9:15 PM

There was a beautiful purple glow in the gymnasium, and it made the blood on the floor illuminate in the dark. The DJ’s playlist never ended, as he left it on repeat before he was torn apart.

Deceit stared up at the sad banner that said Happy Halloween and grinned, a job well done. She turned to look at the sea of mangled corpses and wiped the blood off her chin, still not satisfied by only eating hands, but refusing to have a full and balanced diet of ears, arms, and legs.

“Get up,” she barked.

One by one the corpses in the gymnasium arose. Some of them had a hard time getting up, and they began to help each other. It was a strange sight, the young adults, teenagers, and their unlucky chaperones all groaning together, vacantly eyed.

They held onto each other and they shuffled about, looking in her direction.

Hating her even more than in the moment she killed them. They were all prisoners and wanted more than to go back to sleep, but until they had done her bidding the dead were held hostage by Deceit until she got her way.

The song changed and Deceit started to tap her foot. She liked this song.

She danced and slid around the gymnasium, her black heels tinted red with the amount of blood all over her body. Deceit designed the only costume she could wear while somehow not breaking any rules and also showing the most amount of skin.

She was a witch. Not just any witch.

A Dark Magician.

Deceit wore a black halter top, that was cropped, exposing her tattoo and belly button piercing. Her "skirt" was simply a repurposed lingerie dress that she pushed up to her midsection and made to look like a decoration, the back of it trailing down her legs. The front was exposed, and instead of actual pants or shorts, she wore a black bikini bottom with glitter on it, telling everyone all night she had a sparkling kitty.

Today was her magnum opus and she knew it.

Once she was done fooling around she decided to get to work.

Her favorite children had already arrived, but they needed better homes.

Deceit joined the planning committee for one reason and one reason only. To set a trap to try and get the most useful abilities and host her children inside.

She suggested to the Halloween committee that they make a VIP section for those that had worked hard all year and contributed to Slater Academy.

All the overachievers, most of them with uncanny and brilliant abilities got their VIP ticket. Next, they got the VIP treatment, as Deceit locked the doors, and slaughtered everyone inside the gymnasium. From the dead, she chose her favorites and brought forth her spawn.

All that was left was to call her father. She missed him.

Nonchalantly, Deceit walked up to the closest body and stuck out her hands.

It tore its head off, its flesh hanging on by a few flaps of skin, and it fell to the ground, still attached. Deceit rolled her eyes and tore the rest of the head off herself. She didn't want to exert any extra energy, as controlling all the dead and their growing numbers throughout the campus was taking its toll.

She was tired. She did not need to sleep, but at this very moment, it seemed like the best thing. Deceit rubbed her eyes, trying to stay awake, and sat on the blood-soaked floor.

The dead all circled her, anticipating her next command. She ignored them and made a phone call. The head-on her lap was that of a young man, with brown curly hair, a large nose, and much to Deceit’s surprise, a fake eye.

She pulled it out just as her father answered the phone.

“I always love your calls,” her father said.

The head’s lips flapped like a fish, and blood dribbled down its mouth and onto the floor and Deceit’s lap. She didn’t mind, as to her blood was the equivalency of water.

Refreshing and plentiful.

Deceit puffed her chest and tried to look her best to impress her father.

“My children tell me Acheus is near,” she said. “When I have him, everything will change.”

“How so,” her father asked. “What is so special about him? You claim he has something magnificent, but I have yet to see any results.”

Deceit tried to sound as respectful as possible while arguing with her father. She cared about his opinion and truly wanted to impress him. She wiped the blood off her hands onto the floor and tried to explain as best she could.

“He can turn into one of those cannibalistic monsters,” Deceit declared. “I saw him do it. I have felt their presence all over this wretched place, but he is the purest."

“I have plenty of cannibals. That is not what I expected of you,” he shouted.

“No, it's more than that! They take all the light from the room… their body splits open… and a horrible creature is born! But his. It doesn’t die. It doesn’t hurt the host. He has something called a celestial.”

The head grinned, with one eye open, and its small white teeth seemed to be mixed with something strange. Deceit noticed that the head had an ugly face and thought that killing the young man was a blessing instead of a curse.

“You cannot use the power of the gods of the 8th realm unless you are of pure soul or their kin,” her father said. “I have heard of these things, but I have never acquired it myself.”

“Yes! All of these idiots crawling around here that fart fire and shit diamonds can use it. I just need his. I can transform without ruining this host!“

“There are plenty of meat suits to choose from. Why are you so adamant about keeping this one?”

Deceit did not want to admit that she had become fond of the host over some time. A part of her wanted to keep the body in a vain hope that Acheus would still love her. Her rotting and fetid brain, however, knew the truth.

So she told her father only what he needed to know.

“The other celestials, they kill the meat suit and it becomes a god. Yet it comes back again! But if my host’s head is gone, I cannot come back. I am already dead.”

“How are you sure of this?”

Deceit huffed and played with the glass eye in her hand, wishing it was a real eye as she was starting to get hungry again. She threw it to the side and tried not to get angry.

She didn’t like that her father questioned her so much after all she had done.

“ I have tested my theory when I was lucky enough to find some kind of obnoxious talking mirror," she snarled. "I knew that I couldn't use it since I am not kin of their gods. I used some idiot's corpse to test it out. He transformed and then upon regeneration, he exploded. Biggest waste of time.”

“With this boy, will we be closer to taking back Adamh,” her father asked.

“If I get Acheus’ little trinket then I will have two abilities. Imagine what we could do if we found more that are pure like his.”

“Magnificent,” her father screamed.

The gymnasium walls shook and a surge of power went through Deceit’s undead body. She shivered and cried, her black tears of joy streaming down her face and mixing with the blood on her body.

Her father had given her the gift of strength, and she was excited to use it well.

“I will find him. Then I will bring you Lyrica and your new host as promised,” Deceit whispered.

“You have never failed me. I know you will do as I ask.”

The head went slack, and the call ended.

Deceit was afraid once the call had ended.

She had lied to her father. She was not as confident as she made herself out to be. They were all trapped on the campus, and she had no idea how to get out.

Deceit stumbled upwards, trying not to slip on the bloody floor, and tried to relax her shoulders. She wanted to do everything right. Today was the day she had been waiting for. The day when he knew he would return.

Deceit mumbled to herself as she walked down the halls, her army of the damned following right behind her. Her past meals littered the floor, all their hands gone, as she was a picky eater.

“You can’t leave me this time,” she whispered. “No one leaves me. Ever.”

She opened the first exit she found, and her drones went out into the night, stumbling about to find Acheus. Deceit’s eyes flickered as she tried to see through the eyes of her children, but none had found him.

Those that had seen him only did for a moment before their head was cracked wide open by a baseball bat, their brains kissing the pavement.

"You can't break up with me and then break my stuff," Candice mumbled. "You're going to pay for that."

Next, she set out to find a new host for her father.

The most powerful one of all.

Deceit left to find the remains of Michael Slater, the strongest astral to ever live.