“Are you sure you two don’t want to go?” I asked my parents. “Mr. and Mrs. Cooper are going to ask about you, mom. Dad, you can always wear a mask.”
Emma shook her head. “No more Halloween parties for me. Ever. Besides, I don’t want drunken people asking questions about your father.”
Ethan shrugged. “Your mom’s the boss.”
We said goodbye to my parents and strolled down the driveway. The sky was clear and the air was crisp. The Cooper’s house was two blocks over and we could already see the overflow of cars parked in the street. I walked in between Peter and James. It was a perfect autumn night.
The full moon lit the sky. Millions of stars looked like fireflies in Heaven. The street lanterns were lit. Wind blew the leaves. It was the night before Halloween.
Devil’s Night.
We walked inside the Cooper’s first annual Halloween party.
CHAPTER 17
The Cooper house was unrecognizable.
The three story colonial made my old house on Apple Orchard look small. The Coopers had decorated every square inch of available space for the party. Crowds of costumed people were everywhere. In the living room. On the second floor balcony. In the dining room. Packed in the hallways. Spilled outside onto the patio. Half of the town had to be here.
Just as Lucas and Logan had promised, the first floor was transformed into a haunted house, but there were too many people crammed inside to be scary. Cobwebs and orange twinkle lights covered the ceiling and banister. Electric candles lit the rooms. A vampire popped out of a coffin in the entryway and Monster Mash played in the background.
“Do you see Lucas or Logan?” I asked. Peter was a head taller than everyone, so if anyone could spot the Cooper twins, it was him.
“No, do you know what costumes they’re wearing?”
“Lucas said he was going as Frankenstein. I’m not sure about Logan,” I said.
We followed Peter through the decorated formal living room. Lighted jack-o-lanterns sat on table tops. Strobe lights cast strange shadows over everyone’s masked faces. The fog machine pumped out smoke and lowered visibility.
We were headed for the kitchen, but Mrs. Cooper stopped us mid-route. She had on a teal bandana, a purple dress, huge gold hoop earrings and dozens of bracelets on both arms - she was a gypsy.
“Alexandria!” She hugged me. “Hello, boys! Long time, no see.” Mrs. Cooper hugged each of them, too.
“The place looks fantastic.”
“You can thank the boys. It was ninety-nine percent them.”
“Where are they?”
“Last time I saw them, they were outside. Something about a pumpkin throwing contest. I’m not sure. Where’s your mother?”
“Oh, she’s not feeling well,” I lied.
“That’s a shame. I haven’t seen her in a while. I should pay her a visit. Are you still staying at the Van Curen house?”
“Until we find a new place.”
“I can’t believe there was a gas explosion.” She shook her head. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you.”
“Come, I’ll read your fortune.” Mrs. Cooper tugged me toward her table in the corner of the room.
Fortune telling was exactly what I didn’t need. I already had pretty concrete ideas about my immediate future and I had zero desire to see them laid out in front of me in a crystal ball. Heck, if Mrs. Cooper saw what was in store for my future, she’d probably run for the hills.
“No, thank you.” I tried to reclaim my hand without offending her.
“It’ll be fun.”
Mrs. Cooper must’ve worked out, because with a few quick tugs she had me in the chair. What if Mrs. Cooper could see the future? I’d seen stranger things. I threw Peter and James a nervous look, but they were both frozen like deer in headlights.
Mrs. Cooper placed a stack of tarot cards on the hot pink tablecloth. “I’m a beginner, but I’m making progress.”
The initial feeling of anxiety blossomed. I’d never used tarot cards, but I believed in them wholeheartedly. I’d always had, even in my pre-witch years. I’d avoided fortune tellers at the carnival because something deep down warned me that they were real. That was before I knew crazy things went bump in the night. Magic was real. One hundred percent. And I was positive that my future could be told with a few quick flips of a card.
The tarot cards were larger than a normal playing deck. They were constructed of a thicker, sturdier cardboard. The backs were white with black vines twirling around the center.
Mrs. Cooper’s hands moved quickly. Mechanically. Very un-novice like.
The boys crowded behind my seat and hovered over me. Intent on watching the show.
“Where did you learn to do this, Mrs. Cooper?” Peter held the back of my chair.
“When you’re my age, you pick up a thing or two, here and there.”
Mrs. Cooper dealt out an intricate pattern. She flipped five cards over, reshuffled and then created another design. I couldn’t follow the order. There was a method to her madness, but I couldn’t decipher it.
Finally, with one last dramatic turn of the wrist, she flipped a lone card.
She frowned. My stomach dropped to my toes with her reaction. Her eyes squeezed to slits as she examined the card. “I must’ve made a mistake. I told you I was a beginner. Let me reshuffle.”
Her hands effortlessly moved over the cards. She shuffled and dealt again, just as she had before. She flipped over the same card and frowned again.
Mrs. Cooper went to shuffle again, but I gently placed my hand on top of hers. I inched my fingers down her hand and tapped the card. “Which card is this?”
“It’s a mistake.”
“Can I see it?” I didn’t wait for an answer. I dragged the card across the hot pink table cloth and turned it right-side up.
The number “13” hovered in the top right corner over a picture of a skeleton dressed in full armor, riding a black horse through a sea of dead bodies. The skeleton carried a black flag emblazoned with a white flower. On the bottom, written clear as day in beautiful crimson cursive, was one word.
Death.
I twirled the card in my hand. “I’m going to die.”
Mrs. Cooper thought I was asking a question. “No, no honey. You’re not going to die. I told you I wasn’t an expert. It’s a silly game for the party. That’s all. Harmless fun.” Mrs. Cooper nervously shuffled.
“Can you tell me about it? I mean, I know it’s Death.” I couldn’t finish my sentence. I glanced up at Peter and last night’s nightmare flooded back like a tidal wave. Realization knocked me off my metaphorical feet. My heart sank and settled deep in my belly. “Wait. Does this mean my death or -”
“Honey, it’s only a game.”
I pressed out a smile. “I know, but for argument’s sake. What can you tell me about this card?”
“We’d really like to know,” Peter said.
Mrs. Cooper reached across the table and took back the Death card. “It doesn’t necessarily mean your death, Alexandria. Technically, it means ‘death’ is in your immediate future.”
I exhaled.
“It’s nonsense.” Mrs. Cooper kept her eyes on the table. “I picked up this deck at Kitty’s Costume Closet a few months ago. I’m sorry if I’ve upset you. Please forget about this silly game. You kids should go find my boys. There’s a ton of food in the kitchen, too.”
I nodded, but I didn’t move.
“Peter,” Mrs. Cooper said gently.
Peter lifted me from the folding chair. He escorted me toward the kitchen with James following behind me.
The kitchen resembled a mosh pit - it was that crowded. People pushed and banged against my wings. I was dizzy and completely off balance. A sizzling pain exploded in my side. I hunched over and was grateful that no one could see me.
My hand was still in Peter’s as we snaked through the crowd. I followed, bent at the waist.
“Are you okay?” James whis
pered in my ear.
I nodded between deep breaths.
The receiving pain was gone, but it was getting worse. Much worse. An explosion of heat. It felt like… what I’d imagine a fireball would feel like. I shook the nightmare from my mind. I needed fresh air.
We finally made it to the patio. The cool air felt fantastic on my clammy forehead.
Peter frowned when he saw my face. “Don’t worry, Lex. That tarot card is right. Think about it. Death is in your immediate future. We’re going to kill Liam tomorrow. It makes perfect sense.”
“Right,” I said quietly.
There was no arguing with Peter on the Liam subject. He was overly optimistic. He couldn’t entertain the possibility that tomorrow might not work out for us. That was Peter. He was built that way. He could keep bad things at arm’s length. Nothing bothered him and there was nothing he couldn’t overcome. I admired that about him, but that wasn’t my way of thinking.
We walked past a woman dressed as a pirate. Both of her eyes were blood red.
This party was such a bad idea. It was too much for me to handle - the receiving pains, the Death tarot card, the memory of last year’s party, red-eyes spying on me and the mind numbing fact that I had less than twenty-four hours until my sacrifice.
Coming here was a catastrophic mistake.
James hadn’t said anything since Mrs. Cooper’s tarot card reading. The wheels turning in his head were practically visible. Unlike Peter, James understood the cold hard fact that things didn’t always work out in the end. It wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. I valued James’ grasp on the reality of our lives. We made eye contact, but he just smiled weakly behind his Captain America mask. I was dying to know what he was thinking.
“The party has officially started!” Lucas waved his lanky green-painted arms at us from the back lawn. “Get over here!”
Lucas was dressed as Frankenstein. His arms, face and neck were painted pea-soup green. He had bolts sticking out from the sides of his neck and torn dirty clothes. I couldn’t help but smile at him.
We wiggled through the packed patio and onto the back lawn covered in fake tombstones. Lucas, Logan, Sadie, Anne Marie and Jillian stood in a tight circle near the privacy fence.
“Sweet costume,” Lucas said to me.
“Told you.” Sadie winked. She was dressed as at cat with painted whiskers on her face and a red nose. Little feline ears popped out from her short hair and a long tail swished behind her.
“What are you guys doing back here?” Peter pretended to beat Lucas over the head with his plastic Tarzan club.
“Away from prying eyes.” Logan was dressed as a pirate with a fake parrot attached to his shoulder. “There are too many people in the house. It’s suffocating.”
Anne Marie, dressed as a sailor (I’m assuming to go with Logan’s pirate), brushed her hands against my angel wings. “I like it.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
“Definitely better than Jane.”
“Jane?”
Anne Marie adjusted my wings. “Peter wanted you to go as Jane to his Tarzan, but I think he was too embarrassed to ask.”
I laughed. It felt good to see Ann Marie out and about after her horrible accident last January when Liam threw her from the Hawthorne Bell Tower. She was practically one hundred percent healed. She had a very, very slight limp from her four story fall, but that was it. We were lucky she was alive.
“How do you like the decorations?” Lucas asked. “I went to that store in Salem you told me about.”
“You did?” I asked. “Everything looks fantastic. I love your costume.”
Lucas raised his arms in the classic Frankenstein walk and I actually laughed.
I noticed Jillian beside me dressed as a nurse. “Hi, stranger.”
“Oh, hi Alex. I’m sorry about the other day in the cafeteria. I’ve no idea what Olivia was talking about. Something about a clock.”
“It’s okay.”
Jillian frowned. “Olivia’s here. She went to the restroom.”
“I can’t always avoid her.”
“I guess not,” Jillian whispered.
“We’re giving out a prize for the best costume,” Lucas said. “You have to put your vote in that box over there before eleven. My dad’s going to announce the winner at midnight.”
“Clearly, Alex is going to win.” Olivia stepped into our circle. “I mean, come on, look at that costume. An angel? Talk about stepping outside of the box.” She tilted her head in my direction.
Peter tensed.
I stepped in front of him, so he wouldn’t beat her with the plastic club. “Hi Olivia.”
“What an ironic costume.” Olivia had on a pink leotard, a tutu, tights and ballet slippers. She looked incredible. Her blonde hair was slicked back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck. I’d bet a million dollars that the bun covered her birthmark.
“Hi, James,” Olivia said.
He ignored her.
“No one asked you to come over here, Olivia,” Lucas said. “Don’t cause any trouble.”
Olivia winked a heavily made-up eye. “Happy Halloween, Alex.”
I turned my back on her and fell into a conversation with Sadie. I didn’t have time for Olivia. I wasn’t going to let her get to me. Not tonight.
My friends and I talked and gossiped and giggled for what seemed like an eternity. We ate orange frosted cupcakes and stuffed ourselves with appetizers. We placed our votes for best costume in before the cutoff time.
Peter’s hand slid down my silky sleeve. “Come with me for a second.”
“Sure.”
We zigzagged through the fake cardboard cemetery to the side of the house in between two tall hedges. He maneuvered me so I was against the brick.
I glanced up at the stars. “What’s up?”
“Wait a second. Three. Two. One.” He lifted his cell phone. The time on the clock read midnight.
“Happy eighteenth birthday, Lex.” Peter shoved the phone into his pocket and slid his hand around my neck. Right on my birthmark. He pulled me into his embrace and kissed me.
I completely lost myself in him.
It might be the last time you ever kiss him under the stars.
I squeezed my eyes and blocked out the gut wrenching thought. I deepened the kiss. I traced my tongue around his and bit his bottom lip. Everything else faded away. The noise. The party. The music. The cool air. The stars. The full moon. There was nothing, except Peter and me.
“I love you,” I whispered through the kiss.
“And I love you.” Peter pulled away. His breathing was heavy.
“What’s wrong? Why did you stop?” I closed my eyes and waited for him to kiss me again, but he didn’t. I opened my eyes.
Anger flashed across his face. “You’re doing it again? Aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re saying goodbye to me. Aren’t you? That’s why you’re kissing me like that. Like it’s the last kiss we’ll ever have.”
“No, I’m not.” I was.
“Alexandria Ross Longfellow, you are not dying tomorrow.” He pushed his finger under my chin and raised my mouth to his. “Stop saying goodbye to everyone.” He kissed my forehead.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Now, I hope you forgive me because I don’t have your gift with me. It was too big to bring. But it’s at my house.”
“You bought me a present?”
“Of course I did, silly.”
“With all that’s been going on? You remembered my birthday?”
“I’d never forget your birthday.”
“And this present is too big to carry?”
Peter laughed. “Come on, I hear Dr. Cooper. Ten bucks says I can get him to sing happy birthday to you over the loudspeakers.”
“What? No,” I said.
“I’m kidding. I think he’s about to announce the winner of the costume contest.”
We pulled o
urselves out from behind the shrubs and into the crowded backyard. Dr. Cooper stood on a stepladder on the far side of the lawn. He tapped the microphone against his palm. Partygoers streamed out of the house.
“Good evening, everyone! Please clear a small space so we can all see the costume contest finalists,” Dr. Cooper said into the microphone.
The sea of costumed people backed away from the center of the grass (careful not to knock over fake tombstones) and formed an almost perfect circle in the middle of the backyard. Dr. Cooper held an envelope in the air.
Peter and I walked to the edge of the crowd. James, Sadie, Anne Marie and the twins were on the other side of the circle.
“We have four finalists,” Dr. Cooper said. “When I call your name, please come to the center area.” He opened the orange envelope. “Before I proceed, I’d like to announce that it is five minutes past midnight. Happy Halloween everyone! Okay, here we go. Our first finalist is Judge McHailey.”
The crowd erupted in applause as an elderly man made his way into the circle. He was dressed as a giant gavel and, even I had to admit, it was a pretty hilarious costume.
“Contestant number two is,” Dr. Cooper hesitated. “Lucas Cooper. I swear, I’m running an honest gig here. Come on, Frankenstein.” Dr. Cooper laughed as his son pumped his fists in the air.
Lucas raised his arms in front of his body and stumbled into the circle. He flexed a few poses and the crowd went wild.
“Lucas gets picked, but I don’t? The fix is in.” Peter laughed.
Dr. Cooper waited for the cheers to die down. “The next finalist is…James Van Curen. James, please take your place in the circle.”
James, in his Captain America costume, turned toward Logan. Logan shrugged and slipped his arm around Anne Marie’s waist. James entered the circle next to Lucas and looked extremely uncomfortable. He searched the crowd. I waved at him, but he didn’t see me. There were too many people crammed in the backyard.
Lucas elbowed him in the ribs.
“Our last finalist for the first ever Cooper Halloween Costume Contest is Vivian DuPont. Please give her a round of applause.”