Prologue

Every town has that perfect person. The one with the perfect grades, the perfect body, the perfect looks, the perfect family, everything. Most of them live their entire lives in the lap of luxury with everything already planned before they’re even born. But what if not all of them made it to adulthood?

What if not all of them made it past 15?

It had been a dark and rainy night on September 1st, 2012 in Briarwood, Pennsylvania. It was the last weekend until school started back up and the four girls and Alex were going into their sophomore year of high school finally. It was supposed to be the best years of their lives. Years that one of them would miss . . .

They had all been hanging out in the mother-in-law house that resided in Rachel Watson’s back yard. Of course, Alex had snuck a bottle of vodka from his parent’s liquor cabinet. They had passed it around, everybody taking a swig (though Rachel was the hardest to convince, being as she was the Virgin Mary of the group).

Some ridiculous Bruno Mars song was blasting in the background as the group all laughed about some stupid video Gabriella had found. For them this was just another night. Nothing special. Little did they know that soon it would be the anniversary of somebody’s death.

Let’s meet everybody. We have Gabriella Moody. The least popular girl in the clique. The least noticed, the one that isn’t as attractive as the others, isn’t that skinny or fit, just another dog Alex liked to carry around on a leash. They were his pets, there to serve him and only him. And Gabriella was the most fun to play with.

Next we have Rachel Watson. God, she’d probably count out a billion dollars in pennies if Alex asked her to. She had her brave moments but those were quickly shot down by Alex if he didn’t like it. And if he did like it, well she survived for the day.

Next we have Anna Romano. Future World Cup winner for whatever Soccer league she goes in to. The perfect fit body from all of the exercise, and gorgeous looks to top it off. Her and Alex became friends first so most people see her as being his favorite. They all knew Alex had a favorite and they all thrived to be his favorite especially Anna but he would never tell them who it was. She’s like him in ways except she’s not a total bitch. She’s independent and works hard to keep her social status and keeps her career set out for her.

The last of the four girls. Laura Davidson. Let’s put it this way. She’s Gold when it comes to popularity. Almost the top of all of her classes, great career set out for her as a writer, Vice President of Student Government, and with a rich family. Now next to Alex, she’s just something laying there to cast a shadow. She’s gold but he’s platinum, she’s almost at the top of all of her classes, he is at the top, she has a great career set out for her, he could live his life without working a day, She’s the VP, he’s the President, she’s rich, he’s richer. It’s a constant competition between the two. She begins doing Yoga, he’s been doing it for a month now. She gets a 90 on the Math Final, he got a 110. But at least she has the Dolce & Gabbana leash out of all of the other girls.

Lastly, Alex. Alex VanLinor is #1 at everything. President of Student Government, top of his class, so rich that he throws out Prada like its newspaper. Healthier than a horse, more fit than Anna, and absolutely brilliant. And popular. The people at high school practically worship the ground he walks on. Laura despises him but she’s maintaining being #2 popularity-wise by being in the clique. He’s perfect but there’s one downside. He’s a total bitch. A complete bully. But everybody puts up with it because they feel like it’s an honor for him to even breathe the same air as them. He even has special nicknames for people. Like Four-Eyed Allison and Ugly Gabby.

Well, somebody got sick of Alex and his constant bullying and on August 13th, 2012, they decided they were going to act on those.

These girls all have something to hide. Especially after Alex disappeared. How do I know? Well that’s a secret I’ll never tell. - A

Chapter 1, Popular in Life and Death

It’s been four days since Alex has gone missing. All of the girls are at a loss as to what they should do. This was their ringleader, ruthless and cruel as he was, he was still their ringleader. Anna thinks this is just another stunt of his, he loved to toy with people. Laura simply seems like she doesn’t care. They never did have the best friendship and everyone knows that. Gabriella pretends to be remorseful about it but on the inside she feels relieved. Rachel hasn’t talked since she heard the word Missing escape one of the officer’s mouth. Somehow, Rachel saw underneath all of the cruelty and bitchiness that was Alex Mills. She saw all of the good (and there wasn’t much) in him. The good that was buried deep. Like really damn deep.

On the fifth day of his disappearance the girls were taken into questioning. They would have been taken in the second day but the parents asked for a few days for the girls to let it soak in since they were so close to him.

“Hello girls, I’m Detective Marlin and I’d like to ask you about a few questions about your friend Alex’s disappearance.”

The officer seemed like he spent most of his time in a gym. He was well built, tall, and had a deep tan. He was rather attractive but not even Laura was thinking about that. They were all still in shock in one form or another. Rachel’s thought process had turned to slush. All she could think of was Where is Alex? Laura was silently praying that wherever he was he was safe but would stay gone. Anna wanted her friend to come back. Gabriella wasn’t sure how she felt. She was absolutely conflicted. It was like she was on a rollercoaster that was stuck at the top and she was just waiting for the second when it would all come crashing down. The girls had been dismissed from the first week back of school except for Laura and Anna. Laura had to keep herself at the top no matter what was going on in her life and Anna needed to be able to maintain good grades to stay in soccer.

“Death.” Laura stated firmly.

“Excuse me?” Detective Marlin asked.

“Death. Alex isn’t missing. He’s dead. He’s too smart to get kidnapped and too much of a spotlight whore to leave the attention for any amount of time.”

Rachel could barely process everything Laura said. She could only comprehend the word Alex. Gabriella and Anna were in awe that Laura had said that. They both knew for a fact that when Alex got back he would find out somehow and she would be out of the group. They both loved Laura and would be sad to see her go but they couldn’t say anything or they’d be walking out behind her.

“Well Ms. Davidson, we don’t have a body or any sufficient evidence to prove that he’s deceased so until then this is still a missing person’s case. So any further comments like that from you will result in you getting a solo interrogation.” Detective Marlin said with a smirk as he saw the aggravated look on Laura’s face.

“Anyways. We have to question all of you about what happened the night that Alex disappeared. You will get your turns to tell the story from your point of view and there will be no interruptions from any of you while one of you talks.” He looked at Laura at that last part.

“Who wants to go first?”

None of the girls raised their hands or spoke up.

“How about you Gabriella? What do you remember from that night?”

Gabriella shifted uncomfortably in her chair and then began to speak.

“I was never with Alex that day until the sleepover at Rachel’s House. I remember going there and I heard him talking to someone in the Mother-In-Law house that Rachel’s grandma lives in but when I got there he was alone.”

The detective was scribbling down something very fast onto a notepad as he paid close attention to what Gabriella was saying.

“I was probably just imagining it though.” She hastily said realizing that if Alex found out she had heard him up to something he’d be pissed at her for eavesdropping. “Well anyways after that I just went inside and waited for the other girls. That’s all I remember.”

They all knew she was lying. Something had happened that night that she didn’t want anyone to know. Detective Marlin raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at her. He wrote down some notes that seemed pretty small compared to what she said.

“Anna, you next. I need everything that happened that involved Alex on that night. It could really help the case we’re building. If you guys gave us the full honest truth today we could probably get a lead twice as fast.” At the word truth he glared at Gabriella. He knew damn well that she was lying.

“Alex and I played a few games of soccer. He said that I needed to win the upcoming game because he couldn’t have a loser ruining his reputation.”

“It seemed like he bullied you guys a lot.”

“We’re used to it. Were used to it.” Anna said.

“Well then, proceed with your story Anna.”

“While we were playing soccer he had gotten a call. When he looked at his phone screen I saw something I had never seen before. He was scared.”

A heavy silence fell upon the entire room as the girls let that sink in and Detective Marlin began writing down something that was a lot longer than what Anna had said. Anna cleared her throat and broke the silence.

“After he took the call and walked away, I went back inside my house to get us some water and when I came out he was gone. I looked for him a bit and called him a few times but I eventually gave up and went inside to take a shower. Then I didn’t see him until we all got together for the sleepover.”

“Thank you Anna. If you and Gabriella want, you can leave.” Detective Marlin said after ripping out his second page of notes.

“No, we’re staying right here.” Anna said and Gabriella just mmhm-ed in agreement.

“Very well then. Laura, you next.”

“Well, my day started out normally, I woke up, did my make-up, brushed my hair and braided it, got dressed, and brushed my teeth, then grabbed an apple and a protein shake and drove to school. I went to my first peri-”

“No Laura, not your day. Your interactions with Alex that day.”

She let out a heavy sigh indicating that she wanted nothing more than to stop talking about Alex. He wasn’t even here and he was getting more attention than the sneezing panda.

“Alex and I got our school schedules together that day. We have 3rd period chemistry and 7th period Gym together this year. After we got our schedules we went our separate ways and I next saw him when we went jogging together. I had my earphones in and about halfway in I looked up and saw that he was gone, and there was only a lingering scent of his cologne like he had left recently. And like the other girls I hadn’t seen him again until the sleepover.”

He had written down less than half of what he had written for Anna and Gabriella. Like he didn’t really care what she had to say. Anna, Gabriella, and Rachel couldn’t really blame him, she seemed (and mostly was) a stuck up, self-centered person, who couldn’t care less about Alex and his wellbeing. Which was true for the most part,

“Lastly, Rachel. Recount the events that occurred between you and Alex that day.”

Rachel looked up and stared the detective in the eyes. She looked so broken. Like she didn’t know what to do and she kept muttering the same word; “Missing”.

“Rachel, if you want us to get a lead on Alex’s disappearance you’re going to need to tell us everything that happened with you and Alex that day.”

Rachel just stared blankly off into the distance like she didn’t know what to say. Or couldn’t say anything.

“She hasn’t fully spoken since Alex disappeared. Don’t expect to get anything out of her.” Gabriella said, her sentence coming out harsher than planned.

“Well then, I’m going to take this information back to the station, if Rachel decides to speak up call the station and I’ll be down to interview her. Alone.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gabriella slowly walked into her house. She felt sort of exhausted after the interview. Like she was emotionally drained.

“What did they call you in for?” Her mom had been waiting at the door for her when she got home.

“They were questioning us about Alex. When we had seen him throughout the day, if we knew anything about his disappearance. That kind of stuff.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I just had to talk about it for two hours the only thing I want to talk about is my bed. Goodnight”

“It’s 2 in the afternoon.”

She giggled at her mom’s confusion and continued to walk up the stairs and into her bedroom. She quickly changed into some pajamas and sunk into her bed. Just as she was drifting into sleep, her phone went off. Beep beep.

She unlocked her phone and saw that she had a new message.

Night Night, don’t let your lies bite. -A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Those past two hours had been severely frustrating, stressful, and emotionally exhausting. Anna needed to clear her head. And she only knew one way to do that. Run. She put on a pair of sweatpants and a sports bra when she got home, jammed her earphones in, put her playlist on shuffle, and took off not knowing where she was going or if she was coming back. She was blindly running she was feeling a flurry of emotions. She was angry, sad, lonely, frustrated, and confused. Where was Alex? Why isn’t he home yet? She just didn’t understand.

She felt like the whole world was standing still while she was spinning rapidly. She never realized it before but without Alex she was absolutely lost. He kept her motivated to do sports, he was actually the reason she got into sports. Even when they were 5 years old he was still in control. He made her get in his backyard and kick around that soccer ball until her leg muscles gave out.

He was stronger than all of them combined. He truly was the glue that held them together. Their missing puzzle piece. And now that he was gone she could already feel them falling apart. She couldn’t lose Gabriella, Laura, and Rachel. Aside from Alex, they were her best friends. She was trying to theorize. She was more of a jock than a brain so she wasn’t doing very well and after an hour she decided to go back home but when she looked up she was in the middle of the forest.

She whipped out her phone and looked up her location on Google Maps. She was 5 miles from her house.

I made it this far why don’t I just keep going and never look back. I could make it. I have like 20 bucks on me, I could buy a charger for my phone and get a part-time job and move from motels. Escape this town and all of its drama. All of its mystery and all of its lies.

CRACK

A twig snapped to her left and she heard some leaves rustling. She looked over but saw nothing. Now she was spooked and she was five miles away from her house. Might as well keep going. And she did. She started running again and didn’t look back . . . until her phone went of.

 

Badum Badum

She had a text.

You can run but you can’t hide from me. –A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laura had gotten home with a smug look on her face. Something her mom didn’t expect. She knew that Alex wasn’t Laura’s favorite person in the world but she figured she’d be a little upset about Alex’s disappearance. Alex wasn’t really her favorite person either. All he brought about was drama and secrets and lying. He wasn’t welcome in her house anymore after-. She didn’t like to think about it.

Laura walked upstairs and sat on her bed and looked around. All she remember now was Alex. Them binging 3 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy together while eating enough candy to give them diabetes. All of them hanging out in her room taking pictures and trying out new outfits that Alex had bought for them. Alex taking Taylor’s phone and them going through her messages.

There were times when he wasn’t a royal bitch. When he seemed almost human. Normal even. When he was nice to her and let himself go. Just let himself hang out in pajamas and sleep in and stay up late.

She layed on her back and stared up at the top of the four poster bed. Her, Alex, and the girls had all signed it last year and had put a group picture directly above it. She couldn’t help but grin at that one. That was fun night

FLASHBACK

The girls all giggled as Alex put on makeup. It was nights like these where he was fun and loved to joke around like this. Most of the time he was being bitchy or trying to degrade them but he was giving them compliments and treating them greatly. Even Gabriella who was his favorite tree to break twigs off of.

Alex got on the bed and as their natural instinct they followed him. He grabbed five sharpies off of Laura’s night stand and handed one to each girl. He got on his knees and reached up to the ceiling of the bed’s canopy and wrote something. They all looked up.

Alex VanLinor

So they all followed suit and signed their names and then Alex whipped out his phone and began taking at least a hundred pictures of them. Rachel ducked to avoid the camera, Anna just posed, Gabriella didn’t notice, and Laura rolled her eyes but couldn’t suppress her smirk. They all bundled up together on the bed – Alex in the middle because he was always the center of attention – and took a picture. It was times like this where they didn’t feel like Kings and Queens. Where they didn’t have to maintain an appearance or attitude. Where they were 100% themselves.

END OF FLASHBACK

She took a deep breath in and out of her mouth and then turned over and buried her face in her pillow. She sat for a minute and then it began. It was one tear and then two more and then three more and then it was like somebody had turned on a high pressure water hose from inside her eye sockets. Her body was shaking and she could already feel her pillow soaking up all of the tears from the amount of water leaking from her eyes. She spent too much time bottling things up but now that Alex was gone and might be dead she couldn’t handle anything else. She was completely and utterly broken.

Boop Boop, Boop Boop

She had a text. She wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her sweater and unlocked her phone.

Oh sob Laura! I guess you’re all alone now. It’s okay, you’ll always have me! –A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rachel was numb. Her entire mind was shut down. There was only one thing she could process. Alex was gone and she might never see him again. It was her best friend. Her other half. She could always tell that she was his favorite because he was a completely different person when he was with her. He was changed. He wasn’t a horrible person. He was kind, and understand, and would listen to whatever she needed to tell him and he wouldn’t judge her. He’d done so much for her.

One time, somebody decided to call her a slut because Austin Crowl had told everybody at school that she had slept with him. Naturally, Alex ruined him. If you ask somebody who Austin Crowl is no they’d immediately stiffen and walk away because he literally disappeared. Some say that he ran away, some say that Alex murdered him but nobody ever talks about it anymore because that was the one thing that had made them really scared of Alex.

In her room she had a large sky blue tote with four small boxes in it. One was painted with a red A on it the next had a Pink cursive L, another had a sloppy Green G on it, and the last had a pale pink cursive A on it. They were all boxes of mementos from the others in the group. She loved them so much. They were more her family than her real family was.

She gently picked up Alex’s box – The one with the pale pink A on it – as thought it was made of glass because to her it was. It was everything of Alex she had. Every birthday card he’d given her, every little note they’d passed in class, the notebook they had written in to talk to each other on the long boat ride so her parents couldn’t see their texts.

She gently lifted the lid of the box and pulled out the first thing she saw. It was the note they had been passing in class the other week.

Could this lecture be any more boring? Why should we care what the product of B and Z is?

You actually need this stuff for your future

Yes, because coefficients are going to be a job requirement

Oh, like you’re going to have to work a day in your life

Probably not. So, I hear that you actually have a boyfriend. Never thought the little virgin mary would actually date somebody.

That’s a total rumor. I don’t date and you know that. My mom would kill me anyways.

Probably. We should stop passing these before Mrs. Lucas catches us, she’ll lose her shit.

Her tears fell down her face and onto the paper as she folded it up and stuck it back in the box. She missed him so much. It hasn’t even been a week yet. She curled up into fetal position and let the tears pour out.

“Alex, please come home.”

Her phone went off.

Dinggggg

Miss me Rae? You’ll see me soon. –A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A blood curling scream rang throughout Briarwood, Pennsylvania at 7:39 AM. It was September 7th, also known as the day that Alex VanLinor died.

In front of the VanLinor manor is their large rose garden behind a set of iron gates with the VanLinor family crest on it. A black hooded figure pushes the gates open after putting in the all-too familiar code.

The shoes were practically silent against the pavement as the figure made their way up to the mansion. A soft knock on the door. No answer. A louder one. This time it was a series of loud, fast knocks. When the hooded figure didn’t even hear feet coming to the door they got impatient.

The hooded figure walked over to the entrance and got into the car. They really loved making an entrance. The car was thrown into full speed and sped through the gates and up the lawn to the front door. When the stairs hit the double doors swung open and one flew off the hinges while the other hung limply off one hinge. They smirked evilly under the black mask and backed up a little bit before getting out of the car.

The car door opened and out stepped that black hooded figure. They slammed the door closed and walked up to the front door. One there they lightly knocked on the hanging door. The intruder could hear soft whispers upstairs. He knew they were here, which made the end of this little game oh so fun. The intruder began to walk up the stairs with an agonizingly slow pace that was loaded with anticipation. Once the intruder reached the top of the stairs they raised a glove hand and lightly pushed on the door that had the name “Alex” printed on it in foam letters.

The door didn’t move. He thought locking it would do anything. The hooded intruder lifted one of their legs and slammed on the door with it. It was a flimsy wooden door that practically shattered at the force of the powerful leg. The intruder walked in and saw the tall teenager sitting on his bed with a butcher knife. The intruder smirked behind the mask. This was going to be fun.

Alex launched off of his bed and attempted to stab the intruder but they side stepped him, causing him to lose his balance and fall. While he was trying to get up the attacker went and grabbed the knife that Alex had dropped when he fell. He got up and ran back into his room knocking over the hooded figure. This did nothing but made them stumble and aggravate them. This was their game and Alex wasn’t going to be doing anything to interfere with the game ending.

The attacker grabbed Alex by his hair and smashed his head into the vanity mirror. The glass shattered and flew everywhere. Alex began bleeding from his head but continued to fight. He pushed back against the attacker but was dizzy and fell against his dresser, knocking it over and taking out two of his bed posts. Alex took a deep breath and regained his composure, he wasn’t losing nearly as much blood as he thought. But he was still losing blood and the intruder was fit and ready to kill him. He tried to run but the attacker grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him back, knocking Alex to the floor and knocking the wind out of him. They picked him up and pushed him into the staircase.

On contact, he broke the railing and went tumbling down the stairs leaving a blood trail behind him. They had already won but they were still playing with their food. Alex was on his hands and knees at the bottom of the stairs trying to breathe properly. When the attacker got to the bottom of the stairs, Alex hadn’t noticed and the attacked put their foot on his side and kicked him over. Alex was weak but he was still fighting for his life. He got up and stumbled into the kitchen and grabbed a knife.

The attacker walked in and grabbed one of the large knives from the knife block. They were no longer playing, they were pissed because he wasn’t supposed to be fighting back. He should have died when he was thrown down the stairs. But now this attacker was done. Alex tossed the knife at them. It brushed their shoulder and lightly tore the hoodie. The color drained from Alex’s face. He knew it was over, he was dead. But he still had to try to fight for his life.

The attacked walked towards him and slashed the knife in the air. It cut his chest and he began dripping blood. The attacker pushed him into the china cabinet and the plates and glass from the windows of the cabinet fell on Alex. All of the glass made small cuts on his arms, face and neck. The attacker picked him up by his hair and dragged him to the living room where they grabbed the knife and ended it once and for all. They lifted the knife high in the air and then plunged it into Alex Mills’ chest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alex’s mother had returned home about an hour after the murder. She knew something was wrong when the gate was open. The sight that awaited her inside her home as something she would never be able to get out of her head. She walked into her house and saw her son’s dead body lying on the floor with cuts all over his body and a knife sticking out of his chest.

She screamed so loud she could feel her throat becoming sore. She began sobbing heavily and fell against the wall and slid down on her back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anna, Rachel, Laura, and Gabriella were standing outside of the VanLinor property and watched as the police taped off the scene and had to drag a broken Cynthia VanLinor-Russell was dragged out of her own property but she couldn’t do anything about it. She was visibly broken, she didn’t even look like she was trying. She was too overwhelmed with grief.

Laura had to stay strong in front of everybody she really wanted to cry but she couldn’t, Gabriella was still in shock, she had thought he was dead but just having it be confirmed made it so different. Anna didn’t know had to respond either, her thought process was somewhat the same as Gabriella’s but she was more hurt. Alex had been her best friend from her childhood. But Rachel was different then all of them. Alex hadn’t just been her best friend, he had been her other half, the reason she woke up in the morning, practically her brother. She collapsed onto the ground in a mess of tears.

She couldn’t stop crying, the other girls had to hold her up just to make sure she didn’t accidentally hurt herself.

THREE DAYS LATER

The girls all arrived at the church with black dresses on. They were all accompanied by their parents to the funeral or their best friend. Their parents had been keeping their distance the last couple of days. Except for Rachel’s mom, she had to be the cruelest of them all, even Laura’s mom. All she had done was bitch about how Alex deserved to die since he was a “fag supporter”. She was more homophobic than every member of the Westboro Baptist Church put together. She never dared try to separate Alex and Rachel because she knew that she was his favorite and if she tried to take his favorite she’d be trying to get out a straitjacket until the day she died.

Alex had resources and he could lie so well the girls were sure he convinced himself sometimes. If Rachel’s mom or any of the girl’s mom had tried to separate them from Alex it’d be one of the last things they did for a while.

The four girls walked into the church where a white coffin with a gold trim was surrounded by Red Roses (Alex’s favorite flower) and had an art easel with a picture of him next to it.

“He would have loved this funeral.” Anna broke the silence.

“Yeah.” Gabriella and Laura agreed in unison.

“He would’ve wanted confetti and liquor.” Rachel mumbled with a small giggle.

The girls are lightly chuckled because it was true. Alex hated depressing things. If you were at a party and you weren’t dancing or drinking he’d pick you up and force you to loosen up. It seemed rude and unnecessary to some of them but he just wanted them to have fun and enjoy themselves.

The girls all sat down in the front where Cynthia had more than likely guaranteed they have seats. She was still staying with Anna’s family because her mansion was a crime scene and she was an emotional wreck. She damn near refused to eat unless Anna got her protein shakes which she reluctantly drink and then she would just lay in bed and cry and sleep. It was really sad but it was her way of coping.

The pastor at the front of the room began reading some Bible verses that were in farewell of Alex.

After the funeral everybody began hurrying out of the doors. Nobody wanted to be at a funeral and nearly everybody in Briarwood had come to say good bye to the Queen Bee of the town.

The girl’s all went outside and sat there waiting for their parents to pull the cars around so they could go home.

“It doesn’t really feel like he’s gone.” Rachel said.

“But he is Rachel, and it’s going to take some getting used to, but we’ll make it without him, we still have him in our memories.” Laura said as she hugged Rachel in an attempt to comfort her.

Their phones all went off.

Beep Beep

Badum Badum

Boop Boop, Boop Boop

Dingggg

The girls all pulled out their phones and saw they each had a text message from a blocked number.

The Game’s Only Just Begun. Hold Tight Bitches. –A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Black Hooded Figure is unpacking boxes in what appears to be a small apartment. There were at least 50 black boxes scattered across the floor. The hooded figure put up a poster of an all too familiar face that had been plastered across town for the past week. The face of Alex VanLinor

2: Ding Dong the Wicked Bitch is Dead

Chapter 2, Ding Dong the Wicked Bitch is Dead

A week has passed since Alex was murdered. Everybody was coping with his death in their own ways. The girls were not ready to return to school. Hell, Rachel was not ready to leave the comfort her bed offered her. Laura on the other hand, could not wait to go back to school. While on the inside she was emotionally wrecked she knew she still had to maintain her appearance and what better way to do that than to walk into school with her head high showing everybody that she wasn’t going to let Alex’s death affect her too much. She wasn’t like the other girls, she was going to use this to make herself stronger; but it was hard. Because while Alex was also her competition and her bully, he was also her number one motivator. He helped her maintain her social appearance.

She got up at 6 AM precisely to her alarm of Barbra Streisand’s “Funny Girl”. She got up, made herself a breakfast of an egg white omelet with toast, vegetarian bacon, and a glass of orange juice. She ate it all, cleaned her dishes, and sat down with a study guide for each of her classes and gave herself a small questionnaire on each subject. She couldn’t afford to lose any knowledge and to do early morning studying was the best way to do that. After her self-quiz she got dressed, did her hair and makeup, and was off to school.

Before Alex, her routine was to simply get up, grab a bowl of cereal, and do her makeup and get dressed. She didn’t care as much about being number one at everything else, she just wanted to be able to eat and look good for school; but when he came into her life, he made sure she looked best. He couldn’t allow somebody to be below perfect in his group. It wasn’t tolerable for him.

**********

The girls all met at their usual spot. Alex’s spot. It was the largest oak tree on the Briarwood High campus. They had all carved their names into it over the summer before freshman year. Alex had brought them onto campus and carved their names in it so they had their own spot when school started up. He was all about entitlement and ownership. He had gotten to take a tour of the school and picked out their lunch table, their hangout spot (the tree), and even their seats in classrooms. He had one of his mom’s techy council friends hack into the school’s computer system and make it so they all had the same classes, he had to be able to keep an eye on them at all times as though they were his dolls.

Laura never wanted to admit it, but she was scared of Alex. Truly terrified of him. One time, they got in an argument and she yelled at him. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, her blood chilled. She was petrified when he quirked his eyebrow and smirked. He was looking straight past her, thinking of all the things he could do to her. He could do anything he wanted. If he wanted her to gain weight, he’d start putting stuff in her food to make her gain weight rapidly, he could start crushing up copious amounts of pills and putting them in her drinks so she developed an addiction them and would get in trouble for it. He could tell everybody she was knocked up, which would ruin her home and social life. He was a teenage antichrist with an iPhone.

All of the girls were scared of him. He would always joke about and hint at leaving them to find a new group. They knew deep down he was joking but the thought of him doing that was terrifying. Not only would they be lost without their leader but he’d just have all of their secrets and he could just drop all of their secrets and wouldn’t even have the tiniest inkling of regret like he’d had if they were friends.

The girls all walked into the school and all eyes were on them. It was as if they had neon signs hanging above their heads. They would have probably received less attention if that were the case. They had been the queen clique with the Queen Bitch of the school as their leader. They were invincible and now they felt bare. Rachel looked to the left and saw Isabella Jones crying. She had been Alex’s girlfriend. Rachel wanted to go comfort her but she knew she couldn’t leave her friends.

The girls had all had friends outside of their group. Not many, but still. Rachel had Allison Larsen, Laura had Emili Beauregard, Gabrielle had Skylar McCloud, and Anna had Aubrey Rossman. They weren’t just acquaintances though, they were real friends. Like their second best friends. Losing one of them would be like losing a member of the group. Which they just did . . .

**********

Over the course of the week, some (very few) have mourned Alex’s death while most others rejoiced in it. The tyrant was gone and his rule of tyranny was also over. It was like a new age for the citizens of Briarwood. But there was still the empty spot of queen that somebody had to take over.

The girls didn’t feel like anybody was “worthy” to take Alex’s position. Almost like it should remain empty. The entire town was slowly crumbling without its leader. Everybody was connected to Alex. Even the mailman that somehow handled every house in town every day. He truly was the glue that had held everything together, and with his death it was all falling apart. And the girls were going to be the first to break.

*********

Aside from Alex, Laura was the model of perfection. A 4.0 GPA, a perfect immune system with an almost flawless body, and she was soon to get into some form of extracurricular to help her grade even more. She was under a constant pressure from everybody to remain as perfect as possible. It was the worst at home. Her family criticized her about everything. Last week she had brought home a history essay that had gotten a 120% and they complained that she could have gotten more than just 20 extra credit points. She only had 7% percent body fat and they would make fat jokes because they thought she should have 0% body fat.

When she got home, she did something she didn’t like. Hell, she didn’t even like to think of it but the stress always drove her to that. It drove her to that feeling of claustrophobia and the key to feeling free was in a small container.

After it was over, she had to clean herself or else she would feel dirty and tainted. She went running for an hour and sweat it all out and then went home and took an hour-long shower. She finally felt somewhat clean and could allow herself to sleep in peace.

Her phone went off.

Boop Boop, Boop Boop

No matter how much you clean yourself, you’ll never get rid of me. –A

*****************

After sitting at her desk for a while, Rachel gets up and begins to pace back and forth.  As Rachel paces, her mind wanders. She begins to think of what happened earlier that day. Rachel was walking home after a long day at school. As she was walking her phone chimes.  She immediately pulls out her phone to see the message. Without looking up she accidentally walks into someone.

“Sorry.” Rachel said as she looked up to see who she bumped into.

Rachel fazed. The girl said something, but Rachel didn’t hear. She was too busy admiring her. She thought the girl was pretty. Beautiful long, blonde hair and eyes the color of emeralds, and the figure of a model. Five minutes had passed before Rachel’s phone chimed again. It was then she realized she was alone. She shook her head and returned her attention to her phone before returning home.

From there Rachel begins to think about the girl

“She was flawless.”

She stops pacing for a moment and asks herself:

“Am I attracted to her?”

For the past couple years this had been a constant inner battle for Rachel. The way that society told her she was supposed to feel about boys was the way she felt about girls. She had a heavily Christian conservative family so coming out of the closet that she wasn’t even 100% positive she was in was a definite no. Her dad was the local pastor and her mom was the leader of a youth group and for their daughter to be Gay would be the worst thing imaginable in their eyes. Socially Rachel wasn’t that worried about coming out, there were plenty of gay people at her school. Most of the gay guys were treated like purse dogs by girls and the lesbians were treated as animals behind a glass by the guys but overall nobody cared much. Rachel began pacing again. She couldn’t figure out what to do. As she was pacing, she saw her phone on her desk. She picked it up and punched in Laura’s number quickly.

Ringgggggggg ringggggggg

“Rachel? What’s up?” Came Laura’s melodic voice from the other line.

“Laura, it’s serious, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Rach, what is it, you’re scaring me.”

“Laura, there’s this feeling I’ve had for a long time. I’ve only recently realized it but the way that you, Anna, and Gabrielle feel about boys is the way I feel about girls. I don’t know if there’s something wrong with me or what but if my mom and dad ever find out, they’d kick me out.”

“Rachel, calm down. The girls and I love you no matter who you are. Don’t jump too quick to label yourself, we’re only in high school, we’re still discovering who we are. We love you, and we’ll always be your friends no matter what. But honestly Rach, it doesn’t surprise me that you like girls, I’ve seen your wardrobe, you have way too much flannel to be straight.”

Rachel smiled, told Laura bye, and then hung up. She set her phone down on her computer desk. Then the screen lit up as the preview of a text came up.

Dingggg

Aww Rae! You have a little girl crush! I’d hate for mommy and daddy to know! –A

********************

Gabby was having one of her episodes. Her family knew when she was having one and just left her alone until it was over. Gabby was a self-perfectionist. She felt that everything about herself had to perfect. Her eyes, her lips, her complexion, nose, body, etc. No matter how little she ate and how much exercise she got, she never felt like her body was pretty. She’d look in the mirror and just criticize everything about herself every morning.

She wasn’t pretty enough, she wasn’t skinny enough, she wasn’t filled out enough, she wasn’t athletic enough, etc. It was hard to look at herself in a positive light when she had people next to her like Alex, Laura, Rachel, and Anna who were beyond gorgeous especially for their age. And even if they weren’t drop dead gorgeous, they all had special things about them. Rachel was a severely talented musician and artist, Anna had a whole athletic career set out for her for two lifetimes, Laura could run two countries and still have free time to go shopping, but Gabby had nothing. There was nothing about her that she felt was special.

She was just a sophomore with average grades, an unappealing body, and bad morning breath. She was the exact opposite of everybody else in town. This was a small town where everybody was perfect. Except Gabby, she was less than appealing. Nobody seemed to notice but she hated it. There had to be something that made her special. Oh yeah, there was. Alex. He was one of the most important things in her life; he kept her as perfect as possible and kept her popular and always ahead of most people. Now that he was gone she was going to get just as much attention but it would be because she was the friend of the dead Queen Bee.

She had tried everything to become perfect. Bulimia, Anorexia, days on a treadmill, swimming, getting into sports, dieting, etc. But no matter how skinny or athletic she was she hated what she saw in the mirror. She had even talked to her parents about plastic surgery. They didn’t know how much she hated herself. They were too oblivious to see just how pained everyday was. She lifted up her shirt in the mirror of her room and saw a small amount of extra chub on her stomach. Just that little amount of fat or skin was enough to send her spiraling. She immediately dove to the toilet and shoved her finger down her throat, as if it was natural as falling asleep stomach acid began to spill from her mouth into the toilet. It was hard to throw up when she hadn’t eaten for two days. She wiped her mouth and sat on the floor rocking back and forth disgusted by herself. Her phone went off

Beep Beep

Oh hun, it’s hard to throw up when you don’t even have anything in your stomach. -A

*********************

Laura and Jeremy were having one of their “study dates” at Laura’s house because her parents were out for a few hours. It usually included about ten minutes studying, sex, and then ten more minutes of studying. It was a great process for the both of them and they both had 4.5 GPA’s so the lack of studying was fine. They were doing their last ten minutes of actual studying when Jeremy grunted angrily from behind the screen of his laptop.

“What’s wrong?” Laura asked, figuring it was something about football or something else equally ridiculous that somehow managed to aggravate his straight boy senses.

“It’s another article on the city’s website. Of Alex.” He said through clenched teeth.

“Well he did just kinda die and he was the son of the mayor so I think his presence will linger for about forever.”

“Why? He’s dead, he’s gone that’s all there is to it. Why does he have to still hang around? It’s like he’s not even dead!”

“Will you be a little more respectful? He was my friend and he’s dead.”

“Me? Me have respect for him?” His nostrils were flared and his eyes full of anger. “Why does he deserve any respect? Why does he deserve peace? He was a stone cold bitch who deserved every bit of what he got.”

There was a bit too much passion in his voice. He was too angry. It was almost as if he felt his personal mission wasn’t fulfilled.

“Okay just calm down, we get it. Alex wasn’t a nice person. It’s done and over with. But I have stuff to do so you should probably go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He calmed down a bit, gave Laura a quick kiss on the cheek, and walked out the door. Laura let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding in. She whipped out her phone and dialed Rachel’s number.

“Hello?”

“Rae, it’s me call Gabby and Anna and have them come to my house immediately! There’s something important!”

She hung up the phone and set it down on the table, waiting for the girls to show up.

About twenty minutes later the door opened and the three girls came in.

“What is it? What’s so important that I had to leave soccer practice for?” Anna asked.

“I think Jeremy might be A.”

That got all the girl’s attention. She explained everything that happened, how he had gotten outrageously frustrated at the prospect of Alex being remembered.

“Why would he get that pissed off just because Alex is being remembered? He was the mayor’s kid and the ruler of this town basically.” Gabby said.

“Think about it. He hated Alex with a burning passion, he always has. He’s always thought he was overly controlling and a complete bitch. It makes perfect sense. He killed Alex and we let Alex do everything he did all that time so he’s getting revenge on us. He’s got inner access to our little group because he’s my boyfriend. God, it’s so obvious how have we not seen this before, it may have only been a week but I’m me and I should have seen this coming by the first A text.”

“One question. A and Alex’s killer. Same person or not?” Rachel asked.

“Same person.” They all agreed in unison.

Badum Badum, Dingggg, Beep Beep, Boop Boop Boop Boop

You’re getting colder bitches. –A

********************

After the whole situation with Jeremy, Anna needed to go home and relax. The past week had been possible the most stressful week of her life. One of her best friends had been murdered and some psycho named ‘A’ had been stalking her for the past week. It was times like this where she understood why people did drugs. What she wouldn’t do for a bottle of whiskey at the moment.

She looked over at her staircase and was hit with an overwhelming feeling of disgust. That was a place where she had lost any and all respect for her mother. Throwing yourself down the stairs isn’t an acceptable way to solve your problems. She snorted to herself at the thought. If only everybody knew what her mother had done on that staircase and the story behind it. She would be immediately kicked from her position as the head of the school board; nobody would want to have to see her every day and would make sure she was gone.

But her mother had strongly established a while ago that nobody was to find out about this. It would damage her soccer career, it would ruin her mother’s career, and destroy her father in every way possible.

Badum Badum

But the question is sweetie did she throw herself or was she pushed? -A

***************************

The girls were summoned to the VanLinor mansion on Sunday evening at 6. It was the first time any of them would have stepped inside the mansion since Alex’s murder and none of them were looking forward to it. The first person they saw at the front door was none other than Alex’s mother Cynthia VanLinor. Alex always told the girls that his mom was two-faced, she was sweet and baking cookies like a cookie-cutter poster suburban mom one minute and the next minute she was a ruthless cruel cold-hearted leader who only cared about her and her family’s personal gain. Laura always found it ironic that when Alex said that he was in a way describing himself. The girls loved her though, she had always been nice to them. She would bring them platters of crackers and lunch meats or fruits and vegetables every time the girls would hang out with Alex. She was a sweet woman and had always been an adult they knew they could trust.

The girls individually hugged her and said hi.

“Hey girls, you’re probably wondering why I had your parents bring you over.”

She got a murmur of agreement from the girls.

“Well I knew that I had no use for any of Alex’s stuff and anything the police thought had to do with his death they’ve already taken. So you girls can go up to his room and take anything of his you’d like.”

She gave a warm smile and tried her best to seem like a well put-together woman who was handling her only child’s murder perfectly well but inside she was screaming and crying. The girls walked up to Alex’s room together.

“Okay I’m not the only one who thinks it’s really fucking creepy that we’re going to take our dead best friend’s stuff am I?” Laura asked to break the silence once they went into Alex’s room.

“No I’ve been getting chills since she told us to come take his stuff. I don’t know if I want to do this.” Rachel spoke up.

“I don’t know I have always wanted his memory foam slippers.” Gabby said trying to break the tension.

The girls began to just look through his stuff. Alex had always hidden stuff right in front of the girls and it always made them curious to know what he was hiding, what he considered to not be public knowledge and wanted nobody touching.

Laura came across one of his pictures of all five of them that he had framed in a little gold frame that they all decorated with their initials in foam letters from the arts and crafts store. He may have been an evil person to most people but to them being with him was like being home. Rachel loved the fact that the person that scared so many people could make her feel so safe. He was her best friend and his death had been hurting her the most. When Rachel was looking in his bed she decided to check his old hiding spot. He had hollowed out a part of his headboard to use as a hiding place. She put her hand in and felt the familiar leather bound book she had seen so many times and always wanted to open and read.

After making sure none of the girls were looking, she grabbed the diary and stuck it in her bag. She had to keep it for herself. She wasn’t trying to be selfish she just felt that she deserved it the most. It was her best friend. He had told her the hiding place so it’s not like he didn’t want her to look there. He trusted her more than the other girls. While Rachel had been taking the diary, Gabby took his memory foam slippers, Laura took the picture frame, and Anna took the soccer ball they had played with as kids.

“Wait guys look at this.” Laura called out and everybody gathered around as she pulled a notebook out of Alex’s desk.

“Is it a diary?” Anna asked.

“I doubt Alex kept a diary but even if he did he wouldn’t do it in a notebook.”

The girls started to look through it and they found notes, scribbles, and all types of things that made them interested. He had drawn diagrams and things that looked like police boards when they’re solving a murder with all the lines and pictures and notes. He was trying to solve something but all the girls saw were names of mythical creatures, like Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, etc. So either Alex had an odd obsession with the supernatural or it was some type of code.

***************************

When the girls were all called into the police station they could agree today was not going to be very pleasant. Cynthia VanLinor was steadily nagging the police because she was apparently just as unpleased with being called to the station as the girls were. It had slowly been dawning over the girls that this would be their lives for the next couple of years. They would always be the girls who were friends with Alex and that was all they’d be. He was dead and he still made them seem invisible.

Anna was thrown into the room first. Separated, which was upsetting because they weren’t sure what was happening and they were all each other’s support and it was difficult for them to function without each other.

“Where were you between the hours of 6 and 8AM on September 7th?” The unknown detective asked.

“I was out for my morning jog at 6 and then I got home at around 7 and started getting ready for school until the police sirens began blaring outside of my house as they sped to Alex’s house.”

“Can anyone confirm that?”

“I’m sure if you asked around my neighborhood you’d have a few of them tell you they saw me jogging like they do every morning. Mrs. Conley two doors down from me was tending to her garden and waved to me you can ask her.”

The detective scribbled some stuff down on his notepad.

“Do you know anybody who would want to hurt Alex? Did he ever say anything about being scared of somebody?”

“I mean some people at school and around town really hated him but I’m not sure anybody would have gone as far as killing him. Alex wasn’t scared of anything or anybody, everybody was scared of him.”

“Was Alex involved in gangs or a group like that? Did he have any involvement with drugs?”

“Alex thought gangs were an immature waste of time and that people who were in them were just using numbers as a way to scare people. And of course he drank alcohol sometimes and I’m pretty sure he smoked weed once he’s a 16 year old.”

“What was your relationship with Alex?”

“We were best friends. He was the leader of our group. We loved him. He always kept us motivated to be the best version of ourselves and then to reach above that because he wouldn’t let us be anything less than above perfect.”

“When did you last see Alex alive?”

“We were having our before school year get together in Rachel’s mother-in-law house in her backyard. That’s when he went missing.”

“Did you kill Alex VanLinor?”

“No! I would never do that he was one of my best friends!”

After that the detective shut his notebook and told her to send Gabby in next.

*****************

“Where were you between the hours of 6 and 8AM on September 7th?”

“Um I was sleeping until I heard Mrs. VanLinor’s screams from three houses down.”

“Can anybody confirm that?”

“I mean my mom checks in on me sometimes while I sleep you could ask her.”

“Do you know anybody who would want to hurt Alex? Did Alex ever say anything to you about being scared of somebody?”

“Nobody was stupid enough to bother Alex, and no he wasn’t scared of anybody.”

“Was Alex involved in any gangs or groups like that? Did Alex have any involvement with drug use?”

“Anna probably told you but Alex doesn’t think very highly of street groups. Alex probably drank but aside from that I doubt it.”

“What was your relationship with Alex?”

“He was my group leader, my motivation to be perfect, and my best friend.”

“When did you last see Alex alive?”

“At our pre school year sleepover in Rachel’s mother-in-law house. That was the night he went missing.”

“Did you kill Alex VanLinor?”

“No, why would I kill my only motivation to look as good as possible?”

After that he sent Gabby out and asked for Rachel to come in.

**************

“Where were you between the hours of 6 and 8AM on September 7th?”

“I was sleeping and then I woke up at about 7:30 and was getting ready until my mom told me what happened at the VanLinor mansion.”

“Can anybody confirm that?”

“My mom since she was with me most of the time.”

“Do you know anybody who would want to hurt Alex? Did Alex ever say anything to you about being scared of somebody?”

“There were plenty of people at school that didn’t like him but I’m not sure anybody would wanna murder him. Alex was only scared of one thing and it was the idea of being less than perfect in his eyes.”

“Was Alex involved in any gangs or groups like that? Did Alex have any involvement with drug use?”

“If you count our group as a gang I suppose so but street gangs were stupid to him. He only drank alcohol occasionally and smoked weed once.”

“What was your relationship with Alex?”

“He was my best friend. Even above the other girls. I’m very insecure and he was the only person who could make me feel good about myself sometimes.”

“When did you last see Alex alive?”

“At our pre school year sleepover in my mother-in-law house.”

“Did you kill Alex VanLinor?”

“He was the person I loved most on this planet. I would never hurt him.”

The detective could tell she was clearly upset about the whole ordeal and patted her shoulder before sending her out. Now he only had one more person to interview.

***********************

“Where were you between the hours of 6 and 8AM on September 7th?”

“It’s the beginning of the school year. I was getting ready for school and going through my checklist making sure I was more than prepared for the beginning.”

“Can anybody confirm that?”

“No, I’m awake before anybody else in my house.”

“Do you know anybody who would want to hurt Alex? Did Alex ever say anything to you about being scared of somebody?”

“I think the shorter answer would be who didn’t want to hurt Alex. He was a heartless mean person and I’m sure a lot of people wanted to hurt him. Alex wasn’t scared of anybody. Which probably wasn’t smart because his lack of fear and empathy is what got him where he is today.”

“Was Alex involved in any gangs or groups like that? Did Alex have any involvement with drug use?”

“Gangs were beneath Alex he believed that they were inferior and anybody involved in one was a pathetic coward. Aside from drinking alcohol nope.”

“What was your relationship with Alex?”

“He was my best friend and my worst enemy. It was a constant state of competition between us but he always one. He was my group leader though and I’m scared of my group falling apart now that he’s gone.”

“When did you last see Alex alive?”

“At the preschool year sleepover me and him went for a walk to find my phone because I thought I had dropped it on the way to Rachel’s mother-in-law house. I got in my car to look for it in there and when I came out of the car he was gone.”

“Did you kill Alex VanLinor?”

“No. I’m not that stupid. I wanted to punch him in the face a few times but I didn’t kill him.”

*****************

The girls waited anxiously in the lobby to be dismissed to go home when Laura’s mom was called in to the room with the detective. There were raised voices and she finally stormed out of the room and ordered Laura to go with her. The rest of the girls were dismissed and they were on their way home. The other moms went over to Laura’s mom and asked her what was wrong and the girls were with them. With clenched teeth and a look that could kill a small country she said:

“Laura has been ruled as the Person of Interest in Alex’s murder.”

***************

In a dark room with pictures of Alex VanLinor, Laura Davidson, Rachel Watson, Gabrielle Moody, and Anna Romano sat a person wearing a black hoodie in a dark grey armchair. The person rocked back and forth while watching the news where a journalist announced:

“Laura Davidson has been ruled as the Person of Interest in the case of Alex VanLinor’s murder.”

The person chuckled to themselves.

Maybe I don’t have to try to ruin these bitches lives. They’re doing a pretty bang up job of it all on their own.

3: You Can Rest When You're Dead

Chapter 3, You Can Rest When You’re Dead

Rachel had spent the last two days pouring through Alex’s laptop, diary, and notebooks. She spent all of yesterday trying to get into Alex’s laptop but of course, Alex had it password protected and secured so that any unwelcome visitors (which was everybody) couldn’t get in. She had tried everything for passwords; all of the girls names, the city, her name, his name, even his favorite TV show; but to no avail. So at the end of the night she closed the laptop and went to bed. The next day she took it to a computer technician and asked him if he could unlock it if she paid him but he was weirded out by the thought of hacking into the mayor’s dead son’s computer so he denied her request and sent her home.

So now, on the third day of her looking through Alex’s stuff she had decided to look in his diary and notebook. As of now she decided she was going to look through the notebook because the thought of what could be in Alex’s diary frightened her.

Flipping to the first page she already knew that she had discovered something weird. In the notebook were some detailed illustrations that looked like a bald man-bat hybrid that had milky white skin and beady black eyes that made you feel like it was watching you wherever you were. Underneath the illustration was the word Vampire in bold red letters. He had several notes scribbled down: Vampire transformation done by either witch or two vampires. Witch transformation requires fire, blood, DNA, and soul. Vampire transformation requires heart and soul and vamp magic.

The notes of mythical creatures confused Rachel immensely. Did Alex seriously believe in witches and vampires? She looked through more pages:

Werewolves, either born or cursed. Witches, born that way. Several types of witches: Life, Death, Elemental, Nature Spirit, Time, and Eternity. Angels and Demons = byproducts of supernatural judgement. Body jumpers and Shape shifters. Ghosts. Mermaids.

There were barely legible notes for each creature he listed in the notebook. Which didn’t make sense because Alex always had pretty neat handwriting. She didn’t know what to do with the notes so she set them aside and convinced herself that they were for some English assignment he was writing. Yeah, Alex actually doing his own English assignment okay Rachel, because if Alex was taking this stuff seriously she’d have to start thinking of him as a lunatic. She set aside the notebook and picked up the diary, which was laying on her bed. It had a cursive pale pink capital ‘A’ on the front engraved into the leather and a small lock that kept it shut but to her luck, the key was already in there. She unlocked the diary and turned to the first page:

 

 

 

Amy Winehouse the Second

I try so hard with these girls it’s ridiculous. I mean I get that I’m a bitch sometimes but that’s only like a front so they don’t see that I’m nice sometimes. Only Rachel gets to see that side of me because I genuinely trust her. I don’t know about the others though. I kind of feel that I can trust Anna because of our history together I mean we did grow up together since we were 2. Gabby is definitely a threat I’m always putting her down but that’s not my problem if she didn’t want me to treat her like shit she should do something about it, stand up to me, or change her appearance and not give me a reason to say the things I do say. It’s not even my fault really that I treat her like that I mean just judge people. All. The. Time. It’s like an instinct or a second nature to me. As soon as I see someone I pick out every single one of their flaws down to the last blackhead. Laura on the other hand, now I know I can’t trust her. She’s more than just jealous of me she wants to be me. She always tries to be better than me (ha as if) and now I’ve found out she’s doing cocaine. Like really? You can’t wait until your early college years to do lines in the bathroom? That was my main point of this because I just try so hard to keep my group perfect an all that shit but noooooo they just have to do the exact opposite. I’m trying to help them but I don’t think they get that. They’re not my dolls or my puppets or anything they’re like my students. I’m just teaching them right from wrong and they won’t even listen and it’s so frustrating like why am I spending all of my valuable time trying to teach people things when they won’t even listen to me. I’ll find some way to give Laura a subtle warning to stop doing coke soon. Maybe wipe my nose and wink at her at lunch. Whatever I’ll figure it out later, Little miss Amy Winehouse the Second is the least of my problems.

Goodnight – Alex

Rachel laid the diary down on her bed and just looked around in awe. Laura did cocaine? Does she still do it? It was pretty mindboggling to Rachel because she never pegged Laura as the type to do something so stupid. She had to confront her about it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two days have passed since the girls began to suspect Jeremy as A. Laura was smart though she knew that if she acted odd around him he would know that she knew he was A and she wasn’t going to let that happen because she planned on shutting this game down before it got worse than it already was. He was doing his homework (something he practically insisted on doing at her house when he had a perfectly good home to do his work at)

“Hey babe can you get me a coke.” He said with a smirk.

Her entire body froze. If he was A, which she was almost positive he was then that was his way of taunting her. She wasn’t going to show how just frightened she actually was around him so she got up and gave him the can of coke.

After that, she nervously sat at the table biting her nails and scrolling pointlessly through Instagram liking pictures trying to calm her nerves somehow.

“Babe are you okay?” He said and put his hand on her shoulder sounding genuinely concerned.

She fought the urge to slap his hand away. How could he sit there and pretend to care about her feelings?

“Yeah I’m fine.” She spit out sounding severely angry.

Then her phone went off

Boop Boop, Boop Boop

Are your hands shaking from nervousness or withdrawals? Xoxo – A

That was the moment when Laura realized that she had screwed up.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She got all lovey-dovey with Jeremy and then told him her mom wanted to take her out for dinner so he had to go home and once he was out the door she locked it and called Rachel immediately and then Rachel added Anna to the call and Anna added Gabby.

She explained everything that had happened.

“Okay so for the past three days we’ve thought your boyfriend was our creepy psycho stalker only to find out we were very wrong.” Gabby said.

“Yeah basically, I mean it’s upsetting because I had to admit I was wrong and you know the only person who hates admitting their wrong more than me is Alex.” Laura replied.

“Well I mean at least we can cross him off the list and you guys can have your relationship.” Anna said.

“Rachel you haven’t said anything at all.”

“I’m just thinking. Oh I’ve got to go my mom is calling for me.”

Then she hung up and the girls said their goodbye and ended the call too.

Boop Boop, Boop Boop

From Rachel – Can I come over there’s something I need to talk to you about?

To Rachel – Yeah sure see you soon.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rachel told her mom she was going to Laura’s house real quick and then got in the car and left. She arrived at her house and hugged Laura as soon as she got inside.

“What was that for?” Laura asked.

“I just need to talk to you about something but first I have to use the bathroom.”

Laura just motioned for her to go off and Rachel went upstairs. Rachel didn’t go to the bathroom, she just turned the light on and closed the door and then went into Laura’s bedroom. Luckily, she knew all of Laura’s hiding places that she thought were oh so clever. She checked the false bottom of her nightstands top drawer; nothing. She checked the empty lightbulb in the tall lamp in the corner of her bedroom, all that was in there was a small amount of money put away for safekeeping. Then finally she checked in her closet and pulled back the fake plug outlet and inside of it was a small orange pill bottle. She opened the childproof cap and turned it upside down. Out fell four small baggies filled with white powder.

She immediately got upset. Not angry or sad just very upset. She didn’t understand why one of her best friends was doing this to herself. Why was she throwing her entire life away all for a short high? She didn’t want to confront Laura right now because she just couldn’t bring herself to speak. So she put all but one bag of coke back and then put everything back to normal, turned the light off in the bathroom after flushing the toilet, and then walked downstairs to Laura with the baggie of coke in her flannel pocket.

“So what’d you need to talk to me about?” Laura asked as Rachel returned from upstairs.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after the whole Jeremy situation I mean I’m assuming that was pretty stressful.”

“Yeah it was, but everything’s better now that I know he isn’t A.”

Rachel gave Laura a quick hug and then walked out the door, taking the coke with her.

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Anna paced back and forth waiting for her soccer coach to blow the whistle signaling the start of their soccer practice. This was her outlet. This was what made her Anna. It was what connected her to Alex . . .

Since they were 4 years old they had always played soccer together. It was their thing. She wasn’t even sure he liked soccer that much but he still made an effort to play every single day for her . . . and now he was gone.

Anna kept it composed because while she wasn’t the strong leader of the group she knew that they still viewed her as a strong person and if she broke then it would all turn to hell. She had to be strong for them.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by the loud whistle of the coach. Now she could finally clear her head. She was sad, mad, and confused, she didn’t know what to feel. Alex was more like a brother to her than a friend. Their parents were good friends and they were basically born together. A sibling bond like that and now it was gone because somebody murdered him.

She was kicking the ball into the goal so hard it bounced back at her giving her the opportunity to keep kicking it back. Her legs, thighs, and feet were killing her after about thirty minutes of kicking the ball into the goal.

Every part of her lower body ached and burned she wanted to stop but she was too angry. She was too overwhelmed.

Kick

Alex is gone.

Kick

There was nothing she could do about it,

Kick

Somebody was now stalking them and they had no idea who it was.

Kick

They were taunting them with Alex’s murder.

Kick

And she was powerless to stop anything.

Finally she let out her hardest kick yet which caused the ball zoomed across the field and hit the net with such a force it retaliated back at her and hit her in the stomach. She keeled over and just sat on the field. Everybody had already left because she stayed behind, but they left her alone because they knew what she was going through.

She was on her hands and knees on the soccer field looking at the grass and just thinking about Alex, and that’s when she felt it. The itchy feeling behind her eyes and the prickle as a tear fell. Then another. Two more, and before she knew it she was full on bawling her eyes out on the soccer field. Holding herself and rocking back and forth just wishing she could have her best friend. No, wishing she could have her brother back.

Badum Badum

Kick kick kick, tick tick tick. You’re a time bomb Anna and people aren’t going to want to be around you when you blow up. Xoxo – A

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Gabby was lying on her bed looking through a scrapbook Rachel had put together last year. It was a memoir of their group. There were pictures of them and quotes and other things that just perfectly brought together their friendship as a whole. She saw their first group picture they had ever taken. It was in front of their middle school; they had been in 5th grade and couldn’t wait to go to middle school. It all seemed like a completely new world to them. Then she flipped a few pages and saw a picture of them from the summer before 9th grade with all five of them at Disneyworld, they were standing in front of the Cinderella Castle, Alex was in the middle with Rachel on his left, Anna on his left, Gabby on the far left, and Laura on the far right. That had been an amazing day. Alex had bought them all annual passes and they used them about 10 times but that was the last time. Rachel loved to only show the good parts of the group. She was a true optimist. But when it came down to it, the bad parts were definitely worse . . .

Flashback

It was a shopping day for all of them. Sometime over the summer before 10th grade. About a month before Alex died. They were hitting the food court first because they were all starving. Since they came right when the mall opened the only place that was open was Panda Express. They all ordered and Gabby went last. She ordered sweet and sour chicken with two egg rolls. Alex looked over at her with a smirk.

“Gabby sweetie really? You should just stick with a salad.”

The girls all looked away because they didn’t want to say anything. Gabby didn’t want to make Alex upset so she handed the lady back the food.

“Can I just get a Chinese chicken salad?” She said while choking back tears.

The lady gave her a sympathetic look and handed it to her, making sure to not make eye contact with Alex. After eating they went to go clothes shopping. Hollister was a must for Alex so they went in there first. Gabby was looking around while everybody else looked around too and she picked out a crop top and festival shorts. Then suddenly she heard Alex’s voice from behind her.

“Stretch marks and back fat don’t go good with crop tops.” He said with a smirk and handed her a fishnet cardigan. “Try that on with a light colored shirt.”

The day went like that and he just continuously berated her and convinced her to put back anything he considered unflattering. She picked out some cute things but all the stuff she really wanted he made her feel bad about it. But that was Alex. And it was their friendship . . .

Flashback End

Looking back at this she wonders why she let him do all that. Because I was scared of him. He was a horrible person but he was her best friend. He wasn’t always awful and when he was being nice he could be the most amazing person you’d ever met.

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The girls had all planned to have a sleepover at Laura’s house that night. So one by one they came over to Laura’s house. When Rachel got there the whole group’s demeanor changed. They knew something was serious. Rachel grabbed Laura by the arm and took her upstairs into her room.

“What the hell is this?!” Rachel yelled and whipped out the bag of coke.

The blood drained out of Laura’s face.

“Well Rachel that’s either cocaine or flour but don’t snort it even if it’s flour.”

“Laura this isn’t a joke you know I found this in your hollowed out light socket and there’s about four more in there.”

Rachel wasn’t just mad. She was pissed. Laura could easily tell this.

“Rach, it’s nothing serious just a little something to take the edge off at the end of the day.”

“A little something to take the edge off at the end of the day could be a punching bag, or a candle-lit bath, hell your parents are loaded go get a massage to release the stress and tension. But don’t sit there and ruin your life that is going amazingly so far all for a little high at the end of the day because when that wears off your problems are still going to be there and you’re still going to be just as fucking stressed out!”

Rachel was screaming and Rachel never screamed. Laura could count on one hand the amount of times she’s seen Rachel mad.

“Rach, I’m sorry. I just . . . with everything going on with Alex and the pressure my parents put me under . . . and I’m trying to stay strong for all of you guys. It’s just too much.” Laura’s voice cracked and got softer as she said this. Then Laura started crying.

She became a sobbing mess in Rachel’s arms and she was apologizing profusely.

“I’m sorry Rach. I’m so sorry.”

“I’ll help you get through this Anna and Gabby don’t have to know we can get through this together.”

Laura just nodded and just held Rachel tighter embracing her best friend as she realized she had a problem.

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After the situation with Rachel and Laura was over they flushed the coke and Laura washed her face and redid her makeup. They both came downstairs and Anna and Gabby knew to just leave it alone.

Rachel pulled Alex’s laptop out of her book bag and handed it to Laura.

“It’s password protected I’ve tried everything I can think of, I can’t get into it he must have one of those number and letter combination passwords.”

“Rachel, did he teach you nothing in our 5 years of friendship with him? If I know Alex and I do the password will be written down somewhere on or in the laptop.”

Laura opened the disk holder and checked in there, nothing. She peeled back the purchase stickers on them, nothing. Then she flipped the computer upside down, popped out the battery and flipped it over.

“Bingo.”

On a piece of paper taped to the backside of the battery was the password:

or3fk4oz7orce2td

Laura typed the code into the laptop and they were in.

“Well now what?” Anna asked.

“Now we snoop.”

They looked in his Pictures and saw an obscene amount of selfies and pictures of the five of them. Nothing surprising so they just clicked out of it and looked through other things. In Downloads all they found were download files of pictures, school project documents, and things like that. Music was just every single Lana Del Rey song he could possible get. In Documents there were some files. Laura clicked on one of the documents titled “Supernatural”.

In that document there was over 10,000 words of stuff that looked a lot like the information in his notebook Rachel had showed her.

“Either Alex really needed to quit binge watching Netflix or he genuinely believed in this stuff. Read a few of the things out loud.” Anna said.

“Mermaids. Mermaids have the ability of mind control; it’s stronger over men than women. Mermaids only sprout tails when they come in contact with water but it doesn’t happen immediately, it happens after about ten seconds or so. The tail color represents their personality (red for a mean person, blue for a calm kind person, etc.) Mermaids can hold their breath underwater for hours at a time. The mermaids have powers over water. They can manipulate it in several ways such as freezing it, boiling it, moving it, etc. They also have control over the weather (rain and lightning) more powerful mermaids can extend their powers outside of water. Mermaids can see into the future. Underwater they can swim at a speed of up to 40 Miles per Hours similar to dolphins.”

“What the hell.” Anna said under her breath.

“Yeah. Alex was on some serious drugs.” Gabby said.

“Just read another one.” Rachel ordered.

“Witches. There are several type of witches. Life, Death, Elemental, Nature, Spirit, Time, and Eternity witches. Life witches have mainly healing powers and can bend the will of humans and bring living things back from the brink of death. Death Witches can use dead corpses like animated bodies. Like zombies somewhat. They also specialize in voodoo along with witchcraft. Elemental Witches have total control over the four elements. Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. They can create tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes, solar flares, etc. They can summon any of the four elements and have complete control over them. In order for them to use one of the elements it has to be nearby. Air is always available for use since it's kind of everywhere. But they can make enough fire to light a forest from a single match and a glass of water can become an ocean. Nature witches have control over mainly animals and other life, specifically wildlife. They're similar to life witches and are probably the least powerful type of witch but it all depends on how the witch chooses to use their powers. They can summon any animal even extinct ones so it really all depends on how they use their powers to determine how powerful they are. Time witches are pretty self-evident. They have control over time. Plain and simple. Spirit witches have almost full control over somebody's mind body and soul. They can manipulate the mind to think what they want, alter the soul to make somebody good or evil, make somebody think they love somebody, etc. They're pretty powerful. Eternity witches are very powerful witches. They're all of these witches put into one and not only are they extremely powerful but they're severely rare and dangerous. Witches can only be born witches.”

“Vampires. For a transformation to occur it has to be done by a witch or another vampire. If a witch does it it's a complicated spell and if a vampire does it they have to do it within 5 minutes of their victim's death. But in order for somebody to become a vampire they have to be human. The witch process requires a witch to do a very complicated spell which requires a sacrifice of 1/4 of the person's blood, another piece of their DNA, and a human soul. They sacrifice all those things in a fire and then put the body in the fire which rips away that person's heart and soul. For a vampire, within 5 minutes of somebody's death that person heart and soul are fragile and shutting down so the vampire can remove those things with a type of vampire magic. Since their hearts and souls are removed if their hearts are returned they have their humanity and can act like normal human beings.”

“Ghosts. They don’t have to be dead to become a ghost, living ghosts are created by a witch’s curse but the curse is a complicated spell that most witches refrain from doing, dead ghosts are created by humans when they die, their spirits are left in the real world and they can exist without being seen and still have all the same abilities as a living ghost. But the ghosts are creatures that can phase through solids, can block somebody's senses from them (ex. make people not be able to smell, hear, see, taste, or feel them). They can act like humans just without human needs, if needed they can go for months without eating or drinking, they can breathe without air and can be able to subject themselves to fire without anything bad happening.”

“Wow. Guys what if Alex is serious? I mean c’mon we’ve had some weird shit happen to us over the years how do we know this stuff isn’t serious? I think we should look into it more.” Rachel said.

“I’ll look into it more later. Let’s look through the videos now.”

Laura clicked on the videos tab and then the computer started running slowly. It had the loading button that said it was processing the videos. Once it was done loading, Laura clicked on the first video and up popped a password box.

“Shit.” She mumbled.

She typed in the computer password. The screen blinked red to show her she was wrong.

“Is there any way you could hack into it or something?” Gabby asked.

“I have no clue how to do it.” She responded. “Wait I know someone who does!”

Laura whipped out her phone and started scrolling through her contacts.

“Who?”

“Christopher Jackman.”

“The boy who’s had a crush on you since 4th grade?”

“That’s the one.” Laura replied and then he picked up.

“Laura? Why are you calling me?” He replied. All the girls heard because she put the phone on speaker.

“So you’re all techy and understand computers right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Can you come help me with a problem please?”

“Fine, I’ll be over soon.”

She hung up.

“How far away does he live?” Anna asked.

“Just down the road.”

“What if he asks whose laptop this is?”

“We’ll tell him it’s my sisters or something.”

Christopher got there and knocked on the door and the girls let him in. The girls weren’t ever sure why she dated Jeremy instead of Christopher. He was really attractive, he was on the football team, and he was really smart and sweet.

“Hey thanks for coming over.” Laura said and gave him a quick hug.

“Okay so where’s the problem?”

She pointed at the laptop. “The videos are password protected, can you hack into it and unlock the videos?”

“That takes a while so I’ll only be able to do one tonight.”

“That’s fine, thank you.”

He got to work on the laptop. After about an hour of annoying clicking and typing that almost made the girls lose their minds he stood up.

“I’m done there you go.”

“Thank you so much I definitely owe you one.”

“Can I cash that favor in?”

“Uh, sure.”

“Go on a date with me next saturday night.”

“You know I have a boyfriend right?”

“You know I don’t care right?” He said with a smirk.

Laura blushed deeply. “Fine, next saturday night, I’ll call you.”

She closed the door and turned around, and it was evident to the girls she was blushing.

“Um Laura what if Jeremy finds out about this?” Rachel said.

“I’m just going on a date with him as a friend.”

The girls just nodded their head.

“Well now let’s watch the video.”

They clicked on the video and it sat there loading for a minute until it flickered onto the screen. It was in Alex’s living room and for the first thirty seconds the video was just of him on the internet, he must have had the laptop just constantly recording, hoping to record drama. Typical Alex. Then there was a knock on his door and he turned the laptop to the door and got up to open it.

When he opened the door Laura’s mom was standing in the doorway.

“Where is it Alex I know you have it?!” Myra shouted as she shoved past him and walked into the house.

“Oh whatever are you speaking of Mrs. Davidson?” Alex asked, his tone just dripping with sarcasm.

“You know exactly what I mean you little parasite!”

He pulled out a disk labeled “DAVIDSON BLACKMAIL”.

“Do you mean this?”

She went to take it but he put it back in his coat pocket.

“Sorry but no can do, this is some seriously good stuff. I had no idea you were a pyro.”

“What do you want for it?”

“Nothing. I’m going to wait until the time is right for me and then I’m going to use this. So if you’re smart, and I know you are, you won’t give me a reason to do this, will you Mrs. Davidson?”

“You know Alex, one day somebody’s going to get you back for all the shit you’ve done. One day somebody’s going to make you pay and your little clique!”

“You’d really wish that on your own daughter?”

“She’s not my daughter when she’s with you.”

“Now there’s your problem Myra, you think everything has to revolve around your so called perfect little family but it doesn’t. Your family isn’t perfect and you need to realize that soon because one day your little fantasy is going to shatter.”

“One day you’re going to get what’s coming to you Alex. And it might be me who gives it to you.”

He stepped closer to her to the point where their noses were almost touching and whispered:

“I’d like to see you try.”

Then she shoved him back, turned around, and stormed out of the house slamming the door behind her. Alex just turned around and laughed, how he thought it was funny none of the girls understood. Then the video went black.

“Laura, are you okay?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know what to say or think.” Laura said.

“You know what this means don’t you?” Gabby asked.

“Yes.”

Laura paused taking a moment to breathe.

“My mom is A.”

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A black hooded figure is sitting in a room at a laminating machine. They press a leather -gloved finger to the power button and put a newspaper through the machine. After 10 copies of the same page are laminated, the person tacks them all to the wall and stands back to admire the new view.

LAURA DAVIDSON RULED AS PERSON OF INTEREST IN THE CASE OF ALEX VANLINOR’S MURDER.

4: The Perfect GetawAy

Chapter 4, The Perfect GetawAy

Gabby always wanted to be a doctor. She had decided this when she was 4 years old. She always wanted to be a hero and the only way she knew how to do that was to either fly around with a cape and save people from burning buildings and things like that or save lives by being a doctor. She had researched it constantly, picking out colleges, determining what branch of the subject she wanted to study in college, what would look best on applications to college, etc. It was a big goal for her and she definitely wanted to achieve it.

Now it was time for her to start her volunteer hours for high school. Briarwood High required each student to do 200 hours of volunteer work, Laura was doing hers with Cynthia VanLinor, which she had arranged to do last year, Anna was going to be helping out at the local YMCA coaching kids in soccer, Rachel was going to be teaching an art class to the orphans in Seattle, and now Gabby decided she was going to volunteer at the local hospital.

On her first day she had to wake up at 5 in the morning, which she was not happy about. She got up groggily, took a shower and went for a quick jog to wake her up. When she got to the hospital she was all cheery and bright and she saw the other group of high school volunteers. She recognized some of them from school; Allison Larsen, Jessica Santos, and Isabella Jones.

She was closest with Isabella since she was Alex’s former girlfriend so she decided to stand next to her to feel more comfortable. The lady who was in charge of them gave them instructions and the basics and all that before sending them to the units they volunteered to work in. Gabby had chosen to volunteer in the children’s cancer unit. She wanted to give back as much as possible and she felt that helping sick children was the way to go.

The nurse directed her down a few halls into the room, she walked in and was immediately saddened and filled with joy at the same time. She saw children ranging from 2 years old to 17. Most of them had bandanas around their hand and they looked sad. She wanted nothing more in the world than to change that.

“Hey guys this is Gabrielle, she’ll be volunteering here for a while.” The nurse said to the kids.

They all said hi, waved, and smiled at her. Then the nurse left the room leaving Gabby with the kids.

“Okay so what do you guys want to do first? I brought a ridiculous amount of art supplies so you can paint, and draw. And I think this is a sculpting knife, but I guess you can improvise there,” Gabby said while holding the knife. “Um, I was told there’ll be instruments here so we can put on a little show, and maybe we can do a play or something like that.”

The kids didn’t seem enthusiastic about any of the activities at all. Shit. She quickly set up the arts and crafts area with clay, paint sets, crayons, pens, and markers and stuff like that.

The kids gathered around and began painting and making pictures. The younger ones came up to her exclaiming about how proud they were of their paintings to which she complimented the artworks, even more and stuck them on the walls. When the kids were all done with the arts and crafts she decided to gather them around in a circle and grab a guitar from the corner.

You're not alone

Together we stand

I'll be by your side

You know I'll take your hand

When it gets cold

And it feels like the end

There's no place to go

You know I won't give in

No, I won't give in

Keep holding on

Cause you know we'll make it through,

We'll make it through

Just stay strong

Cause you know I'm here for you,

I'm here for you

There's nothing you can say

Nothing you can do

There's no other way when it comes to the true

So keep holding on

Cause you know we'll make it through,

We'll make it through

The kids were all singing along and smiling. To Gabby they seemed genuinely happy. Gabby had done what she came here to do and nothing could ruin that for her.

Beep Beep

You won’t be happy for long bitch. -A

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Leave it to the girls to send me on the frozen yogurt run.

Anna, Laura, and Gabby had all convinced Rachel to get them frozen yogurt from the nearby frozen yogurt shop. She knew all of their favorite flavors. She went over it in her mind:

Raspberry for me, Cupcake for Laura, Banana for Anna, Chocolate for Gabby, and Cotton Candy for Alex.

She stopped in her tracks. Frozen yogurt was the group’s thing. That and Starbucks. It was their go-to hangout places when they were either in the mall or walking around town. It was always the five of them doing stuff together. They were that group that stuck together like conjoined twins. She even knew all of their starbucks orders. A Caramel Ribbon Frappucino for her, a French Vanilla Cappuccino for Anna, a Double Chocolate Chip Frappucino for Gabby, a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino for Laura, and a Cotton Candy Frappuccino for Alex. She knew their orders at Panera, how Alex exclusively wore v-necks and Anna was practically addicted to athletic shorts. She was like the groups mother, always keeping track of their specifics and having things on hand that she knew one of them would probably need.

They had all been through so much together and now it felt wrong almost to be continuing the group without the person who brought them together.

She went in to the place and got the frozen yogurt for all four of them and then left, struggling to balance all four cups. When she finally got into her car, she realized she had left the keys inside so she got up and went back inside of the store. The lady at the register handed her the keys, Rachel thanked her, and walked back out.

On the way to her car she heard whistling. She turned around and saw a boy about 17 years old that she didn’t recognize.

“Can I help you?” She asked.

“Yeah, why don’t you come back to my place?” He asked while looking her up and down.

“Go away you pig.” She spat and started walking to her car again.

She heard footsteps coming towards her and she turned around and saw the guy coming closer.

“Come on babe, don’t be like that.”

“Number one, I’m not your babe. Number two, I’m not hooking up with you so goodbye.” She said then turned around on her heel and started walking again.

She was stopped when she felt a pair of hands grab her from behind. She turned around and shoved the guy off.

“You need to leave me alone before I call the cops.” She said through gritted teeth.

He grabbed her by the wrist forcefully.

“I said leave me alone!” She shouted and suddenly she felt a wave of energy go through her body and the man flew backwards and crashed onto a car setting off the alarm. She looked at her hands wondering how she could have done that. She was too shocked to call the cops or anything so she just got in her car and drove off to the girls.

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Laura was home alone, she was rewatching the video of Alex and her mom over and over and over again trying to understand what was happening. It was mind boggling. She couldn’t believe it, her mom just couldn’t be A. She couldn’t harass and stalk her own daughter. Could she?

Boop Boop, Boop Boop

From mom – Going to be home late Cynthia has me swamped with work, love you, see you later.

She pressed the lock button on her phone and took this opportunity to do some snooping. She first went upstairs to her mom’s room and opened the door. It was your typical suburban parent room. A four poster bed with a white bed set, a bookshelf, a nightstand on either side of the bed with a lamp. She rummaged through the desk, the nightstands, the bookshelf, even underneath the mattress. Nothing. She put everything back in its place neatly and closed the door. She went back downstairs and into the office ready to snoop through her files. After putting in the password to the desktop she went to work. She thoroughly searched every bit of the desktop but all she found there were work files.

After shutting the desktop back down she pulled the laptop out of the desk drawer and opened it. She tried a few different possibilities for the password which ended up being Laura’s birthday. Once she was in she realized that if her mom was A she was about to find out. It both terrified and intrigued her at the same time. She looked in the Pictures folder where she found an enormous amount of pictures of the Davidson family and the girls and Alex. In Music, she found nothing. Downloads was just a bunch of irrelevant stuff. Then finally she got to Documents. There were some scattered documents, but only one folder. Just as she was about to click on it she heard her moms car roll up into the driveway.

She said she was going to be working late what the hell? Late means a few hours not an hour mom.

She quickly closed the laptop, put it back in the desk, sprinted out to the living room, and sat on the couch playing on her phone. The door opened just as she whipped out her phone.

“Hey sweetie, Cynthia let me go she said I could do the rest of the work tomorrow. Will you order something? I don’t feel like going out to eat or cooking tonight. I’m exhausted. I’m going to go take a shower.”

Laura just nodded and smiled and then went back to her phone, she was pretending to be busy when all she was doing was scrolling through facebook. She waited until she heard the bathroom door shut and the shower to turn on to go back into the office. She sprinted in and grabbed the computer out of the desk quickly, punching in the passcode as fast as possible.

It had opened up right where she left it; on the page with the folder. Just as she was about to click it the screen froze, the mouse wasn’t moving, the little ticking clock in the top left corner wasn’t moving.

“Shit!” She exclaimed.

Then a little loading bar popped up.

FACTORY RESET 10% COMPLETE

“No, no no!” She exclaimed trying to find an ‘x’ or a cancel button but she couldn’t stop it, the numbers kept going until it was 100% complete and the computer restarted.

She buried her face in her hands, severely aggravated. When the computer finished restarting she shut it down and put it back where she found it and walked out to the living room.

She whipped out her phone and texted all the girls what had happened and then did the only thing she could do; order Chinese food.

Boop Boop, Boop Boop

It won’t be that easy bitch. -A

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“I was so fucking close to knowing what was in that folder!” Laura exclaimed as she banged on the dashboard while Anna drove the car to Laura’s beach house.

“Laura just calm down okay, this is exactly why you’re not allowed to be driving right now.” Gabby said, putting her hand on Laura’s shoulder, trying to comfort her.

“Why are we going to my beach house anyways?” Laura asked trying to get her mind off of the laptop.

“Ah yes, about that.” Anna started trying to find a way to tell her without her freaking out. “I’m throwing a party there, no biggy.”

“No biggy! Oh my God, if my mom finds out she’ll kill you and then kill me with your dead body! Turn around we can’t do this!”

“Well too late because I invited about twenty people already and you know how word gets around in Briarwood.”

“Oh my God.” Laura buried her face in her hands.

“You say ‘oh my God’ a lot for an atheist.”

“Yeah well what else am I going to say, it’s an expression.”

The girls just giggled.

“Anna please turn the car around I really don’t want to get in trouble with my mom, we’re already pretty sure she’s A, what if she actually kills me.”

The girls just giggled and ignored her.

“I feel like I’m arguing with the cast of fucking teletubbies.”

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The girls arrived at the beach house after the 30 minute drive. When Laura walked in she knew they were being serious about the party and there was no going back. On her dining room table there were about six bag of balloons, an empty punch bowl, about 10 two-liter bottles of soda, and an assortment of alcohol and liquor including vodka, whiskey, scotch, and bourbon.

“Are you guys serious?” Laura asked.

“Yep, now let’s set this party up!” Anna exclaimed, clearly overjoyed to be throwing a party.

Anna and Gabby got to blowing up all of the balloons, Laura poured about 10 different fruit drinks into the punch bowl and then poured the bottle of vodka in. She set out several stacks of the red solo cups. Rachel got to work decorating and setting out the food. She put up streamers, replaced the light bulbs with colorful ones, and starting the large bonfire outside. She was so relieved when she found out that Anna had already gotten plenty of wood for her to put in the pit along with the gasoline and matches.

She assembled the large planks of wood in a teepee type formation, then poured about a cup's worth of gasoline at the base of them. She lit the match and tossed it on the fire watching it roar to life as it slowly burned upwards, engulfing the entire pile of wood.

Soon after they all finished decorating and setting up, the guests arrived and it was time to party.

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Everybody was loving it. At least 500 people showed up. The bottles were being drained rapidly, several balloons popped, there were a couple thongs tossed across the couch, it was a successful party. Laura, as stressed out and uptight as she was, was doing body shots off of Jessica Santos. Anna, had somehow managed to lose her pants and shirt, was dancing on the table in her bra and underwear. Rachel was busy doing a keg stand while everybody cheered her on. Gabby was dancing with Sam Stone. This was the most fun they all probably had since Alex died. They weren’t letting themselves feel this good lately so a night like this was amazing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anna was dancing on the table when she suddenly felt a hand on her wrist. She looked down and saw Brandon Mott – a boy in their year with dark brown hair and emerald eyes – holding on to her.

“Let’s get you out of here, these people are looking at you like you’re food.”

He picked her up bridal style and she was still laughing for some reason. He carried her into one of the rooms and wrapped a blanket around her.

“I’m sorry if I ruined your fun, those boys were just looking at you like a piece of meat and I was disgusted.”

“It’s fine, thank you.” Anna was the least drunk out of the four girls and could actually behave properly unlike Laura who was steadily doing body shots off of people.

“I’m Brandon.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m Anna, but you already knew that.”

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I can handle some stupid teenage boys.”

“I didn’t mean them, I meant about Alex.”

“Oh, that. Um, yeah, I guess. It’s hard, he was like a brother to me. I knew him my whole life, we were practically born together, he was my motivation, and my best friend. It’s getting easier though, I haven’t cried much. If he saw me crying over his death he’d probably tell me to stop being such a wimp and go play soccer.”

“He seems like a pretty awful person.”

“No, he wasn’t to us. He was just the textbook definition of tough love. He meant well, and wanted us to be the best versions of ourselves . . . he just didn’t know how to put it the right way. He treated other people the way he did because he had some weird God Complex. He’s gone now though, so it’s done and over with. I’m really not sure why I’m sharing all of this with you, it’s just easy for me to talk to you I guess.”

“It’s no problem, I’m glad you think you can confide in me.”

They looked into each other’s eyes and then Anna pulled him in and kissed him. After a pause he pulled off.

“No Anna, I’m sorry but I can’t do this. You barely know me and you’re drunk, it’s not right.”

She sighed and looked down.

“Um you’re right, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.” Anna stood up, walked out of the room. and to the beach where she jumped in the ocean and swam around trying to clear her head.

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After her keg stand Rachel decided to go dance with Gabby who was helping herself to the spiked punch. Rachel was slurring her words as she spoke:

“So like – I want to dance but like-” She paused looking at her empty cup. “I don’t have any booze or anybody to dance with. So you should like dance with me.”

They started dancing after Rachel got more whiskey. They were a hot mess, they knew this without even having to look in the mirror. Gabby had alcohol in her hair, keeping it matted to her face and neck, Rachel’s clothes were completely soaked from when a group of people carried her into the ocean and threw her in, and both of them were hiccupping severely. They were a parent’s worst nightmare.

A girl – Rachel recognized her as Jessica Santos from their school – walked by them and accidentally bumped into Gabby, knocking her drink over all down the front of Gabby’s shirt. Gabby – in a drunken rage – pushed Jessica over and sent her to the floor with alcohol splashing down on her.

“Watch where you’re going bitch!”

“No, Gabby chill. Just chill.”

Rachel giggled and playfully shoved Gabby so she fell onto the couch nearby them. Rachel then helped Jessica up and winked at her, not thinking in her drunken stupor.

“Gabby I’m sure she was joking, just chill.”

Gabby huffed and went to get more punch. Rachel walked closer to Jessica so they were barely a foot apart.

“Want to dance?” Rachel asked.

“I’d love to.” Jessica replied.

They started to dance and after a while they kissed. When they pulled apart all they could do was laugh.

“Wow Rachel Watson is a lesbian!” Some girl in the crowd exclaimed.

Soon, all eyes were on them and the girl was making a few homophobic slurs. Then Laura got up from the table and walked over to the girl.

“Hey bitch!” She said behind the girl.

The girl turned around and Laura punched her in the face knocking her to the ground. She went over to Rachel and pulled her into a room. Anna had come back in from swimming soon before the situation happened and followed them too, along with Gabby.

“Rachel is it true what she said?” Gabby asked her.

“Yeah it’s true, I didn’t tell you guys because I didn’t want you to be weirded out or hate me or anything.”

“Oh god Rachel no. We could never hate you or be weirded out all because of this. We love you no matter what and don’t ever forget that.”Anna said this all and then hugged Rachel, which soon turned into a group hug between all four of them.

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After the group hug Laura made everybody leave the beach house and the girls were left to clean up, which took them about an hour. The girls were severely drunk and after all the cleaning they were exhausted and decided to go to bed early.

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The girls woke up at about 7 in the morning all with massive migraines.

“Oh my god it feels like somebody is gouging out my eyes.” Laura said while groaning.

“Laura stop yelling.” Rachel said, clutching her head.

“I’m not yelling.”

The girls drove down to the nearest gas station and bought earplugs and sunglasses and went back to the beach house where they went about the rest of the day trying to be as quiet as possible.

The next day they woke up feeling perfectly fine. Anna had woken up much earlier than the rest of them and went for a jog on the beach and then made everybody breakfast. After eating, Anna cleaned up the kitchen.

“Let’s look at one of the other videos.” Gabby suggested after they all went into the living room.

They all got into comfortable clothes and sat on the couch where Laura pulled up Alex’s laptop and opened the second video file.It was of the beach house:

On the dining room table which was only about 15 feet from the girls. Myra was pacing around the living room on her phone, she sounded worried and was calling somebody for help. Then there was suddenly a loud banging on the door which made Myra and the girls jump. Myra scrambled to the door and opened it and in the doorway was a very pissed off Alex VanLinor.

“Where is it Myra?!” Alex asked while storming into the house looking left and right.

“Oh do you mean this?” She said in the same sarcastic tone he had used with her not too long ago while signaling to the laptop sitting on the dining room table.

He walked over to the laptop but was stopped by Myra.

“I’ll give you the laptop when you give me the video.”

“Myra, you of all people should know better than to test me. I know how close you are with my mom, she’s probably told you what I can do. I’ll tell you again give me the laptop.” He was spitting venom into each word.

He was enraged, pissed off, it seemed like he wanted to kill her. She must have not known the laptop was recording whenever it was open.

“You don’t scare me, you’re just a 15 year old little boy.” Though Myra said this firmly the girls and Alex could tell she was scared.

He raised his hand and made a movement like he was high-fiving somebody and Myra lifted up off the ground and smashed into the door. Then he made a closed fist movement and lifted his hand up slowly which caused Myra to float up clutching her throat for air. Then Alex swiped his hand in the direction of the kitchen which caused her to go soaring into the refrigerator and crumple to the ground, still conscious. He walked over to her and put his shoe on her wrist.

“If you ever steal something from me again, I will kill you.”

He walked over to the dining room table, grabbed the laptop, and walked out the door. Then the screen went black.

“Holy shit.” Anna muttered under her breath.

“She told me she got in a car accident. How did Alex do all of that stuff?” Laura said, clearly shocked.

“It seemed like he’s one of the witches he talked about in his notebook and his computer files.” Gabby spoke up.

“Are you guys serious? Alex loved dramatics he probably just shoved her a few times and edited it. There’s no such thing as vampires and witches and werewolves.” Rachel said in disbelief.

“Rachel it’s right there, Alex didn’t even know how to edit videos as far as we know.

“Well I’m not believing this! It’s crazy, it’s ridiculous, vampires and witches and werewolves aren’t real!” Rachel exclaimed.

She stormed out of the house and slammed the door behind her.

All the girls could do was look around at each other, completely oblivious to the camera steadily watching them.

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“Rach, what the hell was that!?” Laura called out to Rachel as she walked out of the beach house to find her.

“I don’t want to talk about it okay.”

“Well you need to because that reaction was about a lot more than just some video you thought was fake.”

“Ugh...Today when I was getting us all frozen yogurt, there was some guy harassing me, trying to hook up with me.” Rachel said as she came to a stop, forcing Laura to stop in her tracks right in front of her.

“Oh Rach, please tell me you didn’t kill him. You know that murder is never the answer sweetie.”

“No, Laura, I did not murder the guy. At least I don’t think so. He grabbed my wrist after I told him to leave me alone and something happened. I don’t know what it was but I just felt this burst of energy flow through my body and the guy flew back and smashed into a car like Alex made your mom smash into the fridge.”

“What the hell?” Laura whispered to herself.

“I don’t understand it, I don’t like it, and I don’t want it.”

“Show me something else you know you can do.”

Rachel just nodded and then thrust her hand out at one of the lounge chairs on the beach. After about 10 seconds the chair exploded. It shattered into at least a billion little splinters. Then Rachel thrust her hand out at the sand nearby them and a big cloud of sand puffed up as she stirred it up with the magic. It didn’t stop when Rachel put down her hands though. A wooden board ripped out of the sand and flew right past Laura’s head. The waves were crashing into each other loudly. The sand was stirring up more and more and the lamp posts were flickering.

“Rachel stop I get it!”

“I can’t stop it, I can’t control it!”

Then suddenly one of the cars parked on the beach lifted in the air as though by a strong wind, flipped several times and then exploded.

Rachel’s hands were glowing. Like glow in the dark toys her hands were emitting a golden light. It was very faint and the only reason Laura could notice it was because she was staring intently at Rachel’s hands.

“Rach, just try to calm down and get back in the house we can sort all of this out soon but right now you need a tylenol and a good night’s sleep.” She yelled over the loud noises as the wind was blowing and the fire was crackling and things were flying all around.

Laura grabbed Rachel and held her hoping to calm her down and slowly all of the stuff stopped. The sand wasn’t blowing around anymore. The boards fell to the ground and everything else became peaceful.

“How do we tell Anna and Gabby?” Rachel asked.

“Don’t worry about that I’ll let them know, but we need to work on this because this power is dangerous and you need to learn to control it.”

Rachel just nodded.

“Thank you Laura.”

“Let’s go inside.”

Rachel and Laura walked side by side into the house, not knowing how they were going to explain the explosion to Anna and Gabby.

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“What the hell was that?” Gabby asked as soon as they walked through the door.

“Yeah, what was that? It sounded like an explosion.” Anna asked, right behind Gabby.

“It was me.” Rachel said quietly.

“What do you mean it was you? Why would you explode something?” Gabby asked, confused.

“I don’t know what it is but all that stuff you saw Alex do in the video, I can do. I don’t know how or why but I can.”

They had a blank look on their face trying to comprehend the fact that all the stuff they had read about it in Alex’s notes were real. Were they all witches?

“Can you show us something?” Anna asked, curious to know more.

“That’s kinda what caused the explosion out there. It was her trying to show me what she can do.” Laura said.

“No it’s fine, I can try.” Rachel said quietly.

She lifted her hand towards the table and it pushed itself and all of the chairs into the fridge, then they went back to the place they were in before. Laura anxiously anticipated something big to happen like something exploding or catching fire but nothing happened, she had managed to control that.

“Wow, that’s weird but cool. How long have you known you could do that?”

“It happened for the first time today, some guy was bothering me and I told him to leave me alone and he flew back and smashed into a car. I was too scared to do anything so I just ran away.”

“You need to start like taking classes to control that or something.” Gabby suggested.

“Yeah totally let me down to the community college and take some Magic 101 classes.”

“I can help you.” Laura spoke up.

“How can you help me?”Rachel asked.

“Well you can like test on me and other things somewhere, we have to find out what type of witch you are though. We can test that out tomorrow.”

Rachel hugged Laura.

“Thank you.”

Boop Boop, Boop Boop. Badum Badum. Beep Beep. Dingggg

Je suis toujours à regarder chiennes. -A

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A black hooded person was pacing around in a small room, waiting for the printer to finish processing the request. Once the printer finished printing the person walked over to the machine and pulled out the papers.

On the papers were pill bottle labels made out to Laura Davidson.