Pretty Faces and Dark Places (2 page)

“Ugh! You’d think she’d be used to it by now.”

“Right?” Sophie giggled and I smiled, shaking my head.

Years ago, my best friend used to spend the weekends with me at my house. I would’ve gone to hers but her brother Jack, who was two years younger than us, was always playing pranks. We were his main victims for however long I’d spend there, so eventually I stopped visiting for that reason–well, as long as he was there. But then, as the years passed, and he matured the tiniest bit, my Nana–my very old-fashioned Nana–wouldn’t let me spend the night there because she believed that no girl should spend the night under the same roof as a teenage boy.

Sleepovers turned from weekends into weekdays, and then Sophie would spend the majority of the week at my house, only going to her house to change, just to please her parents. And let me tell you, they weren’t very pleased...but that was Sophie for you. She could convince you that the Red Sea was made of soda and pigs had wings. She was
that
good.

Anyone looking at us from a distance would think that we could never be related–which was true. She was short, I was tall; she had blonde hair while mine was pitch black. The only features we shared were a slim body, bright blue eyes and fair skin. But once they got to know us, they’d always wonder if we were sisters. We were inseparable. We finished each other’s sentences; some people found it cute, others found it annoying, but that was us. We lived in each other’s pockets.

It was past nine when we – Nana, Sophie and I—left Sophie’s house. We had dinner with her parents and brother, who by the way, put salt in my soup which made me cough like a long-term smoker. It earned him a slap to the back of his head from his dad.

We did that a lot, every chance we got, along with every holiday. That night though our plan was to go back home with Nana and pretend that we’d called it a night and that we were heading to bed–which we did. And as expected, Nana was out cold not half an hour later. We knew she wouldn’t be up until nine in the morning, thanks to her sleeping pills.

Since we were still dressed, we only freshened up. I straightened my short, white strapless chiffon dress and traded my heels for my favorite high top Converse, because there was no way I was going to wear those heels to a Halloween party. I put on the white wings Sophie had taken out of the closet earlier and applied light pink lip-gloss–and that was pretty much it. Sophie, on the other hand, exchanged her sneakers for red pumps that both matched the color of her lip-gloss and looked great with her ripped skinny jeans and blue blouse. Her Halloween costume was nothing but Minnie Mouse ears.

“No tail?” I faked shock, mouth and eyes wide open and all.

“Shut up!” She playfully punched my shoulder and we both giggled.

On the ride to the party, Sophie wouldn’t stop talking about how excited she was.
I
wouldn’t stop worrying. I didn’t like the fact that we were going to that party, partly because we’d snuck out. But Nana was very strict with me, setting my curfew at eight PM–ten PM on holidays and weekends. Can you believe that? Yeah, I snuck out with Sophie a lot, but not usually for parties, just to go hang out somewhere other than the house.

The other part was because of where the party was: in the
woods
. And they were creepy woods, at that. Woods that no one visited, but–according to Sophie–it was a cool idea to have the party there. It was a Halloween party after all and it was supposed to be creepy.

Whatever!

My best friend had been going on and on for the past
year
about the party she’d attended last Halloween in the very same woods. I wasn’t with her, only because Nana wouldn’t let me go and I couldn’t sneak out that night, and it had ended badly. There was an earthquake–something that happened quiet often around here–and it was just…awful. Sophie believed that she’d met the love of her life there, and if it wasn’t for what happened with everyone losing each other because of the dark and the running away, she would’ve been married to him by now. Her words, not mine.

Said love-of-her-life didn’t live in our town and they didn’t get the chance to exchange phone numbers. The only thing she knew about him that could lead her back to him was that he always came to the woods on Halloween each year to join the party. It was like a tradition for his family for many years, or something like that, so Sophie was here for him more than anything else.

“Do you really think he’ll be there?” I asked her, chewing on my bottom lip, a little afraid of her reaction to my doubts or if my words would upset her.

“I
know
he’ll be there,” she replied without hesitation.

“He might n–” I tried preparing her for the fact that he might not come or that they might not meet again, afraid that she would be seriously broken if he really didn’t show up for whatever reason, but she interrupted me. “I
know
he’ll be there,” she said again, all so sure.

I sighed and said nothing, wishing with all of my heart that he’d really show up. I only wanted her to be happy. Her happiness meant mine; I loved her that much. And more.

I was surprised, to say the least, when Sophie stopped the car. It was really dark, the moon was barely visible, and it seemed as if the stars were too shy to show. And...there were no lights anywhere nearby.

Surely she wasn’t thinking we would hop out of the car anytime– or
anywhere
– soon, was she?

“Why did you stop?” I asked, feeling a bit off. Okay – a little more than
a bit off
, to be honest.

“We’re here,” she said, smiling widely, then got out of the car. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Sophie! We’re in the middle of nowhere!” My eyes were wide open and my tone was disbelieving.

“We can’t take the car any further. There are no roads to take us to where the party is; we have to walk the rest of the way.” She explained as if it was the easiest thing to do on earth.

“Ugh! Unbelievable,” I exclaimed as I left the car, pushing the door closed.

Sophie took her cellphone out of her purse and tried to find the way with the little light that the screen provided. It was ridiculous. Just ridiculous.

“How do you know the way?” I asked, frustrated and annoyed. There were no cars where we’d parked Sophie’s. There was no light, and there was
no
sound aside from the crunching leaves under our feet. There was just
nothing
. “How do you even know it’s the right place?”

“I was here last year, May. Don’t worry, we’re almost there.”

Her words didn’t do anything to ease the feeling I had in my gut. It felt wrong, just wrong,
so
wrong. Everything around me screamed, ‘WRONG.’ The place was creepy and it was very quiet, very dark, and kind of cold – which alone was strange in itself, for our small town was always hot for most of the year, if not all.

A bird or
something
flew from one tree to another, causing me to scream in fear at the sound of the leaves moving against each other. I gripped Sophie’s arm tightly and looked all around in fear.

Sophie just laughed. She was so lame sometimes, I swear.

“This doesn’t feel right. Sophie, I want to go back!”

“C’mon, May, don’t be such a baby. Look, we’re almost there.” She pointed to the darkness. I looked to where she was pointing and didn’t see anything at first, but with a bit concentrating I could see the faint sign of light …
fire?

After some more walking and some more complaining from my side to Sophie, I could see clearly that it was a campfire.
What kind of party is this? Barbeque?
I thought to myself. Lots of the people there looked … I don’t know, it was just – they looked strange. There weren’t many people there, no more than forty or fifty, maximum. Many of them weren’t wearing a costume, just a suit or a tux. The feeling of how wrong it was to be in that place hit me hard in the chest again. I tightened my grip on Sophie’s arm while my other hand tightened on my purse where my pepper spray was, ready and waiting to be used. Fear crept into my heart more with every passing second and every newly taken step.

I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t.
I found myself chanting in my head. But then I thought,
the things you do for those you love …
and the thought was enough to make me go on.

I sighed and decided to just keep going and try to enjoy myself. It was for Sophie, after all, and I’d do anything for her – there was no question. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought it would be, right? I hoped so.

By the time I had finished the beer I drank only in an attempt to wash down the terrible feeling I had in my gut, Sophie had scanned the entire place and everyone at the party searching for the guy she’d come here to meet – more than one time. The worry I had for her increased by the second as I saw her smile fall just a bit more with every new face in the crowd that wasn’t that certain face she was looking for. I was afraid of her reaction if we eventually went home without finding
him
, but I had no idea what I should do. I just stood there awkwardly, swaying a little to the music playing in the background – though I had no idea where it was coming from – and chatting with Sophie in the hopes of distracting her, but it was useless, she was barely able to keep up with the conversations we had. I ended up disappointed because she wouldn’t stop looking for him, of course.

“Sophia!” I heard a male voice gasping the name loudly from somewhere behind me.

We both turned around to see the source of the voice, only to be met by a guy that appeared to be in his early twenties. He had brown hair and – though I couldn’t say for sure what the exact color was – I could tell that his eyes were light colored. Given the squeal that Sophie let out right in my ear and how she shamelessly ran the few steps that separated them then threw herself into the guy’s arms, I was able to tell that he was
‘The One.’

I watched them as they kissed and hugged, listening to a whole lot of
‘I knew you’d be here,’
and
‘I knew you’d come back for me,’
along with some
‘I was counting the days,’
plus some
‘You found me,’
until my face hurt from smiling so much. Eventually I got so bored from watching the whole display in front of me that I almost yawned.  I turned toward the party, seeing some girls as they made fools of themselves playing some drinking games while boys cheered loudly for them.

After what felt like ages, but was probably only a few minutes, I felt a nudge on my shoulder. I turned around again to see Sophie with the biggest smile decorating her face, a sight that had always infected me and made me feel the need to mirror it. “May, there is someone I’d like for you to meet. This is William Damon.”

After Sophie made the introductions, we chatted for a while. He seemed to be a nice guy and he had that look in his eyes as he gazed at my best friend that spoke volumes about what was inside of his soul towards her – he too was pretty fond of her. It was heartwarming.

“Um, I’m going to go check out the rest of the party,” I informed Sophie when there was a pause that turned into an awkward silence, pointing back with my thumb to whatever that was behind me.

“What? No way, I won’t let you go wander around by yourself,” Sophie said.

“I’ll be fine, I won’t go far away, I promise,” I said, because I had to assure her, otherwise she would never let me leave her side.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yep!” I offered her a small smile that grew when she hugged me tightly, as if I was going on a tour around the world or something, not just a few steps away to give her the privacy with William that I knew she must be craving. “Don’t forget to get his phone number this time, huh?”

Her answer was nothing but a chuckle, a nod, and a smiling wink.

Sometime later, as I was roaming around drinking another beer that had been offered to me by someone I knew wouldn’t tell my Nana – since he didn’t even know she existed and all – I saw someone that I thought looked awfully familiar. I kept glancing his way, trying to place where I’d seen him before, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. I just knew that I’d seen those dark eyes and that dark straight hair somewhere before – and that was about it. The guy caught me looking twice and both times I looked away, blushing hard.