Dangerous Beauty

Chapter 3: All Hallows Eve

It’s 5:30 by the time we make it back to my house. Almost time for everyone to start showing up. Fallon, Claudia, and I make quick work of unloading the groceries and carrying them into the kitchen so we can unpack them. As we begin to pull things out to get them ready Claudia excitedly pulls out the decorations we picked out.

“I’m gonna go set these up,” she says with a childish tone in her voice, leaving Fallon and I to get food and drinks ready.

“So are you dressing up tonight?” asks Fallon.

“I don’t know are you?”

“Hell yeah!” she grins, “I’m going to be a vampyre if you’ll help me with my makeup.”

“I think I can do that,” I tell her with a smile, “What do you think I should be?” I ask her, not having thought about it prior to now.

“Hm,” she hums thoughtfully, “Let’s finish up here and we will see what you have,” she smiles and hurriedly begins to finish making the cheese dip.

Ten minutes later the three of us stand in front of my full-length mirror, Fallon as a vampyre, Claudia as a ghost from Supernatural, and me as a Medieval gothic witch, my curls cascading down below my shoulders and fierce looking makeup. As each of us stands their admiring ourselves, Claudia’s phone alerts her to a new message with a high-pitched ding.

“Spencer and Easton are here and Aiden is on his way, I’m going to go downstairs,” she says.

“Okay,” Fallon and I say in unison as we watch Claudia leave the room.

“Why is it your costumes are always so badass?” Fallon asks as I touch up my makeup and lift the hood of my dress.

“Halloween is my favorite holiday,” I remind her, “I always go all out”

“Right,” she says nodding seeming to remember each past year since she has known me.

We sit in silence for a moment as we both make minor adjustments to our costumes.

“Oh my god!” Fallon exclaims suddenly, breaking the silence and making me jump slightly, “Wait till you see what I brought!” she tells me rushing over to her bag which sits on my bed.

Slowly, to build up the drama of the reveal, Fallon opens her bag and reaches for an object inside pulling it out into the dim light of my ceiling fan. In her hands, she holds a Ouija board. The board is made from part of a tree with designs, letters, numbers, and words, all wood burned into its surface the outer edges still lined with bark and it’s all coated with clear epoxy resin. I can’t stop myself from walking over to her and running my hands over its smooth glossy surface.

“No way!” I say in disbelief as she places the board in my hands for me to more closely inspect it, “Where did you get it?” I ask her.

“E-Bay” she admits sheepishly.

Of course, E-Bay, I think and I can’t stop myself from laughing a little, “What are we going to use for an eye?” I ask, and as if reading my mind, she pulls a shot glass from her bag.

“Will this work?” she asks holding it up for me to see.

“I think so,” I say, laughing a little harder than before, “looks like it’s going to be an interesting night.”

Fallon grins and nods, “Lets go join the others down stairs.”

I nod in agreement and lead the way. With the board tuck under my arm Fallon and I descend the stairs, hearing talking and laughter as we near the bottom where I am met by a pair of icy-blue eyes. They belong to Claudia’s friend Aiden. For a moment we stand there our gazes locked and I hear an unfamiliar voice in my head, Hello there, it whispers. But the moment is cut short by a stout 5’3” curly haired blonde with green eyes and a sour expression who latches onto his arm. Amber I assume as he gently shakes her off. With the moment having come and gone I can’t help but wonder about he strange voice in my head that I heard when I looked at Aiden. Am I going crazy?

“Hi, you must be Aiden, my name is Lilith,” I introduce myself, shaking his hand, “and you must be his girlfriend Amber?” I say looking at the girl whose expression sours even more.

“Nice to meet you, and no actually, she isn’t my girlfriend we are just friends,” He explains.

“I see my apologies I just thought…”

“You’re fine it’s a common misunderstanding,” he tells me.

Feeling awkward I head into the kitchen to place the board on the table.

“Would anyone like a drink?” I call out into the living room.

“Me!” Claudia and Fallon call excitedly making me giggle as I pull out a bottle of UV Blue and Hypnotic to mix with Sprite.

They have always preferred I make them drinks saying I should be a bartender. As I mix the drinks I realize how silly it is for me to be making drinks like potions, dressed as a witch, How ironic. It’s them same voice that whispered to me a moment ago. What the hell? I wonder almost spilling the Sprite on the counter. What’s happening. With a deep breath I shake my head trying to clear my mind as I take Claudia and Fallon their drinks. You’re not crazy, the voice whispers to me again. Good to know, I think sarcastically as I hand the girls their drinks. My thoughts are met with an amused chuckle that I try to ignore as I look to Aiden and Amber.

“Would you guys like anything?” I ask

“Sure, I have whatever they have,” Amber says looking at Fallon and Claudia.

“Just a beer if you don’t mind,” Aiden says.

“I’ll take a beer too,” says Spencer.

With a nod I walk into the kitchen with Aiden following behind, “Need some help?” he asks.

“Sure,” I tell him, handing him a beer “Can you take that to Spencer?” I ask politely and he nods doing so.

After a moment he returns and grabs a beer of his own as I finish making Amber’s drink.

“I’m sorry about Amber, we have been friends for a while, she thinks it’s more than it is, she can be pretty rude sometimes,” he explains.

“It’s no problem,” I tell him with a kind smile and begin making my own drink as well.

When we rejoin the others, everyone has already begun drinking. Drink after drink we joke and play games and I am left to ponder the voice in my head. What was it? Or better yet, who?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later the only people left are Claudia, Fallon, Easton, and I, each of us pretty tipsy.

“So what is the Ouija board for?” Claudia asks.

“To use! Duh!” says Fallon in a matter of fact tone.

“Cool,” Claudia says in a long drawn out tone and a ridiculous grin on her face from he spot in Easton’s lap.

Fallon grins back “Yup!” she says proudly, “But where would we use it at?” she asks looking at me sprawled out in my arm chair.

I shrug.

“Well there is the stables and the cabin,” Claudia offers up.

“Let’s go to the cabin,” Easton says casting his vote.

“Yeah the cabin!” Fallon says.

The decision is up to me now. I consider the idea for a moment, but I remember the events of the night before, but at the same time I think about the journal.

“I don’t know,” I tell them, my tone full of confliction.

“Oh come on Lilith please?” Fallon begs.

“We can bring Hades,” Claudia begins, “I promise nothing bad will happen,” she says, her tone suddenly serious.

Her sudden change in tone rattles me. What does she me by that? Overcome with curiosity I relent and we gather what we need, including the stuff to make drinks, and head out toward the cabin. Tipsy and in the dark it takes us 20 minutes to stumble through the overgrowth to the cabin. As we stumble through the brush I once again get the feeling of being watched, but this time night by a predator. Instead, oddly enough, I feel as though whatever is watching is here to protect not to harm. When we finally arrive, I feel Hades gently nose my hand before he takes off to search the inside of the cabin and its perimeter. I make no move to go inside until he comes back and licks my hand gently, letting me know it’s safe. Slowly I step through the door I left open and reach for the light switch, it’s still in the on position. I quickly flip it of and back on and the light hums dimly to life. I see the journal sitting on the floor where I dropped it and quickly scoop it up with the note and put it in the bag we brought.

“What happened here?” Fallon asks looking at me concerned “You never leave the door open or the light on.”

“Nothing I was out here last night and got spooked is all,” I lie.

Shrugging, she pulls the board from the bag and begins setting it up on the floor in the middle of the room with a few candles. Behind me, Easton, who was the last one int, closes and locks the door after Hades walks in and lays in his bed. Part of me is relieved, but part of me wonders why he did it. It seems that as the night goes on I find myself with more and more questions.

“Who all wants to play?” Fallon asks.

“I’m in,” Claudia pipes up drinking her drink that I put into a water bottle.

“Me too,” I say sitting on the floor between the two of them.

“I think I’ll watch,” Easton says, grabbing the desk chair and moving it to where he could set it up behind Claudia so he can place his hands on her shoulders.

Their shows of affection are beginning to peeve me as the night goes on and they begin to show it more openly. As Fallon pulls out the shot glass and places it upside down on the board I pull out the other two water bottles that I put Fallon’s drink as well as my own in and hand hers to her. Once everyone one is settled the three of us place a finger on the shot glass and take a couple deep breaths to clear our minds.

“Who wants to ask the questions?” Fallon says looking at us.

“You do it,” Claudia tells her, “you’re already so good at it!” she jokes making us all laugh a little.

“I can’t I’m too scared,” Fallon admits, “you do it Claudia you’re brave.”

“First of all you can’t be scared or you are going to attract something bad,” Claudia warns, “second I don’t want to,” she explains.

“You do it then Lilith,” Easton suggests.

I think about it for a moment before taking a gulp of my drink. With liquid courage coursing through my veins I agree.

“You can be the scribe then Easton,” I tell him challengingly as I had him the notepad and paper we brought, “Write down the letters as it spells.”

“Alright,” he says, reluctantly taking his hands off Claudia.

As we all settle in I clear my head once more and ask the first question, “Is anybody there?”

At first nothing happens and I think about asking again when the glass slowly moves to the word ‘Hello’. Expressions of fear and surprise fill the room, except for me. I find my self filled with a mixture of excitement and pure amazement. Looking at Claudia and Fallon again thinking maybe one of them moved the glass I am met with expressions that tell me otherwise.

“What is your name?” I ask.

M… A… G… N… U… S…

“Magnus?” I ask and the glass moves to the word yes, “What are you?” I ask.

D… E… M... O… N… A feeling of dread washes over me as I read each letter out loud. But this ‘demon’ isn’t finished yet as it continues to spell out words.

“Your demon… ” Easton reads out to me.

“My demon?” I ask.

The shot glass moves to yes.

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing,” Easton reads out.

“Then why are you here?” I ask trying to hold back my panic as it spells out the word liar.

“Who’s a liar?” the tension rises as we watch for it to spell out a name, Claudia… “What is she lying about?” I ask.

Vampyre is the last thing it spells before saying good-bye.

“What are you not telling me?” I demand looking at Claudia.

“Maybe we should talk,” Claudia says sounding guilty and scared