Fucking Halloween Party

A couple years back:

Normally, the girls would never have been friends. They were all too different. It was only by all being new to the school and to the town on the same day that they shared a bond. Even as they found friends closer in tastes they still remained close, almost a clique made up of members of other high school groupings. There was a bookworm, a cheerleader, a metalhead and Lupa whose skin condition made her 'that disabled girl'. They stayed friends throughout their semester, hanging out regularly and doing different things each of them liked.

Kizzy told them her parents would be out of town at a religious retreat. No under-21s allowed. As she was barely 18 she was to stay at home, but she was allowed to have her friends round for a slumber party. She hoped they didn't think it was lame, but explained she had never had a proper one before. It was really true, she hadn't. They all agreed to come, happy to miss actual Halloween parties, even the school's newest cheerleader Shannon said it would be totally cool.

It was pretty cool. The full moon was bright in the cold night sky, but Kizzy's house was warm and well lit, with framed photos of civil rights leaders that even she felt was a little 'Afro-American Liberal' stereotypical. They talked about boys, snacked, watched movies -- Shannon wanted a dance competition movie, Kate wanted a horror with her favorite band on the soundtrack. They agreed to watch both. Only Kizzy wore pajamas, Kate wore a grungy t-shirt and shorts and the other two nightgowns.

Lupa didn't have to completely cover her skin at night. Free of her allergy, she could dress to show off her plump curves. It was the cursed sun that burned her flesh. She'd been happy to find out the garlic thing, at least, was bullshit. She liked garlic. They cooked well up near Canada, so with less daily sunlight and more clouds she'd headed north after only six months undead. The hypnotic gaze she'd almost mastered convinced the school she still had a Mom, while her friends always 'just missed her'. She chewed on popcorn that had become almost tasteless to her. She planned that night to feast on her friends' blood, and share a drop of her own. They would be ever servile to her whims.

Kate stuffed popcorn into her mouth. The scruffiest of the four, she didn't care about the crumbs sticking to her freckled face. Her skin was itching all over, and she was sure there was already fur bursting beneath her t-shirt. As an alpha female without a pack, she could restrain her transformation even on a full moon. She glanced at Lupa, and smiled. She intended that night to give her friend's name its true meaning. They would all be a pack together, following her rule. There was no way any bitch in her pack was going to be downloading that bubblegum pop shit. In her heightened state before transformation, she smelled something utterly unfamiliar and thus scary close by. Kate didn't want her hackles rising in the middle of the movie dance-off, especially over whatever weird shit Kizzy's parents -- she assumed - stored in the den. She stuffed her face into the popcorn and chewed, inhaling the buttery scent.

"Gross!" Like, really gross!"

Shannon's overreaction wasn't heartfelt. As a minor demon in Hell's legions, she had seen a whole lot worse. In fact, she had done a whole lot worse. Bored after centuries with the torture of the 'slightly too evil for purgatory', she had asked to become a Succubus. She was told she would have to snare the souls of those overcome by sinful lust, the willing adulterers and those of a thousand other crimes of the passionate flesh. They had sent her to Earth before. It hadn't gone great. This time she was back as a cheerleader for an easy run. Like shooting fish in a barrel, she'd been told, before being given a crossbow and a barrel of fish. Lessons were literal in the pit. She had the power to corrupt others, nurture the sin in their hearts, and turn them into subservient mortal succubae. She planned to seduce each of her new friends into a whore of hell before dawn.

Finally, there was Kizzy, who...

"You're all going to die!"

The voice came from the den's door, interrupting the slumber party with raspy tones. The speaker stank of sweat and shit and bloody death. Sleeping Bag Jack, the Slumber Party Killer. He'd sworn even as they injected him that he would return and once again take his blades to the slutty teenage bitches he hated. His eyes glowed red, while his grey lipped mouth twisted into a broken-toothed snarl. He waited for the delicious screams of fear and panic he remembered so well. The black girl was closest. He'd kill her first. The rest could run and find doors blocked by his new power. For Jack, the chase was as good as the catch, and the catch as good as the kill.

Kizzy reached up to her left shoulder as she stood. She was not afraid. This was what she had been waiting for, even as she enjoyed the simple pleasures of friendship. The others had to shield their eyes as Kizzy drew a sword of fire from the air, and slashed it twice; once across Jack's torso and once from head to groin. The burning cross hung in the air for a moment, burning the resurrected evil into nothingness. There were great wings folded on Kizzy's back, outlined by her blade's light.

"I am the Seraph Kizurial," she said musically, "My sigils drew that evil here. Please understand there had to be a real slumber party or it would not come unsuspectingly within my power. It would have slaughtered many innocents before their time, including humanity's next champion. My dear friends..."

She stopped then, for she turned and saw their hidden natures with eyes of purest light.

Kate's bowels churned with fear at the light of Kizurial's eyes. Her split-second reasoning was that angels had to hate werewolves. She might have adduced the old folk tales as evidence that werewolves were creatures of Satan, were she to defend her decision later. Window glass sliced her flesh as she leaped through, muscles already changing into their canine form, wounds healing. Cold air ruffled her fur. Ears flat against her skull, Kate resolved to run until she dropped. There was pain in her heart for the loss of her potential pack, the loss of her friends.

The vampire Lupa sat a sword's width from the momentarily contemplative angel. She had seen no evidence of Heaven or Hell and did not fear holy symbols or garlic; just the sun. She would even have adduced her actions since becoming a vampire to show she was no mindlessly evil servant of Hell. Did it not follow that if vampires were truly creatures enslaved to evil, she would not have had the free will to make the decisions she did? True, one of her decisions had been that her closest friends should become like her, but what teenage girl wouldn't desire ageless eternal life? Lupa had killed only in self-defense. Her feeding followed a catch and release strategy aided by her ability to hypnotize the weak minded.

Until encountering an actual angel, Lupa had come to believe vampires were evolutionary cousins to humans with a sunlight allergy but otherwise of superior genetic stock. She wanted to declare to the angel that she was less evil than most humans; that she just wanted to live. As she tried to find the words to convince the angel Kizurial, Shannon spoke first,

"Reh Dnib."

The succubus was the most terrified of the mighty angel and acted to survive. She had heard exactly what the Seraphim were capable of in the name of righteousness. As they said in the pit, 'at least Lucifer is honest about being a right bastard'. In a fight with one such as Kizurial, Shannon wouldn't have even lasted long enough to draw a weapon. The command was to the simple copper bracelet that Kizzy wore. She had accepted it as a gift from Shannon, who valued material signs of friendship, and wore it willingly. On Shannon's blurted words the copper duplicated from wrist to wrist and then to both ankles. The Seraph was bound vertically spread-eagled, her fiery sword reduced to cooling air.

"Oh by Pandemonium's gates, I didn't think that would work!" gulped Shannon.

Kizurial spoke with both kindness and irritation,

"Release me, demon. I will not cast you back into the pit but instead grant you the peace of oblivion. Else, face my wrath when I am free!"

"Whoa! Kizzy! We're friends, there's no need for wrath! How did you do that, Shannon? Wait, demon?"

"Um, the bracelet, I put a little of myself into the jewelry I gave to you all. They would stop you hiding from me if I needed to find you. I realized that because she wore something of my essence I could bind Kizzy with her own will. Angels have a lot of willpower."

Lupa quickly unhooked out her gifted earrings, dropping them. Kizzy's encircled wrists and ankles looked uncomfortable enough.

"I wasn't planning to bind her, or any of you! I was going to let you all join me; join the winning side in the eternal war. And get laid a lot. Yes, I'm a demon, I'm a succubus."

"You're a Whore of Hell," countered Kizurial, to which Shannon shrugged acceptance.

Lupa smiled, fangs suddenly drawn, and replied,

"So... an atheistic vampire, a werewolf, succubus, and an angel are best of friends and nobody has a fucking clue. What are the chances?"

"My capture must have been planned by the demon's superiors," replied Kizurial, straining uselessly against her bonds. A new voice replied,

"You give me too much credit, Seraph."

The speaker had seemingly appeared just behind Kizzy. Dressed in a fine suit of the latest cut, he would have fit in at a Wall Street board meeting. Shannon knew the demon instinctively. He was Eparlegna, whose mortal-birthed incarnation on a parallel Earth had caused terrible suffering before his defeat there. There was but one creator, one heaven and one hell... but many earthly realms. Lupa recognized him too; he'd struck up a conversation with her, and ended up directing her to that town. Even Kate had felt his influence, though his plan was not complex.

"Yes, I arranged for you all to become friends, I wanted to make this Seraph bitch suffer the loss of those friendships as she fought your petty evils. Her self-doubt would have grown as she realized how close she had been to demons and beasts. I never dreamed an expendable little whore like you might manage to entrap an angel!"

While Kizurial silently called for aid from her comrades that would not come, for she was fairly caught, Shannon bridled at the insult. The succubus was as proud as any demon but too afraid of Eparlegna's well-earned reputation for cruelty to complain.

"The Seraph is mine now. Her comrades of the light won't send help for one captured in this way!"

Lupa had instantly disliked Eparlegna. Her fear of him ran deeper than her fear of Kizurial who had seemingly intended only the defeat of Sleeping Bag Jack.

"Hey! Kizzy's our friend, ok, so she's an angel but she's still Kizzy! She always did kind of go on about the God stuff... but you can't take her to hell," turning to Shannon she said simply, "He's an asshole!"

Eparlegna didn't appreciate an insult even in his weakened incarnation,

"You stupid blood drinker, I'll give you hellhound waste to feast on for this disrespect!"

Shannon looked from Eparlegna to Lupa, to Kizzy. Incredibly, she couldn't do it; somewhere in her heart, forgotten hope flared. She released the binding bracelets with a command.

Kizurial's sword ignited as she swung towards the shocked Eparlegna and sent him back to Hell.

Friendship had won. They went to find Kate. Time passed.

This year's Halloween:

The door creaked from rot and rusted hinges as Shannon pushed into the derelict barn. Night was falling at the usual early hour in late October, but she carried no torch. Stepping around the larger piles of dirt, she walked confidently towards the deepest, darkest part of the barn. A circle began to glow as she approached; scratched from the dirt with an animal bone. She smelled blood and hair, old Latin and a new book, a dead goat.

She crouched, hands beneath her chin, and examined the handiwork; impressive. It wouldn't be enough to wipe out the town, but it would probably annihilate a block. Not that anybody would blame magic; the rational effect would be a freak storm, maybe, a gas leak or some kind of wildfire. It was the kind of spell that would bring to Hell souls that would have gone there anyway but rarely earned any extra. The emotional center was the book. It radiated rage, and misery, and loss and jealousy. She shifted position and lifted it, careful not to pull it beyond the edge of the circle. It was a teenager's diary; references to the first year of college caught her eye on the first opened page, so she guessed a 19-year-old from the dates on the more recent entries.

'A name and address would have been useful', she thought, 'My Diary by Crazy Tom of 123 Come Here and Stop Me Street'.

She looked at the energy in the circle. It was either going to ignite that night -- Shannon would always hedge a bet on midnight, because midnight on Halloween would be cool -- or when the spellcaster activated it remotely. There wasn't time to read the whole book, as amongst the abilities of her breed speed reading didn't lie. Movies had only been available for around a century, but Shannon thought of herself as 'waiting for the film to come out' so far as books went. If she wet a finger, it was rarely to turn a page.

The most recent entries painted a picture; the diarist had really wanted to fuck someone called Kelly, with great legs and golden hair and bright blue eyes and etc etc but Kelly had dumped them for someone else and suggested they were a crazy loser. The diarist wanted revenge. At Theresa McMahon's Halloween party, they would look into Kelly's eyes and activate the spell. Show her the power of magic as the diary's explosion became even more powerful.

"That's not going to help with the crazy loser perception, sweetie," muttered Shannon, as she laid the diary back down.

There were explicit details about the party, location, time, likelihood of 18 -- 20-year-olds drinking illegally. Shannon found a mention that the diarist had decided on a pirate costume, but little else about them. The diarist intended focussing the damage from the ritual that had been performed. Shannon had the impression that they didn't realize how much damage would be unleashed, or that they too would die. That didn't make sense, though, because the spell had been skilfully prepared and there was solid power in it. Perhaps they'd turned over two pages at once in some book and reached a 'suicidal stupidity' section, or had some kind of powerful protection.

It seemed simple enough, she thought, shaking away what she didn't know to concentrate on what she did. Find the pirate. Make him give up the spell or render it harmless, or else re-direct it against his crazy self alone rather than the current area effect. She could almost see the guy in her head; a fat loner who this Kelly had never actually been with, some total dork with social awkwardness from spending all his time on the internet who'd inherited some natural skill and then lucked into a properly dangerous spell. She imagined his shock on realizing he was going to die too. She left the barn, climbed into her car, keyed the newly gained address to SatNav and started the engine.

The phone rang. Shannon thumbed the hands-free.

"You've found it?"

"Hi Kiz, sure, I felt it as soon as I got off the interstate and, no, I couldn't take it apart. If I'd tried it would have leeched some of my own power and made a bigger boom. It reacted just to me being close, even. I said 'fuck it! I'll go to a Halloween party instead'. Ooh! Should I go as an Angel? I totally used to be an Angel! I still have a flaming sword somewhere."

"Shannon..."

She sighed.

"You're no fun when lives are at risk, Kizzy. Look, they're going to be there, whoever they are. I'll suck the secret right out of them, and make 'em play nice. Also, there's probably going to be beer and music and dancing and inadvertent teen pregnancy. How about you? Find your demon summoner? Was it a girl or a guy?"

"I can't get in. There are some very strong wards around their house, very general. Nothing from Heaven or Hell is getting through without a lot of power. More than I can spare at the moment. I've asked Kate to speak to them and I'll deal with her task tonight instead."

Shannon nodded, even though, driving the car alone, nobody was there to see her,

"Busy night, isn't it? I guess if there's anything nasty in there she can always pull her old 'go wolf and jump out the window' trick. We break more windows that way."

"I have faith in her, Shannon. I have faith in you. Go with God."

She shuddered as the call ended. Shannon hadn't been in the presence of God since shortly before the fall. She was unpopular in Heaven and even less popular in Hell. Saving a trapped Angel from a fate exponentially worse than death was cause for anger back in the pit, Shannon recalled. Although, so was pretty much everything else.

"I so have to go as an Angel."

As she drove her clothing shifted and changed, becoming a Halloween costume. When she parked up and stepped out, she looked like the sluttiest Angel who ever lived. High heeled white boots beneath a short, clingy white skirt. An equally white, tight, top that looked more like a sparkly bra and showed her entire belly and much of her back; little wings that sparkled like tinsel and equally tinsel-like Halo on a bit of wire; a tiny white purse with essentials.

The thing about looking like an uninhibited young blonde with a nice rack was that you didn't need an invitation to get into Halloween parties. Shannon knocked on the door, wiggled her tits, and was immediately admitted. She smelled alcohol on the breath of the leering Werewolf as he stepped aside to motion her in. Better than Kate's doggy breath, though. Wall to wall costumes greeted her. It seemed that this was the go-to off-campus party for college kids with a smattering of high school seniors. Land of the Western God by dinosaur rock legends The Sumerian Kynges played from speakers, suggesting someone had their entire collection of downloaded music on shuffle rather than a party CD. Nobody seemed bothered about a police raid for the booze. Shannon accepted a plastic glass of beer and sipped it as she strolled around.

She was glad it was a while since the big pirate movies. Though there were the usual horror staples, a few shock costumes -- coat-hanger-in-head-man, a spirited rendition of a used sanitary towel in full body length, and mass murderers -- as well as superheroes and pop culture staples, there weren't many buccaneers, sea dogs, privateers or plain ordinary sailors. Shannon liked an easy route; she'd have had to put a lot more effort into finding her target if the diary hadn't been there. Seeing there were only two pirates at the party made her smile her warmest, especially as one of them looked exactly like the sort of loser who could be behind a spell in revenge.

While the other was a tall, handsome man that looked a little like a shorter and younger Michael Jordan, the one she honed in on was only an inch or so taller than Shannon herself, carrying extra weight, and apparently not in conversation with anyone. Scruffy, too, she thought. Cheap pirate hat and eye patch, half-assed shirt and jeans and a plastic sword. She approached from the side and caught him ogling another girl's ass wrapped in a black dress.

"Hey, is this your party?"

He started, nearly dropped his drink, and turned towards her. He smelled clean, at least. No hint of the barn or body odor about him.

"Uh, no, it's Todd's sister's thing. She's the Elsa over there. How do you not know that? You gatecrashing?"