Chapter 1
Her bike skidded to a stop onto the smooth concrete driveway, leaving an ugly black mark down the side. Steven, her dad, was going to be furious. He took absolute pride in the appearance of his home, especially the condition of his driveway, and on top of that, only two days beforehand, the entire front yard had been pampered and redone, as well as repaving the garage.
"Damn," She muttered. Taking more care would have been the more responsible solution to her continuous mess-ups, but Mandy was far too busy exploring imaginary worlds in her blonde little head for that. Getting in trouble was much better than spending too much time in a boring reality. She steered her minty green bike into its special place next to the empty carport.
It was the last day of school before summer and Amanda Hayes had somehow lived through utter hell. She couldn't stand the popularity competition and the pettiness of it all, but in spite, she had managed to climb her way to the top of the adolescent ranks, becoming almost like a queen bee. She needed to at least succeed at something, because the arts or academics were definitely not her forte. Her natural looks had seemed to carry her through the struggles of a social life, but those sorts of cliques seemed to like her anyway.
Mandy trudged up the porch stairs and leaned on the doorframe, analysing the still living room before continuing inside. She threw her school bag into the dark cold place it belonged, the cupboard under the stairs, but kept a few essentials from it, like her Chapstick and bracelets that a few of her friends handed out to say 'goodbye' for the summer. It was like a weight lifted from her heart knowing that she could kiss goodbye all the dreadful afternoons of frustration when she was even just attempting the set homework for the night.
The temperature was comfortable as soon as she threw off her denim jacket, now sticky with sweat from her ride home. She switched on the fan next to the coffee table and took a few minutes to sit on the floor and let her Farah Faucet styled hair swish in the wind. It would have sounded narcissistic to admit but watching herself in the reflection of the window was satisfying. It reminded her of the typical runway models. After a few moments of silence and the whirring of the fan, she grabbed the television remote as well as a magazine before making herself comfortable on the lounge, she had to make the most of her time with the television before her brother came home, he would instantly push her out of the way and claim it with the authority ranks of being the oldest. There wasn't anything interesting on, but she forced herself to enjoy it.
"Hello, hello!" A voice finally called out from the front door. "Let me in small fry, I forgot my key."
Mandy leaped up from the couch and ran to the door, peering out the peep hole, it was her brother.
"Oh? Sorry Michael, I'm not meant to let in dirty creeps,"
"Ha-ha, you're so hilarious, now open the door."
She laughed dramatically before finally unlocking the door, letting him in. He was wearing his same brown suede jacket that we wore every day, his dirty blonde hair was shaggier than usual, and he stank like body odour.
"Yuck, where have you been?" She scrunched her nose as she followed him into the kitchen.
He chuckled, "For your information, I've been hard at work carpooling my baseball team,"
"Hm, explains the smell,"
He elbowed her in the ribs and laughed, as he continued to make himself a sandwich,
"Watch it small fry,"
Mandy groaned and walked back into the living room, collecting her belongings from the coffee table and stomped up the stairs to her bedroom.
Michael was only her half-brother, but this changed nothing between them, Amanda and Micah were two peas in a pod and their sibling love was much stronger than most. Friendly banter between them was common but real arguments were extremely rare.
Amanda closed her door and hung her jacket over the chair on her vanity before sitting in front of it. She began reorganising all her stuff that had slowly become messier throughout the semester without any real time to fix it. At this point, it was atrocious. She pondered where to put the new friendship bracelets and decided to leave them around her wrist for that moment. When she looked at them properly, the beads interested her.
It was given to her by one of the newer students that arrived earlier in the year, he was a strange kid, but she took it anyway to be nice. There were multiple russet coloured wooden beads on a small leather string and one larger one, it had an interesting design, it almost looked like wreath in a mustard yellow colour, which probably was intended to be gold.
His name was Casey. He shared one or two classes with Mandy and tried to sit with her at lunch a couple of times. Her group didn't like him and instantly decided that he was creepy, accusing him of stalking her or something but it was only ridiculous playground rumours. He was nice to her and that's all that really mattered. On the rare occasion that she was alone, Casey had the opportunity to chat with her, which was always pleasant. She even defended him in front of her clique a few times which he greatly appreciated.
Amanda was appalled by bulling and seemed to always be coming to some scrawny kid's rescue. But she didn't mind, its not like it hurt her reputation in any way. Most of the time her friends would become embarrassed and decide that she was right, that it really wasn't their business to comment on Betty Patterson's weight, or the girly way Joshua Roberts runs.
Her phone started to ring on her bedside table, snapping her out of her thoughts. She walked over and picked it up, while trying to untangle the spirally cord.
"Uh, Hello?"
A bubbly voice chirped up from the other line, "Hey! It's Lisa from your math class,"
She slouched over in her bed, "Oh, Hi,"
"I was just calling to ask you how your summer is so far," She paused for a moment, "And if you wanted to come to holiday cheer practice to watch on Sunday after church?"
It was the complete opposite of what Mandy wanted to spend her summer doing, but Lisa Stark was sometimes good company and had helped her with math homework countless times, so she kind of owed her.
"Yeah, sure!"
Lisa shrieked into the phone, "Yes! That's great!"
"Where is it, and um, what time will it be exactly?"
She continued to listen as she blabbered all the information in great detail. They chatted for a while, mostly gossiped about the boys on the sporting teams at school and said their farewells before dinner. Mandy slammed down the desktop phone and pushed the curly wire back to the side of the table. Almost 45 minutes had passed, and she could hear the faint mutter of her father and brother's voices from downstairs.
"Hey, dad, how was work?" Mandy said almost too sweetly. He stood at the foot of the stairs glaring at her, and she knew exactly why.
"Amanda Jennifer Hayes, how many times have I told you-"
"Yes, dad I know, I'm really sorry, I just wasn't thinking at the time."
He groaned and shook his head, "Well, Mandy, you need to start thinking."
"Sorry."
Michael gave her an apologetic look from behind the couch.
"Its aight' dad, I was gonna deep clean the driveway on Tuesday anyways, it'll be fine until then,"
Steven calmed himself down and thanked him, settled back down into his armchair and started to read yesterdays paper. Mandy had accidently turned the sprinklers on before she brought the current paper in that morning.
The small family continued their nightly routine of sitting in silence in front of the television, then a quiet dinner with a few comments and questions about school and work and then to sleep. Mandy started getting ready for bed and changed into her summer pyjamas and began brushing her teeth. She leaned back to check the doorway for any signs of her family and then slowly opened her makeup draw, shuffling through the containers and brushes to find a lipstick, mascara stained photograph.
Amanda had found it in a private photo album her father kept in his office. The reason she took it and was so secretive about it was the slice down the centre. The image was a smiling picture of her brother and father, who were linking arms with someone on the edge. Her arm was left, but her identity was erased from the photograph. Mandy was sure this was her mother.
Michael had met her mother, only briefly, but is absolutely forbidden to talk about it. He lies and tells her that he doesn't really remember anything, but she knows that Steven made him promise to keep quiet. She's told not to ask questions and that's final.
"Amanda! Could you come here for a minute," It was her dad calling. She jumped and quickly shoved the paper back under the abundance of makeup supplies and threw her toothbrush into the sink.
"Coming!"
The first day of Summer had passed, and Sunday had rolled around very slowly. Steven made both the kids completely clean out their rooms and the garage. Mandy didn't have many chores to do other than the laundry, but Michael was unfortunately stuck with the garden work, but he said that he didn't mind. She had completed her end of the deal, so it was her turn to ask for permission to attend the cheer practice that afternoon.
"It's just a few of my friends meeting up for cheer practice, we might go and get a cola afterwards,"
Steven pondered on this for a moment. "Okay, since you've been working hard today, but I want you back by five,"
Mandy nodded, "Sounds good, I can do that,"
"And I mean five! Not five thirty, not five fifteen! five o'clock sharp!" He yelled as she rushed off to get her bike. She gave him the thumbs up, grabbed her brother's brown jacket off the picket fence it was hanging on and pushed off the sidewalk, gliding down the street waving her arm wildly at her brother, who was crouched in the flowerbeds,
"Bye Micah!" He laughed and waved back,
"See ya Manda!"
They were scheduled to meet at the community basketball courts at approximately midday. Mandy picked out her typical outfit of high waisted bellbottom jeans and a short shirt that she normally wore to school, and of course, Michaels lucky jacket. She wasn't intending to impress anyone, and it wasn't like she owned any clothes outside of the dress code rules, but she was exited to wear a new pear of heels that she got as a birthday present.
She arrived at the designated location a little after everyone else had arrived. Most of the cheer squad were there, either stretching or already beginning to practice the routine for the national competition next week. A few others were there, it didn't surprise her as it was mainly their friends or their boyfriends watching from the side.
"Mandy! Hey!" A few of her friends from school waved her over to the group sitting on a blanket beside the court.
Loud conversation went on, yelling and laughing about ridiculous things and teasing each other relentlessly. Silly teenager stuff, as well as shouting and cheering for the exclusive show that the squad had preformed for practice. A few of the boys pulled out alcohol from their packs, but she politely refused, trying not to look disgusted.
Amanda looked over to the far side of the court. She was almost shocked to see Casey Evands, her so called stalker sitting on a bench in the shadows of a tree, mindlessly bouncing a basketball, staring intently at the cheerleaders as they danced around to the loud music, but decided to wait until later to approach him to say hello.
The afternoon dragged on and she finally checked her watch again after they began to pack up and go home. Mandy walked over to Lisa, and her group of friends who were chatting and complimenting each other in their performance and other technical cheerleading terminology she had no understanding of.
Lisa smiled, "Hey, Milly, Heather and I are about to head out and get a drink, did you want to come?"
She nodded and grinned back, she was familiar with the other two from mutual friendships and greeting each other in the halls, but other than that, the pair were almost strangers. She pushed her bike and the others walked beside her, gossiping about their classmates and friends and twittering about the attractive celebrities in the latest magazine issue with a few bitter mentions of the dreadfulness of school. The life of a sophomore was incredibly dramatic.
For a while she was fine, following along, however, as soon as they walked passed Milly Sheild's house to drop her home, Mandy began to feel slightly uneasy, almost unsafe. They continued to walk along after briefly visiting a corner store to buy colas. The trio leaned against the side of the building outside, sipping their refreshments occasionally asking a question or making a comment. But Mandy was on edge, she felt like she was being watched. After throwing away her glass bottle, her hands began to sweat.
"I honestly cannot believe that Mark Kesno got arrested," Lisa began, trying to keep up the conversation.
Heather chimed in, "Mhm, mhm, I heard he was speeding, extremely fast."
"Almost lost his license," Many added, trying to relax her mind.
"Didn't he? I thought it would surely be gone after that,"
"Yeah, someone told me he was going 120 miles near the elementary school!"
"I'm sure it wasn't that fast, who even told you that?"
The two continued to talk as Mandy slowly began to sink back into the depths of her mind, staring into dead space in front of her. Complete nothingness was going through her mind at that stage and she was completely worry free in the secluded spot of her imagination. That was until she saw him, once again in the shadow of a tree on the sidewalk. Casey was crouched against a fence, almost invisible, watching Lisa, Heather and her closely. She suddenly didn't feel so silly anymore and there was a reason for her subconscious distress. He was being extremely creepy, borderline stalkerish. Mandy desperately hoped he wouldn't live up to his rumours, she did defend him after all, but once again, she ignored him and decided to address the situation later.
Lisa's voice interrupted her, "Mandy, Mandy…Mandy?"
She flinched, "Yes? Sorry, ha-ha, I was spaced out again,"
Heather sighed affectionately, "Good old spacey Amanda,"
They both laughed. "As we were saying, we were asking what you thought about our costumes,"
Mandy analysed them again briefly, "Oh, yes, they're wonderful. I'm sure they'll wow the judges," She smiled as the pair giggled and lapped up the compliment as it inflated their egos even more, not that they needed it. She glanced back at the spot where she spotted Casey, but he was gone. She wasn't sure if she should be worried or relieved that he was out of sight.
"Well anyway, I should be heading off, it's almost my curfew" Heather whined,
"Did you want us to walk you back?" Amanda asked.
She shook her head, "Don't worry about it, I'm in the other direction and besides, it's only a block away, I'll be fine."
Lisa tightly hugged her friend goodbye and Mandy waved as she disappeared down the sidewalk. It was just the two of them walking back to her house and she began to feel unsafe again, and overly nervous. She assumed that if she told Lisa about him, it might have eased her.
"I saw Casey Evands earlier this afternoon, he was watching us from the other side of the court,"
Lisa stopped walking and froze, "W-what?"
"And I saw him again before, crouching on the sidewalk,"
She gasped, "Oh my god, that is so creepy! You should have told me earlier, we could be in real danger."
Lisa's breath became heavy, it was strange, she seemed afraid, but not, at the same time. She couldn't exactly put her finger on it.
"We, we have to back to my place right away, you need to come with me!" She said sharply,
"But-we're so close to my house, lets just go back and we can call your mother to get you there, or we could even drop you-"
"No!" She protested almost immediately, "Trust me, my house is much closer, just around the corner here!"
"I have to be home by five and its almost four fifty,"
Lisa interrupted her again, "We are in danger, Mr. Hayes will understand," She began pulling Mandy's arm in the opposite direction of her home, forcing her to leave her bike on the side of the road. Lisa was stronger than her, so she gave up on trying to resist or reason, maybe her house was closer, and her dad might possibly understand their difficult situation. She could always come back to get the bike if Lisa was that desperate to run home.
After a short while, Amanda was feeling even more scared than ever before. She was shaking.
"Lisa, where, where are we g-going?" She choked out. This was not the direction of any close houses in the neighbourhood, she didn't even know where Lisa lived. Something was very wrong.
"Don't worry, Amanda, we're super close I promise!"
Soon enough Lisa had dragged Mandy to the middle of the park, a large clearing with a large, brown lake surrounded by thick tall trees. The sun had almost completely disappeared. She gulped down the lump in her throat, desperate not to cry.
"What's going on?" Mandy asked in a shaky voice. Lisa ignored her. "Lisa…Lisa what's going on? Why are we here?" She awkwardly walked towards the edge of the lake leaving Amanda shivering in fear behind her.
Clank, clank, clank.
Every time her right foot hit the ground, an eerie, hollow clank echoed from her. Lisa's breaths began to be heavy, sharp and loud again.
"Lisa, please I'm so scared-"
"SHUT UP!" She screamed,