“Ok look,” Kai began as he tried to avoid the red pool on the floor. “It’s not what you think; she fell. I didn’t push her towards the knife or stab her or anything. She tripped on a rug and landed on the edge of the kitchen bench where a knife was.”

“Really?” asked the police officer interrogating the young boy, who was found with his dead Stepmum. As the detective’s glance changed into a deadly stare, the boy’s tanned face tinted with guilt as he avoided the officer’s piercing eyes.

“You do know you’re asking an eleven year old if he committed a murder, right?” Kai asked, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

“Yes but this eleven year old is a suspect in this murder,” exclaimed the officer, “the only suspect, so I will ask you again; did you kill her?!” The booming of the officer’s voice scared Kai so much that he was more scared of him than going to jail.

“Y-yes,” he faltered, “I did kill her. B-but you have to believe me she was pure evil, I swear.”

 

5 years later

 

“After spending five years in juvenile detention, Kai Woods returns home to resume school at Raven High as the child that murdered his Stepmum, Rebecca Woods.”

The TV kept blabbering on about the return of Kai, which made Maya feel worse. Five years ago she was best friends with Kai and only found out about the murder when she was abandoned at school the next day. She had a plan now; avoid and stick with her friends, Grace, Monique, Zazi, Hayden and Evangeline. She quickly stuffed all her books into her bag and headed to school, to nauseous to eat breakfast or listen to her parents talk about Kai.

“Bye Mum and Dad. I’m going to school now,” she said, not bothering to wait for a response because she knew the answer would be something along the lines of ‘wait’ or ‘do you want to talk?’ So she walked to school with her wavy light brown hair whipping around as it caught the wind.

“Hey Maya!” Grace shouted as Maya entered the school.

“Hey Grace,” said Maya as she got closer to the blonde haired girl, “where are the others?”  The siren blared as a car came around the corner. The familiar sound had been surrounding the town for a week now; it was the sound of Kai’s return. As the boy with the scruffy brown hair climbed out of the car, nausea swept over Maya’s body.

“Do you want to start looking for the others?” Grace asked, picking up the uncomfortable atmosphere.

“Yes,” said Maya as she started running with Grace only a few steps behind. A few minutes later they found the others.

“Wow, what happened to you two?” asked the tallest girl, who had dark brown hair.

“Yeah, that’s Evangeline’s nice way of saying, ‘did your killer friend find you and start stalking you’,” said Hayden, whose blonde hair was so long that it could have been Rapunzel’s.

“Look,” started Maya, “all we did was sprint when we saw him, so I am hoping her didn’t see us.”

“Too late.” Said Zazi, whose dark brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, “he’s coming straight for us.”

“Ok I say we ninja out of here.” Whispered Hayden, who was the best at being quiet and stealth like when she needed to but otherwise she was full on loud and fun. So the group of 6; Zazi, Grace, Evangeline, Hayden, Monique - who had been quiet so far - and Maya. A couple of minutes later, after walking around at least half of the school, their luck began to wear off, because they ran into the one person they were trying to avoid. Kai.

“Hey Maya, and friends,” Kai said, his voice tinted with enthusiasm and happiness.

“Hi, Kai,” Maya said trying to avoid Kai’s stare, “um… this is Zazi (she pointed to the brown haired, sporty girl who wore shorts and a t-shirt) Grace (she pointed to the light blonde haired girl who had  a t-shirt, a coloured beanie and jeans) Hayden (she pointed to the girl with long blonde hair who wore a cotton jumper and green jeans) Evangeline or Evie for short (she pointed to the brown haired girl who wore a floral dress and her hair out with tiny braids flowing through it) and Monique (she pointed to a girl who had medium length brown hair who wore it out and who wore a plain dress as well) “

“Hi,” Kai said carefully, “can I talk to you in private, Maya? I have some explaining to do.”

“She would love to,” said Evie quickly.

“What, why?” whispered Maya as she turned to Evie, “what are you doing?”

“Don’t get on his bad side, dude.” Replied Evangeline. This was true, so Maya unwillingly went to talk with the guy who had given her hell for five years, the guy had ditched her, then she had to about it for another couple of years on the TV and now he is back.

“So….” began Maya, looking really uncomfortable to be there.

“Look; I am sorry,” Kai cut in, “but you don’t understand and after I got arrested, I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone other than my family, even though I badly needed to explain my motives to you about killing someone.”

Maya took a deep breathe, “Ok,” she began, “you have five minutes to explain.”

 

“Ok look,” Kai began as he tried to avoid the red pool on the floor. “It’s not what you think; she fell. I didn’t push her towards the knife or stab her or anything. She tripped on a rug and landed on the edge of the kitchen bench where a knife was.”

“Really?” asked the police officer interrogating the young boy, who was found with his dead Stepmum. As the detective’s glance changed into a deadly stare, the boy’s tanned face tinted with guilt as he avoided the officer’s piercing eyes.

“You do know you’re asking an eleven year old if he committed a murder, right?” Kai asked, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

“Yes but this eleven year old is a suspect in this murder,” exclaimed the officer, “the only suspect, so I will ask you again; did you kill her?!” The booming of the officer’s voice scared Kai so much that he was more scared of him than going to jail.

“Y-yes,” he faltered, “I did kill her. B-but you have to believe me she was pure evil, I swear.”

 

5 years later

 

“After spending five years in juvenile detention, Kai Woods returns home to resume school at Raven High as the child that murdered his Stepmum, Rebecca Woods.”

The TV kept blabbering on about the return of Kai, which made Maya feel worse. Five years ago she was best friends with Kai and only found out about the murder when she was abandoned at school the next day. She had a plan now; avoid and stick with her friends, Grace, Monique, Zazi, Hayden and Evangeline. She quickly stuffed all her books into her bag and headed to school, to nauseous to eat breakfast or listen to her parents talk about Kai.

“Bye Mum and Dad. I’m going to school now,” she said, not bothering to wait for a response because she knew the answer would be something along the lines of ‘wait’ or ‘do you want to talk?’ So she walked to school with her wavy light brown hair whipping around as it caught the wind.

“Hey Maya!” Grace shouted as Maya entered the school.

“Hey Grace,” said Maya as she got closer to the blonde haired girl, “where are the others?”  The siren blared as a car came around the corner. The familiar sound had been surrounding the town for a week now; it was the sound of Kai’s return. As the boy with the scruffy brown hair climbed out of the car, nausea swept over Maya’s body.

“Do you want to start looking for the others?” Grace asked, picking up the uncomfortable atmosphere.

“Yes,” said Maya as she started running with Grace only a few steps behind. A few minutes later they found the others.

“Wow, what happened to you two?” asked the tallest girl, who had dark brown hair.

“Yeah, that’s Evangeline’s nice way of saying, ‘did your killer friend find you and start stalking you’,” said Hayden, whose blonde hair was so long that it could have been Rapunzel’s.

“Look,” started Maya, “all we did was sprint when we saw him, so I am hoping her didn’t see us.”

“Too late.” Said Zazi, whose dark brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, “he’s coming straight for us.”

“Ok I say we ninja out of here.” Whispered Hayden, who was the best at being quiet and stealth like when she needed to but otherwise she was full on loud and fun. So the group of 6; Zazi, Grace, Evangeline, Hayden, Monique - who had been quiet so far - and Maya. A couple of minutes later, after walking around at least half of the school, their luck began to wear off, because they ran into the one person they were trying to avoid. Kai.

“Hey Maya, and friends,” Kai said, his voice tinted with enthusiasm and happiness.

“Hi, Kai,” Maya said trying to avoid Kai’s stare, “um… this is Zazi (she pointed to the brown haired, sporty girl who wore shorts and a t-shirt) Grace (she pointed to the light blonde haired girl who had  a t-shirt, a coloured beanie and jeans) Hayden (she pointed to the girl with long blonde hair who wore a cotton jumper and green jeans) Evangeline or Evie for short (she pointed to the brown haired girl who wore a floral dress and her hair out with tiny braids flowing through it) and Monique (she pointed to a girl who had medium length brown hair who wore it out and who wore a plain dress as well) “

“Hi,” Kai said carefully, “can I talk to you in private, Maya? I have some explaining to do.”

“She would love to,” said Evie quickly.

“What, why?” whispered Maya as she turned to Evie, “what are you doing?”

“Don’t get on his bad side, dude.” Replied Evangeline. This was true, so Maya unwillingly went to talk with the guy who had given her hell for five years, the guy had ditched her, then she had to about it for another couple of years on the TV and now he is back.

“So….” began Maya, looking really uncomfortable to be there.

“Look; I am sorry,” Kai cut in, “but you don’t understand and after I got arrested, I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone other than my family, even though I badly needed to explain my motives to you about killing someone.”

Maya took a deep breathe, “Ok,” she began, “you have five minutes to explain.”

 

 

2: Chapter 2, Answers creating Questions

“Wow five minutes, you are generous,” he said sarcastically, “ok so you’ve heard of supernatural beings like vampires zombies, you know the things people dress as on Halloween.”

“Yeah of course, have I been living under a rock all my life?” Maya said sarcastically building up the confidence to go back to her friends.

“Ok well hmmm, how should I put this,” he began, “they’re real.” Maya felt nauseous and then annoyed. I can’t believe I fell for that! Geese what am I five.

“Yeah and pigs can fly,” she said.

“Look Maya,” Kai sighed, he knew that she wasn’t going to believe it but he had to try, “it is real.”

“Alright, it’s real,” she said trying to get out of the conversation, “can I go now?” she started to back away.

“Alright fine, don’t believe me, but first let me tell you one last thing.” Said Kai, his voice tinted with sarcasm and annoyance.

“Let me tell you why I did what I did five years ago”

Maya froze, she didn’t know what to say or do, but it did bring back memories that Kai was a killer and she had to get away. But she had to know the truth and there was only one way to find out; face her demons.

“Ok tell me then”

Kai began “do you remember when my dad started dating Rebecca, my soon to be stepmum?”

“Yeah, you were always trying to avoid her because you felt sick or something.”

“Yeah, and I felt sick because she was a supernatural being, a siren to be exact.”

Kai paused, it was obvious that he was remembering something bad.

“Anyway, eventually my dad married her and that was when things got really bad, she manipulated him into hating me and which caused me to be isolated.”

“That explains why you were always at my house,” blurted out Maya, before remembering she didn’t believe him.

“Yes, I avoided both my dad, who I still loved, and Rebecca at all costs. After six months, I was fed up and I could tell that soon, they would leave me behind, give me away to an orphanage or begin hurting me. That was when I formulated a plan, a plan that would make me a murderer, but save me from hell. Kill Rebecca, so after I stabbed her, I beheaded her and removed her heart, because that is how you kill a siren. So I killed her, and my dad has tried to figure out why I did since then what I did but he still can never look me in the eye.”

“That’s so sad and gross, dude you were eleven!” said Maya.

“So anyway back to my point, supernatural beings are real and there are people out there, hunters if you will, who help protect mortals from dying or being caused pain. Both hunters and beings alike usually discover their true nature at 16, but sometimes it is earlier, and on very rare occasions they never discover their true identities.”

“So why are you telling me this?” Maya said.

“Because I wanted you to understand why I did what I did so we can be friends again.” Said Kai, “please?”

“Wait, hang on,” exclaimed Maya, “you left me for five years because you KILLED someone and you expect me to be alright with that and say sure be my friend and lets act like you didn’t kill someone and I’m not mentally traumatised from you completely ditching me without any warning.

Silence filled the area where Kai and Maya stood, Kai was speechless and Maya was trying her hardest to hold back tears.

Finally, Kai spoke, “you’re right, I can’t expect you to be my friend after what I put you through.” He started to walk away.

“Wait,” Maya said, guilt overwhelming her, “maybe we should start over, I’m not saying that I will forget what you did but I will try not to hold it against you.”

“Thank you, Maya,” Kai said moving towards her to give her a hug before Maya stepped away.

“Dude, I can’t just give you a hug, this morning all I wanted was to avoid you because you are a freaking murderer! I’m sorry, but you might want to meet my friends properly.”

The two started walking towards them and as they did they noticed that Maya’s friends had been eavesdropping the entire time, or attempting to because their confused faces told both Maya and Kai that they were unsuccessful. When they began to move closer to Grace, Zazi, Evangeline, Monique and Hayden, Kai paused and made Maya pause too.

“Ok so I forgot to tell you, being a hunter also means I can tell who is a supernatural and where they are,” he whispered.

“What does that have to do with anything?” said Maya

“I can smell a supernatural now,” he said, “that means…”

“I know what it means,” Maya exclaimed, “it means one of my friends is a supernatural.

3: Chapter 3, Out of the Shadows

Chapter 3, Out of the Shadows

“I’m not implying,” said Kai, “I know.”

“Well I think I know my best friends better than you, so you’re wrong!” Maya yelled.

“Ok… ok, jeez, you’re probably right anyway,” Kai admitted, sensing that if he pursued the argument his friendship would be short lived.

“Ok then.” Maya turned directly to face her friends and moved them over to the wall where she and Kai talked moments ago. “Guys, don’t hate me, but I am going to try and be friends with Kai again.”

All of the girl’s jaws dropped and after what seemed like forever to Maya, Hayden spoke;

“Ok; Grace, you call for an ambulance. Tell them Maya has suffered from brain damage, and possibly Evie for suggesting that Maya should go and talk to the child killer.”

“You know I can hear you right,” yelled Kai from across the yard.

“Well thanks Hayden, now he is staring at us. Just because he’s out of jail, doesn’t make him any less of a killer.” Said Monique.

“I heard that too,” said Kai and now the girls could clearly tell he was annoyed.

“Come on guys let’s get to class. The bell’s about to ring,” said Grace.

“Yeah, we should go. That and his staring is giving me the creeps,” said Zazi.

Maya turned her head around and, sure enough Kai was staring straight at them, crap, I just said I would be friends with a stalker! She thought.

“Guys, lets run,” she said then yelled, “We don’t want to be late,” to give the impression that they weren’t trying to avoid Kai the Killer.

 

During the entire day, Kai stared at the six girls with his piercing blue eyes, always paying very close attention to Hayden. By the end of the monotonous day all the girls wanted to do was get out and avoid Kai.

 

When the bell rang for the end of school, Hayden sprinted out of the classroom and all you could see was her long, blonde hair flying behind her while the others followed.

“Ok; I say we ninja to the closest house,” Hayden offered when they reached the school barrier.

“Wait. He’ll know all of our home addresses,” said Monique, “it won’t take him long to track us down.”

“True… but where else could we go?” said Zazi

“What about a park. We could go to the one right next to the school, you know, Webb Park?” said Grace.

“That may be a little obvious. We’ll need a park close but small, that isn’t well known,” mused Maya.

“I know a park! It’s close by and I think it is called something like Hallow Park,” exclaimed Evie.

“Ok I say we go there then,” said Zazi, who was already running off with Hayden right behind her until they both abruptly stopped and turned around.

 “Where is Hallow Park?”

Evie rolled her eyes, “follow me, it is 5 minutes from here.”

The girls sprinted to the park. It was amazing. The trees were like houses; their vibrant green leaves and branches could protect anyone who entered. Along with the trees, there was a swing set, and a river that was filled with rushing bright blue water.

“Welcome to Hallow Park,” presented Evangeline.

All of the girls exclaimed in admiration. Wow this place is magical, thought Maya. Suddenly, instead of the calming sounds of the river and the trees, a phone could be heard. All of the girls checked their pockets for the sound and Maya nearly had a heart attack when she realised it was her phone.

“Um… guys it’s him,” she whispered, checking the contact screen. “What do I do?”

“Throw it in the river,” said Hayden dismissively.

“No! This is my baby! I don’t care if Darth Vader calls me, I will never destroy this phone,” said Maya defensively, cradling the little device.

“Well then answer it,” said Evangeline impatiently.

“She may still have brain damage,” said Hayden pointedly.

“Sorry Hayden, but I agree with Evie. He is a killer that will eventually find us, press the answer button.” Grace said.

“Ok, I’m answering,” Maya whispered while putting the phone up to her ear and listening through the waves of her light-brown hair.

“How did you get this number?”

“Hello to you to. And Maya, we were friends our whole lives.” Kai said calmly. He went silent for a moment before continuing, a smile present in his voice. “Oh and nice place, Hallow Park…”

“Wait what!? Where are you how do you know where we are?” Exclaimed Maya, panic overwhelming her face.

“It doesn’t matter. All I am saying is, I have a bad feeling. The same kind that I felt when my dad was married to the siren and the only way to stop all this madness is to kill the supernatural.”

 “Yeah, and you think it is one of my friends, who I trust more than you.” Maya hissed while her friend’s faces went from scared to confused.

“Look, I’m just warning you,” said Kai right before he hung up.

“He hung up on me,” Maya said, shocked.

“But what did he say?” asked Grace.

“He knows where we are and he failingly attempted to convince me that it is alright to kill people who make you feel sick.” Said Maya, blocking all fear in her body.

“Ok so do we run?” Asked Monique.

“I say we do,” voted Hayden.

Before the girls could run, a rustling sound overwhelmed the park, encircling the girls in the chaos about to come. The sun was setting and the sky was deep red with the dying rays. Suddenly, out of the shadows, came Kai, loaded with weapons and a beeping device in his hand. As he got closer, Maya and her friends wanted to run but couldn’t. They were petrified. He was now only a few metres away and the device was beeping more rapidly. Kai then threw the little thing at Maya.

“Catch,” he said as it sailed through the air.

Maya caught it, “what does this do?” she asked, while examining it.

“It doesn’t matter, pass it along,” commanded Kai, who was looking intently as the device. Maya quickly gave it to Grace.

“Keep passing it,” Kai instructed, still staring.

The beeping device got passed from Grace to Monique, to Zazi, to Evangeline and finally to Hayden. When it reached Hayden the beeping flat-lined into a continuous drone. Kai’s eyes narrowed and he stared at the blond girl.

“It’s you,” Kai exclaimed coldly. “You are the one.” Then he drew a dagger from its sheath and cocked a gun.