Mysterious Girl Chapter 1
So just a bit of background before you read on. I watched the Scream series the other day and that is the inspiration behind this fic. So basically I wanted to do a typical "who done it" high school murder story but with an ending that is totally different to anything I've seen before. Please note that none of these characters are based on the TV show characters and all names are made up. Here's a list of characters to look out for and a short description of how I want you to picture them. I hope you enjoy.
Jay - typical high school basketballer but also in a band. Literally think of a taller Zac Efron.
Josh- dark blonde basketballer who all the scouts are looking out for, doesn't have a girlfriend but has girl-friends who wishes they were. Also best friends with Jay, lived in the same street since kids.
Becky - jay's recent blonde girlfriend, the main girl of the group. The popular one who isn't a bitch and people actually quite like.
Emma - African American cheerleader, everyone seems to think she's hot, dating the lead basketballer.
Terrence - also African American, lead basketballer, boyfriend to Emma, main couple of the school, best friends with Josh and Jay.
Will - openly gay confident guy, good looking but has an unhealthy obsession with films and characters. Takes an interest in horror and crime as soon as the murders start to break out.
Rachel - Becky's brunette best friend, popular bitch, wants to sleep with Josh
Lizzie - bisexual, always quiet due to bullying and the nature of high school
Lewis - first to die
Wes - different friendship group but a basketballer
Teacher, Mr Massey - always offering support
Teacher, Miss Dawson - councillor and arts teacher
Head teacher - Mrs. Heaton
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*High School Teen Murdered* reads every headline in the local area.
Even though the murdered teen, Lewis Green was found dead with stab wounds at his home, the rest of Williamson High School were expected to still attend as normal.
"Is it not dangerous that we're all having to come in today? Like, no one has any information, someone from this school has been killed and we all have to walk home or drive alone later. I mean, just doesn't seem right to me." Jay picked up his bag over one shoulder and stands up as the first bell rings.
"I get what you're saying but this is just one guy, that Lewis kid didn't have many friends and was suspiciously quiet all the time." Josh follows Jay in the same direction to their next class.
"Being quiet is not an excuse to die though Josh." Emma swings her bag over the other shoulder to avoid it keep hitting people in the corridor.
"I know, I didn't mean it like that, I just mean, it's weird, something doesn't add up but I don't think we should all be too worried." Josh opens the door at the end of the corridor as the three make their way upstairs for their first subject of the day.
As Josh walks into the classroom of Mr Massey, he smiles in the direction of his girlfriend Becky and makes his way over to his seat, which happens to be directly in front of her. "Hey you. Did you get much sleep last night or were you up worrying too much?" He sits down after swinging his bag to the floor.
"After locking every window and door in the house, I eventually managed to fall asleep, yes." Becky smiles as she brushes her fingers over his hand. The couple had only been together for three months but it was going quite well, being the popular bunch, it seemed like a perfect fit for the two to end up together.
As Josh, Emma and the rest of the class take their seats, Mr Massey walks in with his bag and half smiles at the class. "Hey guys, I know how difficult it is for you all to come in today and pretend to be interested in literature and language but I just want you to know that if anyone needs to talk, I'll be here all day, as will all the teachers and the counselling department. If anyone needs a minute, please let me know and I'll excuse you."
The whole class goes quiet as everyone doesn't really know what to say given the situation but after a minute they pull out their books and the lesson begins.
After first lessons are over and lunch time arrives, the group join each other at their usual round table in the court yard and murder is still the hot topic for many.
"You know, people are saying now that Lewis could have killed himself but made it look like murder." Terrence moves closer to Emma as he bites into his apple looking to the others for the gossip they may have heard.
"Yeah I heard that but number one, I don't think he's that clever and number two, I don't think it'd be such an investigation if that was the case." Rachel rests her head on her hand.
"Okay guys, can we please change the subject, I'm sick of hearing and talking about it." Becky sighs.
"Yeah come on, a guy just died and I don't think this conversation is classed as a respectful one." Jay wraps his arm around Becky.
Everyone awkwardly shifts and makes eye contact, "okay then, I'm having a party this weekend." Rachel grins.
"Are you serious? A guy gets murdered and you throw a party in the same area with the kids from the same school." Becky gives a disapproving look.
"I literally can't win with you today! You don't wanna talk about the murder so I change the subject and now you bring it back to the murder. I think everyone needs to just calm down." Rachel exclaims.
"Okay, okay come on. A party probably isn't the worst idea, it would certainly take my mind off of everything." Josh admits as he takes his phone from his pocket.
"Thank you. At least that'll be one more person on Saturday night at my place. Anyone else in?" Rachel looks around at her friends.
"Count me out." Becky looks away but Jay places his hand on her neck to get her attention.
"Come on babe, you have to be there, I'll be there, your dad won't let me stay at yours or even be in a room alone with you so this is a perfect opportunity." Jay tries to convince his girlfriend.
Becky smiles and rests her head on his shoulder, "you're right."
Rachel roles her eyes as her "best friend" clearly can only be convinced by a boy.
"We will both be there too." Terrence smiles as he grabs Emma and pulls her closer.
"Brilliant. I'll look forward to seeing you losers there!" Rachel smiles and claps her hands on the table.
As Rachel sets up her Facebook invites for her party, the Green family release details of their sons death and wake. After the autopsy, it was revealed that Lewis' injuries were too substantial to do to himself. The police were treating this as murder and suspicious and they were looking into it more and more every day. The wake for Lewis was made public and due to be on Tuesday the week after.
Saturday came around and Rachel made sure her house was fully set up and ready for everyone to have a good time. Party banners, plenty of alcohol, pool table set up, beer pong ready and her make up and hair done perfectly.
Guests started to arrive and soon the house was practically full. Emma and Terrence arrived together, Jay, Becky and Josh arrived in minutes of each other and plenty other familiar faces.
Will was the openly gay confident kid who turned up to a party invited or not. He didn't even speak to Rachel but he knew he would be allowed in because the more people at the party, the better it looked for Rachel. He picked up a drink and looked over to the steps opposite the pool where he realised that Lizzie was sat on her own. He decided that going sitting with her and trying to make conversation would be better than trying to make small talk with basketballers and cheerleaders.
"Hey! Is this side of the step taken or can I sit with you?" Will extended his arm with another beer offering it to Lizzie hoping that would convince her he meant no harm.
She half smiled and took the bottle moving up slightly, "you can sit."
Will sat down looking around at everyone jumping into the pool, kissing, laughing but then looked back to Lizzie's unimpressed face, "so for a party, we are both sat here in bad moods and looking pretty bummed. I know that I am just annoyed because looking around, you can just tell that at least five of the footballers and other sports team members here who have girls hanging off their arms will definitely come out of the closet in a few years and it's a shame they're hiding it now. How about you?" He laughed.
Lizzie shook her head as she grinned, "You know you're actually quite funny."
"Well thank you. There's more where that came from. You've still not answered my question though." He looked to her.
"Okay, so, everyone knows I came out as bisexual pretty early on in high school and it used to be a big deal but now it isn't but still people don't bother to even talk to me and it's been years. I know I'm quiet and awkward but I come to these parties to see if I can make any sort of friendships at all and my parents think I have a normal social life if I say I'm going to a party, I just don't see the point in trying anymore because clearly no one understands me." She sips her beer.
"Wow. Okay. Well, first off, I've always thought you were cool and always wanted to make this effort with you but I honestly thought you'd kick my ass or tell me where to go. I'm sorry I never made that effort sooner, I hope this could be the start of some friendship maybe? Or just someone to talk to?" Will raised his eyebrow in question as he looked over to Lizzie again.
"A friend would be nice. Yeah. What made you come and speak to me tonight though?" Lizzie made eye contact with Will for one of the first times since the start of their conversation.
"To be honest, I saw you sitting here alone and I was standing in the kitchen pretty much alone too, I just thought I may as well come and make an effort, and also, with the murder this week, I thought no one should be sat alone. You know?" He smiled.
"How many times can you say 'alone' in one sentence?" She laughed, "but yeah, I get it, it's terrible what's happened this week, will you be going to his wake in Tuesday?" She sips her beer again.
"As it happens, yeah I am, I didn't really know Lewis but no one should have their life taken at this age, I feel like everyone should go to have closure on this whole situation." He sips his beer and looks around at everyone again.
"Do you think it's a one off murder? Or do you think there's more to come?" Lizzie looked around at the potential victims.
Will looked to her in shock, "where did that question come from?"
"Well you know, a quiet kid like that gets murdered and no one knows what's happening, not even the police. All very suspicious. Come on, you can't pretend you haven't thought about all of this. I know that you want to be a director or writer or whatever it is you do." She smiles and shrugged.
"Okay, so you do know something about me." Will laughed and looked down, "yeah I wanna be either a script writer, director, whatever path I venture down the most but that doesn't mean I know what's happening here." He grinned.
"I'm not saying you do. I just know that out of everyone in this school, it's probably played on your mind the most. Curiosity and all." Lizzie smiled and shook her beer bottle to discover she was nearly finished.
"Okay yeah, it's been something keeping me up at night, like, someone dies, suspicious circumstances, no reason that we know of to why someone would want to kill him and now we are all being told to be careful, talk to councillors from the school and be vigilant. My personal opinion? Someone knows something we don't. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else ended up dead soon too. It's weird right?" Will placed his empty bottle down on the step.
Lizzie squinted her eyes at him as if she was trying to figure him out but didn't want to make it too obvious because she actually really enjoyed his company, "yeah, it is all a little weird. I tell you what's weirder though.. the taste in my mouth now that I have finished my beer, let's go get another one and forget all this crime scene investigation stuff." She stood up looking down at her new friend and smiled, she moved her long brown hair to one side and made her way down the steps in her vans and skinny jeans.
"Yeah, lets go and get something else." Will stood up and loosened his shirt then followed Lizzie inside and carried on their chat with some vodka.
Meanwhile, by the pool, Jay, Josh, Terrence, Emma, Becky and Rachel relaxed with wine, cocktails and beers.
"There's a lot of people in your house, you gonna need help tidying up tonight?" Emma lent against Terrence as she smiled at Rachel.
"Probably but we can worry about that later. Right now it's all about the wine and that guy over there." Rachel discretely pointed towards a tall well worked out guy named Wes, as he brushed his black Afro styled hair back with his hand, he made eye contact with the group, smiled and continued talking to other basketball team members.
"You like Wes?" Becky opened her mouth in shock and couldn't stop looking over at him.
"Well I wouldn't say no if you know what I mean." Rachel winked at Becky and the pair laughed.
"Well I hear that he's dating someone from another school actually." Josh sipped his beer.
"Do I sense a little bit of jealousy here? Would you two fuck already." Terrence made eye contact with Josh and Rachel while waiting for an answer.
"How do you know we haven't already?" Rachel smirked and jumped in the pool swimming in the direction of Wes to try and gain some attention.
"Have you?" Terrence asked again while slapping Josh's arm.
"No. This is her way of creating drama." Josh stood up and walked away from the group. He headed inside and got another drink purposely taking longer to avoid the conversation with his friends. Josh pulled his phone out and went off into the side room.
Back out at the pool, Jay's phone beeped, "Oh shit, this is one of the guys I'm in the band with, I need to go call them back, I bailed on practice for this tonight. Sorry, I'll be back in five." Jay kissed Becky's head and jumped up heading inside to a quieter place while he thought of excuses to tell his band mates.
While Becky, Emma and Terrence stayed together by the side of the pool, they realised that Rachel had gone too. "I bet she's gone creating a plan to get Wes into her bed, I'll go look for her." Becky wondered off inside too.
While putting his drink down, Wes pulled out his phone to see a message on Facebook from Rachel saying, "come help me dry off? I'm upstairs. X" he looked around and looked to the room windows on the top floor of her house.
He had never been in this house before so didn't know where her room was but he did want to go and see if Rachel's message meant what he thought it did. He walked past Emma and Terrence and caught eye contact with Terrence who stopped him by shaking his hand, "Hey man! Let me guess, there's a certain girl texting you trying to get your attention." Terrence laughed as Wes awkwardly shrugged and put his hands in his pocket.
"How did you know?" Wes laughed and smiled at Emma too.
"I just had a feeling. Anyway, her room is on the top floor on the right, you can't miss it, the only room on the floor." Terrence winked and patted his team mate on the back.
"Thanks man." Wes smiled and waved goodbye as he went looking for Rachel.
"What did you do that for?" Emma slapped her boyfriends arm as he sat back down and shook her head giggling.
"I am just so sick of all these kids not communicating their feelings and playing games with each other. Why couldn't Rachel just tell him she wanted to sleep with him and take him upstairs with her? I'm just looking out for the guy." Terrence sipped his beer, laughed and wrapped his arm around his girlfriend.
"Okay big guy, number one, you're still a kid too and also, you're one to speak, you didn't ask me out for weeks even though everyone knew you liked me!" Emma places her legs over Terence's lap and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Hey, I was scarred of you back then, if it'd been now, I'd have just come right up and swept you off your feet." Terrence kissed his girlfriends head as they brushed their feet along the water of the pool.
In the main room, Lizzie and Will were two bottles of vodka deep when Will decided his bladder couldn't take it anymore. "Okay sorry to leave you, I really need to pee but if you go missing, I'll set off a game of cluedo I promise!" Will and Lizzie started laughing as Will wondered off to the bathroom.
Wes made his way up the stairs and started to grin as he realised the room was in front of him, "Rachel? You in here?" He pushed her door open and shut it behind him. He stepped more into the room and stood near her bed looking around. "Rachel?" He started to get confused as there was no sign of her. He spotted her phone on her make up table but couldn't even hear anyone moving, he started to leave the room and as he got closer to the door, he reached for the handle but heard a footstep behind him. "Here you are." He took his hand off the handle and turned around to see the wardrobe door open and then a figure.
To his horror, there stood a figure dressed all in black, black pants, shoes, hoodie, the hood pulled up and a black scarf wrapped all around the persons head revealing only the eyes.
"Woah, I'm sorry. I was looking for Rachel, I'll leave." Wes went to turn around and reach for the door handle when there was a force around his neck. Two gloves hands covered his neck and moments later he was passed out on the floor.
Downstairs, Lizzie was reunited with Will as he finally came back from the bathroom, "I'm sorry I couldn't find a bathroom that was free. This house is huge." Will smiled and Lizzie handed him another drink.
Josh finally returned from his hiding spot and sat with Emma and Terrence, Becky soon walked over and sat at the side of him, Jay eventually finished his phone call and the group were almost reunited.
"Hey guys, have you seen Wes?" Rachel walked over to her group in a bikini and a towel draped over her shoulders.
"He went upstairs looking for you. I thought you texted him?" Terrence looked confused.
"My phone has been upstairs all night. I left it up there on purpose because last time i had a party I broke it. What's going on?" Rachel looked around.
"To be fair, you just presumed he got a text." Emma said.
"No but I only said that because I watched him pull out his phone, look towards the top bedrooms and then start making his way over and he didn't exactly deny it did he?" Terrence started to over think.
As the group were confused, someone shouted, "someone call 911, there's a kid who's had a car accident out here!"
Josh, Jay and Terrence ran out to the street as Emma called 911. They were soon followed by a crowd trying to figure out what had happened. Becky, Emma, Rachel, Lizzie and Will all looked on from the front of the crowd in horror as Josh, Terrence and Jay stopped running as they got closer to the car and realised that Wes was in the drivers seat, he had crashed into a brick wall on the corner of the street and clearly at some speed, he wasn't conscious. The boys tried to move him but realised his neck was way too flimsy to be in place.
"I think his neck is broken." Jay said to Josh and Terence.
"How the hell?" Josh put both hands on his head as he took a breath, clearly shocked at the sight.
"Let's just wait for the paramedics to get here, I don't wanna make this any worse." The boys all looked around in shock.
After some time, Rachel made sure everyone left her property before the ambulance and the police arrived, she was crying in shock but tried to hide as much alcohol as she could but the others tried to tell her how obvious it was that she had had a party and that under age drinking had clearly taken place. As Wes' body was worked on in the ambulance, a police car pulled up.
"Guys it's my dad." Becky jumped up from Jay's arms and ran out to her dad who had been assigned to the case but was mainly there to find his daughter.
"Dad. Thank god you're here." He wrapped his daughter in a hug and then pointed to his police car, "I think you, Jay and Josh should get in my car and when I've finished here I will drive you home, I'll see if Emma and Terrence will stay with Rachel over night and everyone should get to safety."
As Becky's dad finished off getting the information he needed, he drove Jay and Josh home. Emma and Terrence agreed to stay with Rachel. They locked her house up and all stayed in one room to stay as safe as possible. As Becky's dad dropped off Josh and Jay in their street, Becky waved goodbye and texted Jay to tell him to stay safe. Her dad then started to drive his daughter home.
"Do you have any idea what's going on? How is Wes?" Becky looked to her Dad.
"Listen. I'm going to tell you this because you're my daughter but this cannot go any further until a full investigation has taken place and it's been looked into properly." He looked over to his daughter for reassurance.
"Dad I won't say anything. I'm just concerned. I don't understand how he managed to crash his car, Jay said it looked like his neck was broken or out of place, in just confused." She explained.
"Well so are we honey. At first we thought that it was a drink driving crazy accident because that's what it looks like to anyone. But when I went to look at his body in the ambulance, it's clear that the injuries on his neck are not from a driving accident like that. We need to look into this more. But brace yourself." Becky's dad pulled over at their house and parked up shifting to turn and face his daughter in the passenger seat.
"What do you mean brave yourself?" Becky faced her dad and got upset.
"Honey Wes is dead."
Becky started to cry and put her head in her hands. How did a party to take everyone's minds off a murder, end up with another death?
Monday morning came back around and school went ahead as normal. Information broke that Wes was dead and candles and flowers were placed near his locker.
"I hardly slept all weekend. I can't believe this is going on." Becky latched onto Jay's arm.
"I stayed at Josh's all weekend, I don't feel safe at all." Jay told the group.
"I can't stop seeing his body in my mind." Josh closes his eyes right as if he was trying to shake a memory from his mind.
The group walked to their first class.
As Lizzie grabbed a book from her locker, she noticed Will was closing his locker a little further down so she went to talk to her new friend.
"So your theory was right. Someone else is dead." Lizzie smiles at Will.
"Don't speak like that too loud, we'll be suspects." Will laughed as he put his bag over his shoulder and the pair started walking down the hallway.
"Pretty crazy what's happened though right? It just doesn't add up. A snapped neck, he's dead, they're saying drink driving.. I don't know man." Lizzie shook her head.
"So I have a theory." Will smirked.
"Go on..." Lizzie giggled but didn't know whether it was in anticipation or nerves.
"So a guy ends up dead at the wheel with a broken neck but they're treating it suspiciously because he had sustained injuries on his neck that didn't add up to a car crash. So what if, someone broke his neck earlier, couldn't just leave the body so put him in his car were his DNA is all over, drove the car into the wall, or even turned on the engine and let the car steer into the wall but then placed him in the drivers seat? There's loads of things someone could have done but I am guessing that he was definitely dead before that car crashed." Will shrugged.
"Wow, maybe you should go work with the police instead of becoming a director." Lizzie laughed.
"No, I'd much rather make up the scenario than investigate it." Will laughed as they walked up the stairs to their lesson.
"The only thing is with your theory, you think that this is like a murderer going around killing people, but why would a murderer need to make a death look like it happened a different way to how it actually happened?" Lizzie asked.
"You see, this is the thing that's most obvious to me, the killer is trying to throw the police off, making it look like Lewis could have killed himself but now it's clear he didn't. They tried to make it look like Wes' death was an accident but now that's an investigation. The murderer is trying to throw the police off so by the time they figure out that the person was actually murdered, someone else is dead." Will raised his eyebrows and looked at Lizzie.
"You know, this friendship could be interesting, a real life cluedo huh? Can't wait." She laughed and winked as she went into her lesson.
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The end of chapter 1! Let me know what you think.