Ugh. Today was Halloween.

Yippee.

Cassie was having a Halloween party at her house, what with her grandmother gone, looking for Faye's grandfather, and she, Diana, Faye and Melissa were helping set up now, but I stayed back at home.

There was one bad thing.

The girls and Adam wanted me to go to the party.

I had never liked parties or dances, but I had thought that this could have been a good way to get myself out of this isolation whole I had going on.

But first I had to go to the witch house.

It had been the first time I had been back inside since the night Nick had died. As I walked into the creepy place, I remembered everything too clearly. Like how the demon had possessed Melissa, making her go crazy and attacking all of us, the whole Circle being there, and Cassie having to run to get her grandmother, tell her, and get her help to get the demon out of Melissa, but that had been forced into Nick.

And even with the help of Cassie's grandmother, it hadn't been enough to save Nick's life.

No tears, I thought. If Nick had been here, he'd come down there and say that I was stupid for still being in the grieving process over his death and tell me to get the hell on with the rest of my life. 

I felt the corner of my lips pull up in a smile, knowing that thought had been completely right, and I could practically hear Nick saying, "What the hell are you doing still crying? Get over it already." 

God, I missed him.

But I was gonna listen to myself. Trying to get past this.

This was the reason I had come here. To get past the aversion to the abandoned house.

But I hadn't expected to hear Cassie and Adam in there, facing away from the door so they didn't see me, talking and near a laptop. I saw Faye at the top of the stairs with a Book of Shadows in her hand, the other leaning against the banister, and the other one holding the Book close to her face, open, and when she saw me, she put her finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet.

I nodded, both of us listening in on Cassie and Adam's conversation.

"Ever since I was little, my dad would talk about how he was supposed to be with Amelia and how I'm fated to be with Amelia's daughter," Adam said. "I should've known he'd say it to Diana too. But this break-up's not his fault. It's mine.The only reason why Diana believed what he said is because of the way I've been acting."

"Well, I'm sorry for anything I did to make that worse," Cassie said, leaning closer to the table in front of them.

"I don't know what's between you and me, exactly, but I know that without Diana, I am not much of anything," Adam said.

Oh, it was so beautifully pathetic!

"I was just waiting for a chance to mess with them about it.

"Then you should fight for her," Cassie told him. "Show her that."

Finally, I said something. "Oh, forbidden love. So adorable." Cassie and Adam looked to me by the door. "Am I interrupting?"

"Uh, no, no," Cassie said. "What are you doing here? You haven't been--"

"Since Nick died?" I cut her off, finishing, and walking further into the room. "Well, I am."

"But it sure sounds like she was interrupting," Faye said from the stairs, both of us sharing a devil smile.

Cassie looked up to her, not answering about that part, but asking Faye her own question as she walked down the steps. "Did you find anything in my Book about the symbols on the blade?"

"No," Faye answered, walking further down the steps, then around them toward Cassie and Adam. "But I did find a cool attraction spell for future reference."

"Boy, did I miss a chapter," I said, walking closer to them, and I looked at the Book in Faye's hands. "What attraction spell?"

She smiled, pointing at the one she was talking about, but I didn't get a chance to read it before Adam said, "I've got a match."

I didn't look at the computer screen, but Cassie said, "That's it. Does it belong to any family name?"

"Not family," Adam answered, a weird tone in his voice. "Uh, society. The Dedicas. Also known as the Hunters. This goes back all the way to the Middle Ages."

"Hunters?" I asked, completely lost.

"It's mottos to ancient texts," Adam said. "'Thou shall not suffer a witch to live'."

My eyebrows raised slightly, Faye and I exchanging looks while Cassie said, "So the girl who attacked me wasn't a crazy witch. She was a witch hunter."

"As if we don't have enough problems," I said with a heavy, bitter sigh, turning around for the door, and calling back to Adam, Faye and Cassie nonchalantly, "See you at the party."

I got to the party late, but I was pretty happy with my costume. I was an angel of darkness. Like, how some people dressed up with a white outfit, halo and wings, I had all black. Okay, not all black. The design on my shirt was silver, almost metallic, and so was the belt that held up my skirt. Yes, a skirt. For the second time in my life, I was wearing something other than jeans.

Plus, I had black ankle boots.

I was still earlier than the rest of the party. The only ones there were Cassie, Faye and Melissa. Cassie was a bumble bee with a gun, Faye was Little Red Riding Hood and Melissa was a school girl, like a preppy school girl with a school uniform like from the movie Clueless.

"What else can we do?" I heard Faye ask as I walked into the dinning room, the whole house decked awesomely for the Halloween party.

"Ooh," Melissa said, looking down at my costume. "Dark angel?"

"Close enough," I said with a smile.

"Hello," Faye said with annoyance. "I repeat, what else can we do? Bats?"

"Oh," Melissa said, looking up at a bat hanging from a string on the ceiling. "Take flight and dive."

Faye and I both looked up at the bat, all of us saying together, "Take flight and dive."

And, the bat did exactly what we wanted, its wings flapping and Faye laughed loudly while I smiled, and the bat flew over the top of my head, and I ducked and laughed. "Look out!"

The bat was doing the same thing to Melissa, flying over her head, and she ducked too, giggling. Then it went to circle around Faye, then went straight to Cassie as she walked into the dining room, and she screamed as it reached her face.

Then it went into the fire place, all of us watching as it did.

"Wow," Cassie said, nodding her head. "Nice work." She stepped toward me, looking at Faye to make sure she wasn't listening. "Um, hey, look, when Jake shows up, do you think you could keep him occupied?" 

I shrugged teasingly. "Maybe I could. What's the catch?" Before she could answer, I pointed at her. "Wait, why do you want him occupied?" 

"When I showed him the blade, he knew that there were three symbols when mine was missing one," Cassie answered. "He obviously knows more than he's telling us." 

"Why not ask Faye?" I asked. "She has 'history' with him too."

"Because he's already turned me down," Faye answered for Cassie, looking disappointed and pouty and . . . well, the list went on. "More than once."

"I really don't wanna know about that," I said.

"Good choice."

"Maybe I just don't wanna do it," I told them.

"Okay, first of all, whatever happened between you guys, I don't care, much less wanna know about," Faye said. "But I'm pretty sure you're saying no because of Nick, thinking of what he'd think, but, uh, guess what?"

"You say it--" I started to threaten.

"I was just gonna say that he'd tell you to do the whole double-agent thing to protect us," Faye finished, cutting me off before I could finish my threat. I looked down, then back up at her. "And you know I'm right."

As much as I hated to admit it, but she was. Incredibly right.

The party was at the fullest when I saw Jake starting to walk through the decorative fog and cob webs at the living room doorway, and I looked over to the bumble bee that Cassie was pretending to be for Halloween, and she nodded toward him, telling me to go after him.

I sighed an annoyed sigh, looking back at Cassie, and she nodded.

I walked toward him, and he looked me up and down at my costume. "Hmm. Costume fits, angel of darkness."

I could actually smile at that. "You're the first person to get that right." I looked down at his--which was only a black hoodie that he always wore. "Speaking of costumes, I like yours," I said sarcastically.

"Halloween's for kids," Jake answered. "I'm just here for the beer."

He took mine from my hand, and drank, and I let out a scoff. "Come on. Let me give you a tour."

"Tricia, no," he said. "Not now."

"Not now?" I repeated. "The old Jake didn't even know those words."

I backed away, beckoning him to follow me, and he sighed, still having my beer, placing it on the banister post and following me up the stairs.

"Why are you being nice?" he asked warily, but still joking and teasing at the same time.

I shrugged. "I've had a little bit too much to drink," I admitted.

"Maybe a little more than a little bit if you're not being a bitch."

I smiled, taking his hand and leading him up to Cassie's room. I didn't know exactly what Cassie was planning, or how she was gonna find out how much and if Jake knew anymore than he was telling us, because she hadn't told me anything except to keep him occupied.

I opened Cassie's bedroom door, leading him inside. "And this is her bedroom. "

"How sweet," Jake said.

I led him over to her bed, sitting down on it while he turned to look at one of her necklaces. It was a cross.

How was I supposed to "occupy him"?! He knew that I liked to play games, but he also knew that I didn't like to play games with him. And, yeah, I had told him I was a little more than drunk, which was quite, quite, very very true.

The last time I had been drunk I had tried to kill myself.

Don't think about that, I thought. Just distract him.

How?!

Uh . . .

I didn't like what I was thinking, but I also knew I didn't have a choice.

Standing up, I brought him away from that window, because I was pretty sure that Cassie was gonna go in his room. His room had used to belong to Nick before he died.

I chuckled as Jake turned to me, and I could tell that he was a little drunk too. Just a little though. Not as much as me.

He looked like he was having an internal debate, like he was trying to decide on wheather to kiss me or not. He had this look like he was guilty, but at the same time wasn't . . .

I didn't even have to make the first move.

He was the one that started to kiss me, and I could barely keep a smile hidden as we backed away from the window that was closer to his room, him sitting on the window seat while I sat on top of him, on his lap.

His kiss . . . seemed distant.

How? He was never distant. Not like this.

I pulled away, looking at him weirdly. I didn't even have to say anything before I was getting up and moving away from him, sitting down next to him. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"Come on, Tricia," he said, getting up and moving toward Cassie's bed and night stand as he spoke. "Is this just gonna be drama?"

I scoffed. "No." I stood up. "No, drama. I hate drama. And you know that." I walked closer to him as he turned around. "But something's different with you." I stopped right in front of him. "You were always an ass. And you always had a cruel streak." I shook my head. "But you were never distant. Not when we were like this."

"You're starting to sound like Faye, Tricia," Jake said. "I don't like to repeat things I've said to other girls." He smirked, using my own words back against me. "And you know that."

"Don't compare me to Faye," I said. "I'm not a clingly psycho that's been obsessing over you since you left." I looked back at him, tilting my head. "I'm just the girl that knows you too well. And I felt the difference since you got back."

Jake knew that I knew too well, and he knew that I was gonna end up finding it out sooner or later. "Look, I gotta go."

Before I could stop him, he was already walking toward the door and walking out, and I groaned, knowing where he'd go.

Straight to his house, his room.

And I looked through Cassie's window to Nick's--I meant Jake's window.

She was there.

I started to hurry after Jake, but I had lost him in the crowds out in the rest of the house.

When I almost made it to the door, Diana stopped me. "Hey, Tricia," she said. "Where's Faye, Melissa and Cassie? They should be here."

I liked her whole Ms. Frankenstein thing she had going with her hair frilled out, but I couldn't focus on that now. I know where Cassie is, but not the others. I really gotta go. Bye."

"Yeah, okay," she called after me.

I got out of the house and cut through Cassie's yard to get to Jake's, and then walking inside and up the stairs to his room.

Cassie was standing there holding out a knife to Jake. "Well, this is creepy," I said. To save Cassie's ass, I nodded to her. "Cassie, Diana can't find Faye or Melissa. We should get back."

She nodded, setting down the knife slowly and walking around Jake to get to me and the door, and Jake turned around to watch her pass by me, both of us looking at each other for a second before I turned around and walked after Cassie.

When we got back to her house, Cassie said, "I thought you were gonna distract him."

"I tried," I said. "I didn't realize you were waiting for him in his room until I looked out the window."

"I was looking for something," she said, stopping the walk and turning to face me. "But then I found something else." She froze. "Wait, you knew Nick better than anyone, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "I guess."

"Would he collect witch hunter items?"

"What?" I demanded, and before she could elaborate, we heard a phone ringing.

She walked over to the table that had her phone and answered, "Hello?" After a second, she held out a finger to me, walking away.

I rolled my eyes, turning the opposite direction and walking towards the cobwebs and almost bumping into someone. "Oh, sorry," I said.

"No problem," he said. The guy had on a hoodie and a pig mask that covered half his face, enough to where I couldn't recognize him even if I had known him. He gestured to his mouth. "You have something on your lip." Probably smeared lip gloss from kissing Jake. "Here, let me."

He used a cloth to bring it up, but I was already backing away. "No, I got it."

I started to turn, but I bumped into someone behind me.

It was Adam's costume. "Hey, Adam, little help here," I mumbeled, nodding to the guy with the pig face.

Adam raised a cloth like Pig Faces', having it cover my mouth before I could even move, and once he put it over both of my mouth and nose, I couldn't breathe, breathing in whatever it was that I was breathing in.

I was struggling and groaning and trying to pull away, but it was useless. I didn't have another Circle member with me, and I couldn't do magic on my own.

Didn't have a choice but to slip into unconciousness.

I didn't even wake up until I felt a blade cutting into my arm, and I groaned out in pain. I could feel the guy taking my ring that my mom had passed down to me before she had died 16 years ago. I always wore it. It was gold and blue.

"I'm gonna need this," he said, putting it in the bottle he was holding and then placing it on the table with four others.

Then he was moving onto the next person.

Cassie.

We were all here. Faye, Adam, Melissa, and Diana, me and Cassie.

Like he had done with me, and what he had probably done for everyone, used the blade to cut into Cassie's arm, waking her up, but she screamed out in pain as she turned to face him. "Luke?"

"You bleed like us, but you're not," he said.

"Enough," the older guy said. "Finish the cruids."

He walked out of the circle of the six back to back chairs, none of us facing the others, and Diana asked, "What is going on?"

"Witch hunters," Faye said.

I struggled against the ropes tying my hands behind my back as the older one said, "This is a ring of iron sulfgite. To stop your powers." I looked down to the tan powder on the floor that looked like sand, circling all around us. When I had looked down, I noticed that I wasn't in my constume anymore. Since when had I changed into an ugly brown robe? I noticed that Cassie, Faye, Diana, Melissa and Adam were in the same ones. "Signs prevailing over your ungodly magic."

"We haven't done anything wrong," Cassie said.

"But you will," he told us.

"Luke, please," Cassie said. "Stop this. Tell them that we're not a threat."

"You bound your circle, Cassie," Luke said. "You have no one to blame but yourselves."

"So you've been spying on us all this time just to nark to other witch hunters?" Melissa asked.

"Like my father did," Luke answered. "And his father. You're not the only ones born into a legacy." I was still struggling with the ropes, trying to see if there was a sharp end of chair on the back of it so I could cut myself free, then break the circle around us so that we could use our powers to fight back. "At least I can be proud of mine."

"That's enough," the older one said. "Finish it."

He walked past the space between me and Cassie, and I found something that I could move the rope over, cut it down. "Watch the witch," Luke said. "We never trust him." What witch? "For his every thought is a sin, as of every word a lie."

"Luke, don't," Adam said. "Look, Luke, I'm your friend."

"That's why I wanted to be the one to do this," Luke said. "I'm freeing you from a life of sin."

I scoffed, and Diana said, "That's not true."

"No, it's not," I said, still trying to cut free of the ropes. "You're not setting us free, you're killing us."

Luke ignored that and I heard him step further away. "I'm sorry, Diana." I heard him light the match. "You have a good heart. But that's not enough to protect you from your true nature. This will be fast. I promise."

Oh, God. He was really gonna do it.

Oh, God, oh, God.

I had never really like Melissa, and I had never listened to her when she had called a meeting with the Circle or anything, but I had never wanted her to die!

Don't do this.

"No!" Cassie screamed.

Glass shattered from behind all of us, and I was betting that it was the "cruid" that the older had called the glass bottles.

Who had done that?

I turned my head to look at Luke, as he went to grab Cassie's glass bottle and another match, striking it across the wood of the wall and walking closer to Cassie.

I watched as he slowly put the match into the glass.

Oh, God.

Cassie screamed again, dark and evil, and it wasn't her that was dying.

It was Luke.

His legs had caught on fire, trailing all the way up his body, Luke screaming for pain and mercy before he burned alive.

I finally had broken the ropes enough to where I could yank them apart. "Okay," I said. "Okay." I untied Adam first, and he went to untie Diana while I turned and untied Cassie, and then Adam untied Melissa and I untied Faye. "Come on," I said.

We heard Jake scream from outside.

I was the first one to run for the door and get the hell out, first to see Jake laying on the ground and trying to get up. I walked closer to him, but I didn't make a move to touch him. "Are you okay?"

"A guy in a pig mask jumped me," Jake said. I sighed, remembered Pig Face. "And brought me here. I fought him off."

"Where did he go?" Adam asked.

"There was an explosion from inside and he ran off," Jake answered. "Then another guy came running out too." That had to have been the older one. When Jake asked the next question, he looked at all of us, his gaze landing on me. "What happened in there?"

What had happened out here?

I didn't want to trust him anymore. Not after tonight.

Because, A, we knew he had been hiding something earlier, and, B, he hadn't been with the rest of us.

But what exactly did all of this mean?

I wasn't sure if I was ready for that answer.