Oh hi. It's been a while since I updated on this story. I was hit by MAJOR writer's block and I still got a bit of it, but I powered through. Not much happens in this chapter and it's a little sloppy so I'm sorry for that. I would enjoy if you guys left a review telling me what you think. I guess you could tell me who you want to see die next and that would be lovely. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter for How Do You Love Someone up soon. Oh! I've decided that once I finish this and HDYLS, I'm gonna work on a sequel for The Preyingmantis. It'll be another SYOC thing and some characters from this story might make a reappearance. I feel like it'll be Cat-centric meaning that it'll take place in her psychiatric ward. So for those of you that want to submit characters, give them a reason to be in the ward. They could be a visitor, patient, or orderly. I'll take five patients, two orderlies, and a visitor. You can go ahead and submit a character if you want, or you can make one and save it for later. But if you submit a character and want it to be a patient, do NOT and I repeat DO NOT make them a suicidal cutter. That's so overdone...

Anwhore, now that that's out of the way. I present you chapter 8!


"Chapter 8 – The Ballad of Mona Lisa"

"And if she had the proper words to say, she would tell him. But she'd have nothing less to sell him. Mona Lisa, you're guaranteed to run this town; Mona Lisa, I'd pay to see you frown." – Panic! At the Disco

Robbie

"Hillary!" I scream loudly. God, when I heard her scream, I immediately thought the worst. I ran as fast as I could to find her, praying the killer didn't do what they did to Jade and Nye. God I hope they didn't do what they did to Trina!

I should have been with her. If I'd been with her, kept her tight in my arms, I wouldn't be breathlessly running through the mall trying to find her.

As soon as I get to Tillery's—God, that's her favorite store—I see her. Hillary's still inside the store, but I only see her feet. There's so much glass around her but the door isn't broken.

They must have smashed her against one of the glass casings…

"Hillary!" I scream again as I rip the door open. I smell…I smell burning flesh, but I smell no smoke or fire. I fall to my knees beside my face-down beauty, the girl who changed my life. (If this wasn't happening, I could be with her. I mean, we'd never be able to go public with things, but she'd be mine).

I grab her shoulder gently and it moves slightly. I turn back to the others who are catching up to me. "She's still alive!" I call out with a shaking voice. "We can still help her!"

Hillary groans softly, so soft that I almost didn't hear it. I turn her over onto her back and scream at the top of my lungs.

Ryanna

When we heard Hillary scream, it sent us into a small frenzy. It was bad enough Cat freaked out and punched the window of Taylor's Trends. But then Hillary was screaming for help.

Robbie ran first.

It was like…her scream sent some kind of weird energy boost through him and he darted off down to wherever her screams were coming from. Beck even called after him, but Robbie wouldn't stop. He was determined to find Hill and save her at any cost.

We ran after him, holding each other's hands to make sure we didn't lose anyone else, and then we heard him scream.

He turns to us, screaming at us for something, but I can't hear him. I stopped at the door and all I saw was Hillary on the ground. Everyone screams, but I can't make out what they're saying.

All I see is Hillary…

I know I wasn't the best of friends to her—she sure as hell wasn't to me—and I know I said mean things to her, but this is horrible…

"Her face," I screech out with a shaking voice. I fall to my knees and slowly crawl to her. Glass crunches under me, but I don't care. I just…maybe if I touch the burns on her face—the craters of melted skin peering down to her cheek bones—it won't feel real; maybe I'll realize I'm imagining things, that I've imagined everything that's happened, and I'm just having a really bad dream. None of this feels like it should be real, so maybe if I touch her face and not feel anything…it won't be real…

My hand touches her burnt face, feeling the charred remains of her skin, and my hand sizzles in pain. I scream out and fall backwards, edging away. My fingers…God my fingers are throbbing! But I can't focus on them right now.

I feel the warmth of a body behind me and a hand reaches out to my inured one. I don't look, but I can feel it's André trying to comfort me. I feel his lips close to my ear and I can hear his voice, but I can't make out his words. I don't know what he's saying.

All I know is that Hillary Montague is dead…

Touch Down

"Did you hear that?" James calls out. We're in the back of the store as far away from the door as possible laying down in the dark. I locked the door, so no one's gonna get in here.

"Yeah," I mutter slightly. James pulls me a little closer and we wrap our arms around each other tightly. It's starting to get cold in here and we don't know where the air conditioner is. I sigh lightly and he sighs too.

"Are you sure we're gonna be okay?" he asks softly. At first I don't respond, and then I shrug slowly. "I'm not sure of a lot of things," I tell him. "The only thing I'm sure of is that most likely four people are dead. I'm not sure if we're gonna be added to that though."

There's a pause before James speaks again.

"If we make it out of here alive," he begins, "Let's leave LA; let's go to North Carolina or somewhere no one goes."

"Deal," I breathe without hesitation.

Cat

No! I don't like this! I don't like this at all. I'm under my bed. I'm under my bed. I'm under my bed…

But I'm not under my bed…

I'm at the mall and people are dying. Jade and her scary friend are dead and Tori says that Trina's dead. My hand is broken because I hit the window really hard and I broke the glass.

Now Hillary's burned really badly!

I wanna go home! But if I go home, will Anna still be there? She's so nice to me! She protects me like my brother does. One time my brother took me camping and he shot a bear because it tried to eat me! Then I found out we were just at a mall in Pennsylvania and he shot an eraser with a slingshot at giant stuffed panda because it scared me. I was a little kitty back then.

"We really gotta pick a place to hide," André says quietly. "There's a first aid kit in various stores here," Camille offers. "We could hide in one of those stores and…take care of Hillary…"

Robbie lets out big sobs as he leans over Hillary on the ground and it makes me really sad! Then the next thing I know, Annabella wipes away tears on my face. I gasp, but it's like one of those weird sobs where you're trying to take out a breath so it's…shattered, that's the word! She holds me a little tighter and pulls me gently away from the jewelry store.

"We could go to Create a Cow," Tori offers with a weak smile. "No way," Camille denies as she crosses her arms. "There are too many sharp objects in there."

"That's why it would be good to hide there!" Tori cries out. "We could use whatever we find in there to defend ourselves!" Camille glares at Tori for a moment and sighs loudly. "If anyone else wants to go to Create a Cow let your voice be heard now," she orders.

"I love making little cows!" I exclaim happily. One time my brother brought a real cow home; we called her Bessie!

Everyone else mutters words of agreement and we all start going. Jesse and André lift Hillary and we let them lead the way to Create a Cow. We hold each other tightly so no one else gets lost.

One time I got lost in the park and I slept under a bench for three days! My mommy found me after that when she was feeding birds.

André

Hill ain't lookin' so hot anymore…

Man we can't let anything like this happen to us…

Jesse helped me carry her, and we all made our way to Create a Cow. Then I helped Ryanna patch up Hillary's face. At first, I thought she was dead because it didn't look like she was breathing and she wasn't making any sounds. But when we were tryna clean her wounds, Hillary started screaming and thrashing. I had to get Beck and Jesse to help me hold her down. Darius couldn't do it cuz his hand was broke and Trent isn't that strong. Homie (I think his name's Pedro or something?) was too busy with Vixen making sure she was okay. Robbie was off in a corner, curled up into a ball, refusing to speak to anyone. He kept covering his ears and shaking every time Hillary screamed and I felt so bad for him…

It wasn't till a couple minutes after we were done bandaging Hillary's face that we started to speak.

"Hill said she'd be watching us," Khloe says as she looks at her bare feet. She probably left her shoes in the Freezy Queen hours ago. I pull out my phone to check the time. It's almost one in the morning.

"We've been here for three hours," I point out tiredly. "Shouldn't someone be coming by to look for us?"

"I told my mom I was staying at Jade's house," Cat announces.

"I told my parents I was staying with Ryanna," Khloe informs us.

"I told my mom I was staying at Khloe's," Ryanna adds glumly.

"My parents won't expect me home until tomorrow," Tori states.

"My roof, my rules," Beck retorts absent mindedly.

"I'm supposed to be staying with Touch Down," Camille says.

"I live by myself," Jesse spits with crossed arms.

"I told my mom I was staying with D," Trent announces, "He and Vixen live by themselves."

"I go where da wind takes me," Homie…you know what, I don't care.

I don't care anymore.

I throw my phone at a wall with a loud scream. "This is pointless!" I shout. "We're all gone die in here and no one even knows we're in danger! We can't call our parents, we can't call the police…we're screwed!"

"So why don't we figure out who the killer is?" Jesse questions. "Once we do that we can stop them."

I sigh. "Why not?" I allow slightly. "We got nothing better to do…than die."

"André, shut up," Beck mutters quietly. He sits with his arm around Khloe's shoulders as she rests her head against his chest.

"Where was everyone when Nye was attacked?" Annabella questions softly. Something…something about her voice just pisses me off right now…

"Why are we asking this?" I shout. "How do we know everybody ain't lying? We can't trust anyone!"

"André, shut up!" Beck shouts loudly. "You're not helping anything right now. Just shut up!"

"Hill said she'd be watching us," Khloe repeats loudly. She grabs Beck's hand and shoots to her feet. "What are you talking about?" Tori asks skeptically. "Hillary's over there bandaged, burned, and unconscious. How is she possibly watching us?"

Khloe smiles hopefully and turns back to Tori. "She had the cameras turned on for the whole night," she announces. "That's how she knew we would do who we were supposed to." She blushes and her hand grips Beck's a little tighter. "We-we can find out who killed everyone so far and stop them before they get anyone else."

"So what are we waiting for?" Trent asks as he rises to his feet. "Let's check the tapes." Everyone else murmurs in agreement and we rise to our feet.

Darius

Everyone else gets up before I do.

I have my eyes locked on my cousin and that little piece of shit with his arms wrapped around her. His eyes are locked on mine and I know he can feel my hatred for him right now. Of all the people she could have slept with, of all the people she claims she's slept with, she just had to sleep with him.

"Vixen," I breathe lowly, not taking my eyes of him. He doesn't deserve recognition of any name. "Go with the others to check the tapes. I wanna chat with your stupid little friend."

"Ain't got nothin to say to you," he announces. He grips Vixen a little tighter and she grimaces. She pushes him off and shoots to her feet. "I ain't got time for this," she announces. She looks down on me. "Yeah I slept with him, but you need to get over it. You ain't my mama and you sure as Hell ain't my daddy, so stop acting like it." She turns back to him. "We been friends for years and you ain't never acted like this before." She looks between the both of us. "You two better fix your shit, cuz I ain't dealing with it."

With that, she walks away…leaving me alone with him.

"Who you—"

"Fuck you," I spit.

"Fuck you!"

I snap to my feet and he does the same. "What the hell is your problem?" he questions loudly. "Why you trippin' for?" I scoff and roll my eyes. "What I wanna know is: who the hell taught you grammar?" I counter. I move to the door and close it, locking it behind me, all without taking my eyes off him. "How about you shut your damn mouth, huh? You tryna fuck like a man, so let's see you fight like one."

I smirk slightly and he advances toward me. But before he can get in a good hit, I give him a right hook to the face. With my hand broken, sure it hurts like hell.

But he's down with one punch.

"That's all you got brujo?" I mock. "Let's see what you got!"

He shoots to his feet. "You think you da shit, huh?" he calls out. He runs toward me and I think he's gonna get me in the face, but he goes for my stomach. The kid's crafty…

Before I can even hunch over in pain, he gives me an uppercut right in the jaw. It knocks me up off my feet, but I fall against the door still standing. He's strong—I'll give him that—but it'll take a lot to get me down.

I jump up and lunge for him, hitting him so hard dead in the face that he falls backwards against a display of Western Cow dolls. Some of them moo as they hit the floor and blood pops from the corner of his mouth. I run at him and punch him in his face again…and again…and again…

Blood flies everywhere, but I don't stop. I can't stop. He touched my cousin, dammit! She's all I got and he touched her! I don't care if she was a virgin or not; he touched her!

He doesn't deserve to live…

"What the hell are you doing?"

Vixen

Okay, so maybe what I said was a little harsh, but I'm sick of their shit. I mean, Homie and I've been tight since we were six and he's never acted the way he's acting now. He's…he's acting like he's got something to prove. No, he's acting like I'm his stupid little prize.

So I'm following the group to the video surveillance whatever and I realize: it's probably not the best idea to leave those two alone together. So I turn around, head past the corner I took with the others, and I see movement in Create a Cow. One of the figures moves toward the other and a stand of dolls falls to the ground.

I gasp and run the rest of the distance to the store.

Once I get there, I see Darius with Homie, but he's hitting him. Blood's flying and he's hitting him! Homie's trying to fight back, but Darius is too strong for him. Darius continues to hit him and I try to open the door to this stupid little cow place but the door is locked!

"What the hell are you doing?" I shriek, trying to get his attention. D flinches for a minute but he doesn't look back at me. He goes back to punching Homie and Homie tries to stop him by holding out his fists and keeping a tight grip on one of D's arms. I keep banging on the door, screaming at him to stop, but he doesn't listen.

"You're killing him!" I scream loudly.

Then I see Homie's hands drop to his sides…

Darius slows on his punches until he eventually realizes what he's done and finally stops. When he lets Homie's body fall to the ground, he finally looks back at me. His eyes…are wild and there's blood on his face and clothes…

His face drops as he advances toward me…but I can't look at him…

I just can't…

Slowly, I back away, but then I turn to run. As soon as I do, I bump into someone. They're taller than me—so that could be just about anyone except Cat—and they're wearing a big black hoodie.

I don't remember anyone wearing a hoodie…

I open my mouth to scream when their hand clamps over my mouth. D runs up to the door and starts banging on it as I try to see. "Ariana!" he screams. I hold my arms out to him, but the person who's holding me drags me away.

The next thing I know, everything turns black.

The Killer

When we were going to the video room thing or whatever you want to call it, I was near the back of the group staying out of the way. The key to not getting caught is blending in with the crowd. Any action movie that involves a chase scene will tell you that.

I would have been at the very back if Vixen, Darius, and Homie hadn't stayed behind. I turned around at one point to see Vixen following us, but she'd turned around like she was gonna go back to Create a Cow. I just turned away from her and kept walking with the others.

Even if she wasn't with us, Vixen would be safe if she was with those fighting boys.

For now…

Beck leads the group of people and unlocks the door to the security room. Slowly, we file in one by one with our hands clasped tightly to two others. We don't speak and all is quiet.

"Which one do you think we should check first?" Ryanna asks quietly. She's up front between Beck and André. She thinks they'll keep her safe.

Not if I have anything to do with it…

"We'll check the music store first," Beck announces. "It's where Nye was first murdered."

"No way," Jesse defies. He's two people in front of me. "We should check the camera for the main entrance; we should see were everyone splits off and who doesn't go where."

Beck opens his mouth to say something else, but Darius's scream cuts him off. And like flies, they all start running to the sound. I run with them—I have to—but I stay near the back, taunting them a little with my run in a way. We'll come up empty.

They'll find Darius still in the store…

They'll find Homie or whatever his name is dead…

It's all part of the plan.

Hillary's list was my decision; she just didn't know it. I planned her list, made it what it was, set up everything that was supposed to be put in place…

I get there just as everyone is eying Darius in shock. They all look to him and past him, to the bloody-faced corpse on the ground by the knocked over stand of still mooing cows. He screams at them to go down the hall to save his cousin, and they back away from him. They're afraid of him. They see the blood on his hands and the blood on his face. They see the bruise starting to form under his eye.

They see he's now a murderer…

He takes a step forward and André and Beck run up to him, grabbing him by his arms to restrain him. André calls out for someone to find something to tie Darius up with. Ryanna and Trent go inside and search for anything; they end up coming out with little cow clothes tied together in really tight knots while Darius struggles in the arms of the boys. They're all so stupid if you ask me.

They manage to tie him up, but Darius keeps struggling. He just won't give up. So they have to get all the guys, except for Robbie who stayed with Hillary in a far corner of Create a Cow and didn't do anything to stop Darius for beating a boy to death, to carry him off to a supply closet where they think he won't get out. I doubt he will, what with his broken hand and all.

But I've planned for if he does…

And after they look away from the closed supply closet, Khloe notices something. "Hey guys?" she calls out.

"Where's Camille?"

Rule number one to being a successful serial killer in high school: Never work alone.