This is Halloween - The Great Holiday Mystery

3. Dancing With The Devil

Day 2 – Morning

‘Leo?’ Calypso shouted. ‘Wake up!’

‘Wazzat?’ Leo picked himself up off the bench he’d fallen asleep on, half a dozen blueprints and sketches sticking to his face. ‘What time is it?’

Calypso rolled her eyes, ‘Time for you to get up. And take a shower. You smell like petrol.’

She tossed him a bundle of clothes, no doubt made by her fireproof cloth. She knew how clumsy he was, and how carelessly he caught fire.

Leo whined, ‘But I don’t wanna.’

Calypso turned to give him a death glare, ‘Now.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ he squeaked, seizing his clothes and tripping over his stool in haste.

Calypso laughed as he picked himself up, red as a tomato, and made his way over to the bathroom. While he was in there, his girlfriend busied herself with tidying his workbench. Although since Calypso’s moving in, Bunker 9 was a much tidier place, no matter how hard she cleaned it, she would go to bed one night and wake to find everything scattered everywhere once more.

‘Calypso?’ Leo shouted. ‘Where’d you go?’

‘I haven’t moved, you idiot,’ she rolled her eyes again.

‘Right,’ he came around the corner. ‘So, what today?’

‘You are working on the DJ booth,’ she reminded him. ‘And I’m and adding the decoration to the disco ball you finished yesterday.’

‘The disco ball was easy,’ Leo shrugged. ‘I already had it. Then it was just a matter of reprograming it.’

‘Yeah, well,’ Calypso kissed his cheek. ‘You don’t have a DJ booth, so get to it.’

Leo saluted, ‘Will do ‘ma’am!’

Racing off, he darted this way and that, sometimes picking something up off a bench, sometimes scanning a blueprint, and sometimes shaking his head in disapproval. Calypso watched him with a mixture of amusement and curiosity.

Leo was a wonder, in more ways than one. It would take a lot more than a screwdriver to unlock his head and understand was inside. What when through his mind was a mystery only Leo could ever hope to figure out.

With a sigh, the gardener returned to her work. Placing the last few bits and bobs in her basket, she looked around for where Leo had hidden away the disco ball.

‘Leo!’ she called. ‘What did you do with the disco ball?’

‘It’s in the side room by my bench!’ he shouted back from somewhere deep within the maze of halls and rooms.

Calypso sighed; Leo had more than one bench beside more than one side room. But knowing her boyfriend, she could figure out which room he meant. The one he spent the most time was just across the bunker right behind his main workbench which Calypso never dared touch. It was where he kept his most important sketches and blueprints.

Feeling around for the light switch, Calypso immediately spotted the dark hanging from the ceiling that became visible as the disco ball as soon as light flooded the room.

She smiled and set about spicing up the metal ball, ‘This’ll be fun.’

The morning went by in mostly silence. Out in the main bunker, Leo hammered away at a giant metal contraption that looked more like an electronic cage than a DJ booth. As more and more buttons were added, his maniac smile grew wider and wider.

Fairly soon, Leo looked like mad scientist, with his dark hair sticking up everywhere with grease and the psychotic grin he acquired when he was wiring up a new invention.

‘Leo?’

‘Sup?’ Leo didn’t turn around. He was too fixated on his device.

Calypso pushed herself up on a stool close by, ‘You’ll need to eat soon. It’s almost midday.’

‘It is?’ Leo finally glanced up and around for a nearby clock, spotting one across the room. Squinting, he realized Calypso was right. ‘Oh.’

‘Come on,’ Calypso grabbed one of his filthy hands and pulled him away, not minding the machine grease that covered her own skin. ‘I’ll show you the disco ball before we eat lunch.’

Leo chuckled, ‘You decorated it, I’m sure it’ll look awesome.’

‘I wanna show you, though,’ she insisted.

Leo relented, ‘Fine, let’s go. But I gotta get back to the DJ booth, I’m almost done, but there’s another little surprise I want to add.’

Calypso snorted, ‘Why does that not surprise me?’

Leading him to the side room, Calypso ignored the light and they stepped into the room. The disco ball glowed orange like a rotating pumpkin covered in thick black spider webs. The light flickered like a candle, yet still managed to light up even the darkest corners of the room. On one side, Calypso had crafted a pitch black spider that crawled along the side.

‘Wow,’ Leo mouthed. He moistened his lips and spoke louder. ‘Wow, Calypso, that looks amazing.’

‘Perfect for dancing,’ she agreed.

‘Well, only one way to find out,’ Leo held out his hand. ‘Care to dance?’

Calypso blinked, ‘Right now?’

‘Unless there’s another reason for me to stand here holding my hand out like an idiot,’ Leo grinned.

Calypso smiled and took it, ‘You’re always an idiot, Leo Valdez.’

Leo waggled his eyebrows mischievously, ‘Thanks for the compliment, my lady.’

From the disco balls light, their faces were bathed in a sinister red-orange glow. Calypso thought Leo looked like an elfish demon, with his hair stuck up and his crazy smile. He didn’t trip over his own feet or step on hers, like she’d thought, but was gentle and not a terrible dancer. A smooth devil.

‘What?’ he asked in response to the look on her face. ‘Surprised?’

‘Very,’ Calypso admitted.

‘Well, I’m offended,’ Leo said mockingly.

Calypso rolled her eyes, sure she would eventually have eye damage from doing so, ‘Don’t be.’

They danced, but Calypso couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong very soon. She dismissed it as a nervousness accompanying her release from Ogygia. However, unbeknown to her, Leo thought the exact same, and he knew better than to dismiss that instinct.