Thanks for all the reviews! I've been so busy this week that this is the first time I've been able to work on this chapter. I thought it would only take me an hour and a half to write but it's been over five hours. O.o Now I have to go spend another five hours doing homework. Enjoy the chapter!
I do not own Metal Fight Beyblade or Pretty Little Liars.
Madoka had had her heart basically ripped out and Mei Mei had gotten hurt. What else could go wrong?
Regardless, Madoka knew she had to break up with Tsubasa. With her new revelation and the messages she kept getting from S, there was no point in staying with him.
S would just keep making her kiss every guy in the school so she needed to break up with him. The guilt from repeatedly cheating on him was tearing her apart. She didn't even like Tsubasa as much as she had before. She was going to end the relationship before anything else could go wrong.
Madoka sent out a text for Tsubasa to meet her at the park. She received an ok from him and another text message.
Don't do this.
~S
Fingers shaking, Madoka sent a text back to S.
I will do what I want to with my life.
The response came back instantly.
Then you will regret it.
~S
A week ago, the threat may not have bothered her as much, but with Mei Mei's hospitalization, Madoka was nervous. But still, she had to do what she had to do. Right now, that was breaking up with Tsubasa. If she broke up with Tsubasa, there was nothing S could do to her. She'd have outsmarted S.
On her way to the park, Madoka ran into Gingka. He had been avoiding her ever since the kiss incident, but now he marched right up to her.
"I haven't told him what you did yet," Gingka told her.
"I'm sorry," Madoka said truthfully.
"Whatever. Stay away from Tsubasa, okay? I don't want to see him to get hurt," Gingka said.
"I'm going to break up with him right now."
A surprised look crossed Gingka's face. "Really?"
"Yes. You're actually making me kind of late."
"Oh. Well, you go do that then," Gingka turned around and started to walk away. A strong wind came and sent a piece of paper flying into his hands.
He looked at it, disbelieving and turned around. "Is this how you get your kicks or something?" Gingka asked angrily.
"Wha-?" Madoka gasped. Gingka was holding the picture of her kissing Kyoya.
"I can- I can explain!" Madoka said, trembling.
"Save it. Just go break up with Tsubasa so I can forget about this, " Gingka stormed off.
Great. That was just what she needed. Gingka was right, though. She needed to break up with Tsubasa.
It didn't take too long to find Tsubasa. He was standing underneath a tree, waiting for Madoka.
"Hi," Madoka said.
"Hello," Tsubasa said. Madoka thought he sounded vaguely off.
"So, um, we need to talk," Madoka said nervously.
"Yeah, we do."
"What?" Madoka asked, confused.
"What's up with these?" Tsubasa thrust two pictures at Madoka. One was of her with Gingka, the other was of her with Kyoya.
"I- Where did you get those?" Madoka asked.
"Does it matter? I was on my way here when a girl with pink hair, I think it was Lera, gave me an envelope with these inside."
"Wait, Lera? Didn't she move?"
"She's back now. That doesn't matter. It's over, Madoka. I don't know how long you've been kissing other guys behind my back and honestly, I don't care," Tsubasa handed Madoka the pictures and left her alone.
Madoka was in shock. Not because Tsubasa had broken up with her, though. She actually felt...fine. She wasn't feeling anything at all.
What was Lera doing back? Madoka remembered Selen torturing her mercilessly with everyone's help. How had she gotten those pictures?
Maybe she had just been given then to take to Tsubasa and there was no connection. Or maybe...
Lera was S.
It made sense. Lera had a motivation to ruin their lives the same way they had ruined hers. Lera had just moved back and S had just shown up. It was possible.
Madoka went home and checked her email. She had one new message from Sophie. It was a forwarded message. The message had gone out to half the school, apparently.
The email contained the two pictures of her kissing Gingka and Kyoya. Beneath was a caption blaring the words "Guess which slut just got dumped?".
Madoka closed her email. Just what she needed. She had deliberately gone to break up with Tsubasa after S told her not to and S still managed to come out ahead. So much for trying to outsmart S.
Her phone vibrated. There was a text from an unknown number.
You play by MY rules or face the consequences. And you, unfortunately, are now going to face the consequences.
~S
Sophie had been incredibly surprised when she received the email with the two pictures of Madoka. It took her a few minutes, but she realized that S must have had something to do with it. The email contained no sender address, which confirmed her theory.
Sophie couldn't help but wonder what Madoka had done to make S send out those pictures to half the school.
S really wasn't someone to mess with. Sophie had tried to brush off that idea ever since S had shown up. She couldn't ignore it any longer, though. S did know their secrets and wasn't afraid to tell the world.
S knew Sophie's secret and actually had some proof. It wasn't the best proof, but it was still proof.
So how was she going to stop S?
There had to be a way. From experience, Sophie knew everything had a weakness. She just needed to figure out S's weakness and exploit it.
Of course, that could be hard. She didn't know who S was. But there were some possible candidates.
Jack and Zeo, who had apparently also just returned to town. Sophie was going to have to keep a close eye on them. Maybe one of them would slip up and reveal some sort of clue involving S.
First, she would investigate Jack.
It didn't take too long to find Jack. He was at the park. He didn't stay there long, though.
Sophie followed him to a strange store. It was filled with strange paintings and art everywhere. Jack picked up a package and walked out of the store with it. Then, Jack started off down another road. He then dropped off the package at another store.
Sophie was about to leave and forget about it, when Jack turned into the woods. So far, the investigation had been a monumental waste of time. Since Jack was going in the woods though, it might be going somewhere. She decided to continue following him for a little while longer.
Sophie didn't recognize her surroundings at all until she reached Jack's destination. A cemetery. The route Jack had taken was a more direct, although more tree-filled, way to the local cemetery. Sophie remained in the woods, hidden by a tree. She looked to see what Jack was doing.
Jack walked over to one of the gravestones. Sophie recognized it as Selen's. She and the other girls had been there on many occasions during the first year since Selen's disappearance and supposed death. No body was in that grave now, though. The body had been exhumed and it wasn't Selen's...
Jack started talking. Sophie couldn't hear him. She moved closer and obstructed herself from view by hiding herself behind a grave.
"...I'll avenge you," Jack said. He produced a rose out of nowhere and placed it on Selen's grave. Then, he walked back through the woods.
Sophie ran over to Selen's grave once Jack was out of sight. The only thing there was a rose, nothing more.
Avenge her? What did Jack mean? Was he S? But, Jack seemed to think Selen was still dead. Most people would, as the secret about the body that had been in the grave not being hers hadn't been released to the public. But S knew that the body hadn't been Selen's. So did that mean Jack couldn't be S?
A noise behind her startled Sophie. She turned around and saw Zeo coming through the woods. Sophie ran and hid herself behind a tombstone again.
Zeo came up to Selen's grave and stared at it for a few minutes. After, he left.
"Weird," Sophie breathed.
She checked the time on her phone. 5:00. She still had a few hours before work. Sophie decided to visit Mei Mei at the hospital to see if she was doing any better.
It was time to check out the warehouses.
Hikaru drove out to the outskirts of town where the warehouses were located.
There were nine warehouses total in rows of three. They had all belonged to the same company that had gone under over 15 years ago.
She found the one that the girls had hidden in so many years before. It was the first one past Zeo's former house. Hikaru searched it thoroughly, but found nothing. The next two were also empty. Hikaru moved toward the second row.
In the remaining 6 warehouses, there was a lot of scrap metal, but nothing more. Hikaru was about to give up, when she saw something beyond the warehouses. It looked like an old house. Trees concealed it from sight unless it was being directly looked at.
Hikaru wandered toward the house. It was a tall, three story house with a tower on the right side. There was peeling green paint everywhere. The house had broken shutters and the window screens were torn up.
Hikaru climbed up the stairs onto the porch and knocked on the door. It opened by itself. Hikaru peered inside.
"Hello?" she called.
No one answered.
Hikaru took a tentative step inside. The door slammed shut behind her.
Hikaru whirled around, and attempted to open it. Locked. There was no going back now.
Hikaru turned around again and screamed. There was a large marble bust of a person's head she didn't recognize. How had she not seen that before?
Shaking, Hikaru continued through the house. The floor creaked and there was a layer of dust everywhere. Old furniture was covered with sheets. Broken glass was littered over the ground near a window. The house had probably been long forgotten years ago.
After searching the first floor, Hikaru climbed up the second floor. Neither that or the third floor held any clues. Hikaru was about to go downstairs when she heard a noise.
Thump.
Hikaru's heart started beating faster.
Thump. Thump.
Footsteps.
Someone was in the house with her.
There was a wooden door on her right. Hikaru ran over to it. It was locked, but Hikaru was able to pick it with a hairpin. She ran though the door and closed it tightly behind her.
The room was circular. Hikaru realized she was in the tower. Near her, there was a wooden ladder. Hikaru climbed down it.
Being old and rotted, the ladder collapsed beneath her. Hikaru went flying down and crashed on something hard. She heard a sickening crunch beneath her.
Hikaru stood up and brushed herself off. She looked at what she had fallen on top of and screamed.
A skeleton.
Hikaru stumbled back to the wall. The bones looked entirely real. The broken rib cage she had crushed due to her fall confirmed it wasn't plastic. Plastic didn't break into tiny pieces the way the bone had. Plastic didn't make the same crunching noise. The skeleton was real.
Hikaru screamed again. The skeleton was too big to belong to a young child and too small to belong to an adult. It likely belonged to a teenager around 13 or 14 and something told Hikaru it was a girl's skeleton.
There was a small door next to her. Hikaru opened it and crawled through. She found herself in the main part of the house again on the first floor, near the entrance. Hikaru ran over to the door. It was still locked.
Thump. Thump.
Hikaru's eyes widened. In her discovery of the body, she had forgotten about the other person in the house. Judging by the noise, the person was in the next room over.
Hikaru ran up the stairs. She ran up to the third floor.
Thump. Thump.
The footsteps were getting closer. Whoever was there, they were coming up the stairs.
Crap. Had the person found her? She shouldn't have made so much noise running up the stairs.
Hikaru ran over to an open window. The screen was missing. She looked out of it. Could she make the jump?
Hikaru pushed the curtains aside. She had no choice. It was jump, or meet the other person. And Hikaru could tell the other person was not someone she wanted to meet.
Klink.
Hikaru looked at the floor. A gold necklace of sorts had fallen out of the curtains.
The necklace had a long, thin chain with a large heart pendant attached. It looked vaguely familiar. Hikaru put it on. She looked out the window and prepared to jump.
At least, she tried to prepare. She felt a cold hand on her back. It pushed her, and Hikaru went flying. She screamed and grabbed on to a windowsill from the second floor. From above, she could see a flash of dark hair as whoever had pushed her walked away from the third floor window she had fallen from.
Hikaru dangled from the wibdowsill for a few minutes. The wood on the windowsill Hikaru was holding on to started to give. She heard a crack, and was falling again.
Hikaru crashed to the ground. She stood up. Her body hurt, but amazingly, nothing was broken.
Hikaru took one last look at the house and ran back toward the warehouses. She didn't know if the person who pushed her was still inside and didn't want to stick around to find out.
Her phone rang. It was just a call from Sophie. Mei Mei had woken up.
Briefly forgetting her near death experience, Hikaru jumped in her car and drove over to the hospital. Sophie was already there and Madoka showed up a few minutes after Hikaru.
The nurse brought them into the room. Mei Mei looked pale, but much better than she had the last time the girls had seen her.
"How are you?" Hikaru asked.
"Good," Mei Mei answered, her voice shaking a little. "I should be able to leave here by tomorrow or the day after."
"That's good," Sophie commented.
"Who attacked you?" Madoka asked.
Mei Mei's eyes widened in fear.
"Selen!" she gasped in ragged breaths. "It was Selen!"
