1 Chapter 1

"Mads, let's get going! I don't wanna be late for the party!"

My best friend, Luna, whined as I was checking myself out in the mirror, smoothing down my white silk dress before pulling her next to me. She looked like the polar opposite of me - blonde hair, blue eyes, she was taller than me and she was dressed in all black while tiny red horns adorned her head.

"Being fashionably late once in a while won't hurt your good girl account, Lu."

I rolled my eyes with a smile as I had my phone in my hand and snapped a photo of us together. Then I picked up a white masquerade mask that looked a bit like a fox and put it on, tying the soft lace at the back of my head, being careful with my hair the whole time.

"Well, I wanna see Aaron-"

"Not the boy from Chase's group, Luna... Anyone but him."

My interruption made my disapproval clear enough. Chase's group had their confidence through the roof, so I didn't want my precious friend to get too involved with anyone from them. They knew that they attracted female attention, and they loved it. Maybe too much. But the main source was Chase. But seeing the disappointment in Luna's eyes made me sigh with defeat as I picked up my keys.

"Let's go, we don't wanna be late now."

"Yay!"

Even though Luna wanted us to get to the Halloween party on time, I somehow took the wrong route out when driving on the highway and we did end up being fashionably late. Moral of the story? Never trust Google Maps too much as a source of navigation when driving. The building looked so dead and abandoned on the outside, but once we set foot inside, I could only wonder how we couldn't hear the loud music from outside. And the place was decorated appropriately.

"Now's your chance to get close to people from our university, Mads!"

"I don't really wann-a...."

Before I could even muster a full reply, Luna was out of my sight, mingling with the crowd and becoming suddenly unreachable. Well, getting her back to the dorm was going to be challenge for sure. Especially when she's had quite a bit to drink.

"Ah, I'm driving, so I guess drinking isn't an option..."

I let out a heavy sigh, shoulders dropping in defeat. Why did I decide to drive when I was going to a party? I guessed that it was out of pure habit and just went on to get myself some juice and observe from a corner at first, trying to get a better understanding of my surroundings. And soon enough, someone was walking in my direction.

Oh no... Here we go...

I sucked in a deep breath as that figure got closer and through the soft lighting I could make out a face masked away by a mask similar to mine, except that it was black. The guy in front of me was dressed all in black and was wearing red contact lenses.

"Hey, having fun?"

His hoarse voice was oddly familiar, yet I couldn't pinpoint as to who it reminded me of at that very moment. Little did I know that this person had recognised me and I was being like the characters in Miraculous Ladybug, not being able to piece two and two together.

"Uh, yeah. I should be drinking but I'm on mom duty tonight to get my friend back home tonight."

I hoped that I didn't sound as awkward as I thought I did, I was just so focused on trying to figure out who exactly was talking to me.

"That's sad, Madeline. I could drive you two instead. I don't really drink. Come on."

The questions wouldn't even come out as I heard my name. So it was someone that knew me. But there were plenty of people that knew me and I just didn't pay much attention to them, but I could not refuse the offer to drink. Studies were stressing me out, so I really needed it.

But one drink turned into two, then into three, and before I knew it, the room was spinning and I'd overdone it. I had no control of my actions, so I looked for my best friend and saw her standing in front of one of Chase's friends, looking extremely uncomfortable, so without thinking much, I hugged her around the waist and glared at the guy, who was most likely over 4 heads taller than me. And then I threw my drink at him.

"You bi-"

"RUN!"

I grabbed Luna's hand and began to run, laughing my heart out about the whole thing until I quite literally crashed into someone. The masked guy again. He looked confused, but saw that I was being chased by someone, so he just picked me up without any questions, asking Luna as to which car was mine once all three of us were out.

Everything afterwards became a blur. Probably because the alcohol took its toll on me. But Luna told me that I had kissed the guy on the cheek as a thanks and then kicked him out of my car once we reached the dorms. Thankfully, he lived nearby, so he hadn't walked a lot apparently.

"Okay, but who was he?"

"...You're really fucking stupid, huh? That was CHASE."

"What?!"

Well, life was really about to get difficult for me.