I pulled the red stiletto onto my foot, brushed off the toe then looked at it and smiled. "Dana?"
"Yes?" A tall slender girl walked into my bedroom with a sleek black dress that dragged behind her elegantly, her long, straight dark blonde hair was straightened beyond perfection. Her legs carried her over to my bed where I was sitting and smiled. "I'm glad you went with the red, it'll look beautiful with your white dress."
I smiled over at her and shook my head, letting a few curls fall into my oval face. "I hope so, I was so rushed yesterday I didn't get a chance to go shoe shopping. So I have no choice." I sighed and stood up to look at my reflection in my floor length mirror. My hair was pinned loosely at the back of my head in a curly, messy bun with strands lining my face; my makeup was light and sparkly. But my favorite piece was the white beautiful ball gown I wore. It looked like a princess dress right out of a fairytale; my mother surprised me with it for my senior prom, that was tonight. Dana stepped up next to me and smiled. We were cousins, but we felt more like sisters to each other. She was 17 and I had just turned 18 the week before; she stands a whole head taller than me at 5'7 and me at 5'5. Her hair went to her butt while mine went to the middle of my back, mine was a lighter brown; Dana's eyes were crystal blue grey, mine were blue, green and gold. Yes, gold. People always freak out when they see my eyes, they tend to change colors with my mood; my dad says I'm a freak, but I think it's just a genetic anomaly.
"You ready?" She smiled again.
"Absolutely!"
"You girls look stunning!" My mother and aunt cried as they took hundreds of probably blurry photos.
"Thanks! We have to go though if we're gonna make it to Union Station on time."
"Okay be safe! Call us when you get there and when you're heading home!" We closed the doors of my blazer on my mom's words. I knew what she was saying, it was the same thing she always said when Dana and I went anywhere.
It was already dark at 8, we had gone to dinner at a local French restaurant, and Union Station was only a couple minutes drive. "So are we staying all night or skipping out early?" Dana winked.
"Well, I want to stay for a while at least, but we'll decide once we're in there." I pulled my car into a parking spot and we walked into the beautiful building.
"Woahhhh." She exclaimed at the sight of the intricate moldings.
"You look like a tourist, stop," I laughed. "You've lived in Kansas your whole life and never been here?"
"No!" She shouted walking into the ballroom to hand her ticket to a lady.
"Weirdo." I smirked at her as she stuck her tongue out. We walked into the dance and smiled at some friends before our creepy principal walked over and put his hand on our shoulders.
"Girls you look lovely! Save me a dance!" He gave our shoulders a squeeze then went back to checking people's tickets.
"Ewww!" We said together and practically ran into the dance. It had been about two hours when Dana and I decided we needed a breather, so we walked out to the benches that lined the walls in the ticket area. We were far enough away to freely talk about people, but close enough to feel the warmth of bodies and hear the loud music.
"Oh look at Tammy's dress! It's so pretty!" Dana pointed.
"Well when your parents crap money, I guess you can buy million dollar dresses." I grimaced but Dana burst out laughing.
"Hopefully Principal Kramer doesn't make good on his 'save me a dance' quip." Dana shuddered after changing her voice to sound like him.
I laughed hard this time. "Since when does Kramer sound like Sean Connery?!"
We giggled until Dana pointed again to Kramer and a group of ten to fifteen boys. "Uh oh, his stern voice."
"I'm sorry boys; if you don't have a ticket then you can't get in the dance. But you can buy some at that table over there." Kramer pointed over the man's shoulder to the table sitting in the corner. We sat too far away to see what they looked like but I could definitely tell that they were all attractive looking, especially how every girl walking by turned to gawk, even the ones hanging on their boyfriend's arms.
"I'm not going to be here that long." The young man brushed past Kramer and began walking before Kramer reached back and grabbed his arm.
"No sonny."
With one fluid movement, the young man turned over his shoulder, placed both hands on Principal Kramer's head and snapped his head off his shoulders with a jerk of his arms. "Let's go. Find all the women you think are worth it, kill the rest." They all stepped over the dead body and walked into the dance.
Dana and I stifled our screams and hid behind the bench until we heard screams coming from the dance area. "Oh my god!" Dana cried.
I grabbed her hand and ran to the entrance. "RUN!" She pulled her hand out of mine as we passed Kramer and she vomited onto the floor. I turned on my heel and almost slipped on the marbled floors, "Dana, let's g–" My breathing hitched in my throat as I looked down the long space to the dance entrance and locked eyes with the murderer. He cocked his head to the left and I saw a small smile spread across his lips, his face dark. "Dana . . ." I barely heard myself whisper above the music and the screams. ". . . Run!" I grabbed her hand and whipped us out the ballroom doors onto the pavement. We began running as fast as we could to my car when I saw someone step into our path. I screamed, stopping. Dana slipped and fell to her hands and knees. "Get up!" I cried as I tried to lift her with one arm while watching the man walk towards us.
She struggled to her feet then we turned to run but another man blocked our path. "Shit!" Dana screamed.
A sharp stick in my arm made me gasp. A man grabbed my shoulders and pulled my body back into his. "Dana, run." I muttered too late. Dana had a syringe sticking out of her arm and had fallen into the guy in front of us. I fought to stay awake, to be strong for her, but the darkness came. And I couldn't stop it.