"Hey, you made it!" 

Madi smiled as she approached the large SUV that had pulled up at the front of the school.

"Did you really think I'd ditch you guys? On the night of our gig?" Madi asked Ashely with a smile. They all laughed as Madi climbed into the backseat of the car, sitting beside Ashely and Jeromy. Everyone else was rocking out the 'vampire' attire they had all agreed on. Their skin was pale, eyes red, and teeth sharp as Corbin drove.

"So, where exactly is the dance being held?" Madi asked. It was strange that they weren't having it at the high school, but she fingured that maybe through the fundraisers, the school had recieved enough money to have the Halloween dance at a nicer place than the auditorium or the gym. Maybe a place with nice acustics, lots of stage-space, and a great sound system.

"Surprisingly, the school made enough cash to hook us up with a pretty awesome place to perform." Corbin said.

"It's that old haunted house across that rickety old bridge? Y'know, the one next to that abandoned meat-packaging building where the city stores all of its meat supply?" Madi's eyes widened at Kimberly's words.

"A haunted house? Across an old bridge? Next to a meat locker?" Madi asked them skeptically. "Are you sure that they had enough money, or did they go bankrupt and just say that they were getting us a good place? Because, to me, that sounds like we would've been better off in the gymnasium." The band laughed at her comment.

"I guess you have a point," Corbin began. "But it's actually a pretty cool place. My grandfather used to work at the meat locker next-door to it during the 1970's. He said that every once in a while, he and his co-workers would hear someone screaming. 'Said it was ghosts." Madi's jaw dropped.

"Seriously? So the place is really haunted? With actual ghosts?" She asked him. Corbin just smirked and shrugged.

"We'll find out when we get there."

The six of them spent most of the ride talking about school and laughing about silly things that had occurred during the week. Madi couldn't help but smile and laugh along with them. At that point, she didn't regret sneaking out for this. She was happy that she was having fun with her new friends like a normal kid. That's all she had wanted to be, and now it felt like it was true, like she truly was a normal kid after all. Not some freak with a psycho-killer of a father and a sister, plus four mutant turtles and a rat-sensei. Tonight was her night.

But all that happiness would disappear as soon as they got to the bridge.

Madi and Ashley were in the middle of a conversation, discussing their science teacher and how he would always pick his nose with his pencils when he thought everyone wasn't looking, when they realized that the car was starting to slow down.

"Uh, Corbin? Is everything okay?" Ashley asked as they all looked out their windows.

"Yeah, we just arrived at the bridge. I gotta be slow about this. We don't want the wood beneath the car to break and send us plunging down into the river." Corbin answered with his hands gripping the steering-wheel tightly. His eyes were focused on the road ahead, as if he was concentrating really hard.

"What do you mean 'wood'? Is this bridge really that old?" Madi asked.

"It was installed in the middle of the 1920's and hasn't been replaced since." Kimberly informed them. "So, yeah, it really is that old." The car bounced, causing everyone to cling onto their seat-belts for dear life, until Corbin finally steadied the vehicle. They were all breathing hard from the sudden scare.

"And why exactly does the school want us to get killed?" Madi asked. "They obviously want every teen in the high school dead if they're making us drive over this frickin' bridge to get to where the dance is being held." Jeromy laughed beside her. But it wasn't a funny laugh, it was a scared kind of laugh. He must've been even more frightened than she was at the moment.

"Let's ask them that after we survive this-"

"IF we survive this." Kimberly chimed in, interupting Corbin.

Before Corbin was able to reply to her comment, a groaning noise suddenly filled the air. It was a deep groaning, like a giant with a stomach-ache. Madi looked out her window to see if anyone was behind them that was possibly causing the bridge to buckle under their weight. But they were the only car present. She looked up at the large cables that supported the wooden bridge, and immediately got her answer as to why the bridge had suddenly lurched beneath them.

Her heart stopped as two eyes glared at her through the darkness from the top of one of the cables, then four, then six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and so on.

They were surrounded by Foot soldiers.

So many Foot soldiers that they were actually starting to make the bridge buckle under the pressure.

* * * * * * * * * *

Raph, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey lept from roof to roof quickly. Worry filled them all like water drowning a sicking ship, but they couldn't let that get to their heads. They needed to stay focused if they were going to find Madi. When they got to the high school and saw that no one was there, they immediately called April and asked where the dance was being held.

"They changed locations this year. The dance is going to be at some abandoned building across town." She informed them over their T-phones.

"What's the address?" Leo asked.

Soon, they were on their way again.

'How could she be so stupid?' Raph thought. 'Does she want to get killed?' But he knew deep down that all she was doing was trying to be a teenager. He would never truly understand why human teens did what they did, but he could try to. And at the moment, he was really trying to put a lot of effort into understanding her and not wanting to smash something against a brick wall.

"How much farther to the bridge?" Mikey hollared from the back of the group.

"We're almost there." Donnie replied. "Just a few more buildings." Raph looked ahead and saw the familiar break in the constant pattern of sky-scrapers and apartment complexes where a river usually rested. They were getting close, really close. All they needed to do was cross the bridge, then run a few more blocks to the abandoned building where the dance would be.

They'd never get to the dance.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Sorry for the long wait for an update, but here it is! :D

I hope you guys have enjoyed my book so far! Thanks for all your support!

~Madness