A Tragic Affair

Okay, this is long, and it takes a bit to get to the point, but it's so you can get to know the characters a little better.

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It was late, but not too late for insects or owls or for us to be sleeping. Stokes, Moth and I were on the back porch, staring down at the cemetery as we started on a bottle of vodka. We lived in an abysmally small town, and shared the house my parents had left me. We wouldn't have traded it for the whole world because the town, tiny as it was, was our world. We each owned a store, the house was a creaking creepy Victorian situated on the only hill in town, the cemetery was at the bottom of the hill and across the street was the only bar in town.

We could see everything, and it was a lovely view. There was one main street and three or four smaller ones and that was all there was of Carlyle. It was a blink and you miss it town, about 30 miles from the nearest highway. Everyone literally knew everyone. For such a small place I was surprised that we all did as much business as we did. But I owned the book store, Stokes owned the CD/movie rental store and Moth owned the New Age store.

As I looked at them, I smiled and realized how fitting it was that we worked where we did. Stokes is a punk, there's no getting around it. He says he's goth but he's got a kick ass and take names attitude that screams punk. He's very tall, around 6'4" with olive skin, hazel eyes and mahogany hair he kept short and spiked. He was slim but definitely had a rippling of muscles. Toned I believe is the word. He was usually attired, like that night, in a ripped up white t-shirt, tight ragged gray jeans, Doc Martins and a green Army jacket. He literally lived for music.

Moth was the complete antithesis of Stokes. He was pretty much a hippie. He kept his ash blond hair long, was very pale and essentially a stick figure. He tied his hair back with a shoelace so it wouldn't get in his eyes, which were a honey gold color. While Stokes had a face that was mostly angles, Moth had a face that was mostly curves. Something that was downplayed by his hair and baggy clothes. Mostly tie dye shirts, Levi's and Converse sneakers.

They were cousins but with how close they were you'd think they were brothers. I smiled to myself and took the bottle from Moth, taking a swig. They were singing 'Welcome to the Black Parade" as loud as fucking possible. While I loved the song and we all thought the band was great, it's hard to love either one when the Wonder Twins were doing their own rendition. Finally I stopped them and grinned, saying, "You guys remember the Black Parade Harold Batt used to tell us about?"

They looked at each other and busted up laughing. "Oh God do I ever!" Stokes said. Moth giggled as he imitated Batt, saying, "You youngins watch out or the Parade is gonna getcha!" "Hey, hey Varla, what was the full story? I'm too drunk to remember." Stokes asked. We'd been through half the bottle so I didn't find that hard to believe. I sat back and started braiding my hair, saying, "Give me a moment, I'll remember."

As I tried to remember all the details, Stokes was none too subtly looking down my dress. Sometimes I really hated being the only girl in our trio. I'm not a large woman, I'm rather small boned, short and really just petite. Very surprising since my parents named me after a character in a Russ Meyers movie. The only thing I had in common with the character Varla was my long black hair. But I liked my face, heart shaped and kittenish with pouty lips. I always figured my best feature was my eyes, a dark violet. I'm as pale as Moth and always wore black.

Tonight was no exception, I was wearing a black cotton slip dress but aside from undergarments that was it. I finally remembered the story, and started to recite it. "There was once a traveling circus, but the performers, the vendors and even the animals had all been corrupted by evil. Each town they went to, they put on a parade to promote their circus. But it scared the townspeople so badly none would go. And every time the parade, nick named "The Black Parade" was put on, people would disappear. it was always children who went missing.

"Then one day, the circus came here to Carlyle. And the 4 year old daughter of Melissa Sylvaria disappeared during the Parade. But what the performers didn't know when they took little Katrina was that Melissa was a witch. She went to the circus in the dead of night and demanded to see the ringmaster. When he showed himself, she bound him with a spell and asked for her daughter.

"But it was too late. Katrina had been corrupted by the evil and aged so quickly and so much that Melissa didn't even recognize here. Realizing her daughter was lost, she placed a curse on the circus. That they would march in the Black Parade for all eternity, pulling the Godless souls of this county into their ranks upon the death of their bodies.

"What Melissa didn't know was after a few years, the Parade figured out how to get out of their sentence. They could capture innocent souls and force those innocents to take their place in the procession. But only if they came across the souls on the night of the full moon after gathering another soul..."

"So run if on a full moon you see the Black Parade or you'll be next." Stokes said, and I smiled. "Exactly." Moth sighed and sipped the vodka, saying, "I'll miss Batty Batt." I looked at him, raising an eyebrow as I asked, "What do you mean?" "You didn't hear? Old Man Batt had a heart attack yesterday, died at the hospital over in Greenwood." Said Stokes.

"Fuck... Dude that sucks, I'm going to miss that crazy asshole." I muttered. And I would. Batty Batt was premo entertainment. He was the town drunk and there were rumors about the death of his wife and son. Supposedly he'd poisoned them so he could eat their souls but no one really knew. "They buried him today... It's a full moon too." Moth chimed in. I looked at him, then at Stokes who's face had split into a grin. I shook my head, saying, "I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no."

"What's the matter? Afraid? I'm sure the Black Parade would love to get their hands on the last Sylvaria." Stokes teased. That's the part I hated about the story, the 'witch' was one of my ancestors and it left me open for alot of teasing. It was kinda weird, because there's an antique tintype of Melissa in my room and she actually looks alot like me. Very very creepy. But she lived back in the middle of the Civil War so it's hard to find any records beyond date born, date died, children had.

I shook my head again. "Do you remember what happened last time someone broke into the graveyard? Officer Metcalf caught them and trumped up charges of grave robbing just because he was annoyed at being woken up to respond to a call!" "Fuck him, besides those kids were too dumb to hide." Stokes said, and Moth smiled as he added, "Or offer him a bribe. It's midnight anyway, he won't wake up any time soon." I sighed. If Moth was on his side I was not winning this one. "Fine, let me toss on some shoes."