“
P
arty time!” Lydia squeals, parading up and down our room like a runway model.
Reluctantly, I glance in the full-length mirror and ask her for the second time, “Are you sure this looks okay?” A short red dress with spaghetti straps clings to my body, hugging every curve like a second skin.
Lydia had insisted I borrow something of hers, since I didn’t have much in the way of dresses. And while I appreciate her generosity, I’m still not completely sold on this dress. It just isn’t me.
“Girl, you’re positively glowing,” she compliments, her green eyes popping from how much black eyeliner she applied. “Seriously, just own it, at least for one night.” Her powdery perfume tickles my nose.
“You’re right,” I concede, doing a little twirl. “ I need to have more confidence.”
She rolls her eyes, laughing. “Why is it always girls like you who don’t have a clue about their own sex appeal?”
“Meaning?” I ask as she hands me a tube of lipstick.
She pops her gum for the umpteenth time. “Meaning you’re the cliché virgin everyone wants to fuck.”
Lydia using the word fuck shocks me. “Why does everyone think I’m a virgin?”
“I mean…you are, right?” she asks knowingly.
At her words, a very recent memory resurfaces, ghosting my brain with phantoms.
“Every walking body with a pussy wants to fuck me, be with me,” he revealed sharply, leaning forward in his seat. “But not you…you’re too good for that, aren’t you?” He touched my face gently. “You’re not like the others.”
“I think you’re very attractive,” I whispered stupidly, clutching my purse in vain. “I’m just-
“Shhhh,” he soothed, placing his thumb over my lips to silence me. “You’re as untried as a virgin sacrifice, aren’t you?”
“Hannah…” Lydia says my name.
It’s almost as if I can still hear Ethan’s dark, captivating voice.
“Yes, I am,” I answer softly, coming out of my trance. “I guess I just didn’t realize it was that obvious.”
She takes the tube of lipstick back, popping it open. “It’s not a bad thing,” she explains, expertly applying the red color to my bare lips. “It’s just no one really saves their V-card these days.” She smiles, capping the tube with satisfaction.
“Thanks, I think…”
“You’re not going to eat anything else tonight, right?” she asks, using a tissue to blot her own bright-pink lips. “If so, just take this with you,” she offers, handing me the lipstick to put into my purse.
I’d eaten earlier but forgotten all about it up until this moment. Odd.
“No, I ate earlier with Jesse,” I answer, remembering how he picked me up for lunch.
And how it didn’t go quite as expected…
“Do you really think you should be eating that?” Jesse asks with an innocent, teeth-filled smile.
For one single moment I don’t see his face, I see someone else’s. Maybe the shadows are playing tricks again…
I look down at my burger and it’s no longer loaded with tomatoes, and in its place are hundreds of tiny, crawling worms.
Squirming, gasping for air.
Life could be a dream, sweetheart.
“Maybe you’re right,” I tell him, feeling sick to my stomach.
“I’ll always look out for you, Hannah.”
Hello, hello again.
“Dude, you’re doing it again!” Lydia exclaims, her voice seeming near yet far away.
I snap out of the memory and back to the present. “Sorry, what?” I ask, slightly flustered.
“Never mind, let’s get going, girl,” she laughs, taking my hand and leading me towards the door. “I think you just need a night out, for real.”
The front lawn
of the Tracey house is already littered with cups and debris. Someone leans over the porch railing, puking their guts out. As Lydia and I get closer, I notice Jesse and a few of his friends hanging out on the side of the white-vinyl house. Not for long, though, because as soon as he spots me, he stomps out a cigarette and heads straight my way.
I didn’t realize Jesse smokes cigarettes.
Even from here, the bass pumping from inside the house is audible, and I vaguely wonder if the police might be called.
“Oh snap, you look hot, Hannah,” one of Jesse’s friends whistles, grinning drunkenly.
“Shut up, Steven,” Jesse snaps, clapping him over the head.
Lydia winks. “I’m going to get a beer, you guys coming?” she asks, popping her gum with a playful gleam in her eyes.
“C’mon, Hannah,” Jesse says, taking my hand firmly in his. “Let’s get you a drink.”
Halfway through the lawn, something makes me look up, and a gnawing sort of dread starts when I notice a shadow standing in the second story window.
Once inside, Jesse hurries over to a beer keg and begins pouring drinks. In the meantime the song Mama Said Knock You Out
by LL Cool J
blares from wall to wall, and a few couples bump and grind to the beat.
“Here you are, my lady,” Jesse whispers from behind me, scaring the shit out of me.
I laugh nervously and take the cup from his outstretched hand. “You scared me.” Smiling, I take my first sip of beer ever.
It’s cold and doesn’t taste too bad, so I take another sip.
“Don’t tell me, you’ve never had a beer before?” Jesse appears momentarily shocked yet pleased at the same time.
“Nope, never,” I admit hesitantly, hoping I don’t seem too uncool. “My dad was kind of strict.”
His face falls. “Yeah, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Why ever not?” I ask, confused by his concerned expression.
“Lydia, she kind of spilled the beans about your dad,” he says, regret in his hooded gaze.
Ah, I see.
“So, you guys are talking about me behind my back, now?” I try to keep my tone even as I drain the remainder of my beer, the cold suds doing nothing to soften the blow.
“Look, I just asked her for info about you,” he admits, grasping my arm in sympathy. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear.”
Pulling away, I smile bitterly. “I don’t appreciate you and Lydia talking about my private business,” I tell him frostily. “I’m going to get another drink.” I turn and head in the direction of the keg, feeling slightly off-balanced and seeing red.
“Hannah, wait,” he calls to no avail. “Hannah, come back here!”
Lydia is dancing in the far corner, that traitorous bitch
, while Jesse trails behind me, apologizing profusely.
There’s something familiar about the entire scene, like I’ve been here before. Or maybe I’m remembering a dream or a movie I watched. Either way, I’m getting more and more creeped out by the second, and at the same time faded. My perception is off because suddenly I’m seeing everyone as animals, everyone has a mask.
A mask with more masks, if that even makes sense. Horns adorn their heads, but it’s like their bodies are nothing but dead husks.
Their teeth shine with ruby-red paint, or is it blood? Weird.
“Hannah, come dance with us!” Lydia’s yell echoes and ends up sounding more like a shriek.
Maybe she was a banshee in another life. Wait, what?
Where’d that thought come from? And why am I talking to myself in my own head?
The music playing becomes hypnotic, my body swaying slightly as I stumble forward.
Hands, there are so many hands.
Sticky, wet claws.
Caw,
caw!
Something slimy touches my leg, and when I look down the image of a snake coiling around my leg has me falling back and into someone’s waiting arms, arms that are attached to some kind of body.
A warm corpse.
“Hannah Vale,” he breathes down my neck. “Did you think I would forget about you?”
