Page 2 of The Last Feast
He’s taken the one thing Hana has fought to keep. Deep down, she knows it’s her fault for leaving it behind, but all she can focus on are his red-blue fingers wrapped around the handle. He doesn’t announce the weapon to the duo waiting for him. No, he’s taking it from her—like everyone has always taken from her. He tucks it into the waistband of his jeans then rejoins his friends to restart their discussion about their plans for Halloween as though it’s unimportant when it’s all she had.
2
SCREAM FOR ME?
AUGUSTE
“Auggie?” Odette singsongs in that irritating way of hers when she’s had a drink. “You’re cold. You should have worn a coat.”
“I’m fine,” I say curtly.
She strokes up my arm to my bicep when I’ve told her countless times I have no interest in her and to stop clinging to me. I don’t have an interest in any woman or man—any human, really. None of them seem to capture my attention for long, which brings my sexuality into question, because as a twenty-five year old man, therehas to besomething “wrong”with me if I don’t have an interest in the horrors of human relations.
We move up the line for the 18+ fear factory that travels to our town every Halloween. Felix is busy flirting with a group behind us, so I take the opportunity to remind Odette my feelings for her are platonic as I dip my head to whisper, “You know we’re friends, right?” Then, I move her hand off me without drawing attention to it.
“Yes,” she says forcefully, rolling her eyes. She stops rubbing my bicep like she’s my girlfriend. “Are you going to stay with your parents tonight?”
Translation: will you stay with me so I can wear you down physically and mentally?
“Probably,” I answer, burying all emotions regarding either topic.
Their last message was on my birthday, the one day a year they take time out of their schedules to send me a perfunctory message, congratulating me on surviving another year. Some years, I’ve wondered if it’s due to them not believing I’m still alive or if they do it to remind themselves they once had a son.
My thoughts are interrupted as one of the actors for the fear factory walk past us. She has a skull painted on her soft features—the black paint looks dark red under the harsh fluorescent streetlight—and her dark hair is tied up with what appears to be stripped vines, as if she clawed her way through the dirt back to life.
I don’t feel anything about her body or the way the short dress clings to her. No, all my focus is on the vines in her hair and her profile, because it’s so…different. Delicate decay is the only way to describe her, like she was once beautiful, but she’s wasted away.
She trails an ax on the floor then swings it up, hitting the wall beside Odette’s head. Small sparks fly out, like it’s real rather than a prop, while Odette screams. But this woman smiles, distorting the skull painted on her skin. Her eyes are a deep emerald, so deep that they remind me of the waters I explored in Australia. It’s not due to the hue—no, it’s the quality in them, like she holds secrets that would enrapture me.
She keeps walking as she scrapes the ax against the walls, forcing the people waiting in front of us to move. In the shadowed gaps between the streetlights, she almost seems todisappear, only to reappear again under the next spotlight. And then she’s gone, slipping through the crowds erupting from the doors as the group finishes their tour. They push into the security guard holding the door open for them, and the woman is barely noticeable as she weaves between the group.
The worker on the door gestures to me. “Move forward or lose your place. You’re the last groups of the night—do you want to go in together?”
“Yes!” Felix shouts over my head then softens as he addresses the new friends he’s made. “You can hide behind me if you get scared.”
Odette has a poor memory as she attempts to grab my hand in her excitement to get inside. I discreetly pull away as we form one large group of five. If I hadn’t known her my entire life, I’d probably end our friendship, but there’s a sense of loyalty and complacency to continue being around her. It’s always been us: me, Odette, and Felix. There’s too much nostalgia, forcing me to ignore my own comfortability to ever reinforce a boundary or explain I don’t like being constantly grabbed and held.
Felix is enamored, flirting with the other group, so he remains in step with them as the inside of our wrists are stamped.
Every year, the theme of the fear factory changes. The last one I attended was set up as an insane asylum with staged doctors conducting twisted experiments. They’d drag us into the seats and restrain us, but that one never inspired any fear in me. It was sadness at the true history of doctors taking advantage of those who were mentally ill and vulnerable, either due to the chemicals in their bodies or their circumstances.
However, this is different when we walk through the first set of doors.
Snakes wrap around the long, black handles of the double doors, crawling up the thick wooden panels, where they threadthrough the mane of a lion as though they’re horns. But none of that makes my eyes widen as much as the scene in front of me as soon as the internal doors automatically open once we’re in range.
The large marquee used to host the event has been transformed into a dark, dense woodland, and the metal sidings aren’t even visible as I walk through with Odette. She tries to reach for my hand again, but I’m slower pulling away this time due to being distracted by the view in front of me.
Each tree has warnings, directions, and a dismembered doll part hanging from the branches. Some have missing heads while others are missing arms or legs, but there isn’t a single branch with a full doll hanging from it. As I step closer, I notice the heads are all missing their eyes. Instead of a plastic or glass orb, the inner socket is covered in a reflective film that creates portal-like pockets with a distorted reflection of the scenery.
“Mayhem Maze!” Odette exclaims as she pulls on my hand.
“Holy shit.” Felix pauses his flirting to look around the space. “If there was one you came back for, I’m glad it’s this one.” He slaps my shoulder, the safe point of my body that doesn’t fill me with unease, whereas Odette strokes up my wrist to curl her free hand around my bicep.
“You’ll keep me safe. Won’t you, Auggie?” She blinks up at me with huge eyes.
I should throw her off me. But I don’t. I allow her to keep touching me because it’s easier than causing a scene as we make our way to the maze.
Felix stays back with the group of girls as they request to make their way around the wood in a clockwise fashion. Great, I’m left alone with Odette who can’t even control her hands when we’re in front of other people.
