Sick

“Isla!”

Mia’s voice yells from the kitchen. Her voice is overlapping with at least a hundred others, all packed into my grandparent’s cottage. “Are you going to help me?”

“Yeah, sorry,” I say, but I only half mean it. It was her idea to have a Halloween party, and I’m letting her use my grandparent’s house to host it. I had even told her that the only reason the cottage is available to use for a party is because my grandparents are ill, and she still insisted. Isn't that enough help?

I push my way through all of the warm bodies dancing in my way. Among the cast and crew of friends and acquaintances that had decided to come tonight, the least favorite of mine by far were my ex- boyfriend and his new fling. I’m not sure why they even wanted to come. But sure enough, Taylor’s smirking face greets me when I get to the kitchen. My best friend stirs punch, and Ben and Taylor take turns picking pieces of apples out of it to snack on. Despite the party being at my house, he ignores my presence completely. She glares at me from behind him.

I roll my eyes and look out the open window. The moon suffocates behind an overcast of clouds. A cool draft blows in through the window, making me instinctively reach for the jacket on the counter.

“Um,” Mia says, and I realize my mistake. It is Ben’s Letterman, which now belongs to Taylor. She giggles.

I avoid their stares and continue to look out the window. My face is red hot against the chilly October air, and I can feel Mia’s sympathetic gaze on me. Six months of being broken up, and it still feels like it happened yesterday.

Cobwebs, string lights, and other decorations adorn the shed. Starting to smile, I say, “Taylor, why don’t you run to the shed and grab a blanket for me?”

She grins wickedly. “Anything for a friend.” She grabs Ben’s hand to lead him out the back door with her. He looks at me with guilty eyes. “Isla-”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten where they are already,” I state. He knows I’m still angry, but I don’t feel sympathetic to his guilt. He was guilty when he cheated on me with her, and he is guilty now. The last time he was here, at my grandparents cottage, he had gotten extra blankets from the shed to lay on the lawn and stargaze. Now the only thing in his gaze is her, and it repulses me. He turns and leaves without another word.

“I need more apples,” Mia says, following them. Before I can protest, she is gone.

As soon as I step outside, I am immersed in darkness. The only illumination comes from twisting orange and purple lights around the shed. A stillness envelopes the grounds, and for a moment, all that exists is the shed and I. I listen and wait.

Just as I hear Mia go back into the house with the swing of the kitchen door, a piercing scream disrupts the peace outside. Grinning, I walk to the twinkling door. I hear shuffling, crunching, and moaning from behind it. But now, as I take in the scene before me, the screaming isn’t coming from the victims. It is coming from me.

In the shed stand two small, naked figures hunched over two bodies. My grandparents, wrinkly and ravenous, twist and pull the flesh from the bones of their victims and shove it down their throats. Ben is under the grasp of my grandfather; But to my horror, it was not Taylor sneaking off with my ex-boyfriend, and it is not Taylor who is in my grandmother's arms.

“I thought you said your grandparents were sick,” Mia gurgles.

“Well,” I say, “They kind of are.”