Forks Academy for Special Gifted Students

by StarStrellaStar

Twins Isabella and Christabel are not your ordinary, everyday girls. At least that's what the teachers of FASGS, a magical school, say. Now, the two contrasting girls have to deal with their new lives and an unexpected secret that awaits them in the dark.

12. Dramatic Changes

A/N: Hello my darling readers :D Sooo some of you might have noticed it that Fanfiction is currently not working the way it is supposed to. I don't know how long I'm already sitting on this new chapter hoping that this stupid Error type 2 will vanish -.- It never happened but I got so impatient, that I looked for a way to work around it aaaand... it worked as you can obviously see. So as a special treat, I made an extra long chapter. I mean reeeaaaally extra long. The longest chapter so far. I'm really proud of myself and I hope you are too.

So no more senseless talking anymore, just enjoy the chapter!

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Chris POV

"You guys look hot," I complimented my sister and Kate.

"So do you," Kate smiled at me while Bella stared at me with a small, almost amused, smile on her beautiful face.

"What?" I asked her in confusion.

"I never thought you'd look so good with blond hair. In fact, you look better than Barbie since your tan is real."

"Just a tiny glimpse? Alice, come on! We won't tell the others. It can be our little secret," I heard someone beg from the other side of the door. It sounded like Damon or Dean. Maybe it was both.

"No! Now get out or I'll look for other boys to be their dates. You and I both know that there are quite a few guys who would love to switch places with you," Alice replied strictly. I could picture her dainty form glaring at them in a menacing way. I rolled my eyes at the same time as Bella did and Rose let out a giggle.

A moment later, Alice came prancing back into the bathroom and pushed me back out. "If someone knocks, just open the door," she told me, then shut the door in my face. Hopefully this horror would be over soon.

Ten minutes later, there was yet another knock at the door. I practically ran to it in happiness of escaping Tanya's stories.

This time it was Dylan.

"Wow. You look...yeah," I told him when I saw what he wore. It wasn't a bad costume or anything. In fact, I found it kind of genius since I had been curious as to how a Zeus costume was supposed to look, but for some reason, I had been hoping that he would be bare-chested.

"Who is it?" I heard Alice's voice shout from the bathroom.

"Dylan," I called back. Then I noticed that he hadn't made a move to enter the room yet. He was just standing in the entrance with his mouth wide open, gaping like a fish. I stepped in front of him and looked at him closely through narrowed eyes, trying to find out what his problem was. His eyes instantly focused on mine, but when they did, his lips curved down in a slight frown. He moved closer to me, enabling me to inhale his delicious scent. The frown on his face eased. I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Contacts," he breathed, his voice sounding like the one word was some sort of explanation. He must have been talking about the bright blue contacts that Alice had forced into my eyes.

My mind suddenly drifted to the distance between us, or lack there of. I would just have to lean a little forward to press my lips to his. Dylan's thoughts must have been close to mine, because I saw his eyes constantly glance at my lips.

"Alice, when is it gonna be my turn?" I heard Tanya's annoying voice whine. I flinched at the sound of it, then sighed in frustration. That girl was seriously annoying. I focused back on Dylan and saw that he had closed his eyes.

I took a step back. "Alice, what am I supposed to do with him now?" I yelled in her direction. Somehow the words managed to sound suggestive in my mind, but it was probably just me.

"Give him the flash. It's on my dresser," Alice replied.

Suddenly anxious to get away from Dylan's presence, I quickly stumbled over to Alice's dresser, passing a rather pissed off-looking Tanya. I picked up the plastic lightning bolt that had a small rope on it so Dylan could sling it over his shoulder. I passed Tanya again, who now had earplugs in her ears and was bobbing her strawberry blond head to something that sounded like Ke$ha's Take It Off.

That didn't surprise me.

"Here you go," I told Dylan lazily as I handed him the lightning bolt, or the 'flash' as Alice referred to it as.

"Thanks," he said as he slung it over his shoulder.

And then he stood there again, looking at me deeply - intently.

"You really should stop staring at me like that," I commented. I thought it'd come out loudly, or at least at an average volume, but my voice was barely even a whisper.

He ignored me, continuing to penetrate me with his deep blue eyes. "You know, even when you're dressed to look completely like Barbie, you still manage to be beautiful," he said quietly.

"Um, thanks?" I replied, unsure of why it sounded like a question.

"But I like your real eye color better," he said, gazing into my eyes with a wistful expression on his face.

I let out a shaky breath. Whatever was wrong with me in that moment had to be fixed.

Just like earlier, Dylan was suddenly close enough for me to inhale his scent. This time, when he leaned even closer, I didn't dare to move away.

I knew it wouldn't end well, but I couldn't move. I was locked there in his eyes. My mind screamed at me to move but my body wouldn't listen.

"Are you scared of me?" Dylan asked me softly, lifting his hand to my face.

I frowned at that. Scared of him? How could I be?

My frown caused him to chuckle quietly. He delicately moved his fingers to my forehead and smoothed away the little pucker that always appeared on my forehead when I frowned. His hand stayed on my face as he began lightly stroking my cheek before sliding his hand down to my chin and lifting my face up slightly. His beautiful blue eyes were almost burning with something. I wasn't sure what it was. Longing, maybe.

"You know," he said again, "even when you frown, you're quite adorable," his delicious hot breath fanned across my face and my thoughts went momentarily blank.

I blinked, but before I could react anymore to his words, his lips were on mine. A second later, he pulled back a little. It was a sweet kiss, short and kind of romantic. But I wasn't a romance-type girl. He'd only drawn back the tiniest bit, probably to measure my reaction, so I swiftly knotted my fingers in his hair and pulled his lips back to mine. The moment our lips united again - this time in a more forceful manner - I had the strangest feeling running through me.

It was the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you drink alcohol, only warmer and fuzzier. The kind of relief you feel when you make it home after an extremely hard day at school, only more relieving. The tingling in your toes you get when you're excited, only tinglier and all over.

This was a toe curling, breath taking, heart stopping kind of kiss and it was amazing.

But so wrong. So so wrong.

Somewhere in a far, dark corner of my mind I could hear Angel Chris protesting. But the feel of Dylan's soft yet rough lips was just too consuming. He tasted like nothing I'd ever had the pleasure of tasting before. It wasn't just a sweet aroma, but also somehow luscious with the slightest edge of saltiness that made him taste exactly as he smelled.

But then a very new sensation hit me and it had nothing to do with the kiss.

I suddenly felt like I - or rather we - were being watched. But that wasn't the only thing. It was as if I had a completely new sense. My ears perked a little at the sound of footsteps approaching.

Instantly, I let go of Dylan and took a step back. I turned in the room but didn't see anyone.

"What's wrong?" he asked in concern.

I looked at him and saw some of my pink lipstick smudged on his lips. My ears twitched and the footsteps became a little louder, closer. I reached up and wiped the lipstick off of his lips. While I did that, he watched me through hooded eyes. I wiped the sides of my mouth and as I did that, something else hit me. The reason why I was trying to cover this up in the first place: it was wrong. I shouldn't have kissed Dylan back. I could have simply taken the opportunity as an excuse to slap him across that pretty face of his, yet here I was, trying to fix my make up.

The footsteps finally came to halt and I looked up and saw Edward standing behind Dylan. My eyes widened in shock before I decided to whip out my incredibly awesome acting skills.

"Well, I guess you're all set to go and punish humanity, Zeus," I said jokingly to Dylan and pushed him out the door.

He leaned back, making it more difficult for me to get him all the way out of the door. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" he asked lightly.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Edward's eyes widening. "Yes, I'm positive," I hissed.

Dylan chuckled and pecked my lips quickly before taking off.

"What the hell! You kissed Dylan?" Edward asked me with narrowed eyes.

"No, I didn't. He kissed me. Did you not just see that?" I argued, acting as if I had no clue what he was talking about.

Even though we're twins and Bella's a horrible liar, I'm actually rather good at lying. But for some reason, Edward just didnt want to believe me. He threw me a disbelieving look and I raised my eyebrows in response.

"Don't even try to deny it, Chris. Dylan didn't even try to hide it," Edward said, sending me a crooked smile. I knew from Bella's mind that she inwardly swoons every time she sees that smile, but all it did was annoy me.

And piss me off.

"Then why'd you even bother asking if you already knew?" I asked and scowled at him.

Edward shrugged lightly.

"And why are you reading his mind anyway? I thought you didn't always do that. Ugh, you're just like Jasper, invading everyone's privacy."

"Well, actually, I didn't read anyones mind. Dylan just had that goofy smile on his face when you pushed him out and I know what that means. You just verified what I wanted to know."

"You're such a-"

"Hey, it's not my fault you fell for it."

"Whatever," I retorted, glaring for a minute before turning back to the bathroom. "Alice, what does Edward need?"

Alice's little head poked out and she eyed Edward in his costume. It was the stereotypical vampire costume.

Well, maybe not that much, but still. It was just a pair of black pants with a white long sleeved shirt and a red velvet vest thing over top and a black cape that's red on the inside. It even had that ridiculous high collar thing.

"Put some makeup on him," she instructed, ignoring the outraged, shocked expression on Edward's face that clearly meant he was going to protest.

I smirked evilly and pulled him over to Alice's dresser to start my work right away.

"Um, why isn't Tanya in the bathroom?" he asked, looking at the back of her stupid curly head. She hadn't noticed anything since she was still listening to music. I could hear it from where I was standing and knew that it was Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus.

"Because Alice is still working on Bella," I answered as I started covering his face in pale white makeup.

He nodded absentmindedly. It was silent for a few moments while I continued painting his face before he spoke again. "You know, even though it's kind of wrong since you're both in relationships, I'm kind of glad that Dylan finally seems to be admitting his feelings for you."

I dropped the makeup tube, making a blob of the white goop squirt out. I would have laughed if not for my serious shock. "What?"

"Dylan has taken interest in you for quite a while , ever since you arrived, actually," Edward told me honestly as I picked up the tube. "He was just being too...narrow-minded to notice."

I looked at Edward with an expression full of disbelief. "Are you sure you're talking about Dylan and not yourself?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that you are crushing on my insanely beautiful, sweet, innocent twin, but you're being too stubborn to actually admit it just because she's a little younger than what you're usually into," I told him.

"What? No, I am not 'crushing' on her. I care about her, yes, but I only love her like a sister," he said with a shocked expression.

"Um, no. I love her like a sister," I said, emphasizing the 'I'. "You, my dear friend, love her in the dirty fantasy-having way." Seeing the slightly guilty expression on his face made me squeal a little. "Oh, no, you really do have dirty fantasies with Bella in them? Shame on you. She's too innocent to be playing a main character in your mental porns."

The tips of Edward's ears turned red and it faded down to his cheeks, making them have a slight pink tinge to them. I laughed at his blush before turning serious.

"What exactly are you waiting for? Just go for it," I encouraged. I detested playing matchmaker, but Edward was just so...oblivious, and Bella really deserved to get something she wanted for once. I owed her for all the things she's done for me.

"I can't," he sighed, running a hand over his face desperately. "I've never dated a girl like Bella before. She really is like you just said, insanely beautiful, sweet, and innocent. I don't know if I'm the right choice for her. I've only ever dated girls like Tanya, you know. The ones who aren't looking for any kind of commitment. I don't have to be overly considerate, and therefore I can't mess up. But Bella's not the same. I just...I don't know."

The pained expression on his face almost made me feel sorry for him.

Almost. After all, I was on Bella's side, not his.

"You know, Edward, Bella's not going to wait forever for you to get your shit together. You better make your move soon or you'll be replaced faster than you can say Chihuahua."

"Why would I say Chihuahua?"

"You just said it didn't you? And now imagine if Bella had thrown you out of her heart just before you finished saying it." I watched him closely while saying that to him, narrowing my eyes. He winced visibly. "It's a painful thought, isn't it?" I asked lightly, kind of enjoying the pain I caused him. Anything for Bella.

Edward nodded his head slightly and I smiled in satisfaction of finally getting through his thick skull.

Hallelujah!

Third POV

Master stood by the window once again watching the campus. Although the sky was already beginning to darken, the student body was still quite busy for tonight was the Halloween dance. Master knew that all of the students would be attending that dance.

He'd always found it rather ridiculous. Master didn't like preposterous holidays like Halloween.

Master's minions were all scattered around the room, each engaged in their own activities. Nightmare and Houdini were invisible in a corner, more than likely doing inappropriate things with one another. Blossom was perched on the floor with her legs crossed on a mat and her eyes closed as she meditated. She seemed to be nervous about her upcoming task.

Master smiled slightly. Blossom had chosen today's date to do what he'd asked of her. Then Master's smile faded as he realized that Shadow as not in the room. He was never really seen, but Master usually felt his presence. Now there was nothing.

Before Master could question people about his location, the shadows in the room flickered, letting the few people there know that Shadow had entered. The grey tinged man stepped forward, revealing himself to the others and leaving behind the shadows.

"Where have you been?" the voice of the Master rang out. At times like this when he was pleased, his voice sounded more melodic and soft, although it never lost it's dangerous edge when around his minions.

"Well, I wanted to double check before we started with our new plans," the wispy, barely-there voice of Shadow answered. "There is something you may want to know about Christabel Swan's relationships."

Nightmare and Houdini - both looking messy with their clothes twisted and buttons done up in the wrong places - turned visible and the latter took a step toward Shadow.

"I've already told him that Damon Boness is her boyfriend," Houdini sneered at Shadow.

"I only have things to add to that information," Shadow said calmly. Out of all of Master's minions, Shadow was the only one capable of keeping calm no matter what.

Houdini huffed but Master ignored him. "What do you have to say?"

"Well, if we're going through with this plan, we should target Dylan Cullen instead. I saw him and Christabel together a few moments ago."

Nightmare sighed in mock sadness. "So young and already so spoiled. Who knew teenagers had love affairs, too?" she said rhetorically.

"Does that mean we have to wait before we set the second plan in motion?" Blossom asked, joining the group and looking at Master with her big eyes.

"Why would we do that? Now that we know we have to change one target, I don't want to wait," Houdini complained.

"You will have to wait," Master said before turning to Shadow, "Isabella should be checked again as well in case we have the wrong target there, too. We must make sure we have the correct targets."

"I'm on my way," Shadow said, disappearing as he returned to the darkness of the shadows.

"Blossom, are you ready to accomplish your task?" Master asked her. She nodded as confidently as she could. "Well, then, what are you waiting for? Go now." She turned to leave but Master's voice stopped her. "Oh, and Blossom?" She looked at him. "Be fast." And with that, the woman scampered out of the room, her short blond hair swishing around.

Bella POV

"Just go," Alice urged, pushing us out of the door, "we'll catch up with you soon enough."

"But Alice-" I started, only to be cut off by her.

"Hush. Now go. We'll be there soon." And with that said, Alice slammed the door in our faces. It seems that she's done that a lot today, but I'd been hoping that she wouldn't continue. It was rude.

The only person at this point that was left to get ready was Tanya.

"Lets go, Bells. Alice and Tanya," she sneered the latter's name, "will be there," Rose told me, grasping my arm and dragging me along with her.

"She should have gotten to Tanya's outfit sooner," Kate said. From the corner of my eye, I saw Chris rolling her eyes, but at the same time, she had an evil smile playing on her lips. Somehow I thought that it had something to do with the new costume they made for Tanya. I hadn't seen it yet, but since Chris had been involved, I could be sure that Tanya wouldn't be happy about the outcome of her outfit.

"Lets go surprise our boys. We look sexy as hell," Rose shouted.

I looked at all of us. Rose was right, we did look sexy. I definitely didn't look like the Juliet that Shakespeare had been thinking of in my high-thigh length dress with sleeves that flare and go transparent at the elbows. The front sort of looked like a corset with silver ribbons doing it up and the rest of the dress was a beautiful dark royal blue.

Rosalie...well, Rose was the sluttiest Snow White I've ever seen. But she still managed to look so breathtakingly beautiful that it wasn't fair.

"What kind of Snow White are you anyway? Snow White is not a slut!" Chris exclaimed, laughing as she elbowed Rose lightly.

Rose laughed, "Sure she is. She lived with seven little men, remember? Don't you think she would have taken advantage of that situation?" she joked.

"Hmm, you might be onto something there," Chris mused.

"And what about our Juliet? I think back in the day it was scandalous to show skin on your ankle, let alone how much Bella's revealing," Kate commented.

"Well then, Bella is a really easy Juliet," Rose said.

"Hopefully not," Chris said before turning to me and looking at me strictly. "You will not kiss Dean today, understood?"

"Yes, Dad," I rolled my eyes. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Well, lets go. I can't wait to show Dylan my costume," Kate grinned excitedly.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Chris tense. How odd.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Rose cheered, hooking her arm through Chris' as Chris linked arms with me. I sighed and hooked my arm through Kate's.

The festival house was a rather far walk from the dorms. It was somewhere behind the elementary school, and while we walked there, I started to wonder about the size of the campus.

We weren't the only ones on our way to the Halloween dance, but we were definitely the only ones who received so much attention.

It looked like the majority of the girls were thinking along the same lines as Alice judging by their outfits. They must have thought that they could use this opportunity to dress up in something they thought was pretty, and for a lot of girls, slutty. But even I had to admit that we looked much better than them. Some of the others stuck to the traditional Halloween spirit and were dressed up as monsters, witches, goblins and ghouls.

I let out a deep sigh. I've never liked being the center of attention - in fact I much preferred being hidden behind a book - but with these costumes, there was no way that I could avoid it.

"I can see Dylan!" Kate squealed, bouncing up and down. Beside me, I heard Chris sigh.

Somehow I got the feeling that something had happened between Chris and Dylan, and that wasn't just because I felt a small wave of guilt coming from her. I could have easily picked it out of her mind, but that would just be an invasion of privacy. Instead, I concentrated on the boys who were standing in front of a very Halloween-spirited building. It had spider webs and smoke and everything that makes it very Halloweenish. I could even hear one of those machines with evil laughs coming out of it. The guys stood together in a group, laughing at something, and didn't even notice our approach. I eyed each of their costumes, and both Chris and I released snorts at the same time.

"Is that Damon with blond hair?" I asked in amusement.

"I think it is," Chris answered, laughing.

"That is even worse than Jasper with black hair," Rose commented.

"You know, the black hair doesn't look bad on him, it's just that it seems to be all over the place," Kate pointed out.

"You look better with black hair, Rose," Chris told her, letting out a giggle.

It seemed like Alice had purposely made us girls look better than our dates. Although, Emmett's prince costume really wasn't that bad. Actually, none of them were bad, we just looked better.

Now that we were in hearing range, and the guys still hadn't noticed us, Rose pulled us to a sudden halt and gestured for us to be quiet.

"Seriously, Edward, you're the only one here that doesn't have a hot date, and to make it worse, she'll be dressed up as Medusa. I feel sorry for you, man," we heard Emmett joke as Kate tensed on my side. Right, she and Tanya were friends. I sort of forgot about that.

"Shut up, Emmett," Rose told him, drawing the guys' attention to us.

The second their eyes fell on us, all of their jaws dropped. Chris and Rose laughed, while I started feeling uncomfortable in my insanely short dress.

"Um, where are Alice and Tanya?" Jasper asked. He was the only one who didn't seem to be drooling at the moment, though I could see that he was impressed with our outfits.

"She's still working on Tanya's costume," Chris answered with an evil edge in her voice. Whatever it was made Edward cringe.

"They won't be long, though," I continued, sending a warm smile to Jasper.

"Actually, we're here now," Alice's cheery voice rang out from behind me.

"Damn, you're fast," Chris said, shocked, and I nodded in agreement.

"I know, I'm a genius. And now, presenting, our wonderful Medusa," Alice announced, pulling Tanya from behind her and letting us all see Alice's masterpiece.

The silence that ensued was hilarious. In fact, the only reason we all kept our mouths shut was to prevent us from laughing.

Tanya looked at all of us with a meaningful expression.

"You look...great, Tanya," Chris managed to pull out before she snapped her mouth shut again. I could see that she wasn't capable of keeping quiet much longer, and she clearly noticed that as well. "Come on, Ken, lets go inside," she grabbed Damon, and as soon as she did, she broke into laughter. We all looked at her in disbelief. She pointed to Damon, "He's wearing a plastic wig!"

Now that she'd released her laughter, the rest of us couldn't hold it in any longer and we all started laughing hysterically, even Tanya, who thought that we were laughing at the plastic wig. The wig was funny, but it wasn't the real reason for our laughter.

Okay, not all of us laughed. Kate didn't seem to find it funny. She had let go of my arm and approached Tanya while the rest of us grabbed our dates and hurried inside.

Well, all except for Edward and Dylan. Those poor boys. I could only imagine Tanya's outburst when Kate told her that she looked like...well, Medusa.

The room inside the building was huge. On the right side was a buffet with several tables, making it look like a creepy version of a restaurant. All of the tables were decorated with black spider webs and some of the chairs had skeletons on them. The stuff looked more realistic than I'd ever seen before, but it looked great. Most of the room was orange, but there was also a lot of black - standard Halloween colors. The left side of the room, which was where the entrance was, looked more like a Disco. The lights continuously changed from orange to red and there were pumpkins floating around, laughing evilly. I thought I even saw a ghost on the dance floor, but I couldn't be sure. At the back was a door where a few people stood, looking too afraid to walk through.

"Alice, what's behind that door?" I asked curiously.

"It's the maze," she answered.

"Maze?" I asked in confusion.

"Yeah, kind of like a haunted maze instead of a haunted house," Dean informed me.

"Oh, sweet! Let's go check it out!" Chris cheered.

"No way!" I protested at the same time as Alice. All of us looked at her in confusion. She didn't seem like the type to be scared of things like haunted houses and haunted mazes.

"I have this evening planned out perfectly, remember?" She gave us a look. "We will do this my way, and my way is that we go and eat first."

"You seriously planned everything?" Chris asked, sighing.

"Well, no, not everything. I didn't plan what you do in your assigned alone time with your date," Alice answered. I just rolled my eyes at her as she lead us over to one of the unoccupied tables. We took our seats, with Emmett having to push a skeleton from a chair so he could sit.

"No sitting, Emmett. You guys have to get us food and something to drink," Alice instructed.

"Alice, I'm not even hungry," I said.

"I don't care. Everyone has to at least eat the pumpkin pie. It's tradition."

"Why?"

"You'll see," Emmett flashed me a somewhat creepy grin. Chris and I looked at each other as the guys left, but shrugged it off at the same time.

A few minutes later, the guys returned with our pie.

"Bon appetit," Alice laughed, carefully poking her pie with a fork. In the second she did that, worms started to form inside it. Alice screeched and shoved the plate away from her.

"What the hell? Is the school trying to poison us?" Chris asked while the others laughed at Alice.

"Nope. Most of the pies aren't edible. Only a few people ever get lucky enough to actually be able to eat it," Damon informed her, poking his own pie. It turned black and a tiny white skeleton and reached out of it before the whole thing crawled out and jumped off the plate, and ran away.

We all watched as the tiny skeleton ran away. Emmett and Jasper burst out laughing, while I sat there a little confused. That had to have been the weirdest thing I'd ever seen in my entire life.

"My turn," Rose announced as she grabbed her fork and poked the pie. At first, I thought nothing happened, but then I saw smoke start coming out of it.

"Everyone step away!" Dean shouted. He and Damon hastily jumped out of their seats and took a few steps back. All of us remaining at the table looked at them in confusion.

"Believe me, you guys do not want to be near that thing," Damon warned. He pulled Chris from her chair and positioned himself between her and the table. I just got up and stood beside Dean while the others hurried to get themselves up as well, now that the smoke became thicker.

And not a second too late. As soon as the table was empty, Rose's pie exploded. There was thick black smoke all around the table and I felt relieved that we weren't in the crossfire of it.

"Are you sure the school's not trying to kill us?" I asked Dean.

He grinned at me, "It's not that bad. I had that last year, too. The only thing that happened was that we all got covered in pie. The smoke will be gone in a few seconds." And he was right. Just as he finished talking, the smoke vanished as if it had never been there.

Rosalie's pie, however, was all over the table.

"Maybe we should go sit somewhere else," I suggested.

"Nonsense. We might end up making an even bigger mess," Alice said as she took her seat once again.

"Now it's my turn," Emmett said, shoving his fork into the pie. It turned into green slime. Emmett lifted his fork and the slime stuck it it, looking disgusting. "Do you think it's edible?" he asked us.

Chris laughed, "Try it and find out." That seemed to be a highly unappetizing idea to Emmett, since he grimaced and dropped the fork back on the pie.

"Jasper, you'll go last since you were lucky last year," Alice said. Jasper grinned at her in return as Chris announced that it was her turn.

"You little tramp," a voice interrupted just as Chris had dramatically lifted her fork.

It was Tanya.

She was stomping toward us, glaring harshly at Alice.

"Oh, hello, Medusa. Do you want some pie?" Alice greeted her.

"No, I don't," Tanya snapped. "What were you thinking dressing me up like...like-"

"Like Medusa?" Rose threw in, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it sort of was.

Tanya turned her glare to Rose. "No, like a monster. This isn't cute or pretty or sexy at all. I don't recall telling you that I wanted to look ugly!" Tanya screeched.

"That's not hard to do," I heard Chris mutter beside me, too quietly for anyone else to hear. I disguised the smirk that wanted to come to my lips. It was mean, but it was funny.

"Calm down, Tanya. It's not that bad," Edward said as he approached us. Dylan and Kate trailed behind him. Kate didn't look happy and Dylan just looked bored.

"I thought you said something about wanting to look as stunning as you always do. I actually made you look better," Alice answered innocently.

Beside me, Chris got up and walked around the table, stopping behind Tanya.

"Why you little-" Tanya began, but was cut off by Chris tapping her on the shoulder. Tanya reluctantly turned around and looked straight into Chris' brightly smiling face. She really looked like Barbie in that moment.

"Tanya, I really think you should have some pie," Chris said. I hadn't even realized that she'd brought her plate along with her until she lifted it and quickly smushed the pie right into Tanya's face.

"NO!" Emmett, Jasper, and Dean exclaimed in unison while the rest of us sat frozen. Chris lowered the plate and looked at the three boys in confusion.

Meanwhile, the pie on Tanya's face transformed. It turned red while Tanya stood there screaming. She only stopped when some of the red stuff got into her mouth, and that was just so she could spit it out. The sticky red stuff on her face was now more like a liquid.

"Come on, T, let's get you cleaned up," Kate murmured quickly, pulling Tanya away.

"Was that blood?" I asked the remaining people in disbelief.

"Apparently," Jasper chuckled. "Nice one, Chris." The two of them bumped their fists together.

"But not human blood, right?" I asked in concern.

"Bella, what kind of school do you think this is? Of course it's not human blood. It's probably from a chicken or something," Alice answered, laughing at my horrified expression.

"Was that really necessary?" Edward asked Chris.

"Of course it was," she answered. "She was screaming at poor little Alice." Alice pouted innocently at the mention of her name. I thought that looking innocent in the outfit she was wearing would be impossible, but somehow she managed to pull it off anyway.

"That might not have happened if you would have made her a different costume. Alice, you know that she's not one of those people who dress up in the traditional Halloween style," Edward griped.

I didn't really get what his problem was. Didn't he know that Tanya had been a complete bitch to his little sister the whole time?

"I did make her a pretty dress, but she wasn't satisfied with it, and I'm tired of spending all of my time on Tanya just because she thinks it's okay to lash out at everyone," Alice exclaimed, huffing angrily.

"Plus, don't you have other things to worry about right now, Edward? I believe that there was something you had to do and soon," Chris interfered, smiling that impossibly sweet smile of hers again. Edward frowned at her and walked away, probably to go looking for Kate and Tanya.

What was going on with Edward and Chris two?

"Hey, you guys got the pumpkin pies! I want one, too," Dylan said.

"Then go get yourself one," Rosalie retorted. Dylan stuck his tongue out at her and left to get himself some pie.

"Well, now I want to know if I get lucky this year," Dean said. We all turned our attention to his pie as he jabbed his pie with a fork. It burst into flames and we all laughed at the disappointed look that came upon his face.

I was about to poke mine, but was stopped by Dylan interfering, "No, no, no. I'm feeling lucky right now. Let me go first." I heaved a sigh and motioned for him to go on. He grinned at me and shoved his fork into the pie. Something green grew out of it, and after a few seconds, it was quite obvious that it was going to be flowers. The blossoms opened and then there were three beautiful pink lilies.

"Aw, how nice," cooed Alice and Rosalie. The two of them were just too girlie for their own good.

"They are so pretty," Chris said. Everyone looked at her in disbelief. She stared back, "What?"

"You don't like pink and you don't like flowers. These are pink flowers," Rose stated, obviously referring to the day when she and Alice had gotten us those impossible pink gumboots.

"Lilies are my favorite flower," Chris admitted quietly before she raised her voice and said, "Bella, you're last."

"No, I'm not. Jasper still hasn't gone," I informed her.

"Whatever, Bella, just poke the pie." I did as she said and waited for something to happen.

Nothing. No flames, no smoke, no flowers, no goo, no blood. Nothing.

Everyone seemed to be backing away in fear of mine exploding or something, but I saw no smoke.

"She got lucky!" Alice screamed, and suddenly everyone was jumping up to get my pie. I repeat my pie.

Before I knew what was happening, Emmett had the plate in his greedy hands and was about to move away.

"Hey! That's not fair, Emmett!" I complained and reached for him. I missed, but Rose, Jasper, and Dylan got ahold of him and they all began wrestling for my pie. Alice tried, too, but she was just too short and couldn't even touch it. It was a huge chaos. Chris and I sat there, unsure of what to do.

"Emmett, you egotistical idiot, you have to share," Rosalie hissed.

At the same time, Dylan said, "It's not your pie, Emmett. Give it to me so I can give it back to Bella."

"I'm the smallest, so I get it. It wouldn't do you any good, anyway," Alice tried. Did they even realize that they were fighting over a pie? Mypie? And it wasn't even a big one.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. I really wished that they would just stop.

Suddenly it was quiet around me. I didn't even hear the music anymore. I opened my eyes, only to see that the others were still fighting, but something was majorly different.

As soon as I realized that, I knew what it was. They weren't moving. It was as if they were frozen.

I looked around and saw that everybody in my sight was frozen. I turned to look at Chris and frowned when I saw that she wasn't moving either. What happened?

"What happened?" Chris suddenly asked, looking around disoriented. "Why is everybody except us frozen?"

"You were, too, just a second ago," I told her.

"And you weren't?"

"No."

"Strange," she replied. I nodded. A grin appeared on Chris' face.

"What?" I asked warily.

"Get the pie," she told me, grinning madly.

I groaned, "Not you, too."

"What? It's yours. Besides, they might stop fighting...if they ever unfreeze."

"You should be worried about why they're frozen, not the pie."

Chris shrugged and climbed on the table to get the plate out of Emmett's hand. "Here you go," she smiled, handing me the plate. I shook my head at her.

Suddenly, I heard three familiar voices from outside. When everything was so silent in here, it really wasn't that hard to hear things outside of the room. One of the voices belonged to Tanya - I'd recognize that nasally quality anywhere - the other was Kate, and I was pretty certain that the third belonged to Irina. Just as the three of them entered the room, I panicked. How exactly were we supposed to explain this? All three of them looked up in confusion, obviously expecting to hear music and people shouting and talking, but in the same second, everything unfroze.

"You will never-" Emmett started, but stopped suddenly.

Had I just been imagining it, or was Irina looking at me? I shuddered. It definitely hadn't been my imagination. Had she noticed that I was still moving when everything else was frozen? She couldn't have. There were so many people in the room, she wouldn't have been able to see me.

"Hey, Bella, how did you do that?" Emmett whined.

"Huh?" I blinked. I didn't even know what he was talking about.

"The pie," Alice told me, raising an eyebrow and pointing at it.

"Oh, right," I said as I picked up my fork. "You know that I can use telekinesis." I started eating the pie.

For some reason, I felt that I shouldn't tell them what had just occurred.

Chris looked at me with a questioning expression, but I shook my head at her discreetly, letting her know not to talk about it either. She plastered a smile on her face and said something to the others, but I couldn't pay attention. I was momentarily stunned.

The pie was amazing. I'd never tasted anything like it. I couldn't even begin to describe how absolutely magnificent it tasted. It seemed to be a mixture of different tastes of things that I loved, combined in the most deliciously brilliant way.

"This pie is-" I started, but I couldn't continue as I had no proper words to describe it.

"Yeah, we know," Alice said, disappointed.

"You want some?" I offered.

"No, thanks," she said. "The spell only works on one person."

"Spell?" I shoved another scoop of pie in my mouth. I bit back a moan as it coated my taste buds, making them smile in delight.

"Yeah, it's some weird spell that makes it taste like the most wonderful thing to you. Apparently it's different for each person, so once someone starts eating it, no one else gets that taste. It would taste just like an other ordinary pumpkin pie to anyone else," Rosalie explained.

"So that's why you were all after the pie like a bunch of rabid dogs?" Chris asked.

"Currently, there are only ten people in this school who have had the privilege of tasting it. Well, eleven now."

"That's a new record," Damon piped.

"It's just a pie," I told him nonchalantly, emptying my pie. They all looked at me with glaringly dark expressions.

Edward POV

On my way to Alice's room, I tried my hardest not to imagine Bella in her costume. I hadn't even seen it, so I really didn't have anything to base my thoughts off. I also didn't understand why my mind kept on coming up with different scenarios in which Bella starred, wearing really small, not-at-all-Juliet-related dresses.

Probably because I knew better than anyone else how Alice's mind worked.

I had tried on several occasions to pick the image of Bella's costume out of Alice's head, but I hadn't been very successful. I didn't even know why I was so obsessed with Bella. I should be have fantasies of Tanya in skimpy costumes.

In a way, it was totally wrong for me to think of Bella in any way other than friendly. But ever since she kissed me the other night, I caught myself thinking about her a lot more often. I kept replaying the kiss in my head, remembering the feel of her soft lips, the taste of strawberries...

I shook my head to get my mind away from where it was headed. It was really pathetic, actually, but I couldn't help myself. I felt like a little school girl, analyzing every reaction toward me, every glance that she threw in my direction, even if she was looking over my head at something.

There was no visible sign - at least not to me - that she actually took any interest in me. Apparently she hadn't been exaggerating when she'd said that it was just a crush and that it would pass quickly. From what I could tell, she had gotten over it, and this bothered me much more than it should.

As I came closer to Alice's room, I noticed that Dylan was standing in the doorway. After taking a few more steps, I also saw Chris. She seemed to be aware of my approach and she looked at me with wide eyes.

But before I could even think any more about this strange reaction of hers, she had that half smile on her face again. The one that she always wore when she was joking.

"Well, I guess you're all set to go and punish humanity, Zeus," she said lightly to Dylan and started nudging him out of the door.

Dylan was making it a bit difficult on Chris as he grinned widely when speaking to her. The grin combined with his flirtatious voice meant only one thing. Well, actually more than one, but since this was Alice's room, and they were both standing in the doorway, I narrowed it down to one thing: Dylan had finally gained some common sense and kissed her. After weeks and weeks of denying his attraction to her, he'd finally done what I'd been telling him to do. We had a lot of conversations about that in which he always told me far too much about his latest conquest. But ever since the twins had arrived, I'd cut him off and told him that he should just ask Chris out or something, since I honestly believed that she would be good for him.

Now that I saw him pecking her on the lips and practically skipping down the hall in happiness, I could see that I'd been right. Chris turned her attention to me and something about her expression told me that she wasn't entirely happy with me. But I knew that already. I still remembered when she'd let Bella's emotions run through her mind while I was reading her thoughts. I didn't think I'd ever forget how much pain I'd felt at that moment. I internally shuddered at the memory. It really hadn't been pleasant whatsoever, which only proved to make me feel even worse since it had been my fault that Bella had felt that way.

My mind raced back to the current situation and I shot an accusatory glance at Chris. "What the hell! You kissed Dylan?" I demanded.

She shrugged and acted as if she didn't have a clue what I was talking about. "No, I didn't. He kissed me. Did you not just see that?" she asked calmly.

If I didn't know my brother so well, I easily would have believed her.

"Don't even try to deny it, Chris. Dylan didn't even try to hide it," I told her, smirking because I knew that she would fall for my bluff.

She sent me an annoyed scowl while my grin widened. "Then why'd you even bother asking if you already knew?" I shrugged. "And why are you reading his mind, anyway? I thought you didn't always do that. Ugh, you're just like Jasper, invading everyones privacy."

She really didn't know that Jasper and I were giving them much more privacy than we used to. About two years ago, I didn't even know that I could extract my mind from others. I had just been thinking that I was cursed with the fact that I would always hear someones thoughts in my head, no matter where I was and what I did. I was so glad when Mr. Decour started teaching here, because it was thanks to him that I was able to learn how to control my ability better.

"Well, actually, I didn't read anyones mind. Dylan just had that goofy smile on his face when you pushed him out and I know what that means. You just verified what I wanted to know," I said to Chris, knowing exactly how she was going to react.

"You're such a-"

"Hey, it's not my fault you fell for it."

"Whatever," she retorted before asking Alice what else needed to be added to my costume. When I heard the word 'makeup' I felt like running out of there at top speed, but I knew that Alice would kill me. I then thought at protesting and was about to, but I changed my mind when I saw the evil smile Chris had plastered on her face.

We passed Tanya, who was sitting on the couch listening to music, look as unspectacular as she always did. When I asked Chris about it, she told me that Alice was still in the other room working on Bella. I wondered what she looked like, but instead of allowing my mind to wander down that endless path again, I spoke about something else.

"You know, even though it's kind of wrong since you're both in relationships, I'm kind of glad that Dylan finally seems to be admitting his feelings for you."

Chris dropped the makeup tube in her hand which caused me to grin. "What?" she asked, obviously shocked.

I guessed that the entire female population in this school would be shocked beyond belief if they heard a sentence that had both the words 'Dylan' and 'feelings' in it.

"Dylan has taken interest in you for quite a while now. Well, ever since you arrived, actually," I told her calmly. "He was just being too...narrow-minded to notice."

The look of utter disbelief on Chris' face kind of startled me. What did I say?

"Are you sure you're talking about Dylan and not yourself?"

Now she had me confused. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that you are crushing on my insanely beautiful, sweet, innocent twin, but you're being too stubborn to actually admit it," she said, smiling fondly at the mention of her sister. Was it really that obvious?

"What? No, I am not 'crushing' on her," I denied the allegations. "I care about her, yes, but I only love her like a sister."

"Um, no. I love her like a sister," she said, emphasizing the 'I'. "You, my dear friend, love her in the dirty fantasy-having way." I looked down when she said that in hopes of her not seeing the twinge of guilt on my face. What? I'm a guy. Apparently it was obvious though, because Chris squealed a little, which made me think that she had been spending way too much time with Alice. "Oh, no, you really do have dirty fantasies with Bella in them? Shame on you. She's too innocent to be playing a main character in your mental porn."

Mental porn? Did she really have to phrase it that way?

"What exactly are you waiting for? Just go for it," Chris said after she laughed at the expression on my face.

If it really were that easy, I think I would have done that by now. But nobody else seemed to understand that. Alice had been preaching something like that as well. I usually passed out during her long speeches, so I didn't exactly remember what she said.

"I can't," I sighed. "I've never dated a girl like Bella before. She really is like you just said, insanely beautiful, sweet, and innocent. I don't know if I'm the right choice for her. I've only ever dated girls like Tanya, you know, the ones who aren't looking for any kind of commitment. I don't have to be overly considerate, and therefore I can't mess up. But Bella's not the same. I just...I don't know," I desperately ran a hand over my face and then threw my untamable hair.

"You know, Edward, Bella's not going to wait forever for you to get your shit together. You better make your move soon or you'll be replaced faster than you can say Chihuahua."

"Why would I say Chihuahua?" Seriously, why did she even think of that word? A normal person would have thought of something more like 'boyfriend' or 'love' or whatever. At least something related to the topic at hand.

"You just said it, didn't you? And now imagine if Bella had thrown you out of her heart just before you finished saying it," Chris said in a way that reminded me of a scene from a movie.

If we ever had a How To Be A Mafia Boss class, Chris would very likely be the teacher. She was a genius when it came to torturing people. She and Alice should never be left alone together for more than two hours. I didn't even want to think of the countless possibilities of evil things the two of them could conjure up when their wicked minds were put together.

But still, she was right, and I really didn't like admitting that. The thought of Bella with someone else was physically painful. I hadn't been too thrilled about her going to the dance with Dean. As a matter of fact, I had been minisculely satisfying my anger by imagining different ways to kill him, just because he hoped for a kiss from Bella.

I should never have read his mind.

When Chris was finally done applying that junk girls called makeup all over my face - which made me feel like I was ten pounds heavier - I hurried out of the room to prevent Alice from having any more ideas.

On my way back to my room, I passed Emmett. He laughed for about five minutes over me having to wear makeup. That was, until I pointed out that he was wearing a prince costume with tights for pants.

That shut him up.

As I was about to enter my room, Dylan suddenly appeared in front of me.

"Seriously man, I don't want to know what Chris smelled, tasted, and felt like," I sighed before he could say anything.

He looked at me with a dumbfounded expression for a second before he composed himself. "Charming, little brother, real charming. But that's not why I'm here. Esme decided that she wants to take pictures of us in our costumes."

"What? Why? We're not even complete," I whined.

"That's not going to stop her. She said that we'd better do it now, otherwise she will hunt us down at the dance - which she'll probably do anyway since she wants a group picture of us with our dates," Dylan said, shrugging lightly.

I never really understood why my mother always had to have reminders of every little thing that we did. No matter what the occasion was, Esme wanted to take pictures of her 'little babies' and their friends.

I think it may be time that we had the talk with her. The talk in which we tell her that we are not babies any more, and that we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. But I really didn't want to hurt her feelings, and I already knew that she would just tell us that we may not be babies anymore, but that doesn't mean that we aren't her babies.

"Lets go," I heaved a reluctant sigh and Dylan grinned as he stepped toward me to pull me into a brotherly hug.

Moments later, we stood in our parents' brightly lit living room.

"There you are!" Esme gushed. She actually had on her own costume and seemed to be rather excited. She was dressed as a witch, pointy hat, broom, and all. Right, the teachers were going to be at the dance, too. I had a habit of forgetting that, since I hardly ever ran into them. Especially not my parents. I took extra precautions to avoid them. "Well, don't you two look dashing! I can't believe you've grown up so much. It seems like just yesterday I was changing your diapers. Oh, Edward, you always had this ugly rash on your-"

"Mom!" I interrupted her, not wanting to hear the stories. Only now was I alerted of Jasper and Emmett's presence in the room by their loud rambunctious laughter. I turned around and glared at them. Those two always reminded me of the audience in those stupid TV shows that start to laugh at the things that were supposed to be funny.

Most of the time, they weren't.

"Okay. Now, boys, just stand together and smile those handsome smiles I love," Esme instructed, whipping a camera from behind her back.

"Ah, Eddie boy, isn't that nice? This Halloween we all have beautiful girls to be on our arms...oh, wait, sorry, man, I forgot you were going with Tanya," Emmett said, putting his arm on my shoulder and laughing loudly. Jasper grinned and punched me lightly on the arm.

"Come on, kids, let's just get a nice picture so we can go to the dance and actually see those beautiful girls...and Tanya," Dylan threw in, joining Jasper and Emmett's laughter. I simply rolled my eyes at them. It had been like this on several occasions before, with only a few exceptions when Dylan managed to be the one with the horrible date. Most of those times, Tanya hadn't been my date.

"How about we make this a little more fun?" Esme suggested. We looked at her in confusion, not knowing what she was talking about. I could have read her mind, but I was doing my best to give people their privacy now-a-days. "Just do as I say," she told us. We shrugged in unison and she sent us her warm, motherly smile. "Okay, Dylan, try to look as threatening as you can, and the rest of you, shrink back a little and look frightened."

"What? Frightened of Dylan? Why?" Emmett was quick to protest.

"Because I am Zeus. Now do as I command," Dylan said threateningly, which actually did cause Emmett to shrink back a little.

"Dylan!" Esme scolded immediately. He grinned innocently at her and Emmett returned to his former stance, looking a little bit confused before puffing out his chest to make it seem like he hadn't been intimidated. "I told you not to use that outside of class," Esme continued.

"Sorry, Mom," Dylan apologized, not sounding apologetic in the least. He punched Emmett lightly and in return, Emmett pretended to be angry at him.

For the next half an hour, we were forced into multiple poses for Esme, and somehow acting out each of her ideas. She wanted Harry Potter to hit me with a spell (Jasper looked really fierce when he pretended to curse me). We had the prince praying to Zeus and Zeus throwing his lightning bolt at Harry. After that, we decided to get creative. I ended up actually 'biting' the prince. Apparently I did well at that and actually looked sort of crazed like I was being controlled by my lust for blood or something. Emmett carried an unconscious Jasper in his arms and Dylan decided to hide behind my cape. After that, Esme was finally satisfied and allowed us to leave, but not before making us a promise that she would find us again later.

On our way to the dance, we caught up with Damon and Dean. It seemed like Dylan was getting along a little too well with Damon, considering he had just kissed his girlfriend.

Apparently he didn't feel guilty.

We waited in front of the festival building, talking about trivial things and of course the others continued teasing me because of my date.

Rose interrupted, though, and drew all of our attention to the girls.

I could practically feel my jaw hitting pavement. All of the girls were wearing short dresses, making several passing guys check them out until their dates hit them on their heads.

But I couldn't pry my eyes from Bella. I didn't want to take my eyes away from her. She looked far too deliciously stunning for her own good. Not even in my wildest dreams did she look this amazing. I was pretty sure that I was drooling at the sight of her legs. Her very long, seemingly endless, legs...I bet they're smooth like silk...I was a little grateful when Alice appeared, interrupting my drool session (I didn't want Bella to see me and think I was some sort of perverted jerk), but I was even more angry at her. She always managed to ruin good moments, but now she'd topped herself by presenting us with Tanya.

Basically, the costume wasn't bad. But considering everyone else looked ten times (make that infinity times in Bella's case) better, and Tanya looked rather ridiculous in it, the situation was quite humorous.

But no one dared to laugh. All of us knew, and wanted to avoid, the Tanya-storm that we'd be cursed with if we did laugh.

To make matters even worse, Chris had to choke out a, "You look...great, Tanya," which only made it that much harder for all of us to hold in our laughter.

I wasn't sure how Alice had managed to make this without letting Tanya see it.

For a moment, I was torn between laughing at Tanya and letting her know how she looked. But that moment passed when everyone burst out laughing, causing me to laugh as well. I did feel bad, though, after all, I was in something akin to a relationship with her and I couldn't just stand there and let all of my friends laugh at her. Well, I could, but that would just be wrong.

Kate approached Tanya, probably to let her know that everyone was laughing at her. All except for me and Dylan scurried inside, not wanting to be close when Tanya exploded like a bomb. Just as they all vanished inside, Kate reached in her purse and handed Tanya a small mirror.

The screech that followed made a few dogs outside of the campus howl.

"Tanya, calm down. It's really not that bad," I tried to soothe her.

"Do you see what your slutty little sister did to me?" she shrieked.

"Don't talk about my sister like that," I told her calmly, at the same time as Dylan, who said it a lot more harshly.

Tanya glared at me, "You're not supposed to defend her. You have to go inside and talk to that...that...rat!"

"Tanya! I'm only going to say this one more time. Don't talk about my sister like that. She worked really hard on all of our costumes, so you should at least be grateful and overlook this little mistake."

"Little mistake? Little MISTAKE? I'll tell you what a little mistake is. You're sister is a little mistake. This-" she gestured to herself, "-is a catastrophe!" she made an angry sound that sounded similar to a cat gagging. "That tiny piece of trash just-" For some reason, Tanya suddenly shut her mouth.

"Tanya," Dylan said in a calm voice that was strangely menacing. "You do not talk about my sister like that. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it at all."

"Dylan! What are you doing? You cannot manipulate her mind like that, it's against the rules!" Kate screeched at him. He glared at her for a second and she glared back. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh and Tanya took a deep breath as if she had been holding it the whole time. "You really shouldn't defend Alice that much," Kate said to me, obviously upset with the whole situation.

"Are you telling me that I should let Tanya insult my sister?" I asked her in disbelief.

Kate answered, "No," at the same time as Tanya hissed, "Yes." I'd never realized how much of a bitch Tanya was until now. I mean, I knew that she was a rather difficult person, but I never thought she was that...cruel.

"All I'm saying is that you might wanna talk to Alice about this. The dress she originally made for Tanya looked a whole lot different," Kate said, sounding much more reasonable than she had before.

"Knowing Tanya, she probably deserves this dress. And why are you making such a big deal out of this, anyway? It's just a freaking dress. No one's going to die," Dylan interfered.

"How would you know? Maybe I will die," Tanya snapped at him. I just shook my head.

"Yeah, if you continue to be as horrible as you are now, someone might think that you're the real Medusa and cut off your head," Dylan retorted, smirking.

"Dylan, what the hell? Don't talk to her like that, she's my best friend!"

"Did you stop her from insulting Alice? Maybe you should look for more pleasant friends." I sighed, sensing a fight brewing between Kate and Dylan.

"Come on, Tanya, we'll go talk to Alice," I released a large gust of air as we stepped away to go inside before we ended up being trapped in the middle of an argument that would only end with a breakup. I let my eyes wander across the crowded festival room, and scanned everyones thoughts in search of a familiar 'voice.' I found it rather quickly, for which I was glad because Mike Newton had been starting to have inappropriate thoughts about Jessica Stanley and I seriously didn't want to hear them.

The encounter with Alice didn't go over very well. Tanya just had to lash out on her and apparently, I wasn't the only person bothered by that. I could see that Jasper had to control himself, otherwise he may have launched himself at Tanya and punched her in the face. Emmett, on the other hand, was thinking of various ways to beat her up and excuses he could use on a teacher to avoid getting himself into trouble.

The problem was solved, though, by Chris. Her solution was probably the most harmless one, and seeing Tanya freak out like that was rather amusing, just not adequate in that moment.

"Was that really necessary?" I asked Chris, already knowing what her answer would be.

"Of course it was," she replied breezily. "She was screaming at poor little Alice." As if to prove it, Alice's bottom lip jutted out in an innocent pout at the mention of her name.

Well, she was right about that. But still, here would humanity end if we all solved our problems like that? I was starting to get very tired of trying to make peace between my friends/family and Tanya.

"That might not have happened if you would have made her a different costume. Alice, you know that she's not one of those people who dress up in the traditional Halloween style," I said.

"I did make her a pretty dress, but she wasn't satisfied with it, and I'm tired of spending all of my time on Tanya just because she thinks it's okay to lash out at everyone," Alice exclaimed, huffing angrily for emphasis.

"Plus, don't you have other things to worry about right now, Edward? I believe that there was something you had to do and soon," Chris interfered, smiling falsely at me.

Did she read minds now as well?

I didn't supply her with an answer. Instead, I simply walked off to find Tanya and Kate.

They had just entered the room when I found them. Apparently Kate had paid attention in Magical Arts class, so she knew that she had to get Tanya cleaned up rather quickly, and so Tanya's face was already void of any of the blood.

"Oh, Edward, that horrible mistake of a child was mean to me," Tanya cried, throwing herself at me. She sounded like a kindergartner, but I didn't tell her that.

"Tanya, I think we need to talk," I told her gently.

"Okay," she nodded and turned to Kate. "Do you mind giving us some privacy?" Kate eyed me for a second before she nodded and walked away. "So, what do you wanna talk about?" Tanya purred, probably thinking she sounded seductive. She ran her hands up and down my arms.

"Tanya, focus! We really do need to talk," I hissed at her.

"Gosh, Edward, you're such a prude. Hot, but still a prude," she commented.

"I can live with that."

"Oooh, lets go check out the haunted maze. We can talk there," Tanya said, suddenly turning her attention to the maze.

I wondered if it was even possible to have a conversation with her. It seemed that she had the very short attention span of a goldfish.

"I really don't think-"

"That's the problem with you, Edward, you don't think. I always thought you were smart, but I think you're just book smart. But don't worry, I still like you, even though you are a little stupid," Tanya cut me off, pulling me along to the back door that led straight into the maze.

I was momentarily stunned by what Tanya had just said. Did she really just call me stupid?

Before I could even comment, Tanya had dragged me into the maze by her horribly manicured (I knew this thanks to Alice) talons - I mean, nails.

It looked just like any other maze. But the hedges were so high, I wasn't sure where they ended, so maybe it wasn't quite like any other maze.

It was dark and quiet, and I really wasn't sure why Tanya thought tht we could have a conversation in here. Everybody knew that this maze always separated groups. It was part of the 'rules.' People usually made bets on who would make it to the exit first, and some people got 'lost.' The maze was designed by the teachers, and some of the senior and college students. It wasn't only there for fun, it was also somewhat of a test.

You always get separated from the original people you went in with, but it happened so that you met someone else on your way out. This was the way to test our teamwork abilities. Also, we did have to use magic every now and then, because we would get 'attacked' while in the maze. Those who couldn't defend themselves usually landed somewhere deeper in the maze, which was no fun at all. Every year, a few people would only make it out a day later when the maze was removed.

"Edward, I'm scared," Tanya whined, holding my arm tightly.

"Then why did you even want to go in here?" I asked her in an annoyed tone. I really wanted to be anywhere but here, with her, at that moment.

"Don't you enjoy my presence?" she asked innocently, looking at me with wide eyes.

I looked down at her and took a deep breath. It was now or never, I thought, pulling my arm away from her. "To be honest, no," I answered. I could see that this had offended her, and offending Tanya was never a good thing.

She was about to have one of her bitch fits again when suddenly a hand crept out of the hedge and grabbed her. She screamed like those girls in horror movies when they're being murdered. I watched as she vanished into the hedge and was not to be heard again. I couldn't help but release a chuckle at that.

But now I was stuck in this maze on my own.

Well, now, isn't that just great?

After a few more steps, I came to an intersection, and until now, I hadn't even realized that the beginning path was dimly lit. The two paths that lay in front of me were a lot darker.

I pulled out my wand and mumbled the word, "Luxio," to brighten the trip, before choosing the right path and starting to walk.

As I was making my way through the maze, I was attempting to watch everything around me so that I couldn't be caught off guard.

Occasionally, I heard screams from somewhere far away and briefly wondered if it was Tanya, but then I discarded the thought quickly. I didn't really care.

After I had been walking around for about 45 minutes, I started to get tired. Nothing had happened to me yet. The trail I had been walking on ended and I stepped into a round place from which five other paths led.

A sound came to me and I turned abruptly, but didn't see anything. I carefully stepped backwards to the middle of the circular area and looked in every direction. Unfortunately, I forgot to check everything behind me and my heart nearly stopped when I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

I let out a scream and spun around quickly.

Bella stood there, snickering at my little girlish outburst.

"God, Bella, you almost killed me! Don't just stand there laughing. This is hardly funny," I scolded her, while I placed a hand over my racing heard. I studied Bella as she stood there, continuing to laugh with that beautiful, angelic, musical voice of hers. "Why are you doing here, anyway?" I asked curiously. She looked a little lost the way she was standing there with her legs crossed, although she had been laughing at me.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Tanya dragged me in here," I answered gravely. I couldn't be too sure in the darkness, but I thought I saw Bella's face fall.

"Oh. Well, Alice dragged all of us in here since she has the whole evening planned." I nodded, not really knowing what to say.

Just talk to her already! a voice in my head shouted. The fact that I wasn't currently using my mind reading ability should have made me worried that I was hearing voices, but even worse was that the voice in my head sounded like Chris. When did Chris become my conscious, and why did I think that was kind of hypocritical?

"So, since we already bumped into each other, how about we finish this journey together?" I offered, trying to keep the hope I felt out of my voice. I think it worked.

"Um, okay, sure, but I won't protect you," Bella answered.

"What makes you think that I need protecting?"

"You screamed like a little girl when I touched your shoulder, Edward. You'll be lucky if I don't tell Emmett about this." I huffed at that. That would be just what I needed, Emmett teasing me because Bella startled me. "But maybe I won't tell him...that is, if you tell me how to make that light thingy on your wand."

I looked down at my wand. "Oh, that's easy. The spell is just the word 'luxio'."

Bella pulled out her wand from the tiny purse on her arm and did as I instructed. A second later, her wand had a small, but bright, light on the tip of it. "So, which path do we take?" she asked lightly.

"Um, you decide." Bella looked at me, shrugged, and then led the way down one of the paths.

The space between hedges wasn't very large, so my arm constantly came in contact with Bella's. Each and every time, I felt that warm electrical jolt go through me. Only this time, it was more like a constant hum hanging between us. We walked in silence, and over the minutes, the feeling only increased.

At some point, I decided to just suck it up and spit it out. "Do you feel it, too?" I asked quietly. I actually felt sort of embarrassed to ask her this for some reason. I didn't know why, but being around her made me feel shy, something I hadn't been since elementary school.

"Feel what?" she looked at me as if I had lost my mind. Maybe I had, but I knew that the feeling wasn't just my imagination playing tricks on me. Maybe she just didn't feel it like I did. Somehow, this thought bothered me.

"That strange...electrical feeling," I tried to explain.

"You mean right now?" she asked back, not looking at me.

"Yes."

"No, I don't," she answered simply.

"Huh?" was the only reply I could think of. She didn't feel it?

After that, only silence was between us. Well, I still felt the electricity humming, but I tried to ignore the urge I felt to wrap my arms around her. A couple of times, I actually found my arms and hands with minds of their own, attempting to hold Bella's hand, or wrap around her thin waist. I had to stuff my hands in the pockets of my black pants to keep myself from making an even bigger fool of myself. It was actually rather awkward to walk in the darkness, so close to her, and not say a word.

Just freaking talk to her! the Chris-alike voice in my head hissed at me.

"So...how is Dean?" I asked. The moment I did, I regretted it.

"What?" Bella asked in confusion and disbelief.

"Nevermind," I mumbled quickly.

"Why do you want to know how Dean is?"

"Oh, um...just because, you know...um, just checking to make sure that everything between the two of you is good," I stuttered like the idiot that I am, but I couldn't think of anything else to say. "If not, it would be a shame...really." It was so much easier to talk to Bella before Chris had that talk with me.

"Okay," Bella said, dragging out the word and giving me a weird look. "I guess everything is fine. Just the normal Halloween dance date thing."

"Cool," I said, not thinking that it was cool at all. "So, it's just like any other date where the guy drops you off later on and hopes for a kiss, right?" Again, I was making a fool of myself.

"Um, yeah, I guess." Bella sounded like she wanted to be anywhere but here right now. I knew how she felt, but I couldn't stop myself. The words just kept pouring out of my mouth and making me seem like even more of an idiot.

"I bet he's a good kisser," I blurted out, and immediately smacked myself on the head after that. 'I bet he's a good kisser.' Nice going, Edward, nice going.

Bella came to a halt and looked at me with a strange expression. "Why are we talking about this?" she asked carefully.

I shrugged, "I guess I'm just curious."

Bella frowned at me. "Well, maybe I can set you up on a date with Dean sometime. Then you might find out if he is a good kisser."

I gaped at her, "W-what? NO!" I stuttered. "It's not like that...I just-" And that was where I no longer had words to say what I was thinking.

"You just what?" Bella asked, her voice suddenly cool.

"I just thought that if he was a good kisser, I would've wanted to know if I was better," I answered. I really didn't even know what I was saying now. My mouth had gotten a mind of it's own.

"Why would you care about that? I don't think it would help your reputation much. All of the girls are already all over you, so there's no reason." She started walking again.

"Yeah, but I don't really care about all those girls," I replied. Finally, my mind had taken over again and put an end to my serious word vomit issues.

Bella stopped again and sighed exasperatedly. "Then who do you care about?" she asked, sounding a bit fed up.

Before I could answer, I heard a sound as something close to us moved. I immediately started looking around to see if there was anything there. Suddenly, the light on my wand turned off. I turned to Bella and saw that she didn't have her light anymore, either.

"Bella?" I called into the darkness.

"Right here," I heard her voice close to me. I then saw her standing in front of me, but I couldn't really see her face. "What's happening?" she asked. I could detect the slightest hint of fear in her beautiful voice and I didn't like it at all.

"It's one of the weird things that happen in here. Just stay calm and come here," I told her, pulling her to me softly to prevent her from being dragged away like Tanya.

That's when I heard the strange sound again. It sounded like an animal sniffing.

"What is that?" Bella whispered.

"I don't know," I answered as I held up my wand. "Luxio," I muttered. Nothing happened and I sighed. This happened every once in while; the easy spells wouldn't work in situations like this because the teachers wanted to challenge us. "Lux mico," I tried. A bright flash of light came out of the tip of my wand and illuminated the path.

For about 5 seconds.

But that was still enough time for me to see the giant werewolf that was approaching us flinch back at the sudden light.

"Oh my-" Bella started.

"Don't freak out," I said, cutting her off. "The worst thing that will happen to us is that we'll get lost. That isn't a real wolf."

"Okay...but still, what are we supposed to do?"

"Right now? I don't...ah," I sat down on the ground and pulled Bella with me. She let out a little squeak of surprise, which in turn made the wolf grunt. It was coming closer.

"What are you doing?" she hissed at me.

"Werewolves detect movement, so we're just going to have to stay still," I whispered softly to her and laid down on the ground, wrapping my arms tightly around Bella and keeping her close to me.

I thought that just being alone with Bella in the maze was going to be the highlight of my day. But I was wrong. The highlight of my day would definitely be the feel of her warm little body against mine. Despite the circumstances. I felt like she fit perfectly into my arms, like she was made for them.

Like she was made for me...

"And we couldn't have stayed standing?" Bella asked, not sounding as annoyed as before. She sounded more like she was surrendering.

"No. There wouldn't be enough space for the wolf to pass then," I chuckled lightly.

"Mhm," Bella hummed and buried her head in the crook of my neck.

It was a perfect fit, too...

The feel of her breath sent shivers down my body, but I had to suppress them since we had to stay still.

Apparently that didn't work as well as I had thought because Bella mumbled, "Stay still, Edward."

"I can't," I replied.

"Why not?" The werewolf was close enough now that I could hear it's heavy footsteps padding around.

"Because your breath makes me shiver?" I said, but it came out as a question. Apparently I hadn't gotten over my word vomit issues like I thought I had. Bella released a small giggle and I felt as she held her breath.

In that exact moment, the giant dog was standing above us, searching for any sign of movement.

I held as still as I possibly could and so did Bella. Although I did feel her fingers dig into my arms.

I felt as her heart started racing against my chest and I knew that she wouldn't be able to hold her breath for much longer. Only if she released it now, she would be moving a lot.

Just as I was starting to form a plan B in my head, the wolf decided that nothing was here and continued it's walk.

Bella rose her head and released her breath as slowly and quietly as she could.

But that giant monster wasn't gone quite yet. It had only moved a couple of meters. I heard it grunt and I felt as Bella immediately froze. She stayed like that for a few more moments.

"I think we can move now," I whispered.

"No," she whispered back. "We can't. It still has to round the corner." How did she know that? It was so dark and I could hardly even see her. "Now we can move," she said at a more normal volume, and started to move away from her. I grabbed hold of her.

"How did you know where it was?" I asked her in confusion.

I felt her give a nonchalant shrug, "I saw it."

"It's pitch dark. I can't even really see your face." I felt her move and then her face was suddenly closer to me. There was still a decent distance between us, but I could still feel her warm breath fanning across my face.

"I did learn how to handle my gift better in class, you know," she said lightly, then attempted to get up again.

But I didn't let her. It's now or never.

"You know," I said softly, "to answer your earlier question...I care about you." And with that said, I pulled her down to me and crashed my lips to hers. At first, she didn't respond and I could practically feel the confusion radiating from her. But when I traced her bottom lip with my tongue, she seemed to awake from her frozen state and started kissing me back.

I don't know how long we were laying there, kissing. It could have been minutes, hours, or even months. It didn't matter to me at all. All I cared about was Bella in that moment, and all that mattered was that incredible, deliciously sweet taste of hers.

But then Bella pulled back. "Do you kiss Alice like that, too?" she asked breathlessly. If she hadn't broken the kiss, I wouldn't have bothered to breathe ever again.

"What? No! That's disgusting. Why would you even ask that?" I immediately asked, a little confused.

"You love me like a sister, remember?" she said lightly, tracing the contours of my lips with her index finger. Her touch left a burning trail, but I tried not to concentrate too much on that in the moment.

"I'm so sorry about that, Bella, I really am. I realize that I've been a complete idiot and I should have noticed much earlier that the feelings I have toward you are in no way brotherly," I told her sincerely.

"You know, it's kind of mean that you just realized this now. I was finally starting to get my mind off of you and now you just come and mess up all my effort. Do you know how hard it is going to be for me tomorrow when you decide that you made a mistake or that you're better off with Tanya? I-"

"Shh," I hushed her, placing a finger to her swollen lips. "I won't change my mind tomorrow. How could I? You're the most beautiful, intelligent, funny, nice, sincere, caring person in this entire school. I'm lucky that you even talk to me."

"Are you sure that you're talking about me and not Chris?" Bella asked, sounding doubtful.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Chris is the most annoying, dangerous, mean person in the school, so there's no way that I would be mistaking you for her. Oh, and did I mention sadistic?"

"Shut up, Edward. I will tell her that and then she'll hunt you down with Alice," Bella laughed that intoxicating laugh.

"Alice? Why? What did I do?" I asked in bewilderment.

"You ruined her perfectly planned evening. After we make it out of here, she wants all of us to dance with our dates and then we get our assigned alone time. Do you think that's going to be possible for me to do with Dean after I laid in the dirt with you?"

I opened my mouth to reply to that when yet another sound interrupted me. It sounded like someone running and calling.

Bella stood up immediately and I slowly followed her up off the ground.

"Luxio," I mumbled, wielding my want a little. The small light illuminated the path on which we stood.

I could see someone running toward us.

"Isabella! Isabella! Thank God I found you," a familiar voice called. As the person came closer, I recognized him as Alistair, the wandmaker from whom Bella, Chris, and I had received our wands.

"Alistair?" Bella sounded surprised. I was surprised, too. Not that it was weird or unexpected that other people from all over the campus were attending the dance as well, and therefore got lost in the maze, but because Alistair had never been one of those people. Besides, he didn't look like he had been at the dance since he was wearing his usual jeans and pullover attire, and seemed to be extremely worked up. "Why were you looking for me?" Bella asked him when he reached us.

"I don't have much time. She could be here any minute," he said hastily, ignoring Bella's question.

"Who is 'she'?" I asked him. He ignored that as well and simply beckoned us to follow him.

"She is probably already looking for me," Alistair muttered.

"Alistair! What is wrong?" Bella asked fiercely.

He looked at her and I thought I saw a hint of concern etched onto his face, but I couldn't be too sure in the dim lighting. "We need to find your sister," he said hastily, standing in front of two paths, unsure of which to take.

"That could take ages," I commented.

"No, no. We must find her fast," Alistair protested.

"Well, any kind of spell for that won't work in here so they can prevent us from cheating."

"I could find her," Bella said suddenly. Both of us looked at her. She didn't seem to notice, though, because she had her eyes closed.

"Bella, what are y-"

"Shh." She kept her eyes closed and started to turn around. Without opening her eyes, she walked back to the path we had just come from. She was moving rather quickly, and Alistair and I were having difficulties keeping up with her.

"Bella, what are you doing?" I asked her.

"I'm using the bond to locate Chris. I've found her like this before, only that time I didn't know that was what happened," answered Bella curtly as she increased her speed. She rounded a corner and I could already hear Chris. She was hissing something at...Dylan. But I also heard something else.

It was our friend, the werewolf. Instantly, the light on my wand flicked off. I stopped walking and heard as Alistair came to a halt at my side.

"Bella, stop walking. The werewolf is here again," I hissed in the direction where I thought she was. Nothing. I reached out and tried to find her that way, but there was nothing there.

But then I heard a surprised, "Bella!" coming from Chris, so I figured Bella had somehow passed the wolf. "What are you doing here?" Chris asked her.

"Alistair was looking for you," answered Bella.

"Hello? Can we concentrate on this giant furry monster here?" Dylan randomly piped.

"Lay on the ground and don't move," Bella told him absentmindedly.

"Too late for that," Dylan said. "It already licked me."

"Oh," Chris and Bella breathed in unison.

"You should get rid of the time. It will only drag you further into the maze," Alistair called to them.

I heard Chris sigh and then I saw a flash of light. Suddenly, the whole place was illuminated by a burning wolf. As soon as it released a howl of pain, the illusion vanished. Chris stood there with a flame dancing on her palm and a rather annoyed expression on her face.

"I see that you've been working on your powers," Alistair commented as he approached the two girls.

"Um, yeah. Now what do you want?" Chris asked harshly.

"Chris," Bella warned.

"What? I'm just getting to the point. If he's going through the trouble of searching here for us, then he must have something important to say."

"Yes, thank you," Alistair said. "I've come here to warn you. And I am sorry, it is my fault that it has come to this. Normally you would have gotten more time."

"What are you talking about?" Chris asked, being her usual charming self.

"Alistair! You can't hide forever, you know," a high-pitched female voice called. It sounded vaguely familiar, but there was no way I could place it. Judging by the volume, she must be close. Alistair's eyes widened.

"We need to get going or she will kill all of us," he uttered quickly. "No light," he added, speaking mostly to Chris. She made her flame disappear, leaving all of us in the darkness.

"Kill?" Bella choked out disbelievingly.

"Yes. We must get out of here. Now," he said.

"Dylan, can't you beam us out?" Chris asked.

"No, the maze has a spell against that," he answered, groaning.

"Well, then, we need to do this the old-fashioned way," Bella sighed and lit her wand. We all hurried in the opposite direction from where we heard the woman's voice coming from.

"What is this all about?" I asked Alistair.

"I messed up and now they know. They aren't going to rest until I'm dead, but I still need to inform the twins. This is not how we planned it..."

"That is not very helpful information, you know," Chris remarked.

"Who would want to kill you?" Bella's voice was worried and scared at the same time.

"That is none of your concern right now. All you need to know is that you must be careful."

"Great! I already knew that. That's what my mom's been telling me since I was five," Chris retorted sarcastically. "We are currently running away from some psychopath who wants to kill you, and all you can tell us is to be careful?"

"Chris!" Bella, Dylan, and I hissed.

"It is not my job to let you in on everything. It would be far too much. But we are watching you, just like they are. You must know that you are being watched and you need to be careful with who you trust," Alistair answered calmly.

"I think I see the exit," Bella said in relief.

"And this is where it all ends," the female voice we heard earlier spoke as a silhouette started rising from the ground right in front of us. All of us came to a screeching halt. "You can't escape me. Master's going to be so pleased when he hears that I got the twins for him, too," the voice spoke. I couldn't make out anything, only that the person's arms seemed to have ranks growing out of them.

"Nobody's getting anything," Chris hissed and raised her hand. Fire started to form a ball around her hand, and when it was slightly larger than a football, it shot tward the person in the shadows. All we heard was a shriek, and then the person was gone.

"What just happened?" Bella asked in concern.

"Less talking, more running," Chris advised, moving toward the exit. The rest of us hurried behind her. A few seconds later, we were out of the maze and in the middle of the groups of celebrating teens who had also made it out.

"How did you do that?" Dylan asked Chris in disbelief.

"Do what? Shoot the psychopath?" she asked. He nodded. "I pointed and shot. Simple as that."

"No, not 'simple as that.' Our abilities aren't supposed to work in there," I explained.

"That is not a matter of discussion right now," Alistair interrupted.

"Bella? I didn't see her yet. Oh, wait, there she is!" I heard a voice shout over the noise. Alice and Rose were standing in front of a giant pumpkin in which a psychic sat. They had been talking to Irina and waved when they saw us. Irina looked in the direction Alice had pointed and made her way through the crowd.

"Ugh, why does she always bother you? I think that she thinks you're actually friends," Chris said.

Alistair glanced around nervously and mumbled, "We should get out of this crowd."

"Group hug," Dylan grinned and pulled all of us close. A second later, we stood a few meters away from the crowded place.

"That's not very far," Chris complained.

"I'm sorry, there's just too many of us," he defended himself before he plopped himself onto the ground. I could see that even this little distance had exhausted him. Alistair fumbled inside the bag I hadn't noticed he was carrying. He pulled out two wooden boxes that looked oddly familiar.

"Aren't those the boxes that our wands were in?" Bella asked. Alistair nodded and handed them to her and Chris.

"What are we supposed to do with these?" Chris questioned.

"You may also want to search through the long lost records. I'm sorry, but that is all I can tell you right now. If you knew too much, they might take you with them," Alistair said, completely dodging the question. Both of the girls somehow managed to stuff the boxes into their little purses. "When you find the reason, you should talk to Mr. Decour. I'm sure that he will be a great help. But you mustn't let anyone else know, and you must be sure that you can trust all of your friends," Alistair looked at the two of them intently, while I started getting confused. What was he talking about?

"Hey, guys, what are you doing?" Irina barged in, looking perfectly content. All of us turned our attention to her.

"None of your business," Chris told her with a smile so brilliant it completed her Barbie attire perfectly.

Irina continued to smile and sway slightly to the music in the background while she kept her hands hidden behind her bag. Her smile was a little off and I wondered why that was.

I opened my mind and was immediately bombarded by hundreds of mental voices filling my head. I put my concentration into digging for Irina's. I didn't find anything useful there. She was simply wondering about this constellation of people.

And somehow I detected a hint of pain in her thoughts. She was trying her hardest not to think about it, but I knew that her left shoulder was hurt in some way. It was odd because I saw nothing. But then again, she wore a completely black suit that clung tightly to her skin and I wondered what she was trying to represent.

"What exactly are you supposed to be?" Chris asked Irina when she didn't leave.

"Me? Oh, I am...one of Charlie's Angels. I actually wanted to do this with Kate and Tanya, but you know..." Irina trailed off. In her mind, she remembered how she had tried to convince Tanya and Kate to wear the same thing. Only, I heard nothing about Charlie's Angels. "Oh, well, Kate is still a little bummed because you dumped her, Dylan. I bet she would just loveto hear that you're with Chris now," Irina said sweetly. Dylan grimaced at her and she smiled once more before turning around and leaving. We all turned back to Alistair, but he was no where to be seen.

"Where did he go?" Bella wondered aloud.

"Why did she assume that Dylan dumped Kate because of me?" Chris asked, sounding rather annoyed.

"Because it's true," Dylan answered, smiling at her before laying his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, please," Chris rolled her eyes and shrugged off his hand.

"Shouldn't we be concerned about Alistair?" Bella asked.

"Maybe it was all just a Halloween prank," Chris suggested.

"Why would he give us the boxes, then?" countered Bella.

"He didn't give them to us when we got the wands, and we didn't go to get them, so maybe he was using this as an opportunity to give them to us. I don't know."

"Do you think it was just a Halloween prank?" Bella asked me.

I shrugged, "It could have been. The weird woman was only in the maze and might have been there just to make it more difficult for us to exit." Bella didn't look convinced.

"Maybe Alistair went home. We can go there and check on him if it's that important to you," Chris told Bella warmly, pulling her into a hug. It never ceased to amaze me how considerate Chris was when it came to her sister. To us mundane people, she was just plain mean.

"Hey, guys, what are you doing over here? All the fun's back there," Alice had come over to us with Rose, Jasper, and Emmett trailing behind her.

"We're gonna go check on Alistair. You guys wanna come?" Dylan as if it was something we did every day.

"Um, why?" Rose asked, narrowing her eyes at each of us.

"Because I'm a nice person and just thought I should ask you," replied Dylan.

"Shut up, you doofus," Chris said as she hit him lightly.

"Chris, you can't be violent and mean when you're dressed as Barbie," Alice complained.

"As I just demonstrated, I can. Now, are you guys coming along or not? If you do, we'll tell you the whole story."

"Are you sure it wasn't just a prank?" Alice asked when we'd finished telling them the entire story of what had happened. We were almost at Alistair's store which had his small, but cozy, apartment on the upper floor.

"No, I'm not. I just have this feeling that something is wrong," Bella answered, gripping my arm tighter. I was probably grinning like a madman, but I honestly didn't care. Alice and Rose, on the other hand, had been keeping their eyes on us the whole time. Suddenly, Bella froze.

"What's wrong, Bella?" I asked her in concern. She had been looking down the entire walk, and now she was pointing at the ground a few meters in front of us. We had been walking over one of the lawns, but Bella was staring at the end where the grass turned into pavement.

In the exact spot where Bella pointed was where it started. It dragged across the street and vanished around the corner where Alistair's apartment was.

A trail of blood.

"Oh my God," Alice squeaked, wrapping her arms around Jasper and burying her face in his chest. Rose did the same with Emmett, but didn't hide her face, while Chris stood there and narrowed her eyes.

"Bella, breathe through your mouth," she instructed calmly. I looked down at Bella who looked like she would pass out at any second. She did as Chris told her and slowly some of the color returned to her face.

"It looks like someone dragged something...bloody," Dylan commented.

"Not something," Chris hissed, "someone." I thought I saw her ear - the one that wasn't covered by her blond Barbie wig - twitch.

"I think we should call someone," Alice mumbled quietly. Chris had been taking a step forward and now turned. There was something different about her eyes, but before I could get a closer look and see what it was, they were back to normal.

"You go get Laurent," Chris said to Alice.

"Laurent? Shouldn't I be getting Carlisle or something?"

"Just do it, Alice. You can still call Carlisle if you want."

"Okay, come on, Jasper." Alice and Jasper hurriedly left.

"What are we supposed to do?" asked Rosalie.

"I don't know. I'm going hunting," Chris grinned an evil grin as she lit a flame on her palm like she had earlier. Something about her was different, but I wasn't sure what.

"Chris, you really shouldn't do that," Bella warned her, but her sister ignored her.

I made use of my mind reading and was surprised to find that Chris' mind was 'open.' Her thoughts were relatively normal, but I thought I found the source of her recklessness. It happened quite often, but usually, the situations weren't that dangerous.

"Chris, you have excessive magic inside of you. You shouldn't do anything stupid right now, otherwise you might end up unable to control it," I told her.

"I-" she started but was interrupted by an entirely green person coming from the direction of Alistair's apartment. It was a woman, that was obvious, and she looked like she was made up of plants and plants only. I had a guy with a gift similar to that in my class. The woman had a few flowers on her body here and there, and when she spotted us, she came to a sudden halt.

"That's the one from the maze!" shouted Bella and Chris in unison just before they launched themselves to run after the woman who was now fleeing.

"Chris, this could be dangerous!" I heard Dylan shout after her before he disappeared from beside me. I hurried to catch up with them, which didn't take too long. A second later, I stood beside Dylan, who was standing beside the two girls. In the two seconds it took me and Dylan to catch up, the woman had already vanished and Chris had thrown another fireball at a dark corner beside the entrance of Alistair's store.

"She just vanished into the shad-" Chris started to explain, but her gaze swept to the entrance of the store. The door was wide open and Alistair was laying a few meters from it. His eyes were blank and there was blood dripping out of his mouth.

He was dead.

---

A/N: Phew. That was a lot of work... So this is the part where I thank my wonderful, beautiful, funny and completly insane beta for making this story perfect ( I wish I had ehr already in teh first chapters) and of course I would never forget to ask for reviews. Could you please be so kind and review this chapter? (I've never been so nice in my whole life) Okay... anything else I wanted to say...hmmm. Oh yeah, if you want to see the costumes just go on my profile I put the links there other than that I got nothing more to say :D