Ghost (The Halloween Boys #1) (27)
And I knew exactly who I wanted to hunt.
CHAPTER 11
Blythe
THE NIGHT SHE MET MURDER
Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.
Edgar Allan Poe
The lot was suspiciously empty, and I wondered if I was in the right place. Did a lot of people carpool? Maybe Hallows Fest wasn’t as populated of a festival as I’d imagined. I guessed that would make sense, being its elusive, mysterious reputation. Nevertheless, I hoped there would be enough people there that I wouldn’t feel awkward and even more alone than I already did. I kicked my car door open and struggled into my pull-up fishnet stockings, securing my pointed fox mask tightly with its black ribbon. Standing and surveying myself in the reflection of the windows, a grin tugged at the corner of my eggplant-colored lips. I looked like a fox. I felt like a fox. Sultry, cunning, and crafty. Odd how a simple, albeit slutty in all the best ways, costume could elevate my confidence. I hadn’t had a reason to get dressed up since prom, and to be adorned in October, at a Halloween festival . . . Well, this was as good enough as my dying wish fulfilled. A sigh escaped my lungs. I’d try for tonight, and however many nights in October I was afforded, to enjoy this. My last hoorah. If I were to quit running and stay in Ash Grove, I would surely be murdered here. I wondered if he’d take me here, to the woods. Or maybe he’d do it on the side of the road. I half hoped it would be nearby in the forest. It was creepy as fuck here, but comforting too. For some strange reason, the odd, the strange, the dark and gloomy had always comforted me. Like an inky blanket of night, it soothed me more than any warm summer’s day.
I turned to check the back of my corset, trying to reach around to my shoulder blades and failing. I looked great, but my ample breasts pushed the strings loose and they needed a good tug and tie. However, that was nearly impossible to do alone. That didn’t stop me from awkwardly trying to defy my anatomy and do it, though.
A cute ripple of laughter pinged my ear. “Need some help?”
Startled, I glanced around thinking I’d missed a car pulling in. It was only me and two other vacant vehicles. “Um, sure, thanks.” We were standing in a patch of gravel, yet I didn’t hear her approach.
“Closing a corset on your own is a bitch, I know.” The woman with long red hair floated over. Her skin was so white it glowed in the moonlight, and her eyes glinted deep crimson. When I met her gaze, she smiled a sharp smile, her incisors defined and long. “You make a sexy fox,” she purred, giving the strings a firm pull, and my cheeks flushed.
“I appreciate that. You're beautiful . . . .Vampire?”
Her touch skimmed my shoulders like ice as she turned me around and assessed my fit. “That’s right.” She lightly bit her bottom, candy-apple-red lip. “Want to head in together?”
My gaze flitted over the lot again. Where did she come from?
I nodded. “Sure, I don’t really know where I’m going. It’s my first time.”
“You don’t say?” She giggled, looping her elbow in mine. “You’re lucky I’m the one who found you and not some other monster. We’ve got lots at Hallows.”
I swallowed, not sure if she was being facetious or not. Even still, I was desperately curious. “Oh, really? Who should I stay away from?”
The vampire woman huffed as my heels moved from gravel to grass. “You’ll learn quick enough. We each have our . . . vices. But I’d say the worst of us? That would be The Halloween Boys. They’re nasty motherfuckers in sunshine and moonlight. There’s no break for them. They’ll chew you up and spit you out and then do it again for sport. Us vampires at least retreat to our coffins occasionally.” She smirked.
“How do I know who they are? Wh-what are their costumes?” The last thing I needed was to unintentionally anger a Halloween Boy and be on yet another angry dude’s shit list.
The vampire hummed thoughtfully. “That’s one of the things about them that makes them so unpredictable. They don’t stay with their own like many of us do. We all chat and hang out, don’t get me wrong. The pirates, for example, are a fucking blast. But at the end of the day, we all have our own little—” She gave me an assessing look before continuing. “—families. But The Halloween Boys . . . They’re just a mix of the worst of us. One of each. Though we can never really be sure how many of them there are.”
A chill slithered down my spine. This all sounded way more serious than just a dance festival. I shook my head and huffed a small laugh. “It’s almost like this is all real.”
Her returning smile was pure feline. “Yes, almost.”
I noted how incredibly realistic her pointed teeth were and was thankful monsters, vampires, didn’t really exist. We trudged through a dark and winding path in the forest that seemed to go nowhere. The way was dotted with only a carved pumpkin every several feet, the only indication we were walking into anything more than a haunted wood.
Only the sound of crunching leaves and twigs peppered our walk when I spoke up. “How many years have you been coming here?”
My red companion laughed fully this time. It seemed everything I said was part of a joke I wasn’t in on yet. “Many years, dear.” The trees began to clear as we passed the last flickering orange pumpkin. “Welcome to Hallows Fest,” she purred sweetly, looking from the scene to me. My eyes grew wide as I inhaled sharply. I was expecting a small-town carnival, a little party, or at best something like a concert. This was . . . It was its own city. A living breathing thing. Hundreds of masked people milled by in the most realistic suits and getups I’d ever seen. A man on stilts in a jester costume juggled past as my vampire friend twirled away with another laugh, her deep-red hair fanning around her like a cape. Beyond them, it was hard to know where to land my focus. Tents and lanterns jutted between mossy trees where people ate and drank and mingled. People wasn’t the right word. Werewolves, vampires, witches, ghosts, pirates, zombies, ghouls, and animals of all sorts went about their activities. There were so many of them.