I am glad some people liked my last chapter. Warning: this could be a triggering chapter, as violent things such as suicide is mentioned. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED xD

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I don't own anything except my OC's and the plot!

"It's true. There was a murder." I began to sweat as I look up, trying to see Cat from a distance. A cold chill went down my bent spine and I shiver from the sight. The sound of a small breaking branch is made behind me. When I turn around, I see Cat. I jump and fall on my back onto the grass, trying to defend myself.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry for scaring you." She says while helping me up.

I shyly take her hand and let her help me up. I shake off all the dirt that I might have gotten onto my clothes. "Yeah. I think so. But you scared the crap out of me though."

"I am sorry, Tori." Cat blushed with embarrassment.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" I asked.

Cat shook her head. "No. Now I am really upset." I grab her shoulder and give it a tight squeeze.

"It's okay. We can go buy new ones tomorrow."

Cat's sudden frown turned into a big smile. "Sure. That would be fun."

Before school is over the next day.

"The what?" I was totally confused about all this. The group was telling me about a certain festival that happens every year in this village, but I don't get why it's so special here.

"The Diable Coulee festival. Robbie has a spot on the committee, you know." Jade explained to me.

I leaned forward, putting my elbows on my desk. I held my head up with my hand, as I focused most of my intention on the conversation. "So, what is this festival anyway?"

"It's when we get to go to the outskirts of town and we pay our respects to them by having a memorial service."

"Sounds like a boring festival." I yawned.

Andre butted in and spoke. "No, it's defiantly not a boring festival. We can hardly wait for it!"

"Yeah. There's going to be games and food stands, plus there is a memorial dance at the end."

I smiled. "Oh, I get it now. I can't wait."

...

I walked home with Beck and Robbie, since they offered today. Jade and Cat had to be somewhere right after school. As we were walking, I see someone far away. As we walked closer, the figure turned out to be Kyle Vincent, the tourist.

"Hey there!" Kyle had a camera in his hands and he was taking pictures of the nature in the village. As I waved and called out to him, he stopped and faced my direction and smiling with a big, goofy grin.

"Oh hey, Tori. It's nice to see you again."

"You too."

We walked closer and stopped right in front of him. "Have you taken any good pictures?" Beck asked.

"I think I got a couple of good ones." Kyle laughed. "Wow. Tori, I didn't know you were so popular. I'm jealous."

"No, it's not what it looks like." I awkwardly laughed and the boys did as well.

"You going to be here in time for the festival?" Robbie asked.

"That's the plan. I want to stay until the festival is over and then go back to Los Angeles." Kyle said.

"I am hoping your pictures win a whole bunch of awards." Robbie smiled.

Kyle started laughing hard and he came closer to us. "Man...I will see you guys at the festival. It was nice you, Tori." He walked off with his camera and we started walking back home.

"So, you guys know Kyle too?" I asked them both. It seems pretty odd that they would know them.

"He comes to Westlake twice a year." Beck explained.

Robbie followed up shortly after him. "He is always taking pictures of the wildlife and nature here. I guess it's for vacation."

"Vacation, huh?" I muttered.

A couple of days went by and the festival date came right around the corner.

Robbie came up to us. "Hey guys. Ready for the festival?"

"Totally. I can't wait!" I said excitedly.

"Come on, let's go!" Jade said, with the rest of them following.

All of us went to all the stands. We had a lot of food competitions among us. It was fun. There were also plenty of games to play too. I won a couple of prizes, too. The day went by so fast, I couldn't keep track of time.

Time flew until it was 10 pm. It was time for the memorial dance. Jade took my wrist and pulled me over to were the others were standing. When it started, a loud bass drum created a beat as the single dancer performed a ritual dance in front of the village people. Many of them were enjoying it as most of there attention were glued to the dancer.

As the festival ended, I was walking around with Cat, just chatting until we wanted to go home. I walked along the path, just along the river that runs through the village. I see Kyle, along with someone else. A woman. She was talking to him as I saw her mouth moving.

I look behind me and see that Cat had wandered off. She was here just a minute ago.

I decided to walk up to Kyle and start a conversation. "Kyle." I hollered for him. He turns to me as I run up to him.

"How's it going? Where are the others?" He asked.

"Cat was just with me. She must of ran off somewhere."

The woman started to speak to me. "What did you think of it, Tori? Were you able to enjoy the festival?" She giggles with an adorable smile.

"Uh...I guess." I said nervously.

"Really?" She giggles again. Who is this person anyway?

"So after tonight, do you think you can say you're officially apart of this village?"

"I don't know. I am still in the dark about a few things. I get the feeling that I'm in the dark about some stuff."

Kyle started speaking. "Why? About Westlake?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Well, there's some stuff about the construction. I heard they were going to kick them out. That was a big deal back then, right?"

"I think they started planning it about six to seven years ago. For awhile, it looked like the village was doomed."

I was shocked and thankful to get some info from Kyle. "Wow, you're kidding."

"Most of the town protested against it. The plans were eventually withdrawn after all the scandals and corruption behind it."

I wanted to ask this ever since he mentioned it. And I've also tried getting answers. There could be a possibility he knows more behind the murder. "What about a murder, where the victim was chopped up? Have you heard about that?"

Kyle nodded. "I have. It happened four years ago, around this time of year. I think it happened the day of the festival."

The mysterious woman started to speak instead of Kyle. "All the villagers were positive it was Orias's curse."

"What's that?" I have never heard this before. There is a curse?

I turned to Kyle. "People said that it was fine punishment by the guardian god, Orias in Westlake. Revenge for threatening to kick the villagers out."

"Since that time, the curse has happened every single year." The woman said to me.

"What happened then?" I asked.

"Each year, on the day of the festival, someone dies." Kyle says. His voice was dark and eerie.

I was shocked. "Every year?"

Kyle nodded. "On the day of the festival, after the year the body was found, a resident of Westlake, who supported the constrution threw himself off the clock tower, that's in the middle of town. As for his wife, she disappeared. They never found her body."

"The year after that, the priest came down with a mysterious illness and dropped dead on the floor. His wife hung herself the very same day, but the police never found her body that time either." The woman said. "The following year, a woman was found burned to death while locked in a cabin household on the outskirts of town."

"Really?" I was shocked. I didn't know that this even happened, let alone thought of. I couldn't believe that this small village was cursed. It's stupid. But still, all these deaths makes my stomach turn.

"I know, strange isn't it? Remember the man who threw himself off the tower. His younger brother was married to the woman who was burned to death."

I was speechless. I didn't know how to take in all of this. A panic sweat rolls don my forehead. Kyle started to speak again after the woman's pause in speech. "After the first murder, four festivals have been held. The fifth one is...tonight."

My eyes go wide. Who is going to get killed this year? Am I in danger?

What Kyle told me the other night, really freaked me out. All those mysterious deaths that happened during the festival and to believe that I had nothing to do with that. I was looking out the window of the classroom, rethinking all the things he said.

I still get chills after I think of each murder. It couldn't be possible or is it?

"Hey, Tori! Are you there?" Jade yelled. It quickly got my attention.

I jumped and swiftly turned to meet her gaze. "Sorry, I guess I spaced out for a bit. I got to go to the bathroom."

"Okay, have fun with your number 2!" Jade yelled to me. She started laughing, along with Cat.

"Jade, that's gross!" Cat laughed again. The boys were across the room. As I reach for the handle of the bathroom door, the teacher comes to me, looking like she has something to say.

"There is a gentleman wanting to see you. I told him to wait at the entrance." The teacher walked back into the classroom and I headed outside. There was a tall man, smoking a cigarette. He took it out of his mouth and started to speak to me.

"Are you Tori? Tori Vega?" He asked.

"That's me. Who are you?"

He pulls out his police badge to show me. "My car has got air conditioning. Do you mind if we talk in there?"

I nod my head in agreement and start following him into the car. As I got in and shut the door, he starts speaking to me. "So what do you want to talk to me about?"

He handed me a photo. "Do you know this man in the picture? If you do, I would like to know everything about him."

"Isn't that Kyle Vincent?" It was him for sure. I recognize that camera anywhere. He took it back and gave me a new one. "If you know who that was, you probably know the woman in this picture."

He shows me the picture of the woman that was with Kyle. She had long brown hair and nice blue eyes. "Yeah. I don't know her name, but she was with Kyle at the time."

"When was the last time you saw both of them?" He asks.

"Last night." I say confidently. "I talked to them at the Diable Coulee festival."

"And did you notice anything strange about those two? I need you to tell me everything you can remember." He takes another cigarette from his box and lights it. The foul smell spreads as he takes a drag.

"Did something happen to them?"

His window goes down as he starts talking again. "For starters, the guy in the picture, he died last night."

He died!? My arms become a little numb after hearing the news. "He was killed on the day of the festival. Going out on a limb here, but I'm sure you know what that means."

"What that means?" Is he talking about the curse?

"I am talking about the curse of Orias."

"Can you tell me what happened to Kyle?" I asked.

"He was found by one our patrol cars as he was heading back to the station. And the time was five minutes to midnight. It starts where the road leads out of town. It was dark, maybe just for one or two street lights. One of our men found him and he was very dead." He throws his evidence book onto the passenger seat.

I lean back, taking a heavy breath. The officer starts to speak again. "When we found him, the ground was covered in blood. The autopsy told us that he dug at his skin, until he reached an artery. He tore through that as well. Kyle decided to use all of his strength to dig into his wrists. We figured he might have been on drugs, so we ran tests but everything came back negative. We did find something else. Bruises on the body. There's a possibility that someone else could be attacked by someone. Perhaps more than one person."

"More than one?" I don't know why I keep answering these questions. I could just leave. Or maybe there is a part of me who wants to figure out the truth. No. It's all of it.

"We've got the time of death estimated between 10 and 11 pm. That means he died right after you saw him."

I leaned forward again, not feeling comfortable. "What happened to the woman?"

"The lady is still missing. I have a feeling she could be involved with this. The way this thing turned out, people are going to say this is the curse of Orias killed Kyle Vincent. The night of the festival, Orias probably got upset. You with him running around the sacred ritual, taking pictures. That's the way the folks here will see it."

"You got to be kidding me? There's no such thing as curses." I say.

"You have a point there. I need someone here who doesn't believe in curses to help me out. And it looks like I am choosing you. You can keep me informed. Even if it's just a rumor, I want to know about it. Here's my card with my number."

He passes me his card and I put it my front pocket of my jeans. "Everything we've talked about here is confidential. So you can't talk about this to that Jade West girl and her group of friends."

"Why? Is Jade involved?" He takes another drag and mushes the butt into the ash tray in the front.

"Right now, I have no idea. That's why I don't you saying anything."

"I can't do that."

He turns to me. "Think about it this way, you want to keep it a secret because you don't want anyone in the village who believes in the curse to freak out about it. So tell me, how does that sound?"

"I guess it does." I opened the door to this car and started to head out. "By the way, my name is Detective Wolf of the LA police." I continued to walk to class, without turning back.

I don't know what to think now. Anyone could be involved. Kyle talked to everyone around here.

Later in class, my head was down. I did all the required school work today and I was tired. Plus I got a lot going on. As I am half asleep, I hear Cat and Jade in the background. They are whispering, trying not to upset the surroundings. "I heard she disappeared during the night of the festival."

"But there are others too, right?" That was Cat's voice.

"I'm not sure if she was hit by the curse or got spirited away." Spirited away? What does that even mean?

I hear Jade's voice. "If it really was him, then.."

Cat goes into panic. "Am I next? Am I?"

"You came back, so you have nothing to worry about." Jade said.

"Yeah, but Sabrina didn't come back."

Jade sighs. "That's all in the past now. Let's not talk about this anymore."

The bell rings and class is dismissed. Everyone is huddled over a group of desks. "Oh crap, I got to go again. I have to help my family with something. Sorry." I see Jade grabbing her bags and taking it with her.

"That's alright." We say. All of us were going to go to the park today since it was so nice out. But it looks like that got cancelled.

The males start fixing the class, while I started talking to Cat. "Has there been anyone who transferred out of this class?"

"A few did."

"What about this Sabrina person? Did she transfer?"

Cat froze. "I'm sorry I really don't know. I think he transferred out the same time I got here. As a consequence I didn't get to talk to him very much."

As both of us started walking home, I grow more suspicious of Cat. She changed tone if I get on a particular subjects like Sabrina. I roll my eyes. "Hey, Cat."

She stopped and turned to me. "You guys aren't lying or keeping any secrets from me, are you?"

"Secrets? We're not keeping any secrets."

I grow angry at her reply. "You're lying, right?"

"What's that suppose to mean? Huh, Tori?"

"You're keeping something secret from me, aren't you?"

Her personality changes from cute and bubbly to horrifying in a second. "What about you? Aren't you lying and keeping secrets from all of us? Aren't you lying? And keeping secrets from us? Aren't you?"

"No, I'm not lying or keeping any secrets for that matter."

Cat almost cuts me off. "You're lying."

"Why do you think I'm lying?" I ask Cat.

"Earlier today, you said you were going to the teachers office when she called you. But I know for a face you didn't go the teachers office. You were sitting in a car parked in front of the gate talking to someone. A man you don't know."

I quietly gasp as my jaw opens. How does she know this? "Tell me, just who was he?"

"I didn't really know the guy." I said honestly.

"Well, what would a guy you don't know want to talk to you about?"

I rapidly defended myself the best I could to get Cat tot back off. "That's what I wanted to know!"

"Fine then, what were you talking about?" She asks again.

I begin to stutter. "It didn't have anything to do with you, I promise."

"LIAR!" Cat shouted. Birds flew out of the nearby tree and flew away. She walked slowly towards me. "Just like you have things to hide from us, we have things to hide from you."

I feel terrified from Cat's change and start shaking in fear. "Sure...I got ya..."

Cat changed back to normal and began to walk again. "Let's go." She says to me. I get myself out of my frozen state, I catch up with Cat as she walks home.

As I am lying on the floor, in my bedroom, I hear the phone ring. I pick it up. "Hello?"

"Hi this is Andrew Wolf, from the Los Angeles Book Store. Sorry for calling so late."

"Hi Detective Wolf."

"How are you doing? Is there anything you know?" I start thinking for a bit. A scary image of Cat after school today gave me the creeps.

I swallow a gulp of air. "Do you know what spirited away means?"

"Yes. It's used the village quite a lot, but it doesn't differ from the original meaning."

I nod to myself. "Jade and Cat were talking about it today, something about the curse and being spirited away."

"Hey, Vega. Do you know about the first murder?"

"Yes. I heard one of the murders are still out there. I feel sorry for myself for asking.

"What if the person on the run wasn't? What if they were spirited away?"

I begin to get confused. "What about the year after that? Where the guy threw himself off the clock tower. And his wife also died."

"To tell you the truth, only the man died. The woman's body wasn't found."

"The year after that, when the priest got sick and died and his wife that committed suicide."

"Same thing goes for that one too. The wife's body wasn't found, we only found the suicide note. I wouldn't call that spirited away. I guess in the case of the curse, one dies and one disappears."

I scratch my head in confusion. "Then what about the house wife who burned to death? Did anyone go missing? I am sure you caught the murder that time."

"Yeah. We caught him. I think he was a drug addict. The thing is though, not to long after he was arrested, the dead lady's children had disappeared."

"Seriously? Even when you caught him?" This is all too much.

"He died at the containment facility, just after we caught him, so you could say the truth was buried with him." (This could be incorrect, I don't know much about this things, so bare with me)

"What about the lady's missing kid?"

"The kid's about a year older than you, or was. I got her name right here, Sabrina Archer. The kid went to same school as you, Vega." I remember when I first got here. The teacher mention someone transferring.

As I got realized what's going on around me, I hear a knock on my door. "Hey Tori, could you open the door?"

"I am going to have to call you back." I said to Detective Wolf.

"Okay, call me again if you know more."

"Yea, bye." I hung up and opened the door. My dad was there. He had two glasses of pop in his hand. "What are you doing here?"

He looked around. "Wasn't Cat here a minute ago? Did she leave already?" I start to tremble.

She wasn't here at all. In fact, I didn't even see her. "Cat was here?"

My dad nodded. "Don't hide it. Weren't you talking to her the whole time?"

"Dad, did you see her walk up the stairs?"

"Yes. I did. Told her your room was just up the stairs and the first door on the right." He says.

I shut my door fast and start to breathe heavily. My heart began to beat faster. My paranoia rose as I looked at the phone. "Hey! No need to be embarrassed!" My dad said, but it was too late.

I was positive she saw me talking to him a minute ago. I was sure of it. She had been standing right outside my room, listening to our conversation. Cat had heard everything I said to Detective Wolf.

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Until next chapter!

~xhumanoidxify