The Killers Amongst Us: Chimera Dawn Chronicles by Declan Conner

garbage bag and pulled out some paper blindfolds, with elastic
fasteners. “Here put these on, but first arrange the chairs in a circle. And no
trying to peek.”
    “Damn, Ted, it is a kids’ game,” Johno said.
    “Just put the blindfold on, fat boy. You scared of the dark?”
    “No, but I’ll punch your lights out ya old git if you call
me that one more time.”
    “Don’t rise to the bait,” said Louise. “It’s just drink
talk. Here, let me help you put on your blindfold, my, sweet man.”
    Amy put on her blindfold. She heard a click and the whirring
of cogs driving the CD slide. Someone snickered and then another.
    “Quiet,” Ted said. “First one to pull off their blind is the
loser and they have to kiss the blarney stone.”
    “What’s that?” Tanya asked.
    “It’s an Irish ordeal thing. The next one that talks will
get to find out first, besides the loser. I want you all to sit with your hands
palm up on you knees.”
    All went quiet, save for the eerie sounds coming from the
speakers. She could hear the sound of waves crashing against cliffs, the wind
howling.
    Ted started to talk slowly in a low tone. “The young couple
were lost at sea. The only survivors of a ship wrecked by the storm. The young
man desperately fought the current trying to row to shore. The young girl with
him lay on the soaked wooden boards, barely conscious. A wave broke over the
bow.”
    Amy flinched as a spray of water hit her face. She wanted to
laugh as she could hear the action of Ted pressing the trigger on a spray
container. Johno and Oliver were right, it was a kids’ game. But she wasn’t
about to pull of her blindfold first, and to discover what the Irish ordeal
was.
    He continued. “The boat smashed against the rocks, carried
by the waves. They were thrown from the boat, landing on a rock. The young man
barely had a foothold, his fingers carrying his two-hundred-pound body. He was
below his girlfriend’s body, hanging with her legs loosely from above. The next
wave was sure to sweep them back out to sea. He clawed at the rock, ripping a
fingernail from a finger.”
    She felt something drop on her hand. When she touched it
with her finger, it felt like a plastic fingernail. Ted’s fingers removed the
nail and he must have passed it around to the others. Amy hoped someone would
rip of their blindfold first and end the boring game. Perhaps the others had
the same idea, because no one did as they went through a series of, wire wool
for Witch’s hair, grapes for eyeballs, and something that felt like spaghetti
for intestines. Ted’s voice was grating on her now, and with the last game he
brought being an Ouija board, she thought his idea of fun was weird.
    Ted’s monologue continued, to the sounds of an owl hooting. “The
Witch took the young man’s dick in her hand, and in full view of his
girlfriend, she wielded a large knife and...” Amy heard a scream in tandem with
Ted’s voice raised, “cut it off.”
    Amy pulled off her blindfold. Ted was smirking and stood
next to Louise, holding a salami in one hand and her blindfold in the other.
    “You lose,” Ted said, and danced a jig. “Time to kiss the
blarney stone, Lou.”
    “That’s not funny,” said Louise.
    “Come here guys, we need to arrange the ordeal.” Ted
snickered, and beckoned Oliver and Johno into a huddle.
    “What made you scream?” asked Amy. She put her arm around
Louise, who was clearly still upset.
    “He did that on purpose, dropping it in my hand first. It
must be the vodka. I was dreaming it was me in the dungeon with the Witch
torturing Johno. I feel so stupid.”
    Amy thought maybe she was right, and he’d steered her
thinking in that direction when he said the young man weighed two hundred
pounds. Amy gave her a squeeze.
    “There’s a simple answer. Don’t drink, only in moderation,
and especially not hard liquor,” Amy said, offering belated advice.
    The boys returned.
    “Put the blindfold on, Lou,” said Johno,