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Mystic Hollow Community Page
New post from Anonymous: Does anyone have a number for pest control? Just found a tiny critter eating Halloween candy in my kitchen and get this—the thing is wearing a tiny hat! My husband tried to shoo it away and it bit his finger!
I’ve only been in Colton’s backyard once before, when the mayor threw a Fourth of July party for founding families. We left early when my aunts started debating who founded Mystic Hollow—Harold Croft or Beatrice Hadley.
Colton shuts the kitchen door behind him, and the sounds of the party fade away, making my beating heart sound much louder.
He isn’t wearing a Halloween costume. Just his Headless Horseman jersey, but it’s his party.
Let him do what he wants. I don’t care. I can’t even think as he takes my hand and leads me over to a love seat on the porch.
Even once he sits and I follow, he still holds my hand.
Midnight-blue eyes, full lips, a smile I’ve seen in my dreams. I feel like I might spontaneously burst into flames being this close to him.
He must feel it too. This is real.
“Finally, some privacy,” he says, his eyes never leaving my face. “I have been waiting for this moment all day.”
“You have?” I ask. I know there was something I was supposed to tell Colton and it was important, but every thought I’ve ever had has just flown out of my head. “I mean, so have I.”
“I know.” His fingers are threaded through mine, and he’s holding both my hands now.
“You do?” I whisper. My heart is pounding fast. His face inches closer to mine. Is Colton going to kiss me? This is really happening, isn’t it? My stomach drops into free fall.
“I know you like me, Kat,” he murmurs. “It’s cute how often I catch you staring at me in class.” He gives a small laugh. “You looked so mad the other day when I was talking to Zara in chemistry.”
My face flames. I guess he noticed that.
“So what is it you like about me?”
I hide an awkward laugh. “You’re, um, really cute.”
He smiles.
“Is that so?”
I nod.
“What’s your favorite feature?” He leans in, and when I laugh again, he nuzzles me, and the feeling of his nose in my hair sends heat down my spine. “I’m serious. What makes you like me, Kat? It’s been months and you stare at me all day. What are you looking at?”
“I don’t know,” I reply, my voice going high and embarrassed. “You.”
“Me,” he replies, then starts humming. “You impressed that I’m the mayor’s son?”
“Mm-hmm,” I reply, although it suddenly feels like it takes effort to keep smiling.
“And that I’m our QB? Did you know that no one else in the tristate has my completion percentage?” Okay . . .
“And did you see how many followers I have? Wait—let me show you. I have this hilarious video, and it’s going viral—”
He fishes in his pocket for his phone and starts showing me “just one more video” about how great he is. And yes, I’ve seen all of them, but it’s different when he’s the one showing me, pointing out how “huge” his shoulders look or the “sick” swoop in his hair.
By the time we’ve gotten to the fifth video, I realize he hasn’t asked me a single question that wasn’t about him. And I haven’t spoken in . . . a really long time.
I had been hoping that Colton Croft loved me back, but I’m starting to wonder if Colton just loves . . . Colton.
“Ask me a question,” I blurt out as Colton switches from his videos to his photos. He almost drops the phone in surprise.
“What?”
“A question. Ask me. Anything.”
He thinks for a moment, and then his eyes light up. “Oh, I’ve got one.”
“Yeah?”
He leans in with a smile. “Yeah. Can I kiss you?”
He closes his eyes and puckers up and just waits. For me to kiss him. He’s got to be kidding me! I’m about to tell him to shove it, when I hear a strange sucking noise.
My magic tingles again as if it wants attention. Danger. Danger. Danger, it seems to say. I pull my hands away from Colton. “Do you hear that?”
“I only hear you,” he says, eyes still closed. “I only ever see you. I only ever want to feel you.”
Did I really think this guy could be my soulmate? Maybe Harry is right.
I almost groan aloud. Of course. Colton is just another victim of the Harry Hadley Love Curse Reversed.
But then I hear that suction noise again and turn to the backyard.
A shadowy figure leans over a body on the ground.
Vampire. My blood runs cold and it all comes rushing out: how this party needs to end, how much danger we’re in, and how I really, really need Harry’s help.
“You need to get inside,” I whisper, pulling Colton up to standing.
“Right now. And tell everyone to go home. You have to stop the party. It’s not safe. ”
Colton blinks confused. “Not safe? What do you—?”
I know I’m not making sense, but Colton is under my spell, literally.
I could say anything and he’d still love me, right?
It’s sort of a superpower, one that I plan to use to save the day.
“Because I want you to,” I say quickly. “I’m worried everyone is going to get partied out before my party tomorrow.
So send them all home. Right now.” I push him toward the back door and practically toss him inside. “Hurry!”
Thankfully, that seems to work. Colton looks plenty upset and rushes back to the party.
There’s no time to waste. I whip out my phone (promising myself I’ll unfollow Colton the second I’m not trying to save the town) and click on the flashlight.
It illuminates Tom Callabra, motionless on the ground. One of the vampire girls leans over him, a swirly straw stuck in his arm. As I gape, her cheeks hollow out with another sickening suction sound. Tom may be a jerk, but he doesn’t deserve to be sipped like a smoothie.
“Back away from him!” I yell, rushing at them. I can feel my blood pulsing through my veins as I keep one hand out in front of me as if I know how to stun the girl by sheer will with my magic. “Vampires aren’t allowed in Mystic Hollow! You’re breaking the rules of Hadley magic.”
She sits back and laughs as she wipes a drizzle of blood away from her bright red lips. “I’m breaking Hadley magic?” She laughs cruelly. “You already did that, you little witch. Didn’t you know your powers come from your bonds? Or did your little coven forget to teach you that?”
“I know it now,” I mutter. “But just because Mystic Hollow has turned into a magnet for the supernatural thanks to your spells reversing, you don’t have to kill my friends.”
“Relax.” The vampire prods Tom with the toe of her high heel and he groans, his head lolling. “He’s not dead. And I’m certainly not here because of any spell you cast. I’m here for the Horseman, because me and my sisters can finally step on this hallowed ground.”
“You want to lay flowers on his grave or something? Because I can call my mom and ask where it is—”
“Where it is, where it was,” the vampire says with a smirk. “Because tomorrow night, now that the wards are no longer keeping us out, he will rise from his grave. And finally complete what your ancestor so foolishly tried to stop by beheading him.”
“Oh,” I say as I subtly kick the straw out of Tom’s inner elbow. “And what was this bucket list? Wordle streak? Try every flavor of Airheads? Visit every pumpkin patch—?”
“World domination,” the vampire interrupts, flashing her fangs. “Too long we have been forced to live in the shadows. When the Horseman returns, he will make sure that we walk in the light.”
“You’re a vampire,” I point out, gently kicking Tom aside. He rolls a bit away, which probably won’t feel great when he wakes up, but I just need him away from her. “Are you sure sunshine is your thing?”
She snarls again. “I will be grateful when the Horseman rises and finally silences you and your friends. Mystic Hollow will become a realm for the undead—everyone else will die.” She grins at me, all her pointy teeth on display. “Happy Halloween, witch.”
And then with a flick of her wrist, she transforms into a bat and flies off into the night.