Flames At Midnight

15 | quentin miller

"Excuse me. Excuse me. Oof—sorry, excuse me."

I probably said it about a hundred times as I moved through the crowd, my eyes peeled for Fiona. It was like she'd vanished into thin air. Didn't she know it was dangerous for her to be alone right now?

She had also seen the vision. She knew what was coming.

How could I prevent it from happening if I couldn't find her?

I thought of a talk I had with Grace a few days ago.

"I wonder if your visions are set in stone," she had said.

"What do you mean?"

"When you saw all of us at that house in Salem—I mean, if you hadn't had the vision of me and Porter there in the first place, you guys probably would've gone ahead the night Fiona showed up with the address. It wouldn't have happened that way if you didn't have the vision in the first place."

It was interesting.

Without my visions, we might not all have been at the carnival. Fiona definitely wouldn't have been. The visions were less about seeing the future, and more about lending a guiding hand. They nudged us along a certain path.

What would happen if we decided not to follow that path?

And more importantly, where was the path taking us?

"Rude," I muttered as a kid who was racing towards the zipper ride bumped roughly into my side.

From somewhere above came the screech of microphone feedback. All heads turned toward the raised stage across the carnival grounds. A group of students were lined up, front and center. Several of the girls were in cheerleader outfits with the addition of black and orange ribbons weaved through their hair.

I picked Paige out of the lineup, her blonde ponytail swinging back and forth.

The crowds started moving in that direction.

The cheerleading captain took center stage and adjusted the mic stand so that it was at a comfortable height. "Hello everyone! I'm Savannah Gray and I hope you're all enjoying yourselves at the annual Thornhill Halloween carnival." She paused for the crowd to clap and cheer. "On behalf of the Thornhill High student government and school spirit teams, I'd like to thank you for coming out and celebrating with us."

She stepped back and our student body president took the stage. "Hi, I'm Maggie Petrakis, the student body president. Savannah already mentioned it, but we really do thank you all for joining us tonight. We have some performances lined up for you tonight, so if interested, please make your way over to the stage. Our first performance is a Halloween skit written and performed by the talented students of Mrs. Arnold's second grade class."

The sea of people all crowded around the stage.

With the exception of one person who was moving in the opposite direction. He had a black hood pulled over his head, his face hidden behind a plastic Spiderman mask.

The masked men were here.

At least one of them, anyway.

I hesitated for a second.

This was a Halloween carnival. Could he just be a guy in a mask, here to enjoy the event, or was he one of them?

He blended in with all the other people in costume. I wasn't even really sure how I picked him out of the crowd and why I was getting an eerie vibe from him. The hairs rising on my neck and the thrum of my blood in my ears were like a sixth sense.