Page 29 of The Dinner Party

“Avery, we need to go!”

“Right.” She nods, as if to herself. “Let’s go.”

Avery leads you down a hallway, and you follow close behind. As long as the two of you are together, you feel at least somewhat safe. And pretty soon, you’ll be out of this awful place.

As you walk down the hall, you pass by some sort of parlor, where the group of would-be diners seems to be congregated. They’re standing around, laughing, talking, and drinking wine. Probably working up an appetite.

The fear in your chest is suddenly replaced by fury. These people were going to eat you! How dare they! You’d really like to give them a piece of your mind.

Is that safe, though? Yes, they are all pretty old. But at the same time, there are a lot more of them than there are of you. If it came down to it, they might be able to overpower you. Even with Avery by your side.

Still, you’re itching to go in there and let them know that you are in on their secret, and that they’re going to have to hit the McDonald’s drive-thru for a Big Mac if they’re really that hungry for meat.

If you want to confront the cannibals, turn to Chapter 50 (page 121)

If you want to continue trying to escape, turn to Chapter 58 (page 146)

50

Who cares if your life might still be in danger? You’re not about to walk out of here without telling these boomers that trying to eat you was totally uncool.

“Hey.” Avery frowns when you stop by the parlor. “What are you doing? I thought you wanted to get out of here…?”

“I do,” you say. “But there’s one thing I need to do first.”

You ignore Avery’s protests and march into the parlor. All at once, every set of eyes swivels in your direction. Good, you have their attention.

“Listen to me, people,” you say. “I know what you all were trying to do. I know you planned to eat me.” You wait for them to deny it. They don’t. “And I just want you to let you know how incredibly shitty that was.”

You’re not sure exactly what sort of response you were expecting. An apology perhaps? Sorry, we did indeed want to eat you, but we see now that was wrong. But nobody is saying anything. You could hear a pin drop.

“I mean,” you go on, “how would you feel if I ate you? I bet you wouldn’t like it very much!”

“Of course you would not eat us!” Heinrich finally speaks up in that thick accent. “You could never afford the delicacy of human flesh! Besides,” he adds, “all of us would be missed, and you would not.”

Ouch. It’s true, but still—a low blow.

You realize for the first time that you might have made a mistake stopping at this room. You have underestimated these old people, who actually seem quite spry all of a sudden. And now they’re descending on you, several of them licking their lips. Also, you didn’t think they could hurt you, but it turns out they all have weapons—not just weapons, but old-timey weapons. One of them has a trident. Another is holding a spear. Another is holding a stick that has a ball attached to it with little spikes coming out of it. (That probably has a name, but you don’t know what it is.)

Oh no. You should have run for it while you still could.

Turn to Chapter 51 (page 123)

51

You turn around, hoping to make a run for it, but you realize the door to the room is now closed. You grab the doorknob, but it doesn’t turn. Worse, Avery has disappeared.

Did Avery lock you in here?

The old people are descending on you. At any moment, they are going to bludgeon you with their ancient weapons, and then eat you with fava beans and a nice Chianti. It’s all over. If only you hadn’t stopped in this room, you could have gotten away, but you just had to confront them. Now you are completely screwed.

This is it. They’re going to kill you. Any second now…

You squeeze your eyes shut, bracing yourself for the impact of the first weapon. But before you can feel anything, a terrifying growl echoes through the room. Your eyes fly open just in time to see the large animal breaking through the lock, bursting the door wide open.

It’s a wolf.

You can hardly believe your eyes. A wolf is in the middle of the room. It’s larger than an average wolf, covered in white fur and foaming angrily at the mouth. It lets out a growl that makes all those old people take a step back.