Shay jogged up the many, many stairs. Hoo hah~

There were fewer partygoers on the second floor. It was nice to see more of the carpet and flooring without all the people and party fouls. But... a new floor meant more rooms... and more places where Tyvan or Nuri could potentially be.

Shay checked two rooms to begin with. The first was filled with stinky smoke and a bunch of people playing cards. Also, drugs. Also, immoral activity on the back couch.

The second room was filled with just immoral activity. Also, drugs-- probably. Shay spent maybe about three seconds total looking in that room.

Ugh. But those rooms were private-ish guest rooms. Maybe that kind of thing was to be expected.

There was a bigger room, though-- one with double doors at the end of a hallway. That looked promising!

Shay politely let herself in, closed the doors behind, and immediately regretted that decision. The room was a bit bigger than the others-- but it still managed to reek of unwashed bodies. Was it the smell of a different kind of drug? Or was it just... body odor? (And which would be worse?)

She’d entered a half-study, half-library. It had a desk, some seating, and a series of tall bookshelves lining the walls. It was like a smaller, less-decorated version of Elysium’s front office. Oh! And there was a little wooden stepladder propped against one of the shelves. Very cute.

There were four people present-- three guys and a girl. And, THANKFULLY, they weren't doing anything worse than PG-13. It looked like they were all just... standing around-- in their masks and full costumes.

Maybe they were all friends? They shared the same theme:

Zombie.

Ragged clothes. Empty gazes. Their makeup was fantastic, with crispy-looking scabs and extra-moisturized fluids, drippy on their faces. All four of them snapped their head toward her, staring with horrible, hideous expressions.

Shay let out an automatic gasp. They were roleplaying! That was so cool!

She wasn’t great with the horror genre, but she had so much respect for movie fans. They were people that were willing to spend so much money and so many hours making lore-accurate costumes and acting the part, regardless of what people thought.

Buuuut... Shay was on a mission to find Tyvan-- or Nuri. Meeting cool people was still a secondary objective. So, since she had everyone’s attention--

“H-hello. Love the attention to detail. Has anyone seen... a guy with silver hair?”

Blank stares. Was that not enough information?

“He uh... dresses really nice? Uses big words and speaks with a funny accent? Says things like ‘adequate’ and ‘discombobulate’... probably.”

More stares and staring. Tyvan was a really unique person, from his dress to his demeanor. So if no one noticed him...

One of the guys moved forward-- err, shambled forward in film-accurate zombie fashion. He was... licking his lips and making low, animalistic growling sounds.

Shay did not like that. She covered up her chest and started backing away. She knew there was a reason she didn’t want to go to Nuri’s party!

The zombie tried to... grab her? She stepped back, well out of his reach. She was not at all interested in being sexually harassed. Even if the move was totally in-character, that didn’t mean she had to play along.

“N-no thank you,” she said. “But if no one’s seen my friend, I really--”

“mrRaarrrr~!”

The zombie-guy reached for her again. Shay’s training kicked in, though, and she planted a palm into his chest, pushing him back.

“Hey! Don’t be like that,” she said, putting a little depth in her voice. “I know how to defend myself, sir.”

The guy snarled at her. His breath was absolutely rank, even at the distance.

Was it... the drugs again? His three friends continued to stare in random directions-- probably zonked out of their minds.

Shay didn’t want to cause trouble in Nuri’s house, but... not everyone that she invited was a reasonable person.

The creep came forward again. So Shay gave him a (slightly) panicked kick to the thigh.

“Hey! I-- I don’t wanna fight!”

“GrAWRRRRR!!!!”

He reached forward with his grimy hands-- but Shay smacked them aside. (Ugh. Their skin felt cold and gross.)

Argh! If that person was so determined to be a zombie-creep, then FiNe!!

Shay punched the guy in the stomach and transitioned that to an uppercut to the chin,. Then, she drove her shoulder into his solarplexus while pushing off with her legs.

The guy stumbled back, tripping and falling onto his butt in front of all his friends! But he got up again, looking even more furious.

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There was a small tray on the coffee table with a bunch of things in it-- including a miniature clay planter with a leafy thing growing in it.

Shay stomped on the table surface, then kicked the planter at the guy.

It hit! It hit him square in the chest and the guy fell down again. It was so cool! And... no one really saw it-- not even the guy’s druggie friends.

But for whatever reason, the guy was sTiLL committed to being a zombie! Weren’t zombies supposed to be wEak? Or was he supposed to be a Romero zombie? If that was the case, he wasn’t going to give up unless she did something drastic.

Shay kicked the coffee table forward, its top part knocking right against his shins. Then, she hurried to the side, and--

‘SHAY!! She’s going for the cute stepladder! What’s she gonna do with that!??’

Bam!

She swung it down, trapping the guy between the rungs.

--so it wasn’t a ‘bam,’ really. It was more like a ‘whoosh.’

Shay kicked the guy. He toppled over. Oof. He was probably going to feel that in the morning~

Then, she waltzed out of the room and shut the door behind her.

Phew.

Drugs were scary.

Back to the hunt.

Suddenly, Shay heard a yell.

And with that yell was... a familiar laugh?!

Nuri? It was Nuri! Almost for sure!

Who was yelling?! Was it Tyvan??? Err-- no, probably not. Tyvan didn’t do yelling. But it was a guy’s scream! Did someone else get attacked by drug addicts??

And Nuri-- why was she laughing??!

Shay ran over to the door where she heard the voice. (Ugh, another door.) She steeled her will for whatever she was going to see and she bUrst into the room!

And the first thing that hit her was the smell.

Oh, it wasn’t bad and gross like the zombie cosplay room-- but it was... more... offensive, somehow. Shay had to cover her nose with her hands.

She was in a guest bedroom... and Nuri was there. She was dressed wildly-- and... scandalously... in a black, strappy, leather outfit. It made her red hair and eyes pop. She looked like a whore, though.

Whip in hand-- okay.

And she was stepping on... a masked person. It was a black... shiny mask. So... vinyl? Rubber? And with a blindfold? And... a ball-gag?

And... a...

C...

COWBOY HAT?!???!?!!!!

Shay felt her knees buckle, and she barely stopped herself from falling. She still screamed, though. “N-nooooo!!!!”

There was only ONE person she knew that wore a COWBOY HAT!!!

It was... it was Rook!! Callum Scott! He was a friend from work!!!

The person Nuri said she’d recognize... NO! It couldn’t be Callum!

Shay ran forward, tears in the corner of her eyes as she knelt in front of him.

No, Callum... No! He couldn’t be doing what he was doing!

The last time she saw him, he got beat up in front of her entire sect-- and Tyvan! And Bishop! (And even Monty.)

But was that horrible, embarrassing loss SO crushing that he needed to recover by getting dominated by a rich girl in Rockford Hills? Did he really think putting things that weren’t supposed to be ingested or inserted into his body was a healthy coping mechanism??

No... Callum-- no!

What would Mirabel think? And where was SHE? Was she okay with her husband’s weird fetishes?!

And what about his son? Callum had a darling son who was really sweet and sUpeR polite even though he was only in second or third grade!

Shay tried to take off his ball-gag... but she couldn’t undo the buckle. And it was covered in something slimy. She took off the blindfold-- she could at least do that.

And she stared into his...

...brown eyes?

Uh.

Callum... did not... have brown eyes.

So... that person... was not Callum.

......Then who?

Oh.

Ugh.

It took a moment, but Shay finally recognized the creature in the rubber suit.

It was Dong-Hyun. The creepy Hongdai manager.

--who was... nnnnot Callum.

“MmmmmMmmmhhhh~!”

He made a noise.

No. It made a noise.

It... sounded... weird-- like... maybe it didn’t actually want to be freed?

Uggggh. Very weird.

And its eyes-- oh, no. Whatever drug-addled emotion it was feeling, Shay didn’t want to know.

She put the blindfold back on.

And... she pulled the brim of its hat down.

She stood up. And she... crossed her arms.

“Uh. Hey, Shay?” Nuri smiled, “You uh... wanna play with my new toy?”

She offered her whip... covered in smelly, unfamiliar juices.

Shay did not want to know what those were.

She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to even look at Nuri, what was in her hands, what she was stepping on-- or anything else.

“No... No, I do not want to play with your toy, Nuri. I... I think... I just wanna go home..."