Found

Race

The days slowly rolled by, nothing too incredulous occurring. Life was normal once more. Newsies closed. Mean Girls opened. Lizzy got a job. Josh went in for a scan at the neurologists but nothing had come back from them yet. I was surprised that life had been so generous lately, it hadn't sprung any unwelcomed surprises on me. I was adamant I was dreaming, yet I did not want to wake. 

If life is great now, it was about to be fantastic. Halloween was just around the corner and I was finally going to a Halloween party - of course, hosted by Mean Girls. In true fashion, we decided to come as Broadway characters. After hours of scouring the internet for good ideas, we finally decided on our costumes. I was going to go as Race from Newsies seeing as I already had my costume from the school production, Ben was going to go as Elder Price from The book of Mormon, Lizzy was attending as Anastasia as she had a giant, red dress she had worn for a college show she did that surprisingly still fit her. And Josh was going as the Phantom because he wanted to wear a cool mask and make dramatic hand movements. 

The night of Halloween came, and the house was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Not a sound was made apart from the slight rustle of clothing. We were so ecstatic, that we were getting ready at least three hours in advance. 

I had got changed rather quickly as I had so many quick changes in rehearsals with this costume and my townswoman costume (one of Lizzy's fancy dresses) that I could put it on in one minute tops. I plopped down on my bed, after apply 'dirt' onto my face and began to scroll through my Instagram. I laughed quietly to myself - lots of usernames were spamming the Broadway.com comment section on a picture of Lizzy next to the Beauty and the Beast poster at the Palace Theatre. She was cast as Belle a few weeks ago and now it was finally released after months of speculation over would take over in the role. 

I scrolled through the comments, liking my favorite ones, mostly references. But at this point, I speak fluently in theatre references. There was a slight knock on the door a few minutes later, Ben sticking his head into my room. He smiled at me gently, then opened the door revealing his costume. I snickered at his appearance before standing up and striking a dramatic pose showing him my costume. 

"Come on, we're going to go early at set up - Josh and Liz will meet us there." He gestured to the door, where my boots sat. I kept smiling as I slid them on and began tying them up. I skipped out of my room, then straight out of the front door. 

As we were in the car, we played show tunes to which we sang rather loudly too. The streets of New York were lined with all sorts of characters, some from Broadway, some from the latest blockbuster film and about twenty different Donald Trumps each one more ridiculous than the other. Decorations littered the streets, carved pumpkins outside shops and orange bunting wrapped around street lamps. England never celebrated Halloween this much, nor did it's occupancies - yet we invented the holiday which does seem rather strange to me. I always wanted to carve pumpkins and get into the holiday but my parents never allowed it, they never even allowed trick or treatings, saying it was begging and that I shouldn't do it. I was always so sad to see the lucky kids who had non-strict parents running down the streets, buckets of sweets and not being allowed to join in. I hated answering the door to cheerful kids and say that we had no sweets to give them - there frowns making me hunch over with guilt. My parents not only hurt me, they hurt others too. But now things had changed, tables turned and I was on my way to Broadway's biggest party, and to say I was nervous was an understatement. 

"What's it like?" I asked Ben, ripping my gaze from the streets outside the window to him. 

"What? Halloween?" I nodded. He gripped the steering wheel and kept his eyes on the road. "It's fantastic. Everyone dresses in hilarious costumes and parade around in them not caring how they look. There are too many sweets to count and tons of games. You're really going to enjoy it." I could tell how much he loved it from the smile that just grew wider and wider as he spoke.

"That sounds awesome, will it be scary?" I was asking myself really but Ben answered anyway. 

"It's only scary if you forget their just your friends under the makeup. You'll be fine." He reached over the gear stick and rubbed my arm as we reached a red light. 

We continued to drive for a few more minutes before pulling into a parking spot just down the street from the theatre. We got out and instantly joined a stream of impersonators, who like us were all dressed up as Broadway characters. 

Someone tapped my shoulder, so I turned around to see none other than Jeremy Jordan standing in a Race costume just like my own. 

"Oh my gosh! We're matching!" I cried, flinging my arms around him as I had not seen him since before Ben had gone. Ben did look awfully confused as to why I was so friendly with him, but Jeremy quickly cleared it up at the sight of his puzzled face. 

"I filled in for Dan just before...." Jeremy trailed off not wanting to talk about the day Josh burst through the doors with a note of Ben's fate in his hands. Ben knew what he meant and nodded at him so he didn't have to mention Him. He turned back to me. "How's my favorite Les?"

"I'm great! We're about to go to my first Halloween party at the August Wilson!" I said excitedly, jumping up and down. Ben placed his hands on my shoulders to steady me. I looked up and pouted at him. 

"Sorry, but you need to save your energy, I don't want you falling asleep like you did at the last party," he laughed releasing my shoulders. 

"It was one time!" I complained, crossing my arms. Jeremy stifled a laugh at us before bidding us farewell. 

"Come on," Ben said, "Let's go help set up." 

By the time we had reached the August Wilson, it already looked rather Halloweeny. There were orange and black streamers strung everywhere, fluffy - white 'cobwebs' on the banister leading upstairs and numerous black spiders climbing the walls of the foyer. 

As we entered, Erika rushed up to us wearing a long, white gown that flowed around her legs which made it look as if she was floating on a cloud or one of the cobwebs. "Hey guys, grool costumes!" 

"Thanks," we both said in unison. 

"You're Christine right?" I asked looking her up and down. She replied with a curtsy before dragging Ben away because she needs his 'height' to put things on the ceiling. 

I glanced around the foyer, smiling at the increasing level of scariness. I turned around and flinched, flailing on the ground banging my head as I went, because I was face to face with a giant, spider. I've never liked spiders - there was an incident at home involving a large spider in a six- year - old Grace's bed whilst she was sleeping. Let's just say, I don't like spiders. So this fake one creeped me out a lot. 

I lay there for a few seconds, letting my throbbing head pain go down slightly. My vision was still slightly blurry so I remained on the ground because I didn't want to pass out before one of the best nights of my life. That was until the laughing started. 

It was a laugh I knew well. But one I hadn't heard in a long time. 

Thomas... He was back.