashtray and rubbing her hands together. Moving to her closet, she threw open the doors and moved around some things until she found a secret compartment under the floor, pulling out a large box. "I was saving these for your birthday, but I guess it doesn't matter when I give them to you." She rolled her eyes, but her tone wasn't sarcastic as she handed me the heavy box. She slid a smaller box out and handed it to Firkle. "Here's the stuff you wanted me to hide."
"Yes!" He grinned almost sadistically, grabbing the box and rummaging around, letting out excited squeaks every so often.
"You guys should go get ready at your houses, we can meet back here later. Raven, you can stay since I doubt you have the bad bitch attire necessary." As Henrietta began digging through her closet for clothes, I sat down on her bed to open my gift. My eyes widened and a soft gasp left my lips as I looked down at the contents of the box.
…
Henrietta stood in front of me, carefully applying a sharp wing on top of the smokey makeup Firkle applied to my lids.
"Is this really necessary?"
"It completes the look." She shrugged, taking a step back to admire her work. "We'll at least
uncover one of your eyes." She pulled a straightener out of nowhere and some combs.
"I guess." I mumbled, looking down at my feet in their new pair of Doc Martins. They were shiny, black, and platformed. Instead of the usual yellow stitching, Henrietta was able to get it in silver; the stitching matched the laces on the back of my stay, the second part of Henrietta's gift. I couldn't help the small smile on my face every time I looked at them, resisting the urge to grin widely. It was going to be a bitch to break them in, but I looked forward to it.
"Firkle, help me with this corset, Sophia can finish off Raven." Henrietta turned around. While my stay was a full bodice, Henrietta's was a corset that only went around her waist. She adjusted it over a black blouse and Firkle began tightening it with a surprising amount of strength, cinching in her waist narrowly.
"What does Raven have left?" I looked at a makeup box on the dresser.
"Just smudge a tiny bit of black eyeshadow under his eyes and dark lip stick. You can smudge the top a bit more if you want, I went for a more corpse-y kind of look." Firkle called with a soft grunt. I nodded silently, picking up the soft blending brush Firkle was using earlier. After rifling around I found a black lipstick that was only slightly used. Materials in hand, I turned toward Stan and stepped closer.
"You don't mind, Raven?" A weird feeling came over me as I looked at him. He was sitting back on the beanbag chair next to Henrietta's bed with his legs spread in a position Henrietta called "man-spreading", but he somehow made it look good.
"Of course not, go ahead." He smiled and I swallowed thickly, stepping closer until I was right in front of him. My shin bumped into his knee and we both looked down.
"Do you mind, if I uh," I stepped forward, putting my foot between his legs. "So I can reach better, it won't take too long." My chest throbbed as I fought the urge to squirm, uncomfortable with the way he was smiling at me. Raven has been smiling a lot more lately since the day he bumped into his friends. It was a surprisingly nice change.
"Don't worry about it." I nodded silently, taking a full step and standing right between his knees. Raven sat up a bit more and tilted his chin up, closing his eyes obediently. I swallowed thickly before lifting the brush and gently smudging the dark eyeshadow with gentle strokes. Not wanting to completely ruin Firkle's work, I focused on spreading the eyeshadow to his lower lashes.
"I can put some eyeliner on your waterline, if you want." I mumbled quietly pulling the brush away after a few minutes. "It'll frame your eyes and it'll make your eyebags more pronounced, but it's fine if you don't want to." I trailed off lamely. He opened his eyes, and I swallowed thickly as I had an up-close look at how blue they were.
"If you think it'll look good, you can if you want." He said slowly, staring up at me.
"Okay." I said quietly, stepping back and going towards Henrietta's makeup box. After a few seconds I was able to find a black pencil liner and a lighter. After gently touching the tip of the eyeliner pencil to the small flame from the lighter, I gently blew on it so it'd cool faster. "It won't hurt, melting it a little is just so that it can rub off easier." I stepped back into place and Raven tilted his head up at me. I had to rest the edge of the palm of my writing hand on his face.
This time was so much worse because Raven had to keep his eyes open so he was just staring up at me the whole time, by the time I finished I was starting to feel nauseous. As I took a step back, both for myself and to check my work, I noticed I hadn't really done much, but he still looked ready to go.
"Don't forget the lipstick." Henrietta called with her hands on her hips, cinching in her waist like that really pushed up her boobs and gave her an insane hourglass figure.
"Right." I mumbled, looking down at the lipstick in my hand. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I figured I might as well do it confidently, admonishing myself for acting like some quirky cheerleader. Taking a step forward, I grabbed Raven's jaw and tilted his chin up making his eyes slightly widen and his breath hitch. "Open." I said quietly, tapping his bottom lip with my thumb and he automatically opened his mouth for me, pressing the lipstick to his bottom lip, I hesitated as I leaned a bit closer to see his lip lines, not wanting to over line-
"What the fuck are you doing?" I looked up from Raven's lips, not noticing the sigh he breathed against my wrist. Michael was standing at the door, eyes practically flying between all of us in the room.
"Oh, hey Michael, did Pete come with you?" Straightening up from my position, I flipped my
bangs out of my right eye so only my left would be covered.
"No, but he shouldn't take much longer." He said in a surprisingly hard voice. I tilted my head, just watching him for a few seconds.
"You look good, that's probably my favorite cloak of yours." The corner of my lips quirked up and he swallowed hard.
"Yeah, well you..." He stopped and ran his eyes over me I wore the stay over a black long
sleeve shirt with low shoulders and flowy sleeves, the stay itself was black with silver
accents. The pants Henrietta put me in were also tight and had plenty of rips going up along the legs.
"It's kind of a bit much, but Henrietta insisted it pulled the whole thing together." I shrugged,
flicking my bangs out of my right eye again. Seriously, I have no idea how Pete does this all day.
"No it's perfect," he coughed into his fist and looked away. "It's fine, you look ready to go." I smiled at him then turned to face Raven.
"I can finish putting the lipstick on you now, if you want." Raven wordlessly held up the black
lipstick and just as I started reaching for it Michael grabbed my other hand and tugged my attention toward him.
"He's fine, he doesn't need it."
"But Henrietta and Firkle told me to-"
"He's fine, you already did a good job on his makeup." He clenched his teeth and I tilted my
head, wondering why he was so tense.
"Were you thinking of doing anything?" I asked, gently running the knuckle of my index finger over his eye bag.
"No, not today." He grunted, looking away. Tilting my head, I tried to catch his eyes, but he only turned farther away. Henrietta's phone suddenly dinged and she checked the messages.
"Alright, Pete's downstairs, let's go." She was the first one out the door and I was quick to follow her. As we all walked down the stairs, Mrs. Biggle peaked around the banister and her eyes widened.
"Well would you take a look at you kids! You look so cool and edgy, are you going to some kind of event or party sweetie?" She asked sweetly, but Henrietta scowled.
"No we're not going to some stupid party you idiot! We have to go and scare some kids since you assholes can't do your jobs right." She rolled her eyes and brushed past her. "We're taking the car." Mrs. Biggle got a worried look on her face.
"Sophia, dear, Mr. and Mrs. Smithings said they'd swing by around dinner time to come see you." Everyone stopped walking and turned toward me, waiting for my reaction. I couldn't do much more than blink and swallow.
"Did they say why?" I asked softly and her eyes tightened sympathetically.
"They want to discuss your living situation; I think your father wants you to go and live with him." My friends tensed up around me and I heard a few sharp intakes, ready to protest. Before they got the chance I sighed and stepped toward Mrs. Biggle.
"Mrs. Biggle," I murmured looking down at her. "I don't want to live with that man." Before she could inevitably protest, I gave her a small, hopefully reassuring, smile. "I'm okay, I promise. It's because of you and my friends' support that I'm still here. I'll never be able to thank you enough for letting me stay in your home when things got bad, it's a debt I'll never be able to repay." Her eyes started watering and she tightly grasped my hands in hers.
"Sophia, you know you're always welcome here. This home is yours too, you know that." My cheeks darkened just a tad and I looked away.
"I know, and I'm grateful." She sighed and patted my hands before letting go.
"I'll speak to your father, you kids have fun tonight, okay?" I nodded and we finished making our way outside.
"I told you," Henrietta rolled her eyes as soon as the front door closed behind us. "She doesn't care if you stay over so there's no problem." There was an emotion filling my chest at the moment, I wasn't sure what to call it, but something warm and tight in my chest was preventing me from speaking.
"What's taking so long?" Pete called from the front yard, his voice was annoyed and he was carrying a bucket of something with plastic wrap sealing the top.
"Nothing, we're leaving now." Henrietta unlocked the car and we all scooted in, Pete in the front with the bucket carefully held between his knees. Henrietta drove off and I looked at Michael out of the corner of my eyes; he was unusually serious, with a scowl pulling down his mouth and his eyebrows all wrinkled up. I wasn't sure what to say, wondering why he was acting that way if he had been in such a different mood earlier. I slowly grabbed the end of his cloak, running my fingers down the edge.
Before I knew it, Henrietta was pulling into the Sodosopa mall's empty parking garage, it was rightfully run down with flickering lights and graffitied walls. She kept driving and going up the floors until we saw a cluster of kids on the roof. In the middle of them was Mike Makowski and he was surrounded by middle schoolers; he whispered something to them and they all suddenly struck different poses around him.
"I could run them all over right now, they'd go down like a bunch of stupid bowling pins." Henrietta muttered to herself. Parking her mom's car diagonally over a bunch of parking spots, she turned off the headlights.
They somehow managed to open the doors in sync and all stepped out, minus Firkle and I that had to slide across the seats. But not all was lost because we also shut the doors in an almost practiced move. I could see a few of the middle schoolers' eyes widen as we stepped around the car and moved forward as a unit, our steps perfectly in time yet somehow still leisurely. Henrietta lit a cigarette at the end of her long-stemmed pipe and blew out the smoke elegantly. Stopping just a few feet away, I could see two of the middle school girls whisper behind their covered hands, running their eyes over all of us, especially Firkle who lazily flipped a butterfly knife in his hands, not looking at all scrawny in a calf length coat that had black feathers all along the neck and lapels.
"We received your note Makowski." Henrietta made the first move.
"Yes, I was informed you wanted to meet with the vamp kids and decided to graciously oblige, per say." Mike Makowski puffed up his chest importantly and the kids around him hissed.
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "We heard there's a vamp kid with connections we require, so we need you to point us in the right direction.
"What sort of connections could you of all people possibly want?" He raised an eyebrow, looking intrigued.
"Someone with a social worker for a father, we need to get in contact with them." Makowski's eyes widened for a second before he threw his head back and let out what was supposed to be a maniacal laugh. The middle schoolers around him shot each other looks out of the corners of their eyes before joining in.
"What's so funny, asshole?" Pete huffed, flipping his bangs out of his face.
"This is too good! Irony is so cruel yet so sweet at the same time, per say!" He wiped a tear out of his eye before clapping his hands together, the sound echoing across the parking lot and shutting the vamp kids up.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Michael narrowed his eyes. Makowski looked at each of us individually before smirking pretty deviously.
"My stepfather is the only social worker in town. So, in actuality, you're here to ask a favor from me." He kept giggling behind his fingers.
"No. Fucking. Way." Henrietta hissed from between clenched teeth. He continued to cackle, and Michael and I exchanged a look.
"Enough!" Firkle barked in an uncharacteristically loud voice. Mike's laughter died down and he smirked triumphantly at us.
"What could you possibly need from me?" There was still laughter in his voice. We all shared a look. Henrietta looked too furious to speak, Firkle was still fuming and grinding his teeth, Pete looked annoyed with the bucket he was still looking after, and Stan looked like he didn't know what to say.
"We need your stepfather to decide something in our favor, something dealing with a possible custody battle for one of ours." Michael spoke up. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. Mike crossed his arms, and jutted his hip out, rather sassily might I add.
"And why should I help you, per say? What can you offer me? Me! The leader of all the vampires in South Park!"
"Shut up already!" Michael yelled impatiently and sprung forward, grabbing him by the collar of his cheap coat and jostling him a bit. There were shocked gasps and even a few surprised shrieks from the middle schoolers. My eyes widened and my spine straightened in surprise. "Can't you tell we're serious about this? This has to do with one of ours being taken away you shit for brains! And unlike you, we won't just replace her with a flock of stupid middle schoolers!" Mike was making weird huffing noises every time Michael shoved him around.
"Michael, stop." I took a few steps forward and put my hand on his arm. "He's not going to want to help us if you mess him up." Michael rolled his eyes and pushed Mike off him, sending him flying back into his crowd of middle schoolers. There were a few more shrieks but they were able to keep him on his feet.
"Mike Makowski," I took another step forward. He shakily brushed off his coat and looked at me untrustingly. "Someone wants to take me away. And I…" I swallowed thickly. "And I don't want to leave. My friends… they're my family and I'd be miserable if I were taken away, they make this miserable existence worth living. If I hadn't met them, my corpse would have rotten and been devoured by maggots years ago. We're asking for your assistance because you're the only one who can. I'm asking for your assistance." Michael huffed and shook off his coat. He looked to the side and shook his head a bit.
"Us vampires like to move in groups. I lost my coven when we all started high school and had to watch my family slowly move away from me, from what we are, per say." Mike shook his hair out and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll send one of my minions tomorrow with a note detailing what I'll be needing in return." The middle schoolers all hissed in sync.
"Excellent, lets get out of here." Firkle rolled his eyes.
"What am I supposed to do with all this blood?" Pete grumbled and ripped the plastic wrap off the top, the metallic-y smell of pigs' blood slowly wafting toward us.
"Obviously, these vampires are going to drink it all." Henrietta took out a plastic wine glass and dipped it into the bucket, drops of very dark blood dripped down the edge. She smirked deviously and took a step forward, holding it out to Makowski. "We brought a little present for you. A vampire's favorite snack, right?" Her voice was too sweet with just a touch of sarcasm. The middle schoolers stared at Mike whose face had gone slightly pale, swallowing the lump in his throat as my friends all snickered into their hands, amused as Mike slowly raised a shaky hand to grab the glass.