Part 2: The Community Center Party
(A few days later)
The whole group had been there.
It was supposed to be fun—cheap snacks, neon lights, music through a speaker someone stole from a classroom—but it went wrong the second Devesto showed up.
Corpse.Bride had been decorating a table with fake roses and little gothic trinkets when Devesto walked over and lifted one of them.
“Oh, look at this,” he said. “Trying to summon something, Bride?”
She snatched it back.
“Put that down.”
He leaned way too close to her face.
“You always look like you crawled out of a coffin. Very on-brand.”
Corpse.Bride’s hands shook with frustration.
Shira put an arm around her shoulder.
Then Devesto added, sotto voce,
“You know, if a demon asked me for a sacrifice, you’d be the first person I—”
Shira stepped between them so fast he actually flinched.
“Back. Off.”
Even Mewo, who normally avoided drama unless she wanted to roast someone, chimed in:
“Bro, you’ve been here five minutes and I already wanna uninstall you like a bad game mod.”
Devesto just smirked like he’d won something.