Closed Macabre Romance

[Emily Hastings]

Emily was thrilled that she had finally convinced Sydney to come to the Halloween feast with her. She was even more thrilled by Sydney's costume. Emily couldn't wait to see how good her girlfriend looked. She waited outside the great hall, standing perfectly still and jumping at random students, laughing as a few first years screamed and ran away. She giggled, straightening again and resuming her pose, waiting for Sydney to arrive.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney didn't do school events. Not unless she really had to. But out of all of them, Halloween was probably the one she could stomach the most. Especially when she knew Emily loved the holiday so much. So, for Emily's sake, Sydney had gotten dressed up tonight, rather enjoying supplying more and more mental backstory to her costume as she piled on ghoulish white make-up and ripped up the bottom hem of her dress. In her mind, she and Emily had been tragic Victorian lovers, torn apart too soon by her sudden death and now Sydney's ghost was unable to move on, driven mad by their separation. She amused herself as she made her way up from the Dungeons, imagining lurking about in the fog on some English moor as Emily appeared near the doorway, a vision in her black veil.

"Having fun, I see," she said as she approached Emily, having caught the tail end of a group of younger students screaming as they'd past her. She would have expected nothing less from Emily though. "Glad someone remembers what this holiday is meant to be about," she added with a smirk.

 

[Emily Hastings]

Emily looked up, smiling warmly as Sydney appeared. "Oh, absolutely," she agreed, walking closer and holding out her hands. "You look beautiful," she told Sydney, smiling warmly even though she knew Syd probably couldn't see it through the veil Emily wore. "You are an absolutely haunting spectre," she teased playfully. Her heart was fluttering in her chest. She was happy her girlfriend had agreed to come, and happy that they had put together such an elaborate group costume.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Emily made quite the image, approaching with arms raised dressed the way she was and Sydney couldn't help but smirk. Anyone else would probably be terrified. Which was probably why Sydney enjoyed it so much. "Good, I was going for haunting," she said, trying not let Emily's previous compliment fluster her. Beautiful was not usually what Sydney aimed for. She'd realized a long time ago it wasn't a standard she wanted to aspire to. Or could ever obtain. She'd made it a matter of pride, really, that she wasn't. She much prefer to be terrifying. That was why she liked Emily so much. She could find the beauty in the horrific. "Come on, we should go show these pretenders what's really scary," she said, taking Emily's hands so they could make a proper entrance into the hall.

 

[Emily Hastings]

Emily smiled, lacing her fingers with Sydneys and turning to walk into the room. "Do you think we'll scare more people together, or apart?" She asked, giving her girlfriend an impish grin. "I bet we could traumatize a few first years, at least," she winked, already giddy with the thought.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney glanced around the hall as she followed Emily in, letting her pull Sydney along with their linked hands. It seemed about as dull as normal, with their tacky decorations and their classmates in their contrite costume, but Sydney found it much easier to stomach just having Emily with her. It was comforting to know she could to turn to her at any point with a snide comment or clever observation and Emily would be ready and waiting to agree.

She laughed at Emily's clear excitement about scaring some of the kids, changing directions and pulling her over to a quieter corner of the hall. "I'm sure we'd make a heck of a team," she said softly, running her fingers along the edge of the dark veil Emily was wearing. "But I don't know if I really want to share tonight after all," she said, content to ignore the rest of the party goers now that she and Emily were here together.

 

[Emily Hastings]

Emily was surprised when Sydney pulled her away, but couldn't deny she wasn't just as pleased by the development. She let out a slow breath, trying to ignore the flutter of her heart as Sydney ran her fingers along her veil. "Well, then, don't," she replied cheekily, taking a small step closer. She could feel her heart pounding out a new rhythm in her chest, and wondered idly if Sydney could hear it. "I did say you were haunting," she smirked a bit, even though it was probably hidden. "I know I'll be thinking about you all night anyway," Emily's smirk grew into a smile. "But I bet you knew that, already," she flirted blatantly, enjoying it almost as much as she had enjoyed the thought of terrifying children.