ROUGE.

[ 1 ] . halloween

T H R E E Y E A R S A G O
h a l l o w e e n

✶

Ever since they were kids they had been close. They all played baseball together, partied together, there was barley ever a time where the four of them weren't together. Christian Knox was the oldest. He was charismatic and every girl watched as he went. Finneas Burke was his little cousin. He was more timid and sensible than the rest. He was also the brainy one in the bunch. Christian's polar opposite best friend, Dane Parker joined the group last. He was wild and sarcastic. Unlike the other three, Dane Parker grew up in the fields. Instead of coming from money, he made money. And then there was Dominic DeHaven, the one that fell a step ahead of the rest. Maybe it was because he was the the most aggressive and bold. Or maybe it was because he was a controller, seeking charge above the other three.

He was the type of guy that when he saw something he desired, he took it. He was completely fearless and though the others followed his actions, they often were the ones pulling him back when he went too far. And he always went too far.

He cared little about school. He had never been arrested, but he had many close encounters with the police chief, Roger Gellis. He liked pissing people off. He liked to play. He liked to take. He liked to intimidate.

Tonight it was halloween, a night that he felt the need to show his reckless nature. It was a night when all of them could let loose a little and they planned on doing just that. They planned on partying, their last halloween party as high school seniors.

Christian's dirty blond hair was messy and he had a painted skeleton covering half his face, his eyes left dark from the jet black, dewey paint. Finneas was dressed in red, devilish horns extending from under his fluffy brown hair. The costume was ironic because Finneas was far from evil, he was a lover boy after all. This had been something Christian convinced him to wear for shits and giggles. He tried to convince his younger cousin to be a little devil and take the girl he liked to bed already, but Finn was far too shy for that.

Dane was something between a clown and an axe murder with the painted red scars on either side of his lips and the red circular dot on his nose. His flannel had fake blood poured all over it, but it wasn't him who looked the scariest. Instead, it was Dominic.

He wore all black and a hoodie, leaving the front unzipped so his bare, tattooed torso was on display. Under the hood all that could be seen were his grey-blue eyes. His face was hidden by a pitch black mask, only leaving slits in the shape of nostrils so he could breathe, and eyes so he could see. His jet black hair spilled out from under the hood and overtop of the mask, adding to the darkness.

And everybody stared at him, though nobody knew for sure who was under the mask.

They partied and drank despite being underage. Christian was making his cousin do shots while Dane was busy with a girl who was grinding against him to the music.

Dom was hardly entertained, his mind wandering about all of the mischief that he would get into tonight. And when his gaze met brown eyes and big eyelashes, already staring at him, he knew just how he wanted to get into trouble.

Shiloh was her name.

She was a golden girl with wavy black hair and rosy pink cheeks. Dominic was nearing nineteen, and though she intrigued him, he'd never do anything with the sixteen year old girl.