I walked out of my last period classroom with an optimistic attitude for the rest of the day. Nate had asked me out on a date, to a dance, no less, and we were going to shop for matching costumes together. I don't know about him, but I felt like I was on cloud fucking nine.

I went downstairs to the commons and sat at a table to wait for him. I looked around at the few students who came to school that day that were passing by me. Completely oblivious to the hell I had been going through. Not understanding anything that I felt for the boy, the thing, who claimed to love me.

I then saw the beautiful, familiar face that belonged to Nate. Another guy was walking with him. He had auburn hair and brown eyes.

For a ginger, he doesn't look very...ginger-y... I thought. But I'm technically a ginger as well, I really have no place for judgement.

He bounced about like a little 7th grader, spazzing all over the place, causing the people who walked past him to give him strange and bewildered looks. Nate didn't look embarrassed, per say, by being with him, but he often rolled his eyes at the boy's stunts.

He spotted me. His eyes lit up as he started walking towards me. His friend was spinning around, not realizing that Nate was walking away from him until he had already walked a few feet away. Once he realized what Nate was doing, he flocked towards the two of us.

"Who's your friend?" I asked with a puzzled smile.

Nate rolled his eyes as he tilted his head to gesture to him. "That's Jesse. He's my cousin and I am not proud of it."

Jesse bounded up to me like I was an all-you-can-eat buffet. He leaned in real close to my face. I backed away out of sheer and utter disgust for him already. And I hadn't even heard him speak yet. I swear, he tried to even smell me.

"So yoooouu're Ava Lane?" he asked obnoxiously, his immature voice cracking every three seconds. I looked back and forth between the two boys and nodded. He shook Nate's shoulder, also shaking the smile off of his face. "Well good 'ol Nathaniel here hasn't shut up about you since Sunday!" he exclaimed.

Nate pushed Jesse off of his shoulder and took a step away from him. "Okay Jesse, shut up now."

"I mean, I can't blame him..." Jesse said, giving me a perverted stare. I returned it with a shocked one.

"Jesse, I need you to go home now," Nate ordered sternly.

"But I don't have a riiiiiide!" the boy whined.

Nate furrowed his eyebrows. "What the hell happened to your license?"

He sighed and gave him an exasperated look. "I got it suspended. I just told you that literally three minutes ago!"

Nate rolled his eyes. "To be fair, I don't listen to about 75 percent of the things that you say to me."

"Whatever. I'll just get a ride from someone else." He looked at both of us. "Are you guys going to go do something?"

Nate nodded and sat down next to me. "We are going to go look for costumes for the Halloween dance tomorrow night."

Jesse nodded. "Whatcha gonna go as?"

I looked at Nate, who returned my look. "Um...we don't know yet," I answered.

"Why, what are you going as?" Nate asked his cousin.

A large grin spread across Jesse's face as he tilted his head down slightly. "Me and the gang? Same as always..."

Nate sighed. "Do you really think that the costume that you usually do would be appropriate? Considering everything that happened this week?" I looked at Nate with a puzzled look. What was he talking about?

Jesse let out a groan. "Man, I don't care! Me and the guys totally revamped the costumes! We look perfect. No one will care. It will be fine."

"Well don't blame me if something happens to you because of your stupidity. I'm not bailing you out like I normally do."

Jesse let out a sarcastic huff. "Ugh! Whatever, man!" He started walking away. "I don't need you to bail me out!"

Nate sighed and looked at me. I gave him a questioning smile and waited to hear what he had to say. "Please humor him," he kindly requested. "He's a sophomore who still hasn't accepted the fact that he's not in junior high anymore."

I giggled. "It's completely fine." I bit my lip slightly and looked down. "Um...might I ask what he and his friends are going to be dressing as for the dance?"

His face went blank. His brown eyes stared into mine for a brief second before pulling themselves away. "You'll find out. I don't really want to talk about it right now."

Confused, but not wanting to pry, I nodded and let it go. I trusted Nate's judgment. If it was something that I didn't need to know, I wasn't going to worry about it. "Okay," I said. "Now, where are we going to go shop?"

The two of us stood up as he took my hand. He interlaced his fingers with mine. Electricity surged through my body at his touch. We began walking out to the parking lot.

"Well, I was thinking that Halloween store on main street? And then Goodwill if we get really desperate."

I laughed. "It probably won't come to that. But it's always good to be prepared."

He nodded curtly as he opened his car door for me to step into. He closed it and got in on his side and drove to town. We parked on the street in front of the store. The place was filled with costumes, decorations, accessories, and the sounds of screaming women and growling creatures. Ah, Halloween. My favorite time of year.

Or, at least, it used to be. Luther sort of ruined it for me, with his killing people and raping me and all that. I suppose that he was just getting into that good 'ol 'Halloween Spirit'. But seriously, that should only be for Christmas.

"Where should we begin?" Nate asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts and whipped my head towards him. My mouth hung agape like a fool. "Um...what?" I asked bubbly.

He chuckled and looked down, his white smile enticing. He looked back up at me. "I asked where we should begin looking."

I smiled cheekily. "Oohhh, haha." I tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. "Well, what were your ideas on what you wanted to be?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't dressed up for halloween in so long. I thought that I would leave it up to you. I'll do whatever you want." He smiled at me.

"Awe," I said sweetly. "Well, let me think here." The two of us began walking down an isle full of masks and such. I passed one of a gargoyle and a demented clown. Chills ran dow my spine.

"Can we go to a different isle?" I requested. "This stuff really isn't helping my nerves with Luther and everything..."

He nodded quickly and nudged my back in a different direction. "Let's go over here."

I nodded and walked to a section of the store where the costumes were much brighter. I smirked. "We could go as a sexy doctor and a slutty nurse."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't want to do anything cliche."

I laughed and pushed his shoulder. "I know, I was just kidding!"

He playfully fake-punched my arm as we continued walking around the store. "Ooohhh..." he cooed, looking at something interesting.

"What is it?" I asked, looking over his shoulder.

"I've never gone to a Halloween party as a super hero before." He pulled out a bright blue, muscle-y costume, with a red cape and a great big "S" in the center of the chest area. I chuckled. "I can be Clark Kent and you can be Lois Lane. You know, the Amy Adams version from Man of Steel? You've already got the hair color for it."

I pulled the end of my hair in between my finger tips and examined it. "Yeah, I suppose that I do."

"What do you think? Do you want to do that?" He looked so excited about going as superman to this party that I didn't want to ruin his giddiness with any other suggestions. Being Lois Lane wouldn't be so bad. She doesn't have an extravagant costume or anything, so no one will stare at me at the dance.

We found the rest of the superman accessories for Nate, including his shoes and a wig. There was no Lois Lane costume, but we found a female attorney costume that we decided would work just fine.

"I'm going to go try this on to see if it fits," Nate stated. I nodded as he went to the back of the store into the dressing room. I sat on a small couch nearby, and pulled out my phone to text my mom where I was so that she didn't get worried.

A figure suddenly loomed over me. My face went cold as I slowly shifted my eyes upward. I let out a sigh of relief. "Gomez..." I breathed. "You scared the crap out of me. What are you doing here?"

"I was picking up some Halloween decorations for tomorrow."

"You're going to open up your house for little kids to grab candy?" I scoffed.

He shrugged. "A house with a million locks on it is less suspicious when you actually answer it on Halloween."

I furrowed my brows. "How would someone know if your door has a million locks on it?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, I put locks on the outside of the door as well, for when I'm not home. They're to prevent Luther from getting out like last time..."

I nodded. "Oh...Is he with you, then?"

He returned my nod. "He's waiting in the car. Don't worry, the child locks are on, he can't get out. I cannot trust him to be alone without safety just yet."

"How is he holding up?" I asked.

Gomez shrugged. "I can't exactly say. After you left the other night, he seemed to completely lose his mind. But today, he hasn't really said anything. He has completely kept to himself. I fear that it's the calm before the storm."

"What storm could Luther possibly bring?" I asked.

Gomez shook his head. "This is Luther that we're talking about here. Anything, and I mean anything could happen. Be on the look out for danger, Louis Lane. Lex could pop up anywhere."

I furrowed my brows as he walked out of the store, holding his halloween decorations. Gomez hadn't used his superman references in a while. It made me start to think if this was more out of perspective than I had been seeing it. Would Luther actually ever try to kill me, even though he claims to love me? Or would Nate be the one to suffer?

Nate popped out of the dressing room and posed in front of me. I laughed and clapped my hands. "You look perfect!" I exclaimed.

"Thank you!" he returned. He gave me a warm hug. I returned it before looking at him. "Now you go try that suit on and see how it looks."

I nodded and went into the dressing room to change. Despite the grim situation, I smiled to myself. I had finally found my superman, after all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

New cover, I hope you guys like it. I'm still keeping the anime one on my second account because the characters look the same as the ones on the next two book covers.

Sorry the last few chapters haven't had a lot of action in them. We are building up to the climax here people.

I had a weird dream about Luther last night and this guy I used to like who was fighting with him over me and I was like "wut" the whole time

If Luther could do one thing to Ava, what would you have him do?

Please Vote and comment! Sorry for the long author's note