Young Writers Society

Julian Grayson

Why was he even bothering to talk to this girl?

Because, Julian, this is a time to pretend to be someone else.

"Maybe," he answered. This lady was beautiful but he couldn't be sure until she took off her mask. But did it matter? She was someone to pass the time with. "Who was that you were with?"

She laughed. "Why? Are you jealous?"

The corner of his lip twitched as he saw the Masquerade brother approach another girl instead. There was something very very odd about them. "Maybe," he replied.

The distant look in his eyes must have given him away, however, because she smirked. "You're one to talk. You keep looking at other girls."

Cassia:

I laughed, smiling at him. "You haven't told me your name yet," I said shyly. He chuckled.

"I suppose I haven't," he said and I looked towards the man who had left that room. He wasing to some girl. He sighed. "What are you looking at?" he whispered in my ear. I hadn't realised he'd moved closer.

I yelped and moved away. "Nothing," I snapped, narrowing my gaze at him. "Nothing at all... But.... one of the brothers just left the room with someone... At least, I think it was him. She didn't come back."

He laughed. "Talling this to a stranger, hmm?" he asked moving closer again. "What if I'm one of the brothers?"

I swallowed and stepped backwards, away from him. "What if you are?" I asked and laughed. I kept moving backwards, trying to control the huge skirt. "What if I'm not who I appear to be?"

He laughed and followed after me. I grinned and then my back hit the wall. I wasn't gonig to tell him who I was. He already had my name but it wouldn't be hard to find me after tonight. I was the only Cassia in town...and the only one who was an Earl's daughter. No knew that though.

"What is your name?" I demanded and he hesitated. He was silent for a while.

"Ashton," he finally said. I grinned.

"Ashton," I said, smirking as her leaned in closer. "I know no brother by the name of Ashton."

**By the way, what year is this? Modern or what? Oh, and she doesn't really know them, just their names. Well, maybe.**

Lila:

I looked around and saw a boy backing a girl into a wall. I sucked in my cheek and said to Thomas "Excuse me, I'll be right back. My apologies." I swiftly walked over to them. The girl looked rather uncomfortable. Her face cracked a grin but I continued on. Placing my hand on the boy's shoulder I pushed him back a step "There's no need to be backing girl into corners." I said in my strange accent. It was a combination between Irish and British so it was pretty strange.

The boy smiled at me and said "I wasn't harming her. I was only joking around. Isn't that right?" He said to her. My opinion didn't change. Without taking my hand from his shoulder I said "Don't let me catch you doing it again, ya hear? You shouldn't be cornering people, especially not women." With that I turned on my heel and walked back to Thomas, the boy's eyes on me.

Cassia:

Oh, how I hated interuptions.

"How rude," I muttered, staring after the girl. "Interupting my flirting? Typical. Jealous. Women."

Ashton laughed and moved closer to me again. "Your flirting?" he asked. I flashed him a grin.

"Our flirting then," I said and leaned back on the wall. Ashton watched my face. "Like what you see, hmm?"

He grinned. "Definitely."

Lila:

The girl gaevme a dirty look. I lifted my chin and ignored her. She may have thought me rude for doing what i believed I should but I didn't care. Her opinion of me didn't matter to me. I did what I thought was right and she didn't care for it. Not my fault. But the guy was cornering her. If you ask me that's kind of creepy but that's just my opinion. I smiled at Thomas.

Aston

Oh how I loved some of the jealous chicks at this party. Some girl just walked up to the me and started having a go at me! She wasn't too bad looking herself actually; the girl who'd just interrupted us, that is.

"Don't let me catch you doing it again, ya hear? You shouldn't be cornering people, especially not women." She said in an Irish, or something, accent.

The girl spun around and headed back towards where she came from. I was pretty impressed; I liked a girl with an attitude.

I wasn't sure if it was just me being paranoid, but I swore there was less people in the room compared to the beginning of the night. Especially less girls; which disappointed me slightly. Shaking the thought out of my head, I turned to the girl I was speaking to.

"Hey," I grinned. "What do ya think about having a little tour around this mansion?"

"Sounds good," The girl smiled, moving a strand of hair from her pretty face.

I turned around and looked at the girl who'd just interrupted us. I then turned attention to Saber; the girl who I'd spoken to at first. I smiled.

"Let's find some other guys to look around this place with." I turned my attention back to the girl.

I couldn't help but notice the slight disappointment in her face.

"What did you say your name was, by the way?" I asked, heading towards Saber.

~Diana~

I resisted an irritated growl as the man looked at someone else, again. Clearly his attention needed to be more focussed. I waved my fan, feigning exhaustion. "It's very warm here. Perhaps we should move out of the crowd?"

He nodded and smiled, eyes still glancing behind me every so often as we moved. He seemed to be quite preoccupied with something, and it was getting on my nerves ever so slightly. I resolved to play him at his own game, coyly meeting the gaze of a blond man making his way down the grand staircase in the centre of the room. From this fact I assumed he was one of the hosts, and sent him a brief smile.

I turned back to my stranger, who was, annoyingly, still casting wary glances around the room. "You seem very preocupied," I commented, "but I'm afraid I haven't been granted the pleasure of your name."

He smiled faintly. "Julian," came the brief response. I considered this for a moment. Clearly he wasn't the overly chatty type, judging from his succession of one-word answers, so the liklihood of drawing out whatever was bugging him was minimal. Damn.

My eyes met that of the blond Masquerade once more, and I gave Julian a cunning smile. "If you will insist on being so enthralled by the many other pretty women here, I'm afraid I may have to divert my attentions elsewhere." After this, I looked pointedly towards the brother. Julian followed my stare and seemed to pale at the sight. Good. That was exactly the response I'd been looking for. Perhaps now he'd pay me more attention instead of being so distracted by everyone else.

[The Masquerade brother I mentioned was Lelio, cause Midsummer'sQueen hasn't been dragged in yet ]

**Thought I'd get a bit of her in here. Trying to get her in the actual story. **

Crystalline

She was getting rather bored now. There was nothing to do here. It seemed that people were leaving also. When she had first arrived it had been hard to move around. Now it was comfortably roomy.

Crystal sighed and looked around. A few girls were glowering at each other while a rather attractive guy look pleased and a little shocked. Crystalline couldn't help but laugh. She loved a good cat fight. Especially over a guy.

Crystal walked towards the group. After all, she was bored. Why not stir up a little trouble?

"Hello there," she said, smiling.

She winked at the guy in front of her. That was the good thing about being beautiful and rich, vain as it may make her seem. She'd learned how to flirt easily because of all the guys that flirted with her. And tonight she'd use that to her advantage. Maybe start a girl fight...

"I'm Crystalline. But please call me Crystal," she flashed them each a smile, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

Both of the girls were already sizing her up. Typical, typical. She'd have done the same after all.

"May I ask your names ladies and...of course you," she raised an eyebrow at the guy now, though she had no particular interest in him at all. "Wouldn't mind getting to you each in turn."

Julian Grayson

Her smile was particularly vicious after she met the gaze of one of the Masquerade brothers.

Ah, a spiteful one. His smile grew wider. "It'd be best for you if you didn't go with the Masquerade brothers."

"Why is that?"

"Because over two hours ago there were twice as many women. Now they've...dwindled."

She raised an eyebrow. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say something's going on, and I'm not sure I want to know what it is."

She laughed, but it was a nervous one. "Are you...trying to scare me?"

"Suit yourself. Wander off with them if you want to, but I won't be around to help you should you ever need it."

She blinked at him before finally saying, "You know, if you didn't want me to look at the other guys you could have just stopped staring at other girls."

Oh. OH. So that was why she was staring at the others. She thought he was distracted by the other women. He laughed. "I wasn't staring at other girls."

~Diana~

I gave Julian a wary look. There was no way he could be telling the truth. What he was suggesting.... It was unspeakable. He tapped my arm gently, drawing me from my thoughts and nodding towards another of the brothers, currently engaged in conversation with a pretty young girl in a deep green dress.

I watched for a moment, not registering anything out of the ordinary, and turned back to Julian. "I don't see what that proves. There's nothi-"

"Look." he interrupted in a low voice, gesturing subtly towards the pair as the Masquerade quickly led the girl from the dance floor and out of sight. The girl hardly seemed like she was putting up a struggle; her hands were firmly linked with the Masquerade and there was an elated expression on her face. As they disappeared, I snuck a glance at Julian, who was still staring at where they had ran off to with a concerned expression. He noticed me looking, and his smile immediately reappeared. "Do you still think I'm being foolish?"

I frowned. "It still doesn't prove anything. So they ran off together. So what? You're just being a prude." I waved my fan and glanced around the room again.

Julian rolled his eyes. "Keep watching."

"What do you me-" I stopped speaking as the brother came back. Alone. He cast a single furtive glance over his shoulder, before approaching a different woman with a flirtatious smile fixed upon his face. I felt myself paling even before Julian's smug smile had returned.

"She's gone," I heard myself whisper, then berated myself with some annoyance over my irrational leap to conclusions. Probably it was just Julian trying to scare me.

"I'm sure she's fine." I murmured, smoothing the creases in my dress. "He probably just went too far and got snubbed. In fact," I paused, smiling softly at Julian, "why don't we go and check?"

And when we see her, I thought silently, then I'll know this is all just a silly prank.

[The un-named characters mentioned were both NPCs ]

Lila:

People were dwindling and I didn't know why. I loved it. Thomas wasn't really talking so I followed the one boy I had yelled at outside just because I knew it would annoy the girl. You could still hear the music from out here. I grabbed the boys hands and said "Dance with me."

Julian Grayson

It wasn't particularly easy to slip into the hall without letting the Masquerade brothers know. There were three of them, for God's sake. But somehow they managed to get in.

The hall was eerily quiet compared to the noise the party was causing. It was almost as if a grave respect hung on the air.

Slowly a coppery scent crept up on them until it invaded the air. It was awful. Diana stumbled backwards and Julian caught her.

"Are you still going to tell me they're all right?" Julian asked. She was pale as hell, and shivering too. He gripped her cold hand.

She didn't say anything for a while. "Maybe...Maybe it's the smell of rust."

She looked a little green in the face. She wasn't alone. Julian felt like vomiting too - the smell was that strong. How many had those Masquerade brothers finished off?

"Tell yourself what you want, but if you're going to tell me that red puddle over there is paint then you're in denial." Julian wrapped his hand around the knob, tense and ready to open it, but just then they heard footsteps.

"Oh my God," Diana gasped. "They're going to find us and they'll know we know and they're so going to -"

Quick, Julian, think! What to do what to do what to do - there was only one thing that would make sense.

Without a second thought Julian drew Diana into a passionate kiss. Surely the Masquerade brothers wouldn't mind two lovers trying to escape the chaos outside? He hoped Diana would catch on and not slap him. That would ruin their excuse and kill them both.

She could slap him silly, accuse him of rape or whatever later. Now their lives were at stake and one move could cost them.

Cassia:

"Cassia," I said with an irritated sigh. Ashton was infuriating now. "What are we doing again?" I asked. He flashed a smile and approached this other girl.

"Care to go on a little private tour?" he asked. "You, me and a few others. Other guys and girls. You know, a small group?"

I watched her. She was frowning at Ashton. He was toying with us. I yawned, feigning boredom as I looked around and watched another brother leave with a girl and come back alone... What the heck? Well, it wasn't unusal....but there seemed to be less and less people in the ballroom now.

"Ashton," I interrupted and waved a hand towards the brother, making sure it seemed casual. Ashton followed my gaze. "Doesn't that seem weird to you? An hour ago there was three times as many people. Now there's less than fifty. Isn't that weird to you?"

Aston

"Yeah, I have noticed actually." I replied, observing one of the brothers. "I thought that it was just me being paranoid."

I turned around and looked back at Cassia. Her eyes were narrowed into two small almonds, clearly interested in what was going on.

"Yeah, I've noticed that too!" Saber exclaimed.

The three of us were silent for a while. We all seemed to be observing the three brothers. After five minutes or so, one of the brothers took another girl out of the room. He then returned - without the girl.

"Did you guys just see that...?" I asked.

Without saying a word, both girls nodded. I didn't need to ask them to be able to tell that they were freaked out. I couldn't blame them though.

As the three of us continued observing the brothers, I had an idea.

"Hey guys," I began. "Maybe we should look around the house. We might find something that'll help us figure out where all of these people are going?"

"I don't know..." Saber said nervously.

"Yeah, I think we should." Cassie replied confidently. "I want to find some more people though. I'm not to keen on just us three going."

Both Saber and me nodded in agreement.

~Diana~

My heart raced as Julian pulled me closer and kissed me, my eyes widening in shock. Why would he do that? I heard footsteps nearing us, and the realisation came to me. Well, now it made slightly more sense.

I relaxed as the footsteps died away, accompanied by the soft click of a door. There had been two sets of footsteps - two people - and there were no prizes for guessing that only one would return.

I pulled away from Julian, softly resting my forehead against his for a moment. Only one thought was racing through my mind. I have to protect my brother. I have to make sure they don't hurt Matt.

My self-control gradually returning, I looked up at Julian with the ghost of a smile on my face despite the situation. "If you wanted a kiss that badly, you should've just asked." I paused, giving him an appraising stare before continuing. "I guess this would be an appropriate moment to tell you my name? I'm Diana."

I glanced around the corridor. "Now let's go, before he comes back."