Carnival

Happy Halloween, Assholes

Venus sighed softly, staring into the cloudy mirror in her bedroom. The only illumination in the room was the dismal glare of the streetlights outside, casting ugly shadows through her shuttered window. Her heart slowed a beat as she gently lifted the bandage off from around her left eye, ripping the medical tape off with a brief sting that always seemed sickening to her.

Once the bandage was removed, Venus slowly opened her eyelid. As always, the gross pink of the back of her eye was deemed gray in the low lighting, making her wince at the sight. Four months and she was still bothered by the loss of her left eye, and not even the scar on her chest or the tiny white circles around her mouth bugged her as much as the empty socket. It wasn't even the loss of sight that was the problem; it was that she either had to keep her left eye closed in public, or wear the stupid eye-patch her mother got her.

Tonight, however, was the one night that the patch would come in handy. Halloween night was always fun for her and her closest friends, whether they were trick-or-treating or hanging out and watching scary movies or just freaking out little kids by jump-scaring them from trees or bushes as they went past. This Halloween, Venus had decided to make light of her "loss-of-eye" situation and be a pirate, a cheap spinoff version of Captain Scarlett.

After fixing her hair in two braids, she placed her eyepatch over the empty socket and plopped her hat on her head. It didn't fit quite right, but she still managed to push it backwards enough so she could see through it. Venus tucked the last rouge strands of red hair into the pirate hat and grabbed her bag from her bunk bed.

Before leaving, however, her phone buzzed loudly on her desk. Venus rolled her eyes and grabbed it, silently reprimanding herself for being so stupid as to almost forget her cell phone. Thankfully, someone had called her, which had reminded her just at the right time. Venus pushed open her bedroom door and walked through the dark house without looking up from her phone, a feat she had accomplished after years of practice. She passed her mother and her mother's boyfriend sitting on the couch, watching a shitty movie that was no doubt produced in the 70's, and merely raised her hand in farewell before unlocking the front door and stepping outside.

It was cold as fuck, and from the nip in the air, Venus guessed that, given a few weeks, frost and snow would be on its way. The number that had called her was anonymous, so she figured it was one of those sales calls that do nothing but advertise their awful products to you, as if anyone ever buys them anyway. Shoving her phone in her messenger bag, Venus headed to her car. The old, 2003 Trans-Am was well past its days of functionality, but Venus wasn't a quitter and would push that car to the limit until it broke down, which could be rather soon. However, it was the only car at the second-hand dealership in town that her mom could afford for her, which suited her just fine, considering she very rarely used it.

"Ready to go?" She called without even looking behind her. A disappointed sigh came from the rustling bushes, and once she unlocked the car, Venus turned to see her best friend, Kian, leaning against the garage door.

"You heard me?" He didn't sound very surprised. Venus snickered and tapped her eyepatch.

"Maybe it's something about losing half of one of your senses that makes all the other ones stronger. That, and your stomping through the bushes ain't too discreet." She circled to the driver side of the car and got in, checking all the appliances inside to make sure nothing was broken yet. That, and any small critters making their home inside the shitty car. Last month, Venus had a bad accident with a fume-cooked chipmunk thinking that her exhaust pipe would make a lovely house. He, however, was wrong, and managed to cost Venus nearly 1,000$ to get her exhaust pipe repaired.

"Get in, numbnuts!" She called to Kian when he had paused, his hand on the handle of the door, to look behind him. Kian rolled his eyes when he turned back, yanking the door open. It creaked unceremoniously, but neither of them paid any mind to it, since it did this at least every time something was moved in the car. As Venus turned the key in the port, it make a sputtering sound. However, after about three tries, the car burst to life. Venus craned her neck around to see behind her as she pulled out into the deserted street.