Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 48

Eve drove the black Cadillac into campus and parked it in the faculty lot - a blatant violation, but then, Eve didn't give a crap about campus tickets, either. It was the closest parking to the frat house. So close, in fact, that I could see the lights blazing from every window, and hear the low thudding thump of the bass rattling through the car.

"Wow" Eve said. "They've gone all out this year. Good old EEK"

There was a graveyard around the house, but creepy looking mausoleums, some decaying statues. There were also zombies, I guessed, party guests lurching around and doing their best living of the dead parody.

The dull roar of the party was audible even through the cars closed windows.

"Stay close" Eve said. "Let's find Sam, yeah? In and out"

We got out and ran the short distance to the graveyard.

At close range, the tombstones were either foam rubber, or styrofoam, and the mausoleum was a dressed up storage building, but it looked great. Zombie hands were reaching up out of the dirt. I came close to one, and it turned and groped my ankle. I screamed and jumped back into Eve, who caught me. "Jesus, guys, grow up" Eve said, and crouched down to look at the ground. "Where are you?"

"Right here!" A trapdoor covered with sod lifted up, and a geeky looking frat boy wearing a pledge board stuck his head out. "Uh, sorry. Just kidding. I have to-"

"Grope girls and look up their skirts. Yeah. Tough work, pledge" Eve stood up and brushed the dirt from her knees. "Carry on"

He grinned at her and thumped the trap door back down. His hand came up again through the hole in the ground.

"Wow" I said. "How many of them are there? In the ground?"

"Just the pledges" Eve said. "Come on. If Sam's here, he'll be talking to people. He loves to talk"

If Sam could talk, and anyone could hear him, it was more than I could imagine. The music was pounding so loud that I felt psychical waves through my body, and I had to fight back the urge to cover my ears. Eve had put my hair up into pig tails, and I missed having it over my ears.

"I need ear plugs!" I yelled in Eve's ear. Eve mimed 'what did you say'. "Never mind!"

The fraternity house was trashed. I suspected it was usually trashed, but this was extra special - plastic cups everywhere, drinks soaking into the carpet, and drunks sleeping on the sofa. Two guys stepped into our path and held out their hands in the universal gesture for 'Don't even think about it'; they were big, muscular guys dressed in white face paint with black t-shirts that said 'Undead Security' on them.

"Invitations?" One of them yelled. I exchanged a look with Eve.

"Ian Jameson invited me!" I screamed back. "Ian Jameson!"

The security guys had a list. They checked it, and nodded. "Upstairs" one yelled. "Last door on the left!"

I didn't intend to find Ian, but I nodded anyway. Me and Eve pressed between the two security guards and stepped over the threshold, into the house. Into the wildest party I'd ever seen in my life.

Not that my experience was wide, but still, I was pretty sure Paris Hilton would have classified this as wild. Despite the fact that alcohol was banned on campus, I was also pretty sure the punch was being ladled out of gigantic coolers. A lot of people at the party already showed telltale signs of being wasted. Spilling drinks everywhere, which didn't really seem to bother people, because, hey, zombies! Everybody wore white make up, or had some kind of rubbery disgusting mask.

The main room was kind of a dance floor, people pressed up against each other, swaying. I stood in the doorway, frozen with sudden dread. It looked like a room full of dead people.