Round Three

Halloween Bash

Well this is great. Just flaming marvellous. They’re gonna kill me, I just know it, even if I didn’t mean for it to happen. As for facing Chris now, well, I just don’t know. All I want to do right now is hide, away from him, away from everyone. Locked away in the safety of my bedroom my mind races, despair and all sorts of other emotions bubbling up inside. One thing’s for sure though, I’m never throwing a Halloween party ever again.

Oh, it started off just fine. With Halloween approaching and the children getting older, I had a word with Chris about the idea of a party. His eyes lit up at the thought, and we were about to arrange things like babysitting until one of them had said their friends were having a kids’ do at another house. We had to make sure the adult hosts were vampires so they could keep Joey and Gina fed, but after that we were safe in the knowledge that, just for a change, we had the entire house to ourselves!

We drew up a list of people to invite, not too many as our house isn’t that big, but enough to make it a proper get-together. On looking at the list once we were finished, I started to idly wonder how many would need to dress up. Chris certainly wasn’t, but even with being green and having fangs, I thought, well, may as well look the part.

Chris stayed up way past his bedtime to help me get everything ready. I had to send him back to his coffin before he passed out, applying the finishing touches by myself. Then it was just a case of kick back in a chair while waiting for the guests to arrive – I was tempted to have a bath, but one glance at the nearby clock told me it would be taking too much of a chance. As it was, the light peeking into the room was changing in shade, and before I knew it the doorbell rang. One quick flick of the stereo remote before answering and we were all set.

Dancing wasn’t all we did of course. A classic game for Halloween is apple-bobbing, something I was a little nervous about at first, but caved in after a while. That went down a treat, although I decided to linger in the background while others played. I did feel a twinge of regret, wanting to play with them, but seeing the water slopping around was enough cause for me to keep my distance.

“Come on Andy, have a go!”
I broke into a cold sweat, my heart beginning to pound as I politely refused. Evan took my hand and pulled me over to the table while I continued to bury my worried thoughts, and started to flinch as the sillier guys started splashing each other with the water.
“Scared of getting wet Andy?” one of them teased. My eyes widened as a hand moved to the barrel…
“NO!!”
Splash!!

With my trousers in rags, my top soaked through, and the only thing keeping me upright being the vampire’s ability to fly, tears of frustration and fear began to well at my eyes as I angrily flicked surplus water from my hands, my breathing shallow as time seemed to come to a standstill. I dared not look at anyone, but in my confused state of mind I had to exercise extreme control to prevent my next request becoming an outburst.
“Will someone please get me a towel?”

Chris moved to aid me as I scrubbed at my scales while others just stood there, probably in shock. I could hear similar thoughts racing through his mind too, and once my legs returned to normal I hastily wrapped the towel about myself, ran to my room and crashed onto the bed, wondering whether or not to cry. I did eventually, in fits and starts.

I’ve been there ever since, exhausted from the tears and the emotions running high from that incident. I don’t know whether the party’s ended or not, and to be perfectly honest I don’t care. I can’t blame them of course, they didn’t know, but that doesn’t stop the resentment I feel right now. I don’t even want to see Chris, I couldn’t look him in the eye. He’ll have all sorts of questions waiting, and as much as he has the right to ask them, I’m dreading the time I’ll have to answer.