Page 47 of Forever

“Oh, I know, I’m not leaving your side for a second. There’s a reason why I chose this couple.” I gestured to our costumes, trying not to get distracted by what his fig leaf was hiding. “I’m going to be such a stage five clinger tonight.”

He laughed. “Should we get in there?”

“Yeah, Nigel’s costume doesn’t make much sense without us.” Matt insisted that Nigel go in while he took off his clothes in the car. But I was pretty sure he just didn’t want to be seen in the party next to Nigel.

Matt groaned. “I hate his costume.”

“It’s hilarious.”

“It’s really not.”

It so is.I tried to hide my laugh as Matt tucked me into his side. We made our way down the hall with the eerie music. Each step grew a little darker. I was gripping his hand so tightly, looking left and right, waiting for something to pop out. But…nothing happened.

The hallway was decorated with tons of tombstones. But there were no coffins for zombies or skeletons to pop out of. It was just tombstone after tombstone. The music had grown more sinister, but nothing else had.

I took a long, slow breath. “This isn’t nearly as scary as last time…”

A ghost fell from the ceiling right in front of us, cutting me off. I screamed at the top of my lungs and pressed my back against the wall. Okay, yeah, this definitely felt like the Halloween party, not the other party. My heart was racing so fast.

Matt laughed.

“Not funny!” I said. “I nearly had a heart attack.”

Matt caged me in against the wall. “I love making your heart race.”

“You probably shouldn’t make my heart race too much. Because it’ll just get you excited too and you might tent your fig leaf.”

He laughed and pulled back. “Fair. You really should have sewn on a bigger leaf.”

“That’s the biggest one I could find.”

He smiled. He seemed very content with that explanation.

I grabbed his hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of this hallway as fast as possible.” I started running, pulling him with me.

He laughed when another ghost fell from the ceiling and I screamed. This shit seriously wasn’t funny. This party probably wasn’t the best choice after being too scared to leave the house in weeks. I stepped to the side to avoid another ghost. I knew it was all fake, but I couldn’t seem to calm my racing heart.

There was a big wrought iron gate near the end of the hallway, several feet in front of the closed door at the end of the hall. We pushed it, but it didn’t budge.

“What the hell?” Matt said and tried again to no avail.

There was a low groaning noise behind us and the floorboard in front of one of the tombstones shifted to the side. A zombie started slowly sitting up.

“Open the gate!” I yelled.

“I can’t. It’s locked.”

Someone screamed behind us.

I turned around to see Penny clinging to James. She was waving around a flute like she was going to hit a ghost or zombie with it. And from her band camp t-shirt, I knew immediately that she was the girl from American Pie. But James’ costume completed the couples’ costume perfectly. His hair was really curly and he was dressed almost exactly like Matt. But instead of a fig leaf on his boxers, he had a pie tin over his junk.

I would have laughed, but the zombie was starting to climb out of the floor.

“Open it!” Penny yelled.

“It’s locked,” I said.

“Oh my God, how do we get out of here?!” She grabbed my arm.

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