“I know, Ross, but I just planned to…” How do I explain this to the one person who loves everyone? “Not go?” It comes out as a question.
His eyes bug out while he latches onto my shoulders, shaking me. “But you have to! It’s going to be awesome!” He exclaims like an overexcited kid.
I roll my eyes again and start walking towards the class. “Fine, but I’m not dressing up,” I say. Ross barks out an unbelieving laugh.
“Yeah, you are! Button, it’s a costume party,” he argues as we walk into class.
Sighing, I slump down in my seat and shake my head.
“Fine, but you guys can’t tell me what to dress as or protest my choice,” I tell them, now that all four are sitting around me. They nod, and Ross shoots me a big smile, making me chuckle.
What to be?
~~Next day~~
Walking into my room, I look at all the shopping bags on my bed. After school yesterday, Ross reminded me, for the millionth time, that, and I quote, “to not be a big party-pooper, I’m required to dress up for the Halloween party.” He also sneakily slipped in that it’s a competition to see who could dress the best. Of course, me being me, I want to beat the guys, so I decided this morning to go shopping.
It took me all night to figure out what I wanted to dress as, but I eventually thought of something.
I pulled out my black makeup set and ice blue- almost white- contacts, set them out on the counter, and then pulled out my new clothes and lay them on the bed with a smirk. I’m so beating those losers. The guys had been discussing what they might dress as, but I hadn’t told them anything. I instructed them not to bother me while I got ready. When they protested, I came back to Alisha’s house. I want my “costume” to be a surprise. I have no clue what they’re wearing, though.
They said the party starts at nine, and it’s 5:18, so that gives me a while to get ready. First, I jump in the shower and wash my hair. I shave and use my vanilla body wash. After a time, I exit the shower and wrap a towel around myself, making heading into my room and to my closet.
Slipping the towel off, I dry myself and my hair. Once I’m dry, I pull on my underthings, then walk back out to my bed, pull on the black leather shorts, and grab all the makeup I just bought. I glance at my phone to see I spent over an hour in the shower; that’s the longest I’ve ever taken.
I set all the makeup on the counter and grab my hair drier. Plugging it in, I spray some non-frizzing product in my hair and dry it. I’d let it air dry, but that takes way too long for what I’m wanting. It takes about half an hour to dry and curl my hair to perfection, but when I see the finished result, I love it. It’s worth the time and effort.
Next, I carefully insert the light blue/white colored contacts into my eyes. The effect is slightly creepy, even to me. A natural base color goes down first, and then I start on the forehead. I’m painting my face as a skeleton. I brush and brush, and when I’m done with my forehead, I go to the sides of my face and eyes. Most of my face will be black, so I gently apply the dark color to my skin.
After the eyes, I move to the nose and start painting. Since my hair is silvery, the black and white makeup matches really well with it. Next, I move to the cheeks and mouth, painting them to resemble skeleton teeth. After the mouth, I move to my neck and start on the spinal cord painting.
As I paint, I alternate between black and white to shade and fill in specific spots for a realistic look. I eventually finish. When I look at my phone, I realize I’ve been applying makeup for three hours because it’s a little after eight. I’m not a professional by any means, but I think I did pretty well.
I look at my reflection and smile at my accomplishment. The dark color makes my cheeks look hollowed out, and the spinal cord looks insane. It’ll look fantastic in the dark. My eyes look dead, but they stand out, which is the effect I was going for with the darkness circled them.
Makeup and admiring completed, I make my way back to my room and grab my top; it’s an off-the-shoulder, three-quarter length sleeve black crop top. It slides over my head easily since it’s not too tight and shows off just enough of my neck and chest to display the makeup. I sit on the edge of my bed, grabbing my boots. I slip my feet into the thigh-high black boots and lace them up.
Once I’ve tied the boots, I grab my fingerless leather gloves and slip them on. The last thing I do is spray my makeup with a sealant to make sure it won’t rub off. I didn’t spend two hours applying this makeup just for it to smear off at the first chance.
For the last time, I check my clock. 8:57. Grabbing my phone, I slide it into my pocket. I make my way to my window and push it open. Drake’s window is already open like he knew I’d take this route, so I climb across and into his room.
I turn around to find him lying face-up on his bed with his arm thrown over his eyes. This should be interesting. Quietly, I walk over to him and climb onto the bed and straddle him. The contact causes him to move his arm and jump from either surprise or fear. “Holy sh-” I cover his mouth before he can finish and smile down at him.
“Hey.”
He moves my hand off of his mouth, pushing himself into a sitting position without moving me, and just stares. “Athena?”
I smile at his confusion and peck his lips. “Yep, Queen of the Damned at your service,” I announce, standing and twirling.
“Wow, I think the guys are going to be disappointed.” I frown. Seriously? I worked hard on this. “Their outfits are nowhere near as awesome as yours,” he states, looking me up and down.
I smile at his compliment and pull him off of the bed. “Come on, let’s go get the guys so we can leave,” I tell him, a newfound excitement bubbling in me. Yes, I’m competitive, I like to win, and I’m getting excited about this party.
We reach the door, and I stop, glancing back at Drake. He’s not dressed up, but I shrug it off and make my way down the stairs. If he doesn't want to dress up, he doesn’t have to. Plus, he looks perfect the way he is. Crouching down, I sneak around the corner. The guys are hanging out on the couch, not facing the stairs. Quietly and stealthily, I crawl across the floor and sneak up behind the sofa.
“Boo!” I yell, jumping up, making all of them jump and yell out. They spin around with wide eyes. Ross dressed as… well, I don’t know what he is. Alec is Peter Parker, and I know because he has a camera and a bag with a Spider-Man mask hanging out one zipper pocket. I look Chase over and see that, like Drake, he didn’t dress up. I guess they’re going as bad boys… how original.
“Uh, what are you?” Chase asks, looking me over.
I smirk and hold my arms out. “Queen of the Damned,” I answer, and a wrinkle forms between his eyebrows. With a sigh, I state, “Persephone.”
This time he nods in understanding. I turn to Ross and narrow my eyes. “And what are you supposed to be?” I ask, looking at his ripped-up clothes, messy hair, and yellow eyes. He smiles at me, and I raise my eyebrows. “Vampire?”
“Werewolf.”
“Nice,” I nod, “We should go.” It’s past nine, so I guess we’ll just have to be late. The guys follow me out, and we split up, Drake and I on his bike and the others with Chase. I hold on to Drake as we ride, wondering where we’re going. I don’t remember who’s throwing the party.
After driving for fifteen minutes, we pull up to some jock’s house. I don’t remember his name, but he must be popular to have this many people here. Cars litter the street and fill the driveway. I feel bad for whoever parked at the front because they’ll have to get past all the other cars to leave.
I climb off my bike and walk next to Drake. When we get inside, Drake pushes through the crowd of people, gripping my hand to make sure I don’t get lost. The music vibrates the house as people dance and grind on each other. I peer up at Drake to see he’s already watching me. Does he want to dance? Is that why he’s watching me?
“Stay with me, and don’t drink anything you don’t open,” he speaks. The music almost drowns him out, so I just nod, tightenin
g my grip on his hand. I may be a fearless fighter, but this is unknown territory for me.
“Have you ever been to a party before?” He shouts over the music, and again, I shake my head no. I search the room. I don’t know what for, though, while Drake takes time to look around too. Just about everyone is in costumes, most of them being too revealing or cliche. The girls range from bunny costumes to revealing superheroes to witches. The guys didn’t dress up as much, but some are; I see animals, Tarzan maybe, various athletes, and werewolves like Ross.
As my eyes sweep the crowd, I spot a clown and suck in a breath. My worst fear is clowns.
“Can we do something?” I ask, raising on my toes so I can speak in Drake’s ear.
He nods, “What do you wanna do?” I turn around to talk to the guys, but they’re gone.
Looking around, I spot them going down to the basement. “Follow the guys,” I point, and he nods, pulling me along with him. We push through the crowd, and I notice the clown is staring at me. He’s tall and muscular… must be a football player or on the wrestling team. I try my best to ignore him and make my way down to the basement with Drake.
When we reach the bottom of the stairs, we find people playing different games; I see spin the bottle, seven minutes in heaven, and beer pong. The guys split up, Ross and Alec are playing spin the bottle. Chase plays beer pong. I pull Drake over to spin the bottle, and we sit next to Ross and Alec. Immediately, a shot glass is placed in front of each of us.
I guess nobody cares that we’re not old enough to drink yet. I glance at the glass then back at the group.
Quickly, I find out that we’re playing truth or dare. A random guy spins the bottle, and it lands on a girl dressed in a bunny costume. “Truth or Dare?” She answers with dare. The guy takes a minute to think before he tells her to stand. “I dare you to kiss Jace,” he says, pointing at the larger guy playing beer pong with Chase. After the girl kisses this Jace guy, she comes back to the circle with a bright red blush.
She spins the bottle, and conveniently, it lands on Drake. She looks up at him with a fearful look and clears her throat. “T-truth or dare?” She asks.
Drake gives her a signature glare and sighs. “Dare,” he picks, and she smiles wickedly. Now that I think about it, I think she’s one of Lexi’s friends.
She looks around the circle and points at a blonde girl in a very exposing Wonder Woman outfit. “I dare you to make out with Suzy for two minutes,” she tells him, not taking her eyes off of me. She did that on purpose.
Drake scoffs and grabs the shot glass and the bottle of Jack that’s in the middle of the circle, smoothly pouring himself a shot and tossing it back. He eyes the entire group, a warning flashing as he says, “I only make out with my girlfriend, so if anyone else gets any ideas, you’ll regret it.” He sets the bottle and glass down while I bite my lip to hide the smile.
The process repeats itself for about another half hour, but the bottle never lands on me, so I stand. Drake gives me a confused look and stands, but I hold my hand out. “You can stay. I’m just going to get some fresh air and water,” I tell him. He nods, knowing I can take care of myself, and sits back down.
I make my way upstairs and push through bodies to get to the kitchen. The makeshift bar has a row of bottled drinks, and I grab the last water. I open the water as I turn around and run right into someone. He grabs my wrist, keeping me from falling. When I look up, I almost scream. A blood-red smile and fluffy green hair greet me. It’s the clown that was staring at me earlier. He releases his hold on my wrist and just walks away.
I take a deep breath to calm my racing heart and drink some of my water. Once I’m okay, I make my way outside to the front yard. I continue to sip on my water, and after some time, I realize I should go back inside, so Drake doesn’t worry. Dizziness hits me as I try to walk away, causing me to stumble.
Without my permission, my muscles relax just as another wave of dizziness hits me. I tumble into a wall. What the heck? I try to focus on getting to the basement, but I stumble over my feet. Someone grabs my arm. I turn to see the creepy clown and frantically try to pull my arm out of his grip, but I can’t. My stomach churns with uneasiness as my vision blurs a little.
“Wh-whas goon on?” The clown pulls me to the front door. I blink several times to free myself of the blurriness and weight pressing on me. However, I stumble again, almost falling.
Drake
“I’m gonna see where Athena is,” I tell the guys as I stand. They follow my lead and stand as well.
“We’ll come too ‘cause this is boring,” Chase says, and I nod. We make our way to the living room. I search the crowd.
I barely hear a faint yell over the loud music, and I look for the source. My eyes immediately land on a sizeable man-clown person dragging my perfect little Queen of the Damned out the front door. She looks out of it, her eyes bleary, her movements sluggish, and her energy drained, but she’s throwing weak, futile punches around, trying to get out of his grip.
“Let her go!” I yell, shoving through people. The clown looks up, bloodshot eyes locking on me.
In a split second, he has Athena up and over his shoulder while he runs. I can’t push through fast enough, even with my friends yelling at everyone to move. They don’t, though, and I growl as I see Athena slump against the clown’s back, passing out as he slips out the front door.
After I finally break through the crowd of teenagers, I practically jump out the front door. “There!” Chase yells, pointing to the clown running down the driveway.
“You’re not taking her,” I growl and force myself to move faster. We get pretty far down away from the house. When I get close enough, I tackle the guy to the ground, which sends Athena falling forward. The guys go to her, so I focus on the man on the street.
I rip the man’s mask off, throwing it to the side. The man groans when I land punch after punch to his face and torso. “Who. Are. You!” I demand, punching between each word. “Are you the one leaving her disturbing notes? Huh? Are you the creep?” I snarl, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him to punch him again.
“Wh-what?” He stutters, trying to block my hits, “No, I didn’t- what notes?” He yells, making me throw harder punches. My knuckles split, blood dripping across them and running down my fingers as the man falls limp. I gasp for breath while staring down at him.
“Dude, I called the cops,” Chase pulls me from my rage. Nodding, I crawl to Athena and pull her into my body.
“Babe, wake up,” I mutter, brushing tendrils of escaped hair from her eyes. “Flower, I told you not to drink anything open,” I whisper. How could I let this happen? I was supposed to keep an eye on her. She’s my girlfriend.
“Wasnent opnen. Hes bupped inna me,” Athena slurs, her eyes fluttering briefly. Siren wails fill the air, and I look up to see two cop cars pull up. Right then, I vow not to let Athena out of my sight again. To make sure she’s always safe.
The cars park, and two officers get out. “Chase Reid,” one officer calls out. Chase steps forward.
“We believe the unconscious man drugged our friend. We saw him carrying her away from a party we were at. She was fighting him before she passed out,” he informs the officer. I look down at Athena, who is once again passed out.
“I saw her drop this. I’m sure if you check him, you’ll find the drugs,” Alec says, making me look up. He offers a water bottle to the first officer and the second officer walks over to clown-man.
The officer searches through the man’s pockets and quickly finds a small bag of pills. “Here it is,” the officer announces, making the first officer look over. She said he’d bumped into her, but how he got the powder into the bottle must’ve been difficult. It tells me he’s probably done this many times.
The first officer nods and pulls his cuffs out as the clown-man groans, his eyes opening. The officers read the man his rights and load him in the back of the cruiser. Once he’s in, they walk back over. While the second officer looks over A
thena, checking her pulse, eyes, and blood pressure, the other officer faces us.
“When she wakes, bring her down to the station to make a statement. Even if she doesn’t think she can remember, there might be something we can use,” he informs us, and I nod.
“I used to be a paramedic, and in both jobs, I’ve seen many drugs. These pills are your average over-the-counter sleeping pills, so she’ll be fine in several hours,” he explains. My nerves calm a bit with the knowledge, but I sigh when I look down at her. It doesn’t change the fact that someone drugged her. That I wasn’t there to prevent this.
With that, they leave.
“We need to get her home,” I say, sliding my arms under her legs and back. Standing, I lift her into my arms and cradle her to my chest. She’s going to be pissed when she wakes up.
With another sigh, I walk toward Chase’s car. I couldn’t bring her on the bike like this. One of the guys will drive it back.
Chapter 24
Athena
“What the-” I groan, dragging myself into a sitting position. I almost fall back, due to the dizziness that hits me. I groan again. Sunlight shines through Drake’s window nearly blinding me. Ugh. Why does it have to be so bright? Why can’t the sun have a dimming switch that lets you control its brightness? That would make everything better.
To keep my eyes from melting, I stumble over to the window. However, I have to lean against the wall to close the blinds because of my weakened state. When I turn to walk back to the bed, my legs give out, sending me to the floor.
Footsteps alert me to someone coming my way, and I can’t help but notice they sound like thunder. I cover my ears and let myself slump to the floor, laying down. A minute later, someone gently grabs my wrists and pulls them away from my ears. “Athena?” The voice is soft and soothing, making me lift my eyes.
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