The streets of Manhattan hustled and bustled like any other day. It was nearing Halloween, and people were rushing to the costume stores. Fortunately for the accord driving on 8th street, the driver knew of a little shop on the edge of Manhattan and Brooklyn that no one ever went to. It was the address that was given to him by a friend holding a special party in town. Brushing his spiked, fiery orange hair, he looked out the hazy streets of New York city in his car, the traffic of the city purring like a house of cats, all bunched up together.
His name was Auron Deaumont, and he was a local at New York, raised there his whole life. Normally, on any given day, he wore his equals 3, yellow emoticon shirt, blue jeans and black hightops. His Hot Topic wristband rubbed against the steering wheel. Truth be told, Auron was a Japanese wannabe, but he was as white as they come. He still couldn't get Japanese right. Ah, well. He'd perfect it someday. He looked over and checked on Kevin, who was sitting adjacent to him.
Kevin Du was sitting in the passenger seat reading over the statistics of some of the latest games out there while reading through the stores sale's counting the take and noting some comments made by employees about some suspicious customers or problems related with the store. It was the early evening and his shift was now over allowing him to relax with his friend to purchase a costume for the party.
Kevin wore his black T-shirt over a long sleeved shirt in the colder weather that was sweeping the north east. He wore khaki pants over his sneakers and a long scarf around his neck. His long black hair was tied up in a pony tail which was currently wrapped around one of his shoulders in front of him. One of his hands was tweaking his hair as he stared down at his paperwork.
Kevin looked up briefly from his work to look at the surroundings. They were in an older neighborhood. He was able to tell by the multitude of homeless or lower income masses that were milling around in the filth of the streets. He sighed. The economy surely wasn't getting any better, and neither were his job prospects of finding a better paying job. The money he got from being a manager of the local GameGrab franchise store brought him enough money to live alone comfortably, but he lived by the paycheck and only had enough savings to survive homeless for maybe a year if he was stretching it. The money he would spend on the costume however came from a separate fund he was saving into. He wanted to look good in his costume.
"Hey Auron, how much longer till we get there?" Kevin asked.
"Don't worry, man. It's not too far from here." Auron said in that friendly New Yorker accent. Finally, after half an hour of waiting in traffic, they came at last to their turn, and Auron turned right. With enough free space, they could now go about 45. "Oh, yeah! Now that's good road. Okay, buddy. Now keep your eyes out for 32nd street. That's where we need to turn last." He looked around at the skyscrapers surrounding him, fascinated at how tall and strong they were. What else could he say except that he loved New York!
"So, buddy. Mind if we talk for a little while we're on the road?" Auron asked. "We've haven't spoken in a while, you know? How's life and everything?"
Watching the numbers go by, Kevin sighed deeply putting down his work. "Well, I failed to get into any reputable medical school, my parents are trying to force me to come home so they could "re-educate" me." At this point, Kevin shudders or a moment, then continues, "I suppose from here on out, I will continue to lease the apartment and live here with my current job. As it is right now, the job is pretty much self sustaining me and my interests I suppose, like a costume for this party and all. GameGrab is going as fine as ever I guess, *sigh*, the customers are terrible too terrible. hell, I can't even crack a joke right now. Where am I going to end up 10 years from now? Will I still be working there in a dead end job? I can't do this any more. I can't keep waiting for that opportunity to come for me, but I feel trapped here I guess...." Kevin pauses then changes the subject completely. "So... about this party, who is this guy anyway, the host I mean?"
"=
"Oh, well, he's no putz, I'll tell you that. His name is Brian McKree, and he's an old friend of mine. He may sound a bit peculiar at times, but he's all right in my book." Auron's eyes then caught the sign, just as he said that. "That's our turn." Turning on 32nd street, they passed a couple buildings before they parallel parked between a couple cars. Stepping outside, but making sure not to step in the pothole, Auron put in money for the parking meter as he watched Kevin nervously get out. True enough, they were on the borders of manhattan and brooklyn, but the folks here weren't too shady. Not shady at all. A homeless man came up begging for change but Auron turned him down.
"All right," Auron said while patting the car hood. "Now our shop is located on the other side of the street. See that place over there?" He pointed beyond Kevin's Head.
Kevin took a look to see a small strip mall between several much larger buildings. It looked like the strip mall was about 6 units long but then Kevin realized that they were all the same store with all the doors with signs that read "please use the other door" with an arrow sign leading to the main entrance. The strip mall was made out of brown brick, it had clean windows, most of which were covered by curtains from the inside and others covered by signs offering specials on goods inside. The parking lot looked like it hasn't been repaved for a decade or so, but a few cars could be seen in the parking lot. The lights in the building was on, lighting up a sign that bore the name of the establishment "
An interesting place to be sure, Kevin thought to himself.
"Yea I see it, he replied, looks pretty well maintained, for a shop in the poorest section of the city. Well, I guess we should go and see what this guy has to offer us in the way of costumes. Was it mandatory for all the party goers to get costumes from here?"
"Yeah, actually. Though it seems to happen a lot of the time around here." Auron said, pondering that for a moment. "Ah, no worries. Let's head inside."
Marching side by side, they went through the doors, and walked into a place that appeared sterilized and well lit. The floor was covered with racks with tons of costumes, the walls lined with masks, and the counter with special teeth and cosmetic sets. Sitting at the counter was a girl, filing her nails. She wore a t-shirt with a collar around her neck, her hair pulled back like a cockerel's crest. Her jeans were patched along the knees, and her sneakers, resting on the counter, had seen better days. When she saw them come in, she stopped what she was doing and got up. "Welcome, welcome! We've been expecting you two. Brian did say two of your description would be coming."
"Well that was very kind of him." Auron elbowed Kevin. "He has all kinds of connections. He once got me in to a five star resteraunt. So, what kind of costumes do you have for us?"
"Just wait a second. Brian had them on special order." She walked up out of the counter and went through the back door.
Kevin started to wonder just who this Brian was, but before he could inquire, the clerk came back with several boxes stacked up to her chin. She put them down side by side on the counter top and read something from a paper before addressing them again.
"Alright you two, Kevin and Auron is it? Well he had these costumes especially crafted to fit your descriptions, you have a few choices here, pushing 3 boxes each towards the two friends. You are to choose one without opening any of them. He promises that all are equally pristine in quality and should last through rigorous wear and tear without getting too dirty. Dry cleaning instructions are on the inside of the top of the boxes." she stopped talking then.
The boxes in front of each were identical except for the coloring. The boxes in front of Kevin were Blue with a bright green stripe, Violet with a white stripe, and Green with a shocking yellow stripe. But other than that there was no indication of what each box contained. The boxes were roughly 2 feet lengthwise and a foot widthwise. Kevin continued examining the boxes kind of puzzled but also intrigued. He decided to go with the Green box, as it was his favorite color.
"I think I will go with the Green box," he said, pushing the other two towards her after stacking one on the other, "Now how much will it be?"
"The deposit has already been paid for, so it's only 50 dollars."
"All right." Auron pulled out his wallet and gave her a grant. "There you are. I'll take the blue one myself. Blue's my favorite color."
"A fine choice. All right, have a nice day!" She said as she leaned back on the desk, pulling out some bubble gum.
After about an hour's drive back to he apartment complex, the pair took their cargo up to the 14th floor where they resided. Their apartment was rather modest for such an old apartment building that only recently was outfitted with internet cables and refurbished electricity and plumbing. The floors were still wooden, but hard wooded and waxed. The walls, still bearing signs of pockmarks and, and in some cases, graffiti, was painted over with cheap white paint and covered with many many posters of video games, memes, and anime. Besides the large flat screen TV hooked up to a Wii, Xbox 360, and even a PS3, there were several 1960s style couches and bean bags circling a small table for food in front of the TV
The furniture in the kitchen was old and outdated but had a nice simple feel to it with the plastic folding chairs, wooden table with hearts and names etched into it and a 1950's refrigerator with an ice box attachment on the bottom. The stove however was new and electric powered.
Kevin and Auron sat at the table in the living room, their boxes in front of them.
"So..... how shall we do this?
"Well, we better try them on to make sure they fit." Auron said, undoing the strappings that held his box together. Slowly pulling off his lid, he pulled out the individual pieces to his costume. They were...