One Night
by byutane
by byutane
Part 1
"Man, I love Halloween!" Lissa adjusted her hood, making sure her hair was properly swept back underneath it. She'd managed to bump her head against the ceiling on the taxi ride over, thanks to her platform boots.
"Lissa, it's great, but what are you supposed to… be?" Angie asked. She was painstakingly done up as Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, dyed bunches, jean shorts, Electra Heart makeup and all. The resemblance was not insignificant.
"It's Death! Out of The Seventh Seal!" Lissa gave a twirl. She'd slicked her usually black and curly hair back and under a tight hood, covering everything and anything left visible with white face paint. Her short, curvy body was hidden by a long cloak, which was saved from trailing on the floor by her platforms. "And also Bill and Ted, I guess."
"You could also pass for Palpatine. Or Voldemort."
"Ew, no." Lissa made a face. "Check this out though!" She lifted her right arm to be horizontal, moving aside a fold of black cloth to reveal a voluptuous tan leg. Underneath the cloak, she was wearing fishnets and a black garter. "It's the law that Halloween costumes have to be sexy these days, right?"
"So, you're Sexy Seventh Seal Death."
"Yeah!" Lissa brandished a pair of chess pieces, a black queen and a white king, extracted from a pocket somewhere. "I've got my theming down pat." Angie finally broke into a broad grin.
"Never change, Lissa." She gave her a careful pat on the head, so as not to dislodge anything. "Come on, let's get inside." The two had been invited to a Halloween party which was being held in one of their university's student halls - the epicenter of the whole thing, Darryl Carvey, was an intense social butterfly who was in Lissa's physics lectures, hence her spot on the guest list. Darryl's partner, Cody, was on a computer science course and had elected to add everyone he had lectures with too, including those from the English module he'd done on the side. Plus everyone who lived in their building. Take all those people and their plus ones, add almost the entire hall as the venue and stoke it with the understood reputation of a "Carvey Party", and you had a Halloween Lissa wouldn't have missed out on for the world.
"Don't you think it's a bit of a security risk?" Angie asked Lissa, watching a small gaggle of strangers exit the building as they approached.
"Everyone inside knows what's going on. People's rooms have locks and shit, I'm sure it's fine."
"I just don't want to run into a weirdo," Angie shivered.
"Remember, your building is like, right over there, we can leave early if you get uncomfortable." The girls had planned to stay in Angie’s room that night, unless other, more favourable options presented themselves, naturally. The pair entered and worked their way through the throng that had gathered on the ground floor, the party already having spilled over from the floor above. Common areas were the busiest, with people fiddling with spotify queues, chatting and dancing, adding to and (mainly) raiding from potlucks of drinks.
"Lissa, I’m going to go say hi to the flatmates," said Angie, meaning those she shared a floor with who’d also shown up, "you good?"
"I’m gonna find Darryl and give him his Halloween present!" Lissa produced a bottle of Jack Daniels from somewhere in her cloak.
"What else do you have under there!?" Angie laughed, "come find us if you get bored!" Lissa knew Darryl quite well, much better than most people at the party, having started sitting next to him in seminars the term before. He had a very quick mind but a short memory, and Lissa wanted to make sure their friendship was long lasting - and gifts never hurt.
"Elizabeth! I almost didn’t recognise you!" She found Cody first, who gave her a hug upon seeing her, "what are we, something from Scooby Doo?" He’d taken the easy route and come as a cat, with eyeliner-whiskers and nose, a black turtleneck, fluffy ears on a headband and a velvet tail hanging from his belt. Cody was built like Lissa, short and soft, and although he liked parties he wasn’t quite as extroverted as his boyfriend was. Darryl was the one who liked dressing up.
"Don’t worry about it," Lissa waved the bottle at him, "more importantly, this is for you two."
"Oh, perfect! Can you believe it, all these students, and nobody is bringing drinks!" He gave a sarcastic, but not mean-spirited laugh. "Much appreciated, Lissa. Did you come with anyone? You need to see Darryl’s costume."
"I came with Angie-" but Cody was already off in search of his boyfriend. Lissa trotted to keep up, not entirely trusting her footing. She could deal with heels, but platforms were a struggle. "What did he come as?"
"Ta da!" Peeking out from under a massive foam headpiece, shirtless and covered in fake blood, was Darryl.
"Oh my god, pyramid head!" Lissa clapped with delight, "it’s perfect!" He’d obviously paid attention to the details, carefully spray painting the oversized head to look like sharp, rusted metal, staining a cloth with tea and fake blood to act as the skirt, and finally dousing himself in red and black body paint to give the full effect. As always, he had to stand out.
"Lissa!" Darryl waved a slender arm. That was one problem - he’d had to airbrush the appropriate musculature onto his extremely slender frame. While he didn’t have any extra fat on him, he scarcely had any muscle, either. He hadn’t needed to enhance his height, though - even with her boots, he still towered over Lissa. "What do you think!"
"Stunning!" She gave an enthusiastic double thumbs up, "ten out of ten!"
"At first I was going to ask Cody to come as James, but then I thought, without pyramid head, James just looks like some guy, you know… that’s no fun and it’s not like we wanted to be joined at the hip all night." Darryl planted a kiss on Cody’s cheek, making him blush. "Just most of it."
"Before you go get a room, I have this for you two!" Lissa performed her trick again, pulling the gift from ‘nowhere’ in her robes.
"Oh, thank you!" Darryl accepted it enthusiastically. "Come over and I’ll pour you one. Cody?" Cody shook his head.
"I was just talking to Zanib a minute ago, I don’t want her to wander off. I’ll catch you later!" He disappeared into the crowd. Darryl found some glasses in a cabinet and poured a pair of generous shots.
"To Halloween."
"To Halloween!" They clinked their glasses together and downed their shots, slamming their glasses back on the counter in unison. "Now, Lissa, forgive me, but your costume is a little… obscure."
"C’mon, Darryl, I would’ve thought you’d get what this is." They’d discovered a shared enthusiasm for creepy media during their group project.
"If I didn’t know better…" he poured another two shots. "Is it The Seventh Seal?"
"And the prize goes to the man down in front!" Lissa grinned and sipped her drink. "Check this out, though." She showed off a leg once again, making Darryl burst out laughing.
"Is that your chess strategy? Distraction?"
"It would work!" The two laughed and drank for a little longer, before Darryl was drawn away by hosting duties.
Lissa remained leaning on the counter in the common area for a little longer, people watching. There were fewer superheroes than she’d been expecting, with a lot of people going for hastily DIY’d zombies and Luke Skywalkers and Wednesday Addamses and Pennywises. She knocked back another drink and was about to find someone to mingle with, when she caught sight of someone else in a cape - except this person had a loose hood that covered their face, and the colour was a deep, deep purple. Almost black, but not quite. Lissa poured them a drink and took a few wobbly strides towards them, smiling.
"Hey, twins!" Whoever it was took the glass wordlessly and drank.
"Thank you." Their voice was low and husky, and although Lissa thought she probably ought to be able to, there was something about them that made it impossible for her to make any more concrete observations about them at all. Part of her mind struggled, wondering why she couldn’t see the shape of this person’s facial features even though she knew they were smiling, but an overwhelming calmness put those questions to rest almost immediately. It was oddly reassuring. This person put Lissa at ease. "You’re dressed as Death."
"Nice of you to notice," Lissa grinned. "I didn’t think people would recognise it. Have you seen the movie?"
"No." A couple of seconds silence followed.
"I guess it’s cultural osmos-"
"Did you come here today because you want to be something else?"