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“I believe there is a ladle,” Garvin said, holding it in his hand.
I turned up the dripping mess, swallowed the warm liquid as fast as I could, and gulped loudly as the blood spilled from the sides of my mouth. Tammy was the only one smiling when I dipped the glass in the second time. “I know what made me that hungry,” she snickered, blowing a kiss at Cates. I rolled my eyes and smeared blood into my hair as I moved it out of my way to turn the glass up again. I drank half and then slowly set it back down.
“I’m full,” I belched, and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, never once looking at the one that I was putting on the show for. “As our good friend, Bo, would say, let’s do this!” Then I turned and headed down the hall.
Cates yelled, “Let’s do this!” as he plunged his drinking cup into the bowl of blood, spilling it down his beard as he drank. I heard several cups clank together as everyone else followed suit, yelling out the same cheer. By the time they joined me in the basement, everyone had lines of blood from the middle of their face, in long, red, thick lines, to the middle of their stomachs. All but, Martin that is. He was wearing a black tuxedo di
“Well, aren’t you Mr. Fancy pants tonight?” I smirked, walking around him in a circle as if I hadn’t seen him standing right beside me in the kitchen.
“I will be going to a different party. One where coating thyself in pig’s blood is not called for. Not in the begi
“We’ll be coated with a hell of a lot more than pig’s blood before it’s over with. See ya later, sweetheart,” I replied, mustering as much sarcasm into the last of my statement as I could.
“Have a grand time, love…and do take heed to remember that Lord Cheree has many sick friends who also join his tete-a-tete on nights like these. Many could out number your few,” he countered with as much sarcasm as I had given him.
“Look who is still standing, old man. We’ve been out numbered how many times?” Derek mockingly asked, raising his shoulders and once again jumping to my rescue.
“Well said, young man,” I concurred, slapping him on the back. “Lead the way.”
Chapter Five
We all walked out leaving Martin standing there with his mouth ajar, just enough to see his elongated fangs as he hissed and stormed back up the stairs into the comforts of the world he had known. We took to the lower levels that we had more than certainly become accustomed to the moment we decided that enough was enough. Tanda was the only one that didn’t wield her weapon, making grunting animal-like sounds to ward off any group of scavengers, no matter what number the tu
It wasn’t the scavengers that stumbled on to us, it was Cates that boldly and blinded by his own torch, walked right out into their camp in the ‘T’ of one of the many tu
“That was easy,” Sydney smiled, lowering his club that was truly now just an extension of his arm.
“Hope that sick-o thinks we’re half dead and wants some,” Tammy smiled back at him, then winked at me.
“Bet he ain’t half as stupid as he is sick, you know what I mean?” I replied, causing all the smiles to drop.
“We all know exactly what you mean,” Jacob replied, putting his arm around my shoulders much like he had his sister’s. “What say we give this piece of bull dick a bit of our intellect?”
Derek burst out laughing, echoing through the tu
“I do not get what is so fu
“Bull dick?” I gri
“Was it not one of your good curse phrases?” he i
“Dick-less, maybe dick-head, but animal personal parts just doesn’t work,” Derek foolishly explained.
“Yet, you once said the phrase asshole. An ass is a barn animal, is it not? I know the word dick to be the name of a man, not used as an insult. But I am learning, and would learn a great deal more if you would simply return to your prior self,” Jacob smiled, walking over to Derek. “The self I miss more than these lips can explain, young one.” Then he put his hand on the top of Derek’s head, sliding his cloak away from his face.
“I’m getting there, old man…I’m getting there,” Derek replied, nodding once then pulled his cloak back over his head, holding onto Tanda’s shoulders as we made our way deeper into the tu
Cold air ran up my lower legs, climbing up my body the further and deeper we made our way out. Jacob stopped us in a junction in the tu
“Look,” Tanda said, as I noticed her body begi
“What are they?” I asked in amazement at the little wiggly creatures clinging to the rounded ceiling of the slime-covered tu
“They’re Lichens,” Cates replied reaching up, taking one down with a sticky pop.
“Phosphorescent Lichens, my correct friend, with just enough luminescence to light the rest of our way,” Jacob explained, smiling like a proud teacher.
“Brandon would have loved this,” Derek said, saying his brother’s name for what had to be the first time since that horrid night.