Devil's Game

I ▬▬▬ "hell is empty, and all the devils are here." ▬▬▬ "I SWEAR TO God if I see one more f*****g nurse, I'm going to stab myself with a stethoscope," I moaned as yet another person dressed up as a nurse strutted past us on the midnight street, bag of sweets rustling with each happy step. I rolled my eyes and folded my arms over my chest. Halloween was my least favourite holiday of the year. Aside from the free chocolate and excuse to terrorise the neighbourhood kids, ever since I'd been egged at the age of twelve, I'd hated the celebration. I loved the decorations, and the scarred pumpkins that smiled with jagged teeth. On Halloween, the world was bathed in an orange light, leaving rugged shadows to carve their way across the streets of Edinburgh like a plague. I loved the dark, more than I cared to admit. If it hadn't been for that one incident years ago, I would be in my element. And as a result, I had opted for the most basic outfit of all: a fallen angel. I had taken the heavenly creature and transformed it into something sinister - swapped white for ebony black, my brown eyes sporting glowing contact lenses. The girl beside me laughed, checking her phone to make sure we were going in the right direction. Unlike me, Luciana took Halloween as seriously as her love for Radiohead. Instead of choosing a cliche outfit like a devil, angel, or even a skeleton, she had chosen a dress she had torn to shreds herself. She had used fake blood and make-up to create the illusion that she had just crawled out of the grave. My cousin was too creative for her own good. "Says the girl dressed as a fallen angel," My cousin retorted, folding her hands over her chest and mocking me. "You know I hate Halloween." Luci raised the tin can in her hand. "Which is why we have bevs. Come on, drink up." She put the can of cider to her lips and finished it with a few gulps. I laughed, swigging the bottle in my hand. The concoction of vodka and cranberry juice burned my tongue as I took yet another sip, the liquid sliding down my throat and burning like wildfire. I was already four cans of beer down, and my head was beginning to feel dizzy. First year of University had already brought out the side of me that loved to drink and party. Although we were only two months into our first year, Luci and I had only attended half our lectures and turned up to the others hungover. Thankfully, I was studying Film and Television, which required less contact hours than Luci's course, Chemistry. "f**k's sake," Luci moaned as we walked down the endless street. Edinburgh was a beautiful city, spilling with a mixture of ancient buildings and new housing developments. Stone houses stood out like sore thumbs, wedged between new-builds and patches of emerald green. The city was like a maze, and we were nowhere near figuring out our way around. I stopped, downing my drink in seconds. "What?" "I'm lost." I rolled my eyes but smiled. "Here, give me your phone." Luci handed over the iPhone Seven without hesitation and paused to lean up against a hedge on the edge of the pavement. She leaned over, checking the backs of her feet for blisters from her heels. "I love you to f*****g pieces, Luce, but you need to learn how to use Google Maps." I looked at Google Maps and quickly found where we had gone wrong. Taking Luci's arm, I dragged her up the road and made a left. This street was completely empty, and the wind whistling through the leaves above us made my stomach flutter into a flock of butterflies. There were no streetlights here, and the shadows had taken advantage. They crawled across the road markings like limbs, reaching for anything that dared to move. After a few steps, the rush of the ocean filled the air, and I heard the screaming of voices. Loud music thundered through my body, vibrating every bone until it felt as though my skeleton was shaking between my flesh. I could make out the Drake song above the screams and voices, and made a bee-line for the house where the noise spilled from. Instead of going trick-or-treating, or staying at home to watch Cabin in the Woods for the hundredth time, we had decided to crash a second year's party. It was not our best idea by far, but after going out clubbing four nights in a row, we wanted a change. Somehow Luci had met one of the guests through Lacrosse Society and the rest was history.  I locked Luci's phone and handed it back to her as we came to stand outside the house. Luci's face scrunched up in annoyance that she had gotten us lost, but her face fell to a look of awe the moment her eyes landed on the house. The student dwelling was decorated with over twenty pumpkins, each carved with a strange perfection. Small candles lit the edge of the path to the house, multicoloured lights flashing through the windows like a kaleidoscope. People spilled outside of the walls, smoke curling into the inky night from cigarettes. This was my kind of house party. We walked up the path, and two seconds later a girl exclaimed, "Nadia, Luce, you made it!" She moved away from the shadows, cigarette hanging limply from her pale fingers. "f**k, you both look amazing!" This Halloween, she had decided to dress as a devil, with a red lace bodysuit, black flares that made her slim legs look infinite, and a pair of devil horns. Her curled blonde hair fell into her face, and she flicked it away with a swipe of her hand to pull me into an embrace. Followed by the girl were two more figures. The shorter girl, Nora, was dressed as a cat, her beautiful dark skin glowing in the orange light like a lantern, whereas the boy hadn't made a single effort. Aiden hated Halloween more than I did, and that was saying something. Knowing him, he had come as a Muggle from Harry Potter. "Evie!" I exclaimed, hugging the girl tightly in my drunken state. "How the hell did you get here before us? You look f*****g fit." Evangeline, otherwise known as Evie, Eve, or Ev, shrugged her shoulders and went back to smoking her cigarette. She blew a cloud of smoke in my face, grey merging with black before disappearing altogether.  We had met the trio on the first night of Freshers Week when I spilled vodka lemonade all down Evie. She had quickly forgiven me and introduced us to her flatmates, Nora and Aiden. Since, we had done everything together. Despite being in different halls, we always made an effort to go out clubbing together or meet up at Wetherspoons for a drink. Evie flicked her finished cigarette onto the floor and stomped it out. She grabbed my hand and led me inside, the others following close behind. "You need a drink," The girl shouted as we entered the house, the hallway bursting at the seams with drunk students. Purple shone across the white walls, illuminating them in a purple shrine and catching Evie's hair like fragmented diamonds. The song had changed to Pompeii by Bastille, and I nodded my head along to the beat as we wove through the mass of dancing bodies. "You bet I do," I muttered, unsure whether the girl heard above the noise. We reached the living room with ease, and Evie handed the four of us each a can of cider whilst swaying her hips to the beat. "Drink up, Nadia for f**k's sake! It's Halloween!" Evie smiled and I did my best to down the drink in one. After spilling the apple-flavoured alcohol on my chin, I placed the can on my head and began to move my body, matching each beat of the song. The others joined in the dance, and I swiftly reached for another cider. The five of us chanted along to the chorus, and I continued to dance, ignoring the stares I was getting. I was aware that I was what some people found attractive, and I had grown to love every part of my body, from my frizzy untamed hair down to my large thighs. I had big brown eyes, and a petite nose that fit well on my oval face. My jawline was the feature I loved most about myself, the sharpness giving my face a tough outlook to match my personality. We continued dancing in the living room for what felt like centuries, but after five songs, the temperature had increased by five degrees Celsius. My forehead was shiny from a fresh sheen of sweat, and I could feel the make-up melting off my face. With every breath, the walls seemingly pressed in until I felt like I was suffocating. I smiled at Luci, and watched as Evie and Nora came back from the toilet. "I'm going for a fag," I announced and slipped out of the house before anyone could follow me. Getting outside was not an easy feat, but after being trodden on and walked into multiple times, I finally made it. I took in a grateful sigh of October - or rather, November - air, the cold oxygen sending a chill down my spine. The outside area of the house was now empty, and I relished the quiet. I took a seat on the patio among the pumpkins, taking in the taste of salt in the air and crashing waves from the sea. How the house had such a good location and large living room for a student house was beyond me. I took out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling the smoke and relishing the nicotine rush. It was a bad habit I had been meaning to stop for years. I was lost deep in my thoughts when the door opened with a click, and a shadow moved over to where I was perched. I jumped out of my skin as he sat down beside me, refusing to glance in his direction. "Do you have a light?" A deep voice asked, and with that, I glanced over. Suddenly, my body refused to breathe. The boy beside me was almost the definition of perfection, with deep mocha eyes, and sharp features that made him appear years older than he probably was. His hair was cropped at the sides, but a mop of dark curls brought the dimensions of his face to life, stubble just long enough to make an appearance. As for his costume - he wasn't exactly wearing one. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but his slender, slightly toned chest was a welcome sight. However, the most beautiful thing about the boy was not his face, or his perfect physique - it was the tattoo on his back. It looked as though Picasso had picked up a tattoo gun and drawn the wings himself, each feather shaded to perfection, as though the boy were about to take flight. Unconsciously, my hand moved towards the ink, but I quickly snatched it away and stared ahead as though I hadn't acknowledged the boys beauty. I was a closed book. He didn't need to know that I found him attractive. "Sure," I exhaled and handed him my lighter I had bought in Amsterdam. Our fingers brushed for a moment, his skin ice cold. I shivered, and creased my brows, but cast it aside. "Thanks," the boy sighed, lighting his own cigarette and handing back the lighter. "You look like you're enjoying yourself." "I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween. Parties, yes. Halloween, no thanks." The boy chuckled. "So you like the party?" I shrugged. "It's average, I guess." "Average? Ouch." I panicked as I realised what he meant - that this was his party. That this was his house. "This is your place?" The boy blew a plume of smoke into the night. "Yeah." "It's beautiful." The boy chuckled. "I wouldn't say beautiful," he retorted, and then paused. The wind rushed through against the house, throwing my hair into my face with force. "I didn't catch your name." "Maybe that's because you didn't ask," I uttered. I loved playing hard to get, even when a boy was way out of my league. "Nadia." The boy's movements stiffened, he was clearly not used to being turned down. "I'm Zane." My heart fluttered at his beautiful voice, the s****l tension between us electrifying. I didn't usually have one night stands, but the boy seated beside me was making me reconsider. I finished my cigarette and flung it out, before using my shoe to crush the red embers to dust. "So you're a second year?" I continued. "What you studying?" "Classics." "That sounds disgusting." "It is," Zane replied with a sinister smile. "But Film and Television sounds worse." My heart fluttered at the mention of my course - I hadn't told him what I did, so how did he know? "How the f**k do you know I do Tv and Film?" "Lucky guess." I rolled my eyes, knowing someone must've told him beforehand. No one guessed a course when there were over two hundred Undergraduate courses at the university alone. "Sure." There was something amiss about the boy I couldn't quite put my finger on, and I was intrigued. I stood up, dusting myself off. The boy's face fell. I knew that if I stayed to chat for longer, hormones would get the better of me, and I would not be waking up in my own bed in the morning. There was a strange connection between us, like an invisible piece of thread, and it scared me. "I like your tattoo, by the way. It's pretty f*****g amazing," I said as I walked behind the boy, who had remained on the step. But the moment the words left my mouth, the boy's actions stiffened, and he suddenly grew still. Silence stretched between us like eternity, and was only shattered by the opening of the front door. "Nadia! Oh thank f**k I found you!" Evie slurred, staggering out of the door and almost twisting her ankle on her six-inch black heels. "Luci's chunnin' everywhere and we're taking her home, you coming?" I glanced back at Zane, whose eyes were fixated on me, his jaw pulsing as though he was angry. I shook my head and turned back to my friend whilst Nora and Aiden carried a very ill looking Luci through the door. She loved alcohol more than she loved Halloween, and throwing up was a part of our typical night out. However, with pale skin and bloodshot eyes, she looked worse than ever. My legs carried me forward, and I took hold of my cousin. "I'll order us an uber," I said to the others and waved a hand for them to go back inside. "You go enjoy yourself, I got this one." Evie was about to argue with me, but I threw her my best death glare and she nodded before running back inside. Luci's head fell against my shoulder, lulling from side to side. I used the bottom of my shirt to wipe away the sick from her chin, and smiled sympathetically. Of all the people who could've ended up at the same University as me, I was glad that it was her. "Hang in there, Luce," I sighed, and pressed Confirm Pickup. I glanced back at the house one last time, our friends no longer in sight. However, my heart skipped a beat when I noticed Zane staring at me from the porch. He had stood up, his tanned chest shining in the light. We locked eyes one last time before he turned around and made his way inside. Once again, his impressive tattoo flashed in my vision, the feathers reaching across his entire back like a disease. I glanced for a second longer, my stomach churning as I noticed movement. It was as though - as though the wings were alive, each feather blowing in the direction of the wind. I could've sworn- I could've sworn I'd seen them move.