Flames At Midnight

03 | quentin miller

CHAPTER 03

Halloween was my favorite day of the year.

I loved dressing up as my favorite characters and staying up all night watching horror movie marathons. There were always tons of festive events around town, like haunted corn mazes or haunted tours around the creepiest spots in Massachusetts. And all the post-Halloween candy sales were pretty damn awesome too.

Grace knocked briefly on my bedroom door before letting herself in. "Why are you still in your pajamas? We're already late." She picked up the dark cape I'd tossed onto my bed and held it up at arm's length. "What is this?"

Snatching the cloth from her hand, I said, "You can wait three weeks to find out, like the rest of the world."

"You're so overdramatic," Grace said, rolling her eyes. "It's not even a big deal."

I snorted. "You're the only person in all of Thornhill who doesn't like Halloween."

In our small town, Halloween was a bigger deal than Christmas.

Thornhill was a short thirty minute drive away from Salem, also known as Halloween City. There, the holiday stretched on for weeks of street parties, music, and fireworks. There was always some festival for the dead or a haunted dinner theater to check out in the next town over.

Everyone loved Halloween. Well, everyone but Grace.

Grace was the Scrooge of Halloween.

"You want to get dressed so we can head out? I think Porter's already there."

"Roger that."

I walked down the hall and ducked into the bathroom where I stripped out of my t-shirt and pajama bottoms and into my costume.

When I went back into the room, I was dressed in my Nightwing suit. It was made out of a stretchy dark material with a bright blue bird emblazoned across the chest. Seeing how the skin tight outfit made me look even scrawnier than usual, I regretted not throwing down another thirty bucks for the version with built-in foam muscles.

Grace raised an eyebrow once we saw me. "Are you really wearing that?"

"Why not?"

"Amber didn't say we should dress up." She had on a puffy jacket over black leggings and rain boots.

"Halloween is only three weeks away. It goes without saying, Grace," I said matter-of-factly.

"I really hope you're the only one dressed up. Plus, I thought you weren't making the big reveal until Halloween?" she asked.

"This isn't my real costume. This is the one I bought for all the pre-parties," I explained.

"So...you have a back-up costume?"

I nodded slowly as she continued to stare at me.

"You've hit a new low," Grace said, shaking her head.

"Or a new high. I can't believe I never thought to do this. Although this now brings up one predicament. Do I first wear it the day of, or should I wait until Stanley Liu's annual party? But that's a problem for another day." I flexed both of my biceps for her. "On a scale of great to wicked awesome, how do I look?"

She tilted her head slightly as she appraised me. "You just passed looking like a total jerk, but haven't reached douchebag yet."

"I do? Oh, it's probably because I haven't put on my mask yet." I slipped the black eye mask on pulled the elastic band around my head. "Better?"