Bloodclot Eyes

Dr. Natalia Hughes-Anderson, her husband, James Anderson-Hughes, and their twin teenage daughters, Nicky, and Nash, sit around a round stone table just big enough to accommodate the four of them comfortably.

The chandelier above them flickers, and creaks as it sways ever so slightly despite the absence of any breeze. 

Iguana-skinned men, goblin-esque in physique, and stature run back and forth to the “kitchen”. They drape over the table a silken, violet cloth, and adorn it with eloquent, crystalline utensils… golden goblets, and bottles of wine that illustrate perfect shades of red, and gold….

“God look at their eyes….” Nash says with a scoff. “....how do they even see?” She says, referring to the constantly-clotting blood pools under their swollen eyelids, dripping every now and then like wax, reminiscent of tear stained mascara….

“And their noses… ugh….” Her mother, Natalia replies, pretending to gag…. They share a hearty, mean-spirited laugh. The “Goblins” don’t seem to mind though, maybe because they don’t understand the family’s insults, but the slight grin they all share might suggest that they were actually taking their description as complimentary… after all they didn’t find the Anderson-Hughes’ very attractive either, to each their own I suppose….

Nicky clenches her face in her hands, actually beginning to feel nauseous. James looks terribly uncomfortable, he stares directly at the wine in front of him, the reds and golds dance together inside the bottle like a lava lamp, distracting him from the horrifying little servants.

The “kitchen” seems to be a set of doors stood up on their own, just beside the table, in the middle of the otherwise empty room… nothing in front, or behind the doors, but when they swung open the family could catch little glimpses of what was within them…. Some of the sights were nightmarish, but the aroma was heavenly….

A slightly taller Goblin walks out from the kitchen. It’s demeanor more serious, respectful, wearing a blind over its eyes, but still it glides over to their table flawlessly. It fills their glasses nearly to the brim with the beautiful bottles of wine, and retreats calmly back into its ranks….

Maybe it was because his focus wasn’t immediately drawn to the disgusting sockets they called eyes, but when the Goblin had filled James’ chalice he’d noticed the fingernails… short, and black, and sharp like a crow’s talons… that only intensified his fear….

“How much longer is the food going to be? I’m fucking starving….” Nash asks, squirming in her seat, staring at her thumbnails like an imaginary phone. “It won’t be long now I’m sure…. Natalia sounds certain of herself, but still she looks around the empty room nervously, and avoiding eye-contact with her impatient offspring.

“So, Talia… how the hell did you hear about this place again?....” James asks between sips of the intoxicating elixir sloshing around in his hand….

“James, I told you I can’t say…. Can we please just enjoy the experience?” Natalia squeezes his hand from across the table, and he pulls back, gulping down what remains of his drink. 

“That’s the problem Tal! The experience! Shit like this only supposed to exist in Fallhourn! Who the hell set this up?! This is way too much for us, even at your salary!...” “A favor!... I called in a favor….” Natalia replies, maintaining stern eye contact with James. He scoffs, “A favor?... someone owed you this much?....” Without missing a beat Natalia responds, “You’d be surprised how much someone thinks they owe you when you’ve saved their life….” 

“Alright, who was it then?” James asks, watching the blindfolded Goblin refill his glass, like a dog would look watching a skeleton walk down the street…. “James… I… cannot… say!” Natalia’s voice spikes in frustration. Their daughters seem to be blind, and deaf to their parents’ confrontation, seemingly living within their own heads, staring at empty surfaces, and filling in the blanks with reels of something more interesting….

“I can’t say! I can’t say! Natalia… THAT’S WHAT YOU ALWAYS SAY!!!!” James snaps, startling the waitstaff, and even getting the attention of their teenagers. “You said… ‘Let’s go to a nice dinner’, NOT, ‘Let’s go to a fucking hell portal in some abandoned fucking warehouse’!!!! And with our daughters no less! I mean even for you this is….” “Shut the fuck up!!!!” Natalia cuts through his tirade. “For once in your life James, SHUT THE FUCK UP!… No, we can’t afford this… but here we are, fucking doing it… because of me…. These girls are getting an unforgettable experience…” Natalia trails off when she sees the little gems of her existence staring off into space again…. “....An UN, for, fuckin-gettable experience… because of ME!” Natalia spits across the table….

James is stunned, and frozen for a moment at her uncharacteristic rage… then his confusion returns to anger as well… “What YOU do?! What you do… really… what YOU DO! Is poison our daughters’ minds! With visions of Fallhourn!... That… That fucked up place… WE GOT OUT!!!! Now you just wanna go back?! Take them back with us, yeah?!” He slaps a bottle of wine from the table, and the Goblins are quick to clean up the mess, the blindfolded one even returns shortly after with a replacement bottle. 

“Yes….” Natalia responds. “I do expect to return there one day soon….” 

“With our daughters… MY daughters!” James shouts, flames in his eyes. Natalia smiles at him, head cocked sideways, a blissful sense of condescension lingering around the corners of here lips. Nicky’s head returns to her hands as the table is covered in platters of perfectly cooked, delicious smelling meats, she’s a vegetarian, has been for years. 

She’s initially very upset with her mother’s insensitivity, until she realizes she wasn’t forgotten, the next dish that comes out is a tray of mushrooms, Nicky’s favorite. Stuffed Portabellos, Fried Morels, Shantrels, and Lion’s Mane… plus some she’s never seen before… some of them look like they’d just been plucked from soil, and plated, so fresh they almost appear to move…. Then there are the “Snow Caps”, mushroom caps removed from the stem, dark green around the base, and you guessed it, snowy white across the top, they actually smell like Christmas… not like gingerbread, or pine, or scotch tape, just… Christmas itself…. She can’t wait to dig in….

Nash looks over her choices on the pile of meat, searching for something perfect. However she doesn’t seem to be satisfied with the amazing selection in front of her…. She looks at the kitchen to see what else the Goblins might be bringing, but the tall Goblin takes notice, and promptly it says in a raspy, yet regal voice: “The first course is served.” before returning to the “Kitchen” again. Nash rolls her eyes, and grabs a turkey leg. 

Natalia does a little “happy dance” in her chair, and grabs a knife with her twiddling fingers. She carves herself a piece of lamb from the upright metal skewer, and folds it into her mouth. She chews on it very impolitely with her mouth half open, juice running down to her chin.

James just stares at the meal with disgust, refusing to touch anything, or than the wine of course, he wasn’t one to turn down a free drink, old habits can die hard, and often times trump one’s pride…. His hypocrisy isn’t lost on Natalia though. “It’s good right?” She says pointing to his glass, still chewing on the hefty chunk of lamb. 

“Of course it’s good Tal… it’s fucking Hel’smuth… the shit is literally designed to taste exactly like your all time favorite wine… AND, it literally has nano-proteins that sift through your memories while you drink it….” His tone is more measured, but the anger still comes through loud and clear. 

“Well then stop drinking it.” Natalia says, shoveling another slice of lamb in her cheeks. “You know I can’t.” James replies. “Why not? Because you’re an alcoholic, or because you miss home?” Natalia challenges him, looking away from the food for the first time since she laid eyes on it. 

“You know when we’re home, in our house, I can stop any time I want… I’ve been good for a long time, but this shit is different… you know it is….” James looks at the glass of wine in his hand through watery eyes, his forehead creased in guilt, or resentment… but he doesn’t put the glass down….

They’re interrupted by the Goblins scurrying from the “Kitchen” to retrieve any discardings from the table, or fallen food bits from the floor. Everything is so delicious that their presence does nothing to diminish the family’s appetites. 

“You know what that is?” Natalia asks Nash, pointing to something that looked like a pig roast just beside the table, ready to be carved into by the first willing customer. Nash shrugs, barely registering the question, still nibbling at her first turkey leg. Natalia covers her mouth so James can’t see her lips, and whispers something to Nash. 

Nash’s eyes grow wide as she’s snapped back to some manner of reality. “What?!” She gasps. James grabs one of the beautiful knives with his free hand, and jumps to his feet (only losing a sip of wine in the process). “Is that really a dog?!” Nash yells at him. “That’s so fucked up!”.... Natalia shoots him a little “fuck you” grin, and goes back to her lamb. “No… it’s not a dog… it’s worse… don’t you fucking touch it….” He tells Nash, trying his best to maintain his composure, but Natalia was making that difficult. Nash gave him a surprised look, like it was the first time profanity had come out of his mouth in her direction. “Okay, Jesus, I won’t eat the fucking “dog”....” Nash says, rolling her eyes for the seemingly hundredth time that night, as she finished off the first half of her dead bird leg. 

James slowly takes his seat… keeping the knife, and the wine in his white-knuckled, shaky hands until they meet the table, and stabilize a bit…. He shakes his head at Natalia, and then at nothing… mind games… the woman loved her mind games…. She was the kind of women who could make a man feel like he was made of dough… the way James felt on a somewhat regular basis.

“I want to leave….” James says, almost under his breathe. Natalia lays down her knife, rubs her stomach, and says: “There’s more food coming out, you need to eat something.” James clings to his knife, and his glass, and a nervous tick manifest itself onto his face in the form of a devious smile…. “I….” he utters, noticing his girls munching on the strange food. “...am leaving….” Natalia smiles at him, picking her teeth. “With?” 

“With my daughters….” He says, trying to sound unafraid. Natalia sees right through him. “Hmm…. How about… when this meal is finished, I leave the room… through that door there.” Natalia says pointing to the “Kitchen”. “And two more people can follow me… the third stays… as payment for tonights meal….” 

James goes white, though he probably should have seen something like this coming…. “Don’t worry though.” Natalia soothes him. “They’ll let you choose who stays… and I’m sure you’ll make the right decision… after all, you’re a good father… right? Until then James can you just… try to enjoy this?... You never know what meal will be your last….” 

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