The Presence

Chapter Forty: Halloween, a Night to Scream; Let the Battle Begin

Loretto High School Halloween Dance...

The four of us run toward the entrance and we see two girls and their boyfriends taking up tickets.

"Well, the Blackwell clan. I thought you and your Sister would be riding around on brooms tonight," the blond says as they all laugh...

"Do you have any tickets," her friend asks as the guys block the doorway.

"Max we don't have time for this."

"I know Sis. I'll take car of it. Trust me."

Megan and Hailey exchange a glance...

"I would advise you to move out of the way," I say.

The boys laugh, "Or what?"

"This..." With my thoughts I levitate both of them into the air and we continue inside.

As the girls back away from us Megan looks up at their boyfriends suspended in the air, "Hey...He warned you."

"Yeah... I would suggest when you get down to run for home," Hailey adds.

Logan laughs as I lower them back down and with fear in their eyes they stand staring at me. Suddenly the outside doors slam shut and the four of them run for their lives...

"That was so cool Max..." Logan says, then he stops laughing. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't shut the doors.  Did you Hailey?" She slowly shakes her head...

"They know we're here. Everyone build up your power. Logan, I need you to stay out of sight. When we get one of the doors open start getting everyone out of here."

"Alright Max," he says and turns to Megan. "I love you..."

"I love you too," They share a kiss. "I'll see you when this is over." With a tear falling down her cheek, she turns and hurries to catch up.

We walk inside the gym entrance and everyone is dancing... nothing looks out of place. Megan points to the stage, "There, It's about to happen..."

Looking up I see Cassie standing beside the mirror. It begins to glow an unearthly green and she doesn't even move. She must be under the doppelgänger's spell.

The light gets brighter and brighter until Megan's doppelgänger walks through the mirror. The DJ was staring at it as she walked out and he falls backwards knocking over his equipment and the music stops.  Those in the crowd that haven't noticed what's going on stop dancing and look toward the stage as the room falls silent.

Megan's evil twin laughs as Miss Franks steps up, "Megan, I don't know how you just did that, but your disrupting the dance."

"Oh, my names not Megan, although she's standing at the back of the room."

Everyone turns to see us as we start easing toward the stage.  We hear whispers from the crowd as they back up giving us a clear aisle to walk.

"My name is Puella Malum, but you can just call me the collector.  She turns toward the mirror and another figure walks out, followed by another...