Author's Note: I apologize for the delay in updating. I hoped to finish this story by Halloween, but Hurricane Sandy disabled my ability to work for a whole week. Thank you all for the kind reviews and followings.
Tori pulls out her PearPhone as she plops down on her bedroom chair and updates her status on the SLAP: "I feel a cold chill in the house, even though I have the heat turned up. Mood: Eerie." The tiny emoticon shifts its eyes in terror.
The doorbell rings in a slower than average melody. Shaking it off as imagination or coincidence, Tori shouts, "I'm coming." She gets to her feet and rushes down the stairs dressed in her Little Red Riding Hood costume, which makes her look like an out-of-place latina/fraulein. She opens the door recoiling from its cold touch.
Jade is on the other side, leaning forward with both hands resting on the doorposts. She sports a tight metallic-silver dress and fishnet stockings with nails painted black. A mischievous grin is worn on her visage.
"Hi, Jade," Tori squeeks confusedly. She was not expecting the goth girl to show up, because well, Jade hates her and Tori tries to spend as much time away from her as she can. Though, for some reason she cannot quite explain, she has a desire to be close to the deathly pale white girl.
"Heyyy, Tori," Jade drags out in a long sly tone. Her eyes do not reveal her full intentions.
"What's up?" Tori questions rather generically.
"Well, first are you ever going to invite me in?" Jade reprimands her frenemy, but without any malice in her words. She rubs her arms and continues, "It is freezing out here."
Tori gestures for her to enter. Jade walks through the door, taking every step purposefully like a cat on the prowl. Trying not to sound boorish, the tan girl mentions, "I was just getting ready to head out."
Jade spins on her heels and looks Tori up and down from head to toe. A new devilish smirk forms on her lips. "What!" Tori spurts with arms thrown up in confusion.
Not phased by the sudden outburst, Jade calmly asks rather sarcastically, "Little Red Riding Hood? Really? This is just too good a coincidence."
Tori is unsure what Jade meant by that last sentence but defends rather scrappily, "What? It's a classic, and it works for me." The latina takes up a dominating posture and concludes, "I do not care what you think of it. I don't need your approval. I look really hot in this, no matter what you say." She finished with folding her arms in defiance.
Jade tilts her head, studying the other girl's expressions. She opens her lips, "I never said it didn't make you look beautiful." Jade follows with a eerie yet sexy wolf's howl.
Tori clearly feels awkward, so she walks over to the kitchen table and pours Jade a glass of punch. She comes back over and hands Jade the orange liquid. "Here," she says less flustered, "Have some of my special Halloween punch."
"Isn't punch supposed to be pinkish," the other girl reminds holding the glass up for examination. She swirls it around in her cup and takes a sip. "This is just Gatorade," she remarks in surprise.
"Shhh..." Tori says placing a finger over her own mouth.
Jade smiles and replies, "You're secret is safe with me. I love..." and she drags out the last three syllables, "Ga-Tor-Ade."
Jade walks past Tori and she notices a new tattoo on the spooky girl's left arm. Tori grabs her forearm and twist her to get a better look. "When did you get a new tattoo?" she exclaims in her outside voice.
With her arm still held captive, Jade runs a finger over the tattoo. "I got it yesterday. It's the black sun. It symbolizes another force against all others-the antithesis of everything else." Whatever it is, it looks creepy and evil Tori reckons. Yet, Tori finds herself hypnotically staring into it and lets go of the pale girl's arm. Finally she breaks her fixation and asks rather straightforwardly, "So, why are you here, West?"
Jade smiles like the Cheshire Cat and raises her head to look into Tori's round face, "To invite you to a special party I'm throwing at Hollywood Arts tonight."
She's being nice? Jade is never nice. What's going on here? "Oh..." Tori croaks out, retreating a little. "That's unexpectedly nice of you, Jade. But I kind of already have plans with some other friends from my old school and I promised them I'd go to this other party." Tori feels a little bad, but not enough to cancel her plans for a last minute invite, especially considering it is an invitation from her long-time nemesis.
"That kind of hurts Tori," Jade says in a sing-song voice. It is difficult to detect if she is mad, completely indifferent or relieved. "The first time I try to be nice..." She shakes her head as if she is very disappointed in a child, but for some reason the face does not match the words.
Tori's heart sinks in her chest. She never wanted to hurt Jade. It's just that she really didn't envision spending her Halloween with somebody who constants takes shots at her. Not that she doesn't like Jade. It's just that... uh... it's complicated. She arrives at a compromise, "I'm sorry," she declares. "Maybe I can swing by later, after the party. Make it up to you?" She is hopeful Jade will take it.
Jade fakes a frowny face. "Okay. All right," she says the words not very convincingly but with a nod of her head. "I'm gonna head off to get my costume ready. There so much preparation." She walks over to the edge of the couch, ready to leave.
What could that possibly be, Tori wonders. She decides to ask, the curiosity now killing her. "You mean this isn't your costume? What're you going as then?"
"Oh, it's a surprise darling," Jade returns. She raises her eyebrows twice signalling intrigue. Jade takes a step further to leave, but stops and turns around. "But before I go," she asks taking out a cloth from her pocket and holding it out in front of her... "My dad gave this to me as a Halloween present but I cannot figure out what it is. It has this weird odor. What do you think it smells like?"
"Why would you want to know what it smells like?" Tori retorts but leans in anyway and cautiously begins to sniff the rag. Jade presses it hard against Tori's nose causing her to choke. "Jade!," she cries. "Ugh... it smells like chloroform."
Tori's eyes go wide as she realizes what just happened. She tries to hold her head up, but she struggles like a sleepy puppy. Finally, she closes her eyes giving into the inevitable and collapses towards the floor. Jade catches the latina with her boot, just before she hits the ground, gliding her gently down. She kneels down and pets Tori's head.
"Sleep tight Vega," the goth says ominously as she grins devilishly.
/
SLAP POST: That gank Jade drugged me. Wait, how am I texting while I'm unconscious. Mood: OD'd. Accompanied with a sickly, drooling smiley.
Beck and André are in Tori's living room, pacing back and forth, wearing anxious and worried expressions on their faces. Beck runs his fingers through his hair as a nervous habit, and André keeps groaning periodically.
Cat runs through the half-opened front door screaming, "Tori! Tori! Tori!." She scans the room with her eyes, finding only her two favorite boy friends. It takes her a few moments to realize that she was too late. She mentally slaps herself for not running fast enough, but she was out of breath!
"She's not here," Beck informs her grimly. His voice also runs out of breath, but this from emotional weariness. He's not quite sure how he feels about Tori, but he knows that at the least, he loves her as a friend, and cannot deal with anything bad happening to her.
"Jade got here right before us," André motions to the dead plants around him. "She's gone," he says and throws up his hands in defeat.
"Maybe Tori just forgot to water," Cat responds, offering a highly unlikely but still possible scenario.
Beck shakes his head. He holds up his smartphone in front of Cat's face so she can see the images. Cat sees a picture of Jade holding an unconscious Tori with her hands around the poor girl's neck in a chokehold—the princess of darkness smiling. Cat scrolls to the next pic: Jade putting pink lipstick on Tori; next: Jade holds Tori's hand on her cheek and makes her mouth gasp open with the other hand; next: Tori slumped in the chair, with Jade behind her, holding her fingers up to make horns on her head.
"Oh..." is all the short redhead can utter.
"I don't know what we're gonna do guys," André interjects. Beck takes a seat on the coach and André moves over to Cat. "This is some alien territory up in here."
As if it were the only sensible option Beck states, "We have to stop her." He looks up at his two friends with a deathly serious stare.
"And what do we do about the puppet," Cat adds, twirling locks of her bright hair between her small fingers in a paltry attempt to sooth her nerves.
Huh?" André asks in a Scooby-esque accent.
Cat's eyes go big and wide in earnest and she informs them, "Rex, he's evil. He came at me and Robbie with an axe." Cat swings her arms mimicking an axe in her hands.
"Awww... man," André whines. "Chuckie really freaked me out when I was a kid." He glances off into the distance recalling the past in his own head, and says so seriously, "I had to sleep with the lights on for six months... and I was eleven!" André sits down on the couch next to Beck, who pats him on the back reassuringly.
Beck shakes his head and remarks, "I always knew Jade was dark, but this beyond what I thought she was capable of. I never thought she would actually intend to hurt Tori like this" He holds his head in his hands.
Cat bends down and places a comforting palm on Beck's knee. "Awe, Beck. She's still our friend somewhere in there. She's just going through a bad phase right now." Cat's eyes are sincere and hopeful for her scary friend, who she does truly love like a big sister.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Beck says. He clasps Cat's hand and pushes himself up on his knees. "Still, I can't let her do anything bad to Tori."
"We don't even know where she is," André reminds them. He hates to be the debbie-downer, but he knows somebody has to keep them grounded in the cold, hard reality of the situation.
Cat raises her hand like she is answering a teacher's question and squeals, "I do."
André and Beck look at Cat surprised she is being so helpful and competent. "We saw everyone zombie-fied at school like..." Cat stands up straight and lets her arms hang loose, she defocuses her gaze like she sees nothing around her. "But with vanilla eyes," she adds, swooshing her hand past her face.
"Jade must be taking Tori to Hollywood Arts," André confirms, not that Cat didn't already say as much. He just liked playing Captain Obvious.
"Yeah... yeah..." Cat says encouragingly. She smiles a little, proud of herself. "I'm useful."
Beck taps her on the shoulder, "You did good Munchkin."
Cat giggles.
Beck and André grab their jackets from the end table and walk towards the door. Beck realizes Cat has no coat, and wraps his around her, earning him an unspoken thank you. Chivalry never died according to Beck who is truly a stand-up guy when you think about it.
André claps his hands loudly. "All right," he shouts enthusiastically. "Let's go melt the Wicked Witch."
