Narrator's P.O.V.
Kael's bedroom was plunged into that organized chaos typical of nights preceding major events for their group. Discarded pieces of clothing rested on the unmade bed, and the scent of the man's sweet perfume mixed with the smell of makeup setting spray. He and Pedro were excitedly getting ready, singing along to the pop songs playing on the Bluetooth speaker the Indigenous man had brought to liven up the mood while they both did their makeup.
It was Halloween night. For months, some members of the group had been organizing a massive costume party to celebrate the date, and they were anxiously awaiting this event. The day of the highly anticipated Lux Night had finally arrived, and everyone knew that this party had everything it needed to be one of the best of the year!
Facing the large mirror leaning against the wall, he finished the details of his costume with surgical precision. Kael had chosen to dress up as an incubus—the feared male sex demon—while Pedro would embody a succubus, the female version of the entity. The dark, strategically form-fitting clothes highlighted every detail of them both, creating a seductive and alluring silhouette. The makeup was the highlight, adorned with silver chains and long claws. They both looked flawless!
Sitting comfortably on the edge of the bed, his own costume already finished, Pedro watched him in silence. Silva followed the movement of the brush in his friend's hands, but his eyes caught much more than just makeup being applied. He read the tension in Kael's shoulders. He knew him well enough to notice when something was wrong with his friend, and, knowing exactly who would be at the party, he could foresee the storm brewing in the older man's mind.
"You realize Yuri and Samuel are going to be in the same room as you tonight, right?" Pedro broke the calm of the bedroom, his voice sounding casual, but laced with that prudence only a best friend has.
Kael's hand stopped in mid-air for a millisecond. He blinked slowly, staring at his own reflection in the mirror, before moistening his lips and going back to blending the eyeshadow on the corner of his eye with fake calm.
"Honestly? I don't care," Kael replied, letting out a long sigh that seemed to empty some of the weight from his chest. He lowered the brush, turning partially toward Pedro. "I swear to you, man. I'm not in the right headspace to deal with either of them tonight. I'm not in the mood to ruin my night because of them. I just want to drink and enjoy the music, pretend my life is normal for at least a few hours."
Pedro tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. He crossed his arms over his chest, clearly skeptical. Kael, Yuri, and, more recently, Samuel's track record was a ticking time bomb, and everyone in the group knew it all too well.
"It's a party, Kael. Where there's alcohol, you, and the short guy in the same place, you don't need much to know it's a recipe for disaster," Pedro pointed out, being cruelly realistic.
Kael gave a half-smile, looking back at himself through the mirror. He loved his costume; he felt stunning and dark, exactly the way he wanted. He grabbed a long silver chain and placed it around his neck as a necklace, letting the extension fall down the front of his body, almost like a "leash" for anyone who wanted to pull him. His long, sharp black nails, his body painted with dark makeup, the skirt with the slit that showed off his legs... everything gave him a sensual, almost profane aura. Yet, he didn't feel that way. Deep down, he was scared of what might happen, and he knew in his gut that something would. It was inevitable.
"To be honest, I think tonight's going to be a really good night," Ávila argued, his voice sounding almost as if he were trying to convince himself. "Yuri and I are fine. There's no reason for us to fight today, we're cool with each other. And with Samuel... everything is fine, I think. He gave me a sort of ultimatum recently, so we're not going to hook up anymore until I decide to be only with him," he sighed.
"And what are you going to do about that?" Pedro asked, curious about the answer his friend would give him.
"Nothing. I'm not going to lead the boy on. I can't give him what he wants right now, so that must mean we're not going to hook up anymore," he shrugged, trying not to care, even though he clearly did—and a lot!
Pedro remained silent for a good few seconds. He analyzed Kael's posture, the hopeful expression beneath the heavy makeup. Silva knew Yuri deeply. He knew the younger boy's "peace" lasted only until the moment he decided he needed attention, and seeing Kael being fought over or simply existing in the same space as Samuel was a dangerous trigger for Farias's ego. But Pedro also saw how much Kael wanted this night to be just a normal night. He had no right to ruin that spark of optimism.
"I really hope it's exactly like that," Pedro said finally, his tone soft, waiving his reservations to offer only support. "You deserve a peaceful night, Ka."
Kael looked back in the mirror, adjusting one of his rings. The reflected image returned the gaze of a majestic demon, but the brown eyes behind the dark eyeshadow belonged only to a man praying, in silence, that his own heart wouldn't betray him that night.
"I hope so too, man..." Kael murmured, almost like a prayer. "I hope so too."
...
The atmosphere of the Halloween party swallowed Kael and Pedro as soon as they crossed the event gates. Since they arrived a bit after the opening time, the flow of people was already intense, and the energy in the venue was purely electric. The heavy bass distorted the air, and the harsh lighting, mixing shades of purple and red, created a perfectly macabre and vibrant setting.
Being one of the event organizers, Kael's entrance did not go unnoticed. As he made his way through the main entrance, passing among the various guests, eyes turned in his direction, followed by a flood of warm compliments. The incubus costume looked truly flawless, standing out in the middle of the crowd. Friends and acquaintances stopped just to praise his look, which gave Ávila a small boost of confidence, a fleeting feeling that this night would, in fact, be memorable in a positive way.
With professional duty calling, Kael went up the stairs and, upon reaching the main part of the hall, headed toward the area reserved for administration, needing to align the final details with the other organizers. After talking with his friends on the event admin team, he went to the upper floor and, as soon as he rounded the stairs, his eyes inevitably found Yuri.
Farias was dressed as a killer butcher. The clothes, splattered with red paint simulating blood, and his theatrical expression matched the provocative aura he liked to uphold. Despite everything that had happened recently, the greeting between the two was incredibly natural, lulled by that silent truce they had established. They hugged, smiling gently at each other.
"Man, I have absolutely no pockets in this outfit," Kael commented, laughing casually as he showed that, regarding his clothes, his costume consisted only of a skirt and gloves that reached his elbows. Without hesitating, he held his device out toward the younger boy. "Can you hold onto my phone for me?"
Yuri took the phone with a calm nod, putting it away without making a fuss. At that moment, everything seemed under control.
The gears of the night were turning smoothly.
As soon as he finished talking about random things with the pseudo-redhead, the man felt his throat go dry and went back downstairs toward the first floor, cutting through the sea of costumed people until he reached the main bar. Behind the counter, the pace was frantic, but Kael's vision cleared instantly when he focused on Samuel. The boy was concentrated, serving drinks to a line of guests, moving nimbly. The older man didn't think twice: he walked around, bypassed the counter barrier, and stepped into the inner area of the bar to talk to him.
As soon as Samuel noticed Ávila's approach, his eyes lit up. The exhaustion of the job seemed to vanish for a moment. They wrapped themselves in a tight hug, the kind that blocks out the noise of the world around them, and as they pulled back a little, Samuel looked him up and down, visibly impressed.
"Damn, Kael... You look incredible. Seriously, that costume is absurdly beautiful," Samuel praised, his eyes fixed on the details of the older man's makeup and horns, unable to hide the genuine admiration he felt.
Kael felt his cheeks warm slightly under the dark makeup, flashing a sincere smile. While they briefly chatted about how busy it was, Samuel grabbed a bottle of vodka and quickly prepared Kael's drink, handing the cold cup directly into his hands.
"Here you go, your drink," the younger boy said with a knowing smile.
With his chest feeling a little lighter after Samuel's affection, Kael said goodbye with a wave and stepped out from behind the bar. He took a sip of his drink, feeling the alcohol burn smoothly, and began walking slowly through the venue, circulating through the crowd to observe the flow of the party, never imagining that the calm of that night was numbered...
...
Time inside a nightclub always seems to run at a distorted speed. An hour or so had passed since Kael's arrival, and the atmosphere of the place had already changed considerably. Alcohol began to dictate the rhythm of the bodies on the dance floor, laughs sounded louder, and inhibitions melted beneath the heat of the neon lights.
Still focused on ensuring the event didn't go off the rails, Kael decided to do a round on the venue's upper level. The second floor was supposed to be restricted at that point in the night, closed off to the general public to avoid premature issues. However, upon reaching the top of the stairs, he noticed a streak of reddish light leaking from under one of the doors at the end of the hallway.
It was the darkroom. The light wasn't supposed to be on.
With a tired sigh and the purely functional intention of flicking the switch off and locking the space, Kael walked over to it. He turned the doorknob and pushed the door open...
The scene waiting for him didn't make sense immediately. Sitting near the entrance, illuminated by the dim light, was Lucas. The boy kept his eyes fixed on the darkness at the back of the room, as if he were keeping watch. As soon as the door opened and the hallway light hit his face, Lucas turned his head.
The look the boy shot Kael was one of pure desperation.
Before Ávila could open his mouth to say anything, Lucas jumped up from where he was. He lunged at Kael with an almost violent urgency, grabbing him by the shoulders and physically pushing him backward, forcing him out of the room and pulling the door shut with a dull thud behind his back.
"Lucas, what's wrong? What happened?" Kael asked, his voice low, confused by the abrupt reaction of the boy who was still holding onto him in the hallway.
Lucas swallowed hard, his eyes wide, seeming to search for the least painful words to use, though he knew none of them would spare his friend.
"Don't go in there, Ka... Yuri is in there with Caio," Lucas revealed, his voice coming out as a rushed, guilty whisper.
Kael's mind shut down. That was, indisputably, the absolute last thing he needed to hear. His heart started pounding, almost as if it were going to burst out of his chest.
A knot formed in his throat, preventing the air from reaching his lungs.
He knew there was nothing he could do. He knew this moment would come, especially since Yuri was someone who couldn't care less about his feelings, but...
It hurt. A lot.
However, unlike what his friend might have expected, Kael didn't react. He didn't say a thing. The man simply turned around and walked down the stairs in silence, ignoring what he had just heard.
He felt his own eyes burn, but he forced his jaw to clench tight. Dignity was the only thing he had left in that empty hallway, and he wouldn't hand it over on a silver platter to feed Yuri's ego. Without saying a single word to any of his friends who started asking if he was okay, Kael just nodded slowly, marching toward the bar without thinking twice. The weight on his shoulders felt like it had tripled.
Perhaps, unconsciously, he hoped a certain someone would be there, but to his surprise, Samuel was nowhere to be found. Kael sighed heavily, holding his cup out for one of his friends to fill with liquor, asking them to make it really strong. Over the next hour, Kael drastically increased the pace at which he knocked back his drinks. The alcohol burned his throat, trying to numb the knot that refused to untie.
Kael smiled at anyone who greeted him, checked on the event's structure, and danced superficially, but his mind was trapped in that second-floor hallway. The drinks began to slightly blur his senses, but he kept a tight grip on the reins of his own control, refusing to break in front of so many people...