Welcome to "A Midnight Masquerade", my first main story to share that isn't a fanfic. I started writing this story in high school (my sophomore or junior year) and recently decided to dust it off and continue it.

You'll be seeing brand-new characters, storylines, dynamics, and themes. This book will be an interesting adventure, especially since I haven't decided if it's going to be a series or not. As of right now, it's a stand-alone story, but that may change. It honestly depends on how you guys respond to the story and how I feel as we go forward.

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Now, we're going to go over my rules–they apply everywhere on my page–and though most of you are familiar with them, I ask that you read through them just like everyone else. I've added a few new ones just to cover my bases.

Rules & Reminders

~ No profanity, other derogatory language, drama, or bullying/self-deprecating of any kind will be tolerated.

~ No chapter-skipping, chapter-skimming, or spam-voting is tolerated or appreciated. Spam-voting is when you vote on multiple chapters of any of my books in a row with little to no comments in between.

~ If you decide at any point that this book isn't for you, just stop reading it. Don't try to ruin the reading experience for anyone or the writing experience for me just because it isn't your cup of tea.

~ The characters, dynamics, storylines, and other ideas in this book belong to me. You are not allowed to use any of them for any reason unless I explicitly give you permission.

~ Sincere support–votes, comments, adding to reading lists, messages on my board, etc.–is always appreciated, as long as it's honest, sweet, and respectful.

~ Comments, in particular, are amazing to see; they give me more input on what you guys enjoy, are confused by, and want more of. I love reading & replying to them; they are a highlight of my day whenever I get them.

~ I tend to write fairly long chapters, and you are never obligated to try to read a full chapter, let alone more than one, in one sitting. If you ever need to mark your spot, you can leave a bookmark comment (ex- "Bookmarking here, coming back later!💖", "Can't wait to continue!🌷", etc.) and come back when you have the time to sit down and read.

~ If you break a rule, I'll give you a warning; if you ignore it, give a disrespectful response to it, and/or keep breaking my rules, I will remove you from my page.

~ I have a life offline, as well as several other books that I'm working on, so chapter updates won't always be consistent. Every bit of support, respect, and patience is appreciated as we go forward with this book & my other writing adventures.

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Disclaimers

All of the characters in this book are my OCs (original characters); they mean as much to me as the OCs most of you already know: Kenzie Mercer, Maddie Lupin, Elodie Grace, and all the rest. I hope you'll treat these new arrivals with the same love & respect you give me.

Whenever I pull inspiration from and/or reference specific things–movies, shows, books, etc.–I will say so in one of my author's notes for the given chapter. If any of you ever give me ideas, suggestions, or anything else like that, I will properly credit you for it.

As with my other main stories, this book will have heavy themes–grief, betrayal, PTSD, death, tense situations, etc.–and I want you to know that I never take them lightly. I write them respectfully and do my research carefully.

I always put content/trigger warnings in the given chapter's beginning author's notes when necessary. If you have any suggestions for potential content/trigger warnings to add, let me know in the comments and I'll take them into consideration.

None of my books have explicit adult content or severe profanity; this one is no exception. There will be fight sequences, mild language, and other things you'd likely see in a PG-13 movie, but nothing more, because I'm not comfortable with more than that, and I know some of you aren't either.

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Thank you for reading this; I know it can be tedious sometimes, but it is important and lays groundwork for what will hopefully be an amazing adventure for all of us. I won't hold you up any longer; it's time to check out the soundtrack, meet some new faces, and all of that sweet jazz.

~Love, Sunset