All the Birthday Boys and Girls

Leo took one last look at Party Room A. It was clean, though some of the cake was never coming out of that carpet. It was only there to cushion potential head trauma should one of the kids trip over a errant over-sized clown shoe, but the carpet also served as a reminder of all the chocolate afternoons and nights that Leo looked over with a too-old-to-be-here scowl.

Good enough, he thought as he clicked off the light and closed the door.

Across the hall from Party Room A was Party Room B, but Leo didn't go in Party Room B anymore. That was Eddie's lair now as far as Leo was concerned, and he was afraid of what was inside. Once upon a time, it was the room for karaoke and dance parties. Leo had put in a great big green screen so the kids could make videos with what-have-you in the background. Lot of times the moms would jump up there with them.

When he hired Eddie, he figured he'd just acquired another swinging dick that could DJ events and throw on a cowboy suit or dinosaur head, depending on the day. Eddie was a good-looking kid and a bit of a brooder, so he figured maybe the moms would take to him sexually. Hoped it wouldn't be a problem. Weeks later, Leo would kill for problems like that, ever since he saw his first gwyll.

It was back in early fall and Leo was poking around for one of their plastic cake cutters, one that had the "East Village Parties" logo that they could send home with the leftovers. They were always losing the damned things. He thought maybe Eddie had hauled the box into Party Room B, so Leo stuck his head in for a quick peek. That's when he saw it standing on the side opposite the green screen stage, between the long tables. It looked like a large black vulture made of smoke, but with a horrible human face hunched over a child's drawing taped to the wall. Leo thought he saw it smiling, its teeth being the most physically solid part of its body. It noticed Leo immediately and quickly dissipated into the floor like a cartoon falling from a cliff, emitting a strange whirring sound as it did it. It was a sound Leo would hear often over the weeks to come, as the mist began seeping through the cracks of the door and Eddie's eyes grew pale. But that was the last time Leo saw the inside of Party Room B.

Now, as he stood staring at the door, hypnotized by the mist, Leo just wanted to go home. He wanted to stop off at the East Village Market for their biggest bottle of gin and listen to some old records later. He wanted to stop hearing that terrible whirring noise from the inside of Party Room B, or at least pretend there was only just one of those things in there.

Leo shivered and quickly walked down the hall toward the exit. He didn't look back as he hit the lobby lights and walked outside. He shut his eyes tight as he turned to lock the front door, afraid he might see something through the dark of the glass. He fumbled, dropped the keys before he could find the lock.

Good enough, he thought again, grabbing the keys from the ground as he turned toward the parking lot and away from Party Room B.