Crumbling Visage

Party Games

It was past midnight and the party was going strong. There was music, alcohol and people keen to get drunk on it and then, there was Lina.

Lina had preferred to stay sober over getting drunk and weeping or maybe saying or doing something she would surely regret the next day. This was all pretty new to her and she had preferred to prepare herself for the little to no social interaction. No one knew much about her and she hadn't been greeted besides a few polite nods and smiles; she preferred it this way and was eager to go home and actually get drunk.

Just as she was contemplating if it was too soon to leave, the music stopped quite abruptly. Then there was darkness- such damp darkness and so full of the sound of silence that she turned around and tried to grasp at something-anything. But the air seemed blank, cold and her eyes couldn't make out a single thing.

"Hello?" her voice reverberated into the void and dissolved after a few seconds. She decided that this must surely be the afterlife- she must have drunk enough to kill herself, purely out of boredom.

If this was what the afterlife was like, she thought sardonically, why had she ever bothered to stay moral enough to maybe try and end up in heaven? Or why had she feared hell every time she'd cursed her colleagues for socializing? Oh, she could have just murdered the attendant on the bus who'd tried to strike a conversation with her only to mock her or her posh, pretentious senior during college who'd laughed at her hair or...

The quiet sound of a piano filtered through the air and snapped her back to immediate reality. She still couldn't see a thing or hear anything other than the soft, mysterious music. The melody was soothing and she decided that she must be drunk enough to fabricate it all.

"Lina?" the voice was deep, slow and barely a whisper but Lina jumped up from her stupor. There was blank darkness but the voice was close enough to whisper.

"Yes?" Lina tried her best to maintain her composure and added, "What is going on?"

"There has been a power cut, it'll be all right in a while. It's J, if you can't tell." The voice laughed shortly.

"Right." Lina had no idea who 'J' was. She cleared her throat and spluttered out, "Why is it so quiet in here? I mean..."

"All drunk and passed out. Looks like we're the only sober people in the room huh?"

"Looks like it." Lina tapped her finger against her knee. She could've sworn there was enough noise to blow out your eardrums only a minute ago. "I should really be leaving right about...now. See you later, J." Or not, she added in her head.

"Want to join in for a last dance?"

No. "Sure." She said in her most level tone of voice.

As she danced, her heels seemed to click loudly against the silence of the place and uneasiness struck her. The silence, the piano music and everything else was too surreal and suddenly, realization hit her.

She dashed to the front porch and tugged the door open. The faint light of the moon showed the shadow of the dark, desolate place. As she looked out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blood-soaked bodies spread out against the expensive rug.

"Wait up, Lina! You and I are tied up for the 'last person standing.'" This was accompanied by an amused laugh, "I don't like sharing, know what that means?"

"Yes." Said Lina casually. It was all so quick, the shock barely registered on J's face as the knife pierced his heart.

"Huh, I guess I don't believe in hell." Lina walked home, thinking that this really called for a drink.