THEN

Nicole guided Zack’s hands through the motions of the gun, helping him position it on the rock, while the deer lapped water from the pond at the base of the rise. Just across the water, below the drop, a magnificent stag stood tall and proud in the silver light of dawn. 

“Quiet now, quiet,” Nicole whispered to her twelve year old brother, hating the harsh scratching of her voice. Even in the echoes of memory, the pain of it going lower, breaking and cracking and stitching back together tighter and tighter into a hoarse, gravelly, auditory nightmare every time she opened her mouth was amongst the most horrible things she’d ever experienced. 

“Yeah, Nick, I got it,” Zack whispered back. Through the ages, Nicole winced. Still hurt, every time she remembered him saying her deadname. Be it in tones of admiration of irritation, or in this case, both at once.  

“You can’t give away your position. You can’t even let him know we’re here.” The day was cold and damp, gray from the gloom of November. The clouds looked ready to burst any second now… Or at least, that was how she remembered it. 

“I said I’ve got it,” Zack whined.  

“We’re not even supposed to be doing this,” Nicole reminded him. 

“Yeah, but you promised-”

“No, Dad promised.”

“And then he had to work another week so we can afford a Thanksgiving turkey,” Zack said. Nicole wasn’t sure if he’d really said that, but the information, the context of the whole blasted scenario, bled through regardless. 

The stag raised its head from the water.
“Now,” Nicole said. 

The bullet tore clean through the back of the deer’s skull, killing it instantly. It toppled onto its side, bleeding and lifeless. 

“I did it!” Zack cried. 

“Too loud!” Nicole said, still softly, but tampered by her pride and enthusiasm. One shot, clean through- the boy had done it! It had taken her nearly a year to shoot with that much accuracy, but Zack was a natural. “Great work though!”

They climbed down the rise, and walked over to the kill. Zack reached down for it, clearly intending to clean it on the spot. 

Nicole tapped his arm lightly. “Forgetting something?”
“Seriously?” Zack said. “It’s just a deer.”

“It’s not just a deer, Zachary, it’s one of God’s creatures, just like you and I.”

Zack grimaced, then sheathed his knife and nodded. He looked like he was beating himself up, but he joined in as Nicole offered a prayer hoping the deer was taken back in by the Lord without any difficulty. 

“Okay,” Nicole said, “Now you can-”

She stopped, twitched. Something behind her.

“What is it?” Zack said. 

Nicole pivoted a hundred and eighty degrees, and found a coyote, foaming at the mouth. 

Quickly, gently, mechanically, she grabbed the rifle and raised it, cocked it. 

The coyote ran at them, snarling, jumping at them. 

Nicole squeezed the trigger, and blew the rabid animal’s brains out. 

She breathed heavily as the fog around her grew thicker, disgusted and frightened and angry all at once. At least Zack was safe. Always, she thought from so far ahead, always kept him safe. Will always keep him safe, no matter what. Him and Monica both.

Zack walked over the coyote and crossed himself. After a moment, Nicole did the same, and together they prayed for the fallen beast. 

Eventually, they retrieved the deer carcass, and started hauling it back through the woods to their house. “Hey, Nick,” Zack said. 

“Yeah, bud?”

“Thank you for saving my life.”

Nicole smiled. “Of course.” Always. 

“You gotta admit, though…”

“What?” Nicole asked. 

“I know killing something, especially something you aren’t planning on eating, is bad and all, and we’re all creatures of God, but… That was so fucking cool! You were stone cold and you just spun around and capped that thing, it was badass!”

In spite of herself, Nicole still remembered laughing, smiling. “Hey, watch the language.”

Zack groaned. 

“But thank you,” Nicole said. “I guess it was kinda cool.”

She didn’t particularly agree with that notion anymore. Not that she would’ve done anything else, especially where Zack or Monica’s lives were concerned. 

Still, hindsight was always clearer. At least the venison had tasted good. 

NOW

Nicole looked at herself in the mirror, in her pink princess dress and long red wig and bright red lipstick and heavy eyeshadow. She wasn’t sure why she’d been thinking about that day, out hunting with her little brother. Maybe it was the contrast- all that dirt and blood and masculinity in her past, posed starkly against her hyper-feminine present. Or maybe it was because this was the sort of thing she wished she’d gotten to do with Monica- dress like pretty princesses and play together, shop for clothes, paint each other’s nails. She wished she’d gotten to teach Monica how to do her makeup, how to shop for good deals, how to flirt with boys. She’d gotten a few fleeting moments of getting to be a big sister for Monica, but it had always been shamed away. 

Usually by Zack. 

Maybe that was why she was thinking about it. 

Zack had wanted a big brother, someone to do boy-stuff with. And maybe Nicole had always been a little too willing to indulge him. But at the same time, doing that stuff with him was fun. She liked hunting and fishing and playing sports with him; that was who she was too, both girly girl and tomboy. “It doesn’t matter now,” Nicole smiled sadly. 

“What doesn’t matter now?” Amy asked, appearing in the mirror, coming through Nicole’s bedroom door. She was clad in a cheerleading uniform, a white and yellow miniskirt and crop top combo that showed off her milky skin and toned thighs, her gently curving hips and modest abs and c-cup breasts. Yellow ribbons bound her dark brown waves into a high ponytail, while her makeup was tastefully overdone. Nicole’s eyes were saucepans at the sight of her, and for a few blissful moments her mind was completely quiet. Amy approached her, and gave a wave. “Hello, Earth to Nicole, asked you a question.”

Nicole just gaped. Her brain had overheated: it had been pan-seared, deep-fried, burnt to a crisp. 

Amy smirked, eyes sparkling playfully. “Hm. Like what you see?”

Nicole nodded, jaw still dropped as far down as possible.

Amy pinched Nicole’s cheek. “Well, we aim to please.”

Coherent thought returned to Nicole’s brain long enough to form a single complete sentence: “you are so impossibly beautiful.”

Amy’s smug expression died, and she simply went bright red all over. “Y-y-y-you too. You make an amazing Ariel.”

Now it was Nicole’s turn to smirk. “You’re not just saying that because I’m trans and Ariel is an icon in the community-”

Amy raised an eyebrow. “You know by now I mean it when I say it.”

Nicole grabbed her hand. “I know.”

“So, what doesn’t matter?” Amy asked, squeezing Nicole’s hand back, stroking the top of her hand with her thumb. 

Nicole grabbed her phone from the desk next to her vanity, and took a few selfies of the two of them in front of the mirror. “Oh, I was feeling sorry for myself about the whole Zack thing again.”

Amy frowned. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine-”

“It’s clearly not. It clearly bothers you a lot.”

“Just gonna keep calling me out, ain’tcha?”

“Only when you lie to yourself,” Amy smiled. 

They took a few more selfies, smiling for the camera, then Nicole said, “Okay, fine. I miss my little brother. I miss talking to him. And I’m depressed for the thousandth time I wasn’t born a girl and I never really got to be an older sister for him.”

“Agree to disagree- you were, and you did, you just didn’t know it.”

Nicole smiled gently. “Thank you. That’s honestly wicked sweet.”

A few more selfies. 

“Have you talked to him at all since it happened?” Amy asked. 

“No. When I’ve talked to the rest of the family, they’ve avoided mentioning him. One time I was video-chatting with my Mom and Monica, and Zack came on screen behind them and just rushed upstairs without saying anything.”

“Jesus,” Amy said. 

“What do you even do when your teenage brother is being this much of a butt-head?” 

“Honestly? From my own ongoing experience with the subject?” Amy said. “I let my parents deal with it.”

Nicole sighed. “Yeah. I guess that’s what they’re there for.”

“And other stuff, but you know that.”

“Yeah,” Nicole said. She thumbed through the selfies, and realized she could see Amy and herself holding hands in all of them. That made something inside her sing. “I’ll talk to my folks. Maybe they can arbitrate a talk between us all. I mean… Probably not, that’s not really something most families do, but it’s worth a shot, right?”

“Can’t hurt,” Amy shrugged. 

“Yeah,” Nicole said. “Okay, enough of that. We’ve got a Devil’s Eve party to crash.”

“But we’re not crashing it, it’s open-invite.”

“Yeah, but it sounds cooler if I say it like… You did that on purpose.”

Amy poked Nicole’s nose. “Guilty. Let’s go. The others are gonna meet us there.”

***

Cass’ costume, a white prom dress drenched in fake blood, fluttered underneath her unbuttoned red overcoat. She clomped on the five-inch heels, wobbling about- still not used to lady-stilts above two-inches, but the costume was incomplete without them. Night had claimed the sky, and jack o’lanterns lit every street corner while the aromas of woodsmoke and roasting meat wafted through the air. St. Joseph’s came into view around the corner, and as she passed an alley, something jumped out and shouted, “BOO!”

Cass jumped, and summoned Holy Light into her fist as she spun… And saw it was Matt. He wore jeans, a blue button down, a fake scar, and a fake chainsaw around his hand like a glove. “Gotcha,” he said, chuckling. 

“Do not do that again, Pendejo!” Cass said, half-laughter and half-fright. “Seriously, though, tonight’s stressful enough.”

“Sorry,” Matt said sheepishly. “Thought it would help relieve the tension.”

As she breathed in and out, tasting the fresh air, awareness of her surroundings tripled- all the disparate noise settled into a cohesive whole, and it was calm and bright and gentle. Okay. Okay. That’s… Maybe he had a point there. I do feel a bit less wound up. And it was kinda funny- I’m pretty sure I’ve done that people at some point. Maybe not on purpose… Okay, maybe occasionally on purpose. 

… Stop it me, you’re getting sidetracked- we’ve established that that was funny and charming and so is he. So ACT! NORMAL! And don’t blow this. You’ve done this a million times: just let your body talk for you, keep the actual verbiage to a minimum.  “... Fair enough. I love your costume, by the way.”

“Thanks!” he smiled with both his eyes and his mouth. “Yours too! You’re dressed as one of my favorite movies!”

“You’re dressed as one of mine,” Cass said, putting a hand on her hip and leaning towards him an inch. “You a horror fan?” This just gets better and better. 

“Love it!” he exclaimed. 

Cass’ heart hammered in her chest. She bit her lower lip for maybe just a tick too long. Okay, cool- we’ve established a common interest outside of work- that’s good. Just don’t nerd out too much- that always makes them run away.  “Like, slashers, haunted houses, psychological, surrealist-”

“All of the above.”

Cass’ eyes went wide. DON’T SAY IT DON’T SAY IT DON’T SAY IT- “All of it?”

“Yup! Mike and I watched them all the time, plus sometimes when it was raining, the public library would let me come inside and watch flicks on their projector. Got wicked into Spanish horror for a while- that’s how I picked up the language.”

“That is so fucking wholesome,” Cass said, and then immediately went deer-eyed as the side effects of Matt’s powers rung a bell in her conscious mind. 

“You think so?” Matt said, tugging at his sideburns, eyes darting about. “We should get together sometime, watch a flick. You know, if we get through tonight in one piece.”

Cass’ smile blossomed to new levels. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH-  “I’d love that.”

“Cool.”

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FIRST DATE! FUCK YES. Now, please, me, for the love of all that is holy, ACT! NORMAL! “What are you doing here, anyhow?” Cass asked. 

“Wanted to talk to Father Gonzalez about something.”

“Same, actually,” she said. She needed to apologize to him. Pulling a knife on someone and threatening them when they were trying to help was… Well, it was something you should apologize for. Hopefully she could manage to do that without Matt overhearing it- it wasn’t exactly a great look when you were just getting to know someone. 

Reluctantly, they left the safe enclave of the alley’s mouth and resumed their forward journey into the darkening Devil’s Night. They approached St. Joseph’s, and Cass noticed someone, a teenaged white boy with brown hair and a sour face, waiting outside, sitting on the steps with his arms hung at his sides. 

“What’s Nicole’s shithead little brother doing here?” Cass said, glaring. 

“That’s Zack?” Matt grinded his teeth in disgust. “The one who did that shit to her?!”

“Yeah, it is,” Cass fists clenching alongside her jaw. Every instinct told her not to, every intelligent cell in her brain screamed ACT! NORMAL! But this was something right in front of her that struck a flint on the fuel of her temper. In Spanish, she said, “You know, I’m kinda new to this whole ‘having older siblings’ thing, but it strikes me that this young man-”

“-Has committed a grievous wrong against an older sibling who, by all accounts, is and always has been of a fairly high caliber?” Matt said, also in Spanish.

“Si,” Cass said, marching over to the brat. She loomed over him, her shadow twice as long as her body. “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing here, kid!” the eighteen year old screamed at the sixteen year old. 

Zack looked up, his face oversaturated with Catholic guilt. “I did something bad.”

“So you came to church?” Cass asked. “Fair enough. But you live in New Hampshire- why did you come to church in another state?”

“I needed to talk to Father Gonzalez,” Zack said, eye contact faltering as his pupils dilated. “It couldn’t be anyone else.”

“Why not?” Matt asked, stroking his chainsaw-hand. 

“Because of what he said, that day in church when I was here. When we were all… Wait, who are you?” Zack said, tilting his head as he looked at Matt. 

Oh no, Cass thought. 

“Matt Callahan, Magical Boy,” Matt said automatically. He winced as he said it- evidently, he knew what the consequences of this would be. 

“Wait, so there are Magical Boys,” Zack said. 

“Yes,” Cass and Matt said simultaneously. 

“So my brother’s not really a freak?!”

“No, you idiot!” Cass and Matt said simultaneously. 

Zack practically jumped off the steps. “Wait, so then-”

“Nicole is a girl, you shithead!” Cass said. “She’s trans- she’s a girl. And God agrees with her, otherwise He wouldn’t have made her this way! Fucking accept it already!”

“Yeah, seriously, you fucking asshole,” Matt said, brandishing his chainsaw as sparks of white light jetted out from it. Zack’s eyes bulged as he squirmed to avoid the thing. “I cannot believe you- you’ve got a perfect older sibling like Ms. Nygaard-”

“Seriously, Pendejo, she’s only a year older than us,” Cass pointed out.

“And you just spit in her face like that because some elderly douchebag in Italy tells you too?! Do I have that right?! That’s your excuse, isn’t it? For pushing her away? For perverting the good word of God? For not thinking about what’s right, and just being a reactive, dogmatic little ass-clown instead? For being a bigoted, disrespectful piece of white trash-”

Zack jumped to his feet and glared, grabbing a fistful of Matt’s shirt. “Do not call me that! DON’T EVER CALL ME WHITE TRASH-”

Matt spat in the kid’s face. Zack blinked rapidly, too shocked to fully process what was happening.

“Siddown, boy,” Matt snapped. 

Zack obeyed him, sitting back down on the steps. 

“If you don’t wanna be called white trash, you shouldn’t fucking act like it, you ignorant fucking redneck,” Matt said, the disgust palpable in his voice.

Zack nodded silently, jaw still dropped, eyes still wide. Matt fished a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to the boy. 

“Now,” Matt continued. “Let’s hear it from you. What’d you come to talk to the Good Padre about?”

Zack gulped. “I got into a fight at school today. Someone… Someone said something about… About my older si… Sibling. Said a word I… I didn’t much like. And I got up and I threw the first punch. I think I broke his nose. After that I just ran away and left. Hopped on the train and came here.”

Cass cocked her head. This was really not what she’d been expecting. Then again, that was true of most of her life. She knelt down, got at Zack’s eye level. “Then you’ve taken the first step. Does Nicole know you’re here?”

“Nobody does except you guys,” Zack said. 

“Then why don’t you go do what you came here to do,” Cass said. “We won’t tell your sister you’re here if you don’t want us to. And we’ll wait outside ‘till you’re done. Okay?”

Zack nodded nervously. “Yes, ma’am,” the sixteen year old said to the eighteen year old. 

The boy ran up the steps and went inside the chapel. 

“I feel like maybe I went a little too far there,” Matt said. 

“Really? I found that pretty satisfying,” Cass said, and then gulped. FUCKING DAMMIT ME YOU HAD ONE JOB AND IT WAS TO ACT! NORMAL!!!!

Matt chuckled. “Glad you think so-”

That was when the scream erupted from the belly of the chapel. And it sounded a lot like Zack. 

They wasted no time, Cass transforming as they rushed inside and found Bishop Roberts bleeding on the floor, a bullet in his gut, while Father Gonzalez was back up against a wall with a gun pressed into his forehead. The gun was in the hands of Detective Angela Di Lorenzo.

“Ah, Ms. Ortiz,” the detective said, blood dribbling down her chin, “Come to discuss your career prospects?”

***

Debbi finished adjusting the mask on her Stargirl costume while Heather applied dark red lipstick. Her girlfriend was dressed as Carmilla, so they’d certainly make for an interesting couple at the party. Part of Debbi groaned about her own lack of work-life balance: this was the first party they were going to as a couple, and it was for work. But hey, someone had to save the world. 

“You look upset,” Heather said, popping her lips in the vanity mirror inside her bedroom. Orange and black fairy lights lined the walls and stretched an ethereal film over the room, while all of Heather’s stuffed animals wore pointy black witch’s hats.

“I am upset. I’m still not crazy about this plan.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

“Do you… Do you think I should’ve pushed back against this more?” Debbi asked. 

“I dunno know if I can really answer that,” Heather said, walking over to Debbi, putting her arm around her. “I wish I had. I know that much. But that sounds like you’re asking me because you think you should have. Do I have that right?”

Debbi sighed, pulling away from Heather and sitting down on her bed. “Yeah. You do. I’m just… God, I feel like I’m ignoring my instincts whenever I don’t try to take charge of these things, especially when my sisters and Nicole are both thinking with their hearts and never their heads. But at the same time…”

“What?”

“Blarg. Okay, look, I don’t like talking about this. But when I was in high school, I made a bid to be cheer captain. And when I didn’t get elected, I turned into a passive-aggressive bitch who constantly criticized everyone else and exploded whenever anyone tried to criticize me. The backlash to this was about as intense as you’d expect, and I almost quit the squad because of it. And I wonder sometimes about what I would’ve been like if I’d actually been captain- how much of an asshole I’d have turned into if I were actually in charge of anything.”

Heather stood in front of her and cupped her cheeks. Debbi’s heart went aflutter and her breath caught in her throat. “Babe. You don’t know that for sure. You don’t know anything for sure if you didn’t do it, if it didn’t happen. You can’t self-flagellate with the hypothetical- it’s unhealthy. And it doesn’t get you anything.”

Debbi nodded. 

“You worry about everyone, and you think ahead when the rest of us don’t. You are a good leader. If you want to make that a more formal arrangement, then maybe when this is over we all have a talk about it. Amy will probably be all for it. And Nicole’s a reasonable person, when she’s not being way too… Nicole for her own good.”

“What about Cass?” Debbi raised an eyebrow. “She hates it when I tell her what to do.”

“We’ll just make sure Matt’s there- she’ll be too busy making googly-eyes at him to do anything.”

“Pfft. You’re right,” Debbi said. “Let’s… Let’s pick this back up when this is over.”

Heather gave her a peck on the lips. “Sounds good. Now, let’s go fuck some shit up.”

They put on their coats and headed for the door.

They opened it, and found Astra waiting outside for them, flanked by two hellhounds and a dragon, wielding a hellfire claymore. “Hello, Deborah. Heather. I’ve come to discuss family, and why Amanda doesn’t belong with yours. Shall we begin?” the General said. 

***

Amy parked her car in the lot behind Ditko Hall. Orange and red and yellow lights screamed from every window in the five-story building, while techno music vibrated out the walls and the glass and the foundation. A waning crescent moon smiled in the darkened sky between the errant stormclouds straggling after last week’s deluge. Starlight struggled to pierce the veil of vapor and pollution and the wall of lights emanating upwards from the city. Nicole adjusted her wig, tying it back slightly to keep the red strands out of her eyes. 

“You ready for this?” Amy asked, squeezing her hand. 

Nicole gulped, then smiled. “As I’ll ever be. Where’s everyone else?”

“Dunno,” Amy said. She retrieved her phone from her purse and scanned it. “Nothing in the group chat. No calls on mine. What about you?”

Nicole checked her phone. “Nothing- oh, wait… No, it’s from my mom. She wants me to call her back, says it’s important.”

“Do you want me to wait outside the car while you return her call?” Amy said. 

Nicole sucked in her cheeks and thought about it. “I dunno. I feel like it’ll throw me off my game right before things go sideways. What if it’s a big emotional mother-daughter talk and it takes a while?”

“That’s fair,” Amy said, cracking her neck. “Tell you what- why don’t I give the others a call outside, and then by the time I’m back, let’s go in. You can tell her honestly that you have to do some superhero stuff. Sound good?”

“Okay,” Nicole smiled. 

Amy stepped outside the car, and Nicole dialed her mother. She picked up on the first ring. “Hey Mom, what’s up?”

“Nicole, is Zack with you?” Mom asked, her voice hoarse and haggard. 

“What? No. Why?”

“Because he’s not here! He… He left.”

Nicole’s stomach dropped out of her. “What?!”

“Okay, sweetie, I need you to stay with me here,” Mom said. “This is gonna need some context. So, I put up a trans pride flag on our front porch, right next to the USA one.”

“Y… You did?”

“I did. And our neighbors asked about it. And I… I told them the truth.”

“You… You what?” Nicole said. That… Was both very sweet and very, very stupid. 

“I told them about you. Not all of them took it well. And your brother… He especially didn’t take it well. And… I doubled down. I put one on our car. I put one on my phone. And I put one in my classroom. The school… The school wasn’t happy about that. Said I was trying to make some kind of political statement.”

“That’s completely absurd!”

“And I agree- there’s nothing political about supporting my child. But the school didn’t see it that way. They said they wanted to bring me in for a hearing. Zack must’ve somehow heard about it, because he got into a fistfight today when someone called you a slur.”

“... I’m sorry, what? Zack did that? Our Zack?”

“He ran out of class and left before anyone could stop him. He didn’t come back home, and he’s not answering his phone. The only thing I could think of is that he went to see you.”

“And I haven’t seen or heard from him,” Nicole said. This is bad this is bad this is bad-

“Okay. Can I ask you to look for him?”

“Of course you can!” Find him find him find him keep him safe.

“Are you sure? Didn’t you mention having a superheroing thing tonight?”

“I… I do… But… I have to find him. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t!”

“Thank you. Thank you so much, sweetheart.”

“Of course! I’ll find him and bring him home,” Nicole said, with all the confidence she could muster. 

“I love you, Nicole.”

“I love you too, Mom. I’ll keep you posted.”

With that, she hung up, and she stepped out of the car. 

Amy waved to her. “Hey, so I can’t seem to get a hold of anyone.”

“That sounds like a bad omen,” Nicole said. 

“Agreed. We should get out of here, find the others and regroup.”

“Yeah,” Nicole said, mind racing, heart thundering. Gotta keep him safe. “My little brother is missing.”

“What?!”

Nicole brought her up to speed. 

“Okay,” Amy said. “Let’s start at St. Joseph’s and take it from there. If he’s in this city, he’s probably either there or at our apartment-”

“Assuming he’s not inside,” Nicole said, staring at Ditko Hall.

“W… Why would he be in there?”

“He doesn’t know I moved in with you,” Nicole said. “As far as he knows, I still live in Ditko Hall. So if he’s coming to see me-”

“Then he would have gone to your dorm,” Amy said, exhaling. 

“I have to go in there,” Nicole said. 

“What if Winona’s in there?” Amy said. “We agreed we wouldn’t do this without the whole team here.”

“I know!” Nicole snapped. Then, closing her eyes and breathing in through her nose, she whispered. “I know. But if he’s in there… I can’t just leave. I have to know. I have to keep him safe.”

Amy sighed and cracked her knuckles. “Okay. Then I’m not leaving either.”

“But- but the others-”

“I can’t possibly leave you here alone,” Amy said. “Whatever happens inside there, we face it together. I won’t leave you. I can’t.”

Nicole gulped. “You’d… You’d really do that?”

Amy bit her lower lip, then said, “For you? Absolutely.”

The gears inside Nicole’s mind spun and spun and spun. This was all so much… And Amy was… She was willing to risk her life like that, for her. Nicole stared into the cheerleader’s eyes, at her lips, and leaned forward slowly, automatically. 

Amy leaned in as well, mouth opening as she closed the gap.

A small explosion sounded from within the walls of Ditko Hall. Both girls’ necks twisted as they turned their gaze to the dorm, and then back to each other. 

Nicole gave a bitter chuckle, then put a finger on Amy’s mouth. “Later. Eyes on the prize for now. Okay?”

Amy nodded, a face awash with lust and gratitude falling away and being replaced by steadfast determination and moral conviction. 

They held hands as they marched into the fray together. 

They searched each level of the floor, navigating through dozens upon dozens of inebriated college kids, amidst blaring strobe lights and Halloween music, across fields and fields of jack o’lanterns and skeletons and fake headstones and zombie arms erupting from various walls and floors and ceilings. Fake blood was splattered everywhere, staining carpets and windows and mirrors and wallpaper indiscriminately. Five different boys stopped them and tried to ask them to dance, one being particularly aggressive, continually putting hands on Amy. Amy kicked him in the shins when he asked why she was dressed like that if she didn’t want to put out. 

They made it all the way up to the top floor, where they found Curtis. 

And found Winona grinding on him. 

Nicole gnashed her teeth and started to march over, but Amy grabbed her arm. 

“Don’t,” Amy’s whisper cut through the waves of noise, face only an inch away from Nicole’s. “We can’t take her with just the two of us. We’ve cleared the building, now we should get out of here, regroup, and find your brother.”

Nicole’s heart deflated. She bunched and un-bunched her fists, then breathed out through her nose again. “You’re right. Let’s-”

“Leaving so soon?” Winona asked. She wore a chainmail bikini with a sword scabbarded on her side, her breasts bouncing and her hips swaying as she walked. 

Curtis walked over with her, glued to her side… 

… And his eyes were black. 

“I mean come on, can’t I at least get a dance in with my two favorite girls in the whole world?” Winona said, drawing her sword. The metal burst alive with Hellfire. Everyone on the floor stared at them, started closing in on them. All their eyes were black. Even the candles inside the jack o’lanterns burned with obsidian flames as shadows wreathed the walls and sparked out of the floors and the music mutated into a choir of plaintive wails. “I mean seriously, girls: the party’s just getting started,” Winona smiled and spreading her wings as the shadows closed in on them.