Young Writers Society

The Anima Homicidii stared pointedly at the spot where the voice came from. What she described didn't seem purposeful. Still, she followed the instructions. She had agreed to, after all, and she wasn't going to break her word.

Her movements were stiff, awkward beyond belief, but she managed to keep track of the soulless creature well enough not to cause harm.

Rowenna nodded. "Yes, we do. As for hunting people, we both do it. We don't have a choice, I just do it less eagerly. He's really not as bad as people say he is, anymore. When he was younger...." she trailed off, a faint smile. " I like it when he tells me about Mom. She died when I was a baby. Killed. By humans." A flinty look came into her eyes.

Bettie appreciated Annie’s caution- it was sweet, really- but she couldn’t resist the temptation to test her patience, to spice things up.
She curled around her, hopped over her legs, swirled in and out of her reach. Daring her.
___

"The innocence that was stolen from you and your family still shines in your eyes," said Guy gently. "Despite all the world's pitchforks and stakes, love continues to not end. I am sure your mom would be honoured to see the light that remains in you."

___

Baba did a one-hand handstand on the bar. Context was not necessary.

Rowenna looked up at Guy, startled. "That was gorgeous! Thank you. I just hope you meant it. I don't mean that rudely, but I am very suspicious of new people. Do you want to go somewhere more comfortable?" She stood up and stretched.

The Anima Homicidii slowed when the soulless one darted out of her reach, one of her arms trying to track her before she returned to her. The Anima Homicidii blinked in confusion at this behavior, but decided it was part of the dance.

She tried to keep track of the being, a task that proved rather more difficult than she would like.

Finally, she snapped. She didn't get aggressive. This thing wasn't human, but she decidedly acted very much more human than most, and aggression was never taken well by humans.

No, she just snatched the soulless one and pulled her closer, being careful to be gentle. There was no telling how fragile the form was, and she didn't want to break her. Still, she was firm.

One beat, and she continued the dance, never letting the soulless one out of her reach for more than a fraction of a second.

Bettie's pointy grin stretched wider.
She had had no reason to provoke Annie's forcefulness, but for the thrill in itself.
Bettie pushed, and met pull. She parried, and met thrust. Now that was how a dance was supposed to be.

"Aww. You can squeeze a lil' tighter, hun." said Bettie, tracing Annie's waist with her spade tail as she twirled around.

"I can take it."

__

Guy stood, confused. He was a rare creature- a youngster with no concept of sarcasm or irony. An edgy youngster with no concept of sarcasm or irony.
As such his genuineness was often questioned, but it always caught him off guard nonetheless.

"Uh, yeah. That'd be rad." he said.

The Anima Homicidii blinked. The tone the soulless one was using was odd. She'd hear it used between humans, but she'd never gotten the meaning.

Still, her dance partner had granted her permission, and it would be much easier to keep track of her with a little more force. So she obliged.

"That's great." Rowenna tilted her head. "Any idea why you were invited? Because I have no idea why I was. Think we were picked at random?"

"Dunno, I didn't read it." said Guy, pulling it out of his inner jacket pocket. He unscrunched it, and read. "Ohh it's a Halloween party for non-humans. ...Wait, this is a Halloween party?"

__

Bettie's grin stretched until her face was in danger of splitting. Realising that this would not register with her blind partner, she settled for a happy squeak.

The song was ending. The Anima Homicidii pulled the soulless one toward her - Bettie, her name was - and spun her around a final time. As the last night rang out, she pulled her closer, looking curiously at the blank space in her hands, then took a step back.

The Anima Homicidii gave a curt bow before straightening out, never taking her eyes off of where one of her hands - which was resting on Bettie's shoulder - told her the soulless one was.

The dance had been enjoyable, but The Anima Homicidii didn't ask for another. It was always difficult to tell when that would be taken as impolite, and she didn't wish to offend Bettie.

Ryan and Azalea both gave very enthusiastic claps in response to Baba's handstand. It was a great one, and neither one of them were experienced when it came to gymnastics.

"That's an impressive handstand," Ryan said. He could see the bartender watching out of the corner's of his gaze - from the way his flaming gaze lingered, Ryan was pretty sure even he was admiring Baba's skill.

Without moving from handstand position, Baba swivelled their head to look at Ryan and Azalea, and then the bartender.

"Oh, you know, it's pretty easy when you don't have nerves. Or tendons. Or weigh much."

---

Bettie put her hand over Annie’s, and hopped for joy, still a little giddy.

“Ah! That was sublime- let’s go again? Just one more?”



Violins cut into the air, haunting strings and horns filled the room in a frantic but measured rhythm, chaos with mathematic deliberacy. Danse Macabre. The Dance of Death. Bettie blushed.

“Oh, I'm not so practiced in classical. I've only been around since the 20's. But I'm willin' to give it a shot, if you are.”

Rowenna frowned. "I think it's a Halloween party, but....." She stopped, looked around the room, and then stared hard at Guy.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there was an ulterior motive. Her mouth never opened, she said the words inside of Guy's head.

The Anima Homicidii obliged. She was getting more used to the smooth movements required to participate in these dances, and, thankfully, this was a form of dance with which she had the smallest amount of experience.

There was a night, many forgettable years ago, in which she'd been summoned. Her followers had hoped to compel her to take the souls that were marked for her, but the timing was not correct. The Anima Homicidii had lingered, however, and had seen the souls about the dance floor within the palace in which she'd been called performing a dance to a song not dissimilar to the one that played now.

It was in this way that she knew how to perform the dance correctly, if not well. The soulless one was very light on her feet, or just light in general, and she could keep up quite well as The Anima Homicidii took her turn in leading the dance.

The plate of jalapeno poppers went down the bar and Carter quickly grabbed it. He could feel the energy coming off the person standing beside him, knowing they probably wouldn't want to have too much interaction. It was easy for Carter to get a read on people - it was something he was born to do.

As usual, Carter decided to strike up a conversation, introducing himself with, "I'm Carter." And quickly followed it by extending his hand to the being.

-----

Paul was surprised to have someone interested in his writing. He searched around in his head for just a minute to see if he could come up with any interesting pieces. The most interesting thing that Paul had done recently was researching culinary magic.
Definitely a touch and go topic.
To answer the mer in the pool, Paul simply said, "Yeah, I'm more of an academic writer than anything else."