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Candy. “So what’s your deal?”
    “I don’t have a deal.” Candy looked to Jimmy
for help. “Do I?”
    “Christ, Felicia,” Jimmy groaned. “We’ve had a
rough night, okay? How about being pleasant for once.”
    As if nothing had happened up to that point,
Felicia beamed with a wide smile. “Okay.” She turned and went into
another room through the dining room, calling back to them, “Let’s
get started already.”
    Melvin and Jimmy shared worried
glances.
    “It will take our minds off everything,”
Melvin said. “Let’s play. There’s not much we can do until we hear
back from Tinch.”
    Candy followed them through the dining room
and into what she thought was a living room, though there didn’t
appear to be anything indicating normal people lived here. Two
neglected recliners sat against the back wall, both straddling a
couch in dire need of cleaning, or better yet a place in the
dumpster. The walls were bare with the exception of random holes.
Three guys she had never seen before sat at a table near a sliding
glass door. Each of them appeared about the same age as Jimmy and
Melvin.
    “Everyone,” Melvin said. “This is
Candy.”
    One of the guys had short cut sandy hair and
eyes set deep into a gaunt face. The first thing he did was look at
her cleavage. His eyes bulged and then he hurriedly looked away.
Felicia took a seat at the table across from him and Jimmy sat down
on the same side near the sliding glass door. Melvin sat next to
the sandy-haired guy.
    One of the other guys stood up. He had thick
brown hair beneath a blue baseball cap with a red B stitched on the
front. “Hey, beautiful,” he said with a wink. “My name’s White
Paul. Is it hot in here, or is it just you?”
    Felicia rolled her eyes and Jimmy glowered at
him. Candy wondered what was up with his name.
    The last guy at the table had a shaved head
and a prominent nose. He watched Candy with a blank face, not
bothering to hide his wandering eyes. It became more than apparent
to her that she must look like a cheap hooker in the revealing red
dress that looked like it had been dragged behind a car with her
still in it.
    “Take a seat,” Melvin said.
    As she looked around, Candy was amazed that
all of them were werewolves. They looked liked ordinary young
people, if not a little dorky in most cases. She noticed books
scattered all over the table along with pencils, paper, and oddly
shaped dice. While everyone watched and waited for her to take a
seat, except for Felicia who had her back to Candy, a slow
realization furrowed her brow.
    “Are you playing Dungeons and
Dragons?”
    “Yeah, why?” said Melvin, not bothering to
lift his head, instead glancing up at her over the top of his
glasses.
    “Why?” Candy said. “Because you’re
werewolves.”
    Everyone’s head shot up except for Jimmy; and
Felicia, who was again glaring at him. White Paul
winked.
    “Not this again,” Felicia said. She turned
sideways in her chair to get a better look at her guest, and she
didn’t hesitate to flip her long hair around so that all the boys
would notice. “It’s perfectly okay for lycanthropes to play
Dungeons and Dragons.”
    “It is?” Candy said, not bothering to hide the
cynicism on her voice. “It seems kind of . . .” She wanted to
refrain from saying “retarded” and instead said, “Dumb.”
    Melvin looked a little angry while Jimmy
seemed positively tortured. Felicia gave a heavy sigh as she hefted
a backpack from beside her chair onto her lap and started digging
around in it.
    “You obviously don’t understand what a
role-playing game is,” said the redheaded girl. “The key word is
‘role.’ We assume the role of something completely different than
what we are. As a matter of fact, we made it a point to not include
lycanthropes of any kind into our world.”
    “Or vampires,” Melvin chimed in.
    Felicia found what she had been digging around
for in her pack. She chucked a worn paperback onto the table.