The Markus Party

CHAPTER 5, THE TWITCH

"Peter? Hey! Peter! What's wrong? You look...lost." Ian slapped his friend's back in an attempt to revive him somehow from the dazed mannequin he'd become. "Here we are taking part in a feast that has been called breakfast and very soon we will begin our glorious work." Ian tried to sound like Peter would, but Peter himself didn't even notice. Although he did nod his head and take another bite of the bacon that had been sitting in his hand for the last five minutes. Ian wasn't kidding though about the feast. They were seated at the longest table and once again their food rose up from the centre. Everything you could ever imagine constituting breakfast from around the world was there. Eggs, bacon, pie, chicken, bread, samosas, cheese, noodles, curry, crumpets, yoghurt, broth, cake, pancakes, mint tea, coffee, marmalade, tiny roasted birds, and in little bowls there were roasted crickets and grasshoppers. Eating it seemed was part of their job description.

"Have you guys ever wondered who's cooking the food?" Lucy asked and they all stopped chewing for a second. "I mean, we can't hear them and the food rises up to us. Plus, there's Rule No: 13, 'Don't go into the kitchen alone.'"

"I do think about it, but...it doesn't bother me." Patrick weighed in. He was one of the weirder personages in this group of interns. Emphasized by him pointing at Lucy with a sausage before nearly swallowing it whole, all the while trying too hard to look cool. He was a skinny guy with a rather awkward sense of humour. He had dark eyes, dark brown hair, and, like most of the people here, he was rather attractive despite most of his curly hair covering his eyes. The boys were seated on one side of the table, with Peter in the middle, and the girls on the other. Merissa and Janet were seated a few chairs down as usual, still too shy to talk directly to Peter.

"What about you Peter? Hmmm!" Peter turned to face Lucy still a little dazed. Jasmine blanched, feeling that the conversation was getting stale. "Have you wondered who cooks the food?" Lucy asked again and stared at Peter waiting for an answer. He stared out the windows at the bright light for some time, then he stared around the hall before he took another bite of his bacon. Lucy was getting worried. Usually Peter would take the opportunity to go into some lengthy explanation that would freak people out. "Are you okay?"

"Yes...I am eating." Peter murmured, but when most of the people kept looking at him he added, "I was just thinking things over." He was still trying to accept the fact that time had lapsed in the minutes he'd been seating outside the door. No matter how hard he tried to rationalize it, it didn't make any sense in the world. It was quite some trouble of accepting it as fact that he'd have to store in his head. It meant activating a part of him that helped in situations like this. Maybe there is a way I could use it for a prank, he thought. He just had to figure out how without wasting his own time. Clearly the rules were real. Clearly there was some magic to it, real magic. Maybe even vampire powers. He sniggered at his own thoughts alarming the group again. I can use them, he thought. But I can't tell the others before testing them out fully so that I don't sound, he looked at Lucy, insane.

There is only one way to do that and that's by using a dummy. He looked around the room for the bullies. Besides, he had to pay them back for yesterday. Not because he was mean or egotistic, but as a necessity. This back and forth with the bullies was rather fun to him. And they would be the perfect test subjects for the rest of the rules and how they function. Once he'd found them, seated at the furthest end of the long table, Peter waved happily. Baldwin flipped him a middle finger, which delighted him even more. Satisfied, he settled back down and was met with even more overly concerned looks from everyone in his vicinity; and even people further away. He smiled at them all. "You know what I was thinking about?" He announced.

"Your annoyance?" Baldwin shouted and rose up, so they'd see him. His group of ten started a series of high-fives while they all sneered at Peter. It was all rather childish.