Chapter 3
Serena stood in Vanessa's bathroom. She was wearing a pair of funked out capri's hemmed with purple feathers and a silky silver halter top. Catty had painted temporary tattoo's that matched the real one she had done on Jimena on her arm. She liked the look but she wasn't in the mood for Planet Bang tonight. She'd rather be at home taking a long hot bath and sorting out her problems.
She walked out and into the spare bedroom that Vanessa's mom used to store the costumes she made for the movies.
"What do you think?" She asked, faking some enthusiasm and twirling around.
"Hmmmm…it's missing something." Catty said, looking at her thoughtfully.
"What?" Serena asked.
"We have to do something with your hair." Catty decided.
Soon Serena's hair was held back by several silver crystal clips. She liked the look but it wasn't enough to get her excited about going to Planet Bang. She was tired of doing the same old thing every Tuesday and Friday. She wanted to do something more. A part of her wanted to go over to the Dungeon to see if she could find Stanton, but she had no way of getting over there without her friends suspecting something.
Vanessa entered the room, breaking her from her thoughts. She wore blue camouflage cargo pants and a white tank top that showed of her bellybutton, where she had pasted a blue gem. Blue body glittered covered her arms and chest. Catty had painted several temporary tattoo's on her arm. Her long blond hair hung in curls around her shoulders. She was singing with Micheal's band tonight and wanted to look the part. Serena secretly envied Vanessa's singing, but even more so, she envied the fact that Micheal and Vanessa could see each other as often as they wanted.
"You look awesome, you're definitely going to knock them dead tonight." Serena said, with forced cheerfulness. Why couldn't she just enjoy the night for once? Why did everything have to get so complicated?
"Thanks, Micheal and I have been working on a few new songs. Thanks for lending me some of your poetry to read over, it really helped me come up with some great song ideas." Vanessa said. Serena felt her stomach drop. She had forgotten that she had let Vanessa her poetry books. How many songs had Vanessa written that involved her poetry? And would she be able to listen to Vanessa sing without constantly thinking about Stanton?
"Vamos! Let's go!" Jimena cried, raising a fist in the air in excitement and exposing her gang tattoo's on her stomach that the gold halter-top hid.
Jimena's brother was in town and had lent her the car for the night. Serena remembered when she had first met Jimena. Her problems seemed so simple back before Stanton came into her life. She never had to worry about his safety back then, and she never considered turning to the Atrox just so she could be with him. Tears burned her eyes at the memory of the night they had pledged to give up everything for each other. Serena knew that if she turned to the Atrox then power would shift in favor of the dark, and she couldn't let that happen. It was the only thing keeping it from happening.
She knew something was wrong. She knew that Stanton was in danger, she could feel it. But she didn't know what it was, or who was causing it, so she had no way of trying to stop it. She had her theories, but none of them made any sense.
It wasn't long before they reached Planet Bang. Tianna was already there holding their place in line. She had spent the afternoon at the Ramp with Derek. She waved excitedly to them, jumping up and down.
"Guess what?" She said breathlessly, her excitement seemed to shimmer in the air around her. It was almost infectious. Almost. "When I went home to change, Mary gave a message, cheer squad is going to sectionals, and the coach asked me to come up with a new routine just for the competition! It's going to be so awesome!"
Serena pretended to be happy for Tianna. She was, but she couldn't shake her mood. She knew how much Tianna loved doing dangerous things, and she couldn't wait to see the routines she came up with, but she had more present problems to deal with. She wondered if she could sneak over to the Dungeon later.
Jimena touched her arm gently shaking her from her thoughts. "The lines moving, chica, you're minds a million miles away!" She said with a laugh.
Serena laughed too, but it seemed more forced than natural. "I guess so."
"Try to relax and have fun tonight. We'll find Stanton in the morning." Jimena said, wrapping her arm around Serena's shoulders.
The atmosphere inside made it difficult to be in a bad mood. It wasn't long before she was dancing with Jimena trying to turn some of the guys heads.
"Getting anything?" Jimena asked, a devious grin spreading across her face.
"Why do you care, you've got Collin." Serena teased, going through the guys minds, an equally devious grin on her face. Suddenly she came across something and stopped, her head turning this way and that searching for a familiar face.
"What is it?" Jimena asked, looking at her with a concerned expression on her face.
"Stanton's here." Serena said softly.
"Are you sure?" Jimena said in surprise.
"I'm positive." She said, and began to push through the crowd making her way back to the shadows in the corner of the room. Jimena grabbed her arm.
"Be careful." She said, Serena nodded, to distracted to notice the odd expression come over Jimena's face that was associated with a premonition.
Serena pushed through the crowd. She caught sight of Stanton and several emotions ran through her at once. Anger at both him and Jerome, happiness, excitement, and a few other. But one the one that surprised her enough to make her stop wasn't anything like that. Rising over all of that was dread.
Stanton caught sight of her and dissolved into a shadow. Before Serena could reach where he had stood he was long gone. Tears once more filled her eyes. She blinked them back, coming to a decision. She was sick of sitting around here crying. She had to do something. She had to find him and straighten this out for herself. She was going over to the Dungeon, and she didn't care what her friends said.