Chapter 172: Eve of the Carnival

Chapter 172: Chapter 171: Eve of the Carnival

read lotsstory inpatre** : belamy20

Night settled quiet over the residential streets on the edge of Los Santos.

Anita lay on her stomach across her bed, lamp light pooling over the open book in her hands. Stacked beside her were older volumes with titles stamped in faded lettering: Introduction to Demonology, The Evolution of Possession, Medieval Records of the Supernatural.

“—In order to prevent the host body from rotting, a possessing demon must regularly consume the flesh and blood of young men—”

The color drained from her face. The description dragged her thoughts straight back to her best friend Jennifer.

Jennifer had always been the center of everything—cheer captain, the kind of girl boys orbited like planets. Confident, loud, impossible to ignore.

Everything changed last week.

Jennifer had shown up buzzing with excitement, insisting a band called Low Shoulder was playing in Los Santos. They were from the same small town. Hometown loyalty, she said. She dragged Anita along.

The second they stepped into that bar, the nightmare started.

Halfway through the set the place went up in flames. Anita had hauled Jennifer out the back door by pure desperation. They barely made it outside before the band members were already waiting. They shoved past Anita’s protests, half-dragged Jennifer into a van, and vanished.

When Anita saw her again, Jennifer looked like someone else wearing her skin—clothes stiff with dried blood, eyes empty. She staggered into her own house, charged the kitchen, and tore into raw chicken like an animal. Later she vomited a thick, stinking mass of slime across the floor.

That image still sat behind Anita’s eyelids every time she closed them.

After that night students started dying. Football captain first. Then club members. Each body more torn apart than the last.

She remembered the news about the psychiatric hospital that had collapsed in the suburbs—only one confirmed death, wild claims of angels and demons fighting under a sky full of holy light. Anita had never believed that kind of thing. Now the pieces lined up too cleanly.

Jennifer had been taken by the band. Something had been done to her. Something unclean. Maybe even—

Possession.

Young male flesh.

Anita stared at the page for a long time. The mutilated boys on campus. Jennifer’s raw-chicken frenzy. The way her friend’s face had grown gaunt, skin taking on that dead gray undertone.

She closed the book and looked at the calendar.

This weekend was the school’s Spring Carnival. The entire student body would be packed together in one place.

For a demon that needed constant feeding, it was a perfect hunting ground.

—

Inside a brightly lit mall that same night, Soren let himself be dragged from store to store like a mannequin on a leash.

Patty held different jackets and shirts up against him, muttering the whole time.

“You can’t even answer a few texts? You’re never home.”

She adjusted his collar with sharp little tugs. “I’ve been trying to get you fitted for a proper suit for weeks. You vanish, so now we’re stuck with off-the-rack.”

Soren stood in front of the mirror and let out a tired breath. “It’s just a semester-end party, not a graduation. Why the full production?”

“It’s not the same and you know it.”

Patty glared and yanked the tie tighter. “It’s the Spring Carnival. Games, performances, a real dance. I just… I want you looking decent for once.”

He decided not to fight the point. “How long does this thing last? One day?”

“Yeah.”

She stepped back, satisfied with her work. “Friday’s just warm-up. They’ve already got rides and booths going up on the lawn. Saturday daytime is the traditional relay and club shows. Night is the dance. They’re even bringing in some big-name acts.”

“Anyone I should know?”

“No idea. You know I don’t follow that stuff.” Patty paused, then added, “Though I heard they booked that band that’s been all over the internet—Low Shoulder.”

Soren’s hands stilled for half a second.

“The ones who ‘saved people’ in the bar fire?”

“That’s them. Every feed is full of praise. Half the girls on campus are obsessed.” Patty wrinkled her nose. “They look like trash to me. Music’s just noise.”

Soren gave a short, humorless smile.

Patty’s voice dropped. “There’s something else. Students have been dying. A few guys, torn up like animals got them. School buried it fast. Finals and carnival coming up—they don’t want panic.”

Soren frowned. Los Santos wasn’t some backwoods town. Wild animals didn’t just wander onto campus and start eating people.

Whatever it was, he’d take a look when the time came.

“We’re done.”

He handed the discarded clothes to the clerk.

Patty hurried after him. “You’re not even trying the purple one? Or the one with the little bow? It would look—”

“This is fine.”

—

Friday’s warm-up events passed without incident. The campus stayed loud and bright and completely ordinary.

Saturday daytime was pure chaos in the best way—relay races, club performances, students screaming themselves hoarse under clear skies. By dusk the crowd finally thinned, everyone heading home to change for the real event.

Night settled in fully. A small pink Beetle nosed through the packed parking lot and found a spot.

The driver’s door opened. Soren stepped out first.

The new black suit fit clean—dark red pin-striping catching the light just enough to look intentional rather than loud. Combined with the white hair, it turned heads the second he appeared.

He ignored the stares, walked around, and opened the rear door.

Carrie climbed out. Same soft-colored dress she’d worn to the movies, quiet and gentle under the streetlights.

Patty stayed put in the back seat.

Soren waited, confused.

Patty finally snapped, voice low and furious. “Your hand. You’re supposed to offer it so I can get out. That’s how it works in every single romance drama. Move.”

read lotsstory inpatre** : belamy20