They were warned. They didn't listen. Now time has run out and they're all on the run. From who? They don't know. All they know is that it started the minute the clock struck twelve on Halloween night. Ensemble cast.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries TV show. That honor goes to Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson.

Hello, my lovely readers. So this is something new for me where I'm trying to write a horror story and I decided to start posting it in honor of Halloween. This fic includes TVD/TO cast. I hope you enjoy it. On with the show…

Chapter 1: It's a Joke

All Hallow's Eve:

It was just a stupid joke. Someone had become a little too into the Halloween sprit. That was it. It was harmless. No one needed to be afraid because it was a prank. All the girls had been laughing about it and most of the guys. Except for Elijah who tended to take things a little more seriously and did not find it amusing when Kol had been found hanging upside down from a tree in their backyard with fake blood pouring from his neck. No, not everyone thought it was a joke…

Caroline, Elena and Bonnie were sitting in Elena's old room while her brother, Jeremy, came in with a bowl of popcorn which he would defend from his sister and her friends with his very life. Or so he thought. When Caroline reached for the bowl and Bonnie leapt on his back, with her hands over his eyes, he let go quickly. "Hey, not on the bed. I just cleaned the sheets this morning."

"'Cause you were up all night with Damon," Caroline sang with a laugh.

"Whatever," Elena replied with a huge smile as she tossed some popcorn at her friend. "I don't tease you about Kl-" she started to say when Caroline slapped her hand over her friend's mouth.

"Not tonight. We're not going to talk about boys tonight," Caroline yelled.

"Really?" Bonnie's eyebrows rose. "You're the one who brought them up in the first place."

Caroline scoffed. "At least I'm not on top of one right now," she nodded at Bonnie who was still wrapped around Jeremy's back.

"Whatever," Bonnie snapped as she slid down and came to sit beside Elena, braiding her hair as her friend stared at her computer. "Are you reading that again?"

"Yes," Elena replied.

"Why?" Caroline groaned, flopping onto her belly and checking the computer screen. "Do you think that it's really going to happen? Are you scared, E-len-a?" she teased and Elena rolled her eyes at Caroline's imitation of Damon.

"No. Not for myself," Elena replied, staring at the screen whose light cast shadows over her face. "I just… I don't know. It's kind of creepy. Don't you think?"

"You mean that some dude, and you know it's a dude, 'cause that's the way it is in all the horror movies -" Bonnie began when Jeremy interrupted her.

"No. In Scream 4 it was a girl who was killing people," the Gilbert brother pointed out.

"Yeah, Bonnie, don't be sexist," Caroline added with a laugh.

"Are you kidding me?" Bonnie shook her head at Caroline who grinned back.

"It could be anybody," Elena whispered. She wasn't sure if she was talking to herself or her friends. All she knew was that, unlike them, she did not find it funny that someone was threatening to go on a killing spree starting at midnight on Halloween until 12:00 a. m. the day after. What she could not believe was that the local authorities acted like it was no big deal. That it was okay to go out to a party. Just be careful, like always.

Elena remembered when she had walked down the hallway of Whitmore and had read a sign that said that "Halloween is going to be my night!" Everyone who read it had laughed it off like it was just a dumb joke. The warning had been posted on October 1st and no one had acted like they found it frightening. Elena hadn't been all that worried either until the warnings continued to show up and then there was something about Mystic Falls being a target zone. That had put her on edge.

The very next day Elena had packed a bag and said she going home. Bonnie and Caroline insisted they had exams and she could stay until the day before Halloween and then they would come back with her, for moral support. What Elena had noticed when she came home was that she was not the only one who had run back.

Rebekah Mikaelson, who had been studying French in New Orleans with her best friend, Hayley Marshall, had come running home. Both girls had family in Mystic Falls. Rebekah lived across town with her three brothers and Hayley lived with the grandmother and her two grandsons, who had been friends of Hayley's family. They had moved to town during their senior year. Liv Parker, whose family had moved in two years earlier, arrived two hours ago. Elena knew because she saw her from her bedroom window. The only female to not arrive home was Vikki Donavon who had disappeared three years ago, without a trace.

Even though Elena had not spoken to Rebekah, Hayley or Liv she thought they had probably come for the same reason she had; they were afraid that the warnings were true and that this Halloween would be a bloodbath. Looking out her window, which had the curtains pulled open, she caught sight of Liv arguing with her older brother, Kai Parker, who was smirking with his arms crossed. He rolled his eyes at something she said before getting into a car and waving good-bye. Elena felt a lump in her throat.

"T minus two hours," Caroline said suddenly causing Elena to jump.

"That's not funny!" Elena shouted. Grabbing a pillow, she began to beat her blonde friend until Caroline relented.

"Okay. Okay. You don't have to get violent," Caroline muttered before she grinned. "Maybe it's you," she accused with a giggle.

"Me what?" Elena asked, looking up from the website with its blood red background and the ticking clock.

"Maybe you're the one who's gone bonkers. You've been studying too much in that lab and now your brains gone all twisty. You want some bodies to experiment on and you don't care how you get them," Caroline continued with a slow smile.

"Stop being a drama queen," Bonnie snapped at Caroline who rolled her eyes.

"Party pooper," Caroline snorted as she looked back at Bonnie and the two tried to glare each other to death. "So, I don't know about the two of you, but I'm going to The Falls tonight to part-y," she hummed to Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" as she got up to dance around the room with her arms waving above her head. "'Cause I'm going to live forever," she told her friends with a laugh.

"Sure. Or die screaming," Bonnie replied lightly and Caroline grabbed a pillow to beat Bonnie with.

"Hey. He. Or she. Is not targeting you!" Jeremy reminded Caroline who pouted at him.

"Why not? I'm hot and I would look good running around in my underwear away from a knife wielding psycho," Caroline cried. "Let me show you," she started to take off her shirt when Bonnie held up pillow in front of her.

"We've all seen that many times in the locker room way back in high school. And, I, for one, can do without seeing your boobs," Bonnie protested as Caroline tried to yank the pillow away.

"But I need to know what they look like when I'm running away. And you know that a lot of guys go to those films so I need Jeremy to tell me what he thinks," Caroline informed Bonnie whose face contorted when Jeremy started to grin. Then he looked at his feet.

After a moment, Jeremy looked up. "Is that what you think my last request would be? To see your boobs?" he asked Caroline seriously.

"Well, yeah. Isn't that what all teenage boys want? To see a bunch of boobs?" Caroline reasoned with her hands on her hips.

"They're called breasts," Bonnie reminded Caroline who rolled her eyes.

"Thank you, Erin Brokovich," Caroline sighed. "Anyway, so you coming or not?" she snapped at her friends.

"Pass," Elena replied, still staring at her computer. There were only two hours till the killing began. Correction: one hour, fifty-nine minutes and twenty seconds.

"Come on, Elena. You have to come! I heard Stefan say that he's going to talk Damon into going. Do you really want your honey partying with the likes of Rebekah Mikaelson on the prowl?" Caroline asked Elena who looked up with a frown.

"Damon's going?" Elena echoed. She was almost certain that he had agreed that he would stay at home to put her mind at ease.

"Yeah. He is," Caroline said with her eyes narrowed. "And we know that if it's not Rebekah, then it will be her little friend, Hayley. That girl can't say no."

"She said no to Klaus," Bonnie pointed out.

"Or so he says," Caroline snarled before she forced a smile. "Whatever. I'm over it. He can do his best Ross Gellar impression 'We were on a break!"' she shouted and the other three laughed.

"You know if you want to go, I'll be fine," Jeremy told his sister who looked up at him with a frown.

"Elena, you have to go with us. Or I might be the one with blood on her hands," Caroline begged with wide eyes.

"Fine," Elena sighed. Turning off her computer and getting up from the bed, she came to stand in front of Jeremy. "Lock the doors and the windows. Do not answer the door for anyone other than me, Aunt Jenna or Alaric. Or Damon," she added before turning to grab a light jacket. "We'll be home no later than one. 'Kay?"

"Sure. You know, I'm not a baby anymore, and I can take care of myself," Jeremy told Elena who nodded.

"Right. Well. Have fun and don't puke on the rug eating all the Halloween candy I bought for the trick-or-treaters," Elena said with a smile. She led her friends out into the night air. It felt good with a light breeze and she had to admit that she was feeling better. Maybe everyone was right. It was just a prank. Probably a thirteen year old with too much time on their hands and unrestricted computer privileges. Whatever.

Walking over to her car, Elena looked up at the house next to hers and she caught sight of Liv. The blonde was standing at the window, watching the street with a blank expression on her face. Blinking, Elena tried to identify the object in the girl's hand. It flashed silver in the moonlight and Elena let out an involuntary gasp. Liv had a knife.

Opening her mouth, Elena was about to say something when Liv looked down at her. The other girl's face contained nothing but rage as she lifted the silver object… to her ear. Allowing a slow breath to leak out of her lungs, Elena realized that Liv was holding a cell phone. Now she was yanking the drapes shut. "I should stay at home," she breathed and Caroline shook her head.

"No. You're coming with me. You are my moral support who will prevent me from drinking and sexing with one Klaus Mikaelson. Friends don't let friends drink and screw their exes in the wooded areas." Caroline moved around Elena's car and climbed in the backseat as Bonnie got in the front, giving Elena a long look with a slow smile.

Looking at her own house, Elena forced herself to sit down in her car. Flipping on the radio, she was trying to find a station that would calm her frayed nerves when a news alert came on. "Mystic Falls police are again warning citizens to take precautions in their holiday plans. And, remember, to have fun," the host cried.

"Enough of that," Caroline slid forward and flipped that station. "Ha. Found it," she cried before she began to sing along. "Boys only want love if it's torture!"

"Don't say I didn't warn ya," Bonnie and Elena joined in and Elena smiled as she drove along the street. She noted that the lights were on in the Mikaelsons' home and in the Kenners' but she wondered if the teens were home. Not on a weekend. Probably not.

When they arrived, Elena parked her car along the side of the road with all the other cars. There were a lot of people here and she wondered if none of them had heeded the warning. 'Apparently not many,' she thought absently as she walked over to a line to get a drink. There had to be at least twenty high school and college aged people at the party of both sexes. She wondered if the killer was here.

"Elena," someone called and Elena's lips turned upward as the crowd parted and Damon came toward her.

"Hey you," Elena cried as Damon came to pull her off her feet into a long embrace. When he set her back down, she poked him in the chest. "You promised me that you wouldn't go out tonight," she told him, poking him with each word.

Damon took her finger and placed it to his lips. "Yes. Yes, I did. But you underestimated Stefan's desire to drink his own weight in beer and I couldn't let him do that. Dad would kill me."

"Always with the excuses for your bad behavior, Damon," Caroline said from behind Elena.

"Ah, Blondie. I didn't see you there," Damon replied, looping his arm around Elena's waist. She really hoped they didn't get into it right then and there. She wanted to relax and have a good time and to call Jeremy around midnight to make sure that he had not bern axe murdered in his bed.

"It's always so great to see you," Caroline uttered, the sarcasm dripping from her tongue as she elbowed her way past Damon with Bonnie following her, trying in vain to cover her smile with a cough.

"Ignore her," Elena ordered Damon. Now that he was here with her, she felt a third of the tension leave her body. But the other two-thirds were resting inside the space between her shoulder blades and in her feet which wanted to run home.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena asked, trying to make idle conversation before sneaking off to call her brother.

Damon looked around with a mild frown, his lips turned down farther when he caught sight of Stefan. "With the succubus," he told his girlfriend as he brought his cup of beer to his lips.

Elena caught sight of Stefan at the same time as Damon had, her own mouth turning downward in the same expression as her boyfriend's. Stefan was standing near a tree, holding a cup and taking a generous sip before he handed it off to a grinning Rebekah Mikaelson who took a sip. She handed it back to Stefan. "How long have they been doing that?" she asked with a look of disgust.

Damon rolled his eyes before he answered. "We got here about an hour ago, and ever since he and that have been inseparable. Along with their love child," he pointed at the cup the two were exchanging.

"When in Rome," Elena said with laugh as she grabbed Damon's cup. He laughed as she took a long gulp and then made a face.

"Are you ever going to not make that face every time you drink?" he asked, tucking a stray lock behind her ear.

"Nope," she replied, mimicking his popping the p as she eased up on tip toe to kiss him gently.

Taking the cup away from Elena, Damon set it down beside his boot before he pressed his lips to her. They warmed up to the PDA they were displaying as Damon's hands strayed downward and Elena yelped when he grabbed her rear. "Damon," she moaned. "Not out here."

"We could find a nice spot in the woods," Damon sighed into her ear, pressing his lips to the curve of flesh beneath his lips. "Come on, Elena," he murmured, taking her by the hand.

Elena felt her cheeks burning as she allowed Damon to pull her toward the woods. "E-len-a!" Caroline shouted and Elena noticed that Caroline was glaring at them. "Stop. Right. Now!" the blonde called as she hurried over to her. "Remember what we said?" she reminded her friend.

"Friends don't let friends get drunk and have sex in the woods," Elena repeated with a laugh.

"Wait. No. That's not fair. Where was I when this was decided?" Damon looked from brunette to blonde as the two stared at him. "You've got to be kidding me," he moaned, holding his head in his hands.

Caroline opened her mouth to retort with one finger pointed at him in accusation when people began to yell. "Five. Four."

"What is that?" Damon asked when Bonnie appeared, looking down at her watch.

"Three. Two," the crowd cheered.

"What the hell?" Caroline's eyes moved around her.

"Midnight," Bonnie gasped as the three friends stared at each other.

"Oh," Caroline whispered. For a moment there was silence and then there were yells of glee. Halloween had officially begun and people were screaming and trying to scare each other. Elena noticed party goers donning those masks from the Scream series.

"Well, it looks like it was a prank after all," Caroline said warmly with a huge smile when there was a sudden howl from the woods.

"Jack-son," was heard. Then at a higher pitch. It was definitely a wailing. "Jack-SON! JACK-SON!" the voice screamed into the night air.

Elena was running toward the voice. Her feet were pounding the leaves into the dirt beneath her. Then she was there. And her heart began to pound. Hayley was on her knees with blood smeared across one cheek. She held up blood covered hands as she screamed again. Suddenly, Jackson Kenner emerged from the woods, his face contorted in horror when he saw the body at Hayley's side.

"Oliver!" Jackson yelled. "No, Ollie. Please, someone help us!" he yelled, his face turning white then red. "Please!" he screamed.

"What's that?" Caroline asked, her finger shaking as she pointed at a red piece of meat beside the body.

"I looks like a…" Damon gulped.

"A heart," Elena ended since Damon seemed to be at a loss for words for once. 'It wasn't a joke,' she thought numbly and then she was pulling out her phone and hitting the digits as her eyes clouded with tears. "Come on. Jeremy, pick up the damned phone!" she said, gritting her teeth as the dial tone rang for a sixth time. "Where are you, Jeremy?"

Happy Halloween!

Tell me what you think, who you think the killer/s is/are and who will die next?

Thank you for reading, faving, following and for reviewing.

Peace,

Jessica