(So, I'm going to do my best to get this series done by Christmas. *shifty eyes* we'll see…. Haha, and here's the next one. –fin)

The aged smell of sweat and mildew wafted off of the faded blue mats in the auxiliary gym. The sound of hands and feet smacking against the mats could be heard resounding off the thick walls.

Terra was staring off and thinking about the past two months when a hand slapped her on the back.

"Jeez Terra, all you seem to do is stare off into space these days." Jeanie said with an amused smirk on her face.

"Yeah," Terra began as she tried to concoct a natural reason for spacing out, "I've had a lot on my mind lately." she said topping it off with a fake, tired smile.

"Oh my god," Jeanie exasperated with amusement. "You have a crush on someone don't you?"

The circle of girls that were sitting around talking all turned their heads, ready to devour the new gossip.

Terra's face turned a shade of pink in anger, but they all thought she was embarrassed. This misconception worked out in her favor; however, she had to force back the acidic comments that she wanted to shout at these vultures.

"Hey, hey, come on now," Eva began as she wrapped her arm around Terra's. "If she doesn't want to talk about who is on her mind, then let it go." Eva said while pulling Terra away from the circle.

Katie and Jeanie followed closely behind and the four relocated to the far corner of the gym.

"So, who is the guy?" Jeanie said when they all sat down.

Terra looked at the three of them and grew more disgusted.

'It was bad enough when the circle wanted the gossip, but now these three have cornered me to get the information.' She thought to herself and she bit back the words.

"Maybe she doesn't want to tell us, guys." Katie said all of a sudden. "Or maybe it's not even about a guy. I mean there has been a lot going on lately and Terra is new here. She might feel unsafe."

Jeanie made a bitter face at Katie's suggestion because she wanted to hear about hot gossip not about the murders.

"Yeah," Terra began and smiled a little to herself, "The murders that keep happening are so shocking."

That's all Terra had to say because the conversation picked up about the murders after that. Katie told the group the newest news about the cases which meant Jeanie got her new gossip. Eva was afraid but she held on to her withering façade of strength.

Since the conversation continued on without her, Terra was able to sit in silence and think about the past experiments she tried. Terra believed in supernatural events; however, every killer has prime targets. She wanted to know who the other killer's targets were, so first, she attacked some older adults which got no return response from the killer. She tried repetitively attacking people of different cultures but that also got no response. Terra had been attacking people on a large radius but for the experiment she spread the radius wider. This also got no response.

Terra concluded that the killer was attacking mostly at random; however, since she didn't know who the killer was, there was no way of telling if the person, if it was a person, had another motive. She did determine that for whatever reason, the killer was staying in Springwood and mostly Elm St.

She was taking risks with the different experiments; however, she needed to find this killer before they found her. She also figured that the erratic murder patterns would confuse the officials, so the confusion worked in her favor.

Meanwhile, the gym class kept going on with its regular actions. The class was on the gymnastics section, so everybody was mostly sitting around waiting for their turn to be called up to be tested.

"Alright everyone," The teacher shouted over the crowd. "You all are going to have to pay attention because I'm not going to be calling names twice. If you miss your name you fail."

The noise in the room dropped long enough for everyone to hear what he said and then it picked right back up.

"Terra Larson, you're up." The teacher called out with obvious irritation.

Terra barely understood her name being called over the volume of the room. She got up and walked over to the testing mats. The teacher shoved a paper in her face when she got close enough.

"You only have to three of those correctly and you pass." The teacher said absentmindedly as he wrote in the grade book.

Terra looked the paper over and laughed slightly. The teacher looked up at her confused and then smiled because he thought that Terra was afraid.

"You don't need to worry. These tests aren't that hard." He said trying to comforting while lightly mocking. "I'll tell you what, for you, I won't grade so hard, ok? You just do what you can."

Terra looked at him and raised an eyebrow out amusement because she thought of how funny it would be if he realized that he was mocking one of the killers of Springwood.

"It isn't that I can't do them." She said finally. "All of these options are really easy. There isn't a challenge in them."

"Oh." The teacher said dropping all of the emotional facades and becoming bitter. "Well, whenever you're ready then."

Terra shrugged and set the paper down. She ran and started off with a round-off back hand spring. She went through it flawlessly and the move quickly caught everyone's attention. The room got quiet as Terra continued with her two other moves. When she landed the last move, she turned back and walked towards the teacher who was star-struck.

"T-that was good." He said after he caught his wits. "You can go…ah…sit down. Thank you."

Everyone in the room watched Terra walk back to the tiny group in the corner. It didn't take long before the noise picked back up; although, the conversations in the different groups were now all focused on Terra's actions in some way or another.

"Where did you learn to do that stuff?" Eva asked as Terra sat back down.

"I was in gymnastics for practically the first eleven years of my life." Terra said shrugging.

"That was really cool though!" Jeanie said as she smiled from the attention their group was getting now.

"That's strange." Katie said suddenly, attracting the group's attention. "We've known you for a while now and never knew that."

Terra looked at Katie with hidden curiosity that was laced with fear of discovery.

"I don't know. It isn't something you just bring up in a normal conversation." Eva said suddenly. "So, it's not that strange."

"Yeah, that's true." Katie said smiling lightly. "It just seems like we don't know very much about you."

"Sorry," Terra said smiling as a façade and with sincerity. "I don't really talk about myself that much."

"Oh, that's alright." Jeanie said as she smacked Terra on the back. "That just shows that you're not conceited."

Terra almost busted out laughing at the irony of Jeanie telling her that, but just kept her faux friendliness up with a smile.

The conversation picked up again between Eva and Jeanie; however, Terra noticed that Katie was in a daze and she wondered what Katie could be thinking.

If Katie was onto her, there wasn't much that Terra could do. She would either have to kill her or boost up her façade more.

'I'll try the second option.' Terra thought to herself. 'It wouldn't be good if the police could link Katie back to me.'

The sound of a whistle blew out across the room as the teacher signaled that it was time for everyone to change. Everyone filed in and headed towards the locker rooms. The noise level hadn't decreased at all, but as Terra watched Katie closely, it felt like the noise had dropped substantially.

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

Todd Dean starred at the blue walls of his room as he dazed off. He had a lot of things running through his mind; although, the thoughts were mostly about that nightmare he had. He grabbed his chest as if the pain was being inflicted at that very moment.

His focus shifted to the new girl, Terra Larson, with the green eyes. He wondered why that person in his dream was looking for someone with green eyes. It was strange that right after he had that dream he ran into the new girl.

Todd ran his hand over his tired face and closed his eyes. He had been afraid to fall asleep lately because of that nightmare. He had an impending sense that if he did fall asleep he wouldn't wake up ever again.

He opened his eyes and starred at his whirling fan blades. He watched them spin around in circles and it wasn't long before he drifted off into sleep.

Todd opened his eyes and became afraid when he realized that he was on the Springwood football field…again.

"No…no, not again!" Todd shouted as he put his hand to his head in disbelief.

"You came back for another round of games?" A familiar voice said from behind him.

Todd stood frozen for a moment but then slowly turned his head to look behind him. The blood drained from his face when he saw that man with the brimmed hat behind him.

"Let's not waste any time this time." The man said as he raised a clawed hand.

The man started to come at Todd slowly and Todd backed up with great effort. The man got closer and closer with each step, but in the end, it wouldn't have mattered if the man didn't walk towards him at all.

Plastic tubes broke through the ground and wrapped themselves around Todd's hands and ankles. He struggled frantically against the bonds but it did him no good.

The man laughed as he came closer to Todd. Todd continued to squirm in fear but now, the man was right in front of him.

Todd froze when he saw that man's face was covered in burnt flesh. His face would've become whiter if it would've been physiologically possible.

"What's the matter, boy? Don't you like what my surgeon did?" The man said laughing evilly.

"What do you want from me?!" Todd shouted out at the man.

"I want your soul." The man said with an evil smirk. "Of course, I get to kill you in order to get it."

Todd's throat locked up on him as he realized the seriousness of the situation. Suddenly, the girl with the green eyes popped into his mind.

"Wait, wait." Todd said in a raspy, fear filled voice. "I think I know who you're looking for, the one with the green eyes!"

The man stopped what he was concocting for the boy's life and looked at Todd interested.

"And how would you know who I was looking for?" The man asked doubtfully.

"S-She goes to my school. I ran into her after you…" Todd couldn't finish his sentence. He didn't think he wanted to.

"She?" The man said with a bit of shock.

"Yes, she has the most vibrant emerald green eyes. Her name is Terra Larson and she just moved to this area this year." Todd said as he rambled on in fear.

The man smiled maliciously and raised his hand ready to attack.

"W-what are you doing?! I told you what you wanted to know!" Todd shouted pleadingly.

"I fail to see your point." The man said laughing and in the next moment he had plunged the claws into Todd.

Todd's limb, bloody body fell to the ground after the man absorbed his soul. The man smiled at the dead boy and then he walked off. He raised his clawed hand in the air and watched the blood drip from it. He flexed his hand and smiled as he walked off to find this Terra Larson.

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

Terra opened her house door and walked in absentmindedly. She threw her book bag on the chair when she got in the door and headed up the stairs.

"How was your day, Terra?" A voice asked from the adjacent hallway.

Terra looked over at the source and saw a short, brown haired woman with a concerned face who was holding a checkered dishtowel.

"It was fine, Peggy." Terra replied with a disinterest in starting any conversations.

Terra continued up the stairs but she knew that Peggy was watching her. She quickly went into her room and closed the door. She breathed in a big breath and she sprawled herself across her bed.

She looked at the white walls that had a flowered paper border but she was thinking about what she would be doing tonight. She brought one of her hands to her face and smiled evilly.

A yawn escaped her mouth and she realized that she should get some sleep if she was going to be able to do anything tonight. She rolled over on her side and she let the sleep take her in. If only someone had told her not to fall asleep…

[Yeah, realistically, this series won't be done for Christmas. The good news is that we're almost at the climax of the story! So, that's half way through!! Woot! But yeah, 'dunno when it'll be done. Sorry. –fin]