Comes the Night

  Chapter 19

  Trick or Treat

  Brooke

  Brooke smiled at the wolf whistles that followed her as she crossed the cafeteria with three plastic cups of punch—unspiked, sorry to say—to join Maryanne and Alex.

  “Wow, who knew Dorothy would be so popular?” she said, as the girls relieved her of two of the precariously balanced cups.

  “Are you kidding?” Maryanne said, laughing. “L. Frank Baum is rolling over in his grave right now.”

  Alex snorted. “Forget about Baum. Judy Garland will be spinning like a top in hers.”

  “What?” Brooke glanced down at her costume. “White blouse, blue gingham dress, red shoes... ” She twirled one of her messy schoolgirl pigtail braids. “I just updated her a bit, is all.”

  That, of course, was an understatement. She’d given Dorothy a super-sexy makeover. The gingham dress was courtesy of the local public school’s drama club’s costume department; she’d paid one of the student actors there to ‘borrow’ it for her. Then she’d basted the skirt’s hem to the inside of its own waistband, shortening it to micro-mini length, and taken the bodice in until it hugged her curves like a glove. Brooke’s Dorothy had ditched the ruby slippers for four-inch red stiletto pumps, and traded her sedate knee socks for white lace-topped thigh-highs. Dorothy definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore. And the effect was—if she had to say so herself—pretty damned fabulous. She couldn’t wait for Seth to see her. Except he and Melissa hadn’t shown yet.

  “Well, you’ve got the body for it, anyway,” Maryanne said.

  “You do too, if you’d ever stop cloaking yourself in those baggy clothes.”

  “Hey, I like my baggy clothes.”

  Brooke rolled her eyes. Maryanne certainly did like her sweats. Tonight, though, she actually looked great. Unlike Brooke, she didn’t have an inch of skin on display beneath her pristine white Princess Leia gown, but at least it was somewhat form-fitting, and the wide belt nipped in nicely at the waist. She’d bought some of those cheap hair extensions and fashioned a pair of distinctive Princess Leia side buns. It was quite impressive, really.

  “Leave the girl alone, Brooke,” Alex said.

  Brooke turned to Alex. Compared to Maryanne’s costume, Alex’s was lame. Probably because she hadn’t planned to wear a costume at all. But Maryanne had nagged her into it, offering to help her make one. They wound up scrounging some tiny boxes of cereal, gluing them to an oversized shirt and embedding plastic knives in the boxes. And now poor Alex had to endure people coming up to her in puzzlement and asking what she was supposed to be. After the third query, she glared at anyone who approached and growled, “Cereal killer, dammit!”

  Brooke shrugged. “I’m just sayin’.”

  They were silent a moment as they watched the dancers. There were a ton of them, the event attended by students from both Streep and the public high school. Come Christmas, the public school would host the Christmas dance. The cafeteria tables had been moved up against the walls to leave the center of the tiled floor open, and the kids were currently dancing to a heinous dance remix.

  “Why are there grapes floating in my punch?” Alex asked.

  “Beats me,” Brooke said.

  “I think they’re supposed to be eyeballs,” Maryanne said.

  A guy clothed from head to toe in a tight, black... something... dashed by.

  “What the hell?” Alex said.

  Maryanne gazed after him. “Was that a wetsuit?”

  Brooke grinned. “Wetsuit? God, Maryanne, where did you grow up? That’s your basic Lycra/PVC fetish catsuit.”

  “Omigod, really?” Maryanne’s face was two shades of red. “But why would someone wear that here?”

  “Maybe he’s trolling for a date.”

  “C’mon, Brooke. Look at him,” Alex ground out. “He’s the Mansbridge Heller.”

  Brooke looked closer, and holy shit, she was right! If Brooke herself had cast out and walked in here in her cast form, she probably wouldn’t look much different than that, except for the exposed face. He’d blackened it, she saw, but it was still nowhere near as dark as the rest of him. And a cast’s face, of course, would not show with the same 3D detail as this guy’s darkened skin. A cast’s face was just... empty and black. At least to non-caster eyes.

  And hadn’t there been someone else dressed all in black? Yes, two juniors. But their outfits weren’t nearly as effective. A black unitard and face-blacking. They hadn’t even covered their heads, like this guy had.

  “Geez, it must be the costume of choice,” Maryanne said. “Look over there, on the other side of the mummy.”

  “Is that another one?” Alex asked, gesturing toward her left.

  Brooke whipped her head around. “Where?”

  “At ten o’clock, between Barack Obama and the trampy vampire. With her back to us.”

  Brooke squinted. “Could be. But what the hell is she wearing over her costume?”

  “Looks like a fishnet,” Maryanne said. “A fishnet with... what is that? Pennies? Why would she have pennies glued to it?”

  “Let’s go find out.” Brooke said.

  Without waiting for the others to respond, Brooke took off. By the time she reached the penny-netted girl, Alex and Maryanne were on her heels.

  Brooke tapped the girl on the shoulder. “Hey, cool outfit. Are you a Heller?”

  The girl turned and Brooke saw that it was Kassidy, Alex’s former friend. She also saw that Leah was with her. Literally with her. As in Leah had a rope around her neck and Kassidy held the other end.

  “Duh,” Kassidy said. “Of course I’m a Heller. And this is the soul I’ve captured.” Her gaze skimmed Brooke’s scanty outfit. “And what are you? Hooker Barbie?”

  “Barbie?” Brooke ignored the hooker part and pretended offense at the latter part. “Does no one watch the classics anymore?”

  Leah giggled, but shut up when Kassidy shot her an acid look.

  Kassidy swung her gaze back, this time looking past Brooke to the other girls. “Alex? Oh, God, you did the cereal killer thing!” There was no mistaking the genuine dismay on her face, which, unlike some of the other Hellers present, had not been blackened. She turned back to Brooke, her voice accusing. “What’s the matter with you? Friends don’t let friends do lame costumes like that.”

  “Hey, don’t look at me,” Brooke said. “I had nothing to do with it.”

  “It was my idea,” Maryanne said. “She really didn’t want to dress up, but I thought—”

  “Don’t bother, Maryanne,” Alex said. “We don’t owe anyone an explanation. Come on.”

  Brooke and Maryanne followed Alex back across the floor, leaving a sputtering Kassidy and Leah behind.

  Before they got far, though, they were stopped by Danielle Mann, who was dressed as a glittering fairy godmother. Dani was another one of the handful of local kids who attended Streep, and shared a Chem class with Brooke and Alex. “Hey, don’t listen to Kassidy, Alex. She’s just being a bitch. Your costume is great. Made me laugh out loud when I figured it out.”

  “Thanks, Dani,” Alex said, then looked down at herself and started laughing. “Okay, you gotta admit, it’s the lamest costume ever.”

  Dani smiled. “Maybe a little.”

  “Besides,” Brooke said, “it’s not like Kassidy’s costume was so great. I mean, she doesn’t even look like a Heller. Her face wasn’t even black, for God’s sake! And what’s with that cape?”

  Dani turned to look back at Kassidy. “Oh, those are pennies.”

  “Ahhh... figured that out already,” Brooke said. “My question would be, why?”

  “Copper.” The other girl turned back to three blank stares. “Don’t you know the Heller legend? They’re supposed to line their nests with copper. It’s supposed to... I don’t know... energize them or something. The old lady who babysat me sometimes when I was a kid used to say Hellers stole the pennies off the eyes of the dead in the old days. Kind of creepy, huh? And pennies h
ave copper in them. Or at least they used to. I don’t think they do anymore. I mean, they’re not made of copper anymore. Just a little copper plating.”

  “Interesting,” Alex murmured, but Brooke didn’t think Danielle even heard her. She was too busy laughing when a boy in a Frankenstein costume, complete with green skin, neck bolts and a too-small jacket scooped her up and carried her off.

  “So,” Maryanne said. “Copper. Suppose there’s any truth to it?”

  Brooke grinned. “I don’t know. We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” Then she spied Ty Piper making a beeline for them. At first she thought he’d come without a costume, but as he drew closer, she saw that his red striped tie was flipped up—probably with the help of a strategically placed coat hanger—and he wore what must be his father’s blazer. “Here comes Ty, and he looks pissed,” she murmured, before lifting her punch glass in his direction. “Ty!” she called brightly. “Or should I say Dilbert?”

  Predictably, his gaze dropped to give her the once over, then skipped right over Alex to settle on Maryanne.

  “Gee, I totally see why you couldn’t come with me to this dance, Maryanne.” His voice trembled with anger. “Obviously, Star Wars and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and... Corn Pops go together like peas in a pod. Clearly, no one would have recognized what you were supposed to be if you weren’t all together.”

  “Whoa, chill, buddy,” Brooke said.

  “I’m sorry, Ty,” Maryanne said. “Our other idea... um... didn’t work out.”

  “Didn’t exist, you mean.” He spat the words at them.

  Brooke’s own anger flared. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. It didn’t exist.”

  “Brooke!”

  Brooke ignored Maryanne. “She didn’t want to go to the dance with you, okay?”

  “I got that,” Ty said.

  Alex stepped forward, pushing between Maryanne and Ty. “Then why don’t you move along, Ty.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do, bitch.”

  The look he directed at Alex was murderous. Alex didn’t back down, but Brooke caught the way she flinched. And when she looked closer, she saw Alex was trembling.

  Brooke laid a hand on Ty’s arm, but he wrenched it away. His oversized blazer slid off one shoulder. He shrugged it back into place and stormed off.

  “Well, that was pleasant,” Maryanne said.

  “Yeah, this whole dance kinda sucks.” Alex said. “We should go home.”

  Brooke was about to argue that she wasn’t ready to go yet, but just then she caught sight of Seth and Melissa entering the cafeteria. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw their costumes. Romeo and Juliet.

  “Good idea,” she said. “Let’s blow this Popsicle stand.”

  They did, but not before Brooke paused to flirt with every guy in the place, including the lone male chaperone, who got very flustered. And she felt Seth’s eyes on her all the way. Hypocritical jerk. He had absolutely no respect for her. He’d chosen Melissa over her. He knew she’d released his horses! But still he wanted more of her. The knowledge soothed her ego, even as it turned her stomach a little.

  Thanks to their early exit, they were home by 9:30. After dissecting everything that had happened at the dance, by mutual agreement, they peeled off their costumes, dressed in their PJs and crashed. Given the sleep deficit they were all running on, napping was never a problem.

  A couple hours later, Brooke was the first to waken, and she poked the other girls. “Come on, sleeping beauties, it’s time.”

  They didn’t need to be called twice. Within two minutes, they’d gathered their things and climbed the steps to the attic.

  Alex lit her candle first, passing it to Maryanne, who lit hers, then on to Brooke. Quickly, they put them in their customary places and went to sit before the window. The evening was overcast, so the Madonna didn’t glow as strongly as she had last time, but it didn’t matter.

  “Are we ready?” Alex asked.

  “Yes,” Maryanne said, but Brooke didn’t need to hear it. She could practically feel Maryanne shaking with the force of her anticipation.

  “Brooke?” Alex asked. “You ready?”

  “For this? Honey, I was born ready.”

  “Let’s do it, then.”

  Alex tapped out first, followed by Maryanne. Brooke was right behind them.

  They all paused to look back at their bodies sprawled in the nest of pillows on the attic floor. No matter how many times they did this, it was impossible not to look back. Which was silly. Brooke knew her body was okay on the floor because she was still connected to herself in there. Could still feel her original’s sensations, the coolness of the attic, the dusty smell. But she still had to look. Once she’d satisfied that need, she allowed herself to feel the night.

  The thrill was just as strong as the first time. But better. Familiar. She let herself fully feel it. “God, that’s good!” she said. “Let’s own this, ladies!”

  Maryanne laughed, and Alex completed the ritual “Let’s own the night!”

  Tonight, Alex picked the route, and Brooke was happy to follow—for now.

  They soared low over the dark water of the St. John River, and when they tired of that, they climbed high then dove earthward again like a plunging rollercoaster, pulling up sharply as they neared the ground to slice through the treetops.

  It was Maryanne who spotted the moose. None of them had ever seen one up close before and they couldn’t resist investigating. And OMG, it was amazing! Huge and gangly, it should have been ugly, but it was one of the most beautiful things Brooke had ever seen. Of course, the moose wasn’t equally enthralled with them. As soon as it sensed them, it made an odd, sonorous grunt of alarm and began lumbering through the swampy marsh. The girls glided after it, reveling in the rare sight. But then headlights appeared ahead, and Brooke realized they were driving the big creature in the direction of a road.

  “Quick!” she shouted. “Head it off! There’s a car coming.”

  But the other girls had also seen the potential for disaster developing and were already moving to block the big bull’s path. Thankfully, it changed course, veering south again. Once they were sure it was well clear of the road, they pulled back and left it to recover.

  “That was awesome!” Maryanne said, laughing.

  “Amazing,” Alex agreed. “Maybe that’s as good a note as any to go home on.”

  Brooke had no intention of going back yet, but she waited for Maryanne to make the case. Much as Brooke loved the freedom of the night, she suspected Maryanne loved it even more. No way would she be ready to go back yet.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Maryanne agreed. “We should go back.”

  What?

  “No way!” Brooke pulled up in front of the others to block their path. “We just got out, and it’s early yet.”

  “Brooke, it’s Halloween,” Alex pointed out. “People are likely to be up later, to be out and about. We don’t need to risk any more sightings. Let’s go back.”

  No, she couldn’t go back. Not yet. She had a visit to pay to Romeo.

  “You two go back, then,” Brooke said. “I’ll be along in a little while.”

  “No!” Maryanne laid a hand on Brooke’s shoulder, causing that strange, heavy sensation they got when they touched in cast form. “It’s dangerous to be out here alone. Come back with us, Brooke.”

  “Sorry. Can’t. I have something I need to do.”

  With that, she shrugged out from under Maryanne’s hand and soared up and away, half expecting the girls to follow. They didn’t.

  Good, she thought. Great. The business with Seth was private, anyway. She didn’t need someone looking over her shoulder.

  Except as she sped toward the Walker farm alone, she couldn’t help but feel the sting of abandonment. She’d never leave one of them out here on their own. But that was okay. She had more than a passing acquaintance with that emotion. It wouldn’t last long. She’d soon replace it with something much more satisfying.

&nb
sp; Anticipation, dark and thrilling and bottomless, flooded her, and she grinned.

  “See?” she murmured. “Better already.”