As they drove from Laura's house, Tom could see dazzling explosions of purple and gold overhead. They might have even passed the police car en route to break up the party. Tom listened to the voices in the backseat.

"Hey. Who's the pirate cat?" said Cleopatra.

"This is Tom," said Alex.

"Tom, hmm?" Cleopatra chuckled. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"I don't know. Hey Tom, are you my boyfriend?"

Tom tried to speak, but as he opened his mouth, he felt something the size of a golf ball coming up. He rolled down the window, spat it outside onto the road, then returned to his position as if nothing had happened.

"Wow. Quite the reaction. I guess he's not my boyfriend," said Alex, laughing hysterically.

Cleopatra rolled down her window to smoke a cigarette and replace the stink of Tom's puke with the stale smell of tobacco. Alex leaned into Tom, kissing him deeply. Neither cared if his mouth tasted like vomit. Who could taste anything at this point of the evening?

Captain Morgan drove for a long while until they reached a cabin in the woods. Acres and acres around the place were filled with forest.

"All right. We're here," he said, pulling into a carport. Cleopatra got out of the passenger side and went around back to help Tom to his feet. She helped him walk in a zigzag to the cabin.

"O Captain, my Captain!" Tom bellowed, feeling drunker by the second.

Cleopatra pulled him inside by the laces on his peasant shirt. He could hear voices in the kitchen and a group of people hanging out on the back porch. Alex came in behind them and tipped over onto a brown leather sofa.

Captain Morgan knelt beside her, tucked her in and asked if she was okay. She smiled like a sleepy Pokémon and nodded. While the king of spiced rum got her some water, Cleopatra got on her cell phone and started hijacking people from other parties, luring them to this cabin in the woods. As the different groups gathered, they cranked up tribal dance music and passed out plastic cups of jungle juice.

Tom noticed several of the younger girls gravitating to a bedroom in the back of the house. The floor had pillows and luxurious throw blankets piled all around. On a large king size bed he spied a swarm of nude bodies glistening with oil. One of the guys kept dipping his hand into a jar of coconut oil and smearing it across whatever flesh came within range. Tom's prerogative shifted suddenly from investigation to keeping Alex as far away from that room as possible.

The harem room, they called it. Tom caught bits and pieces of conversation about that room.

"I left my shoes in the harem room."

"Forget them. Let's just go."

The doors in this home were so large. They were made of thick, mineral rich hickory wood. Tom found himself smelling them like an animal, basking in the soothing aroma. He'd been dosed and he knew it. Everything grew stranger by the second. The walls breathed in and out with every gradual shift of color emanating from the fairy lights. Blue then purple then pink. The windows stretched from wall to wall and ceiling to floor and suddenly Tom realized they were open, slid back into the walls to offer nothing separating himself from the forest. He could smell the pine. Cold air burned in his nostrils. And in spite of this incredible vulnerability to the elements, masked individuals shed their inhibitions and engaged in acts of gross hedonism, from body shots to dancing naked from the neck down. There were monsters, goblins, and super mutants, some of them copulating without a shred of modesty. Tom felt oppressed by the number of people in this house. Demons and ghouls peppered every nook and blanketed the awnings of the upper levels.

Tom thought a smoke machine had filled the building with electric blue fog, but it was in his head. There was only smoke from people taking their cigarettes inside. Female admirers pulled Captain Morgan away, leaving Tom and Cleopatra alone in a recliner next to a tall indoor plant with heart-shaped leaves. Somehow she had ended up on his lap.

"I love Halloween," she said. "It's my favorite holiday."

"Really? Not Christmas?" he asked.

"I don't celebrate Christmas."

"Oh. Jewish?"

"I'm a witch," she said. Tom sat up, remembering his purpose in coming here. "Does that bother you?" she asked.

"No... my ex was a pagan."

"We're all pagans here," she said, lifting his mask. "We don't bite."

"No? You don't dabble in black magic?"

"Well," she chuckled. "I dabble. A few of us dabble. We're not hardcore into black magic. But we don't restrict our followers to white magic only. You might say that we're gray witches."

Cleopatra had become his guide through this messy haze. She knew everyone at the house. Every few minutes somebody stopped by and exchanged hugs and kisses with her. She'd introduce Tom as her new acolyte and they would smile and welcome him to the 'family.'

"I hope you know I'm not converting," he said once the last person she told had walked off.

"I know. I just need an excuse for you to be here."

"Why did you bring me?"

"I think my friend pegged you as my type."

"Oh?"

"I'm a sucker for pirates." She removed one of her snake armbands and unscrewed the head. It was a pen and she used it to write her phone number on Tom's wrist. This woman had an exotic allure. Her eyes shimmered like black jewels and she had a sophisticated smile.

"You are a lovely Cleopatra, but I came here with someone."

Tom glanced around the room for Alex, and he realized he hadn't seen her since she face planted into the couch, but that couch from earlier now had a man and a woman having sex on it, oblivious to the people around them. A wave of panic descended on him. He had to find her.

"The girl from the car?" Cleopatra asked.

"Where did she go?"

"I don't know."

"We have to find her." Tom shot up from his seat.

"I think I see her." Cleopatra took off into the crowd of dancers. Tom followed her gold headpiece and flowing gown but there were so many people pushing and shoving in the limited common space. Cleopatra vanished from sight.

Then a hand tapped his shoulder. He turned to see a woman in a scarlet mask. Even with her eyes obscured by velvet and black beads, he instantly recognized her. Utterly dismayed, he couldn't find his words. She said his name, but her volume was lost and for a moment he thought this was a hallucination. He touched her collar to see if she was real. "Lacey?"

"You need to get out of here."

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Just trust me. If the wrong people to figure out who you are, I can't protect you. Just leave. I can explain tomorrow."

Lacey pulled away from him. She broke through the crowd and made her way upstairs. Tom followed her with his eyes. As much as he wanted to chase the red fairy, his first priority was to locate his princess.

He pushed his way past dancers, dodging the cups of booze that floated and swayed in their hands. Soon he rediscovered Cleopatra lost in dance. In flickering blue lights, she swayed and bobbed up and down.

"Hey! Did you find Alex?" he asked. The Egyptian queen leaned forward into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. He tasted eucalyptus oil in her sweat. Behind her ear he saw the Seal of Solomon. All of them had it. This was it. This was the lion's den.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Hypatia," she said.

"I thought you were Cleopatra."

"An easy mistake, Dread Pirate."

Tom's heart palpitated in his chest. He remembered hearing that name before. Was this really their leader? How could this beautiful creature be the ringleader of a violent cult? "Who is Hypatia?" he asked.

"She was a woman done a great injustice."

"Like the girl on the beach," Tom said. "Did you hear about that?"

He saw her eyes glance behind him and then suddenly back again as if nothing happened. "No. What happened?"

Tom glanced back over his shoulder. He saw Alex sliding down a wall, sprawling her fingers out in front of her face.

"Excuse me." He left the strange Hypatia and chased after his princess. Poor Alex stumbled down the hallways and into the harem room.

"Alex!" he shouted after her. The door closed.

Just as Tom entered the dark corridor, someone large caught him in a sleeper hold from behind. Wig hair prickled the back of his neck and against his throat was a man's velvet sleeve. The songs blended together into an alien music of whales singing to drums beating faster and faster. Everything went dark.

___________________

Music: Ash Ra Tempei