• “This is not working out as planned,” Kida complained as she tried to pin up her hair. She watched the reflection of Julie rolling her eyes.

    “Your hair is perfect.”

    “You seem annoyed.”

    Kida watched Julie’s face twist thoughtfully. “I’m not really.”

    “You are.”

    “It just seems like you haven’t been around much. You’ve even been missing practice. You never miss practice.”

    Kida’s heart ached because she knew that she’d been involuntarily avoiding Julie. For the past week after her birthday party, she’d barely hung out with Julie at all except at lunch occasionally.

    “Even Jeff seems to be acting differently. I just don’t get what happened. Was it last weekend? Did something happen after you guys left?”

    “No,” she said quickly. “It’s just been a busy week is all.”

    Julie cast Kida a calculating stare but didn’t persist.

    “Done,” Kida said after fitting the final pin in her hair. “How is my costume?”

    Julie scratched her chin thoughtfully. “Looks good.”

    Tonight was bitter-sweet for Kida. She was excited for the Halloween party, but she also knew that it would be Vincent’s last weekend in Pleasant Hill and possibly the last time she ever saw him again. A sickening knot formed in her stomach at the thought.

    They both looked knowingly out the window as they heard a car honk. “Must be John and Jeff,” Julie said.

    Julie ran out first, excited to see John waiting beside the car. Jeff opened the driver’s side door and stepped out before he looked over at Kida. She smiled nervously as he paused to look at her. Finally, he gathered himself and walked toward her.

    “You look awesome,” he said breathlessly.

    “Thanks. You don’t look that bad yourself.” Kida grinned widely at Jeff’s costume. They decided to match this Halloween as they did every year.

    This year they were going as two fallen angels, which was incredibly ironic. Jeff was sporting a long black trench-coat and black wings, his hair painted white with home-made dye. Kida wore a black, knee-length dress and black stockings. She made her own wings, painted white and covered in golden glitter.

    They made a good duo.
    “Let’s roll!” Julie yelled, her fake zombie blood oozing down her face.

    Kida was amazed at the fact that even as a zombie Julie looked amazing. Jeff made a gentlemanly gesture toward the car before opening the passenger side door for her.

    “After you,” he said with a debonair smile.

    “Why thank you, sir,” she replied before getting in the car. She felt a pang of nervousness as Jeff sat in the driver’s seat, put the car in drive, and pressed the gas. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a bad feeling about tonight.

    She sighed quietly.
    These feelings seemed to have a nasty habit of being right.


    The high school gym was packed with all sorts of creatures, living and dead. The popular theme for this year was zombies, and by the sour look on Julie’s face, she’d noticed too. There were only a few angels, but to Kida’s surprise, none that had fallen.

    She couldn’t help her eyes from scanning the room vigilantly for the chaperone—Vincent. They hadn’t exactly left under the best of circumstances. She did remember vividly the hard look on Vincent’s face as he left her driveway after dropping her off the other night—the night after they’d discussed Kida’s future.

    Her body felt suddenly numb as she met the two sapphire eyes of Vincent. Even from this distance, she could make out the deep color. His look was that of disapproval, and her suspicions were clarified when he averted his gaze elsewhere. Kida clenched her teeth, frustrated that he would even show up if he was going to ignore her.

    Jeff’s hand on her arm, however, softened the tension she so heavily felt.

    “Dance?”

    Kida returned his smile with a curtsy before placing her hand in his and following him out to the dance floor. The first few songs were fast paced and exciting, the kind where dancing was more of a group activity. Julie busted out her salsa skills while Jeff insisted that his robot was the best in the room.

    It was as small room.
    The mood changed drastically as the bass and electronic beats faded into the soft strumming of a guitar, the intro to a popular alternative ballad. Still out of breath from the previous song, couples began wrapping their arms around their partner’s neck or waist and swayed slowly in place.

    Kida and Jeff had been partners every year and always insisted that the slow songs were the best opportunities to take a break and grab some “snackage” as Jeff would call it, so she was taken aback this time when Jeff gently pulled her waist toward him.

    Her heart hammered ever-so-quietly in her chest, just quietly enough to not give her nervousness away. She’d imagined this moment before with butterflies fluttering in her stomach, so she didn’t expect the unusual comfort that she felt.

    She smiled timidly and wrapped her arms around his neck. Jeff held her gaze steadily, a discreet grin playing on the edge of his lips. “I wasn’t really hungry,” he said.

    “Me either.”
    They laughed coyly as their bodies moved together to the steady beat of the song.

    The song was nearly over, when she felt a slight tingle on her neck. She subconsciously reached to scratch the spot when she felt the cold silver of her necklace. Her stomach dropped like a rock in the water, and when her eyes focused just beyond Jeff’s shoulder, the rock hit the bottom.

    Through the crowd of students dancing, she saw standing at the other end of the room the same little girl she’d seen the other day in Chicago. The girl’s blood-matted face sent a cold chill down Kida’s spine like a spider on its thread, and she was looking right at Kida with the same familiar, blue eyes.

    “What’s wrong,” Jeff asked concerned.

    Kida didn’t respond. She hadn’t really heard him. She was too busy watching in horror as the little girl turned and walked through the door and into the hallway outside the gym.

    “Kida?”

    Kida wasn’t sure what compelled her, but she unwrapped her hands from Jeff’s neck and began following to where the girl had left.

    “Kida, where are you going?”

    “The bathroom,” Kida said blankly.

    She felt no remorse leaving Jeff standing awkwardly in the middle of the dance floor. She didn’t feel much of anything—just instinct. But why?

    The handle to the hallway door was cold, as if the girl had taken all of the energy from that corner of the room. Kida walked slowly down the hallway, each step seeming to elongate the hallway even more. The walls became more and more dark and narrow the closer she became to the restroom, beckoning her to enter.

    Kida’s heart thumped heavily in her chest as she pushed the bathroom door open, her hands clammy with a cold sweat. She swallowed hard and stepped around the corner, the air heavy and cold.

    She nearly jumped out of her skin as the door to the bathroom shut behind her.

    “Kida?”
    Kida watch as Jeff stepped around the corner. “Jeff! What are doing in here?”

    “I’m not stupid, Kida. I could tell something was wrong. What happened?”
    Kida caught her breath and looked back into the bathroom troubled. “I saw something.”

    Jeff followed her gaze around the room. “A ghost?”
    Her jaw muscle worked. “I don’t think so.”

    Before Jeff could respond, the girl suddenly manifested herself across the room. Jeff’s eyes widened fearfully, but he didn’t move. “Kida?”

    She wasn’t sure what to say. She was just as afraid as him, but what happened next didn’t even compare.

    The floor beneath the girl began to turn a dark green and black, as if it were rotting underneath her. It spread slowly onto the walls and onto the girl, creeping up her legs to her neck and finally engulfing her entire body.

    Kida and Jeff could only stare in horror.
    “What’s going on,” Jeff asked with a tremor in his voice.

    Kida held her breath, unable to move.
    Jeff grabbed her hand. “Kida, let’s get out of he—” His body fell to the ground abruptly before being dragged violently across the floor toward the girl. It happened so fast he didn’t even have time to scream.

    “Jeff,” Kida yelled before running toward him.
    His body slid right through the girl’s rotten body and into the wall behind her. The girl had disappeared, but the mold-like color still remained on the floor and the wall, its slimy film clinging slowly up Jeff’s body.
    “Jeff!” Kida ran and knelt on the floor behind him and lifted him into a sitting position.

    Jeff looked into her eyes with a fear she’d only seen in the movies. Before they could exchange any other words, something reached from behind the wall and took Jeff. She didn’t have time to react before he was slammed through the wall!

    Kida covered her head as heavy pieces of tile flew out from the impact. “Jeeeeeff!”

    It was as if the fear had turned her into stone—she couldn’t move.
    What do I do?

    Had all of that training done nothing for her?

    Her breath caught as a dark shadow suddenly loomed over her body. She looked up and relief penetrated her body all the way to the bones.
    “Vincent.”