Chapter 16: The Epulum

"You know this movie is rated really good." Rebecca got out of the car and stretched like she was about to run a marathon. One thing I learnt after watching a few horror films is that they are mostly cringe. Like people in horror films, know that something is wrong in the dark but still go there to prove their bravery or like I call it 'stupidity'.

"Wow! It is really cold, I like it." Rebecca touched her cheeks with her hands. As far as my memory goes, Becca always loved winter and utterly hated summers.

"I like winters too." Selene winked at me after getting out of the car. The city was busy, even though it was cold. I guess the city never stops for anything. I didn't say time because time stops for me.

"Stop boasting! you can't stop time on a scale larger than three metres." Umbra again tried to roast me but it was a little bit weak. My mind always liked to ignore her and will ignore her again.

"Let's go! we only have thirty minutes left before the movie starts." We started walking towards the theatre. This theatre was famous among every age group of people because of its unique reel-like design, beautiful interior and affordable price. After this building joined the business, every other theatre has been put to shame. They named it "The Epulum"

Poor engineers must have worked their ass on this. Every time you see unique shaped buildings you should remember that many civil engineers cursed it to oblivion. Even if you see ghosts of some people, it won't be very surprising.

Umbra was surprised and couldn't help but ask "Do they kill people here?."

Not really, you never heard that cursed places attract stray souls. Anyways this is just used by parents who want their children to stay away from this place because they don't want their child to spend all of their money on movies they don't even like.

"Then this place is a kind of trap which forces you to spend your money?." Umbra was surprised by the clever use of human brains.

You can say that, they use their cheap ticket prices to lure people and then use tricks to make people pay for facilities. The owner of this place must be a crafty fox.

We entered the theatre, the interior currently used an orange and white ambience which changes according to the time and weather. This theatre has twenty-five screens and capacity of holding 10,000 people at once. It was currently more crowded than usual because the movie we are watching today happened to be the one in trending.

But I already bought tickets for this a week ago. I wanted to invite Elijah, but some changes occurred and my friend had to stay at home.

"Wow! you freak, a week ago you didn't have a girlfriend so you thought bringing your friend will save you some face but the moment you get a girl, your plan changed?." Umbra scoffed.

No! this is called tactical advancement, I just adapted accordingly and I will come back with him later.

"So you don't need to use your dad's card?." Umbra changed the topic for some unknown reason and it was too much of a bother to ask why she changed it.

No, there is no need for that. I just took it as an obligation. Spending money from there is a whole different thing.

"Flaunting your riches?.... Don't forget how you got the money." Umbra had to ruin the fun with her trash talking.

You tsundere weapon do you want me to do that again?, why are you not replying now. Cat got your tongue?, she didn't reply after that and it earned me a few minutes of peace.

"I'll go buy popcorn, give me the card." Becca moved her hand forward asking for the money slaughter card. "Bring me those spicy ones." I always believed that if you don't have enough spice in your food you are a pussy.(Build your spice tolerance people or else you will never be able to enjoy the bliss of spicy food.)

"Selene you should go with her, brats are not supposed to be left alone." After they left, I went towards the queue on the right, it was for beverages. No it was not because the lady there was hot, I just wanted to choose drinks for them. You guys always doubt my innocence.

Anyways after picking my stuff I went towards the food counter to join them but suddenly I felt a vampiric presence coming from their direction. I saw a blonde man blocking their way.

So, it's that guy "Hey guys! I bought the drinks, we should move now." I ignored the man and started talking to them.

"Woah, who are you man?, can you not see I am talking to them." Max with a creepy smile on his face tried to act cool but forgot to use his seemingly non-existent brain.

Did his parents drop him when he was a child?, no that should not be possible because vampires are supposed to have good regeneration.

"Maybe he is just retarded" Umbra replied with a mental equivalent of sigh.

Sounds valid.

"Am I supposed to wait until you finish your goofer talks?" my mind was starting to get filled with annoyance. This is happening more often after my awakening because I was never this short tempered before.

"Well a no-name like you should wait until the popular ones finish our conversation." Max with his overly inflated ego tried to give bullshit reasons which I obviously ignored.

"Let's go guys, we don't want to miss the movie." I created the best fake smile I could because by each passing second my thoughts were starting to get more violent.

I walked towards them and patted Selene's shoulder with my free hand, her face had a disgusted expression. She nodded and we started to leave the scene but the blonde fucker wanted some smoke. He grabbed my shoulder as hard he possibly could without raising suspicion but failed because of my physique. I lifted my hand to punch him but then restrained my anger because this place has a very strict security system. Anyone who resorts to violence here gets kicked out immediately and later banned from ever entering Epulum.

"Who are you?I 've never seen you before, and why are you with my girl?." I looked at Selene but her face looked like she was about to puke. I guess her disgust for him is more than mine.

Hmm... fighting him will not be satisfying.

I decided to go with a different route which could be more satisfying to me and Selene. "Dude, did you really forget me?." I raised my voice to gather as much attention as possible. People passing by stopped to look at me and the blonde bitch.

"Why would I remember someone useless like yourself?." Max mocked me which caused a vein to bulge in my head but I somehow controlled my urge to pluck out his teeth one by one and drill holes on his tongue.

"What? This can't be, did you get dementia after sucking guys off?." I wiped some fake tears from my face to make my acting look more genuine. "I told you that doing such shameful things for a few bucks is not good, but you never tried to understand me and now you have lost your ability to think. Did they b-break you?Your ass hurts too, right?." I tried my best to sob but couldn't make it realistic so Selene helped me a bit by rubbing my back with a sad expression.

I peeked from my left hand which was covering my face. Max was frantically looking here and there to check if anyone was laughing, which they certainly were. His expression started getting ugly "What did you say?, are you insane?, when did I su-" he stopped midway because a girl was laughing like she heard the funniest thing in her life. It was my beloved sister Rebecca who unknowingly helped my propaganda of humiliating him.

"Ryan, I think we should leave your friend alone, I think he needs time to fix his condition." Selene held my hand, fake pity evident in her voice.

"Y-yes, but Max my friend I believe that one day those evil people will regret what they did." I said as we left the now humiliated Max alone to fume in anger.

"Such evil people." We left the scene with me sobbing and Selene trying to calm me down but my sister was still trying her best to hold her laugh.

We entered the theatre room and took a seat which was exactly in the middle, because it is not too close and not too far from the screen and the best seats were placed in the middle.

Oh what makes them the best?, the seats were actually massage chairs. And no I didn't get tricked and bought more expensive seats.

"You clearly did." Umbra sighed

Shut it you naive girl. where was I again?, oh yes the seats, So the seats are not that expensive because I had discount coupons, I still have four of them left. I will use them later.

"Brother that was so good, I thought you would just beat him up but you did something even better." Rebecca was still giggling from the aftermath of the event. I looked at my girlfriend who was sitting on my right side. She looked satisfied which made me feel a bit good because if not for her disgust for him I would've just broken a few ribs on his body, I am glad I didn't.

"That disgraceful man deserved it." she was smiling blissfully. "It is very relieving to know that my boyfriend is not a brute who only relies on strength." She gave me a kiss on my cheek.

I heard some curses of jealousy from the other seats but ignored it because those were not worthwhile and the movie was also starting.

I think the ratings won't betray me this time. I looked at my sister and Selene. Both of them looked at the screen with great enthusiasm.

<<Mission successful>>

20 minutes later

I could not have been more wrong about this, the story sucks ass. The delivery is dog shit and the main character is just a goody two shoes.

"Umbra do you like this shit?" Ryan asked Umbra through their mind link.

"No, my opinion about this is even worse than yours." Umbra answered with a mind equivalent of shaking her head.

But these two seem to be really immersed in this story.

"Well maybe because this movie is about a vampire king, and women usually love vampire stories." Umbra explained with the best of her abilities.

The most weird thing here is that the "Vampire king" is too good to be true.

He drinks tomato juice!, wtf is that?, their way of making it pg-13?, and if it actually is, then they failed miserably.

Oh...now he can use holy power too?, they are just throwing random shit without even trying to arrange them.

I looked at both of them and they were still enjoying the movie. My poor brain was on the verge to commit suicide in a corner. I turned my face towards my spicy popcorn which right now looked so holy that I felt the power of enlightenment coming from it.

After two complete hours of torture the movie ended with a sad note, but for me it was happy, why you ask?, the fucking Vampire king died by the hands of his butler.

The king?

Killed by a butler?

RAT SHIT....the only words this movie deserves.

Both of my companions got up from their seats, completely relaxed. "This seat was really comfortable." Becca smiled slightly, Selene on the other hand whispered in my ear "Worst movie I watched this year."

I didn't reply and asked Rebecca for her opinion "Did you like it?." I was hoping to get an answer about how good it was and how much she liked it but that was far off the mark.

"The tomato juice thing was really hilarious, they are not vampires if they don't drink blood." she sighed, but that was a signal for my brain to stop wrapping itself up with a rope and kick that chair as far it possibly could.

Finally she is showing great intellect our Miller blood holds.

I am really proud of her.

"My dear sister, from this day onwards you are not a brat as you have finally stepped towards the path of maturity." My voice firm like a commander praising his soldiers.

'Tsk....so cringe' Umbra's words poked a hole in my heart which was starting to bleed slowly.

"Now it's time for Arcade." I patted her head as we started leaving that shit movie room. I turned to look at the movie screen and read the name of the director.

Oliver Rodent, I wish to meet you one day. Although your movie was bad, it somehow strengthened the bond between my sister and girlfriend. They are not giving each other threatening glares anymore.

I said my goodbyes to that room and looked at my sister who now was slowly starting to enjoy Selene's company.

After that we went to play some games, which were easy to win but being the big brother I need to keep my sister happy at all times.

"Are you trying to sugarcoat the fact that you lost every single time?." Umbra's mocking voice chimed in.

It was intentional, a little sacrifice for my sister's smile.

"You still lost." She started laughing really hard which made me a bit furious but like a mature person I did not let it appear on my face.

After spending a few hours straight playing games, we didn't realise that it was already dark outside. I thought that sending them home before me would be a good idea. I booked a cab for them, and we started waiting for it to arrive. It didn't take much time, maybe around 5 minutes.

Rebecca entered the taxi, soon followed by Selene. I closed the door after they took their seats.

"Ryan, are you not coming with us?." Becca was expecting that they would return home together but now she had to be alone with Selene.

"Unfortunately, I have to meet my friend, but don't worry I'll be back within an hour." I returned my father's card to her and asked the driver to start the car.

"Be careful." Selene seemed to be aware of it, her voice held a bit of worry for me.

"Ofcourse I will." I said before they left the place. The bright smile that was plastered on my face for a while dropped like sand falling from one's palm.

I turned around and started walking towards an alley which was not far from the place I was standing. I unbuttoned the black shirt I was wearing and then folded my sleeves.

A strange anger was getting hold of my senses, making my thoughts akin to a crazed animal. My body is heating up and small strands of black flame are starting to emit from my body. I reached the dark alley which was barren for a while because the old buildings were vacated by the previous owners because the government wanted to create a huge library in this place.

Good for me.

"You know I thought that you'd be smart enough to run away but you jumped right on my palm." A voice from my back surrounded me. Making me more furious than before.

"I don't care if you bring ten or hundred because the conclusion will remain the same."

"YOU WILL DIE." I pointed Umbra at the person who was standing a few metres away from me.