The Huntress

An attic of treasures and mysteries

“Are you serious?! Oh the irony. ” He asked, moving closer to a vampire costume. One of many different types.

“Completely! See… you could go as Count Dracula and me and Amy as regular vampires?” She suggested, still giggling. Max shook his head and began to flick through the costumes. Alison did the same trying to find a vampire one that she and Amy could both wear. Max stopped and looked at the costume in front of him, smiling.

“Alison I have a better idea!” His voice genuinely seemed excited this time. He knew that the others would find this hilarious and it would be great.

“If it’s not amazing then we’re doing vampires still!” Alison declared, pulling away from her rack to go look at what Max had found. On seeing it she began to laugh.

“This is so much better! I’ll be Van Helsing, Amy can be Mina and then you can be a vampire!” Max declared, pulling the long leather coat with the plastic stake attached off of the rack.

“I love it!” Alison declared, “But I don’t think they do a Mina costume Max… so what’s Amy going to wear?” The smile slowly fading from her face, the female vampire costume in her hand looking rather limp now the idea was fading.

“Well you’ve read the book right?” Max said, he was still smiling, “What era is it set in?”

“Umm eighteenth century? Or is it nineteenth?” She thought back to the time that Charles had brought the dusty first edition out of his office library and given the book to her; it was the first in a long line of gothic novels they had insisted she read.

“Doesn’t really matter which, no one else will know the difference… we just need to get Amy a Victorian dress and we’re set!” Max said with a grin, Alison’s own smile reforming.

“Hey? Do you think Emma would have one in the attic?”

“Probably, Amy might even have one herself… I can’t remember if she threw all that stuff out or not.”

“Lets go home and look!” Alison said, laughing as she dragged Max over to the checkout.

The entire walk back to the house Alison was excitedly talking about the Halloween party now. Kirsty had wanted them all to go as a group of Zombie cheerleaders so it wouldn’t matter if Alison dropped out. She’d bought a rather generic vampire outfit which she was going to ask Emma or Amy to help make look more authentic. Max’s outfit had come with a plastic stake and ring of garlic but he reckoned that Charles had collected a few genuine stakes through his travels.

As Max unlocked the front door he turned to Alison, “You know I have no idea how Charles and Emma will respond to this idea… they might laugh at the irony of it but they might also get offended or also think that we are being careless. So if I were you I'd be prepared for the worst." He warned although Alison could see the excited glint in his eye at the prospect of dressing up.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. It's just a teenagers party, I highly doubt there'll be anyone paying attention. It'll be odd if we didn't dress up, don't you think?" She smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling him up the stairs. "Come on, we've got costumes to make and I can't get into the attic by myself, the door's too heavy."

Max chuckled as he followed her up the stairs and down the corridor. The door to the attic was above the coving at the end of the upstairs hall, the door led into the roof space above the end bedroom (Phillip's room). Max climbed up onto the landing table and pulled the door open before helping Alison onto the table as well. She wasn't allowed in the attic often because it was so difficult, and dangerous, to get into. But Max didn't mind helping, he was protective, but not as much as the others.