The Midnight Quartet; The Apocalypse Festival

Open Casting Call

Every story has a beginning. A lit match that falls onto the little line of gunpowder that leads to the giant wall of barrels that happen to be filled with explosives. Well not over emphasize my importance in the grand scale of this wacky universe. But that beginning is kind of me. Yay!

Now I have lived, you know? At 18 I have been eaten out by a Goblin, groped by a tendril of the abyss, and somehow called fourth a meteor to demolish a small town full of inbred hick witches. So yeah I have done some shit. Not level 1 over here, not even close!

But that was past me! I had one very odd coming of age story and I thought, done. It was time for this sassy redhead to live the easy breezy life here in good ol Santa Cruz. Pricey you say? Not if you stole a duffle bag of gold and dropped a fucking rock on the previous owners head! Not that I wasn't smart. I went incognito...kind of. Beach house, rainbow hair, gay roommate named Larve, and party, party, party!

Looking back on it now. I guess one can say there were warning signs. The blizzard that covered Santa Cruz, Ca in a foot of snow and ice, The blood moon, the strange red eyes peering through my window that in hindsight was not a cat, I don't know maybe about six other omens that I just didn't want to see? I was done with that life.

"Hey is this animal control?" I said on the phone. I grabbed my vitamins and downed them with an old strawberry margarita. I might have been on hold for hours at this point….or five minutes. I had also been done with creepy cats. Yeah not cats and huge red flags.

"Do I see the weather?" I shouted. "Yeah man, I see the weather. So get out here and get these cats before they freeze their trails off! They are clawing my windows and watching me." I pulled my pink bathrobe tighter against me.

I don't remember what he said. But it had to do with putting the cats in places where I didn't want to be clawed.

"Well screw you man!" I screamed as I pressed the end call button with enough force that I hoped he felt it on the other end. And then my phone turned off. On its own, with a full battery. A second red flag.

The door flew open and a swirl of snow, ice, and blackness swirled into the room. A third red flag.

I reached for a knife as that old voodoo krept through my bones. I remember the jolt as everything stalled. A fifth red flag. I tensed, waiting for a cat monster to come.

"Amberley, you look like you have seen a ghost." I sighed as Larve stepped into the room. His tattered pink and blue pants and heart shirt were covered in snow. "Or a snow storm in California."

I remember moving in for a hug. "It's those god damn cats!" I hissed. "They are creeping me out and trying to get in…

"What cats sweetheart?" Larve asked. I realized it was quiet. So many red flags.

"I guess you scared them off." I said as I shivered and pulled away. I tried to laugh it off. "You hungry? I am hungry. Should we order Chinese and we can watch some HBO?" I asked

"No delivery tonight girlfriend." Larve said with his silly lisp. "No escape for you honey."

This is when my vision blurred, my body trembled. Did he have something in his hand? So many red flags.

"If we can't get out, how did you get in?" My body screamed in protest. My voice slurred.

"I flew." The voice still lisped but now echoed with a power I hadn't felt in years.

"What, what, somethings wrong." The floor twisted.

"Yeah, the poison finally kicked in didn't it?" Larve stood over me, blurry and smug. It blocked your mojo honey boo."

"Poison?" I gasped. "A roofie?"

"Sure, but this one took months to get you to this point. Where you couldn't run, couldn't fight back."

"But you're gay? You are my friend?" I asked weekly.

"Oh ick, it's not about putting anything in. It's about taking things out. Harvesting time."

The knife glinted in his hand. I should have ran. I should have dropped a flaming rock and caved in his flaming head. But I couldn't do anything.

A scratch at the door.

"Cats are back,'' I whispered.

"Don't worry, they will be feasting soon." Larve said. He laughed. "Someone has gotten close. The poor idiot is the appetizer. You are the main course."

A bright light filled the air. A howl of wind. The glass in the windows cracked and exploded. The door snapped from its hinges. I should have used the distraction to run but instead I just sat there like a Gerald… I mean an idiot. Gerald is an idiot.

"What in the world?" Larve muttered. He looked up so that the arrow could hit him in the face.

This is when I first met Cleo DarkSpell. She strode in, crossbow aimed and rapier drawn. Her black armor gleaned from the explosion still rippling outside. Her hair jade black seemed to glow from a light coming off her blade.

The poison was making me trip super hard.

"Private party!" Larve screamed. The arrow still in his brain didn't bother him. Figured he didn't use it, he said my favorite shorts made my butt look fat. His hand stretched into a sickle from my childhood farm.

This lady didn't blink. She blocked the sickle spun around a second attack and then thwack! Off goes the arm. No big deal, he just grew a new one.

"Gerald! I need containment!" The lady screamed.

"Dealing with the scratchers!" The very British came back. "Essie is trying to banish them but they have an anchor!"

"The anchor is in here trying to disembowel me!" The woman screamed back.

More claws, more cuts and rolls and limbs dropping. I was struggling to keep up. I think I was drooling, how embarrassing.

"Just a simple job you said! Nothing about a freaking hoard master!" Gerald entered the room a blur of blues and reds and yellows and purple hair.

"Freaking idiot" I slurred.

"What did she bloody say?" Gerald screamed. He swatted a tentacle away with a baseball bat.

"She called you an idiot," Cleo said. "Now stop pissing around and contain this thing.

Well that's rude! I have a mind just to leave and let this thing dissect her!"

"Not your call thankfully. Just do it!" Cleo shot back. I think a part of her armor was shredded by a close call.

"Kill you!" Larve screamed as his human features melted away leaving a blob of teeth and claws. I mean what? He used to give me beauty tips!

"Fine" Gerald screamed as his bat erupted with energy and sprouted thorns. (Right? Batshit nuts).

Cleo cut down the claws leaving an opening and no question who the brains of this operation was.

The bat hit dead on, hitting Larve's chest. He stumbled back slamming into our counter.

"You bitch!" He screamed as he (it? I don't know the appropriate pronoun for blob) oozed forward.

The thorns from the bat dug into his body. Gnigt stopped. His mouth hung open. Roots shot from his lower blobernous form and dug into the ground. Bark covered the bulbous zits and pustules on Larve's form, encasing him. Branches burst out, and then flowers. My roommate was a tree.

"You turned my roommate into a tree!" I tried to say. I think they just heard gibberish. I could feel Cleo's breath on my face.

"Essie, we need you!" Cleo screamed all in my face.

"Yeah Nessie, give me a ride." I mumbled.

"Did she call me a sea serpent? A thin oriental woman said as she strode in. She walked strangely, moving from one side to another, almost swaying. “I don't know what is more nasty. The present or the future.” she added as she avoided blobs of cut off gay roommate.

Was she dancing? Now was not the time to dance!

Her blue dress scratched and torn, glided across the threshold.

"Monster slain, let's leave this tart!" Gerald screamed.

"Now Gerald, you need to watch your manners. She needs help." Essie the sexy weirdo, not a sea serpent, responded.

"Can you help her?" Cleo asked. She waited for Essie to join us on the floor. "Gerald, collectors like this can come in groups. Keep an eye out.

"Aye aye captain!" Gerald said. Did he salute? Probably. He left the room with my smokes. Holy shit, my smokes!

"This is bad." Essie muttered. "Hags grass, hell hound tooth, venom of some sort. This is nasty. It cut off her spirit. She is going to die."

"I am going to what?" I almost got the words out.

"Can you heal the damage?" Cleo asked. There was urgency in her voice. I think she kind of cared.

"I can.. I see that she lives." Essie said, her voice strained. "I can save her. But will she be able to use her magic again? I don't know."

"We need her magic for the festival." Cleo muttered.

Festival? I think that will be a hard pass.