The Shadow Sisters

[E1] Chapter 25 - Marie Shadow

When the band started playing, Marie had still yet to locate her friends. There were just too many bodies. She called Riley on her phone, but it was difficult to hear the chirpy chatter on the other end over the loud chanting, drums, and bass.

Eventually though, somewhere through the middle of the third song, A Letter to Prometheus, by some happy accident rather than any competency of navigation, she found Curtis, Deja, and Riley huddled together in the middle of the crowd. Deja and Curtis were dancing while Riley stood with her hands stuffed awkwardly into her pockets.

Well, that's something we have in common, Marie thought.

Riley's face lit up at the sight of her. It was sort of comical, what with her dressed up as a ventriloquist's dummy. She held out her arms and said, "Hey, you made it."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Marie said, taking her position next to her friends. She gazed up at the stage, comfortable now that she had found her place. "The band are pretty good."

"They're alright," Deja said.

"They're no Belle & Sebastian, but they'll do," Curtis said.

Marie kept glancing at her phone throughout the show. Eventually, just as she'd been anticipating, it buzzed with a message from Ryan.

"Hey, sorry I'm so late," it read, "Getting here was an absolute nightmare. Traffic has been mental."

"No problem. We've just been partying hard in your absence."

"I hope you've left some energy for me. Where are you?"

Marie searched for a frame of reference, but frowned when there was nothing obvious. "We're somewhere near the middle."

"Oh, that's helpful."

"I know. Sorry."

He text back again a short while later. "It's okay. There's absolutely no getting in there now anyway. The crowd have completely blocked me out."

Marie could see that well enough for herself. It'd become almost as condensed as those vacuum compressed bags that Mum used to bring on their camping trips.

When she explained the situation to the others, Curtis said, "Let's go get him then. I'm dying to use the bathroom."

"And I could use another drink," Deja said, holding aloft a green tiki man cup. When Marie had first arrived, it'd been positively full to the brim with a bright, frothy red mocktail.

During an intermission, where the band were rolling out a piano and a brass band were organising themselves on a platform, the group of friends were able to make it out of a crowd that'd somewhat thinned.

It was at the edge of that where they finally found Ryan. Despite how big and imposing he was compared to most people around him, he gave off the aura of a lost puppy. Marie just wanted to run to him and comfort him, but that would probably freak him out, so she remained cool and sauntered over to him.

He was dressed up in his pirate costume. He had the eye patch, the frilly white shirt, the red cravat, the triangular hat, the brown trousers, the black boots, and the rapier at his hip. The black eyeliner really pulled it all together. Granted, it was more Disney pirate than the murderous commandeering reality.

Marie thought that he was incredibly handsome, illuminated under the bright lights of the pier. He was like one of those models put on a website to advertise the idealised version of the costume, something unattainable to mere mortals. She was almost dumbstruck to think that somebody like him could be so interested in someone like her. It had to be a mistake.

When he spotted her, his face unfolded into a smile and she felt something flutter in her chest. Oh, God, why was she such a mess?

She approached him and he said, "Hey, you look-"

"Weird?" she finished. "I look weird, don't I?"

But he was gazing at her up and down. Those big blue eyes sparkled as he drank her in, in a way that nobody ever had before. "No, Marie Shadow, that's not what I was going to say. That's not what I was going to say at all."

Marie edged closer to him. "Oh, what were you going to say?"

Ryan grinned, as if preparing himself.

Then the others joined them.

Curtis stared off into the bay. "We'll want to get back towards the edge of the pier before the fireworks start."

Marie raised an eyebrow. "Fireworks? Are you serious?"

Ryan chuckled. "Do you see that boat out there on the bay?" He pointed to what Marie could only make out as a dark shape perched upon the glimmering surface. "There are at least a hundred fireworks on that thing, ready to go off at a moment's notice."

"Shouldn't they all be stockpiled for October 31st?" Marie asked. That's what her old hometown had done. She knew that some, heck, even most places didn't let off fireworks for Halloween at all, finding it strange.

"Oh, it'll only be a tiny display compared to what you'll see on the night itself, when they're coming from all over the city," Riley said.

Once Deja had her drink and Curtis used the portaloo, they attempted to delve back into the crowd, but it'd condensed again so much that it was difficult to penetrate the wall that'd formed on the edge.

"Ugh, there are too many people," Curtis said, spying a gap that swiftly closed off to him, yet again.

The piano started playing as the band moved onto a slower song.

"We seriously need a good plague to bring these numbers down," Deja said.

"That's terrible, Deja," Riley said.

"So is overpopulation."

Ryan adjusted his hat. "What would you all say to getting out of here and trying for a better view? It'd just be a short journey away."

"You mean leave the pier?" Marie asked.

Ryan nodded.

"But we paid for our tickets," Riley said.

"It wasn't much," Ryan argued, "Especially with that student discount applied. The view I'm going to show you is priceless."

As they debated this, more and more rowdy people knocked into them and crowded them out, so that they had to gradually raise the base level volume of their conversation.

A spike of anxiety stabbed through Marie. She was not used to being around so many people and it was starting to get to her.

"I don't know," Riley said, "I wouldn't want to miss anything."

"I'd be up for it," Deja said. "It's getting to be a bit much here." She was looking ahead, to where two drunk men started arguing and brawling. Security guards were cutting through the crowd to intervene.

"Yeah," Ryan said, "And we'll still hear the music from a bit further away. What do you think, Curtis?"

Curtis's cheeks went bright red, as if he hadn't known that Ryan was even aware of his existence. "I don't mind at all. I think it'd be cool to go somewhere else."

Riley gazed at him, utterly mystified, before turning her pleading eyes to Marie, as if begging to receive some sense. "What about you?"

Marie glanced to the stage and then to Ryan, who wore a calm, easy expression. "Oh what the heck, it'll be an adventure, right?"

Riley's face was of someone who'd just swallowed a wasp.

"Show us the way then," Curtis said.

"That's the spirit," Ryan said.