Half Human

Chapter 5: Gourmet Dinner

Will's instincts were yelling at him the moment they pulled up to the mansion. Bryce's favorite place...well, he could see how the man could have been a diva. He wanted to know more about him, either way. He wanted to know who the man really was when he saw him during those horrible moments, the starvation, when he almost ate Cecil.

Maybe if he knew him, he could control him.

But something was fishy. He realized that right away. Human instincts or ghoul, they were there. And they told him to run the fuck away and never look back.

But he ignored them. In the past, he never knew what was instinct and what was his anxiety. Maybe it was just his anxiety, he was somewhere new, his life was changing at hyper speed.

Besides, he felt bad for Dakota. Maybe he was just a misunderstood ghoul, like himself.

Then he was forced to take a shower. Wash up good, Dakota had said. Make yourself presentable. Was it really that fancy of a place?

They took his old clothes and left him a suit to wear. It was the first time he ever wore one.

When he stepped out of the bathroom, a masked maid led him into a dining room. Her mask and attitude were as expressionless as it could get. He wasn't even sure if she was alive or just a robot. Not a word spoken, nothing conversed. She set a cup of coffee in front of him and left him alone.

Sighing, Will sat at the table and sipped at the coffee. He would rather be hanging out with Nico, or just watching him... Yeah, that sounded stalkerish. But something about Nico lifted his mood in mere seconds.

He wanted to leave. He didn't want to be there anymore.

Then the fucking floor started raising as if he was in some kind of fucking game show. The ceiling opened up above him, and in minutes he was standing in the largest room he'd ever seen.

Spotlights danced around him. He could hear murmuring. But all he noticed was the blood and body parts covering the floor around him.

Then the spotlights were on him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've been waiting for!" A man's voice filled the room. "Without further ado, I present our main dish!"

No. Fucking no. Will was not going to almost be fucking eaten again-!

Dakota. He had tricked him.

Fuck.

"Our meal tonight is unusual but quite unique!" the man continued. "Tonight, we'll be feasting on ghoul!"

The audience was silent. Will's legs were shaking. Nico wasn't around to save him this time.

"A ghoul? I'm not up for cannibalism," one woman said. Another man agreed with her. It almost fucking made Will laugh, and it would have if he hadn't been about to piss himself.

"Tonight's dinner is brought to you by none other than Mr. Dakota Wellington!"

Will looked up to where the beam of light pointed and looked the traitor in the face. Dakota was in a white suit, as smug as he was while talking to Nico, a masked girl on each arm.

"When I first met this young man," Dakota said into the microphone, "I noticed his scent immediately. Though he is a ghoul, the smell of human blood still runs through his veins. That mixture..."

The crowd was on his side, Will and Dakota were both able to tell. Will glared up at him, tried to get some strength in his veins, tried to make those things come from his back... Nothing.

The lights came on, the spotlights disappeared. Will felt like he was looking Death himself in the face.

"And now, the scrapper who will be serving our meal!" Dakota introduced. He flung his hand toward the opposite end of the arena, where a door was peeling open, and Will found it in himself to wonder how this all fit in the architecture of the mansion.