Sarah surveyed her costume in the mirror before entering the hallway. As she shut the bathroom door, she collided right into Erin. “CHI-CAAAA!” Erin exclaimed. Sarah smiled. “Too much? Rita and Angela insisted I wear all these super nice jewels. But what do you think?” Erin just grinned. “It’s amazing. The whole look. Don’t change a thing, girl. It’s HOT.” Sarah touched the soft fabric of Erin’s Little Red Riding Hood costume. She had her hair in two intricately braided pigtails and tied off at the ends with two red ribbons. Her red hooded cape matched her red dress exactly. She looked like she’d stepped right out of an enchanted wood. “I already showed my costume to the boys,” Erin said. “Man, Trevor was almost wild with excitement. He’s a wolf now, remember. You should see him. His little face makes him seem adorable instead of scary.” Sarah giggled. But then her expression turned serious. “How does Bent look? Does he like his costume?” Erin’s face fell. “Um, well, I’m sorry, Sarah. Bent hated the costume you chose.” Sarah gasped, blushing severely. “Oh no!” She felt her eyes fill with tears. No way would she go out there now. Before she could cry, Erin started to laugh.”Holy crap, girl. I’m SO kidding around!” Erin said. Sarah groaned. “Seriously? That was cruel! I was practically heartbroken. I mean, our costumes aren’t anything out of the ordinary. I just assumed they would be simple to pull off essentially last minute on Halloween.” “Go see for yourself,” Erin said. She gestured for Sarah to head back down the hallway. “I’m going to grab my heels from the nice ladies who helped me. They weren’t too pleased that I darted away from them to go show off my costume before I was ‘completely’ done.” Erin giggled and walked barefoot farther down the hall, disappearing into another bathroom. Here goes nothing, Sarah thought, taking a deep breath. She held her head high as she tried to walk confidently into the living room. The boys were seated on the couches. They were yelling loudly at the large digital television screen, trying to warn the heroine in the horror film that she was unknowingly being pursued by a knife-wielding villain. Sarah had to wait a few minutes until the film changed to a less intense scene. She forced herself to look away, waiting for the gruesome chase to pass. Once the film moved to a slower scene, the boys relaxed back against the sofa cushions and started up a back and forth conversation about their favorite horror shows. Go now, Sarah willed herself. She stepped into the living room and quietly sat at the end of one couched. She’d seated herself beside Dan and Chad. When the boys noticed Sarah, their conversation immediately ceased.The silence was quite embarrassing. Sarah was thankful the horror movie was still playing in the background, otherwise she would have blushed away into the couch. “Sexy nurse, huh?” Dan finally said slowly. He had a slight slur given his glued on, practically realistic-looking vampire fangs. His face was caked in thick white make up and his eyes were dark and bloodshot. She noticed he wore red colored contact lenses, too. It was somewhat unnerving to sit beside him. He looked too real, especially when he was staring so hard at her.Chad leaned around the wide V-shaped neck of Dan’s black cloak to get a look at Sarah’s outfit. “Arrr, Sarah. Totally rad costume. You and Prince actually go great together.” Sarah giggled at Chad’s slang words. She saw he sported a large black hat with a feather in it. He had a skull design eyepatch on one eye and a very enormous, very expensive gold hoop earring fastened to his ear. His attendants had outfitted him in a royal blue dress shirt, dress pants, and high black leather boots. There was even a fake green parrot — that also looked quite real — on his shoulder. “Thanks, pirate,” Sarah said. Trevor’s eyes were bugged out of his head as he took in her costume. “Someone call 9-11 on Sarah. That costume is dangerous. Better watch out for the big bad wolf…” He leaned back his head. “…on HOWL-O-WEEN!” He let out a long, extremely embarrassing wolf howl. Trevor wore Dan’s werewolf costume. His entire head and body were nothing but fuzzy gray fur and long sharp claws. He had a headpiece that stretched over the top of his face, giving him a long snout and fangs. “I’m sure Little Red Riding Hood will protect me,” Sarah giggled. Sarah saw Bent was again refusing to look at her. He had his eyes on his feet, sitting in absolute silence. She inhaled her breath. He was dressed in scrubs that appeared to be made of fine lightweight green silk. A darling surgical scrub cap rested daintily over the top of his head. He had a designer surgical mask fastened around his neck, and a long stethoscope rested like a loose tie across his chest. His silk scrubs were open in the front, exposing all of his delicious rock hard chest muscles. He blinked at the ground, keeping his hands deep inside his long white lab coat pockets. Sarah saw the words Bent Prince, M.D., F.A.C.S. were stitched into the left-hand side of his lab coat.”What does F.A.C.S. mean?” Sarah asked Bent. She wanted to get him out of his strange silence. Alas, he didn’t take the bait. Instead, he quickly replied, “Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.” “And that means?” Trevor asked, scratching absently at his furry head. “It means,” Bent said, looking at Trevor, “that the surgeon has passed exhaustive procedures and evaluations to ensure his or her competence in the field.”Chad snorted. “Dude, Prince. How do you know so much?” Bent’s eyes twinkled. His mouth widened into an extremely precious smile. “I read a lot.” Sarah saw his eyes flicker for just an instant in her direction before quickly panning back down to his surgical sneakers. Fine then! Sarah thought. Let him ignore me. Whatever. It’s not like he’s never done it before. Erin finally emerged from the hallway. Her attendants walked quickly past her and, along with Rita and Angela, happily waved to the group before heading out the front door of the villa.Trevor checked his watch. “So, what’s the plan for getting us all from here A to there B?” He looked pointedly with his very pointed snout at Bent. “Yeah, what’s up for our local transportation, Dr. Prince?” Dan snickered. Bent stood up from the couch. He seemed more intimidating than ever in his surgical getup. “The car’s out front.” He arched an eyebrow. “Race you to it!” With that, all the boys shot up off the couch and TOOK OFF RUNNING!Sarah and Erin watched them dash away with confused expressions. “Do you ever notice that boys, like children, are constantly running everywhere?” Erin grumbled. “Guess so,” Sarah said softly. She followed Erin out of the villa and headed back down the long boardwalk. The sky overhead had darkened significantly now that it was almost seven thirty. “How far is the drive to the concert?” Sarah asked. She tried to keep from tripping in her heels. They were higher than the ones she typically wore so she had to walk more slowly to not appear stiff-legged. Erin adjusted her red hood. “Trevor said it’s really close. Only a few miles.” When they reached the front of the hotel, they saw people everywhere around them were dressed in costumes. “This town sure likes Halloween,” Erin laughed. She pointed to a group of guys in alien costumes who were crowded together inside a plastic UFO. They kept bumping into each other as they tried to walk down the jam-packed sidewalk. “Arrr you girls going to join us?” Chad called. He was clearly loving his pirate costume. “Or walk the plank,” Chad said, bobbing the head of the parrot on his shoulder. “Very funny,” Erin murmured. The boys stood beside a jet black Jeep Wrangler. It had SIX doors that were completely open on every side. It was the biggest Jeep Sarah had ever seen.Bent waited for Chad and Dan to hop into the back seats of the Jeep. He pulled open the side door for Erin. Sarah noticed the door wasn’t quite a real door. It was completely open except for two metal bars that locked into place. “Why thank you, Doctor,” Erin laughed as she took Bent’s hand to climb onto a seat next to Trevor. Bent shut the door and opened the front passenger door for Sarah. She made a face. She had expected he would seat her as far away from himself as possible. Instead, he’d placed her right next to the driver’s seat. She saw he kept his eyes averted as he held out his hand to her. Two can play this game, she decided. She dismissed his hand and placed her foot on the Jeep’s step. Before she sat down, she paused. “We were on national television today. Dance, Baby, Dance. Did you catch it?” she asked. The question sounded a bit meaner than she had intended. But he was so annoying when he ignored her. “I saw it,” he said, his voice barely audible. “I bet the viewers would really like seeing you as a nurse.””Haha,” she laughed.Bent shut her door, walked to the driver’s side, and got in behind the wheel.”Drive,” he whispered to the vehicle. He really had a lot of cars. “What’s its name?” she asked. She gave him a knowing smile. Bent glanced at her as the Jeep paused to allow traffic to speed past them on the highway. “This is Rex.”