So very, very stupid,

Madi's POV

"I'm with the skater boy

I said see you later boy

I'll be back stage after the show

I'll be at the studio

Singing the song we wrote

About a girl you used to know"

We finished and held our pose up on the big stage as Meg finished her note. The moment the music stopped we burst out laughing as we fell into each other's arms. Lia even very almost fell off the stage but Meg pulled her back. I wonder what it was like for her to sing back-up to her little sister. I mean, I had sung back up for Amber but I wasn't sure she had sung back-up for me. But I didn't think Lia minded because Meg and she had a pretty good relationship. Not that me and Amber didn't of course. We walked down the stairs in our line to the bottom, our eyes searching for someone we actually knew at all, there were surprising few. Well, of course there were the classic HA students that you always saw in the halls but somehow Amber, Josh, Libby, Carter and even Eve had disappeared. I thought they would at least wait until we had finished. A wolf whistle to the left of me as we walked through the crowd forming alerted me to the fact that most of the people around me were completely wasted. This was a fact that Ikner (jnr) seemed to have missed as she ran through the crowd yelling. "Madison Oliver! Has anybody seen Madison Oliver?"

"I'm over here!" I yelled as Ikner headed over to me. Apparently his dad had run the school as well, but had quit and let someone else taken over. But he said he had fond memories of this place so he came back to run it himself.

"Madi, I need to speak to you," he told me, "I was looking for Amber too, but somebody told me she had gone home to a friend's house. Josh I think it was." Uh… if Amber had gone home and taken Josh with her, combined with the fact that Carter had disappeared meant I had no ride home. "Come with me." He said and nodded to Meg and Lia behind me to follow too. Another whistle passed us as we walked past, but Meg flipped her blue hair back behind her and gave him a glare that although drunk would have silenced anybody. Meg could be scary as hell when she felt like it; I couldn't really see where she got it from looking at her family. He mom and dad were totally calm and although Lia could get a bit hyper, but wasn't anywhere near as goth as Meg, sometimes it seemed like she should be my mom's daughter instead of me. Well that was why dad always said mom didn't like Tori, because she could see something of herself in her sometimes, when she was younger, and dad had fallen for mom so her reasoning was that there was no reason dad wouldn't fall for Tori. But Beck didn't fall for Tori at all, well that was obvious if he had I wouldn't be here.

Ikner led us to his office and hit the on button on the TV. The monotone announcer read out, "Scandal has been unleashed this morning as Parker Lewis has escaped from jail for the second time." Oh I think it was the news report that was playing earlier! "He was convicted of murder and attempted murder but was not given the death penalty, even after his first escape. The police fear for his initially targeted couple and their two children. Beck Oliver is the brother of Lewis' murder victim and police are worried for his spouse, Jade West and their two daughters, Madison and Amber Oliver." Shock hit me like a wave and I clutched Meg's hand.

"What?" I whispered.

"I think you should get home as soon as possible." He told me. "Megan," Wow, Meg hated being called by her full name and I could see her clench in the corner of the room, "Claudia, will you make sure she gets back alright."

We left the room quickly and headed to the lockers. I leant across Meg's guitar locker, strumming it by accident as I considered the situation.

Lia at this point read out a quote from her locker, (she covered it in quotes for the fun of it) that described the situation perfectly, "This Thing of Darkness." It really was a thing of darkness, this truth I had just been told. There was a murderer after me, a murderer that had killed my aunt. I was scared right now, I was feeling true terror and I had never felt that before. Wait, Parker Lewis… he couldn't possibly be connected to Bryce. Well, Bryce had grown up without a father but I knew he and Josh had grown up with their father's name, knowing his personality it would make complete sense. I never doubted that Bryce could be a cold-blooded killer. Josh though, I would trust with my life. I was certain I could trust him with my sister's; he wouldn't let his brother hurt her.

"We really need to get back to your place." Lia said, dangling the car key's she had just retrieved from her locker in front of me, it was a good thing she had left her car here after school just so we had a lift back from the Kickback. Lia was good at thinking ahead and all that. We headed to the car slowly, walking past the boys who were still leering. Did they really not have anything better to do?

It wasn't until we got into the car that I realised all of our parents were out tonight. It was a re-union thing they did every term while we went to our kickback, all six of them. The only people that could be home were Lia and Meg's aunt and uncle but unfortunately I didn't really know them enough to come over to their house. Oh well, I guess I have just got to take life as it comes.

There we go, another chapter, we're about to get into the real drama. Anyway, hoped you liked this one even though I don't think it was really the best chapter I've ever written. Actually it's not in the slightest, sorry Madi!