Blood and Iron

Noah Centinayo

After a few weeks, the rumors died down, and the gossipers found another topic of interest. Madelina mostly focused on school and put up with Inky.

Then the Homecoming Dance was announced! Madelina had always wanted to go to Homecoming, but she never found the time last year. She was going to make sure she could go to Homecoming this year.

"Sure, you can go to Homecoming, Madelina," her mother said, "But who are you going with?"

"Well...I thought I should go alone."

"That's a terrible idea, Madelina, and you know it. What if something goes wrong?"

"I'll be fine, mom. I can hold my own against Inky."

"It's not Inky I'm worried about. You will go to Homecoming with your brother, Thomas."

Madelina protested this, but it was useless. Her mother was not one to compromise.

Thomas was in the middle of his embalming lesson when he got a call from his dad.

Thomas was polite enough to go out of the classroom to receive the call.

"Look, dad, there's no way I'm going to a high school dance...Not even for a $1000...Madelina will be fine, dad...Well, I guess I can't really argue with that, Madelina does have a bad temper...Fine, I'll go-but I won't like it!"

An acquaintance of his, Noah, asked who he talked to on the phone. Then Thomas got a delightfully devilish idea.

Thomas roped Noah into doing his job for him. "My little sister, Madelina, is going to the homecoming dance. She's 16, and I'm sure you'd like to meet her."

Noah was 18. And he was intrigued. Thomas kept stringing him along.

"She needs to have someone chaperone her to this dance, too, and I'd thought you'd be a good candidate."

Noah wasn't quite convinced. "Why can't you escort her? You're her brother, after all."

"I'm far too busy here, with exams coming up, but a young man like you should get out one in a while and not focus so much on casket repair. Madelina's a sweet girl, and she needs someone to go to the dance with. You can use my BMW."

Thomas's BMW was not truly a BMW, just a car that was reformed to look like one, and could only fool someone who wasn't into BMWs, or just cars in general. Noah was one of those people.

Noah agreed to go with Madelina to the dance, the naive fool.

Pavel almost exploded with rage once Thomas told him what he did, but he should have expected Thomas to rope another person into doing his work. Yet Pavel wondered how long he'd be able to do that.Certainly Thomas would have to do his own dirty work one of these days.

Madelina wasn't particualry thrilled about going to a dance with a stranger, but she knew there's no way that Thomas would ever chaperone her. But that wouldn't keep her spirits down. She already knew what she'd wear.

Inky was intrigued by this turn of events.

"Will Roxanne be there?"

"She'll be going, and nothing will stop her. At least, that's what she told me."

Inky's ears began to twitch a bit

"You sure you should go to the dance.? Because I know crazy when I see it."

Madelina's response was cold."You can't tell me what to do."

Inky glared at her. "You're gonna regret this, bitch."

Madelina was too focused on thinking up the perfect dress to notice the insult. The dress was a scarlet, fiery orange. It was a ballgown, with a petticoat underneath. Maybe even a matching pair of opera gloves.

She got a knee-length tulle sleeveless dress with a Queen Anne collar instead, but it was still the fiery orange color she liked. There was a rhinestone belt on the waist and an open back neckline. Her straight black hair was in a big, fancy bun behind her head. The makeup was comparatively minimal. She had a gray pair of t-strap kitten heels and yellow teardrop earrings.

Madelina was not impressed with Noah and his fake BMW. And it was clear to her that Noah was spineless and unsure. The corpses he dressed up had more confidence than him. He had nice hair and clear skin, but the cheap suit he wore seemed to be 2 sizes too big.

When Noah saw the tall, corpse pale girl in the orange tulle dress, with a prominent fang and scowl, he thought he had the wrong address.

"Is this 991 Primrose Avenue?" Noah asked Madelina.

Madelina stood up. "Yes, it is. Thomas lied to you, didn't he?"