Red Moon, White Moon

Chapter 3: Charitable Feast

For the next couple of hours, I sat alone at the bar of Horror and Things, watching everyone get ready for the evening's event. All of them, including Kevin, were loading up on weapons, wolf's bane, and the silver spheres. I was offered numerous items by Toby; I refused everything he tried to give me. This was where I had to draw the line—if Kevin was stupid enough to get involved with whatever they were arming themselves for, that was his choice. After all, how many groups of kids on a Friday night put on long trench coats and pile weapons into them? None, unless they were absolutely out of their minds, and that, I was not. Yet the one person who did pique my interest was Hayden. While he did put on a coat, he didn't take any weapons. He was either a coward and would allow everyone else to do the fighting, or else he was crazy enough to charge into a situation that everyone else thought called for a weapon, without one. Based on what I knew about him, I went with the latter.

It was about six thirty at night, and they all huddled for a prayer. Well, everyone did except Hayden; he continued to stare at me from his stool at the end of the bar. I felt like he knew what I was thinking; a dash for the door, while they prayed, was tempting. With his piercing glare-cutting through me, I decided it was in my best interest to just go with the group and see what happened. When they finished their prayer, they stood up, and Bear nodded at us. Hayden rose from the stool at the end of the bar and headed towards the front door. Bear signaled for me to follow him, and I did exactly as I was told.

"I reckon you should stay within a chew's spit of me. That's if you want to survive because we fixin' to get ourselves in some deep manure right here."

"Great ... I'll do just that. I can't wait to see what kind of manure we're getting into," I said, glancing in Kevin's direction.

"It's going to be okay, Connell, you have to trust me," Kevin whispered in my ear.

"Right, because that's worked out for me so far. Kevin, will you get a grip here, why do you all have weapons? We're in over our heads and need to get out of here. We still have a choice and we don't need to get wrapped up in their fantasy world," I pleaded with him.

"Connell, we've been friends for a long time, and all you ever talked about was fitting in. Well, I finally found a place where I fit in. Why can't you be happy for me?"

"Fitting in and breaking the law are two different things. What the heck do you think they're going to do with these weapons? Think, Kevin. Think!"

"I'm sorry, buddy, but I'm with them on this."

Kevin walked ahead of me and joined Lilly and Andie Rae in conversation, while I remained next to Bear. As Seventh Avenue filled up for the Friday night parties, we calmly walked through the crowd and turned left on Scott Street. Ahead on the right was an old abandoned warehouse with a sign hanging in the entrance way that said "Feast for the Forgotten." Heading towards this building were hundreds of what appeared to be poor or homeless people. It was clear to me that they were looking for a handout to help fill their bellies for the evening. I thought for sure this couldn't be our destination, but we walked right in with the rest of the crowd. Hayden positioned us at a table in the back corner of the building and told us to keep quiet. I glanced around, puzzled at the thought that they needed weapons to attend a charitable feast for the poor. There were rows of tables set with cauldrons full of soups and stews, and at the front was a stage. The most unusual thing about the place was that the roof was missing, but I couldn't see any type of threat.

With the sun now setting, people I took to be volunteers closed and latched the warehouse doors. To my surprise, Jack Alexander and his friends were the ones serving the food. All I could wonder was why they would give up their Friday night before football started for this. From the cheerleaders to the obnoxious bus driver, if they had anything to do with Jack and his friends at school, they were here. While Jack and his cronies continued to serve the people their food, a hooded figure came out of a back room, climbed up on stage and took a seat. The group of nut jobs I was with seemed very interested in this person and began to maneuver their weapons inside their coats. Hayden locked on him like a hound who just found a fox. He sneered at the hooded figure, apparently eager to attack. It looked like the only thing stopping him from leaping out of his seat was Andie Rae, who gently rubbed his hair and whispered something in his ear. It thought she was telling him to be patient, but I couldn't be sure.