Every Year

“New year, new me!” Betty says, throwing her arms up and twirling, making her gown blow out around her legs.

“What are you blabbering about?” Heather asks, looking up from the novel in her hands. Her red eyes narrow when she sees her companions gaudy ball gown. All puff and frill, not a matching pattern or color among the layers. “And where did you get the hideous clown costume?”

Betty sticks out her bottom lip and pouts, she drops onto the couch across from Heather. Their red eyes meet and Betty sticks her tongue out at her. “I’ll have you know this is my dress for tonight.” She says in a haughty tone. Heather rolls her eyes.

“Stake me.”

“Excuse me?” Betty snaps. “What do you have against a New Year’s Eve party?”

Heather sighs and sets her book down. There would be no peace in the sanctuary until she humored the other woman’s vanity. “What is the point of gallivanting around tonight versus any other night?”

“It is New Year’s Eve, it is tradition.” Betty says with a grin.

“Tradition. Peer pressure from dead people.” Heather says with a wave of her hand.

“Well we aren’t dead, and I am pretty sure I remember hearing a tale about a young woman, painting the walls of Poseidon’s temple red with the blood of his acolytes.

“Ah, that was Saturnalia.” Heather says, attempting to hide her grin at the memory of the blood bath. “And it was a sacrifice to ensure our safe travel to Egypt.” She points a hand at her companion. “It worked, I'll remind you.”

“You still believe in all that bullshit? Sacrifices and gods, good luck and karma?” Betty asks.

“You’re the one about to celebrate the planet revolving around our star for another year.” Heather says, picking up a goblet filled with thick red liquid. She grins at the glaring Betty, over the rim of her glass.

“Then come make a sacrifice to the old gods with me, to welcome in a new year.” Betty says, she stands and extends a hand to Heather. “Come on, you might find that you like it?” Heather gives in and dresses in a simple black minidress.

She is a shadow beside the colorful flower, Betty. Heather follows the other woman to the nightclub down the street. Packed to bursting with prey, Heather ignores the beast curled within her. The smell of sweating bodies, artificial pheromones, and cheap alcohol is almost enough to put any hunter off their meal.

Not Betty, the swirling mass of color is in her element, she flows into the undulating crowd under the flashing lights, and vanishes from sight.

Heather sees that there are others like them here, many others. The other predators give her a nod or a wink when they lock eyes, moving like sharks among a reef of unsuspecting fish. Heather finds enjoyment moving among the prey, their herd unsuspecting as they drink and partake of all manner of legal and illegal substances. One last hurrah before the end of the world.

The clock clicks closer to midnight and the music swells in the club. The doors shut and the disco ball overhead lights up with colored beams of blinding light. A large countdown timer appears in a rainbow of neon lights, behind the DJ.

The crowd counts down together. “Three!...Two!...One!...Happy New Year!” The crowd yells, balloons pop overhead and rain down glittering confetti, into the puddles of blood that scatter across the multicolored tiles.

A body drops beneath the disco ball, blood spraying the dancers below. The prey thinks it is an amazing stunt dancer swinging from a rope. The predators know it is the signal for their party to begin. The blood spilling from the penduluming body fuels their hunger. Some of them leap over the herd to their chosen target.

Screams erupt over the pounding music, some joyous as the prey dance in their new year. One they will never see. The predators choose their first bite of the bloodbath. The dancers become runners, seeing their friends be taken by red eyed monsters with dripping fangs.

The prey bleat and screech as they run for the doors, chained from the outside. Nowhere to run from the stalking hunters with glowing red eyes and lupine grins.

Heather stands in the center of the chaos watching the blood rain around her. She dives for a running man and grabs him by his hair. “Yes! Happy New Year!”