It was the night before Halloween.

I was a senior in high school. It was one of those nights when my two best friends and I each had told our parents we were sleeping over at one of the friends’ houses. No one expected us home until the next morning. And that’s all I could think about as the shadowy figures came closer and closer.

The streetlights hit the midnight fog, cascading the parking lot in an eerie glow. My best friend, Kitty, was the first to notice the three tall figures in the shadows. My natural inclination was to run. But our other friend, Legs, recently had shattered her femur playing volleyball and was in a cast. We wouldn’t be running anywhere.