"I can barely see shit through this. Are you sure you bought the right size?" Zara glared at Orion from behind her Batgirl mask, but he was too busy patting his pockets for his lighter to pay her any heed. He stopped to push his Spiderman mask up onto his forehead then continued his search.

The taxi caught a bump in the road, jostling its passengers in their seats. Zara's mask inched down her face, and with a huff, she pushed it back up. Her eyelashes scraped against its interior every time she blinked, and her vision was limited to two rectangular slits.

Stupid mask, taking the meaning of 'Batgirl' freakin' literally.

The pair had opted for a twenty-dollar ride rather than a thirty-minute walk; they'd be up all night drinking and dancing, so they couldn't waste any energy on unnecessary physical activity. It was just the two of them tonight, as unfortunately, the others weren't able to go; Saffron had to take his sisters trick-or-treating whilst Aurora had other plans, which Zara couldn't remember. It would've been nice for the gang to do something normal on a Friday night for once—especially since Orion had managed to score invites for all four of them—but nothing ever went normally for the abnormal. Zara was supposed to start getting used to that.

"It's one-size-fits-all, maybe your eyes are just too big." He found what he was looking for and lit up his cigarette. It was his first for the night and definitely not his last—Orion eyed the driver, who didn't seem to mind. The man had probably experienced much worse than a teenager smoking in his ride.

"Or...maybe it's only good for slanted Asian eyes," Zara countered.

Orion took a lengthy drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke in Zara's face. Enveloped in carcinogenic fumes, she immediately turned towards her window and rolled it down, coughing and gasping for fresh air. It took way too long for the smell to disperse, and when it did, her eyes had already begun watering.

"Happy Halloween, bitch," he said with a smirk, and the rest of the ride was spent in silence.

Once they arrived at the party, 'Happy Halloween' became a mantra. Almost every drunken teenager she bumped into tossed the phrase at her; it soon went from being enjoyable to downright irritable. Zara gradually levelled down from responding, to merely smiling, and finally ignoring them all together. 

She wasn't there to talk to anyone, just to get drunk with Orion and, even if only for one night, forget about the fact that her life would end in little over a week. It was a good thing she asked Maximilian whether he would be showing up or not; it was better to know that he wouldn't rather than spend the time with the doubt clawing at her mind.

Whoever organised the party had gone all out: the venue was huge, the decorations aplenty, and the music chosen alternated between Hip Hop and Dubstep. It wasn't long before Zara realised that her and Orion's costumes were by far the least imaginative of them all—after showing their fliers to the bouncer and paying the fare, it was as if they'd entered a different dimension, inhabited by monsters, superheroes, and every fantastical creature in between.

In comparison, their black outfits and five dollar plastic masks were pitiable. Regardless, the energy in the place was too powerful for Zara to resist; she soon found herself dancing and singing along to her favourite songs, one arm looped around Orion's and the other waving wildly in the air. Only once they were both settled in did Orion start snogging girls in skimpy costumes; to his credit, he got in-between three douchebags hitting on Zara, so for once, she let him off the hook. She was in a giddy mood and didn't want to spoil it by nagging her friend about STDs.

"I'm gonna go get something to drink," she informed him, instead, and after receiving a nod of understanding, she began weaving her way through the crowd of sweaty bodies and towards the food tables. She hadn't had a sip of alcohol since her arrival and it was about time she got a little tipsy.

Most of the food was gone, but there was still plenty of booze to go around. Zara grabbed the first beer can in sight, cracked it open, and downed it. It tasted foul, so to relieve herself of it, she downed a second one—the bubbles numbed her tongue and tickled her throat, but only once she finished a third one did the alcohol start taking effect on her erratic mind. 

Her head spun and an itch had developed on her forehead from the perspiration underneath the plastic mask. As she scratched it, she leaned over the table to scoop up a handful of what looked like animal crackers and shoved almost the entirety into her mouth. Crumbs trickled down onto her sweatshirt; Zara looked like a slob, that she knew without having to be sober, but it didn't seem like anyone cared. The people who hung around the food tables, drinking the night away, were the ones that didn't want to be the only losers that didn't go out on a Friday night. 

I'm not...like them, though. I'm...taking a break and numbing those stupid voices. Then I'll go back to Orion and keep dancing!

"Jokes on you, you can't bother me when I'm drunk!" A burp escaped her lips, making Zara sway on her feet. She covered it with both hands and giggled. "Sorry!"

A girl dressed as a witch paused with her cup halfway through a bowl of popcorn to give her a strange look. "What? A girl can't burp now?" Zara said in a loud voice, slurring her words and throwing a hand in the air. The girl completed her task and hurried away, leaving Zara to shake her head and reach into the popcorn bowl. Her throat felt parched, so she after chomping down, she went to retrieve her fourth can of beer when something else caught her eye instead.

It was a ziplock bag with Halloween candy.

Barely containing her excitement, she stuck a hand inside and helped herself to a few pieces. She hoped that she'd scored something good, like Skittles, or M&Ms, or if she was really lucky, strawberry taffy. As she flicked one into her mouth, she closed the bag and tossed it back onto the table; it was enough to satisfy her for one night.

Her mouth suddenly tasted bitter and her first reaction was to spit it out along with a curse word. "What kind of fucking candy is this?" She grumbled to herself, testing another. This one was just as disgusting as the first, maybe even worse. It also ended up in a ball of spit on the floor. In a mood as bitter as her mouth, she turned back towards the food tables to look for a trashcan; at the spot she had vacated now stood a group of guys, all rummaging through the bag of defective candy with grins on their faces. She recognised two of them as being Jeremy and Sebastian, douchebags that shared classes with her and were friends with Maximillian.

Just walk away. Don't engage.

She had no idea whether they knew about her predicament or not, and she didn't want to find out. Part of her, though, worried about them. Zara had almost vomited just from two pieces. Knowing guys, they'd chow down on enough expired candy to get themselves a trip to the hospital.

They wouldn't recognise me with the Batgirl mask on, right? Her brows furrowed at the unwanted thought. Seriously, I need to mind my own business. Zara started walking away again, but the moral dilemma was there; it was like when she had to serve a rude customer at work. As much as she wanted to piss in their food before handing it to them, it wasn't right.

It's not the same thing, though, what kind of fucking comparison am I making?

Before she knew it, Zara marched up to the group with her chin up and her shoulders back. "You guys shouldn't eat those—I tried them, and they're disgusting," she said, pointing at the bag. Instead of the confidence Zara thought she exuded, it felt more like she was projecting gawkiness. One of them turned to her with a confused expression, and when he caught her starting intently, he elbowed one of his companions, causing a domino effect on the others. 

Now, she had five guys scowling at her instead of one, all silently demanding an explanation for the disturbance. The music thumped in the background, disregarding the silence that extended between the six of them; Zara's heart pounded twice as fast in her chest, aching to break open her ribcage and escape.  

She bit the inside of her cheek and repeated her statement. Six heartbeats passed before the group broke into bemused chuckles. Zara's expression remained impassive; she failed to see what was funny.

"Are you stupid, or are you just fucking with us?" One of them asked. She wasn't sure who—Zara had internally crawled into a hole somewhere during their mockery and had yet to crawl back out and face the humiliation. 

Is this some kind of trick question? 

"This isn't candy. It's candy." Sebastian lifted and lowered the bag to his side, for emphasis. 

Of course.

It dawned on her. 

Zara slowly brought her trembling fist up to her face and opened it. She quickly scanned what rested on her palm; a myriad of crushed pills, in varying shapes and sizes—intermixed with skittles—stared back at her. One caught her eye. It was small, circular, and azure in colour, but those features weren't what made it stand out. It was the tiny butterfly carved in its centre, its wings spread open, ready to take its consumer on an epic journey on the fringes of reality. 

Her stomach dropped. What she'd been looking for, non-stop for the past week, was right there, on the palm of her hand. Like with the greatest discoveries of mankind, it had been by accident. Never would she have expected to find it at a generic high school party, in a ziplock bag behind a stack of beer cans.

Does Max know about this? No, of course not. He would be here.

She lifted her head to look vacantly at the group, who'd already forgotten about her. They tilted their heads back simultaneously to wash down their pickings with drinks, then smacked each other on the back, lopsided grins on their faces. Little did they know, or care, about the danger of what they had just done. Zara may have been naive about the bag of Halloween candy, but she wasn't naive about this. Mixing drugs, some of which probably weren't even genuine, could be life-threatening, especially with alcohol as a catalyst.

It could just be another ecstasy pill, but I'm not going to throw this away. 

Once the group started wandering back towards the dance floor, Zara snatched a napkin from the table, tore a leaf off, and wrapped it around the blue pill. She tucked it away in her bra, where nobody would be able to get to it; if they tried, they'd quickly acquaint themselves with her dagger.

Unsteady on her feet, she stalked after the four musketeers before they could fully merge themselves with the crowd. Max would have to be informed of this new development, and because Zara had no way of contacting him, she'd have to steal the phone of somebody who could. That somebody was either Jeremy or Sebastian, and she knew just how to extract from them.

Zara squinted through the slits in her mask, keeping an eye on the most visible one of the group, Sebastian. Dressed in his baseball gear, which was stark white, he practically glowed underneath in the blacklight. He was easy to follow in spite of her intoxicated state, while Zara blended easily amongst the rest of the crowd. She danced her way around the partygoers, trying her best to ignore all the other outfits and accessories that glowed. If she allowed herself to get distracted even once, she'd lose him.

The group stopped somewhere in the middle of the mob, and Zara took it as her chance to strike. As she neared Sebastian, she followed the movement of his hips, torso, and legs; it was smooth and repetitive, reflective of the music, and it wasn't hard to copy him. Inches away from his back, the blend of Old Spice deodorant and sweat lingering in the pocket of air, she could see the outline of something in the back pocket of his pants.

Her lips curled upward at his ingenuity. Rule number one: never keep your belongings where someone like me can get to them. She wiggled her fingers and with the speed of an expert, extracted the object and slipped it up her sleeve. Zara could've kept on dancing if she wanted—the guy was too far gone to notice anything—but time was of the essence, so she drew back and disappeared.

She kept the phone hidden in case the screen lit up. As she worked her way through to the outer-ring, she ran a finger around its outline—a smartphone. There was a 50/50 chance that it had a passcode and if luck was on her side, it wouldn't. But Zara was never lucky, especially when things ran as smoothly as they currently.

Zara broke through the crowd and directed herself towards the entrance, passing the booth area, most of which were occupied by fornicating couples. It was hard to contain her disgust for people doing such an intimate thing in public, and many a time did Zara have to force down the bile that rose up in her throat. She nodded at the bouncer as she let herself out, and slowed her pace.

There's no way he's gonna find me.

Phone now in hand, she strutted past those who'd taken a smoke-break and ducked around the corner. Her heart still thrummed in her chest from the remainder of her adrenaline rush, but her breathing soon began to stabilise. She leaned her back against the wall and closed her eyes, almost considering to go back and ask someone for a cigarette. 

I won't need this shit anymore. Zara tore off her mask and flung it onto the street with an amused snort. She could already imagine Sebastian, drunk and high as a kite, scrambling around for his phone, which she know unlocked with the swipe of her thumb. As a safety measure, she placed it on airplane mode.

Maximilian's number wasn't easy to find, as everyone in Sebastian's contacts seemed to be under a pseudonym, so she had to scroll through the list twice to figure it out. His pseudonym appeared to be Wolf, beside which were his initials. Sebastian may have been a good baseball player, but he sure wasn't the brightest of the bunch.

She recorded Max's number in her phone, then proceeded to call him from Sebastian's. At one in the morning, he would most likely answer to someone he knew, rather than a stranger. Zara had to make the call twice before he picked up.

"What the fuck do you want, man, I was sleeping!"

Zara couldn't help but smile at hearing his anger. "Chill, this isn't Sebastian, it's Zara." She heard rustling on the other end, then a light switch flick on. "I know you're going to ask me how I got his phone."

"I...yeah. What?"

Zara snickered. "Sorry," she said, raking a hand through her hair, "Your—your reaction was funny. Couldn't help but laugh. Anyway,"—Zara folded her leg to rest her foot against the wall—"I got something that might interest you."

"And it couldn't wait until tomorrow?"

"Technically, today is tomorrow, and stealing his phone was the only way for me to contact you. But since you need your beauty sleep, I'll get straight to the point." She twisted a curl around her finger and followed a passing car with her gaze. "I found it."

Max remained silent, probably from the shock. He swallowed. "Where?"

"At the Halloween party. I don't know who organised it, but I found it in a ziplock bag on one of the food tables." Zara omitted the part where she almost drugged herself thinking the pills she had grabbed were candy.

He muttered something under his breath. "We need to meet as soon as possible."

Well, duh, that's why I called you.

"Sure." Zara nodded and looked down at her battered shoes.

"Is Sunday afternoon alright? Three o'clock. I'd do it tomorrow, but I'm busy."

"Yeah, that's fine." Over the phone, his voice was soothing. In person, it put her on edge.

"What, no excuses or anything?"

"Nope,"—she rolled her eyes— "Where and when?"

"Starbucks. The one not too far from school. You know it?"

Expensive.

"Sure. You're paying." I'm not forking out cash for something that tastes like toilet water.

"Only if what you got for me is the real deal. Now get some sleep. You deserve it."

"Thanks." She hung up.

The home screen appeared and Zara stared at it, unsure about how to feel. Against her breast was a pill that weighed not even an ounce, but the information that came with it weighed a ton. Dread gnawed at her insides, warning her that things had yet to be over. A storm brewed, and soon, Zara would get caught right in the middle of it. 

She switched off the phone and tossed it in a storm drain.

-:-