A Tale of Two Parties

She grabbed her mask and pulled it on before she slid her cloche over her head, smoothed her red dress down as Jake used some toilet paper to quickly wipe down the vanity. He saw the little tube disappear into the same hidden pocket in a fold of the dress where he guessed it joined the bag he'd given her. He tossed the toilet paper into the toilet bowl and flushed as he slid his own mask down.

Bonnie pulled two wallets out of another hidden pocket in her dress, rifled them and extracted the cash.

"Whoa, Bonnie not Parker, who belongs to those?"

"Couple idiots out there, came on to me. Need to keep in practice... There's a pile of coats out there, I'll stuff these into the pile. They'll just think they dropped them or something. Until they notice the green's gone."

"Sweet," Jake laughed.

"Coming," she said in a loud voice as he stepped to the door and unlocked it then followed as Bonnie unlocked and opened the far door and they stepped out into the small corner room. He pushed the door behind him closed. They saw a couple of guys with beers in the small corner room, an open doorway led to the entry foyer with its large mingling crowd. The only piece of furniture was a settee covered in Bonnie's pile of coats and jackets with a window above it that faced the covered front porch on which shadowy forms moved.

"Hey, Bonnie," he whispered as he pointed at the window, "let me go hit up those folks out there, try to get rid of all my stuff and we'll blow this geek-a-palooza? Got a more exciting place we can hit... they'll have more of the good stuff..."

"I'll dig my coat out of this pile, and do what else I need to do, meet you there, Jake."

"Call me Wolfie."

She gave his ass a squeeze and nudged him forward.

Let's Take This Party on the Road

Dave heard a sharp intake of breath on his left side. The guy he'd been listening to went silent and looked past him with the kind of smile that was the expression you used when you had no idea what else to do.

"Hey?" Dave said, turned. The sound had come from Cat on his left as they stood in a rough circle around the now roaring fire in the center. Roger and Jeanie had bailed and gone home. He followed her gaze and saw smoke waft from Peter's nostrils as he exhaled and handed a large, lit roach to Anna. The firelight reflected through the smoke and off of the glass and metal of Peter's goggles. Cat growled deep in her throat as they watched Anna take a long, slow toke on it, those weird eyes half closed. She handed it off to a tall guy with long dirty blond hair to her left, who Dave knew was one of the housemates, Andy.

"Kevin, that's definitely not the shit Wolfie's selling," Peter said to the squat man on his right, the man's scraggly beard shook as he laughed. Dave didn't know Kevin, couldn't recall seeing him around the Engineering building where CompSci had most of their classes.

"Whoa, hey," a voice from behind Peter and Kevin, the two of them turned, "leggo, just need to talk to Peter!"

Dave saw Anna's two guards squeeze Wolfie as Peter and Kevin turned to look. Anna reached and took the roach from Andy and took a second pull then handed it back to him before she turned to the squirming Wolfie. He saw the female guard nudge someone with a red hat. He realized it was that Bonnie girl who'd brushed off Peter earlier.

"Lemme go," Bonnie hissed.

"Jake, calm down," Peter said, "both of you. What the hell do you want?"

Jake and Bonnie stood still, the guards relaxed but stayed alongside. Anna stepped to stand next to Peter. The Wolfman mask had been knocked askew and Jake pushed it on top of his head. Peter pushed the goggles onto his forehead.

"Peter, we need your wheels. Tommy's an ass and took mine."

"Least of his issues. You guys came in one car?"

"No, had two. But they must've taken both when they, um, when Stevie went with them. Going to the Church."

"Well, you're out of luck. My car's not here and I'm blitzed anyway. And even if a nuke was about to fall on us and the only escape was letting you in my car? I'd rather be atomised."

"C'mon—-," Jake started.

"Wae have a van," Anna said in that clear and weirdly accented voice, everybody around the fire had shifted into a dense semicircle around Peter and Jake and they all stared at Anna, most not having heard her speak until now.

"Cat is our designated dreivair, we can fit you two and us," Anna pointed at the masked woman, who snorted, "where is this Church?"

"Oh, hell, that..., is not..., a good idea, Anna," Dave saw Peter's expression matched Cat's for incredulity.

"Better party than here," Jake said, "if you guys want real Halloween! And they're going to tear it down for that new Gatewest mall, so it'll be over the top."

"Wae musht sshae that, Paetor," Anna said as she took his arm, Dave watched his head swivel between Jake's lopsided grin and a smile that emphasised Anna's strangeness, "we can fit them and you and your fraend. Hae is in love with Cat."

Cat's and Dave's jaws dropped and they looked at each other then back at Anna.

"What the fuck is the 'Church' you're talking about?" Cat's voice displayed anger.

Jake started but Peter grunted and he stopped.

"Abandoned church, 100 and some years old, Sixth West between Second and Third South, gonna be knocked down in a few months," Peter said, "Mongrels control it. But tonight's special, 'safe passage' for everyone. Well, if you pay the five buck cover."

"Oh, THAT place," Cat muttered.

"Wae must maeat thaeshe Mongrals," Anna said gaily, "thaey sound laike charmers."

"Oh, fuck," Peter said, "Jake..."

Jake tilted his head slightly, the mask on top of his head slid halfway off.

"Jed planning to be there?"

"Not sure," Jake squinted in thought, "nobody tells me nothin. It's neutral territory tonight though..."

"Dave," Peter looked at his friend, "you wanna bail, not a bad idea. Gonna be a helluva scene down there. Those two the only two that'll fit in."

He pointed to Anna's guards.

"What the hell," Dave said, "this is my third year here, everyone tells me to not even think about that part of town."

"Okay, Anna," Peter said, "hope those two aren't shy about a bit of rough stuff, comes to it. I'm way too fucked to drive, ok, Cat, in your hands."

"Thaey live for rowf stuff, Paetor," Anna said, "get your kaeys, Cat."

The High Church of the Mongrels

"Great costume," Cat said drily as she pulled the van to a stop at the signal of a broad, heavily-bearded man in a sleeveless leather vest with "Mongrels" in large half-circular letters on the left breast and a stylised junkyard doberman on the right, his arms heavily tattooed. She rolled her window down as he stepped to it. They felt more than heard the deep throb of loud and distant bass.

"Hey, sweet," he scanned the passengers, his eyes widened at a smiling Anna in the passenger seat, squinted as he saw the guards in the back, leaned back and pointed to the left at a slot past six cars of wildly varied types and conditions, "five bucks a head at the door."

He looked back into Cat's window, glared at the guards in their suits and ties.

"No weapons," he growled, "dump 'em before the door if you're smart."

"Thaey don't neaed them," he jerked his head back at Anna's accent, "thank you."

He stepped back and Cat pulled forward, saw enough room and backed the van into the parking spot in the large weed strewn empty lot next to the Church. The tires bounced on bits of old concrete and asphalt and hard packed soil. Widely spaced streetlights in the lot left the whole area dim but not black.

"You're good at that," Peter said, "I drove trucks, most civilians can't back up to save themselves."

"I have many skills," Cat said, "not just a pretty face."

"And a smokin' body, if I understand the term," Anna added, Cat grunted.

Peter grabbed the handle and slid the side door open. Dave was next to him with the female guard at the far side, Jake and Bonnie squeezed into the rear row with the male guard.

"Anna," Peter said, "they really, really better not have any weapons. The Mongrels won't be carrying, but they'll have firepower close."

"Trust mae, Paetor," Anna said, Peter shrugged and hopped out.

"Let's go, who's got cash?"

Peter stepped back as Anna emerged and the others sidled out.

"I got it," Cat pulled a couple of twenty dollar bills out of the ashtray on the van, "you can owe me."

"Jake'll pay for him and Bonnie," Peter said, "he's flush."

The bass throb ended when the group was halfway to the entrance, ornately costumed people stood and laughed between cars, bottles, cans, glasses in hands. A muted cheer inside the large, squarish stone building a hundred feet across, the entrance wooden doors twenty feet high. Above that a steeple that was a series of ever smaller square steps ended in a broken off stump over a hundred feet in the air. Above the doors a large round space still contained about a third of what must have been an impressive thirty foot wide circle of stained glass, the glow of the interior lights flowed out of the remaining empty space. To the left of the entrance was a triptych of dirt encrusted stained glass windows, the matched openings on the other side were covered with plywood that had curled water-damaged edges.

Jake and Bonnie skipped ahead of the rest and reached the pair of Mongrels in heavy leather jackets at the door thirty feet ahead of the rest. He slipped a ten to the man at the left of the door and behind him two more Mongrels poked at him as he held his jacket open, Bonnie twirled. They let them in, raucous conversation clear as they pushed through the door.

"It matter they're gone?" Cat leaned and asked Peter as he and Anna led them to the entrance gauntlet.

"Fuck no, he's a sneak thief and useless in a stand-up fight," Peter said, just loud enough for his companions, "Tommy's girl Gail's better in a punch up. And his skinny little bitch already knocked me back tonight, gets what she deserves."

"Shae has no taste," Anna said.

"Hey, Wade," Peter said to the Mongrel on the left, his long black ponytail and beard both streaked with grey, his long-sleeved black leather jacket tight across his broad gut, "been a long time. Got some friends here."

"What? Huh...," the man's face a confused look before his eyes widened, then they moved to Anna and widened more, before they turned back, "oh, fuck, Petey! Mother fucker! You were this tall..."

He held his hand at the middle of Peter's chest.

"Martha," he said to the female Mongrel on the other side of the doorway, her eyes slowly came off of Anna, "it's little Petey!"

"Oh, hi, wow, you've grown! Your friend?"

Martha's hair was long and held back by a large handkerchief tied around her head. It had once been dirty blonde but was now mostly greyish yellow and fell to the small of her back. Her large breasts and stout stomach were wrapped by the ubiquitous black leather jacket with the Mongrels junkyard dog crest on the left side.

"Is from out of town," Peter said, "Anna, Wade here, and Martha. This is Cat and Dave behind me, then Laurel and Hardy. Cat, got the money?"

She handed it forward, Wade looked at it and shook his head.

"Never mind tonight, Peter, but gonna have to check. Especially..."

His eyes bore into Laurel and Hardy, their expressions around their shades impassive as their heads scanned a few degrees each way. Two younger Mongrels stepped forward from the doors and Peter and Dave unzipped their jackets and held them open.

"Maybe I have a weapon?" Anna said as Martha waved her past.

"Your weapons are pretty obvious," the female Mongrel said with a laugh, "yours and Cat's there. Best ones to have in there tonight."

The two younger Mongrels patted the guards. The one next to the female guard, introduced as Laurel, held up a couple of metal disks just smaller than their broad palms, they were dull silver, thin metallic shims. He showed one of them to Wade.

"The fuck?"

"Luckay charms," Anna said, "think they will throw them?"

"Takes all kinds, let it go," Wade shook his head as his compatriots returned the disks, "on your head Petey they start shit."

"Not to worry, seen my brother around?"

"Jed? No, come to think, Tommy neither. Just that little Jake fink you brought. Unless they're in costumes."

"Sorry about that, needed to get him out of my patch. Ok, if they were here they'd want people to know it."

Wade laughed, a cross between a wheeze and a croak. The two younger Mongrels nodded and stepped back to the doors.

"Get the fuck in there and party, bar's on the right," Wade wheezed then leered at Anna and Cat, "you two show your tits, you'll drink free long as you want."

Cat's voice started sharply but Anna's laugh cut her off.

"Better be top shelf booze then," Anna said as she cupped her breasts, nipples obvious through the fabric, "for thaeshe."

The feedback enhanced scream of an electric guitar assaulted their ears just as the younger Mongrels pulled the doors open. A lame cheer was beaten down with jeers from the crowd.

"Let's do this," Cat growled, Peter laughed and with Anna's arm wrapped around his led them inside.

We Have No Friends, Just People With Mutual Interests

Bonnie reflexively opened her mouth and put her hands over her ears as the DJ pushed the bass to the breaking point when they passed the Mongrel gauntlet and the large wooden doors closed behind them. Next to her Jake let out a howl but no one beyond her was likely to have heard it. Her ears throbbed when the sound system suddenly went silent and the hundreds of costumed revellers in the massive space roared as one.

"Live music comin' at ya in a few, " the amplified voice from the top-hatted vampire in a red-lined black cloak in a breathy baritone. His face was white chalk with his eyes lined in red and his dapper black suit seemed out of place in the obviously derelict building. What had been an altar nearly as wide as the building itself had been converted to a stage with massive banks of speakers near each wall. A drum kit and a few instruments sat so far unused and the vampire's DJ setup was stage left.

A woman walked from backstage to stand next to the vampire DJ, she wore black stilettos with black thigh-highs held up by garter straps and her face was whitened and her eyes as red. Her breasts were held up and partially covered by a bright red bustier and her clothing was completed by black hipster shorts and her own red-lined black cape connected to the straps of her bustier. She came alongside the DJ and he leaned in for a bite to her neck as she leaned her head back and opened her bright red lips in a large O.

"I have business to attend to," the vampire announced to a cheer as he pulled away from her neck, two bright red spots visible, and the couple walked arm in arm backstage. A couple of long-haired guys in jeans and tee shirts came onto the stage and started fussing with the drums and instruments.

"It's warm in here," Bonnie said.

"Heaters," Jake pointed to the corners, large, portable heaters huffed away, yard-wide flexible vents blew air into the large space, he pulled her to the left and pushed through the throng, "and a million hot bodies! Wanna dump your jacket?"

He led her to a couple of tables near the left wall, a pile of coats and jackets behind it. Two young women in heavy makeup wore tight black tank tops that offered bounteous cleavage and had the Mongrel junkyard dog silk-screened on. One was a light skinned blonde, the other an olive skinned Latina, both likely chosen for their impressive busts. One beefy male Mongrel stood each end of the table. Jake palmed all of cash and he and Bonnie handed their jackets over, he passed along a five dollar bill and the blonde woman smiled at him and slipped it down her top between her breasts. She handed him a numbered tag.

"C'mon," Jake slipped his arm around Bonnie's waist and she leaned into him, "we need to go find a man."

"Shit," she said, "won't almost everyone here be carrying?"

"First lesson, Mongrel territory. They catch you doing a deal not with their people to collect their 'tax,' it, um, won't be fun."

He stopped, scanned the room. Three werewolves in costumes much more elaborate than his made 'rowr' sounds at her and Bonnie laughed. They pushed off into the crowd.

"Fuck me," she said in a singsong alto, "already kicks that snoot-nose party's ass! Lead on, Wolfie, my nose is bored. But what about your friends?"

"Hah, not my friends. Peter's the brother of my boss Jed. They... don't like each other, but Peter stays up on the hill doing his schoolboy shit. Like tonight, lets us do our business and doesn't interfere so long as we leave his friends alone so Jed makes clear we leave him alone... He's not like most of them up there, I've seen him give a couple of people serious beatdowns..."

"Ah, well, I almost boosted his wallet like those others when I brushed him off," Bonnie's voice was low, "but I had a feeling about him. He'd have probably noticed..."

He stopped scanning, pressed on Bonnie's lower back.

"Woulda been bad, yeah. So they'll be fine. Or if not, their problem. This way, I see a guy who should know a guy..."

Some dude on stage with a bright orange mohawk slammed his hand down his guitar strings and blew out a sound equal parts tortured scream and electronic feedback. Bonnie joined in the chorus of jeers as Jake had a quiet word with a man dressed as a koala, the round grey and white furry costume and round ears a painful contrast with the terrible scar across his right cheek and temple and the deep acne scars on every other bit of exposed flesh. He pointed into the section of floor still with pews in it. She leaned and spoke into his ear as the guitarist managed a more aesthetically pleasing if still heavy riff.

"Friend of yours?"

"We got no friends here," he leaned to her ear, "just people with mutual interests. Quarter of 'em probly fucking undercover cops anyway."

"Like those two," she said as they approached a man and woman, both in high black combat boots, but above that pale flesh exposed except for the fake leaves that made up their bikini bottoms, the man bare chested and the woman with two more leaves as a bikini top. She had a stuffed, plush snake that had an apple in its mouth wrapped around her neck.

"His badge's up his ass," Jake laughed, "where's hers?"

"Up her tight, tight cunt," Bonnie hissed, "if she's a pig."

"Whoa, Bonnie not Parker, attitude."

"High school. Bitch didn't like us partiers. Came at me, I popped her in the nose, she just laughed. Decked me, my friends thought I was dead. She's at the community college in some sort of piglets in training thing, finish that, the academy and she'll be on the street. Can't wait for her to pull me over..."

"Forget that, I can see my dude, he'll take care of what we need... and we'll be able to forget all about all those fuckers out there..."

The front, left quarter of the cavernous space still had pews, deeply etched with casual knife work of bored bikers and guests. Jake led them to the second last pew.

Dimestore Cowboy

"Hey Mr. Mysterious," Cat sidled to Peter's side to lean in as the guitarist had been joined by bass and drums, "why is a computer science undergrad on first names with the nastiest biker gang in the state?"

They trailed Anna, who'd decreed they should head to the bar once inside. Laurel led like a pulling guard leading her running back, Hardy made sure no one closed in too quickly. Peter glanced back regularly at the wide-eyed Dave to make sure he didn't get separated.

"My misspent youth," Peter leaned back at Cat, "but I just know a few of the older ones, the ones not been shot or stabbed yet. Not been around them lately... Hey, how do you know I'm CompSci?"