"Jenna...Jenna, wake up," he whispered against her ear. She was lying on her side, facing away from everyone as they watched in silence. KC was the only one willing to come closer.

"Jenna, please..." KC begged, "Don't do this to me." His hand wrapped over her shoulder, her skin freezing against his. He turned her onto her back and jumped up in horror.

"Oh my god!" Bianca blurted out, disgusted, "She looks like a dead fish!"

Lurid blue eyes were the only contrast against her colourless, pale skin. KC let a tear run down his cheek, feeling like her icy, wide pupils were staring back at him, as if to say, You did this to me...

He couldn't even fully understand how it broke him the way it did. His problem was gone now; who was he to complain? Maybe this is how it's supposed to be, she'd told him, but it didn't make any sense. He was young and afraid, and so, he panicked, running away from the only thing he promised himself he'd never lose. And now, along with a child who would never have a chance to know life, she was gone forever, and he would never get to let her know just how much he'd always loved her. This wasn't how it was supposed to be either.

"And our unknown host strikes again..." Adam muttered under his breath.

"But how?" demanded Alli. Her best friend was dead. She needed answers. "It doesn't look like anybody's even touched her!"

"Maybe they didn't have to," Eli suggested, backing up to find Jenna's glass. Just as he expected, when he flipped it over, there wasn't a drop left.

"You think she was poisoned?" Clare half-whispered, afraid to even mention the idea.

"Either that or one very large sleeping pill," he determined before shattering the glass down on the table.

Bianca's mouth hung open for a moment as her heart began to pound, "That...that could have been me."

"But it wasn't," Eli snapped at her, "Was it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" She replied defensively.

"Jenna didn't just die by chance. Someone planned for it to be her. Someone planned all of this," Eli tried to explain, only just making sense of it himself, "And we're playing right into his hands! He's calling every move we're gonna make!"

"That's what we get for being so goddamn in character," Drew grumbled to himself.

"So, what's our next move?" Adam spoke for the group. "How do we take him by surprise?"

"Shh!" Alli insisted, agitatedly looking over the room, "What if he can hear us?" The others paused to glance around in fear, their eyes only falling back on each other.

Clare's breathing cut short, "What if he's...in here?" Eli met her timorous eyes and shook his head assuredly.

"But he's gonna come find us," Dave added, making Clare just as afraid.

"Not if we find him first," Eli decided to take charge. He couldn't stand to see his best friend looking so hopeless. He wanted to be the one who could fix it. "I say we split up and search the school for the killer."

"Ohh, kinda like Werewolf?" Bianca suggested lightheartedly. Thank god that, while the other girls had come dressed for homecoming, she'd had sense enough to stick with jeans. She was so ready to take down this bitch.

"So, every man for himself?" Dave assumed.

"Partners," Eli corrected him, wrapping an arm around Clare. "Pick someone you trust."

Bianca looked to see KC knelt down at Jenna's side. He lifted his head up languidly, still coming to grips with the situation. He had no choice but to look up at Bianca and nod.

Drew instinctively turned to Alli, but she hooked her arm around Dave's, refusing to make eye contact. He glanced over at Adam who shrugged in response. At least his brother hadn't totally forgot about him.

Eli found a napkin and a pen in the clutter on the table and attempted to sketch out some sort of floor plan, "KC and Bianca will take here, here, and..something over here. Adam and Drew will stake out here, here, and - no wait. Here." Scribbled lines began to run in every direction, creating a jumbled mess. After a few revisions, it finally began to make sense.

"Kapeesh?" Eli tried to confirm, unaware he may have just given away the location of each of the victims to a homocidal maniac.

"Let's get this over with," Bianca rolled her eyes, leading KC to the door. The others followed tentatively, pairing off into the hallow halls. The lights were working and 8 of them were still alive. Maybe they'd have a chance after all.

"Wait," Clare grabbed onto Eli's shoulder and pulled him aside, "What if one of us actually finds the killer?"

He stared down for a moment before looking back up at her, grinning blithely.

"I'll handle it."

...

*I know I took a long time to update so y'all just wanna yell at me, so I'll just post this rlly fast and then run for my life. And yeah, it's short too, but it's set up for the next chap, which I've already started writing so I can update faster next time! I know not much happened in this chap but please please pleaseeee say something nice about it anyway (if u liked it; u can just move right along if u didn't) and don't complain about how long it took :(

I'll probly enable anonymous reviews again soon but some of them were posting multiple reviews per chapter and it was getting annoying.

And Natasha - yeah, the 1st chapter is written diff on purpose. It's a letter from the killer who you won't hear from again until the end. And no, I didn't choose the killer based off my username...or vice versa.

Okay, thanks guys! Love yall! :D*