Prologue

Help me. Help me please. Someone HELP!!!!

The scream echoed around Belle Street Village. All of the women walked out of their houses, looking at each other with curiosity.

"Has something actually happened?!" A Woman dressed entirely in pink asked excitedly. A pale woman in green with long, curly brown hair glared at her.

"Don't be ridiculous Elma! Nothing ever happens here in Belle Street! It's the perfect, quiet village everyone dreams of living in!"

"Well, Doris," Elma muttered. "Something did happen here once, remember how it affected our kids! Ruth, you had to send your Amie to an asylum ten years ago and she still hasn't returned!"

"As a matter of fact Elma, my Amie is of perfectly sound mind now and is returning tomorrow morning. . . on the nine o'clock train!" Ruth yelled.

"Really?!" An eager, quiet voice came from down the street as a 16-year-old girl with long, wavy black hair and a pair of large, purple glasses walked towards the crowd of women, followed by her mother Joan. Ruth smiled at her.

"Why yes, timid Emilie, she is! I spoke to her last week and she said that she can't wait to see all her old chums again!"

"Well," Joan interrupted, pushing Emilie out of the way. "That's great and all, but oughtn't we to check the scream we all heard a few minutes ago, loves?"

"Ah, yes. But be careful!" A woman in black whispered. The woman was in her mid-twenties and had long, black, knotted hair then went down to her waist. She had a short fringe that was pinned back by a small sequin bow hair clip and was wearing a small pair of navy spectacles.

Everyone screamed and those near to her stepped away. Emilie, however, smiled at the woman kindly, and the two of them shared a scared look of realisation as Joan shoved Emilie behind her protectively. Emilie let out a small groan.

"Mother please! Betty is my friend! I've known her since I was six! Plus, I'm sixteen! I can take care of myself!"

Joan chuckled and the two of them started up the road, joining the crowd of curious women going to discover where the scream had come from. Emilie backed away from her mother and quickly joined a tall, red-headed girl at the front of the crowd.

The crowd walked around a corner and gasped as they came across the gruesome sight...

Blood was smeared against the pavement. There were parts of a body there, scattered across the street. The body had been mutilated, the legs had been cut up into small pieces and the arms had been ripped off. The head was nowhere to be seen, and clumps of hair were scattered across the pavements, red, with a hint of-

"Green highlights." The red-headed girl muttered. Emilie looked at the 15-year-old in surprise and concern, whispering, "What?! Kittie what is it?! Kittie!"

Kittie let out an ear-piercing scream and started sprinting along the side of the road. Emilie gasped as she realised what Kittie was thinking and took after her, charging down the road panickedly.

Kittie ran into a dark red house 17 houses down from where the body was, Emilie following a few seconds later.

"Slow. . . down. . . Kits. . ." She gasped when she got to the stairs, grabbing the banister and taking deep breaths. Kittie appeared at the top of the stairs and reached down, grabbing Emilie's hand and pulling her up the stairs.

The two of them ran down the long corridor, gripping each other's hands tightly. They came to a black and white door with the words 'Panda's Room' written in thick red letters. There was a collage of photos of a little red-headed girl (similar to Kittie) through the years, some photos were of her with Kittie, some with her friends, some with a girl who looked exactly like her, and some with different types of animals. The collage covered her entire door and always made Emilie smile to look at.

Today, however, there was no time to look at the photos as Kittie started pounding on the dark door.

"Pandie?!" She screamed hysterically. "Pandie, are you in there?! PANDIE?!"

As if by magic, the door swung open and a short, red-headed girl with green highlights stood there, shaking.

Kittie let out a sob and threw her arms around her sister. Pandie started shivering and it was only then that Emilie noticed the blood spreading across the 13-year-old's t-shirt. Emilie reached over and rested her hand on Pandie's head, when she pulled it away it was covered in blood. Pandie sighed as Kittie let out a shriek.

"I told her," the newly-turned teenager whispered in a shaky voice, pointing at the grey and white door next to hers. "I told her not to meet the acrobat."

"What?" Kittie gasped in shock. "What acrobat?! Who did you tell?!"

"Katerina," Pandie whispered, falling to the floor. Kittie and Emilie lifted her up and she leaned against the doorframe. "I told Katie that the acrobat claiming to be a nice fairy was bad news!"

"I'm sorry," Emilie asked in shock, raising her eyebrows. "The what claiming to be a what now?!"

"An acrobat claiming to be a fairy! She told Katie that she had wish-granting magic and she could get rid of the limp Katie had. I told Katie it was bullshit! But she didn't believe me! I told her the acrobat was dangerous, and now it's too late, now she's gone!"

The two older girls shared a look of fear and then Emilie gasped.

"Wait, what do you mean by she's gone?!"

The three of them ran around the corner and into the next room. Emilie gasped as they saw it was empty and Kittie sank to the floor. She started screaming and Emilie slowly wrapped her arms around Kittie's shaking shoulders.

There was suddenly a thud behind them, and the two turned to see that Pandie was unconscious and barely breathing.

—

Later that night, Kittie and Emilie were sat in an ambulance with blankets around their shoulders. Joan, Emilie's Dad Stuart, and Kittie's parents, Robert and Andrea, were there along with Betty, the woman dressed in black. Betty was making a scene, yelling about demons and curses and satan himself, while Joan and Stuart were both yelling at her to go away. Robert and Andrea were both sat on the ambulance steps, their arms around Kittie and their faces as pale as ghosts.

Kittie's house was being investigated by the Police. Pandie had been taken to hospital and the body had been taken to the morgue in the next town over, Jasmine Street Village, to have DNA tests done to see who it was that had been murdered. However, by now everyone was sure that it was 13-year-old Katerina Morris, Kittie's younger sister and Pandie's twin that they had only actually met five years earlier, when Kittie was ten, nearly eleven, and Pandie was eight.

A Nurse walked over and Kittie and Emilie leapt up.

"Well?!" Emilie yelled.

"Is it Katie?!" Kittie finished for her. The Nurse frowned in surprise before speaking in a bold voice.

"The body found on Beach Street, just around the corner from here, has been discovered to be the body of Katerina Ruby Morris, daughter of Andrea Rose Morris and Stuart Patrick Storeton, twin sister of Panda Belle Morris, and younger sister of Katherine Emerald Morris."

"No." Kittie whimpered. She let out another sob and started sobbing into Emilie's shoulder as Emilie began to cry for the first time that night. The Nurse took a deep breath and opened her mouth again.

"And, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we've had word from St. Belle's Hospital. I'm afraid that your sister Panda Belle Morris has-"

"Oh god!" Emilie interrupted, shaking. She walked up to the Nurse, Kittie till hugging her, and glared at her.

"Listen here, Nurse. . . Winter," Emilie read the name tag and let out a small sigh. "You had better not say that Pandie is dead, because my best friend can NOT lose both her sisters in one day!"

"N-No, she's not dead, miss...?"

"Emilie. Emilie Jones."

"Miss Jones. Panda isn't dead, however her injuries are very serious, and she could be in a wheelchair for the next few years, possibly forever."

"Oh god." Emilie muttered again. Just then a policeman walked over and frowned at Emilie and Kittie.

"Excuse me, Emilie, Kittie, we need to speak to you for a second."

"Okay..." Kittie said quietly, resting her arm over Emilie's shoulders as she was still too shaken up to walk.

The two of them followed the policeman up the stairs and into Panda's room. Before he opened the door, he stared at them suspiciously.

"You said you never looked in Panda's room, are you absolutely certain of that?"

"Yea!" Emilie yelled, frowning back at him. "We didn't look in the room! We were a bit preoccupied with finding out that Katerina was dead!"

"Okay, okay. I understand this is a hard time. However, we have a reason to believe the killer only hurt your sisters because they were related to you, Katherine."

"It's Kittie, and what?!" Emilie interrupted again. The policeman opened the door and Kittie sank to the floor as Emilie started shaking.

"W-what? H-h-how long has t-that been there?!"

"For about 4 hours as far as we can tell, it's been there since just before you got back to the house."

Emilie fell to her knees and let out a sob as she and Kittie took in the scene before them...

There, lying on Panda's bed, was Katerina's head, eyes closed and blood soaking the sheets.

And written on the wall above, was a message that sent such a shiver down the two girls' spines that they each screamed.

Hiya dearies, did ya miss me.

I'm back, Emi & Kits, and I've got a present.

Do you like it? I hope you do, because I can always get more gifts for you, and for your friends too, I've missed you all! Ann, Sophia, Richard, Kayden, Cora, Ryan, Lucie, Edmund, Amie, Claire, you two, and don't forget Betty of course!

We have to reunite soon! Me and ALL of the Weirdo kids.

Love ya dearies,

BS