Page 39 of His To Claim

Scary movies, dressing up, sneaking candy from the other kids in our neighborhood who actually got to go trick or treating. It was the only time we actually felt like kids. So what, there are afew ghosts floating around campus, they can’t be worse than the real people here.

Per tradition there is a themed party every Saturday night in October, ending with a giant masquerade ball hosted at the Servite’s Mansion on Halloween night.

Tonight’s theme isSaints and Sinners, where everyone either goes dressed as a saint, angel, or sinner, devil. Jade and I coordinated she would be the angel to my devil, while Stella is going to be an angel, of course, and I think Ruby decided on playing both.

Since today is Saturday, and the day of the party, Stella is taking us into town to buy our costumes. She wants to take us to this huge Halloween warehouse she says has the best costumes, but Jade and I are content with buying things to DIY our own like we always have.

“Come on, we have to at least check out the costumes,” Stella whines as we walk down Main Street in Downtown Hillcrest Hills.

It’s our first time off campus and in the city, which means our first time exploring Hillcrest Hills. I have to say it’s less enthralling than I'd expected. Sure, every store and establishment we’ve passed is way out of my price point, but it’s also nothing out of the ordinary.

“Scar and I have always made our own costumes,” Jade says as we reach the Halloween store on the corner of the town square beside a Sushi restaurant that seems to be all the rage. “There was this one year we were like...”

“Seven,” I answer.

“Yeah, seven and we wanted to be…”

“Astronauts.”

“So, we snuck into my dad’s things and found several rolls of duct tape. We then taped our pajamas with the duct tape onto our bodies. We got foil and put our hair into two buns and covered them in the foil because we couldn’t duct tape our hair,” Jade says laughing. “We snuck out that night to trick or treat in the neighboring homes and everyone…”

“Kept asking if we were aliens,” I add, and we both start laughing at the memory.

“We were so mad that when we got home, we started trying to take the costumes off only to find out we had taped them too tight. We made so much noise that Lilith woke up and she had to cut us out of our pajamas. She was so mad…”

“That she took all the candy we had gotten and flushed it down the toilet.”

“That’s horrible,” Stella cries out, tears pooling in her eyes.

“Yeah well, still one of the best Halloweens we’ve had,” Jade says, assuring Stella we’ve gotten over it.

“I’m still wondering why your dad had so many rolls of duct tape.” Jax raises his eyebrows suggestively.

Jade and I both shake our heads. “We don’t wanna know,” we say in unison.

“Point of the story, Silver,” I add. “Making your own costume is half the fun. It’s unique, you can make it your own, and we won’t have to worry about showing up in the same costume as like twenty other girls.”

“Fine, I’m convinced, but can we at least check out the accessories section?” Stella asks, reaching for the door of the store.

The Halloween store is huge, full of every costume you could ever think of in every direction. To the left against the wall are rows upon rows of wigs, masks, hats, and crowns. Each section is organized by category - scary, character, funny, sexy, etc.

“Come on, let’s go toward the left.”

We walk over to the wigs and accessories where Jade finds a pair of glittery, iridescent angel wings and I grab a pair of red curved horns, embroidered with a black shiny yarn. They look more like Maleficent’s horns except in red, but they’re perfect for what I have planned. I try to convince Stella to dress up as a sinner instead of a saint, but she won’t budge.

“Come on, Silver, you can wear this red wig. It would look hellabomb,” Jade assures her, holding up a long dark red wig with blunt bangs. It really is cute.

“Jade’s already angel blonde and well, my black hair will go with my costume, but you need to get the wig and be a little she-devil. Look, I even have the perfect costume in mind.” I hold up a pair of gold horns similar to mine with red tips.

“I don’t know,” Stella mumbles softly.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” a high-pitch voice coming from behind me says, making me outwardly cringe.

We turn and find the four queens approaching us. Great. To think we’d have a pleasant afternoon away from all the bullshit at the academy was too much to ask.

“Carrington, it’s so nice running into you,” I answer sarcastically, giving her one of my best phony smiles.

“What are you girls going to dress as? Oh wait, slut isn’t part of the theme this weekend right, Carrington?” Kinsley sneers from beside her, clearly proud of her snide comment although no one laughs.

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