I:V

I woke up the next morning with dew on my face. People were passed out all over the place. This is one of those times when one thinks to oneself “Jeeze, we definitely partied too hard last night.” Erick was asleep on the longest couch between Jesica and Alexandra. The three were toppled over like dominos with a scrabble board on Erick’s lap and letters all over the place. I could only deduce that we’d gotten into a letter fight at some point.

As I looked about Castlevek, scouting for evidence of what had happened last night, someone caught my eye. At some point during the party, Rashinda had showed up with Kumar. Kumar was a skinny Hindu guy. He had an unbelievable sense of humor. He was short, he had short black hair, but his face was well defined, his nose was a little large but it suited him. We, the group, had a discussion once while he wasn’t around and we concluded that he was probably gay. Oh well, he’s hilarious.

He and Rashinda (Rah- SHEET- uh) had been best friends since as long as anyone could remember. They came into the group together at some point in middle school. Ever since she started hanging out with us I didn’t feel like the token black kid. She was small; small body, bones, and frame; petite. Her skin was darker than mine. She kept her hair straightened, and just above shoulder length. She had big brown eyes and a narrow nose. Her face was narrow and she had high cheek bones. Her lips weren’t huge like mine. She looked good. Well, normally she looked good, at this particular moment she was laying in a chair back to back with Alex… her arm was very wet with drool. It was funny to see the both of them. They looked like two little kids, but Rashinda was my age.

I found my jacket - it was a black and gray “gangsta” sweater, I liked it - I reached in a pocket and pulled out a note that read “Note to self: When not stoned, go to inner city bus station 6pm. Wait. Also: don’t wear jacket, Vince puked in it. I threw the jacket off onto the ground. I looked at my watch and saw that it had taken my a few minutes to decipher the hieroglyphics that I had left for myself. I heard a noise and looked over to Vince, he had fallen asleep next to the fire pit. He laughed when he saw my jacket on the ground. “I know you didn’t put that thing on.”

“Cute, Vince” I laughed. “I’m out of stogies, you got any?”

“I Left my cigarettes in my truck. Come on, I gotta wake up.” His deep voice rumbled when he was groggy. He got up off the ground and brushed the dirt off of his clothes. We proceeded down the hill.

“I can’t remember much of what happened last night.” I said, breaking the silence.

“Not surprising,” he grinned, “you were pretty fried.”

“However, I vaguely remember you mentioning something about a black truck, right?”

“Yeah, some douche bag almost ran me off the road.” We reached his Jimmy. He opened the door and shuffled through the glove compartment. “I meant, I could tell the dude was just not paying attention to the road but, shit!” He handed me a cigarette and lit his own, “The was doing like 90 over there in East Mortem.” East Mortem was a residential zone that consisted of “rich” houses; Mercedes, older folks, Chihuahuas, the whole nine. It was like how we in Mortem picture Florida.

“East Mortem?” I repeated.

“Yeah, I guess there was some party Rick and Alex were at over there, they called me to pick them up. Turns out it was whack anyway.” I took a drag and leaned against Jessica’s Civic. Lucky for us the sun was on the other side of the hills at the moment and we didn’t have to suffer blindness.

“You said it was a Chevy?” I asked taking another drag.

“Yeah, an Avalanche. Nice machine, if I do say so.” He looked over to his right. I followed his gaze and saw Rashinda coming down the hill. Her arm was dry. I couldn’t help but wonder if when she woke up she wondered if I saw her drooling.

“Will you asshats, please shut the hell up?” We laughed as she came between the cars and leaned against the Jimmy next to me, “Which one of you can I bum a cigarette from?” She was looking at me, I pointed to Vince. He pulled out his cigarettes.

He handed her a cigarette, “It’s the least I can do for you after bumming your cigs all night.” We chuckled. I remembered the note I’d written.

“Hey do you guys know what this is about?” I pulled the note out of my pants pocket and handed it to Vince.

After looking at it for a second he said, “Oh yeah, y’see, I’d eaten a lot of sea food yesterday, so when I started coughing a whole bunch from the weed, my stomach started turning and it started coming up-“

“Not that, you dunce!” I cut him off and pointed to the first part of the note, “That!”

He read it aloud, “Note to self: When not stoned, go to inner city bus station 6pm. Wait.”

“Oh yeah,” Rashinda said, “You and Erick’s little mission.” She smirked at me mischievously.

I:IV

By the time we reached Castlevek, the sun had set. Jesica, Malissa, Alexandra and I picked a couch to sit on; Erick leaned over the pit and attempted to get the fire started. Unlike these girls Erick and I could appreciate the sunset. More than that, if Erick had a pen and paper he could describe it for you. Not verbally, though. There were high stacks of junk and scrap metal that, when staring into the sun looked to be silhouettes of mountains; brilliant shades of orange and red pouring between them, blacking them out. I pulled out a cigarette and looked over to Jesica who seemed to be doing a great deal of thinking.

“What’s on your mind Jesica?” I searched for my lighter.

“So you’re telling us that you think the place is haunted?” Her face twisted in a manner that insinuated she was going to call me a moron.

“No, not haunted” I laughed, “Just, you know, someone is using the house as a front to disguise a Colombian slave and drug ring while they get enough money to import their Russian nuclear weapons that would ultimately be used in a mass suicide bombing that will eliminate the United States… and most Pacific Islands.”

Alexandra cut in laughing, “How do you come up with this shit?”

“Oh, its really quite simple, after you’ve established a base camp at 46,000 feet-“ Malissa cut me off.

“The only thing simple for you is where to find a big dick.” Jesica and Alexandra found this hilarious.

“Well of course,” I replied, “how else could you be a tripod, Malissa?” Erick got the fire started and chuckled.

“Had you considered that maybe someone just moved in?” Jesica asked after her laughter subsided. Erick looked over to me. I was at a loss for words, I had no idea why that hadn’t been a possibility in my mind.

Vincent and Rick came up the hill with a tiny and hyper Alex. Vincent was large. Close to seven feet tall, muscular, and mean. Sometimes I was very glad that he was on our side. He had a glandular problem when he was born so he grew out of his body very quickly. No one had ever guessed that he was a Junior in high school. His hair was short and very dark, his skin pale, and he dressed very comfortably. Usually tan Dickies pants and a tank top. Vincent was an angry and violent person, but I had never seen him hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.

Rick’s name wasn’t Rick. I met him two years ago, he was new in school and a bunch of people were bugging him about what his name was. From a distance I could tell that he just didn’t want to have people in his business. They kept asking him what his name was and he was feeling awkward (I could tell) so I stepped over and I said “His name is Rick now leave him alone already.” The group of people was naive enough to buy it and they left. It wasn’t his name but I told him if he didn’t want people to know his name, then he should go by Rick. He did.

Rick was shorter than me. His skin was very fair. His eyes were sad, sunken, and around them were sleep deprivation rings. I had hung out with Rick a lot and not once seen him sleep. I didn’t want to bring it up with him though. He was skinny and had dark hair that he kept extremely short.

Alex was the youngest of the group, but certainly the craziest. He said stuff that I could never think of. He had bug eyes, blonde hair, and always looked tired in the face. I think that was because of how much weed he smoked. He was very skinny. I liked Alex because he knew how to have fun. Not necessarily get high, or throw a party, he just always knew how to entertain.

When the three made it to the rest of us, Vincent looked over to me and asked, “Who’s the fuckin’ maniac in the Chevy?”

I:III

Jesica and her Honda Civic had seen some adventures. As the oddly colored heap pulled up to Castlevek, I noticed all of the scratched and scrapes along the side of her car. I know a lot of them were from me when I had a Civic also. I used to side swipe her car all of the time. In retrospect, that was a really dumb idea, and it fucked up my car too.

Jesica, Malissa, and Alexandra had been friends since sometime around the womb. One could only separate the three with a scalpel. Jesica was tan and it complemented her sandy blonde hair, but it never stayed blonde long. She was beautiful in the face with a short nose and large eyes. She was thin but there is no getting around this… her body was amazing because of her most predominant feature… her butt. It was huge. Not wide and flat or misshapen though, it was like a regular white-girl butt under a magnifying glass. It was good. When one stopped paying attention to Jesica’s glorious butt they would have no choice but to enjoy the warmth of Jesica’s kind and relaxed personality. The only behavior that slightly be smudged this was her uncontrollable need to cuss. Not so much as Tourette syndrome, she just cussed a lot. She was the reason of the trio.

Alexandra’s body was like that of a jock. Not a beefy jock, but a feminine one. Her curves were easily traceable, and it was no burden to do so. She was also beautiful in the face. Her eyes were large and innocent, she had thick pouty lips and her nose was upturned. Although she wasn’t much of a joy to try and hold a conversation with, she made up for it with her outgoing spirit. She was the… comic relief of the trio.

The best way to describe Malissa: she is my other half. The most obscene, vulgar gory thoughts, summations, and references found their way to Malissa’s mouth. She was clever, sharp as a tack, and funnier than a barrel filled with people. Her face was sharp. Her eyebrows were arched just enough to keep her pleasantly angry looking. She had big eyes that she painted around with the thickest blackest eyeliner, and her high cheek bones and thin lips, which looked good on her, made her entire face so desirable. The feature that separated Malissa from the other two girls was that Malissa was very chesty, but she had no hips. She still looked good, but she had a small butt. If you could somehow put Malissa and Jesica together… well, you’d be married.

When she got out of the car she turned to Jesica. “Jesica, be sure to tell the valet to lock the doors,” She was talking about Erick, “I don’t trust the negro.” That one was about me.

“Malissa,” I said warmly, “When you want to speak, raise your hand and Erick will pull his dick out of your mouth.”

“Well thank goodness you brush your teeth or I’d never be able to catch you with my television.” We laughed.

“So what’s on the agenda?” Jesica came round in between the cars with the rest of us.

“Well I suppose we can start heading up the hill.” I pulled out a cigarette and handed one to Erick, “I think it’s going to be a minute before Vince and Rick Show up.”

“Do you know who all is supposed to be coming?” Jesica asked as we all began walking.

“Not a clue but I heard that Alex had something to share with us.”

Malissa interjected, “Jesus, I hope he didn’t try anymore acid,” Her eyes widened, “Last time he ran around town naked for two days.”

“I don’t know,” I told them, “But Erick and I saw something strange today. Very strange…”

I:II

We called our hang out spot Castlevek. “Castle” because one of us thought that would be a cool place to call a hang out spot and “vek” because there was a rumor that some Russian from the Red Terror escaped, was on his way to Mexico, got caught, and was killed somewhere in the nearby area. His name was Viktor Vek. The old man who told us the story seemed pretty convincing, but I can’t help but wonder what a Soviet was doing in the Central Valley.

Castlevek was located a few miles outside of town. We couldn’t hang out there on windy days because it’s located out in what could be called a desert. I wouldn’t call it a desert because I think there is too much vegetation, but there is a lot of sand. If you saw it you would probably call it a desert… I’m getting off topic. Anyway so after WWII the U.S. had a lot of money and all of these nowhere towns started sprouting up. Mortem was one of those towns, and so was whatever town used to be under Castlevek. Mortem is still alive, that’s where we live, but the remains of the town under Castlevek were nothing more that high organized stacks of metal and wood. It was basically a junkyard.

We parked our cars at the end of the road from Mortem and we would walk the rest of the way to Castlevek. We had set up a bunch of couches and stuff and moved some of the old 1950’s cars around a circle. In the middle was a deep black pit in which we held bon fires.

To me it was only fun to be in Castlevek if we were all there. That would explain why Erick and I were sitting in the car. Whoever showed up next would see my car and we would all wait for the next car. If someone came to Castlevek uninvited, we would usher them to the other side of the town which was a lot less safe than our side (and that is really saying something!), and the uninvited person would eventually leave. Police never had a problem with it. Only one group of guys was persistent about trying to get into our spot but I’ll get into them later because the next car is arriving…