Old-Fashioned House Party

*** Content Advisory: Mentions sexual themes, substance abuse, physical violence and gore (not explicit) ***

“Let’s play charades!” Jimmy said, and everyone applauded.

Last weekend, Jimmy Butler had invited eight of his friends from college to spend Thanksgiving at his huge home. His family would join them on Wednesday afternoon for the traditional holiday celebrations, but today was Tuesday. Jimmy was the richest of the group, and the youngsters were treating it as a campus party in unusually luxurious surroundings at the Butlers’ estate in Rhode Island.

To the delight of the guests, Jimmy’s family had an extensive wine cellar, and everyone had quite a buzz going. Good naturedly, they accepted that the Butlers’ ways of partying were different from their own more modest families, so the fact that Jimmy expected to play “house games” made for an interesting change for all of them. It could have been a party in the 1920s instead of the 2020s.

Jimmy started the game. “No complicated rules or scoring. I’ll start, and you all try to guess what it is. Whoever wins, I’ll whisper the next clue to them, and they have to act it out. And so on.”

Jimmy started in the traditional way, miming an old-fashioned movie camera, and putting one finger on his arm to indicate a one-word movie title. Then he put four fingers on his arm. The audience looked doubtful, but Kamal was familiar with the game. “One word, four syllables,” he said.

Jimmy nodded and then swung his hand in a large circle. “The whole thing,” translated Kamal.

Jimmy nodded again, then put his thumb to his nose, pushing it up and squishing it. Squatting down, he made thrusting motions, looking expectantly at his friends.

“Dog?”

“Pig?”

A nod from Jimmy on the word pig.

“Pig breeding?”

“Pig boyfriend?” This was from Joey, who had recently and very acrimoniously split from his boyfriend. Jimmy shook his head and wagged a finger at him.

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” shrieked Megan, giggling uncontrollably. “It’s Deliverance.”

Jimmy nodded, and pointed to her, his finger on his nose. “You got it, Megs. You’re up next.”

The others looked briefly confused, then the light dawned on a few faces. “Squeal like a pig!” shouted Hannah, laughing, “well done, Megan.”

As Megan stood up, Jimmy whispered in her ear “Rolling in the Deep.”

As the afternoon wore on, and more alcohol was consumed, and more recreational drugs were used, the group became rowdier, and there was more laughing and suggestive body contact. The charades became more sexual, and the guesses became wilder. When Jimmy felt people were losing interest, he suggested a new game. “Let’s play sardines now.”

No one else in the group had ever played sardines. It was a game whose time had come and gone, and most people’s homes were not suitable for playing it. However, Jimmy’s family mansion was ideal. “It’s like hide and seek, but one person hides and the rest of us look for them. For the trial round, I’ll hide first and you all try to find me without letting anyone else know where I am. As each person finds the hider, they climb into the same space with them and stay quiet. The last person to find the hiding place is the hider for the next round. All rules of polite social contact are off the table while you hide together.”

There was a round of laughter at his explanation. Jimmy chose a relatively easy hiding place for that first round, hiding in a downstairs bathroom while his guests stood in the kitchen, timing two minutes on a cell phone.

To Jimmy’s delight, the first person to find him was Hannah, and the two of them enjoyed some physical intimacy while endeavoring to stay quiet. One by one, the others joined in the fun until only Ryan was left, wandering haplessly around upstairs. Jimmy called out to let him know that he had lost.

When Ryan finally joined them, Jimmy said “Well, now you all know how to play – except perhaps Ryan – let’s play properly. You all know your way around the house now, so we can put all the lights out, and we can use our phones as flashlights. Anyone have a problem with that?”

By way of reply, they all pulled out their phones and tested the flashlight function. Jimmy went and turned out the lights on both floors, then returned to the downstairs bathroom. “Ryan, you lost the last one, so it’s your turn to hide first. You should be very familiar with possible hiding places! Go and hide, and we’ll give you three minutes until we come to find you.”

As the group waited in the bathroom, there was giggling and lust. Kamal and Megan were getting up close and personal. “Count us out of this round,” murmured Kamal as they eagerly groped at each other.

“Fine!” barked Jimmy, snorting a line of coke beside the basin. “Leave some for the rest of us, and we’ll call you when we’ve all found each other. I’ll take my revenge later, Megs.” He leaned over and licked her ear obscenely as she tried to lean away from him. Kamal roughly pushed him away from her and continued his frontal assault.

The alarm bell sounded from Jimmy’s phone, and everyone except the happy couple burst out of the bathroom and went in different directions, holding their phones in front of them.

Ryan had decided to hide in a huge walk-in closet in the master bedroom suite. It was so large that even when someone opened the door, they couldn’t see him hiding in the back – there was a closet within a closet where fur coats were hanging in a climate-controlled space. He was confident that it would take a long time to find him.

After ten minutes, Joey found the coat room, and let himself in. Ryan was disappointed that Megan hadn’t found him – she was the catch of the group, and all of the guys were hoping to get with her. But Joey was always fun to be around, and he put on a fashion show wearing a full-length mink coat and lighting his catwalk with the phone while Ryan took artistic shots of him. They cuddled together in the mink while they listened for the sounds of other searchers.

Jimmy of course was next. He knew the coat room was there, so once he made it into the master suite, he found them almost immediately. He shook his head at the use of a mink coat as a makeshift bed, but as a gracious host, he pulled a sable jacket from the hanger and joined them on the floor.

When Hannah arrived, there was already an air of depravity in the coat room, and in no time she was rolling around on the floor with them among the furs. This, after all, was the whole purpose of the game. The phones had been cast aside in favor of finding people by touch and taste and smell.

The next person to walk into the coat room had his own definition of debauchery. He flashed his light upon the scene, then turned it off and took his pleasure with each of the four of them.

When Emma walked in, there was silence in the coat room. She was about to leave when she saw the pile of furs on the floor. “Really? Why are you still hiding? I’ve already found you!”

A hand reached out from behind the coat rack and took her phone, taking away her light source. She spun around but couldn’t see who was there. “Who’s that?” she squealed, then she was silent.

After nearly two hours, Kamal and Megan had become bored with each other and wanted to rejoin the party. They stepped out of the bathroom and called out to the others. There was no reply. Kamal found a light switch and turned on the lights, before going to collect another bottle from the wine cellar. Passing the bottle between them, they searched the ground floor, turning on all the lights. Then they headed upstairs.

By the time they found the built-in closet in the master suite, they had finished the wine and were getting irritated. Megan was not accustomed to being ignored; she expected attention wherever she went. “Come on guys, this isn’t any fun. Let’s do something else.”

The walk-in closet was silent as they walked around it. Kamal saw the door to the fur room, and pointed at it, putting a finger to his lips. With a sudden sweeping gesture, he opened the door, shouting “Aha!”

They both stood in the doorway, transfixed. The coat room was completely still and silent. All their friends were sitting or lying on the floor, as if they were posing for a camera in a representation of a bacchanalian orgy. They all wore fur coats or jackets and nothing else. And they were all very dead. Some covered in blood, some with bruises around their necks, and Emma even had a garrote dangling from her neck.

No movement. No sound.

After staring at the scene for several minutes, unwilling to step forward and touch any of the bodies, Kamal and Megan turned and walked unsteadily out of the house. They moved together as though by agreement, but no words were spoken, and there was no contact between them. It was dark and cold, and the outside lights were still turned off. They had nothing to say to each other, no way to process what they had found. Once in the open air, Megan doubled over and vomited on the steps. Kamal ignored her and walked to his Porsche. When Megan joined him, they both climbed in. He started the car and drove slowly away. The headlights illuminated the path ahead of them until they reached the road and streetlamps. Kamal turned up the heating, but he still felt very cold.

From time to time, they glanced at each other, but neither spoke.