Priya felt like a director on opening night. The lights dimmed with the setting sun and the audience filed in by twos and fours. After weeks of planning, costume, and rehearsal, it was show time for her creations. She sat on a folding chair in the control tent, observing events from her laptop via six cameras Drake had rigged amongst the cemetery’s mature trees.

There was plenty of action: the animatronic arm that came out of a gap in a tree trunk as you entered the east gates near campus; the giant constrictors that lurked amongst tangled tree roots along Loon Lake’s southern shoreline and, continuing west all the way to the fence; the Volkswagen-sized tarantula poised to pounce from above. She loved to hear the whoops and screams of teens as they stumbled upon her “actors.” How could Tonya have tried to deny her this? With its meandering paths and ancient, indecipherably weathered tombstones, this place was perfect. She avoided the chapel of course, although Zain was dying to record in it. Her installation steered clear of modern gravestones and concentrated on the parklike areas of the cemetery where she could use trees to trigger people’s eternal fear of the Wild.

She left the tent to find Shin. She had to see his reaction when he saw her werewolf sculpture, an Adonis caught halfway through the change, his powerful shoulders modeled on Shin’s own. She thought she was finished sculpting her last creature before she met him, and she had tried to resist using Marta’s boyfriend as a muse, but his athlete’s anatomy was too perfect to overlook.

She took the path leading out of the western gates and turned south toward the bonfire, through the wooded strip between the cemetery gates and Kenny Road to the west. This patch of ground was even more wooded than the cemetery.

As she walked, Priya was disappointed by this year’s female costumes. She passed one scary Bride of Frankenstein, but the rest of the co-eds defaulted to the standard hot chick combo: heels, cleavage, and short skirts. By the time she reached fireside, Priya had passed sexy witches, sexy devils, sexy cats, and sexy pirates who all looked the same. Not that she had a problem with sexy, but couldn’t they show more imagination?

The bonfire was built in a clearing just outside the cemetery, almost opposite the Herbal Healing Shop. Around the fire, Priya recognized a cluster of guys from Shin’s party wearing capes, swords, and cowboy hats. It made her wish she had a costume. Too busy primping her monsters these past few weeks, she hadn’t thought about her own appearance.

“Hey.” Shin was coming toward her, silhouetted against the flames.

Priya dusted bark and twigs off her jeans and heavy lumberjack shirt. Her hair was clean at least. For convenience, she had braided it and pinned it to her head in a pair of tight coils.

The light caught the side of Shin’s face and she could see him staring, first at her plaid jacket, then up at her face and hair.

“Who are you supposed to be?”

“Uh . . . Princess Leia, disguised as a Canadian.”

He smiled and pointed up into the trees where she had installed a hundred glowing eyes.

“So, all these crazy monsters are yours?”

“I confess. I am the mad artist.”

“Well, don’t cut your ear off, Van Gogh. Can I get you a drink?” He thumbed over his shoulder at a keg on the far side of the fire.

With a flourish, Marta strutted out of the shadows wearing a floor-length gown with an embroidered bodice worthy of Queen Elizabeth I.

“Your costume is fabulous!” Priya tried not to stare.

Marta’s cleavage welled up from the beaded neckline of her dress and even the corset underneath couldn’t hide the fact she looked fifteen pounds heavier than in her diving team picture on the university website.

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“Shin likes it.” Marta spun, sending multiple layers of skirts floating.

Priya saw Shin frown, as Marta wobbled to a stop. Was there something not right between them?

“So, about that drink.” He shot Priya a gaze so steely she felt like it could nail her to a tree. What was wrong with this guy?

“No thanks. I’ll get my own.” She strode around the fire to where a couple of guys were selling cups of beer for a buck. Priya wasn’t thirsty but she found a place to stand in the shadows. She was intrigued by the firelight effect, flickering over the circle of faces. Paintable. Definitely paintable.

She was so lost in this living chiaroscuro that it took her by surprise when somebody sidled up to her.

“Here’s to the Mistress of Darkness and Special Effects.” Shin toasted her with his plastic cup.

“It’s supposed to be Art.”

“It’s incredible.” He closed the gap between them and spoke softly. “Me and Marta are just about finished.”

“So?”

“I thought you might care,” he looked back at the fire.

“Has she stopped training? She’s gained some weight.”

“D’ya think? Lately she eats like nothing else matters. We go on a date and she ignores me. Won’t look at anything but her plate. It’s like she’s trying to push me away.”

“You’re not supposed to love someone when they’re rail thin, then dump them the minute they don’t fit your idea of perfect.”

“Is that what I’m doing?”

“Yeah it is, but how you feel about your girlfriend is not my business.”

“That could change.” He took her hands in his and Priya didn’t know what to do. He was so forward, and she was more comfortable pursuing rather than being pursued.

“You sure are friendly.” She gave his hands a little squeeze and broke away. “Want to see something cool?”

“And leave the bonfire? This is where the party is.”

“C’mon, you have to see this!”

She led Shin through her carefully constructed monster experience. As the path wound deeper into the wooded section, glowing eyes gave way to hints of things that swished and howled in the bushes. Shin tried to take her hand again, but she evaded his grasp. His nearby presence felt magnetic, but she couldn’t decide whether to encourage or reject him. He belonged to Marta.

Priya led Shin off the path.

“Where are we going?”

They were approaching the tent. He looked at her, then back at the tent. He grinned. “Looks like your lucky night!”

“Calm down, Diver Boy.” She unzipped the tent flap revealing the laptop and chair.

He raised his eyebrows. “You brought me all the way here, to show me a computer?”

“Patience.” She pointed to the laptop screen which was divided quilt-wise, showing images from six different cameras.

“Watch camera four.” She indicated a couple strolling through the cemetery.

“What are they doing?”

“Getting close to Tonya’s famous Ash Tree. Watch what happens.”

The camera was mounted high in the branches, yielding a foreshortened, bird’s-eye view. At their leisurely pace, it was taking them a while to get to the tree and, while Shin watched the screen, he snaked his arm around Priya’s waist.

It sent a shiver up her spine.

She stepped out of his reach. “Look.”

Camera three showed the same scene from the opposite direction. In it, they could see what the couple was seeing: the tallest tree in the cemetery.

There was a flash, then a trembling in the branches and out leapt Priya’s pièce de résistance, Artemis, goddess of the Hunt. After a whole forest of creepy, fierce-looking creatures, Priya wanted to end the show with something magical.

“Is that Marta?” Shin stooped closer to the screen.

“Not exactly. Months ago, I used a volunteer in a wig for the hologram, then spent a day last week manipulating the face. It’s her portrait.”

Projected in holographic light, Artemis glowed like a goddess. The couple in the forest stood still, watching from behind as the huntress drew her bow and shot at something unseen beyond the cemetery fence.

“What’s she aiming at?” asked Shin.

“Exactly! That’s the effect I wanted to create.”

“She’s so perfect.”

“Do you want to see her live?”

The way Shin’s eyes looked her up and down told her he’d rather get lively in the tent, but an object on the screen caught her attention. A bulky dude passed right through the hologram, dispersing Artemis into haze.

Priya was annoyed. Some lunkhead student had ruined the recording, except his suit and hair weren’t student-like. Was he wearing a costume?

He turned to face the camera.

“It’s Professor Rudolph!”

“Didn’t you say he was dead?” asked Shin.

She watched the professor lumber after the couple, hands outstretched like a sleepwalker. There were no microphones, but Priya saw the girl’s mouth open wide and her hands go up to protect her face. As the couple sprinted away, Rudolph blundered after them, passing out of camera range.

“We should check that out,” said Shin.

They jogged along the path by the bobbing light of Priya’s phone, but when they reached the Ash Tree Professor Rudolph was gone.