April 27th 2020

Chapter 118
Their Transformation Into Selves

It was very likely that her middle of the party adjustment to her costume would get in the way of one or two things relating to the anniversary. Still, by the time Lucas had helped her become – as he had dubbed her – Alice in Nightmareland, Maya was too pleased with the result to mind. If it had not been for the items she had borrowed from the theater, as a sort of rescue box for anyone missing some accessory or another in their costume, she might not have done so well, going from the innocent looking and bright colored girl to what could only be described as her dark reflection.

"I don't know if I should be concerned that this look is working for me," Lucas whispered as they stood at the top of the stairs, trying to figure out how to get her back down there. The goal was for no one to see her coming, the better to spook them, wasn't it?

"I think maybe the fact that it's me under there might be tipping your judgment a bit, no?" Maya grinned back at him.

"Might be some of that, true," he admitted, smiling back at her. "I'll go down there, see if I can get everyone looking away from the stairs, then you can sneak down and hide." She presented her fist in agreement, and he bumped it.

"Hey," she stopped him before he could go. "You did amazing tonight," she told him. He smiled again, leaning in to kiss her now before standing up again and pretending like all was normal as he went down the stairs. Maya stayed to her shadows, waiting for her moment.

From where she stood, she had a great view of the party as a whole, the people dancing, the ones standing or sitting around and talking… Lately it seemed as though she was turning into something of a mama hen, with all her chicks spinning and bumping into one another. She had Sam, and his girl trouble… girls trouble… and then Missy with her zombie awakening as she followed her own feelings for another… They were all of them important to her, in one way or another, and tonight felt as though it had the potential to make or break them all.

Downstairs, Lucas was attempting to find a way to get his fiancée clear passage to do her thing, and he could think of maybe one way or two, but neither one felt as though they'd grant success so much as chaos. And then, if that wasn't enough, his eyes had happened upon someone looking as though she needed peace more than a scare.

Lucas: I might need a couple minutes.

Maya: I saw her, too. Go, I'll figure it out.

"Hey, I thought you'd changed your mind about coming," Lucas approached Maeve, where she sat on the couch with a cup of pretzel sticks, munching one and then another. Her costume looked only halfway complete, as though she'd given up in the middle of the effort and then came to the party anyway. For knowing how hard she went on the decorations at the store, it was mildly troubling.

"Almost didn't," Maeve told him. "Only got here a few minutes ago." Lucas went and sat next to her. She offered her cup and he took a stick with a thankful nod.

"What's up?"

"I told my parents, about the baby," she revealed. From the look of her, he couldn't imagine it had gone so well. "It's not like I could hide it from them forever, we are going to see a lot of each other in the next six months or whatever…"

"Yeah…"

"I really wanted to keep them from getting excited, since I'm not keeping it, but then I got tripped up in what I was trying to say, and they figured it out. You should have seen them. They were so happy…" Lucas had met Maeve's father, once, when he'd dropped by the store and stopped to say hello to his daughter, and if her mother was anything like him, then yeah, he could see exactly how they would react to the idea that they were going to be grandparents.

"What'd you tell them?"

"I…" Maeve sighed. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't take it away from them. I just said not to tell anyone else, not yet. I went back home after that, to get ready to come here, and I… I don't know, my head was kind of all over the place. I wrote to him, asked if we could meet up sometime this week." 'Him,' her baby's father… She could barely bring him up like he was a person, much more than 'the guy who knocked her up.' "I sat there for a while, waiting, that's why I'm late. He hasn't replied yet, don't know if he will, but then I couldn't sit at home and wait anymore, so I got changed and I came. I forgot my costume at the store, so I had to improvise. Doesn't match my picture anymore." Lucas took in her half-hearted costume.

"Well, you're here now, Katniss… Want to dance?" It was all he could do for his co-worker and friend, to make her happy to have come here tonight, and it looked like maybe he was on his way to that.

Meanwhile, Nightmare Alice had snuck her way down successfully, thanks to a very controlled descent along the stairs, hidden behind the decorations draped from the banister. For once, she was glad for her stature, allowing her to make herself small. She got to the bottom and then darted to hide in the closet between the basement stairs and the kitchen. Now, she was in business, and the temptation to give a bit of a mischievous cackle was so strong… It was time.

She had her heart set on Riley as her first target. It couldn't be helped, could it? Her oldest friend just… spooked easily… so easily… Then again, as soon as she got out there and made her screech in frightened surprise, everyone would likely be up on her tricks, and she'd be good for no better than a few well-placed jump scares. If that was the case though… yeah, definitely Riley. She was dancing with Dylan, at the heart of the 'dance floor,' so Maya would have to weave her way through. She managed to startle a few people as she went, which only fuelled her to go forward. She also had to duck out of the way whenever she could see Riley was hearing people's reactions and clearly wondered what was going on. This only left her looking tense and on edge, which worked in Nightmare Alice's favor.

What happened next, she would only find out later, had come courtesy of Lucas and Maeve. She had spotted Maya as she made her approach, and so Lucas had told her what that was about, and then in a return of peak Maeve, she had suggested they do something to really maximize the effect. They had just barely managed it, but Lucas had made it to the power box, and at Maeve's signal, he'd cut the power. It had made everyone react, as it would, but then the power came back a moment later, and so did the lights, and a heartbeat later, several screams of surprise. In the two seconds where they had been pitched in darkness, Maya had stood to her height, bringing her to stand before the dancing pair where she had not been a moment ago. The sudden apparition made both Riley and Dylan jump out of their skins, and anyone else who happened to be looking in the direction of Nightmare Alice. To Maya's credit then, she had turned up the performance, quick on her feet as she ever was.

Lucas hadn't been in position to see it all unfold, but he heard the screams and grinned before coming back up from the basement. Maeve had had the presence of mind to film the whole thing, and she showed him the video of his beloved wife to be, prowling as their guests eventually realized who she was and relaxed.

"That was so good!" Maya laughed as she scurried toward them. Maeve showed her the video, too, and Maya demanded nothing more than to have it sent over for posterity.

Eventually, as any party had to, things started to wind down, and guests started to leave. Maya volunteered herself to drive Cecilia and Kai home, after the Cassidy siblings had gone on their way, driven by Junior. It was the first proper conversation she'd had with Kai Avelino, though she had seen him, hung out with him and his siblings years ago. He remembered her, too, as being on his sister's team as much as being someone who'd be there to play with them. Maya asked after the twins, though she was still in contact with both of them and could not wait to tell them about this night. She did not pry as to how his evening with Missy had gone, though his whole cheery demeanor said plenty.

After he was dropped off, it was just Maya and Cecilia, and after a minute and then another of silence, it was hard not to go and think about how this would come off to his brother's girlfriend… if she was still his girlfriend… She hadn't seen anything to suggest a breakup, but then there was this silence between them, which was generally not the case, so what was causing it?

But then Cecilia's phone gave a chirp, and she pulled it out to see the message, and Maya caught a quick glimpse of her new lock screen photo, a selfie of herself and Sam. His knight helmet was perched on top of her head, while her fairy crown was on his, and they were looking to one another, and they were smiling. The message looked short, but whatever it was, it left the girl at her side with a new smile on her face.

"Sam?" Maya guessed, and Cecilia looked over at her, turning the phone over on reflex.

"Yeah," Cecilia replied, still smiling. Maya couldn't keep from looking relieved at this, and Cecilia saw it. "We're okay," she nodded.

"That's good," Maya nodded back, hesitating briefly before asking what had convinced her to keep going rather than back away. Cecilia's eyes went into a thinking place, and Maya was about to apologize and say she didn't have to reply, but then Cecilia spoke first.

"I thought about all of it, about Sam, and Sam and me, and Dora… She likes him, too, I know she does, but that's not… I thought about Sam, so much, and…" She paused, that small smile creeping over her face once again as she looked to her phone, turned over in her lap. "He's got this stupid big heart, and he loves, and he loves, and he loves, and asking him to be any other way would be asking him not to be as good as he is… And he's really good…"

"Yeah, he is, isn't he?" Maya was smiling now, too, sort of touched by the girl's words, because they were so very true.

"So, if I know that, and I do, then… I can believe that he feels what he feels, for me, for her, and trust that he means what he says when he tells me he knows where he belongs, and he won't… We're good, basically. All of us."

After she'd dropped Cecilia off, and after driving back to the house to find Lucas and Sam in the midst of cleaning up, Maya had gone right along to her little brother, changed out of his armor for ease of movement, and she hugged him tight, kissing his cheek a couple times despite his half-hearted pleas for her to stop. His mood was so much lighter now, that even without Cecilia's words she would have had no doubt the two of them had mended… Halloween was over now, and it was on to the next step…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners