a/n. just a quick note. this book is written for the LGBTQ+ Halloween contest. idk if this story will be good enough but i hope it's good lol. enjoy :)

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Ever since Emilia's departure to pursue studying in another country, Lexa had been nothing but a total mess. She never got any calls or messages from her. It worried her. A lot.

What if this was a way for Em to break up with me?

For the past month, she had stuffed nothing but donuts into her body. She had not once move from the sofa. The only times she did was because nature called. Lexa was in despair and there was no telling when this phase would stop.

Winn, her best friend and roommate, had tried many ways for Lexa to get her life back together. None of it worked, it seemed.

He was looking through a pile of letters when he saw one with 'Lexa' written on it. Since giving it to Lexa herself would be like giving the letter for a brick wall to read, he opened up the letter and read it himself.

It was a card. An invitation. The card was solid black with glossy orange letterings. The corners were etched with cobwebs.

YOU'VE BEEN INVITED!
+1

And behind it were the rules.

1) Halloween-themed Masquerade
2) All to wear a mask.
3) Since it's halloween-themed, any mask ranging from a traditional masquerade mask to a hero's mask or a weird alien mask are allowed. The same for costumes.
4) Masks come off at midnight.

"Hey Lex, we got invited to a masquerade ball!" Winn announced excitedly.

"Yay," Lexa cheered sarcastically as she waved her hands in the air.

"Oh c'mon Lex. It'll be fun. You can even find yourself a new girl and y'know, forget about her."

Lexa groaned at the mention of her ex. The thought of having to get out of the house disgusted her, but she agreed anyway. In truth, she needed a shower.

---

Lexa wore a suit. A velvet suit with cobwebs designed onto the flaps of the blazer and at the two ends of her slacks so as to give a Halloween vibe to it. She had her pixie cut, temporarily-dyed white hair styled into a delicate wavy quiff outward to the left. To complete her outfit, she had a detailed golden mask. It was matching with her blazer, much like The Phantom of the Opera mask.

In comparison to Lexa's fancy outfit, Winn chose to be Batman.

"Wow," Louis was amazed by the looks of his best friend. "If you weren't gay, I would've asked you to be my girlfriend."

All Lexa replied was "ew" at his statement.

"Why did you choose to wear a suit, though? Aren't suits for men?"

Lexa rolled her eyes. "Screw gender stereotypes and besides, I hate wearing dresses."

They followed the red carpet leading them to the golden doors of the hotel where the masquerade ball was held at. As they entered the building, the pounding sound of music blasting travelled through floors.

When they finally reached outside the room masquerade ball, they put on their masks before entering. The room was dim-litted, decorated with orange and black streamers and had colourful spotlights moving about. The room was filled with elegant ladies in dresses and gentlemen in their tuxedos along with those in their weird and interesting Halloween costumes. They were dancing before a stage that had a DJ streaming pop songs.

This was the first time Lexa was at a masquerade. She didn't know what to do, or what was expected of her. So she stood around the perimeter and watched her best friend go crazy in the crowd, dancing to the fast beats of the song.

Amongst the masked people in the crowd, Lexa caught a pair of beautiful, blue eyes staring at her, studying her very being. Those ocean-like eyes. They looked familiar, like she had seen it before. And it pained Lexa that she couldn't figure out why it was familiar.

The masked girl had a shiny black mask. Brunette hair put up in a neat bun with braids outlining her head that looked like a halo on an angel. A plain black dress wrapped around her body, showing her curves and at the end, it flowed like a wave.

To say Lexa was not falling for her was a lie.

She  gave a flirty wink and in a blink of an eye she was gone. Weird. Lexa looked everywhere but the mysterious masked girl was nowhere to be found.

Who is she?

Maybe Winn was right. Maybe Lexa could finally move on and get herself a new friend, at least.

Hence, the desire to get to know the masked girl led Lexa to walk around the perimeter of the room, in the hopes of finding her. Fruitless, it was. Then, she saw a glimpse of her near the trick n treats table. And so Lexa quickly walked there, almost jogging. However, the girl wasn't there went Lexa reached the table.

"How is this even possible?" Lexa muttered to herself.

The mysterious masked girl was indeed mysterious. One moment she could be here, the next gone, following the next she would be at the other end of the room. It was as if the girl could either walk through the masses of people dancing in a crowd or had the ability to teleport. Either way, Lexa found the situation strange. Very strange.

Tired, she got herself a punch and took sips as she scanned the room for the masked girl. Once again, she was nowhere to be found. Lexa let out a sigh of defeat as she leaned onto a wall. She looked at Winn. Seemed to her that Winn was having more fun than she was. She was on a wild goose chase while Winn had been socialising with other people.

"Looking for me, were you?" asked a painfully familiar voice.

Lexa immediately turned to her side. It was her. It was the mysterious masked girl. Finally. She smiled as she took in the beauty that arrived right in front of her.

"Wow. You look stunning," Lexa breathed.

"And so do you, charming one," the masked girl returned the compliment.

When the two met, the music changed to a slower tempo. A slow dance.

"May I ask you for a dance?" Lexa asked as she extended her hand out.

The masked girl flashed a smile as she took Lexa's hand. Even the touch felt awfully familiar. "Thought you'd never ask."

Lexa led her to the dance floor. She postioned her hand onto the masked girl's waist and the other girl had hers rested on Lexa's shoulders while the remaining hand was extended and they intertwined their fingers. Her touch was electric and fireworks exploded in Lexa.

And they slow danced.

Lexa was self-conscious and kept looking down because she led them both to the dance floor when she didn't know how to dance. She was afraid she would accidentally step on the girl's toes. As if the other girl could read her mind, she told Lexa that there was nothing to worry about. Even if she did step, it was merely an accident.

They swayed to the music and moved with the others, circling in the room. The two exchanged small talks to pass the time.

"What's your name?" Lexa asked softly.

"That, I can't tell," the masked girl replied. Lexa was disappointed at her answer.

As they danced, Lexa wanted to know who this mysterious girl was. She wanted to know who was under that intricately decorated dark mask. Everything about her was familiar. Painfully familiar. Up till now, she still couldn't figure out why.

The more they moved to the music, the closer they got. Their faces inches away. Lexa looked down at her plum red lips and back to her ocean-like eyes. She would be a fool not to take the opportunity to connect their lips together. And she did. She went for it. Instead of pulling away, the masked girl savoured it, taking in every second of it. More fireworks exploded in Lexa's chest for the fact that she kissed back.

The clock struck twelve. It was midnight. It was time for everyone to take their masks off to reveal the person under it.

"It's finally midnight!" the DJ announced and the crowd cheered. "Masks off everyone!"

This was it. Lexa would finally get the chance to see the mysterious girl under the black mask.

When Lexa turned to the masked girl, she wasn't there. She must had slipped away when Lexa directed her attention to the DJ. However, in her periphery, she saw the door at the entrance starting to close.

Right before she could run after the mysterious masked girl, Winn grabbed her wrist.

"Let me go, Winn!"

"Quick question. Why were you dancing alone? And who were you talking to?" her best friend asked, concerned etched on his face.

Lexa frowned. Alone? She was not alone. She was with the girl the entire time. Unless. . . No, that was impossible.

"I need to go. Bye, Winn," she yanked off her wrist from his grip and ran after the girl.

Exiting the room, she looked to left and to the right of the dim-litted hallway. The masked girl couldn't have gone far. Lexa took note of the elevator going all the way up to the top floor. That must be her. That must be where she went. Quickly,  she took the other lift and went up.

And there she was, standing by the balcony. The mysterious masked girl was looking down at the busy street. She had let down her hair down. Her beautiful brown waves blowing through the gentle breeze. Mask still on.

"Who are you?" Lexa asked as she closed the distance between them, taking off her gold mask.

The masked girl turned around and her hands were taken into Lexa's. A dark cloud hovered over her ocean-like eyes, the sea in them becoming choppy. Lexa waited in anticipation for the girl before her to reveal who she was underneath. She needed to know who she was.

As she took off her black mask, Lexa's face fell and her heart stopped thumping.

"Em?" she stumbled backwards at the face reveal. "What? How? What?"

Lexa couldn't make out anything. She had mixed feelings about the whole situation. Relieved that her maybe or maybe not girlfriend was right there in front of her but at the same time confused. Why would she be here when she was halfway across the world?

"W-why are you here?" Lexa said a little too harshly.

"I'm not," said Emilia as she planted a kiss on her cheek.

And this brought about more confusion for Lexa. She was standing close to her, hugging as a matter of fact, and yet she said she wasn't there.

Emilia let go of Lexa and out of nowhere, her form was dissipating. Literally.

"May we meet again, Lexa," she breathed her final words and gave her a small smile.

And just like that, she was gone into thin air.

Lexa sat down and leaned onto the glass pane of the balcony and rethought about the what just happened. Dots were unable to connect. She couldn't wrap her head around it. Everything was a blur.

That was until she realised what was going on. Pieces of the puzzle put together. Tears started streaming down her face.

No. It can't be. She's safe over there, she can't be. . . No.

She couldn't be a ghost. No way. But it all made sense. Every single touch, the kiss, it was all real. It was physical. Lexa felt Emilia like she was an actual physical being. And she was invisible the whole time, only visible to Lexa's eyes and no one else.

She didn't want to question anything else.

All she could think of was Emilia coming back and be reunited again. But that seemed impossible now.

Did Emilia come back to inform Lexa one last message?