I Am Phantom by Sean Fletcher

trying to sleep or do anything else and people won’t stop texting
you. I kept it off most of the time.
    I
flipped it open:
    U find anything?
    Cody

 
    Decision
made, I slipped on the monk’s robe and adjusted it over my shirt. I gently
pushed Sonam’s possible (probable) disdain from my mind and went next door to
Cody’s room.
      Matt answered the door. He appraised my
costume, shrugged and retreated back to his room.
    As
I had expected, Cody’s room lay in disarray. He was sunken into one of the
chairs in front of his T.V., clicking the remote.
    “Dude!”
He heaved himself up. “What are you wearing?”
    “I’m
going as a martial arts master,” I said.
    Cody
felt the fabric. “This thing is cool. Did you get it from Bhutan?”
    “The
monks I lived with gave it to me,” I said.
    “It
looks good and all, but for a martial arts master you need—” he dove into
his drawer and tossed me a pair of fingerless gloves. “My skinny butt gets cold
all the time. Put those on.”
    “I
don’t think martial arts masters wear gloves.”
    “They
do when they spend their time punching through brick walls.” I put them both on
and stood in front of his bathroom mirror. The robe fit a little tight around
the chest, and was too short. But it was the best I was going to be able to do
right now.
    Cody
patted me on the back. “Looks good, Drake buddy. Almost like a real master.”
    “Yeah,”
I said, still absentmindedly recalling back home. “Yeah, it sure does.”
               
    The
party was within walking distance of the dorm. It was being held at Melanie’s
friends’ house, tucked away on one of the many streets lined with student
houses surrounding campus, filled with people still in school or those who, for
some reason, hadn’t wanted to leave.
    We
could hear the music almost a block off.
    Oh,
how to describe it? It was like a cat trying to cough up a hairball into a
microphone with some vague musical tones thrown in.
    Kids
dressed in all kinds of costumes crowded in the yard, some on the porch and
others clogging the door. I saw firemen, Batman, a couple of ninjas. Most were
standing around talking and drinking out of some red cups. Some guys beat each other
with rubbery swords. Another raised his drink at us.
    “Awesome!
Karate kid! And dude, nice makeup!”
    Cody
grinned and we threaded our way past the crowd at the front door and into the
house where the music was even louder and my eardrums started bleeding. The air
itself seemed charged with throbbing bodies swaying back and forth. Pulsing
lights placed on the edges of the living room threw everything into sharp
focus. Magic wands and ninja swords knocked into each other as people pushed
past.
    “So,
what do we do?” I yelled after we had stood at the entrance for a couple of
minutes, unsure of where to go.
    “I
don’t know,” Cody yelled back. “Wait, there’s Melanie!” I saw his eyes grow
wide as she spotted us and waved. It took her a minute to push through everybody.
She wore fox ears and a bushy tail on a red one-piece dress. Whiskers had been
painted on her face.
    “What
do you think?” She asked. “I couldn’t think of what I wanted to be so my friend
suggested it. I’m a vixen.”
    “Yes
you are,” Cody heartily agreed before I elbowed him in the ribs. Melanie didn’t
hear over the music.
    “Let
me introduce you to my friends.” She turned for us to follow.
    Matt
stared at Cody. “You’re pathetically hopeless. Even I can see that.”
    “Agreed,”
I said. “Come on.”
    We
followed Melanie to the back of the house where less people stood and the music
wasn’t nearly as loud. A couple of heads followed us in as Melanie waved to a
small group of people mingling around a table filled with drinks.
    “Who’s
this?” A short vampire asked when we walked up.
    I
took a quick glance around at their costumes. Three girls were vampires, one
witch and a guy werewolf.
    “Original,”
Cody commented.
    “Cody,
Matt,