Page 20 of Halloween Haunting
Bryant held her about a foot over the floor, his eyes growing as wide as hers as he stared. Heat swarmed to her face as she realized how close his hands were to her chest, nearing the provocative costume she wore. He swiftly cleared his throat and swung her around another time, gently resting her feet back on the ground beside her maroon mailbox. And Grace took the time to notice how his hands lingered on her before he jerked them away.
Grace eyed his costume – a fake cutlass hung from his leather belt, with dark trousers to match. Puffy white sleeves adorned his arms, with a laced vest strapped tightly across his wide torso. He was the buffest pirate Grace had ever laid her eyes on – even if he happened to be thefirstpirate she had ever laid her eyes on.
For just as long as she was looking over him, Bryant was eyeing her. Though all Grace could see in his expression was pure and uttershock.His gaze glanced at her chest before quickly snapping away, finding her legs next and jerking away just as fast. Color flamed across his cheeks and nose as he raised his eyes to the sky, ogling the moon in the way she had done moments before.
“You – er, uh –” Bryant tried to speak but cleared his throat a few times, awkwardly bumping his fist into the center of his chest, as if he had something stuck there. “That’s quite the costume you’ve got. It’s…it’s nice.”
Grace pressed her lips together and crossed her arms, growing just as red in the face as he was. “Thank you,” she drawled while chewing on the inside of her mouth.You’re such an idiot,she thought to yourself.Just keep blowing it with the first guy you dare to have a crush on.“M-My friends got it for me. I-I know it’s a bit much.”
“A bit much?” he repeated.
“Pirate’s a good way to go,” she blurted, realizing that she was about to enter into the full on ‘babbling’ territory. “I mean, you look – you wear it well – I mean, you’re, you know – you’ve got the style – well, not thestyle,but – w-what I’m trying to say is – well, I dunno, but – it’s a good –” her eyes glanced toward his collar, where the shirt diverted and tufts of dark hair could be seen on his bare skin “ – chest,I mean,vest –”
Bryant stepped closer, his thick brow furrowing as he drew nearer. Though the expression he wore contorted in a way that gave off the impression of anger, when he spoke next, his words were the softest Grace had ever heard.
“It isn’t too much,” Bryant said.
“W-What?”
“The costume.” His eyes wandered for a moment before returning to her gaze. “It isn’t too much.”
Grace felt her cheeks burn as though there were flames caressing her skin. Before she could try and come up with anything that sounded like an appropriate response, Bryant was backing up again, one hand rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Whatever moment had fallen between them was slipping away, but Grace was in the midst of replaying it over and over in the back of her mind.
“I, uh, only got dressed up for Tommy Briggs’ Halloween party,” Bryant said.
Grace bit back her smile. “T-That’s where I’m heading.”
He raised a brow.
“Caroline invited me to tag along.”
“I see.” Bryant’s eyes hung onto her as he inhaled, his lips parting as though there was something he had been wanting to say. At the same moment, a pair of headlights cut through the darkness, and Caroline’s classic convertible hummed from up the road. With the car’s arrival, Bryant started backing away,nearing the line of trees that bordered the left side of his house. “I suppose I’ll see you at the party.”
Grace whipped around to face him. “Wait! D-Don’t you want a ride?”
But he was already slipping between the thick trees, and by the time she managed to shout, Bryant had entirely disappeared into the darkness. She stared for a moment longer, squinting into the inky black forest. Something shuffled within the bushes, rustling the greenery and causing twigs to snap underfoot. The sounds continued as Grace inched closer, almost about to cross over Bryant’s property and follow in his footsteps.
But something caught her attention within the mesh: low hanging branches and deeply green leaves were suddenly shrouded in danger as a pair of green eyes stared back at her too low to the ground to belong to Bryant. Grace’s lips parted, a shout trapped in the back of her throat, a series of newfound questions lingering over her head, all ready to be blurted into the evening when –
BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEP!
Caroline’s sharp horn rang throughout the neighborhood. Grace jumped a foot in the air and lunged away from the woods, quickly scooting back down the street. The bright red vehicle hummed with energy and quiet music as she neared, but something in the back of Grace’s mind made her stop for another time. She paused in the center of her driveway, and took one more look over her shoulder. Whatever she had seen no longer stared back at her, and was now a dark mass that was moving with great speed through the quiet woods.
Caroline’s horn sounded again. “Don’t make medragyou into this car, Grace!”
Before she got attacked by her eager friend, Grace quickly made her way to the passenger seat. But even as she slipped inside, listening to her friend quickly chattering about how funthe party would be, Grace’s eyes clung to the woods, the creeping sensation of something watching her in the darkness never once daring to leave her.
11
“Who’s ready to gethaunted?”
The music slammed into Grace as they stepped over the threshold of the old mansion that Tommy Briggs was holding his party in. Ghouls and ghosts hung from the ceiling as Grace and her three companions entered the rowdy foyer, bats and a surplus of Halloween decorations dotting the walls. Spiderwebs looked more real than Grace expected in the house’s corners, and she wondered if she plucked one of the threads, it would vibrate with an energetic sound. The only light came from strobe lights strung up in random spots, flashing in time with the music or pulsing with the same rate of a heartbeat.
Every available spot was taken by costumed party-goers. They danced wildly to the music and downed whatever drink was placed in front of them, becoming looser – and drunker – by the minute. Grace ducked under a girl’s wildly swinging arms, her expression dripping with euphoria as she bellowed along with the song. She had been concerned that most of the party goers would be decades younger than her, but it seemed to be the opposite. They were, mostly, around her and her companions' ages. Some of those in attendance were in their twenties, it seemed, but they were hardly the majority.
Though it was the most chaotic – and slightly unnerving – place Grace had been to in a very long time, there was something refreshing about it. A party with people her age, letting loose and drinking as much as they want, because in the end, age was only a number in Holiday Hollow.
Caroline hooked an arm around her and led the way through the old mansion. Tables lined the walls, where there were rows of liquor bottles and a lone barman shaking mixers around his head. A bowl of crimson red punch looked rather ordinary in the crystal bowl – up until Grace realized that there were plumes of smoke curling out from the drink’s surface. And it wasn’t like the usual ‘dry ice in punch’ trick. The smoke was real and heavy as it spread across the room, giving the party a dazed and misty sort of look.
