I looked out my window just as the lightning struck. This storm was crazy. It had stated in the early morning and had yet to stop.

I looked at the clock. It read 6:39. I had six minutes until John was picking me up to take me to Jacquie’s party. It was Halloween and Jacquie’s parties were always incredible.

As I walked by my mirror I took one final look. We were all going to Disney World in February so the party had a Disney theme. We were all supposed to dress up as Disney characters. I was supposed to go as Megara from Hercules. I was wearing a beautiful, white, Grecian dress with gold trim. My hair flowed flawlessly over my shoulders in a cascade of golden waves. I had a gold head piece and on the right side of my head was a fully bloomed white rose with leaves that had been painted gold.

I looked out the window again, just as the lightning struck the tree across the street from my house.

“That’s definitely not a good sign,” I said.

John’s horn began to sound from outside.

I grabbed my jacket and ran out the door. “This should be a fun party,” John yelled. The music in his car was way too loud. “Am I still picking up that kid?”

“His name is Jeff. And yes, you’re picking him up, and you had better be nice to him. He’s not going to really know anyone at this party besides you and I.”

“Wait… how do I know him again?”

“He was on crew for the musical.”

“Holy crap! You’re dating him?”

“Yes. Can we go now?” We were still sitting in my driveway and the storm was getting worse.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

We drove in silence until we got to Jeff’s. When we arrived, Jeff immediately came out of his house. We were already really late. I tended to be the life of these parties and Jacquie was going to be super ticked that we were so late.

I started to get a really bad feeling about this storm. I had never been so scared during a storm before, but this was different. It was as though the wind carried something that our small town hadn’t seen in years.

I put my head on Jeff’s shoulder and he immediately took my hand to intertwine our fingers. He then leaned down, kissed the top of my head, and said, “You look beautiful.” Normally this would make me feel extremely giddy and happy, but tonight was different. Something was going to happen tonight, and I felt my face go cold from being so nervous.

We got to the party with no complications. “There you are!” Jacquie exclaimed. “You were supposed to be here half an hour ago!”

“I’m sorry J, but you know I’m always fashionably late!” I replied with a fake sense of confidence.

All of a sudden, I heard the door open and shut behind me. It scared me so much that I must have jumped a foot in the air as I turned to face the guest. It was Jeff.

“Did I scare you babe? I forgot my phone in John’s car.”

Had I now been looking at him I wouldn’t have seen the girl who walked in behind him. She was unremarkably beautiful with pin straight, dark brown hair that flowed like a river to the small of her back.

Even her costume was incredible. She looked like a goddess, but she was the exact opposite of me. Whereas I bore white and gold, she was the anti, with black and silver.

“Hi there! I’m Isabella, and you are?” I introduced myself.

“Kelsey.”

“Well then. Hi Kelsey! How do you know Jacquie?”

“Our families go way back,” she replied with a tone so cold that I got goose bumps.

“Well I’ll see you around I guess,” I said with a smile. I had to get away from her because she was really scaring me. The bad felling I had had before returned and increased ten-fold.

“Are you okay babe?” Jeff asked inquisitively.

“Something about that girl gives me the creeps.”

“You’re not the only one,” replied another voice. It was Jacquie with john in tow. “I’ve never seen her before. Did Lisa invite her?”

“Um, she said she knew you dude.”

“Did she say her name?” Jacquie said with a dash of fear.

“Yeah, she said her name was Kelsey.” Just as I finished the last syllable, Jacquie’s body crumpled to the floor. John rushed to try and catch her in a panic. I knelt to the ground and touched the back of my hand to her forehead.

“John, get some water or something because she’s out cold.”

Just then, we heard a distinct shriek coming from the living room. For some reason, whenever Erin screamed, her voice seemed to go about two octaves higher than a normal person’s scream. “Ahh! Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness! Help!”

Jeff and I immediately leaped to our feet to see why Erin was screaming. Upon entering the room, I almost crumpled in the same fashion as Jacquie when Jeff caught me. In the center of the room was Kelsey, standing over the ghostly white body of what looked to be Alex. Everyone else in the room was either cowering in fear or seemingly passed out on the couch.

I gasped as I saw all of the blood. It was everywhere. From the walls, to the floor, to the ceiling, and most to my ghastly surprise, all over Kelsey’s face. Erin passed out right next to me.

I shrieked in pure terror of what Kelsey had done. “You… You monster!” I screamed as I buried my face in Jeff’s shoulder. We were both shaking in fear from the display. As I turned my head to scream at her again, I realized something was missing. Kelsey had disappeared just as quickly as she had come.

I heard a knock at the door and screamed, expecting it to be Kelsey coming back for the rest of us.

“Police, open up!” said a deep voice.

I had John go to the door to answer it.

“Is everything okay here? We got a call from one of the neighbors that there was a lot of screaming coming from this house.”

“No!” we all replied in unison. Except for Alex of course who was presumably dead.

We went through hours upon hours of questioning, with all of us giving the same story until they got to Jacquie.

“I knew I shouldn’t have had a party. The last time someone had a Halloween party from my family, it was my mom. She told me that the reason she no longer had Halloween parties was because when she was my age, a beautiful, yet mysterious girl named Kelsey from school showed up to her party, and killed my mom’s best friend’s boyfriend.”

“And this case was never followed?” said the officer.

“No one believed my mom and her friends. Ever since that night, everyone just thought they were a bunch of insane teenagers.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. It was all my fault. Because of me, Alex was dead, and everyone else was scarred for life.

It has been ten years since that fateful night. We never heard from Kelsey again and since then Jacquie has never had another Halloween party and is now telling her daughter the same story she told the police officer ten years ago.