Alternatively

Just You, Me, and the Body

The air was chilling, which should have been her first sign.

It wasn't crisp, it wasn't refreshing; it was chilling.

She scrubbed her hands over her bare arms, leaning against the wall with mild annoyance. Neither Piper nor Thalia were giving any signs of wanting to leave, still downing shots with no regard to the 9 a.m. classes they had the next morning.

"It's Hallo-weekend," Piper had whined, adjusting her cape. "You have to come out with us."

"It's Monday, and I don't even have a costume."

Annabeth pulled her phone out of her bra, the bright screen illuminating her clouds of breath. Everyone was at some event or another, and she was most envious of the people she knew to be asleep. Someone had spilled their drink on her shoes and the idea of taking a warm shower and sleeping for ten hours was practically sinful to think of.

A group of slurring werewolves were corralled out of the bar by a very unenthused witch, pieces of their costumes having fallen off or were in the process of falling. She shuffled away from the door, the stench of beer and body odor strong enough to peel paint. Annabeth watched them pile into a Subaru, babbling and drooling like infants. Being DD wasn't the most glamorous job in the world, but at least she only had two infants to get home at the end of the night.

"Listen," she had to yell over the music. "My brother is heading over with his classmate."

"I'm listening," Annabeth eyed the toga adorned blonde.

Thalia took a huge gulp of her drink. "You gotta tell em both to go home, they have a...uh, a lab in the morning."

"Why me?"

"They'll probably listen to you. Probably."

She noticed a figure standing under the broken parking lot light, dim and shrouded in black. There wasn't much else to define him, but a shudder ran up her spine nonetheless. He stood still and though the shadows warped around him, she could have sworn he was staring at her.

"Stupid," she hissed under her breath, looking down at her phone.  "You'll be fine."

Between kick boxing classes and karate since she was seven, Annabeth could and would take care of herself if needed.

She glanced up, finding the figure gone. It was as if he were a spider; unnerving in her sight and terrifying out. She  shook her head, refreshing her instagram feed.

"You'll be fine."

Two Tinkerbell's stumbled by, loudly complaining about how late their Uber was and she almost went back inside to get her friends. If not to get back to safety than to make sure the both of them don't die of alcohol poisoning. She looked over her shoulder and into the window, scanning the drunken bodies for her specific witch and specific black cat. Her breath merely fogged up the glass.

She felt the music in her chest, making her hair stand on end despite the humid bar air. Her clothes clung to her like a second skin and she had been growing incredibly bored watching Piper grind down on someone in a Thor costume. She swirled her drink, a water on the rocks, and idly scanned the costumes around her.

A pirate and ballerina made sloppy conversation beside her and a boy wearing their rival school's jersey slumped over the bar. Two cowboys and a Viking tried balancing pitchers of beer and Thalia argued with her brother at the end of the bar, the friend from before standing awkwardly beside them. He wore a sea shell bra over a white t shirt and had what appeared to be poorly drawn scales on his cheeks.