"HAPPY HALLOWEEN!" Voices fill my house. "And Happy Birthday Allan!" Ten bags sit behind the sofa, stuffed full of candy we gathered.
"Welcome to the old people club," Lorelei teases, pulling him in for a hug as soon as she comes in.
"Yeah yeah. Don't remind me." He takes a sip from his drink. "You look awesome in Ryan's uniform."
She promptly turns red. "Thanks. Switching all of our outfits was a great idea Celeste."
I do a fake bow in response. "They were the perfect Halloween costumes this year. No one had any idea who we really are!"
"You guys get to be comfy tonight. I have to tuck my wings away," Lucas gumbles.
Tyler, dressed in Allan's uniform, walks over to Lucas and does a complete scan of how Lucas looks. "That looks better on you than it does on me." His eyes linger just a split second longer than they should've.
Gracie catches my eye and mouths, "You seeing what I'm seeing?"
I nod back in response and grab a piece of candy from my bag.
"You two better keep it PG in here! Especially since that's my uniform you're wearing!" Allan throws an empty Coke bottle at them and Tyler takes a step back, catching it in mid-air.
Ryan starts laughing but stops when the doorbell rings. We all immediately freeze.
"What time is it?" Kai whispers, eyes wide.
Pulling out my phone, I respond, "Ten thirty. Trick or treaters should be done now, shouldn't they?"
"They should be, but who knows? I'll take care of it." Lorelei stands up, grabs the bowl with the little bit of candy we have left for trick or treaters, and opens the door.
"Is Hurricane here?" A deep voice asks. Immediately, I freeze. I'd recognize that voice anywhere.
Lorelei remains quiet for a moment before answering. "Sir, I'm not sure what you mean. If you're looking for Hurricane, she's not here. But we do have someone who dressed as Hurricane for Halloween," She calmly tells him.
"Well then let me rephrase my question. Is Celeste Green here?"
I motion for Gracie to give me back my bracelet and everyone else follows suit. Lucas tucks himself out of sight in the kitchen But I know he's getting ready to go. The second it's secured on my wrist, I walk to the door and Lorelei steps aside.
"What are you doing here?" I hiss, water gathering around my hands.
"Hello there little Hurricane. So nice to see you're sitting around instead of doing something."
"I'll ask one more time, why are you here Shadow?" I repeat.
"Isn't it obvious? Things are happening and you're doing absolutely nothing."
The water freezes into a blade and I tighten my grip on it. "What do you know?"
"If you really think I'm going to say that out here where everyone can hear me, you're sorely mistaken." He looks behind me to where everyone is standing.
"Nope. No way are you coming into this house." Shadow steps forward but Kai blocks his way.
Staring him down, Kai says, "Make one wrong move and you won't make it out of here."
A smirk forms across Shadow's face. "If you really think you can take me down, you're sorely mistaken. Many have tried over the years and I'm still here while they lie rotting in graves."
"Threaten any of us again and it'll be you in a grave."
"Cel, what are you going to do?" Allan asks.
"He can come in. But like Kai said, one wrong move and it's over."
A smile crosses Shadow's face, barely visible in the dark. "Thank you." He steps into my house, revealing his face for the first time since we've met him, and motions to the outside. Two people in hooded cloaks step in but are immediately stopped by Allan.
"We didn't invite anyone else in," he says in a threatening tone. "Who are they?"
"My children," he states as if it's common knowledge.
"Those hoods come off or they don't come in."
"The only way I'll stay is if you let them in with no extra conditions."
I reluctantly agree. "They stay where I can see them with hands visible at all times. Weapons stay by the door and if they have powers, which I'm guessing they do, we have the ability to stop all of you. I recommend not testing us."
"We're just here to spread information. Nothing that will require us to attack," the taller of the two figures says.
"And what information are you here to spread?"
"After what happened back in September, I know you did your research on this," Shadow begins. "Miss Green has access to the government through her uncle and Miss Scalia can access through any device. You should've found something from the 80's. A similar restriction set by a hero. No name is given, no information about their powers, and nothing about when they first appeared or what happened to them. There was only one picture, the last one taken and the only one that survived. Unfortunately, their face is out of focus. And no matter how much digging you've done, there's no more data about them."
Lucas looks wary at how much he knows. "And you're expecting us to believe this is true? You've given The Four enough shit over the years that none of us trust you."
"But how did you feel when some of the people you were protecting decided that they are scared of you? That you can't do anything without their approval?"
We all remain silent. Finding out that we can't do anything was the worst thing to happen. After the four of us got limited to Tennessee, they locked down New York and then Seattle.
"That's what I thought. As for how I got this information, let's just say that I'm going to be the best source available to you."
"Are you implying that you know who this person is? And you can get us in contact with them?" Lucas warily asks.
"Of course I can. In fact, you're in contact with them already." He looks at the watch on his wrist. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be. But I do have something that might help you."
One of his children holds out their hand and a flash drive appears in it. Gracie carefully takes it from them and heads off to get her computer.
"I still don't trust him," Lucas whispers to me.
"Me either, but if he can help us figure out a way to stop this, we might need to trust him a little bit."
When I look back at Shadow, he and his children are gone.
A minute later, Gracie comes back downstairs with a look of shock on her face. "I found out their alias and powers."
"Who?" I warily ask.
"He went by Eclipse. Powers of dark and light. Everything else on this drive is encoded. It's obvious Shadow doesn't want to make this too easy."
"Don't run yourself into the ground with this. For now we all need to keep our heads up and check out any suspicious activity."
Gracie nods and sits down on the sofa, already in her own world.
~~~
A sharp pain in my neck wakes me up. Startled, I launch myself off the sofa ready to fight anyone. Then I realize it's just from sleeping at a weird angle.
"Where's the intruder Cel?" Tyler walks into the kitchen, Lucas following him. Both look like an absolute wreck and Lucas has his hoodie zipped all the way up, the hood bunched around his neck.
Face twisting into a look of disgust, I quietly say, "Please tell me you two didn't have sex in my house."
"Okay." Tyler has turned pale, apparently he wasn't expecting someone to catch them. "We didn't have sex in YOUR house."
"I just don't want to hear about you two having sex period. Let my asexual ass exist without knowing what you two do." I shiver at the thought.
"Nope. Not doing this today." Lorelei has somehow appeared next to me and nearly gives me a heart attack. She pours some coffee that someone made and disappears again.
"Wait, who had sex with who?" Voices call from the living room.
"The two who've been dancing around each other since forever!" I say.
"FINALLY! Wait, does that mean you're moving here Lucas?" Ryan yells. "I think you'd want to be closer to your boyfriend."
"Especially now that you've taken things further now," Kai says so quietly anyone could've missed it. Both of them have turned into human sized tomatoes. When Gracie starts heading towards them, Tyler grabs Lucas and bolts for the door.
Seeing that they've disappeared, she just shrugs and grabs food from the cabinet. "Good for them for finally getting their shit together."
"You don't care?"
She just shrugs. "I've been waiting for this to happen. Rather see it happen than have them loving each other from a distance."
"HEY CELESTE!" Ryan yells.
"WHAT?"
"YOU PROMISED ME YOU'D SHOW ME HOW YOUR FANCY LITTLE TELEPORTERS WORK NEXT TIME IN TOWN! NOW PAY UP!"
That finally makes me laugh and let out the stress of everything that happened last night.
~~~
"Now I regret that they started dating." A week later, I'm witnessing Gracie slam her head on the table for about the tenth time in the past thirty minutes.
"I'm just shocked that he was able to move out here so fast AND get re-registered for school", I say under my breath.
"But I can't say anything because I did give them my approval, not that it matters. Plus Mom and Dad like Lucas even though they don't know the whole story."
"They definitely seem happier together," I glance over to where Tyler is tucked into Lucas' arms and melt at how sweet they are together. "I'm also going to say that your brother is definitely the bottom," I say under my breath.A smack lands on my arm a second later. "You hurt me. I can't believe you would EVER do that!"
"Just don't say those words again. I don't really want to know where my brother lies-" I snicker at that "-in his relationship."