“This party is going to be epic, really one to remember,” said Brad, leaning back in his crackling wicker chair. He and his three roommates wiled away the afternoon on the porch of their rented brick house. The house, battered and worn from years of hard use by college students such as them, lay tucked away in a leafy residential neighborhood about a mile from campus.
Brad pushed his long, black hair from his eyes and crossed a sandaled foot over his knee. “How many kegs did you say we could afford so far, Birdman?”
Birdman stretched his long, lanky legs out from the couch. His words tumbled out in a loopy rush, “Three kegs if we stick with Victory ale, but more like five or six if we go with that light beer piss.”
“I think we should stick with the good stuff,” said Gabe, sitting next to Birdman. Slightly chubby, Gabe had soft, blue eyes and a thick beard.
Brad frowned at him. “I don’t know,” he said, “I don’t want us to run out. I think a lot of kids are going to be coming to this.”
“No way!” Casey protested from the wood porch railing. She kicked her legs and beamed at Brad with her carefree grin. “Gabe is right, stick with the Victory ale.”
Gabe couldn’t take his eyes off Casey. She dressed like the boys — sloppy T-shirt, flip-flops, corduroy pants — and had long, thick, brown hair. With her freckled face and smiling voice, she radiated natural beauty and charisma. “This isn’t a frat house,” she said. “We don’t drink light beer here!”
Birdman tittered. Brad looked at Casey, knowing he was no match for her. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he conceded, “quality over quantity.”
“Bird, are you guys going to play in the basement?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah, we’ll probably set up in the corner. That way we can broadcast vibes through the whole house from its bottom root chakra, just explode up from deep in the house’s subconscious and infect the whole place with cosmic energy.” Birdman demonstrated with his hands, putting them together on his lap and raising them up above his head in a sunburst.
“Which reminds me,” Brad said, getting up from his chair. “Come on, guys, follow me for a second.”
The four went inside, immediately joined by Brad’s dog, Odin, and Gabe’s dog, Morrison — both medium-sized mutts. The menagerie went down the hall, through the kitchen, and down the creaky basement steps.
The basement was a dank, unfurnished space with a grimy concrete floor. A single beam of waning afternoon sun shone through the squat window near the ceiling.
Brad gestured to the wall with the window. “Ok, so, the band is going over there.” He turned and walked the other way, toward a closed metal door on the opposite wall. “And we should put the kegs over here, by the boiler room. Everyone congregates by the beer, so this way there will always be a good crowd in front of the band.”
Gabe eyed the boiler room door. “As long as we leave that shut,” he said.
Birdman giggled anxiously.
A tentative grin appeared on Brad’s face. “Why do you say that?”
“Have you seen that room lately?”
“No, why?”
Gabe opened the metal door, and a clammy, rancid tide of air poured out. The dogs approached the doorway, sniffed at it, then quickly backed away, nervously licking their chops.
“Jesus Christ, what’s that smell?” asked Brad, his face bunching up. “Did something die in there?”
Casey tried the switch just inside the doorway, but no light came on. The four of them squinted and looked inside, none of them daring to go in. At the far end sat an old furnace and rust-spotted water heater. Above, strings of torn spider webs stretched across a maze of metal pipes.
The unsettling mumble of innumerable flies filled the room. Just behind the water heater and the furnace, down near the floor, a dark patch stained the wall. The patch was the swarm of flies — likely hundreds of them, crawling over each other in filthy waves.
“That’s some sinister shit,” said Birdman.
Brad waved a fly away from his face. “Good thing we came down here. Someone’s going to have to get rid of all that, whatever it is. Clean it up.”
Birdman swallowed. “I’ve got the bathrooms. They need to be cleaned before the party.”
“Kitchen,” said Casey.
“Living room,” Brad sounded off. He turned to Gabe, “I’m sorry, buddy, that leaves you with the basement.”
Gabe blinked hard. “There’s no way I’m getting near that,” he objected. “We’ll just leave the door closed. Nobody will see it.”
“I don’t think so,” said Brad, his voice firm. “We’re not leaving it like that. It’s got to be cleaned out before the party.”
Gabe crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing. “Oh, that’s just rich for you to decide it had to be me, Brad.”
Gabe’s dog, Morrison, growled beside him.
“I didn’t decide, Gabe,” Brad said, stepping closer to him. “Everyone else called a different part of the house, so you’re the only one left to do the basement. Is that hard to understand?”
Brad’s dog, Odin, barked at Morrison.
“Oh, I understand perfectly well. Just pile the nasty shit onto the one who doesn’t immediately jump up and call a different room. That’s really, really fair.” Gabe could feel his face getting hot, his heartbeat pounding in his temples.
The dogs’ growling grew louder.
Brad shook his head and flashed Gabe a carnivorous sneer. He raised his voice. “Life isn’t fair, Gabe, that’s just how it is. You’re a big boy, so do your part and stop being such a goddamn baby, okay?”
“What did you just call me, you fucking prick?”
“A goddamn baby, you goddamn baby.”
“Fuck you!” Gabe shouted, his face purple.
Odin and Morrison suddenly collided, snarling and snapping, their once-placid faces contorted in hideous, wet-toothed rage.
“Shit!” Casey yelled, stepping back from the tumbling canines.
About Chris W. Martinez
One Comment
I take it the gist of the story is that there is a prescence in the house taking over people and making them do things they nornally wouldn’t. At the end you are left with the spirit taking over the one friend and then taking over the other to cause him to hang himself. I like the concept. I wasn’t too particular taken by the beginning which moved slowly but once it got going it was good. I didn’t care too much about the golf seen and thought it was a good scene outside if this is building on something else for the future. That is my take on it. Otherwise I like the concept behind the story. Nice State College reference.