Happy birthday, Lain! This time only three months late, yay! I give you drugs, graveyards and silliness.

Wonderfully edited by Amindaya :)

Psychoactive Effects

It was chilly at the graveyard; just like every last day of October Henry had spent there since he was ten years old. The sun had set a while ago and the back of his jeans was damp from sitting on the grass since then. He had pulled his knees up to his chest to keep warm, but it had only worked for a moment — now all of him felt stiff with cold, and shivers were running through his body no matter how hard he tried to stop them.

Next to him, Mitch sat sprawled against an old tombstone while Lin buried his face between his legs, making Mitch exhale a long sigh and throw his head back with a smile.

Henry watched and had no idea what was going on. The last thing he remembered was the Halloween party. He was sitting with everybody, eating brownies that Mitch had brought from home and in a blink he was standing in the middle of the town’s graveyard, staring down at his mother’s grave. The flowers he had placed next to it that morning were still sitting there.

Night had rolled around fast and slow at the same time, every blink fast-forwarded or rewound the position of the sun in the sky. Henry had stumbled to the ground, confused and scared and had panted in his hands and knees until he’d heard his friend’s voices from nearby.

“What was in those things?” Lin’s voice asked from behind a tall statue of tall forms with giant wings sprouting from their backs.

“My secret recipe.” Mitch’s voice sounded clearer and stronger and Henry had stood up to follow it. He didn’t know how he had managed to walk around the statue or what he had said to the other boys when he’d spotted them laying on their backs on the dead looking grass. Bits and pieces of the whole day were missing and kept coming back in the wrong order.

Henry had sunk to the ground with renewed dread when he realized his friends were no better than him and couldn’t explain what was happening. Besides he didn’t think he would have been able to understand even if they could talk.

They had lain there in silence until Henry had turned around and seen them wrapped up around each other, making noises like they were sucking their insides out through their mouths.

Henry, through the haze in his brain, had suddenly remembered they were in a graveyard and images of the zombie movie they had watched earlier started to come to mind. The sucking noises, the howling sound of the wind sweeping through the trees, Lin’s light limbs entwined with Mitch’s dark ones and the biting cold all jumbled in Henry’s head and he started fearing for his life.

He couldn’t stand up but he was sure if he didn’t, a rotting hand would reach up from the ground to drag him down forever.

Then he would have a moment of clarity and realize that if Lin and Mitch, who spent their days arguing and fighting, were grinding against one another with such enthusiasm then he should start fearing for his virtue.

At times he found the whole thing funny, then scary or stupid or he would forget again why he was there and start the whole thought process again.

Right when Lin finally succumbed to what he had wanted to do for over a year and kneeled down between Mitch’s legs with his mouth open, Henry remembered it was his mother’s death anniversary and he was watching his friends discover their sexuality not ten feet away from her grave.

He burst into tears.

--

Meanwhile, the Lord of the Shadows watched the scene from his hiding spot, waiting for the right time to strike.

Little Henry was a ball of nerves hunched next to the couple, trembling in fear, the Lord of the Shadows assumed, and seemingly unable to look away from them. He had to help him; otherwise he didn’t know what was going to become of him. Were they planning to perform some sort of sacrifice? Were they going to gut him and feast on his blood? He didn’t know, but he was going to stop them, for it was his duty to protect the weak and defeat the evil.

He was a spot of black on the blackness of the night, he was an invisible force watching over his beloved friend, he was…surprised to be so hungry after downing all those brownies not that long ago.

But no matter that! He was on a mission. He had to rescue Little Henry from the bloodsucking monster that had imprisoned him. It was too late for Mitch, he was doomed already and the Lord of the Shadows had never liked him as much as he had liked Henry anyway so that was okay.

Oh, it was freezing now at the monster’s hiding place; the Lord of the Shadows regretted not grabbing his jacket before leaving for his mission. He was doing his best with controlling his shivers but the thin t-shirt he had on did nothing to keep the cold away and he was covered in goose bumps.

He felt sad for a moment, surely Little Henry deserved a more thoughtful hero, not one that got hungry every half hour and forgot to wear the proper outfit on his rescue missions!

And surely not one to whom graveyards spooked the hell out of. And surely not one who got so spooked the hell out by graveyards.

The Lord of the Shadows flinched every time he heard a noise out of the ordinary. A snapping twig or the faintest rustling of leaves made him jump out of his skin. He was hunched between two old tombstones much in the same position Little Henry was in, telling himself there were no zombies there, only a vampire.

Lin’s light hair seemed to shine with its own light, illuminating Mitch’s satisfied face. That was all the proof the Lord of the Shadows needed to confirm his suspicions about the blonde boy: vampires sparkled! He had read about it, he had researched about his kind.

Lin had always struck him as odd, always quiet but then he would snap out a rude comment when no one was expecting it. Always prancing around in front of Mitch causing fights and, worst of all, hypnotizing Little Henry with his clear eyes and smiling that pointy smile at him. He was sure that was the way he had made Henry come all the way there.

The Lord of the Shadows was not going to allow it; he wasn’t going to let him suck Henry’s blood out of him like he was doing Mitch! He was going to jump up and stab him in the chest with the weapon he had found on the way over.

It wasn’t the best weapon to kill a vampire; it wasn’t sharpened, for one. And little green leaves were sprouting out of it which kind of ruined the menacing look, but the Lord of the Shadows was certain that using enough strength would make it work.

Now, if he could just forget about the zombie movie and move….that’s when he heard Little Henry crying.

--

Mitch was in heaven.

He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but he felt fantastic. Waves of pleasure were rolling up and down inside him, and he was surrounded by warmth and the most wonderful wetness he had ever felt.

He was looking up at the night sky; the stars were dancing for him, twirling and shinning up there in sync with the pressure on his groin that was going up and down, up and down. He laughed and waved at the stars. They waved back.

Sadly, he was snapped out of this magical moment by a sudden burst of sobbing coming from his left. He vaguely remembered Henry sitting there some time so he called:

“Henry, are you crying?”

“N-no. No!” Henry sobbed and sniffed.

“Okay.” That was enough for Mitch. He settled back to continue enjoying but the wetness and warmth were removed and he was all of a sudden very cold.

“Henry?” He heard the cause of his previous happiness ask (he just knew that voice belonged to the same mouth). “What are…what the hell is going on?”

Mitch felt a twinge of uneasiness. The voice was starting to materialize into something familiar and unpleasant. He saw through his closed eyelids a blurry image starting to form.

“Mitch, what- Oh, my God! Oh, ew, ew, ew!”

And there it was, Lin’s nasty face came into focus and Mitch’s eyes snapped open in horror.

“Lin? What the fuck?!” His hands shot down to tuck himself back in. Lin was still on the ground, leaning away from him with his hand over his mouth. Mitch felt dizzy and confused, where was he? Why had Lin…done what he had been doing? And why the hell was Henry watching?

“Henry, what-” Mitch was interrupted by the sound of Lin spitting and gagging. “Stop that! You were the one who wanted to-”

“Oh, this was not my idea, Mister Brownies,” Lin spat again.

“G-guys, stop. My Mom, you, zombies,” Henry spluttered between sobs.

“It’s okay, Henry. Stop crying,” Lin said.

“I’m not crying!” Henry cried with fat tears streaming down his face.

“Henry….”

“STEP AWAY FROM HIM, LEECH!” A voice bellowed from the darkness and the three of them jumped. Lin grabbed at Mitch’s foot; Mitch banged his head against the stone behind him.

After a pause, Henry turned around.

“Chris?” he called, his voice watery. There was another pause.

“You can call me that, Henry, but I’m the Lord of the Shadows during work hours,” Chris replied from the darkness.

“What?” Henry asked, he was looking in all directions, not sure where the voice was coming from.

“I’m here to rescue you from the vampire, don’t worry.”

“V-vampire? I thought…zombies….” He looked back to Mitch and Lin that were still in shock and trying to process what had been going on before. At least Mitch was; Lin was just busy grabbing him.

“Don’t worry,” Chris repeated, “I just have to- I’m a bit stuck here, just give me a minute.” There was a rustle and then a triumphant cry. A second later Chris was jumping out of the darkness waving a stick around. “Prepare to go back to hell!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Lin snapped when Chris knocked him in the shoulder with the stick, hard enough to throw him backwards.

“I’m testing the weapon, obviously.” Chris turned around and looked down at Henry, “Do you happen to have a knife on you; I need to sharpen this thing.”

Henry, looking small and scared in the ground, shook his head no.

“Lin is a vampire?” he asked.

“Well, haven’t you been watching? He was just sucking out Mitch’s blood a second ago! Poor Mitch will be missed but we need to-”

“No one was sucking anything out of anyone!” Mitch shouted. “Chris, did you eat any of those brownies? I told you they would do this to you.”

“Beware Little Henry; he has been turned into one! Cover your neck, stay behind me!” He swatted Mitch in the head with his stick.

“Stop it!” Mitch snatched the stick away and stood up. Lin stood behind him clenching Mitch’s sweatshirt in his hands. “There’re no vampires here!”

“You’re trying to hypnotize me, aren’t you? Close your eyes, Henry! Don’t think about anything, they read minds, I read about it!”

“Chris, I don’t think they’re vampires,” Henry said, now standing and wiping his face with his sleeve. Chris turned around.

“You think? Okay, you’re right. Besides Mitch’s not good looking enough. And he doesn’t sparkle.”

“Fuck you, nutcase,” Mitch muttered.

--

Lin was still feeling dizzy and the silence that followed only reminded him about it. The ground was spinning beneath him and the dim light of the light posts made everything look distorted. Henry looked unnaturally pale and small, Chris looked crazy and twitchy (sugar and drugs were not the best combinations to give to that kind of guy) and Mitch was warm and close.

That was probably the weirdest thing of all.

He had the distant memory of being wrapped in his arms not long ago, of feeling his breath over his face, of lying beneath him and wanting more and this had to be the brownies messing with his head.

“Why are we here?” Henry whispered.

“You said you wanted to come, Henry,” Mitch said. It was true. Lin remembered sitting in his basement and then Henry standing up and saying something about the graveyard. They had followed him here.

“There are zombies here,” he whispered, this time softer.

“No, that was the movie,” Mitch replied, always patient with Henry. Lin clenched his shirt tighter.

“No, no, I….” Henry hesitated, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, there haven’t been any weird fogs or atomic bombs or anything lately. Why would there be zombies?” Chris explained, trying to sound calming but coming out insane, as was his way.

“Because it’s Halloween today, isn’t it?”

“Oh, right.” Chris instantly changed his tone and looked around slowly, “It’s their day.”

As if on cue, a dog howled and all four of them screamed.

Then they hurried to form a tight circle. They pressed their backs together and looked around them. Lin felt stupid for letting the others scare him but looked around too, expecting someone to come crawling out of the bushes.

“This is stupid,” he said, just so that everyone knew he wasn’t an idiot like them. Then he jumped a foot in the air and grabbed Mitch’s arm when he heard a rustling right in front of him. “This is so stupid.”

“Shut up, shut up, I can’t think,” Mitch muttered and reached for Lin’s hand.

“Don’t worry, Henry. I’ll distract them; you run and don’t look back.”

“I can’t run.”

“Oh, don’t try to be brave. I’ll understand.”

“No, I just…I don’t want to fall in a pit or, or a grave or something.”

There was a pause.

“Of course, of course. We can’t run when it’s this dark, I can’t see a thing. We should wait until morning. I think the zombies will understand if we explain that a hunt can’t be held under these circumstances.”

“Chris, for fuck’s sake, shut up before I feed you to the fucking zombies myself,” Mitch snapped.

“There are no oh my god something’s touching my leg.” Lin squeezed his eyes shut.

“Oh, no, that’s just me,” said Mitch.

“I knew you worked for the dark side!” cried Chris.

“Shut up, Chris!”

Lin was confused and starting to feel sick. He had forgotten if he wanted Mitch to touch his leg or not. He had forgotten if there were really zombies after them or not. Was he going to die tonight or was he just so high he couldn’t even remember his name?

Either way, Mitch was feeling him up.

“Fuck it,” he said and grabbed Mitch’s face.

--

“He’s trying to eat Mitch’s brain!”

“No, I think he’s just kissing him.”

“Oh, you’re right. You’re always right, Little Henry.” A pause, “Want to make out?”

“No, not really.”

“Oh, okay.” Chris sat on the ground to wait until the other two finished their business. A few feet away from them someone was watching. Chris waved at the rotting corpse.

It waved back.