Chapter 4. Happy Howl-loween

Aria’s POV

I stabbed the blue-green glug in my lunch tray with my fork. "Urgh, he makes me so mad," I muttered.

Sue used a straw to poke hers. The look on her face said, 'I'm poking aliens on my plate.' She didn't turn from her tray. "Who?"

"Sinbad!"

At this, she frowned at me. "The Disney character? I thought you loved that dumb show."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, first, it's not dumb, and second, Sinbad is this dude in my class."

She nodded. "Ah, I see...so you like him."

I choked on my gum. "Cough, cough, of course, no, I just met the dude like an hour ago."

At this point, she was shaping the thick glug into a head with her spoon. "So...you like him."

"I don't!"

"Is he handsome?"

I thought back to the bottle-green eyes, jet-black messy boy band hair, square jaw, and dimples when he talked. His clothes were baggy, but anyone could tell that he had a figure girls wanna touch and guys wanna have. But then there was Bitchy Sue clinging to him like Velcro. And for some reason, he wasn't repulsed by her.

"Hey...HEY!"

"W-what?"

"Dude, you zoned out on me...one minute you look like you're dreaming about an angel, and the next you look like you just ate a mouthful of whatever this is." Sue pushed the plate away and took the single apple before taking a bite. "I wonder if the angel's name happens to start with an Ssss."

"Stop it already."

She fully turned to me; her expression was worried, and I dreaded what was to come.

"Aria, you know what happened that time had nothing to do with you. It was...if anything, it was my fault..."

"Look, it was both our fault. Let's just leave it at that, okay? Please."

She sighed. "Fine...and Aria?"

"Hmm?"

She pointed at my apple. "I'm hungry. Can I have that?"

"Sure thing."

When her hand reached over, I flicked it.

"Ouch."

"You can have the Glug special. No apple for you."

Sue sighed and slouched further into her chair. "Are we going to file the missing person complaint after school?"

I turned to her. "Do you think we should?"

"No, if we do, they'd realize that we're minors living alone, and by tomorrow, we'll have child services knocking at our door and distributing us to foster homes faster than we can say 'our parents ain't dead.' And I can't deal with that. But not reporting feels..."

"Selfish? Yeah, but...mom and dad wouldn't want us to be separated. How do you think Jerry will react? How long are they gonna be missing? How long will we be able to pretend that everything is alright?"

"Yeah, I know the town is small. If people don't see our parents soon, busybodies' tongues are going to start wagging."

Suddenly, a shadow fell on us.

From the choking perfume, I could already guess who the person was. Sue and I rolled our eyes before looking up to see Bitchy Sue glaring at me.

What did I do?

Her posse had the same expression.

"Stay away from my man," she hissed.

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, your who?"

Bitchy Sue glared at me "stay away from Sinbad"

Oh him. Territorial much?

I pouted "The Disney character? But I love that show"

Her face turned red. "You know who I'm referring to! He's my boyfriend..."

"But you're not his girlfriend... From what I heard, it's an obsessive one-sided relationship."

"How dare you! He is my boyfriend," she pointed a finger coated with blood-red polish at me. "You better stop throwing yourself at him or else."

I looked at her nearing finger; it looked like she planned to poke my eye out. I deadpanned, "Ooo, I'm scared." I eyed her. "You better get those bloody Mary hands out of my face unless you wanna meet my claws."

Bitchy Sue and her posse glanced at each other and then burst out laughing.

Beside me, Sue frowned. "What's so funny?"

Bitchy Sue ignored her and sneered at me, "You'd be adorable if your face didn't make me wanna puke."

A girl behind her scoffed, "Stay away from Master Sinbad cuz I'm sure you don't wanna meet our claws, and yeah, baby, they're real hehe."

I rolled my eyes. "Tch, what's up with that? Just cuz they've got sharper manicures."

They turned and walked away, but before leaving, Bitchy Sue said, "As much as it disgusts me to even do this, but I've been told to invite you both to the Halloween party tonight at Dead Man's Float."

After she went away, I turned to Sue. "Are we going?"

"And enter into an obvious trap?"

We both smirked. "Hell no."

Suddenly, a voice said, "Don't worry." A redheaded girl our age smiled at us from the opposite table. "Her father owns the boathouse, so she usually gives it stupid names that she thinks are scary." It was the same girl that told the teacher to 'ignore me cuz we were all humans and stuff.'

I scoffed, "Her father owns the boathouse? Tch, all the more reason not to go."

The girl laughed aloud. "Haha, come on, guys, it'll be fun... Name's May, by the way."

"Aria."

"Sue."

"Sue? Haha, what sore luck for you, your namesake is..."

"A bitch, I know."

A few minutes after 7 pm, Sue, Jerry, and I stood at the riverbank. When May said it was a boathouse, I pictured a small boat with a thatched hut in the middle. But this, this was a floating carnival. I was sure the post-and-beam-style boathouse covered the expanse of the lake. It had an open sun deck.

Jerry tapped my shoulder and dragged Sue's hand. "Look over there, they have a speedboat."

"No wonder she's such a royal bitch."

"Her Pops spent so much money just for a stupid Halloween party, talk about extravaganza."

Although May said the name was stupid, even I had to admit that the name Dead Man's Float fit it perfectly. If I didn't know that all the decorations were plastic, I'd probably have nightmares after this. Hehe, maybe this was a glimpse of the creepy darkness in Bitchy Sue.

We didn't wear any costumes. The only ones we had were from long ago when Dad dressed us up in giant dental products. And there is no way in hell's blazes are those costumes ever gonna leave the attic.

In the boat, for the first time, Jerry stuck by us instead of running away.

I asked him, "Why are you here?"

He picked and filled three cups of soda before giving Sue and me one each he took a sip of his "why am I here?"

"Here, as in with us, I thought you didn't want people to know that we are related?"

"I was just joking."

"Heh, and your joke lasted for over a week."

"You guys said that a stupid girl with a stupid name has been picking on you."

Sue glared at him.

Jerry stepped back and raised his hands in mock surrender. "Don't worry, sis. The name's only stupid on her... anyway, I want to make sure she doesn't try to mess with you guys."

I reached up and ruffled his hair. "Aww, who's the baby bro that cares for his sisters? You are, oh yes, you are..."

He pushed me away. "Fuck off."

"Awn, baby bro learned a bad word."

He rolled his eyes at my dramatics.

"The other Sue... is she pretty?"

I eyed him suspiciously. "I guess?"

"Blonde and green-eyed?"

"Yeah?"

"And most likely to wear a pole dancing costume for Halloween?"

Sue answered, "Ha, most definitely."

"Ah."

"But why did you ask?"

"Oh... she's coming over here."

An annoying voice spoke "What are you guys supposed to be? The Three Mouseketeers?"

Sue took a swig of soda from a can and belched. "Haha smart, but we're dressed as humans."

Bitchy Sue scoffed. "Humans?"

I smirked at her. "Darling, don't ya know? Humans can be monsters too, haha."

She glared at me. "Fuck you."

"Eww, no thanks."

"You..."

She turned to walk away. "I don't give a hoot and a howl about what you do. Just stay away from the lower deck, three of you."

Jerry asked, "Should we go to the lower deck?"

Sue reasoned, "It might be a trap..."

Two minutes later, at the lower deck...

Jerry spoke, "There's nothing here, and no one's around either."

There was a sealed cabin at the lower deck with stairs descending into the lake. Transparent glass kept most of the water out; there were small cracks here and there that allowed a steady trickle of water, making the stairs damp. The farther we went, the higher the water rose.

"Why are we still going down?" he asked.

"Curiosity," Sue's voice echoed.

"Well, that stuff killed the cat."

Sue grinned. "Then it's a good thing we aren't cats."

I pouted, even though they couldn't see me. "Speak for yourself. I have always felt quite feline."

"Right."

We reached the bottom of the stairs; there was a door. It looked old and rotten in contrast to the outside of the boathouse. We jingled the handle, but it was locked.

Jerry groaned. "All this just for a dead-end... why don't you tear it apart as you did to my room door?"

I turned to march back up the stairs. "Stop whining."

Suddenly, there was a sound at the other side of the door. It sounded like a knock, but I couldn't be sure. "Errr, did you hear that?"

Sue: "Meh."

Jerry: "Let's leave from here. This is literally how people die in horror movies. Going where you're not supposed to, opening doors you're not supposed to, and then dying when you're not supposed to."

Sue touched the door. "Don't be such a big baby."

"Go jump in a well. I know you've always wanted to die in a horror movie."

"So stupid."

"Hush it, both of you."

We listened; another knock came, but it was weak.

"What if Bitchy Sue has someone trapped in there for... I don't know, revenge or something?"

"See, you don't know, so let's go."

Sue raised her leg and kicked the door. At the second kick, the board at the bottom of the door fell off. Sue bent down to look.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jerry murmured.

"Your feelings don't matter, though," Sue said.

Jerry kicked his leg and splashed water on her back.

I tapped the wall and withdrew my hand when it touched something sticky. "What do you see?"