In The End

Gives you Hell.

I sat at my desk desperate to finish off Jacksons calendar for next week so I could lock it in and then get home to prepare for Edens big night at the exhibition. I quickly glanced at the time in he corner of my screen, I had just under 45 minutes to get this done before I needed to collect my mom and dad who were coming in to LAX at 5pm. We were going to be cutting it fine, taking in to account the LA traffic at this time of day, but arrangements had been made between mine and Edens parents to go for dinner after we had visited the gallery. It wasn't unusual for our families to spend time together, the closeness of mine and Edens relationship has evidently rubbed off on our parents who had also become best friends. I continued to work my way down the list cross referencing each section for the final time. Things had been crazy busy over the last few weeks, Jackson wasn't happy with some of the art work for the album so time had been further held up, which caused a ton of additional paperwork and then the band decided to pull one of the tracks last minute and swap it with an old track they never released. Personally I preferred it to the original, but Jackson wasn't happy with the decision and came to blows with Zeph, although I think there was something else behind it all. Cody had pretty much moved down here and set up a makeshift workstation in the corner of my office as he worked tirelessly to ensured so lawsuits would be landing or any surprises could pop up later on. Axel was still out in Colorado, Jackson had just got back from visiting him out there and seemed happy with how it was going and had accidentally let slip to me that Maddie was finally pregnant and with twins, and I ended up taking on some additional duties to help Jackson out whilst he focused on Maddie. To be honest I was quite enjoying the responsibility and having a little meat on the bones of my job, it also meant I was finally able to use some of that very expensive business degree I had achieved. I was just about to lock in the calendar when my email pinged and urgent flashed up at the bottom of my screen. I immediately clicked on it with a rush of both worry and excitement as the screen went blank. Very slowly what looked like a beautifully embossed black envelope with a red wax seal appeared on the screen.

"What the fu..." I muttered to myself unsure as to what I was supposed to do. "Jackson." I called out in a panic.

"Yeah." He instantly arrived in the doorway connecting our rooms, sensing the worrying tone to my voice.

"Erm, I had an urgent message pop up so I clicked on it, the computer went weird and then this appeared. I'm scared, have I opened a virus or something?" My panicked eyes settled on his grinning face as he made is way around my desk to look at my screen.

"Nope, not a virus." He said matter of factly. "Click it."

Doing what he said I hesitantly hovered my mouse over the red skull pressed into the wax and the envelope began to open. What looked like a black letter animatedly slipped out and filled the screen.

"Congratulations." Jackson squeezed my shoulder.

"What, what is it?" I croaked as I shot him a quick glance before returning my attention to my screen.

"It's an invitation."

"An invitation?" I echoed. "What to a cult or something? I don't...." My voice trailed off.

"Relax yourself there Bumblebee." I grimaced that he too now called me by the bands nickname for me. "It's an invitation to Sullivans Halloween Party."

"Party?" I muttered to myself as I began to read the information.

Till death us do party!

Your presence is requested at
Sullivans Annual Halloween Masquerade Ball
Saturday 31st October
8 till late

RSVP
Yes.                   No

I read it several times over, the bold white gothic italics sitting perfectly on the Matt black background. Thin white leafing bordered the page with a few finely decorated skulls dotted in between and what looked like a goat or rams head centre top of the page.