By The Light Of The Blood Moon

Invitations

It all began as a normal and boring Wednesday afternoon. Angel Dust was sitting at the bar trying to encourage Husker to participate in a conversation. Husker was making himself appear to be busy polishing the same glass for two hours. Nifty was...everywhere...cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning. Alastor was around, but nobody really knew where, as usual, when Charlie came into the lobby and cleared her throat to try to get everyone's attention.

"Ahem" Charlie cleared her throat for the third time, waiting for eveyone to pay attention, but everyone continued with business as usual until Angel got everyone's attention for her.

"Hey ASSHOLES!" he shouted. When everyone turned to look at him, he smiled and gestured for Charlie to continue. In the mix of things, at some point Alastor had even manifested himself on the chair by the fireplace.

"Um, thank you, Angel?" Charlie nodded to the spider, who lifted his glass in return. "I have an announcement," she said. "We have all been invited to a special 'blood moon masquerade ball' to take place in two weeks." there was a general murmur among the hotel guests, but again, Angel was the first to speak up.

"Hey, wait a minute" he said with an air of suspicion. "I only know of one person that has ever thrown a blood moon ball, and that was Vox." At the mention of his name, Alastor stiffened slightly, his ever-present grin looking a bit forced. "Are you suggesting that we attend a ball thrown by Bambi's sworn enemy?" Alastor glared at Angel, as much as one can glare with a cheshire grin spread across their face. "No offense, but don'tcha think that might just be a bad idea?"

Charlie looked at Vaggie, who was standing on her right, although just a bit behind her before she continued. "We ah," she stammered a little with the words, before proceeding "we talked about that, but we don't really have any reason to believe that this is anything other than a gesture of goodwill, so I would like to encourage everyone to attend if at all possible. Who knows" she shrugged "He might be trying to make amends." With that she dismissed everyone and walked away to her office, Vaggie trailing right behind.

"Yeah right" Angel said into his drink. "whatever that no good sonofabitch is makin', it ain't amends."

"For once," said Alastor, who was now seated next to Angel at the bar "I do believe that we are in agreement."

"Well" growled Husker, his tone sour as usual, "I think you're both right, but I still think you're fuckin' idiots." as he slid a bourbon into Alastor's waiting hand.