Midnight part 1

I went to a Halloween party held by one of Vivian's associates. I debated about going, but I decided to anyway.

Vivian dressed as a raver butterfly, Florence was Iron Man, Naomi was a hippie and Rebecca was Albert Einstein.  As for me, I went as Odette from Swan Lake. We were gorgeous, all five of us, and when we pulled up in our respective cars at four in the afternoon we took the opportunity to take as many pictures as possible.

Mike (that was his name) opened the door and let us in. He was dressed as a stereotypical Frenchman, cigarette and all. He did a pretty good accent and made us laugh. Soon more people arrived in their marvelous costumes, some homemade, some store bought, but all in good fun. Our host did a head-count and breathed a sight of relief when all twenty-two of his guests had come to his house safely. Now the party could truly begin.

The table was lined with all sorts of snack foods and candies as well as pizza and Taco Bell. Spooky themed drinks were made, much to everyone's delight. I sipped a bit of the Witch's Brew and mingled with the guests. Florence, possibly channeling her character, had started to drink another cup of Laudanum (thankfully not the one with opium) and she went on about how she could beat everyone in any video game ever.

I grabbed a plate and piled it with foodstuffs, heartily eating it while being careful to not drop it on my costume. It was when I reached over to grab another handful of black and orange napkins that I looked up.

In the mirror just across from the food table I saw a woman in a black ballerina outfit picking at raw, bloody meat. She stared me with her golden-red eyes, never once breaking contact. Wreathed around her body like a chic accessory was the corpse of a black swan, its feathers glimmering with white dust.

You would think it was my reflection. But it wasn't--the shape of the face, the eyes, the snarl. None of that was me. My throat became bone dry and I felt my breathing slow to a crawl. I closed my eyes tightly and then opened them; she was gone.

I turned away and sat myself down to watch a few people play round after round of Smash Brothers. I made the fatal mistake of looking down, and from the glass of the table the woman appeared again and bared her fangs. When she opened her mouth to speak I was the only one to hear her.

Leave before midnight or everyone dies.

I looked around and saw nothing but joy. No one knew about my hallucination (or was it?) and were oblivious of their doom.

In that instant I felt panic, anger, sadness and a desire to get the hell away from this place. I looked at the clock; it was 6:03 at night. I needed to go. Now.

Keys in my hand I made a rush for the door, only to find that it had been locket so tightly I couldn't open it. I asked a partygoer to help me, but she too had problems. I went to the back door, where I encountered the same problem. Every door and window leading outside might as well have been welded shut. I was trapped there.