This is my entry in the Halloween story contest, so please vote at the end of the story. As an incentive, I've included my personal recipe for fake blood!
"Oh FUCK, my sweet little Amy, what happened to your arm?!!" Josh screamed, as he picked up his girlfriend and prepared to rush her to the ER.
Amy was laughing so hard she couldn't speak. Her best friend Kat cackled, "Josh! JOSH! It's not real! It's fake!"
Josh just looked confused and set Amy on her feet. She and Kat had just returned to his acreage in the country from a shopping trip in Kansas City. He examined what looked like a four-inch long, third-degree burn mark on her arm, with coagulating blood still drying around the edges.
Kat's husband Marcus, who'd also been consumed with laughter, came to look at Amy's "wound." Amy poked at it and said, "See? Doesn't hurt at all. Oh, but we found the sickest shit!"
Kat began to take items out of the bag she was holding and place them on the dining room table. "Remember, we told Carl that we would help him with makeup and fake blood for the Cyclone Halloween Party? Well, we found a little old costume rental shop in Kansas City where they sell all kinds of theatrical makeup and all these special effects products."
Cyclone was a friendly little BDSM venue just outside Kansas City where, one night a month, you could wear an indecent costume, flog the hell out of someone in the playroom, and then have a nice relaxing drink with friends in the lounge. Kat and Marcus had met there five years ago, and they had introduced Amy to Josh (and the lifestyle) earlier in the year.
"Like this one," Amy said, picking up a bottle that looked like a liquid foundation. "It's called 3-D Gel, and that's part of what Paul, the guy at the shop, used on my arm. It's real thick and sticky, but when you warm it, it becomes liquid."
Kat added, "It's a liquid latex product. When you put it on skin, it dries slowly as it cools, so you can work it into any shape you want, like to make realistic wounds and holes on bodies. See where Amy's looks like the edges of the burn?" she pointed out.
Kat had been a makeup maven since she and Amy were in high school. She had a large fishing tackle box to hold all her products. Carl, Cyclone's manager, had seen her handiwork with some of their monthly themed costumes, and asked her to share her expertise.
"It's not the right color for my skin," observed Marcus, the olive-toned Greek god.
"But that's part of the beauty of it!" Kat exclaimed. "When it's dry you can put any color makeup over it. See where the burn on Amy's arm looks red, and than changes into brown? That's just basic cream makeup. Then you can add one of lots of different blood products to it, too."
"Yeah," Amy piped up. "They even have these wheels of different colors of makeup for specific effects. Like, this one is called the Burn Wheel, and there's another that's the Bruise Wheel. They even have a Zombie Wheel," she added, picking up and showing the wheel-shaped collection of putrid colors.
Josh's color was a little grey. "Eww! Those colors are gross. I'm almost afraid to ask, but how do you make somebody into a zombie?"
"I'll show you," Kat promised as she took the bottle to the kitchen. "You're not supposed to put it in the microwave. Usually, you let the bottle heat in hot water. But I'll just do a few seconds."
She took the bottle out of the microwave and held its heat against Josh's skin. "See? Of course, you can't put it on the skin if it's too hot, or you'll get a real burn. Here, Marcus, give me your arm."
He dutifully held it out to her, and she rubbed a small amount of the sticky liquid onto his skin. "Now as it dries, you can shape it into anything from warts to cuts, but you also can kinda pick at it so that it looks like the skin is rotting and falling off. Then you just add a little of this color, and there it is. Zombie skin."
Marcus was sincerely impressed. "Now I want to be a zombie for Halloween," he grinned.
"As long as your zombie dresses in your gold speedo and Mistress Katya's collar, like you do every month," Amy chuckled.
"Anyway," Kat said to get them back on track. "Carl is calling the party 'The Cyclone Torture Chamber,' and he offered people or groups a chance to reserve space to stage a 'scene' that incorporates BDSM gear, but is bloody, freaky, or scary. It is, after all, a Halloween party," she smiled. "So I promised to help with blood."
Josh looked horrified. "You're donating your blood?"
"No Josh," Amy laughed, "we're gonna make fake blood. Paul gave us a recipe.*" She showed him several small bottles filled with blood-colored liquid, and went on, "You can buy all different kinds in these little bottles, even one with a mint taste that you can use in your mouth. But they're expensive, so it's easier to make your own if you need lots of blood."
"Do you need lots of blood?" Josh asked quietly, still not sure.
"Yes, because I told Carl I would offer the fake blood to anybody who needed it for a scene," Kat explained. "And lots of people will need it for lots of different kinds of scenes. So we're making it by the gallon."
"You're making blood in my clean kitchen?" Josh griped.
"Yes, sweetie," Amy told him, "but this recipe has soap in it, so it's supposed to wash right out. We might need one of your ratty old white socks to test it on," she teased, sticking out her tongue.
Josh looked a little grey again, with all of the talk of dead skin and blood. He stammered, "I think I'll just take the dogs outside," as he ran out the back door.
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The Saturday night before Halloween, the group gathered at Josh's house to set off together for the party. Kat had done an amazing job on Marcus's zombie skin, but he couldn't put clothes over it, so he was wrapped in a sheet against the late October cold.
"That is so cool!" Amy fussed over his grey rotting skin. "Kat, now when you flog him, you can actually flay the skin off his body."
Josh looked sick again, then muttered, "Be right back," and ran upstairs. He returned with an oversized long "duster" style coat that he sometimes wore this time of year when working outside.
"This should work," he said, holding it out for Marcus. While Marcus had the body of a weightlifter, Josh was taller and well-built himself. "This should be loose enough not to tear off your...um...skin, and long enough to cover your legs."
"Thanks, bud," Marcus said, as Kat helped him into the coat. "But where's your leather jacket?"
