Page 37 of Feed Your Fiends

Beaulieu may be on break, but the party’s just getting started.

Our new king is christening his club, Libellule, via Stassi and Zedd’s birthday bash.

Did you get a golden ticket when you opened the flyer?

I watch the gold confetti drifting across Aria’s screen.

Then you’re in…for four figures with authentic nineteen twenties to forties dress attire.

Did you get a silver ticket?

Then you’re a lucky blonde with a vagina, and Hale’s blessing you with a waitressing positions for one night only, on the house.

Aria snorts.

The attire? Your birthday suit. Hale will handle the rest.

And what if you didn’t get a virtual ticket at all?

Well, if you have to ask, then you already know.

It’s not your party, though, so you can’t cry if you want to. You can, however, watch from the comfort of yourcat-hair strewncouch while I live stream the entire event via my minions with bodycams. It’ll be just like you were one of the chosen ones.

So here’s a ticket.

Aria clicks it out of sheer nosiness.

A digital dark green ribbon saying‘participation’floats across the screen along with a button demanding ten ninety-nine for the streaming access that goes live tomorrow night.

So Hale had managed to pull off Zedd and Stassi’s birthday bash after all.

“Want to be my date?” Aria asks, tapping a button to pay for her golden ticket.

“And suffer decapitation?”

“I told you, Eti’s gone,” she says, her voice hollow.

“The last thing I give a fuck about right now is partying.”

Jarett’s muffled cries echo up to us like a reminder.

“It’s not about the party. It’s Stassi and Zedd and Hale.”

“Elle—”

“Has been your hyperfixation for months. But what about your friends? They’ve been there for you. You can sacrifice a few hours.”

“Elle—”

“Will be fine for one night.”

“Not without me. Look at me,” I mutter, spotting my rough reflection in the floor-to-ceiling windows. “I’m not fine without her.”

“You can think about someone else for one bloody night.”

“No, I can’t. She says I’m a demon, a fiend, but she’s the one that’s haunting me.” I flutter my eyes closed for a half second and see her. “She’s everywhere. Everything. Every place.”

Elle.

---