Sonja worried her lip for a moment, trying to consider asking them to help them. In response, a cool wind brushed across her, teasing her skin. She automatically glanced to the house and saw a very brief flash of it, with ice-covered windows and icicles from the roof. Her Master. She shook her head and decided to not ever let Perro or Anne Marie in the house. The ice disappearance in a second from her vision.

"If you don't mind, I-"

Perro followed her gaze toward the house. "Oh, hell, no. I wouldn't even consider going into that place."

Anne Marie frowned, "Honey, she didn't mean-"

Sonja interrupted her, "It's okay. I was going to say I don't feel really comfortable with anyone going in the house at all. This party is somewhat a surprise and its a mess."

Both of them searched her eyes to find the real emotions. Sonja felt uncomfortable and gestured for them to back to the front of the house. They nodded and returned to the front with Sonja following.

Sonja spoke softly. "So, uh, I don't mean to interrupt, but..."

"I understand, too much happening at once."

Sonja nodded, "Yeah... just a little."

Perro grunted as they came around the front. In the parking lot, behind Sonja's BMW was a large motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson from her guess. Perro stopped next to it. "Listen... uh, Sonja. I'd like to make you an offer, but hear me out."

She felt a slight frustration in her voice. "What?"

"Move. Move away."

"Move to where, Dolcett County?" She felt a sneer in her voice and tried to hide it.

Perro shrugged. "Dolcett, somewhere else, Indiana, wherever you are from."

"Illinois."

"Yeah, Illinois. Move somewhere else, anywhere but this house."

"Why?"

"Because, there is a lot of history in this house, a lot of really bad history."

"What kind of history?"

Well, everyone who has lived here has died. Usually suicide."

"So?"

"Well, this house is cursed, or haunted. And I think a bright girl like yourself shouldn't put yourself in that position."

"I won't leave my Meris."

"Then take her with you, as mayor I can keep you out of the lotteries and someone's pot for at least a couple of years, but I don't care if you move to New York. Just move out."

A cool wind blew across the front yard, leaving her to shiver.

Perro and Anne Marie didn't seem to notice. Anne Marie was polishing off the last of the plate. She had a smile on her lips and was seemingly ignoring the conversation.

Perro grunted again and finished off his cigar, dropping to remains on the ground as he cleared his throat. "Think about it. Clean up your mess and move to Dolcett. You'll like it there a lot more and much of what you are doing isn't illegal. With your cooking skills, you'll pretty much be off the rolls even with a body like yours. And everyone needs a skilled butcher, there is a lot of meat there and Hills could use the competition."

Sonja didn't even have to think about it. She shook her head. "No... I'm staying here."

Behind Perro, in the front yard, a white butterfly took flight and fluttered across her vision. Her sea-green eyes followed it, smelling the sunlight around her. The house felt like a lead brick but safe, safer than the vague promises Perro made.

He saw her decision in her eyes and sighed dramatically. "You need to leave, Sonja, but I can't force you. Frankly, that house scares me more than anything else." He gestured with his chin, "And I have a feeling, there is nothing I could do that take you away."

"He won't kill me."

"He who?" Perro shook his head, "Never mind, I don't really want to know."

He straddled his motorcycle. "Listen, I won't make you leave, but you need to do something for me."

Sonja felt a hardness growing over her hear, a suspicion about this stranger. He sighed heavily.

"Listen, those girls in your house."

"There aren't any-"

Perro interrupted her, "I don't care. Give them a choice, always give them a choice."

"I won't let them go." She blanched when she realized she gave herself away.

He chuckled, "I know, I wouldn't expect you to. But, give them a choice, even if it is between two terrible things. A choice is very important."

"Why?"

"Because even in death, they have to have at least some control of their life."

Her eyes narrowed, "Why?"

"Give them that, regardless of any problems you have with them. In the end, that choice is the most important thing."

Sonja scoffed and he shrugged before starting up the bike with a roar of the engine.

Anne Marie stepped forward and hugged her tightly. She whispered into Sonja's ear. "Don't worry, he means well even if he is a cranky old man."

Sonja's hardness softened and she kissed the cheek of the strange female cannibal.

Anne Marie gave her another peck and straddled the motorcycle. With a kick of gravel, they were gone.

Sonja stared at the motorcycle long after the sounds of it had faded.

Meris stepped up behind her, slipping a soft arm around her waist. "Who was that?"

"The guy I met on the bridge."

"From your first day?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you said he was old."

Sonja looked at her, a frown on her lips.

Meris grinned and kissed her on the lips. "He isn't that old."

Sonja grumbled and Meris giggled softly. Something caught her eye and she make a questioning noise. Sonja glanced down and spied a book on the ground, right in the tracks of the motorcycle.

"What the...?"

She picked up the book and opened it. "Techniques of Live Spitting."

Meris gasped, "Is that what I think it is?"

Opening the page half way through the book showed pictures that meant exactly what it said. They both stared at the picture of the two girls, black and white like old schoolbooks, spitted in the middle of a football field. At the back of the image there was a sign, "Dolcett High."

Curious, Sonja peeked at the publisher: "Jessica Press, Dolcett County, California."

Meris reached over and closed the book in Sonja's hands. "Come on, love, we have guests."

"Uh... yeah. Let me put the book in the house."

Meris grinned seductively, a hand sliding down her thigh, "Hurry up. I think lunch is turning me on. And I'm almost ready to crawl on the grill myself."

Sonja hurried up.

> End of Chapter 34, for the beginning:
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