𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝 | 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝟷

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙾𝚗𝚎

𝚂𝚘𝚏𝚒𝚊

☆═━┈┈━═☆

They used to run the night.

The Phantoms.

But when they left it was up to me to keep the tradition going, I was one of them. Even if they refused to acknowledge it. They had no right to take the tradition from a school that devoured it every year. Jade Lake Prep looked forward to the one night a year where the Phantoms would come and cause chaos and the town would turn a blind eye. It was the one night a year that the teens ruled the streets and the adults hid inside.

Chaos, corruption, destruction.

It was in our blood, if you lived here, you had protection, our parents had never ending bank accounts and they would pull us out of any shit we threw ourselves into. I was no different in the years I'd been running Phantoms Eve, if the city wanted to come after me for the amount of destruction I've caused this sleepy town, the list of charges would wrap around the lake four times over. It wasn't my fault, I wasn't always like this. Not until they took me that night, they woke the little devil that rested inside of me. So, when they moved on, when they deemed Jade Lake boring and left, the fear of the tradition going away made people panic. And truly who was I to deny them the one night of blissful freedom we got from under our parents thumbs. So I recruited my three best friends, Elena, Violet, and Olivia, we kept the spirit alive, we kept the tradition going, and we blew it up five times more than the boys ever did.

"Hi Mrs. Moor," Elena's voice carried down the hall, "I hope you have the lawyers on standby." She joked, before I heard the tell tell signs of her feet against our hardwood floors.

"Always do," my mother sighed, "I'll send the others up when they get here."

Our parents knew what we did, we would be idiots to get ourselves into trouble and put them on the spot. Someone had to be there to clean up our messes. They could never let their precious reputations suffer. Phantoms Eve was the one night a year that we could all throw away the masks of perfect children, prim and proper, and become the darkness inside of us. We could become the devils they created.

"Did you hear?" Elena asked, the duffle bag in her hand dropping to the floor with a thud, "They're back, the twins dad invited the original phantoms back for one last night of fun."

Olivia and Violet's father was the mayor of Jade Lake and he was our savior during this night, he gave us protection in a way even our families couldn't provide. He made the police force turn a blind eye, "just clean up the mess," he scolded the police chief the first year we took over, "clean up the mess and don't tell a fucking soul."

Corruption was beautiful when you were on the protected end of it.

"Good, let them see what we've done to their sacred night," I shrugged, turning back to the mirror as I drug the charcoal eye pencil across the lash line, darkening the base and making my green eyes glow, "they don't run this town anymore, it's about time they realize that people don't worship the ground they walk on anymore, the boys aren't the Phantoms of the Night anymore."

I grew up around the leader, Steve. His younger brother was one of my best friends, our families close. Logan knew what I did and he knew that a big part of what I did these nights was in retaliation for Steve dumping me after specifically seeking me out all those years ago. For dragging me along and awakening a side of me I didn't know needed to be satiated.

The zip of Elena's duffle bag startled me out of my thoughts, watching her pull out our uniforms of the night through my mirror. "Has Logan said anything?" Elena's eyes briefly met mine in the mirror, gray eyes flickering with mischief. Everyone loved to tease about how Logan and I were built for each other.