swept undertow

Even after all the years that had passed between them, Matthew still felt at ease around the werewolf. He felt as if he still knew her, as if no time had passed at all. There was a huge part of him that was scared he would cause her to run off again…she was quite the track star when it came to running away.

He saw the hesitancy at his request and for a moment he was afraid he had pushed too much, too soon. A smile quickly pulled at the corners of his lips as she finally agreed, slowly he closed his hand around hers as she led them to the dance floor, “I think the last time I danced was with you,” he started. He hadn’t really had the time to dance with the whole building his business, his only other love. He felt how tense she was against him, was she scared? “You can relax with me,” His hands pulled her closer towards him, “It is though,” he muttered out quietly, “It feels natural…being here with you..I mean, like good friends.” There was still a lot of love for Adriana in him. “Thanks for asking me..I wasn’t going to come if you hadn’t, too much work left to do.”

Adriana lowered her gaze, keeping her focus on the floor as she followed Matthew hand-in-hand. “Maybe,” she said, chuckling. Still, Adriana didn’t quite have the heart to explain everything about her relationship with Matteo to him. There was so much the two of them had to catch up on, and she truly struggled with how it may hurt the man in front of her. 

“It’s hard to relax with anyone these days,” she confessed, stepping a little bit closer to him. It was nearly second nature for her to reach up and place her hands on his shoulders, though her smile still showed a bit of weariness. “Good friends,” she echoed, “I like that.” Little by little, the werewolf felt a bit more at ease. She swayed in time with the music that played. Every now and then, the candle light around them caught her eye and her smile grew a little more each time. “Honestly, I wasn’t either. Not only did I not have a date but... It just feels weird being out and about without my daughter,” she confessed. The brunette looked up at him sheepishly, wondering how he’d react to her statement. “Being here kind of reminds me that I actually missed you, though,” she added.

Now this was a party, Valerio thought to himself as he looked around the venue. In all of his years in Halloweentown, he had never attended a single one of the Monster Balls. He always felt they were too fancy for his tastes, but oh was he wrong. He scanned the crowd, looking for someone to talk to first - after all, wasn't this a chance to mingle and dance the night away? His gaze fell upon Alice. "You look stunning," he said, smiling at her sincerely. "That's not really a surprise, though, considering you always look nice." The phoenix reached around to scratch the back of his neck to distract himself from how awkward he was being. "Would you like to dance, ma'am? If not, I could use some company over at the drinks."

The night was progressively getting better as Adriana became more comfortable. She began spotting more and more familiar faces in the crowd, setting her at ease. One of which was her employee, Malachi. With a drink in her hand and a friendly smile stretched across her face, she cautiously approached him (just in case he was busy with someone else). "Don't you look dashing tonight," she said, nodding her head. "I gotta say, whole different look from than what I see in the shop. Having any fun?"

The vampire couldn’t help but feel irritated and overstimulated at the ball around her. Why had she agreed to attend this event in the first place? Ah, yes. Attention and food. Grumbling to herself, Roxi turned around to return to the dance floor. Typically, she was very graceful, but in this particular instance, she collided with another person. “Excuse me,” she huffed, glaring at him. A werewolf, how quaint. “Oh, they invited your kind? I thought the memo said no animals.”

Roxi struggled to remain composed with everything going on. There were a few humans mixed into the group of attendees at the ball, making it hard to focus on anything other than being thirsty. This was unfortunately making her a little on edge. So much so that when she felt someone was standing a little too close to her, she began to lash out. “Listen here, muffin, I’m not sure if you’ve had too much hooch or if you’re just the nosy kinda dame but if you don’t back the fuck up right now we’re going to have a problem.”

In all honesty, Matthew had  decided he would pass on the ball. It wasn’t like he’d been going the last few years, plus he had a lot of work he could do on his house, but then Adriana and him had decided to go together. And suddenly there he was dressing up a cute tiger costume to match his ex. 

A smirk pulled at the corners of his lips as she commented on how cute he looked, “Thanks,” he replied snaking his arm around her waist as she placed a kiss on his cheek, “You look absolutely gorgeous as always, Ads. A perfect Jasmine.” A chuckle escaped from his lips, “Should we give them more to talk about?” There was a glint in his eyes as he spoke, “Dance with me? What do you say for ol time’s sake?” As he asked he moved away from her, only to extend his hand out towards her.

A warm blush spread across Adriana’s face at Matthew’s compliment. Having him home felt natural as though no time had passed between before he left and now. And yet, she still could feel the guilt from how things had ended bubbling up inside of her. The werewolf did her best to suppress her urge to run from him, at least for this one night. 

At the suggestion that they gave them more to talk about, she was slightly hesitant. A few seconds passed as she stood staring at his hand. “For old time’s sake,” she agreed, her voice softer than usual. Placing her hand in his, she could have sworn that her heart had skipped a beat. Her nerves were going to get the best of her, that much was clear. She wrapped her fingers around his to form a tight hold and then lead him to the dance floor; the sound of her heels clicking against the floor was barely discernable from the volume of the bass in the song playing. “I can’t tell you the last time I actually danced, let alone danced with someone else,” she murmured. At first, she was rigid, swaying a bit along to the beat. Her body felt tense. Was it nerves? Fear? Perhaps just a general lack of rhythm? Only time would tell her. “Thank you for agreeing to go with me, Matt. I know it’s probably not the most comfortable thing to do, given our circumstances.” 

When the mermaid had read the invitation to the Monster Ball, she had felt as though there’d be a lot of drama and elegance. Yet, thus far, she had been left underwhelmed and bored. Her eyes scanned the crowd looking for someone, anyone, to entertain her. The brunette’s eyes settled upon a man that seemed as though he might be decent company for five minutes. With as much confidence as she could exude, Narin approached the stranger. “I’m typically not this forward, but I would like to dance. Most of the people here are... ridiculous looking. Would you mind filling the position for a single song?” 

Narin barely knew anyone in town at this point, so it was an odd choice for her to attend the Monster Ball. That didn’t matter, though, she knew she could charm her way into the hearts of the residents. Her eyes settled upon a rather tall man in a Jack Skellington costume. Silently, almost as though she was stalking prey, she approached him. “Do you have any laments tonight, dear Jack?” Her face was void of all emotion aside from slight amusement, but her tone and the look in her eyes were both rather playful. “I must admit, it’s a striking resemblance, sir.” 

Baz clearly did not think his costume out. While his boxing shorts and bare chest beneath the robe were to impress Peyton, he had forgotten that his friends would also see him like this. The faerie was bobbing along to the music when he spotted Diana out of the corner of his eye. His first thought was to pull the sides of his robe closed and hide his chest. “Well hello, Di. What a shock seeing you here, love,” he said. “Are you having a lovely evening thus far?” 

This was not Basil’s scene in any capacity. Had he done what he truly wanted to do, he would have stayed at home and watched old horror movies. However, he knew Peyton enjoyed these types of things and longed to make the man happy. “Well I’ll be. Don’t you just look like the most dashing man in the Western Hemisphere?” His gaze moved up and down his date’s body as he propped himself up against the wall. “I’m starting to feel as though I’m a bit underdressed,” he quipped, making note of his shirtless costume.

Maggie always felt about attending things that required a date. Still, she felt slightly better that it was Sylvie that would be accompanying her. Their presence was of great comfort to the young witch, though she’d never admit it. “You look rad, Sylvs,” she said, a smile stretched across her face. “Y’wanna skip to the good part an’ just get to dancin’ or should we do somethin’ else first?”

After a few run ins with some of her friends, Maggie was about to resign her night to staying directly by Sylvie’s side. It was then she had seen Wren out of the corner of her eye. Picking the front of her tattered wedding dress up a bit, she approached the other witch. “Y’know, I ain’t ever had a moment where I thought Eric Draven could get hotter, and yet here you are in my life,” she teased. A mischievous smile tugged at her lips as she looked her friend’s costume over one more time. “We’re just a coupl’a goth’s wet dreams aren’t we?”

Maggie really wished that she had planned her costume better. As cute as her ghost bride ensemble was, it was so damn hot as the dress was heavy. It had started to ruin her mood and she could feel that usual anger burning inside of her. Just when she was ready to spend the rest of her night propped up against the wall, she spotted her friend. “Lucy!” she exclaimed, practically skipping over to the other witch. “Look at you! My goodness, you are just the prettiest thing in the whole damn world! I gotta be honestly, I wasn’t expectin’ you to clean up like this, baby doll.” She chuckled briefly. “You see O yet? It’d be one helluva party if our whole gang was all in the same place for once.”

Emilio’s mind was running a mile a minute, expecting the worst case scenario. He knew he’d be able to feel better if he could just find his damn sister. After what felt like an eternity looking for her, he finally sniffed her out in the crowd. “Dia!” he shouted, jumping up and down a bit as he tried to get her attention. “Hey, you clean up pretty nice,” he teased, nudging her arm. “How’re you holding up? Did you come with a date? If so, are they bothering you? Are you having a good time? Do you feel safe?” The twenty questions game was typical for him, as all he ever wanted was to look out for her.