There were a couple of groups here and there. A cat girl and a rather poor skeleton chatted off to one side. A group of three hung out in a corner, they had a girl with impressive voodoo inspired makeup and several fake bones hung around her neck, a much more impressive skeleton, and a man who seemed to be into bondage with knives taped to his fingers.
No one danced on the dance floor and none of the groups appeared very animated.
There was a bar to the side of the entryway with a Frankenstein’s monster handing out a plate of nachos to the only patron. The portly man turned around to reveal a solid green suit and dyed red hair. Golden clover pins were attached all over his suit.
“Hello Max,” Shalise said warmly.
“You guys made it. I’m glad.” He grabbed both plates of nachos and seemed to struggle with his soda until Shalise took pity and grabbed it. “Thanks. Everyone else is upstairs, come on.”
They followed him up to the neon lit second floor. Another three groups of people hung about up here. Two of the groups consisted of a pair of superheroes with red and blue outfits, a pirate, a spooky bedsheet ghost, and a princess.
The third group was seated around one of the large tables that occupied much of the second floor. A winged fairy stood and started waving them over with a clear bottle. She was also entirely green except for the brown hair and red lipstick.
“Irene, nice makeup,” Juliana said.
Irene grinned. “Thanks. It took Shelby all afternoon to paint me green.”
“And don’t ask for it again,” a black and white woman said. She had painted her face completely white save for black lipstick. Her dress matched the white paint on her face and arms with black floral patterns. Even her green eyes had been covered by silver contacts.
“Oh, like your makeup took any less time.”
“Your wearing a lot less actual clothes than I am. You didn’t have to paint my stomach or my back or most of my legs. Most of it I did on my own.”
“Now now, you all look great. Don’t bicker.”
Eva almost missed the dark figure sitting next to Shelby. Where she looked like something out of an old black and white film, Jordan could have been her shadow. He had a full black body stocking on, even over his face. Something magical had been done to it; Eva’s eyes didn’t want to focus on it.
“You’re going to have to teach me that one,” Eva said. It seemed very useful for more than just party tricks.
Jordan chuckled. It sounded a bit forced, though that may be because if he had merely smiled, Eva wouldn’t be able to notice.
“He can’t,” Irene said. She had a large frown on her face and a glare leveled at Jordan. “The enchantment came with the suit.”
“Ah, that’s a shame.” Eva might have to spend some time tracking down the makers of the suit and learning the technique. Or at least buy one for herself.
“So,” Shalise said after a minute, “what do we do now?”
Maximilian spoke up, thankfully without his mouth full. “Grab some food unless you already ate. Then we just hang out, I suppose.” He looked around to the others as if for confirmation.
“That sounds good,” Juliana said. “I skipped lunch for costume hunting.”
She and Shalise turned and headed back to the stairs. Shalise paused. “You’re not coming Eva?”
“I’m not hungry at the moment. I might grab something later.” Eva doubted she would. In truth, Eva only ate about one meal a day. A side effect from the experiments, most likely; she’d never seen Arachne eat anything.
Her treatments were a point of worry. Because the ritual circle was still complete in her prison, she might be able to rope Juliana into performing the ritual in an emergency. It was not a thing she was very eager to show the blond.
Devon considered her his life’s work, so she doubted he would just up and abandon her. Unless he had gone off and died. Then again, she had to send Ivonis after her master over the summer.
She really wasn’t looking forward to cleaning fifty animal carcases out of a cell block again.
Shalise and Juliana headed back downstairs while Eva took a seat next to Irene.
“So a scientist, huh?”
“A mad scientist, if you please.” Eva whipped out the fake syringe and quirked an eyebrow. After striking her pose, she dropped the syringe back into her pocket. “It was either this or what Juliana is wearing.” Eva leaned over and stage whispered in Irene’s ear, “I’d rather come naked if that was my only option.”
“Oh it isn’t that bad,” Shelby said with only a small chuckle.
They descended into an awkward sort of silence. Eva imagined it would have been a comfortable silence, or not silence at all, if she hadn’t been there. Despite spending nearly every lunch together and interacting in class on a regular basis, Eva just didn’t click with them.
She didn’t think she really clicked with Shalise either, even if she got along with her. The only reason she and Juliana got along well was because of their little adventure. No part of that was going to be spoken of under any circumstances, no matter how much it might help avoid awkward silences.
