"Miss Dunbar." A voice called out from behind me as I made my way down the hall.

I stopped and spun around, seeing Monroe staring at me from right outside her office. I walked back towards her. "Hello, Miss Monroe."

"I was wondering if you'd like to come into my office tomorrow to talk. You mentioned during registration that you've been dealing with a lot of stress and I thought you might benefit from talking about it a bit." She said.

"Oh." I said, hands wrapping around the straps of my backpack. "Um, I really appreciate the thought, but I have a lot going on right now. Maybe I could come in next week sometime or maybe the week after. I think I just need to get adjusted and focus on my schoolwork before anything else."

She handed me a sheet of paper to set up an appointment time. "Just take one. Whenever you feel ready to come in, just let me know. And remember, I have an open door policy. If you ever start feeling overwhelmed, feel free to stop by."

I forced a smile onto my face as I took the paper from her outstretched hand. "Thank you. I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

I folded the paper and slipped it into my backpack as I continued in the direction I was originally headed, towards the lacrosse field. As I got closer to the field, I saw someone standing there that I was thrilled to see.

"Brett!" I screeched, dropping my backpack on the grass and running towards him.

"Lauren!" He smiled widely before scooping me up into a tight hug, leaving my feet dangling off the ground.

My arms were latched around his neck. "I missed you!"

"Missed you too, half-stack." He said, lowering me to my feet but keeping one of his arms around my waist. "How have you been?"

I sighed heavily but forced myself to smile. "Uh, well, you know how things can be. It's not great but I guess I'm managing. What about you?"

"Things haven't been too bad. It always makes me feel better seeing you." He smiled down at me, lightly bumping his hip into me.

I laughed. "Yeah, I guess seeing you is pretty alright too."

Before he could respond, Liam spoke from a few feet away. "Brett."

I noticed his eyes focus on the spot where Brett's hand rested against my side. "Liam, chill."

He made a face but didn't prod. "You ready to start?"

Brett nodded, his hand falling from my waist. "Yeah, looks like you guys could use all the help you can get."

Liam rolled his eyes before turning his attention to me. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

I nodded, and Brett walked back towards the field.

"Have you talked to Monroe today?" My brother asked.

"Yeah, just before I came out here, actually." I said. "She offered for me to come in and talk, gave me a scheduling slip. She was kind of pushy, to be honest."

"She did the same thing to me. Are you going to go?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I doubt it. What am I going to tell her? I'm under constant levels of stress because of the seemingly endless number of things trying to kill us?"

"Could always talk about daddy issues." He said, only half joking.

I sighed. "Liam, just because it's true doesn't mean you should say it."

He smirked before changing the subject. "You should go sit down. We're going to start in a minute and I know how much you hate missing any of the action."

"Okay. Good luck, have fun, and remember your mantra. Just look at me if anything's wrong, okay?" I said, grabbing my backpack from where I dropped it and heading towards the bleachers.

I sat down in the front and dropped my bag to the ground next to my feet, my eyes already focused on the field.

The first few drills the boys ran were simple, mostly focused on passing and blocking. After a while, the freshmen took a seat while Corey took his spot in the goal, Liam got ready to play defense, and Brett was on offense.

I hoped that things wouldn't get too intense but knowing Brett and Liam, there was no avoiding it.

As they showed the younger boys different plays, I found myself calling out different plays, and even shouting advice to the newbies. Without even realizing it, I had stood up and walked towards the edge of the field, watching the action with my arms folded across my chest.

"Brett!" I shouted, leading to the tall boy walking over to me. "Show them a split dodge."

He nodded, ran back to his spot on the field, and they ran the play. Brett all but flew past Liam to score.

"You've got to be quicker on your feet, Li!" I called out.

He shot me a look but I ignored him.

Instead, I turned my attention to the boys sitting on the bench. "A split dodge isn't exactly easy to see coming, but that's the whole point. If you're on defense, blocking it really just comes down to being quick on your feet. You've got to learn how to watch their hands and their feet at the same time because you have to know if they're going to pass or fake you out."

I watched as Brett slammed into Liam on his way to the goal, sending Liam to the ground. I cringed and took a seat on the bench. It wasn't hard to tell that Liam was getting worked up and it was making me nervous.

A minute later, Liam ducked down and all but threw Brett over his shoulder before scooping up the ball and heading towards the goal. He made the shot and the ball tore through the net.

Brett jogged up to him a minute later, playfully bumping into him. To everyone else, it looked harmless, like he was congratulating Liam on a good shot. I could tell it was something else, especially when Liam left the field and headed to the locker rooms.

Instead of following, I decided to give him time to calm down. I took a deep breath and stood back up. "Alright, guys, why don't you head out onto the field and try running some of these drills?"

The freshmen all hopped up and jogged onto the field.

I walked along the sideline and watched them, but my mind was elsewhere. I was worried about my brother. It seemed like he was having a harder and harder time trying to control his anger and I didn't want it to become a problem again. My eyes flickered over to where Brett was still helping run drills and tugged at the sleeves of my sweater. When I looked back to the freshmen, I noticed that the group was one short. My head swiveled around toward the bench, wondering if someone had stopped to get a drink but no one was there. Assuming someone was just sick, I turned back to the field.

After watching the guys run drills for a while, I checked my watch to see that it was getting late and there was a history test coming up that Liam, Corey, Mason, and I were going to study for together.

I jogged over to where Mason was sitting on the bleachers. "Hey, if we're going to study for that test we should probably go soon. I'll let Corey know and then we can grab Liam from the locker room."

I called out to the boys who were practicing that they were free to continue running drills if they wanted but if not, they could head home. Then I walked over to Corey to tell him the same thing I had told Mason.

When Corey walked over to grab his water bottle from the bench, Brett walked up to me.

"You ever considered being a lacrosse coach?" He asked.

I laughed. "You know, now that you mention it, I'm sure the life of a high school lacrosse coach is far more fulfilling than that of a surgeon."

"Yeah, alright. But you were really good with those guys. They listen to you." He said.

I shrugged. "They're ambitious. I'm pretty sure they're willing to listen to anyone who can help. Not to mention that I'm the captain's sister."

"I'm sure the fact that you're cute doesn't hurt."

"I was thinking the exact same thing but I didn't really want to brag or anything. I mean, honestly, I think I am the cutest person here." I smirked.

"I'm wounded. But, I can't say I disagree."

I laughed and smiled up at him. "I have missed you, you know? You should come around more. I'm sure mom and dad wouldn't mind having you and Lori over for dinner sometime."

Brett grinned. "Sounds great. Just talk to your parents about when might be a good time and let me know. Lori and I would love to be there."

"Perfect," I said, glancing at my watch again. "I'm supposed to study with the guys and I'm sure you probably need to head home but I'll see you soon, right?"

He nodded. "Of course."

I smiled and reached up to hug him again.

He bent down closer to my height to squeeze his arms around my waist.

I pecked his cheek before pulling away and following Mason and Corey who were heading towards the building. I called out a goodbye to Brett before grabbing my bag and running to catch up with the guys.

When we got inside, most of the team had already disappeared and Liam was sitting on one of the benches and tying his shoes.

"Hey, guys." He greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Just looking for you. History test tomorrow? We need to study." Mason said.

"Yeah, right. That's probably a good idea since I have no idea what it's on." Liam responded with a laugh.

Corey shot me a weird look when we realized that Liam's locker door was mysteriously missing but neither of us said anything about it. "It's on Mussolini and the role of fear-baiting in the rise of fascism. We can study together."

"Yeah, can we take the test together?" Liam asked.

I rolled my eyes jokingly before spotting something on the floor. It looked like blood but I wondered why Liam hadn't been able to smell it. "Um, guys?"

They all turned to look at the spot my eyes were fixated on.

I walked over, following the trail of blood to the showers. On the way there, I found discarded shoulder pads on the floor and the concentration of blood continued to grow.

What we saw on the floor of the showers caused a shriek to tear from my lips before I stumbled a few steps backward, slamming into Liam. One of his hands landed on my shoulder before he moved around me to get a closer look at the skinless body on the ground.

I turned around, not able to look at it any longer. My heart was racing in my chest and I couldn't get my hands to stop shaking.

Corey was the closest person to me and I stepped towards him.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest. I closed my eyes and tried to convince myself that what I had seen wasn't real. But I knew it was.

I scolded myself, knowing that if I wanted to be a surgeon, that I would have to be used to seeing the human body in multiple disturbing ways. But I'd never stumbled upon a body with no skin, no face.

I took a deep breath and pulled away from Corey.

"How are we supposed to tell who it is? There's no face. There's not even a mouth or eyes. It's like it isn't even a person. What the fuck is going on?" I said. "This isn't possible. This doesn't happen, it can't happen."

Liam turned around to face us. "We can figure out who this is. We know it's a lacrosse player. Was there anyone who wasn't at drills?"

"Yeah, I noticed that there was one person missing. I just thought someone had gotten sick or something." I paused and pulled my phone from my pocket. "I'm sending out a group text to all the lacrosse players I have numbers for."

"What are you going to do? Ask who isn't the dead body?" Liam asked.

"Obviously not. I just figured I'd make something up." I said.

"Like what?" Corey asked.

I looked around for an idea, trying not to look at the body on the floor. I noticed the discarded shoulder pads near my feet. "I'll just ask if anyone left their shoulder pads out and tell them that I stuck them in coach's office for them to get tomorrow."

I moved to sit down on a bench as my thumbs typed out the text before selected all of the lacrosse players names and hitting send.

Within a minute, responses were coming in.

I noticed that Liam was on his phone too, probably doing the same thing I was.

By the time ten minutes had passed, we'd received responses from almost everyone. Except for one person.

"Aaron's the only one we haven't heard from." Liam pointed out.

I closed my eyes, thinking back to all of the guys I'd seen running drills. And Aaron had never made it out onto the field. "He wasn't out there earlier. Did you guys talk to him before?"

Mason nodded. "Yeah, he was in here. We talked to him."

My eyes focused on the body without meaning to. "What if it's him?"

"We can't jump to that conclusion yet." Mason said. "We can all split up and look. I'll check the library."

"And I'll go look in the gym." Corey offered.

"I'll look in the east wing." I said.

"I'll check the second floor." Liam said. "Everyone meet by the stairs in ten?"

We nodded before leaving the locker room.

We all took off in different directions. I was at a dead sprint headed towards the east wing where most of the science classes were held.

"Aaron?" I called out, slowing to a jog. "Aaron? Hello? Anyone here?"

There was no response and all of the classrooms were empty.

I took off in the direction I'd come from and checked the adjoining hallway, coming up empty again. When I realized that it had been almost ten minutes, I ran back towards the stairs.

We all made it there at the same time. No one had seen Aaron. Mason suggested checking the parking lot to see if his car was there and we all took off together.

Just as we passed one classroom, we saw Aaron sitting inside at one of the desks so we all walked in.

"Aaron?" Liam said.

A second passed before he turned around, a smile on his face. "Hey, guys."

"Thank god you're okay." Mason breathed. "Where have you been?"

"I forgot we have a history test tomorrow." He said, gesturing towards the open text book on the desk.

"We've been trying to call you." Corey said.

Aaron reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, pressing the home button several times. The screen remained black. "Huh. Must've died."

I ran a hand through my hair and walked back out into the hall. Corey and Mason followed but Liam remained in the classroom.

"Do you guys think he seems a little off? Or is that just me?" I asked.

Corey nodded. "Yeah, maybe a little bit."

I sighed and pulled my phone out again.

"What are you doing now?" Liam asked when he stepped out into the hall.

"Someone has to call in the body." I explained. "I was just going to call Stilinski on his cell. If I call the station directly to report it, they'll question me. Maybe all of us."

Liam gave me a nod and I found Stilinski's contact info as I walked back toward the locker room to get my backpack from where I'd left it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sheriff. Um, I have some news you're not gonna want to hear." I said.

"Are you okay? Who's hurt?" He asked immediately.

I took a deep breathe before answering. "No one's hurt. Well, that's kind of complicated, actually. But we found a body at the high school, in the locker room."

Stilinski sighed. "Wonderful. Do you know who it is?"

"That part is even more complicated. There's… There's no skin on the body. No eyes, no mouth, no face. It's stripped down to the muscle. We thought it was someone from the lacrosse team but all the boys are accounted for, we've talked to all of them."

"Who is 'we?'" He asked.

"Liam, Mason, Corey, and myself." I said. "Liam was in the locker room when we went to look for him because we need to study for a test tomorrow. I noticed a trail of blood on the floor and we followed it. The body was in the showers."

"Didn't Liam smell it?"

I shrugged before I remembered he couldn't see me. "I guess not. And I feel like there's a damn good reason why but I haven't figured it out yet."

"Okay, I'll gather up a couple units, put a call in to the coroner, and head down there. You kids should probably get out of there before anyone else to shows up." He said and I could hear the faint jingle of keys.

"Okay, we'll be gone. Thanks, Stilinski."

"Thanks for the call. Be careful, alright?"

I smiled. "You, too, Sheriff."

We hung up and I stuffed my phone back into my pocket before sprinting into the locker room, grabbing my bag from the floor, and sprinting back out. I didn't want to be near that body any longer than necessary.

"You guys ready?" I asked when I found them again.

They all nodded once.

"Are you riding with me?" I turned to my brother.

"Yeah. Corey will ride with Mason. I guess we'll just study at home instead of the library." He said.

"Sounds good. Stilinski said it was probably best if we're not here when the cops show up. He also pointed out a pretty good question."

"What?"

"Why didn't you smell the blood?" I asked.

Liam's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. "I didn't even think about that. I was pretty worked up when I came in. I guess I just didn't realize it."

I nodded. "Makes sense. Let's just get out of here, okay? Knowing that body's in there is creeping me out."

20 minutes later we were all back at the house, in Liam's room. Corey was sitting at the desk, Liam and Mason were sprawled on the floor between the end of the bed and the tv stand, and I was sitting on the bed, propped up against the headboard. There were drinks and several bags of chips distributed throughout the room.

"So, who was Mussolini exactly?" Liam asked.

"He was an Italian politician and journalist. He became Prime Minister in 1922, ruled constitutionally until 1925 when he turned Italy from a democracy to a dictatorship. He was the founder of Italian Fascism and lead the national fascist party. In 1912 he was actually part of the socialist party in Italy but was kicked out because he was an advocate for military intervention in WWI, when Italy was a neutral country. About ten years later he lead the March on Rome alongside the Blackshirts, a voluntary militia that used violence as a means to oppress socialism in the nation. The king himself selected Mussolini as Prime Minister which was stupid but allowed the fascist party to gain control without armed conflict." I explained, highlighting things in my notes while I spoke.

"So he was kind of a Nazi?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Not in so many words, but kind of. Germany invaded Poland in 1939 which lead to France and the UK declaring war and effectively starting WWII. By June of 1940, it seemed pretty obvious that France was going to fall, Italy entered the war on Germany's side. Mussolini knew that Italy's army was way too small to stand much of a chance against Britain's army. However, he thought that they could essentially steal territories from France when their army fell. Then he planned a major offensive in North Africa where Italian troops outnumbered British ones."

"Wait, slow down. What does this have to do with fearbaiting?"

"That kind of ties in with the Blackshirts and the March on Rome. They used violence to stifle socialists which scared people into following them. The king elected him as Prime Minister to stop any unnecessary violence which lead to rise of fascism in the nation." Mason explained.

"And then they helped the Nazis in WWII." Corey interjected.

"Yeah, pretty much." I said.

Liam nodded, still looking vaguely confused. "I need a fucking break."

I laughed as he laid face down on the floor and fell silent.

"Honestly, I could use a break too." Mason said.

I pushed my books from my lap and shifting so that I was curled up on top of Liam's pillows. "Sounds like a good plan."

A minute later, my phone chimed and I found a text from Stilinski. "Hey, Stilinski just texted me. 'Body was sent to the morgue for an autopsy, coroner has no idea what's going on. PD is trying to keep this quiet for now.'"

"Will they be able to find out who it is when they do the autopsy?" Corey asked.

I shrugged and dropped my phone back onto the bed. "Definitely not by looking at it. But they can take a sample of DNA and run it through the database. Even then, there's no guarantee that they'll find any definitive results."

"Why not?" Liam asked.

"If there's no sample of their DNA in the database, they won't be able to find them." Mason said before looking to me. "But can't they find someone else with similar DNA? Like, a parent or a sibling?"

I nodded. "If they're in the system. That could help narrow it down. We just have to wait and see what they find out when they do the autopsy."

"Does this mean we can go to the library now? There's a study group." Corey said.

"I guess so. But honestly, I already put on my comfy clothes." I said, gesturing to the oversized blue sweatshirt and grey Adidas leggings I had on. "I don't leave the house again after I put on the comfy clothes."

"It's true. She really doesn't." Liam said. "And my brain is fried so I'm going to pass on the study group."

"Yeah, same." Mason said. "If you want to go, you can."

Corey seemed pretty set on the idea of going so he packed up his stuff, we said goodbye, and he left.

I watched from my spot on the bed as Liam turned on his Xbox and him and Mason started playing a game.

Another text popped up on my phone and I opened it.

Nolan: Hey, are you busy?

Me: Taking a break from studying. I have a history test tomorrow.

Nolan: I was hoping you could help me study for bio. I have a test and I have no idea what I'm doing.

I smiled before typing a response.

Me: Sorry, Holloway. I totally would but I'm kind of exhausted. There's a study group at the library tonight, maybe someone there could help you.

Before getting a response from him, I'd already fallen asleep.

I'm not sure how long it was before I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders, vigorously shaking me back to consciousness.

"What's goin' on?" I mumbled.

"Lauren, you gotta get up. Scott just texted me." Liam said.

I pushed myself up, resting on my elbows. "What happened?"

"Lori found Brett's lacrosse stick, it was broken and covered in blood. Brett's blood."

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"Ren, he's missing."