#post-drop

"Read 'em and weep, boys," Chelsea grinned, showing off her winning hand. This had been a great night so far. She was killing it at the card table there down in the basement, nobody had even made a comment on the whisky bottle she had snuck in, and she was straight-up having a really fun time that Halloween. She was really making a small fortune in candy, and was hoping to get an even more sizable loot before the night was over.

She was about to ask her poker opponents to show their own cards, despite knowing there was no way in hell they could have anything better than what she had --when the lights suddenly went out. Chelsea groaned out loud, and immediately hogged all her candy in the dark, just to make sure nobody snatched any. "Okay, now that's cheating!" she cried, looking around herself, though she couldn't see anything in the pitch-black dark. "It's not funny...! It's not that funny!"

Sofia had been quite nervous about coming to a house party during Halloween; apart from the fact that she didn't know if she would even have the guts to talk to anyone, wasn't Halloween the night where people liked to scare others and play pranks? And yet she didn't want to be alone at home. And she knew she needed to get out more: after all, she had been quite brave recently, truly putting herself out there, so why not continue making that effort?

She fixed her makeup in the Lightfoots' bathroom mirror, and smiled to herself. She had met some of her friends there, which was much better than what she had imagined. Everything was going pretty well so far...

And then the lights flickered, startling her. And then they went out. There were sudden thuds, and screaming, and the sound of something breaking. More screaming, and the noise of running steps. Sofia felt her blood curdle. A part of her told her to stay in the bathroom, in the dark, where she was safe and hidden. The idea that someone might be hurt, however --maybe it was a prank gone wrong? --managed to get her to come out.

"W-what happened...?"

Shock groaned as she kept trying, over and over, to call her brothers. Her phone signal came and went, and just as she managed to get through, it was cut off once more. It almost seemed intentional, as if the phone company was playing a particularly shitty Halloween trick on her, specifically.

"Hi, Barrel?" she called out loud. She had no idea where they were --at another Halloween party, with any luck, safe from the storm raging outside --but she wouldn't be able to know for sure until she could communicate. "Broden, hey, can you hear me--? Fuck," she huffed when it cut off again, nearly giving in to her impulse of throwing the phone across the living room. She tried calling Oz next, who she knew was at Town Hall; hopefully that meant he could get any help he might need.

"Shit, still nothing..." Shock turned to the person standing closest to her, truly hoping her growing panic wasn't too evident. "Can you lend me your phone?" Maybe it was just hers, maybe she just needed to try again.

The wind whistled, thunder roared, and Guinevere remained standing away from doors and windows, very still, eyes darting around the room. She had been expecting something might happen that night, at Town Hall, where the most important people in Redwood Hollow would gather to celebrate what seemed like a return to peace. She had expected there to be some surprise --but not for her to get caught in it, along with everyone else. After all, that sort of awful incidents happened to someone else, not to Guinevere --not to someone so cushioned by her wealth.

Right then, though, she didn't feel very safe at all.

"Lady..." she remembered out of nowhere, realizing that was who she was searching for in the crowd. "Lady?"

Sally had been having a bad feeling --a sense of doom, of impending catastrophe --all throughout the event at Town Hall; she hadn't quite expected, with the clear skies over Redwood Hollow, for that threat to materialize as a storm. In a sense, even if, of course, it ruined the Halloween event completely with the fierce winds and the violent rain, there was a slight relief from Sally's part. At least nobody seemed to be hurt, not yet. At least it wasn't a disappearance, or a poisoning. One could almost believe this was a completely random instance of bad luck.

"Excuse me, has someone been hurt right now?" she asked out loud to the crowd, once everyone was gathered inside Town Hall. "I ask that you please remain calm while we try to contact someone for help." She knew the building somewhat well, and the tree blocking the main entrance did present a bit of trouble. There were the emergency exits, though, and at least one had to work, once the storm was over. Of course, the situation was pretty bad, and yet Sally somehow found a strength and a will to make sure this only remained a bad weather scare.