The Huntress

Spiraling Downwards into the Blackness

Alison stumbled back up the garden, heading towards the warm and loud glow of the party. Her mind was reeling about everything Mr Grey had just said. In her drunken state she began to see some truth behind his words, she didn’t know everything about her family. In fact, she barely knew anything about them or their lives before she had moved back to England. Her conversation with Max in the attic last week had proven that. Her family had a lot of secrets and Alison knew that even when she was one of them, she would never find those secrets out.

She pushed her way into the kitchen and headed towards the alcohol collection. She had appeared to have forgotten her previous vow to herself about not getting drunk. But then, she hadn’t expected to see the devil’s buddy at a secondary school party. It had undoubtedly shaken her up and so a very strong vodka and coke was needed.

Ali had just poured herself the drink when a group of guys from her year came stumbling and shouting into the kitchen. They saw her and cheered before James King rounded the counter to scoop Ali up in a hug. She managed to find herself laughing at the drunken brazenness of the boys. One of them found some shot glasses and a bottle of some brightly coloured alcohol. Usually Alison avoided shots but after what had just happened, she wanted to drink more.

Alison had a round of shots with the boys before proceeding to drink her vodka. But then there was another shot placed in front of her and they were all jeering at her to keep up. It seemed bad, she should have been independent, and she shouldn’t have bowed down to peer pressure. But after what had happened this evening so far Alison wasn’t slow to take the shot.

Soon enough a crowd had gathered as other people merged into the kitchen; it was quite clear that those present were the ones that had been drinking the most. Alison’s drink got topped up in her hand as James stood on a chair, swaying violently, and declared to the group in the kitchen that it was time for a game of Buzz to which a cry of approval burst forth.

Alison was swept up within her drunken state, so much so that she seemed to forget her former misgivings and internal struggle over what Mr Grey had been offering. In that moment she was happy to get drunk with a large group of people; playing Buzz and then moving on to a rather disastrous game of Flip Cup, it was safe to say that James would have to take a mop to the ceiling in the morning. It hadn’t even occurred to her that both of her cousins were no where to be seen when normally they would have constantly been checking up on her, especially seeing as she was around alcohol.

Alison had lost count of how many drinks she had had when Max finally emerged through the group of people that she had been drinking and dancing with – she might have also been playing a game of real life fruit ninja whilst she was at it as well. Max grabbed Alison’s hand and looked at her sternly. It was clear that she was very drunk, and it wasn’t the same type of drunk as it had been at the beginning of the month. This was a carefree and reckless drinking and it had Max even more worried. She was swaying slightly on her feet and her eyes were glazed, she barely even responded to the touch of her cousins’ hand. Instead she just smiled up at him and leant into the side of his body for support. Murmuring something about how cold he was. Max would have laughed if he wasn’t so worried. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder protectively and tentatively brushed the hair out of her face.

“come on missy, Phillip’s outside and I think it’s time we got you home before you throw up or something,”  Max said softy, a smile on his face as he looked at Alison. The girl could barely stand so he scooped her up in his arms and headed through the house. Grabbing Amy on the way (he had given her a ten minute warning because he knew how long it took her to say goodbye to people), Max carried Alison out to Phillip in the waiting car.

Max laid Alison across the back seat with her head in his lap, she was almost asleep in his arms which made him chuckle. It seemed that Alison had once again forgotten her encounter with Mr Grey and the way it had made her feel; vulnerable and scared, her whole world wrenched out from underneath her whenever he mentioned her family as a threat.