33. Atlas
33
ATLAS
T his is the first Halloween in a long time that I’ve actually dressed up. And no less, in the costume I swore I’d never wear—our town’s mascot and alter ego, Mr. Bones.
Dane can’t believe his eyes. He, of course, has no choice about dressing up, because he’ll do anything for Remi, and Remi lives for Halloween. Which is why he is currently wearing one of his lab coats with a white fright wig and surprisingly realistic wrinkle makeup. Remi, the Marty to his Doc Brown, has on a puffy red vest and some pretty killer ‘80s sneakers. She’s brought a skateboard, which, apparently, she actually knows how to ride.
She does a loop around us, leaning her entire body back in that gravity-defying way of skaters who seem glued to their boards by their feet.
“I thought you said Halloween was for overgrown kids?” Dane grins at me.
“I’m just wondering if you have to be some version of a doctor for every single one of your costumes. It’s a little insecure.”
“Oh yeah. It’s much cooler to attend med school for no reason at all and then never put ‘MD’ on anything.”
“It wasn’t no reason—I got to avoid our parents for six years.”
Dane smiles thinly. “That was my favorite part, too.”
“Why didn’t you tell us you were going to dress up?” Remi shouts at me, incensed, as she whips around another loop. “You could have gone as Biff!”
She jumps off her board, kicking it up neatly and catching it. Remi is petite, purple-haired, pierced, and can work like a steam engine all day long. I’ve never seen anyone who can get more done in a day or who’s cleverer at working with their hands.
But even for Remi, respected friend and potential sister-in-law, I will not be dressing up as Biff Tannen.
“He only dressed up to blend in,” Dane observes wisely. “He’s stalking that woman from the hotel.”
“What woman?” Remi demands, instantly interested.
I give my brother a filthy glare. I only told him one or two very small pieces of information about Elena under strict instructions that he never mention them to anyone again, including me.
Dane just smiles and shrugs. “I tell her everything.”
I shake my head in disgust. “What’s happened to you?”
“I would have told her already, but we don’t talk about you that much.”
“ What woman?” Remi is going to lose her mind if she’s out of the secret for five more seconds.
“The one marrying the author,” Dane says. “That’s why he made us drive up to the castle that day—’cause he’s jealous.”
“ She’s not marrying him ,” I say with way too much aggression.
Dane and Remi blink at me.
“Uh-oh,” Remi says.
“Yeah.” Dane grimaces. “That sounded pretty…”
“Murdery,” Remi finishes.
“Don’t finish each other’s sentences, it’s obnoxious. And I’m not going to do anything to him—as long as he doesn’t do anything to her.”
Dane and Remi exchange glances.
“Like…marry her?” Remi says tentatively.
“They’re not getting married,” I grit through my teeth.
Dane tilts his head, watching me. “She’s leaving him?”
“Tonight.”
“But you’re worried.”
“That’s right.”
Remi’s expression grows serious, and she comes closer to me. “What are you worried he’ll do?”
She’s been tense since she saw my Mr. Bones costume in the first place. Remi had her own awful experience with a pack of Mr. Boneses at last year’s Reaper’s Revenge. She knows better than anyone how wild Halloween night can get in Grimstone.
I’m sure that’s why she was riding her skateboard around in loops, trying to burn off her anxious energy. She’s nervous as she peers up at me, picking at her vest.
“Hopefully nothing,” I say. “But I’m going to make sure.”
Dane comes and puts his arm around Remi. I’m almost jealous of how easily they slide into place against each other after a year of doing it every single day. It makes me want Elena next to me, today, tomorrow, every day for a year. And then for fifty more.
I never wanted to be part of a pair until I found my other half. Now I know how good it feels when we’re connected…and how incomplete I am without her.
“He doesn’t know she’s leaving,” I tell Dane and Remi. “And he won’t be happy when he finds out. So I want to keep an eye on them…but not too close.”
Remi says, “We can help.”
It’s not easy to follow unseen when you’re a head taller than everyone else in the crowd and twice as broad as some. It wouldn’t work at all without the Mr. Bones costume, the great equalizer at the Reaper’s Revenge.
At least a third of the partygoers packing the streets are dressed as some version of Mr. Bones, including men, women, children, and pets. I see Day of the Dead Mr. Boneses, Nightmare Before Christmas Mr. Boneses, neon Mr. Boneses, and countless variations of the classic burgundy suit.
My suit is black and plain. My skull makeup is subtle. I want to draw as little attention as possible.
The noise and chaos stream around me like a river. Elena is the rock I focus on. I’ve never seen a crowd like this, Grimstone full to bursting with locals and strangers, indistinguishable for one single night. Which means that none of us have to live with what happens tonight—they can leave, and we can pretend we stayed home.
That’s why this night becomes wilder and darker each year. Because when we wear masks, our shadow selves come out to play. Everything dark, repressed, and rejected, allowed to dance in public for one night of the year…
I see it with Lorne in his Mr. Bones suit. I see how he stands, how he walks differently, how he doesn’t have to pretend to smile when a skeletal one is already painted on his face.
He barely speaks to Elena or Ivy. He lets them walk through the shops and sample the sweets and wait for their turn at the face-painting booth. It seems like he’s letting them have their fun, but I see what he’s really doing.
He’s stalking Elena like a cat with a mouse. Letting her get ahead, get away, then coming up unexpectedly behind her. Slipping through shadows, waiting in doorways. Letting her pass. Following again. The way he walks, the way he moves, completely altered…because he’s free to do it tonight when he thinks no one is watching.
My skin goes cold.
Lorne is good at stalking. A little too good.
I don’t know where Mrs. Cross disappeared to. She was with her party at the start of the night, but she seems to have slipped away. Remi’s keeping an eye out for her.
Elena and Ivy are staying in well-lit public spaces with plenty of people all around—or at least as well lit as you can get with the whole town done up like a haunted house.
But I’m not even close to comfortable.
The mood on Halloween night in Grimstone has always disturbed me. Last year wasn’t the first time something terrible happened.
The feeling in the air can be shared. The more people who share it, the more powerful it becomes. That’s the power of crowds, of mobs, of concerts.
Tonight, Grimstone is more packed than I’ve ever seen it. And the mood is the darkest I’ve ever known.