Monroe capped the jug of hunch punch before accepting a can of PBR. He passed the jug to Jason, who shoved it down inside the cooler. The buzz of conversation grew more boisterous as the booze continued to flow. Brix even seemed to warm to the rest of them a little after pounding a couple cans of brew. Before they knew it, it was time to head up to the theater.
As they started in that direction, Kira gave Monroe a little nudge in the ribs with her elbow.
He looked at her. “Yeah?”
Her brow was slightly creased. “It’s funny. I was sure this place had closed a long time ago.”
“Huh.” Now Monroe was frowning, too. He stared at the theater marquee, where the titles of the movies were spelled out in black block letters. He didn’t spend a lot of time in this part of town, but he did come through here once a week or so en route to other places. He tried in vain to recall the last time he’d seen the marquee lit up like this. “Maybe they just reopened.”
“Maybe.”
She didn’t sound certain. There was even a small hint of wariness in her tone. Which was silly. It was just a movie theater. What was there to worry about?
A few more cars pulled into the theater’s parking lot shortly after tickets went on sale. Two of the late arrivals were John Dorsey and Greg Nelson.
John parked his Camry in a remote corner of the lot, far away from any other cars. He sat slumped behind the steering wheel. His eyes were red-rimmed and puffy. He’d been crying almost nonstop for hours, ever since he’d regained consciousness to find himself sprawled across his wife’s bloody corpse. He’d been acting irrationally from that moment forward. Rather than calling the police, he’d changed out of his bloody clothes and into clean ones. And then he’d left the apartment and started cruising aimlessly around the city with an open twelve-pack of Coors in the seat beside him.
He didn’t believe he’d killed his wife. He simply wasn’t capable of it, not even in a drunken stupor. As implausible as it sounded, the only explanation was that some maniac had come in and savagely slaughtered Marie while he was passed out, inexplicably leaving him alive. He believed with all his heart that this was what had happened. And yet, instead of acting in a sane way, he was doing illogical things authorities would undoubtedly perceive as the actions of a guilty party.
But he couldn’t seem to help himself. He wasn’t in his right mind at all.
He choked down one more beer and got out of the car.
As John staggered toward the theater, Greg Nelson watched his drunken progress with a disdainful fascination. The drunk was weaving badly. Twice he bumped into parked cars and nearly tumbled to the ground. The man was pathetic. Clearly a late-stage alcoholic.
Not that Greg cared.
He had concerns of his own, after all. He spied Kira’s silver Hyundai almost immediately. It was empty. She and Lashon were already inside the theater. He parked on the other side of the lot and turned his car’s engine off.
He made no move to get out of the car.
He would wait another ten to fifteen minutes, long enough for the feature presentations to begin. Then he would go up to the box office and purchase a ticket, just another late-arriving fright film fan. According to Lashon’s blog entry from this afternoon, the movie they’d be seeing first was
Rise of the Dead
.
That was so helpful of her, posting her plans for all the world to see.
She would never know he was in the theater with her.
Chapter Five
The man in the ticket booth had a swarthy complexion and eyes that looked too big for his head, the orbs bulging from their sockets in a deeply unsettling way. He was slender and wore a rumpled and ill-fitting tuxedo. He greeted each customer with a tersely uttered and oddly formal “good evening, sir” or “good evening, madam”. His accent was vaguely foreign but not immediately identifiable. A pencil-thin mustache made him look like a silent film actor, as did slicked-back, short black hair. Rings of varying types and sizes adorned each of his fingers. The rings struck Monroe as odd. In his experience, men who were not mobsters or rap stars did not wear rings, unless they were to signify marriage, successful completion of high school or college in a particular year, or fraternity affiliation.
Jason, being devoid of tact, of course had to comment as soon as he stepped up to the ticket window. “Dude. What’s up with all the fucking rings?”
“Do you wish to buy a ticket?”
A snort. “How did you guess?
Two
motherfucking tickets, pal. What are you, some kind of gypsy fortune teller?”
The ticket seller pushed a button and two paper tickets popped out of a slot on the metal counter. “I am not a gypsy. Two tickets is fifty dollars.”
“Fifty fucking dollars? Are you for real?”
The man’s strange smile did not falter. “One ticket buys access to all movies. You may see one or you may see them all. Do you wish to pay or not?”
Jason brought out his wallet, a black cloth thing emblazoned with the words
BAD MOTHERFUCKER
in block lettering, like Samuel Jackson’s wallet in
Pulp Fiction
. Which happened to be his favorite movie. He counted out bills and pushed them through the slot in the ticket window. “Are you sure you’re a dude?”
The ticket seller pushed the tickets through the slot. “You are holding up the line, sir. Please move along so that I may service the next customer.”
Nikki, standing beside Jason, giggled.
“Service.”
Several people in the vicinity also tittered.
Jason snatched up the tickets. He took Nikki by an arm and began to steer her toward the entrance. But he couldn’t resist one last snide shot at the weird ticket seller. “I’m curious about your sex change operation. I’ve got a general understanding of how the man-into-a-woman process works, but the other way around’s a mystery. What did they use to make your dick?”
“Move along, sir. Please.”
“Oh, and what’s up with your eyes? You should see a doctor about that.”
“Sir, if you don’t—”
Jason’s loud laughter cut him off. “It’s cool. I’ll leave you alone now. Whatever you are.”
Nikki giggled again and then they were pushing open the glass door to the left of the ticket booth and stepping into the theater. Monroe reached for his wallet as he and Kira stepped up to the window. Kira gripped his arm lightly and spoke in an emphatic tone. “No. I’m paying.”
Monroe frowned. He didn’t know how to feel about that. For one thing, he wasn’t sure if this qualified as an official date. On dates, guys were expected to do things like buy tickets and pick up the check at restaurants. It was one of the rules and everyone knew it. On the other hand, he didn’t have a lot of money currently and it was tempting to let Kira pay…
“Look—”
Kira looked him in the eye. “I’m paying. Seriously. It’s no big deal. I already told Lashon I’d pay her way in and, because you’re my date now, I’ll get your ticket, too.”
“Um…”
Lashon sighed behind them. “Will you just let her do it? You know you can’t win arguments with her.”
Monroe did know that. “Okay. Whatever.”
Kira stepped up to the booth and purchased three tickets. Monroe noted a flyer taped to the booth’s glass window. It read
Doctor Ominous presents The Late Night Horror Show!!
“Who the hell is this Doctor Ominous dude?”
Lashon snorted. “Who cares?”
Moments later they were inside the theater. Another slender, tuxedo-wearing man with a swarthy complexion stood at a metal stanchion to the rear of the booth. He took their tickets, tore them in half, and wished them a pleasant evening. Monroe glanced back at him as they moved farther into the lobby and approached the concessions stand. Then he looked at Kira. “This must be a family business.”
“Yeah.”
“Those dudes look exactly alike. I mean
exactly
.”
“I know that, Monroe. I have eyes of my own, you know.”
“I’m just sayin’…it’s fuckin’ eerie.”
Kira shrugged. “Maybe they’re twins.”
Lashon slugged him in the shoulder. “Try triplets.”
Monroe followed her eyes and did a double take when he saw the man standing behind the concessions counter. This man wore a bow tie and a black satin vest over a starched white shirt, but physically he was another virtual clone of the ticket seller, with the same slender build, complexion, thin mustache, and slicked-back hair.
Monroe leaned close to Kira to whisper in her ear. “What’d I fuckin’ tell you?
Eerie.
”
Kira squinted at the guy in the bow tie. “Yeah. Okay. Maybe you’re right.”
Jason and Nikki were already at the counter. Jason caught Monroe’s eye and grinned. He jerked a thumb at the man in the bow tie, whose back was turned to them at the moment. He was scooping fresh popcorn into a large bucket. “You see this shit?”
Monroe stepped closer to his friend and kept his voice low. “They all look alike.”
“
Exactly
alike.”
“That’s what I said.”
“It’s weird.”
“Weird as
fuck
.”
Brix Harris abruptly moved into Monroe’s field of vision, stepping right up to Jason and getting in his face. She and Trevor had been behind Lashon in the ticket queue. Her body language was visibly hostile. “Jason.”
He frowned at her. “Yeah. What’s your problem?”
“I just like to know what kind of people I’m hanging out with. I’d like to know if you always act like a retarded monkey in public.”
“The fuck are you talking about?”
His tone was harsh, but she didn’t back off one bit. “That obnoxious display at the ticket window. Did you think you were funny?”
His frown slowly transformed into a crooked smile. “Shit. I
know
I was funny.”
“You sounded kind of like a bigot.”
The frown returned. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“Goddamn. How the fuck did you get that out of anything I said?”
“I’ve got transgendered friends. Think about it.”
Jason, looking incredulous, stared at her. “It was a
joke
, for fuck’s sake. And I’ve got a hard time believing you have friends. Fuck you.”
“Fuck
you
.” Brix’s acid tone seemed thick with the threat of real violence. “You’re an idiot. And you better watch yourself.”
Jason shook his head. “Are you seriously scolding me, like I’m some kind of little kid? I’m just having fun. You’re not my mama, so piss off with that shit. And knock off the stupid threats. You don’t scare me. Got it?”
“Just mind your damn manners so I don’t have to kick your ass.”
The man in the bow tie cleared his throat. Jason blinked and looked at him. The items he’d ordered were on the counter. He picked up the popcorn bucket and passed the oversized fountain soda cup to Nikki, who was glaring at Brix. He looked at Monroe, then at Trevor. “I could say a lot of things here, but I’m just gonna keep my fuckin’ mouth shut, out of consideration for my friends.”
He and Nikki walked away.
Brix glared after him for a moment before returning to the back of the line.
Monroe leaned close to Kira. “Awkward silence.”
She responded with a grunt and spoke under her breath. “Yeah.”
Monroe shrugged the weirdness of the moment away and approached the counter. They ordered popcorn with extra butter, candy, and large sodas, then headed off to the theater showing
Blood Lust
.
Lashon accepted the candy and soda purchased for her by Kira and went off by herself to the theater showing
Chainsaw Maniac
, having abruptly decided she didn’t want to be in the same theater with Brix Harris. And she thought it’d be nice to give Kira and Monroe some space while they watched the vamp movie, making it more like a real date for them. At least for the first movie. She’d catch the second screening of the zombie flick with them, avoiding the weird Harris girl altogether.
Though he’d been the focus of Brix’s hostility, Jason wasn’t about to let that sway him from seeing the first screening of
Rise of the Dead
. Given the number of people present, the theater would be mostly empty anyway. He and Nikki would just sit far away from the weird hicks, making out for ninety-some minutes while the end of the world played out on the big screen.
The initial screening of
Blood Lust
was lightly attended, to understate. Monroe and Kira had the back row of the theater to themselves. Another couple sat in the row closest to the screen, a world away. They had the place virtually to themselves. The theater lights went down and the requisite safety announcement appeared on the screen. Kira leaned closer to him and dipped a hand inside the large bucket of popcorn propped on his lap. Monroe put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned even closer. An MPAA advisory appeared on the screen and the first coming-attractions trailer began soon after.
Monroe smiled.