Finding Elise

Chapter Ten

      "Let's have a girls night." Tessa said, walking into the living room where Amber and I sat working on our costumes for the dance. Jackie was still at her evening class. Tessa plopped down on the couch and continued."You know I think Blaine is great, but he's always around. We need some serious girl time."

    I grinned. "I guess he has been coming over a lot." Ever since I had agreed to give Blaine a chance, it was like he was doing everything in his power to show me what a great person he was. He came over, helped me with tricky homework assignments, gave me back rubs and made me delicious meals. Technically we hadn't been out on a date yet, but it felt like we were already together. The dance was tomorrow which would be our first official date.

    I was really excited. We had decided to go as a 1920's gangster and his flapper girl. Amber was helping me get the costumes together. We had found a red sheath dress at a thrift store and she had helped me add some fringe to it. We had also found a black fedora for Blaine to go with his suit. Amber was going with Robert as Sandy and Danny from Grease. Tessa and Jackie hadn't been asked but they had gotten some friends together for a group costume. They were dressing up as otter pops and they looked pretty awesome.

    "I think a girls night sounds perfect." Amber said. She had a blonde wig sitting in front of her and was brushing through it. "What do you have in mind?"

    Tessa grinned. "Junk food obviously. We could have lip sync battles?"

    "There's only four of us, how would that work?" I asked.

    "A bake-off?" Tessa said.

    "More low-key I think." Amber said.

    "Card games" Tessa asked.

    "No, way. Those take brain power and I'm tapped." I laughed.

    Tessa chewed on her lip and frowned in thought. "What about a scary movie night? You know, to get us all ready for Halloween tomorrow."

    "I could do that." I said. "As long as it's not too gore filled. Blood freaks me out."

    "Count me in." Amber said. "No clowns though."

    "Fair enough." Tessa said. "I'm not even going for the uber scary movies, just enough of a scare for fun. I'll text Jackie and ask her what she thinks."

     As Tessa was pulling out her phone, my own phone chimed.

    "Is that Blaine?" Amber asked as I read the message.

    "Maybe." I grinned.

    "Ha! It totally is." Tessa teased. "How is he going to handle not seeing you tonight? Better let him down gently."

    "He'll be fine." I said, rolling my eyes.

    Blaine: Hey beautiful, how's it going?

   Me: Good, just finishing our costumes for tomorrow with Amber

   Blaine: Sweet. I can't wait to see you in your dress. No fair, not giving me a sneak preview:(

    Me: I'm sure you'll survive;)

    Blaine: You never know...So what are you doing tonight? Want to come over and watch a movie?

    Me: Actually...we're having a girls night. My roommates miss me. No you allowed, sorry:)

    Blaine: What? I feel so wounded. I can't believe you'd give up all this for the night.

    Me: You get tomorrow. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

    Blaine: That's a silly saying. Well if you insist on abandoning me, I guess I can live with it. But you better make up for it later;) Deal?

    Me: Haha we'll see;) See you tomorrow.

    Blaine: Alright if I have to.

    I closed my phone. "He's good."

    "Yeah right." Tessa said. "I'll take it though." She jumped up from the couch. "Alright so Jackie said she would be home soon so let's have everything ready by the time she gets here. Amber, you get the snacks. Elise, you get all the pillows and blankets from our rooms. I will pick out a reasonably scary movie selection. Ready? Go!"

    Amber and I scrambled to our feet and raced off to get our assignments. 20 minutes later we had constructed a pretty impressive fort around our little t.v. Several bowls of tasty treats sat inside, just waiting to be devoured.

    Jackie walked in the front door. "Wow guys, this looks awesome!" She looked over our masterpiece. "What a neat idea."

    Tessa poked her head out from the fort. "Hurry up and get your pj's on so we can start."

    Once Jackie had changed and squished her way into the mound of pillows and blankets, Amber turned off the lights and Tessa pushed play. I wasn't sure what we were watching but the ominous music at the beginning told me that Tessa had chosen well.

     About a third of the way in we heard a large clap of thunder and rain descended over the house. The windows shuddered from the howling wind.

     "Oooo the storm makes it even spookier." Jackie said and we all huddled closer together as we watched the protagonist enter a dark room, alone.

     "That's how everyone gets killed off." I said. "They always separate, go poking around places they shouldn't and then bam! They're dead."

     "You know I'd like to see a scary movie where the characters know all the things they shouldn't do but they die anyway." Amber said.

    "There's an episode of Psych kind of like that." I told her.

     "Really? Well maybe I'll cave and watch it with you." Amber said.

    "Shhhut your faces." Tessa said. "It's getting good."

    We fell silent as the characters on screen unknowingly inched their way closer to the being who wished them dead.

    "Look behind you! Look behind you!" Jackie yelled at the screen. Her hands were covering her face and she was peeking through her fingers.

    "Ahh no, they're goners." I said. Tessa's arms flailed in our direction, trying to get us to shut up.

    Several things happened all at once. The creature jumped out at his victims, a crash of thunder sounded followed by a flash of lightning and our front door swung open, a shadowed figure illuminated in the light. We all screamed.