RU in? - 1st novel in the Ruinsaga series

Chapter 1 .

Lily

I would never have thought that my Halloween night would end with an actual zombie apocalypse.

It was my senior year of highschool. I was supposed to be off at a fun teenage party, not taking my little sister trick-or-treating. Except I had been invited to a party and I had refused to go. Just thinking of being in a crowded room was enough to send my heart racing into a panic. I hated crowds. I wasn't sure why, I just did. My two friends, Maria and Anna, loved parties and they had tried to drag me to this one. Luckily I had the excuse that I needed to take my little sister trick-or-treating as my parents were going to some Halloween party of their own.

"How does it look?" Mackenzie asked.

I had painted her face to resemble a leopard. I wasn't good at too many things, but art was one of the few things I was good at. It went well with the leopard costume our mom had made her. It wasn't one of those sexy leopard costumes. None of us in my family were into that. Honestly, I couldn't understand why on the one day of the year you could dress up into something truly unique or frightening you would choose something generic and sexy.

I moved to the side so she could look in the bathroom mirror. She smiled grandly and her hands went up as if she were going to touch her cheeks, but she stopped herself before she could ruin the makeup.

"I love it," she said. "Aren't you going to paint your face too? Maybe a skeleton. That YouTube video you made of yourself doing the skeleton makeup was really cool."

I was good at art, but especially face and body painting. I loved it. There were a few videos I made of myself up on YouTube, but none had gone viral or anything. My following was very small, but that was all right. I just loved doing it.

"I'm too old to do that for Halloween. Unless I was going to a Halloween party, which I'm not," I added quickly as Mackenzie opened her mouth to speak and I knew she was going to try to encourage me to go with Maria and Anna. She didn't have the same hangups with crowds as I did. Our brother didn't either. He loved being the center of attention. We didn't see Tanner much anymore since he went off to college.

"Fine," Mackenzie said. "Let's go get Vicky."

"Let's," I agreed. "You sure you don't want a jacket?"

"And cover my costume? Are you crazy?" my little sister said as she headed out the door, but I noticed she had a large empty pillow case in hand.

I left a large bowl of candy on the porch and made sure the door was locked and the keys in my pocket.

The Sang family lived a block away. It didn't take us long to walk there. I took my bag of makeup just in case Victory wanted me to do her makeup too. The Autumn air was chill. The leaves were a mix of reds, oranges and yellows. Little children and their parents lined the sidewalks as they went from house to house.

My breath hitched for one brief moment when Hunter opened the door instead of Victory. I didn't think he would be home, but where else would he be. He definitely wouldn't be at the party. Hunter didn't associate with others. Not anymore. It seemed to be a family tradition - once they hit 13 they cut off all ties with their friends and just decided to be alone. It happened with Grace. She stopped hanging out with my brother and their friends when they turned 13. It happened with Hunter when we turned 13. He barely said anything to me or anyone at school anymore. I really hoped Victory didn't follow that tradition because it hurt to lose a friend and Mackenzie would cry for days. I had.

"Hi," I said.

He looked at me with his dark brown eyes, but didn't return my greeting.

"Is Vicky here?" Mackenzie asked easily. She wasn't as wary of Hunter as I was, but why would she be? She hadn't been his friend that he suddenly cut all contact with.