Alice stood at the gate of her best friends house, the black umbrella held above her head as rain gently coated the waterproof layering. It was just coming up to seven o'clock on a Friday night and the storm that had been towering above Summerland and decided to let up, only a little, for the weekend.

The gate buzzed and clicked open, allowing Alice to slide through before she pushed it shut again and made her way up the stepping stone pathway alongside the short driveway to get to the front door. "Hey," Candice Eno grinned, who had been one of Alice's best friends ever since freshman year. She stood aside and let Alice pass through the modern front door and step into the warm villa-style house with its large glass windows and slate floors. "Can you help me with my hair?" she asked, "Olive is no help," she added she lead the way through her large, beautifully designed home and to her room.

The sound of Fade by Kanye West flowed from Candice's speakers, but managed to get louder as she pushed open the door to her room, revealing the wide open minimalist space covered in small piles of sparkly clothing, make-up and shoes. In the centre of the room Olive Lopez salsa danced lazily with a red cup and a straw in her hand, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the music. "See?" Candice smirked, glancing back at Alice who also smiled seeing Olive's behaviour.

The trio had been inseparable since freshman year, they knew almost everything about each other, had the same taste in music, alcohol, boys, politics, books... they could even finish each others sentences if they were into that sort of thing. "So, this Christmas party..." Candice began as she sat down at her vanity and Alice immediately began to help her style it, "Is there a theme?"

"I don't know, it didn't say." Alice said, admiring the softness of Candice's hair. She looked so much like a young Naomi Campbell, it was a mystery as to why she hadn't tried to start modelling.

"Nice isn't it?" Candice grinned, patting the top of her head, "It cost me enough," she laughed, noticing how Alice was playing with her hair before she began to curl it. Alice grinned,

"I liked the lilac lace front you wore this summer, it looked so good," She complimented genuinely, even though deep down she felt the warm trickle of friendly jealously since her best friend made every single colour look good. From a bright orange to mint green to pastel purple. Candice grinned as well and settled down to have her hair styled as the music continued to flow throughout the room.

The three sixteen year olds got ready together, dressing themselves up in short, glittery dresses as they danced and drank to music, sipping stolen alcohol from the cupboard downstairs since Candice's parents were out at the School's monthly PTA meeting. "I'm gonna go get some more coke," Alice announced, her head feeling a little light from the drinks she'd already consumed. She left Candice's bedroom shortly after and made her way through the house with a red cup in her left hand, her hair tied up in a messy bun on the top of her head since she couldn't figure out what to do with it yet.

She could hear the music from the bedroom as she entered the kitchen, pausing momentarily as she noticed Candice's older brother Trey and another guy from his circle of friends, Charlie, each of them seniors. She took in a deep breath and smiled warmly yet shyly as she approached them and went straight for the fridge as their conversation stopped in her presence, "Hey Alice," Trey said, his deep brown eyes eerily innocent looking as he watched her,

"Hey," she replied and pulled another coke bottle from the shelf.

"Little early to be drunk, isn't it?" Trey smirked, glancing over her short glittery pink dress that complimented her milky skin tone well. She noticed him looking in her peripheral vision and turned to face him fully,

"It's almost eight," she replied, glancing at Charlie who lent against the counter to the left of her and watched them converse in silence as Trey laughed at her response, "Are you going to Veronica Green's party?" she asked, standing with her hip sticking out slightly as she held the coke bottle with both hands, her bright blue eyes glancing from one boy to the next with subtle confidence.

"You were invited?" Charlie asked and Alice nodded, not liking his tone.

"Yeah but we're not going to be there till late." Trey said, the sound of his car keys moving in his hands catching Alice's attention. "We're going to Magnus's before for a... little pre-party. His parents are out of town,"

The sound of his name made Alice's cheeks warm... Magnus Johnson. The sound of his name, wherever she heard it, whether it was from someone else's lips or her own, made her heart clench with need and her stomach flip with the unrealistic nerves just imagining if she was ever to speak to him or even be near him. It was a harmless crush she told herself, he was eerily and effortlessly good looking and his parents nearly owned half the land in the province because of their wine business. Magnus was a name that suited every inch of him. The very idea that he would be at the same party as her this evening made a strange warm sensation travel through her veins.

"His parents are always out of town," Charlie laughed, causing Trey to laugh too as if it was some kind of inside joke as they clapped hands momentarily.

"Anyway... uh, I'll see you later then, I guess Murphy." Trey smirked, looking her over again before both boys stood up straight to pull on their jackets. She nodded a little, acknowledging his flirty tone but didn't respond to it openly, instead she held eye contact as he walked past her. Trey chuckled under his breath and looked away first just before the two boys loped with a masculine elegance towards the front door and slipped out.

Alice turned away and walked slowly back to Candice's bedroom as her mind ticked away again, her expression momentarily vacant as she thought about how Magnus would be at the same party as her repeatedly...

* * *

The clock struck exactly ten o'lock as the car pulled up outside the lake house, it had stopped raining by now but the road still glistened with the remains of the days earlier weather. "Are you sure it said Christmas party on the invite?" Candice asked as they all got out the Uber and drank in the scene before them.

The lake house was in fact covered in Christmas decorations, and golden sparkling reindeer that stood proudly on top of the roof... but the house seemed to breathe along with the intense level of music that vibrated from inside. The three girls stood with their mouths slightly open, their heads spinning slightly from the drinks they'd had at Candice's house but even then the sobering thought that they were probably the youngest people here and the most inexperienced seemed to bring them down from the high they were feeling. "Jesus Christ," Olive whispered as she noticed that most people were either wearing black and other dark colours, and here they were in brightly festive looking dresses.

"Let's just go inside," Alice muttered, holding the bottle of rum she'd brought with her tightly. They walked in a trio down the pathway that led them through a precisely decorated winter wonderland that Alice suspected hadn't been put together by Veronica Green on her own. Inside the house the music seemed to intensify, even with the sea of people that seemed to tower above Alice, Candice and Olive as if they were giants.

The sound of Stranger by Skrillex thumped throughout the lake house as the trio made their way through crowds of people dancing on beat, some on the furniture, some of the floor. Strobes flashed different colours through the air that was thick with smoke and for a moment all three of the girls thought that they were suddenly out of their depth. They recognised none of the people here and it wasn't as if their school was big. Summerland was a small place, and none of these people went to their school or even lived in their town.

"I need to drink more!" Candice called to the other two over the music as they managed to find themselves in the kitchen of this vast house. The others agreed and soon enough, drinks had been poured and drunk as quickly as they could have been.

"Hey- Nice dress," someone called towards Alice, causing her to look over her shoulder as they laughed and moved past her. She didn't react and looked back to her friends, pretending as if it hadn't happened but inside her she felt the burn of irritation beginning to bubble, so she tried to suppress it with more alcohol. They had manged to occupy a small section of the island in the centre of the kitchen and refused to leave that spot until all their alcohol was done.

Once they had started to relax, the daunting feeling of being surrounded by people older than them subsided... since some of these older people had chosen to talk to them. But as if on cue, Alice felt the need to break away from the group for a little peace and quiet."I'll be back," she muttered quickly to her friends, noticing that her head was spinning a little more than she'd like. She slipped through the crowd that had gathered in the kitchen as the loud heavy-bass music continued to thump against her chest. People glanced at her as she moved past them, the way the light managed to catch her dress and make it sparkle slightly as she moved caught their eyes and she liked the attention in a way but once again chose not to acknowledge it as she walked.

Alice found the stairs, assuming that there would be a bathroom up there she climbed them, partially because she wanted to escape the waves of people that could barely move without nudging each other and also because she wanted a break from the level of music. It was only when it became a little quieter that she realised how much she had actually drunk... her eyes widened as she blinked and stumbled a little bit, her palm pressing against her forehead as if it was to steady her. Up here the lights were normal, no low lightning or plug in strobe lights, just orange lights that gave the landing upstairs a clear, yet little flame glow.

All the doors were shut and her patience for trying to work out which door would be a bathroom, or even just an empty room where she could sit quietly for a minute, was disappearing. So she decided to push a random door open, in hope that it would be empty.

The door swung open quietly and Alice's eyes took a moment to focus on two people arguing. "I'll tell them, i swear to god Magnus I'll tell them everything." A girl spat as Alice stood there silently and watched with curiosity. The sound of his name made Alice's heart jump, and the slight blur in her vision suddenly became clear as her gaze focused on the black hair of Veronica Green... and Magnus Johnson. "I can't do this for you anymore!" she hissed, evidently distressed about something. "It's sick!"

"You know what happens if you break the silence, Veronica."He hissed, his eyes wide with a unearthly stare. "You made a vow to me," he said in a low voice,

"Fuck the vow, Magnus!" She shouted, "You're a monster! You need help!" she shouted again, shoving Magnus's chest hard, causing him to suddenly grab her and cover her mouth with his hand,

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" he shouted aggressively as she fought him, but it was obvious he was too strong. "I don't need help! You agreed to this, you fucking agreed to this!" he shouted as Alice suddenly realised that she was in the wrong room. She backed away slowly, stepping out of the room as quietly as she could...

"Let go of me!" Veronica gasped, the sound of a hand connecting sharply with skin following just after. Alice tripped by accident just around the corner of the door and thumped to the ground loudly, her heart beginning to beat a little harder as she heard a pause from the commotion in the room Magnus and Veronica were arguing in. She scrambled up and hurried to another door and opened it quickly, hurried inside and pushed the door closed until there was only a small gap left to see into the hall.

Seconds later Magnus appeared in the door way and looked up and down the hall slowly, a blank, intimidating expression on his face, He stood there for a moment and then dug into his pocket, producing his phone to call someone. "It's me..." he said quietly, but just loud enough for Alice to hear from where she was hiding. "I'm gonna need you to turn the music up. Veronica's gone blue." he muttered, his eyes glancing at the mirror opposite him so that it almost looked like he was looking directly at Alice. His eyes seemed to hold no emotion... they seemed almost inhuman and empty... the way he was staring at himself sent a chill down Alice's spine just before he stepped back and shut the door in one, silent movement.

Just as the door clicked shut, the drop to Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites seemed to boom through the house, making Alice's heart jump differently to everybody else's, because she could've sworn she heard a strangled piercing scream from that very room...

* * *

... Alice hurried back downstairs and weaves through the crowd to make it back to her friends, who she found eventually outside on the decking that looked over the lake. "Alice!" Olive drawled, obviously drunker than her now even though she suspected they had been on the same level before. "Where'd you go?"

"Bathroom," she whispered quickly, tucking half of her hair behind her ear as she noticed that Candice and Olive had found Trey and some of his friends to hang out with. "Hey," she greeted softly, finding a seat next to Candice and sighing heavily but quietly as she tried to pay attention to part of a conversation Candice was having with Kirk, another one of Treys friends.

Alice noticed that most of these boys walked in the same circle as Magnus. He had a strict and small friendship group, and it was almost like you had to be approached and invited to be a part of it. He was strange in that way, and really picked and chose people to be a part of his group, and that it mainly came down to intelligence and physical ability. Or so Alice had heard. She's also heard that people had been shunned from the group if they're overall GPA dropped anything below a 4.0.

She couldn't help the swarming of fluttering nerves in her stomach as she counted how many of these boys were in Magnus's friendship group... and then began to wonder about the possibility of him appearing here because nine out of ten of his friends were sat around this open fire talking to her friends and her. Her thoughts then drifted back to what she had heard upstairs... and then wondered if any of these boys knew about what could've happened in that room.

She glanced around the large circle as she sat there quietly, sipping a drink she had been given by Olive who decided she'd had enough alcohol for the evening and perched herself on the lap of a handsome Jock. Alice noticed Charlie glancing at his phone several times, the nudge Trey and whispered something close to his ear. Alice's eyebrows furrowed, curiosity taking over as she noticed them look towards the dark woods a little way away from the lake house.

She couldn't hear what they were saying, and fidgeted in irritation discreetly since her curiosity usually got the best of her. "Hey, are you alright?" Candice asked, placing just her fingertips on the edge of Alice's arm to get her attention.

"Yeah," she replied softly, then smiled warmly as she saw the momentary concern in her friends eyes. "Just a little light headed," she continued as she saw Trey and Charlie move out of the corner of her eye. She glanced back to look at them quickly, seeing them turning to greet someone.

Her heart began to beat a little harder as Magnus stepped into the dim light that came from the fire, it only seemed to show half his face but even then she didn't need his whole face to be illuminated to know it was him. She didn't understand how some much authority could radiate from him... he was only eighteen, in reality his parents held all the cash, he just had access to the credit cards... she didn't understand how or why people gathered around him like moths surrounding a flame. But even then, here she was, a moth herself, gazing at him with her lips parted in subtle awe.

He was explaining something briefly to Trey and Charlie, with another one of his friends she wasn't sure of the name of listening too. He disguised whatever he was talking about with a smile, she could see that so clearly since his eyes continued to stay unnervingly empty. He had light brown eyes, but in the dark they almost seemed black.

Alice felt like she had been staring for an eternity, when it reality it had only been a few seconds. Her cheeks warmed with embarrassment, she hated the affect he had on her and was about to look away but he glanced over at her, the sparkles from her dress catching his eye.

Her body froze, and her eyes widened a little as Magnus's eyes went from her body to her eyes in a few short seconds. She didn't know what to do, because in another few short seconds he'd look away but in this moment, they were looking at each other. Alice smiled, her pouty pink lips tilting up at the edges causing Magnus to raise his eyebrow just a little. She couldn't tell if it was out of amusement, disgust or interest but she decided to look away first, since her heart was raging inside her chest. And a part of her suspected he knew that it was her that had been watching him argue with Veronica upstairs.

She didn't realise that Magnus continued to watch her, drinking in the sight of her wavy light blonde hair, big doe eyes and pouty lips. She looked so innocent to him... so young and fresh faced. "What now?" Trey asked as he noticed Magnus wasn't obviously paying attention to him anymore.

"I'll handle it," Magnus muttered, his arms folding as he confidently continued to stare at Alice without her realising since she'd decided to distract herself by talking to someone else. "Who is that?"

"Who- Alice?" Trey replied, both him and Charlie now glancing over at Alice as discreetly as they could. "Alice Murphy. She's a junior, she's friends with my sister."

"Really?" Magnus muttered in response, his eyes on her thighs that were exposed from her dress riding up from sitting down.

"She was invited," Charlie said, "Veronica has never invited someone out of our grade before, so why her. She's nothing important." He added, sounding slightly bitter which caused Magnus to look at Charlie directly with his usual unfaltering stare.

"Why her," he repeated, "Guess we'll never know now," he smirked, causing the other two to chuckle under their breath...

* * *

Alice didn't know what time it was... all she knew was that it was dark and it had begun to rain again. But no one seemed to care about the droplets of water falling from the sky.

It was then she realised that she was stood at the end of the peer, listening to her friends laugh wildly as Olive and one of the guys tried to row a boat out on the lake drunk. "Don't fall in!" She called whilst giggling, feeling disconnected from reality because of how much alcohol she'd consumed.

"Your cup is empty," a voice said from beside her, and it was only then she realised she was wrapped up in the arms of Charlie, the jock who seemed to hate her not too long ago. "Want some more?" He asked, offering his cup to her.