“As much as I would love nothing more than to make love to you, Lisette, I want you to promise me that you won’t sleep with me until you feel at least as much for me as you do for the other guys.”

“Okay,” I answered. That was fair and I respected Rob for it. “I promise, I won’t.”

The Winter Masquerade Gala was a sensory overload. The auditorium was lit up by stage lights and spotlights and multi-colored light strings that made the whole place feel super trippy. Everyone was in full costume including masks so that no one’s identity was discernable. The music was loud, and people were moving in a sea of pulsating dancers that filled the floor of the auditorium. On the stage at the front of the auditorium were two giant thrones that had been constructed out of oversized chairs and embellished to look like seats for royalty to sit on. I was certain that one of those thrones would be where David would sit but wasn’t sure who would be in the other.

I was really hoping that it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t afford to be in the spotlight tonight.

I needed to be in the shadows for our plan to work. The guys had all gone to get dressed for the party. Each one of them would be wearing some sort of mask that hid their identity. Rob had gone back down to his room to get ready as well and to find a mask to wear. David had made sure that the dormitory was stocked full of costumes and masks and accessories, and even body paints so that no one had an excuse not to come fully disguised as something playful and alluring.

I chose a black velvet cocktail dress and a mask that made me look like I was a swan, complete with feathers and glittering sequins that I could even stick to my eyelashes. My arms and legs were exposed since the cocktail dress was short and tight and sleeveless, and my hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail. But my face was completely covered by the mask with only the centers of my eyes peering out from behind the feathers of the mask. I hadn’t gotten a chance to see what the guys would look like yet, and I was a little bit worried that I wouldn’t recognize them, but we had a code word.

“Asheville”.

Julian picked the word and that’s how we would know that it was one of us if we got disoriented.

I entered the auditorium alone, and the guys should have already been there. No one would make a move to leave or put the plan into action until we were sure that David was inside and that there had been no unforeseen changes to his whereabouts. If we needed to call something off, that was better than getting caught.

As the gala began and more people arrived, the auditorium became filled to capacity and then continued to fill even more. The crowds undulated and relished in all of the delights that David had made sure to supply. Food and drinks overflowed on the tables and the sight of beautiful costumes and masks were a visual treat to the eye. When David arrived, I would go tell him who I chose to leave with and who I sacrificed in exchange. Then I would leave with Michael, since that is who I would tell him I wanted and who he would likely believe to be the best choice and the most believable scenario.

Then the rest of the plan would fall into place as each guy played their part, culminating in the five of us leaving the campus and driving as far away as we could possibly get while David was still be entertained and oblivious at his own party.

There was of course the possibility that we could run into a few hiccups. But we planned for everything as best we could; don’t eat the food, don’t drink the wine, don’t kiss anyone. David would be planning to distribute the drugs somehow, and we didn’t know whether it would be hidden in the sip of a cocktail or under the tongue of a seductive party guest.

I walked between the party guests, weaving in and out among the elaborately costumed people and trying to see if I could spot one of the guys. A few times, men would get close to me and I would think it was one of them, but I waited for our code word to be spoken and when it wasn’t, I kept walking and mingling with the crowd. David was late to his own party and I started to wonder why.

But then, he arrived with the arrogant and flamboyant entrance that I expected from him.

He was costumed all in gold from his blonde hair that had been sprayed with gold flecks which made it shimmer beneath the light, to the gold shoes that came to points on his feet. Even beneath his metallic mask, the skin around his eyes had been painted with gold body paint and it looked like he was wearing contact lenses that turned his eyes gold too. It was the perfect color for a greedy showman such as himself and was entirely expected. What wasn’t expected was the girl who he held on his arm; a beautiful golden-blonde girl to match his whole aesthetic. But her hair didn’t look like it had been sprayed with anything at all, she just looked naturally flaxen and even behind the mask that hid her features, I could tell that she was exceptionally beautiful.

I had never seen her before and had no idea who she was, but it didn’t matter; I didn’t care.

In fact, it might even add another benefit to our plan tonight by keeping David’s focus further distracted on his beautiful guest instead of on us. We were completely focused and ready to enact our plan while David’s attention was scattered elsewhere. I made my way up to the stage as he and his blonde accessory sat down on their thrones before the partying crowd. I still hadn’t found any of the guys yet, but it didn’t matter, I only had to locate Michael which I could do after I had told David my decisions for our game.

The rest of the guys would find their way to our meeting spot just like we had planned.

Everything was working out perfectly and I started feeling butterflies of hope grow in my stomach. I nearly squealed with delightful anticipation as I walked closer and closer to the stage, just knowing that this entire hellacious shitshow that we had been trapped in was so close to being over and I was so close to being free.

But I should have learned my lesson the first time. The time when David surprised everyone at my father’s dinner with the cake that would end up simply being a sponge to soak up my father’s gushing blood.

I should have known that David would be a step ahead, and that even if he had no clue that we were planning to do anything tonight, that he would have already had something in place that would prevent us from even being able to think about attempting anything. I also should have known that he wouldn’t waste an affair as extravagant as this on an unprofitable night. All of the costumes and paints and trinkets that he sent to the dormitories probably cost him thousands of dollars, and for what? He didn’t do it out of desire to make the students happy.

He did it because he was celebrating his success, the success that he would have tonight at the gala. The final tipping point of his ingenuity for the distribution of his new drug Prisma, and the final event that he would need in order to make the addiction of the crowd impossible to fight.

I watched as David raised his hand into the air and held it high. I watched as he lifted two fingers straight up as though he were getting ready to pull down an invisible switch. It wasn’t until I saw the woman that he had brought with him slip something eerily similar to a gas mask over her mask, and David’s other hand hold something that was definitely a gas mask to his face, that I finally realized what was happening.

I stopped walking and froze in my spot just a few feet away from the stage.

There was no longer any point in walking further, I wouldn’t make it there in time. David’s two fingers went down as he kept his hand held high in the air and whoever was on the receiving end of his signal abided his command. The auditorium filled with a pinkish mist that swirled around everyone at the party and clung to their skin and wafted into their noses and mouths as they breathed. It wouldn’t do me any good to hold my breath, I wouldn’t make it through the crowd and out the door fast enough.

I felt the sweet, sticky air rise into my nostrils and fill up my lungs, leaving an aftertaste that lingered at the back of my throat and reminded me of cotton candy at the fair when I was a kid.

Our entire plan came crashing down and then faded away just like the steam had done once it had served David’s purpose. He had outmatched us in a game that we didn’t even know we were playing.

He had found a way to distribute the drug through the air.

I no longer remembered any plan that we had made. I didn’t even remember that there had been a plan at all. All I remembered was that I was a swan, and I was in a beautiful, swirling room full of other delightful creatures that all wanted to play with me. I danced and twirled and hopped up on the back of a man that looked like he was sad. I laughed at the king and queen who were sitting on a stage in front of us wearing masks that made them look like they were half machine.

Who were they anyway?

And who was I?

I had the most delightful feeling in my skin and every time I took a big breath of the sweet pink air, the feeling became even more delightful. For a second, I felt like I was supposed to be looking for something, but the feeling quickly vanished, and I went back to feeling delightful again.

When someone grabbed my hand, I turned around to see and there was an amazing-looking man in front of me. Even with his ornately fashioned mask, I could tell that he was handsome underneath. He was wearing black pants and a silver silk shirt that draped against his muscular chest.

He was for me; I could just tell.

I pulled him to the side of the room, away from all the people and then even further behind some curtains and into an empty spot that had just the two of us hidden inside. I felt the cotton-candy feeling wearing off a bit, maybe it was because this man and I had left the party room, but that was okay because it didn’t matter as we fell back together onto the portion of curtain that draped over the floor.

“Asheville,” he said, and I suddenly remembered where I was, and who I was, and he was definitely one of mine.

As my thoughts began to come back bit by bit, I knew our plan had failed. We wouldn’t be leaving tonight and there was nothing we could do about it. But here we were, the man was wearing one of Michael’s shirts, but I knew it wasn’t him. And since there was no reason for us to stop now, I gave in to wanting him.

I felt his hands groping me as I undid his pants. I grabbed his hot and bulging cock as he lifted my dress and teased the folds of my soaked pussy. I felt entranced by him. By the whole of the evening. And as he pinned me to a darkened wall in the corner, I felt myself give way. He guided himself inside me until he pushed and pulled with a tantalizing movement that made my entire body hot and trembling. I clung to him, my nails raking down a set of muscles I’d wanted to touch since the first moment I laid my eyes upon him and those chiseled forearms.

I held onto each sensual moment as he filled me and reached to pull his mask from his face after I pulled off my own, so that I could kiss him.

“Oh, Rob,” I gasped in ragged breaths against his face.

The euphoria of his cock filling me slammed against my gut. His eyes held mine as he slid out of my depths and slammed back in, causing my eyes to roll back. If it hadn’t been for all of the pieces of the evening that led up to this moment, I don’t know if I would have ended up here or not. I wasn’t sure if I had broken my promise to him or not because I didn’t really know how I felt about Rob yet. All I knew was that in this moment, I wanted him.

And I let him make love to me as though nothing else mattered.

12

That night, after the haze from the party had worn off completely and we had all found each other again, we went back to the dormitory and peeled off our clothes in exchange for something more comfortable to sleep in. All of us felt a bit headachy and deflated from both the aftermath of the drug, and also the fact that our plan had failed.

“Hey,” I said to Rob as he got ready to leave. “Stay.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea right now,” he said.

The other guys looked over at him from their seats around the couch. I looked back at them just to make sure it was okay.

“We’re all in this together now,” Michael said as he got up from the couch and went over to give Rob a solid pat on the shoulder. “I think we all have the same goal here of trying to keep Lisette safe and get the hell out of Charlotte. You’re welcome to stay if you want.”

I smiled at Michael as he walked back to the couch and bent down to whisper in my ear. “Just remember how much I love you when it comes time for you to choose between us,” he said as he kissed the top of my ear.