Hell rained down on Saturday night.

And what better to celebrate the occasion than with a change of fashion?

One hour before the start of the party, all four girls sifted through the fabric cloaks and picked themselves out a matching mask to fit their color and theme.

Janie, with her long blond hair fashioned into a neat, high bun, decided on a white shirt, cropped a little at the bottom (to her chagrin), with black denim jeans ripped at the knees, her trademark black trainers and a brown jacket. On her head rested the mask of a deer.

Thalia dressed in bold black, her amber and brown eyes glinting through the mask of an eagle, sharp beak curving down over her nose like a spear. She’d carefully curled her hair to make them into waves, flowing down the back of her neck and shoulders like feathers. Out of the coat options, Thalia picked one of the refurbished black cloaks, the collar of it popped, a safeguard below her jaw. When the light caught it, the fabrics shimmered a soft brown. She wore combat boots with a small platform, laced up just past her ankle.

Callie settled for unassuming gray, easy to blend in with presumably a dark room. She stuck to a preppy look of a slate colored long-sleeved shirt complete with void black leggings. Tan boots, soft on the outside with fraying seams at the bottom, went up to just below her knee. She worked on straightening her hair, the mask of a rabbit cast off to the side, one of its ears floppy.

Mira sat with her selection of fabrics, carefully sliding them onto her skin like armor, a protective barrier. She had no desire to blend in with the night or demand attention in a show-stopping, assertive kind of way. No, she wanted to be there. Front and center.

So she went for a honey glazed gold.

A white, turtlenecked sweater protected her throat like a metal plate, jet black denim offset by bright, yellow seams. Over the sweater was a yellow, almost sunset colored jacket, the fabrics a soft imitation of leather and woolen on the inside. The combat boots she’d borrowed from Thalia were laced all the way to the top, loose strings dangling just below her knee.

Nestled in her lap lay the smooth caricature of a lion.

And when she finally stood and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, all auburn curls tempered like a mane, the smooth coat hugging her frame and flared at the hem, Mira smiled with predatory teeth.

She felt dangerous and regal all at once.

Like being a lion in a flowerfield: unassuming and deadly.

Mira spun on her toes, clapping her hands together before drawing up an invisible glove on one of her hands. The other girls's grins matched hers only in nerves, each with their own stories beneath.

“Get ready, ladies,” Mira said, sweet and slow. “We’ve got a party to crash.”

The party house stood out amongst the crowd of wooden paneling that made up the siding of most of the Grimmshollow houses. In comparison to the Chrome houses (which were startlingly wide to compensate for extra space to run in-home businesses), the ones here, in the western side of Grimmshollow were several stories tall; Mira hadn’t seen buildings this high since she accompanied her father into Droidell to buy rare and uncommon baking materials a few years ago.

The Harsyle twins had chosen a particular building of three floors, each level more spindly and narrow than the one before. Mira couldn’t place the color of the panels in the moonlight, but from the flashing lights beyond the windows, she briefly spotted a slate gray against a white window frame. A wide, clean and well cared for porch extended the length of the first floor with an overhang that made Mira’s blood sing. It was everything she wanted to scale the building, to put her energy to good use and rid herself of some nerves, but there was a time and place for that.

They would simply have to wait until after her job was done.

Janie and Thalia picked up the front while Mira lagged behind with Callie, who fidgeted with the mask over her face. And Mira would have been content to just walk beside the girl who had once been her crush (though her heart still pounded with wanting), but the former Pepper clicked her nails against the plastic and began to walk backwards, picking up her pace to face Mira. “How does it look?”

“Ridiculous,” replied Mira, adjusting her own mask over her face. “Like everyone else’s.”

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“Just wait until you see what the demon twins are wearing.”

“Hyenas?”

“Worse. Foxes.”

Sly and cunning. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

Callie scoffed, the sound barely making it past her lips. “That wasn’t the intent, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Speaking of intent,” Mira said, “what’s your goal in all of this? You know what mine is. And you know that Janie and Thalia are here for the ride. What’s in it for you?”

The girl slowed her steps, opting for a more angled walk so that her body was still facing Mira as she spoke. “Why do you want to know?” she asked.

“Because I want to know what made you change. You wanted nothing to do with me at the start of the year. You made it hell to figure out what Bentley and his lame excuse for a friend circle were plotting to do to my brother. But then you helped me when they ruined him with the school bells. And then you helped Lia and Jane by warning them about the mining bells.”

Mira stopped walking, keeping a small eye on her other friends a few paces out. Callie paused, too, wind lifting her blonde hair like waves in a small pond. “I want to know what turned you back into the person I fell in love with. Because it is very hard to forgive you when I so desperately want to.”

Wind whistled between them, a sharp breeze cutting through the quiet like a knife. Callie blinked, her face hidden in the shadows of her mask. Mira could tell she wasn’t intimidated by the statement from the straightening of her posture, the squareness of her jaw.

And from the quick steps Callie made to stand in front of her.

In spite of herself, Mira took a hesitant step back, her heartbeat fast and wild in her chest. She was so used to being assertive and holding her ground that she’d forgotten what it felt like to have her foundation shaken in this way. And it was here, with Callie a few inches taller, that Mira found herself feeling a little bit smaller in the other girl’s presence. Not in a belittled way, but just … small.

It took everything in Mira’s power to keep herself still. To not push onto her toes to peck the girl on the cheek or on the lips. To not throw her arms around Callie’s neck and bury her face into her shoulder.

She willed herself to do none of those things and listen.

“I wanted a place to belong,” Callie said, her voice soft in the space between them. “A place that protected me from the people I wanted to be protected from. It’s why I stayed with them. Because I knew that the second I turned my back that I’d never hear the end about my mother dancing circles for the men in Droidell’s bars. Or the fact that my father is so rarely home because of how far he travels for work that he may as well not be there at all.”

Mira winced. This time she didn’t try to stop her hand from resting along the side of Callie’s face. “You never told me that.”

To Mira’s shock, the girl closed her eyes and dipped her head. “There was a reason why, Mirabel. Every wall has ears. And talking about things like that is a social risk in that town.”

That town. Said with such distance that Callie may as well not be there at all. “Do they know? That you’re siding with us?”

Mira felt the smile before she saw it on the girl’s face. The sly grin of betrayal, but it made Mira’s heart flutter to know that it was not her underneath the edge of the knife this time. “What they find out tonight won’t kill them. Or me. Not anymore. They aren’t my problem after next week once the moving is complete.”

Time sputtered and stopped.

Mira took her hand away. “Moving?”

Callie’s face was neutral, but her tone held the slightest inkling of surprise. “You didn’t know?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” Mira said, voice tight, “but I’ve been preoccupied with a lot of things.”

“I talked about it with Janie the other day … I thought she would have mentioned it to you.”

Mira forced a calm into her voice that she didn’t readily feel. I imagine Janie didn’t want to say anything that could make me more volatile than I already am.” It was partly the truth; Mira thought that, realistically, it had more to do with the fact that the information simply wasn’t relevant to the task at hand. If Janie had mentioned it, then she risked Mira’s attention floating away.

Part of Mira wanted to kick herself for being so predictable. Predictable and stupidly infatuated. “How long?”

“We finished finalizing the process at the start of last month.”

The start of November, Mira noticed with a pang in her chest. By the time the incident with the bells happened, Callie must have realized that she had nothing to lose anymore, slowly but surely breaking ties with the Peppers in every subtle way.

“My mother figured it would be best,” Callie added quietly. “New start.”

“Where?”

“Not sure. Probably one of the Northern Droidell outercities. The good thing about moving, though, is that this means I can give them as much hell as I want. Whatever it is you need me to do, tell me.”

Several answers came to mind, none of which were remotely fitting for the circumstance. She swallowed those answers with a heavy heart. “I want you to make them regret ever fucking with you. Make them regret making you feel tied down to them.”

Callie gave her a wicked smile then, one full of mischief.

Mira felt the distinct need to kiss her.

The other girl didn’t seem to notice, though, only spun on her toes and dropped the mask back over her face, hiding most of her facial features from view. In the moonlight, Callie was completely shrouded in shadow and Mira joined her, dropping her own lion facade over her face.

“Let’s go give them hell,” Callie said, voice brimming with untamed joy as she walked faster to catch up with Thalia and Janie.

Yes, thought Mira, picking up her pace. Let’s make them pay. By any means necessary.