Part 1 - Louvi
It was shaping up to be an especially shitty Halloween during an especially shitty year. I sat back on the couch and turned up the TV - the noise from the Halloween party in the apartment right below me was pretty loud, louder even than usual parties. I don't really mind noise, but all the laughter and drunken singing was pretty hard to deal with in my current state of mind.
Man, why did she have to leave me right before Halloween? Now I'd always associate pumpkin lattes, jack o' lanterns and people dressed up as monsters with getting my heart broken. Well, not just broken but torn out and stepped on in front of me and a bunch of other people.
I cracked open another beer from the six-pack on the coffee table in front of me. At least now I was single I had all this free time to sit and worry about everything. I tried to care about what I was watching but the dumb Halloween comedy special just made me more depressed. When one of the 'comedians', wearing a pumpkin on his head with a coifed blonde comb-over, strode into the already fucking dumb scene to canned laughter and started talking about building a 'yuuuge' wall to keep all the ghouls and ghosts out, I fought back nausea and scrambled for the remote and gave that crap the sweet oblivion of death it so richly deserved.
Maybe playing some vidya would cheer me up. I grabbed my phone and started up Genshin Impact but in the middle of waiting for the resources to download there was a knock at the door.
It was a loud knock, easily heard over the pumping music from downstairs.
Just my luck. It had to be another party guest who'd come up to the wrong floor. I'd already had to tell a bunch of sexy monsters they had the wrong apartment. What would it be this time? Another mummy in a bandage bikini? A sexy ghost? Why did the god of Halloween have to rub it in like this?
Who was the god of Halloween, anyway? The Great Pumpkin? The Devil?
The knocking returned, louder and more insistent, so I had to push away these important philosophical musings. I tossed aside my phone and reluctantly went to the door.
"Just a minute!" I shouted. "Hey!"
I opened the door slowly. My apartment wasn't in the best part of town and you've got be careful on nights like tonight when more than just the spirits of the dead are about.
As soon as the door was open a crack I knew I'd guessed right. She was wearing furry dark-brown gloves and boots on and not much else - apart from the stressed denim shorts and a white crop-top which contrasted nicely with her warmly-tanned skin. I'd only seen a thin slice of her and already I knew, with a sinking feeling, that when I saw her face she'd be cute as fuck and I'd want to kill myself.
I opened the door completely and god dammit, I was right - she was cute. Despite the revealing costume her face was surprisingly free of that garish make-up girls seem to wear as part of their Halloween costume - round and somewhat childish with large green eyes - contacts, obviously, since no-one had eyes that green! - and a snub nose above a wide, bright, toothy grin. Her hair was thick and shaggy and she was wearing wolf-ears.
Yup. A sexy werewolf. Tick that one off the list!
She waved a hand - a paw, rather - through the air jauntily and that big toothy smile grew even larger.
"Yo!" she said.
"Uh," I replied. "Hey."
"Hey," she replied, valiantly grinning despite my obvious lack of enthusiasm.
"Um," I started. "I think you've got the wrong apartment, sorry."
The werewolf frowned and her ears flopped downwards. Wow. Halloween costumes were getting pretty sophisticated. Then she leaned over and blinked at the number on the door and her ears perked up again, along with her toothy smile.
"Nope!" she said. "This is the right apartment. Em said it was number eight, and that's what it is!"
I blinked at her. "But the party's on in number seix," I said. Em. So that was my noisy neighbour's name.
"Oh, that's what all that noise is," she said. Then, without being invited, she nonchalantly walked right past me and into my apartment. "I guess I'm the first one here, then."
"Uh," I replied. I really needed to stop saying 'Uh' so much.
"I really like your apartment," murmured the werewolf, her fluffy tail swishing back and forth from the butt of her shorts as she looked around. Her tail!
Must be one of those Halloween costumes Japanese cosplayers wear. Probably cost a bundle.
The hypnotic swaying of that tail and her dangerously curvy hips and butt was more than distracting. I coughed. "So you said your friend was called Em?"
"Uh huh," replied the werewolf with a nod of her head. "And my name's Louvi. Pleased to meet you!" She suddenly stopped at my bookshelf and inspected it. "Wow. These are those book things, right?"
"Uh, yeah they are," I replied. "Look, I'm pretty sure there's some mistake. I don't think I know anyone called Em."
But was that really true? Em... Em... the name certainly sounded strangely familiar. I had a sudden flash of a memory of once having had a long, deep, hilarious conversation with a pretty girl called Em.
Strange. If this was the same Em Louvi was talking about, and she was really that pretty and funny, how had I forgotten her?
Louvi stopped in the middle of pulling out one of my books and turned to me. "Oh, that's right. Em said you might not remember her all that well. But she certainly remembers you, anon!" She used my name.
So it wasn't a mistake. This strange girl, dressed as a werewolf, and currently sniffing and pawing at the book she was holding as if she'd never seen one before in her life, knew who I was.
I realised then that I'd very likely just let a dangerous, unhinged individual into my apartment. Or maybe she was just high. I hoped she was just high. I took a couple of steps back toward my couch, where I'd stupidly left my phone. Maybe if I could grab it without startling her and call for help...
Louvi's struggle to put the book back properly with those big paws of hers gave me the opportunity I needed. I retreated to the couch and glanced about for my phone. Goddammit! It must have slipped behind a cushion somewhere. Shit, why did I have to buy such a huge couch?
As nonchalantly as I could manage I slid down onto the couch and started rummaging around. Where the hell was it?
But Louvi had managed to put the book back and was looking right at me. She gasped and with sudden violence bounded towards me.
Okay bro, I thought. This is it. This is where she slips a knife out of those tiny shorts of hers and stabs you and you end up an internet meme or a spooky greentext.
She threw herself over the backrest onto the couch beside me, but instead of stabbing me she just scooped up the can of half-drunk beer on the coffee table.
"Beer!" she cried. She levelled glistening green puppy-dog eyes at me and said, "Aw, can I have some? Can I have some? You've finished it, right? That's why you stopped drinking it, right?"
I'd only taken a sip but there was no way I was going to tell this insane girl she couldn't drink my beer so I just nodded like a fool while I kept up my increasingly desperate quest for my phone.
She beamed widely and then she chugged the whole beer. Usually girls try and mask the sound of drinking, but Louvi didn't. She drank with gusto and at the end she pulled the can away and gasped with obvious delight. Even despite my rising panic I found the sight of that pretty girl enjoying herself totally adorable.
"Aah!" she gasped out. "I like beer!"
"Er, I have... more beer," I said, suddenly getting an idea. "There's another six-pack in the fridge. You can have it if -"
