I smell your dinner!

Preston Hardway appeared perplexed when the pillows started to fly. He tried his hardest to just enjoy the chaos unfolding before his eyes. But like war there would be casualties and it seemed to grow rapidly with even more teens getting their faces whacked with pillows.

Preston was only 14 years old, but it seemed a little weird that the party he was invited to had a pillow fight. It seemed more like the type of thing that elementary kids would do. It appeared to be purposefully childish for the sake of chaos, with no rhythm or reason.

“Look out!” It was a loud warning coming from behind Preston, but by the time he could react, it was already too late. When he turned to see the attack, all he saw was a fat pillow as it barrelled down, smacking him with a hard thump.

It took him a moment to process the shock he got from being hit point blank with a loaded pillow, one that was in the hands of a person, who was hell bent on inflicting a critical amount of what could only be described as personal emotional damage.

Once he got a hold of himself, he felt a pillow being placed in his hand, “I tried to warn you. But now we have to fight our way out of this mess and get away from this madwoman.” Preston did look to see who this mysterious person was. He was an older teen, maybe a couple years older than Preston.

The guy had long wavy hair that went all the way down to his shoulder. He appeared to be one of those stoner type kids, but he also did not look like someone you wanted to pick a fight with, at least not when he was sober. He seemed so confident that he was smiling with an expression of determination.

Preston felt the guy's confidence and nodded. He charged forward with a wild attack. It hit the girl dead in her face, but it did not appear to do any damage, it only made her more angry and agitated. She decided to pounce with her pillow, smacking Preston to the ground, making him go down for a much needed slumber.

By the time he woke up, his thoughts were a mess and his head was throbbing from the amount of pain he endured from the girl unleashing her fierce attack. The thing he caught sight of when he woke up was a hand reaching out, it was the wavy haired guy and he was still cracking one massive smile.

“You did good, just learn to hit a little harder next time.” Preston embraced the playful teasing as he reached to grab his hand, “They call me wavy haired Davey, or wavy Davey for short, I bet you can guess why. The crazy girl who made you go nighty night, we call her Madam Bonkers, but prefers her real name, Sally.”

Preston felt slightly embarrassed that he didn’t have his own nickname to give. But he felt it was a little less weird given the fact he was the new kid in town and being the more reserved and shy type did not seem to help his case. But even with his nerves he decided the best way to start any relationship was by introducing himself.

“My name is Preston Hardway, but people just call me Preston.” There was emphasis placed on his name, almost as if his real name was a nickname. His unorthodox introduction appeared to cause more confusion than he intended, but everyone seemed to be more at ease once wavy Davey started to chuckle and laugh.

“You really are a funny guy, you know that?” Preston didn’t know that, but he pretended like he did. The awkward embarrassment was slowly starting to fade away the more wavy Davey continued to banter.

“I’m sure glad my sister invited you to this party. You make a great addition to the vibe of everything.” When wavey Davey mentioned his sister inviting Preston to the party, it gave Preston pause. He didn’t remember being invited. But what made it even weirder was that he didn’t remember how he got to the party. His mind was all fuzzy on detail, like his mind was in a fog trying to find the way through a maze.

However Preston chalked up his lapse in memory to the thrashing inflicted upon him by sally. It was his way of making sense of the weirdness associated with not remembering. For him it was just another normal occurrence.

“What other weird activities do you guys do? Other pillow fights that is.” Wavy Davey started to chuckle as he threw his arm around Preston's shoulder.

“I am so glad you asked that.” As he held onto Preston, he pulled him in closer to whisper in his ear. “Well as you can see…We’re a pretty close friend group and the other activities we do, we only allow members we can trust into our group for the other activities.”

Wavy Davey looked at Preston with an intense and serious stare. “Would you like to join our group?” Preston thought about the proposition for a moment before nodding his head.

“Excellent, right this way” Preston got tugged along toward the back of wavy Davey's house, to a door. The door looked, almost to the point of being decrepit, with small cracks and chipping along the edges of the door. The door appeared like it needed a new paint job. It gave off an eerie feeling, one that did not feel welcoming.

Wavy Davey opened the door slowly. There was a subtle creaking as the door opened, it added to the weird vibe that Preston was feeling. He didn’t quite know if he wanted to be a member anymore. He wanted to pull away from the whole situation, but the pressure from wavy Davey's grip gave Preston the feeling that it would be a bad idea.

“Down these steps is where the initiation begins, after that you are one of us, no do backing out.” Down the stairs was unknown, no visible light could be seen coming from inside the basement. The only light was the one that came down from the door, anything beyond that was left to the imagination.

“Down the stairs you go.” Preston took his first steps down the stairs, slowly. Once he got halfway down, he heard the door shut behind him. He was left in pitch blackness, with nothing to guide his path safely down the stairs. He quickly pushed his body toward the wall, using it as a crutch to help him down the stairs.

Once he slowly made his way down, he saw a glimmer of light coming toward the back of the basement. He followed it, and as he inched closer he heard the sound of a whisper brush past his ear. “Welcome, Preston”

The lights flickered on, almost as if by magic. He turned to see the person who spoke to him, but it wasn’t what he expected. He saw many figures dressed in black robes. He didn’t know what was happening, all he knew was that he was deeply scared. He was so frightened with fear that he screamed, but the figures raised their arms, placing their fingers on the veils, which obstructed their faces.

“There’s no reason to be afraid. We aren’t going to hurt you. All you need to do is eat what's in the box.” The instructions seemed to calm Preston down slightly, but he was still deeply afraid.

“What's in the box?” As he asked the question, everyone pointed behind him. He turned slowly, not prepared for what he was about to see. The glimmer of light he saw gone, replaced by table and rested on top was black box, neatly tied together with a red ribbon.

He stepped forward in front of the box, with both his hands he delicately unraveled the ribbon, casting it to the ground. The easy part was done, the hardest part was for him to open the box, he reached toward the top of the box, ready to open it. However he hesitated. “I don’t think I want to be in your friend group anymore. Can’t I just leave?”

“Eat…Once you start the ritual there is no turning your back.” His gut turned, it felt like he was in the presence of a sinister force and there was nothing he could do. So he opened the box.

The first thing he smelled was a rotten odor, like death was living inside the box. He couldn’t control himself from gagging. But the worst part was once he looked at what was making the horrible smell. It was rotten organs that looked like they had been decaying for weeks.

“Is that human!” He quickly shut the box, contemplating what his next steps would be. He didn’t want to eat rotten organs, especially if they were human.

“Eat…” The whisper he heard was not far away, it was directly behind him, “Do as you are told or face the consequences of your actions.”

Preston felt a chill down his spine. He didn’t know what to do. On one hand he didn’t want to eat human flesh but on the other hand he didn’t want to die. He was in a moral dilemma, one that felt like a nightmare, one that he wanted to wake up from. He felt like he would regret either decision, but he still needed to choose.

Wavy Davey waited patiently by the basement, with his arms crossed and fingers tapping. As he counted the minutes, it felt like Preston was never coming out. That was until he heard the handle of the door knob turn.

As he saw Preston emerge from the basement, he smiled. “Welcome to the club.” Preston closed the door without saying a word. As he saw Wavy Davey all he did was look at him with utter disgust.

He came toward Preston, he wiggled his nose as smell around Preston. “I smell your dinner.” As he said that he started to laugh.

After that night, Preston was now part of a group of teens he wanted nothing to do with, but he could say anything or else he would be taken down with them. So he remained silent.