Happy Halloween everyone! :-)
So, here is the actual story. It's definitely the first time I've ever written anything like this, so it was actually pretty fun to write something different. I hope you like it. :-)

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonny with a Chance or the Olive Garden.

--------

Chapter One: Be More Careful

Sonny Munroe walked across the college's front lawn for the last time that year. Finals were over and she was free for the summer… for the most part. She still had one last thing to take care of before she'd be entirely free.

In the parking lot she saw one of her friends across the lot getting into their car.

"Tracy!" Sonny called to get her attention.

The girl named Tracy turned and waved when she saw Sonny. "Hey! Have a good summer! I'll see you next year, Sonny!"

"Have fun in Europe!" Sonny smiled, waving back at her.

"Have fun at your thing in California! Let me know if they'll be showing it in Paris so I can tape it!" Tracy joked.

"Ha ha," Sonny fake-laughed, giving a final wave to Tracy and getting into her car.

She'd regretted agreeing to travel all the way from Wisconsin back to California for Condor Studios' big "reunion" of sorts. They were trying to bring all of their "old" shows' stars back to host a big premiere weekend for the new stars and the new shows on Condor Channel. Sonny would have to film the bits they'd put in the commercial breaks and do a photo shoot with the actors from So Random, Hoosier Girl, The Scene, and Mackenzie Falls. Not exactly on the top of her list of things she wanted to do. Somehow though, she'd been convinced by her mom and friends to do it, and so she'd have to spend tonight packing for the trip.

Sonny turned down the road to her apartment building with a heavy sigh. Going back there wasn't something she wanted to do at all. Especially if a certain someone was also going to be able to make it.

Just what I need. Someone in my ear constantly asking why I'm still single and haven't dated ever since-, Sonny's thoughts cut off and she stubbornly set her chin. Nope. Not going to think about it.

"Not now anyway," Sonny added aloud as she pulled into the complex's parking lot and parked.

As soon as she opened the door, her roommate and friend, Lisa, was in her face and frantically pulling her inside by the wrist. "Sonny, have you seen the news?" Lisa asked, her words tumbling out in a rush.

"No, why?" Sonny asked. When realization hit her she frowned but still let Lisa drag her over to the TV. "Lisa, I'm telling you, I do not care who that jerk-face is dating now. I'm over him. Hasta la vista, Jerky."

"No it's not that. Someone was murdered last night," Lisa hurriedly said.

"Lisa, I really hate to say this, but is that really anything new in these dark times?"

Lisa pushed Sonny towards the couch and turned the volume up on the TV set. "No, but it's not always someone you knew."

Sonny's eyes flew to the headline running across the screen and frowned. "Uh, another celebrity's dog died?" Her eyebrows quirked up and she smiled quizzically.

"Huh?" Lisa looked at the TV and grabbed the remote with a huff. "Our society today," she mumbled under her breath. "I swear it was on before you came in."

Sonny laughed and set her bag down on the couch while Lisa flipped through the channels until she got to another news station that was actually showing the headline she had been referring to.

"...a previous Mackenzie Falls star was murdered-"

Sonny spun around and stared at the screen in horror.

"-last night in the crowd of a Candlesticks concert," Jane Grace, the reporter onscreen reported grimly.

Lisa watched as Sonny covered her mouth in horror and dropped to a sitting position on the couch and suddenly it dawned on Lisa.

"Sonny, it's not that guy, Cad, who you're still hung up on. It was his costar Marissa Waters," Lisa assured her.

The horror drained from Sonny's face and she gave Lisa a look. "Three things: one, you could've told me that first. Two, I'm not still hung up on him. And three, his name is Chad, not Cad."

"I know what I said," Lisa said with her eyebrows raised. "Anyway I just figured since you were friends with Mackenzie Falls that you'd want to know about that poor Marissa."

"I wasn't friends with them," Sonny said, shaking her head. "They were our rival show. We were friends with the Hoosier Girl and The Scene casts."

"Oh. How'd I get that mixed up?" Lisa shook her head and looked back at the screen, pointing to it with the end of the remote. "It's still horrible, though."

"Yeah… How could she get killed at a concert though?"

"Well, I know you've never been to a Candlesticks concert before, but they can get kind of crazy with the screaming fans and all that, so anyone seeing her get stabbed probably thought it was a joke or a stunt or something. Anyway, so this girl was at the concert with her best friend, and she even told her friend that she felt like she was being watched, but her friend didn't take Marissa seriously. So she left for a few minutes and when she came back her friend was dead on the ground. Throat slit, back stabbed," Lisa said with a grimace, slicing an imaginary blade across her throat and then into her back.

Sonny frowned in a grimace as well and looked at the TV screen. "That's horrible. I knew her a little through Chad and she was supposed to be just really nice and soft spoken."

An old scene from the final episode of Mackenzie Falls played on mute in the background of the news show while experts and reporters discussed her death.

"Why would anyone want to kill her?"

----

Later that night, Lisa walked into Sonny's bedroom with a forlorn expression on her face. In her right hand she held a carton of Chocolate Chip ice cream and in her left hand a box of tissues, both hidden behind her back and out of Sonny's line of sight.

Sonny looked up from her half full suitcase and scrambled to throw a purple blouse on top of something in it. She then proceeded to nervously close her suitcase and sit on it. "What's up?" Sonny greeted Lisa overly-casually. "Just packing for the reunion."

"I have some bad news for you, Sonny," Lisa stated sadly.

"What's wrong?" Sonny had to catch herself on the edge of the bed when she started sinking on the top of the flimsy suitcase cover. Finally she simply stood up and kicked the suitcase conspicuously under her bed.

Lisa's mouth twisted down further. "You knew Grady Mitchell right?"

Sonny looked over Lisa's face for any trace of a joke. "Yeah. …Wait, 'knew'?"

Lisa brought out the tissues and ice cream and once Sonny took them she slid two spoons out of her sweatshirt's front pocket.

"He's… dead too?"

Lisa nodded.

----

"So, you're really still going to that stupid reunion thing?"

Portlyn balanced her cell phone, carryon bag, and cup of coffee in her hands as she shuffled over to a seat closest to her terminal.

"Even with Marissa and that kid from So Random both skewered within twenty-four hours?" Jamie McAdams asked in awe. She used to be an actress from the once-popular show, Hoosier Girl, and after hearing about the two murders, had opted out on returning for the Condor Channel's Special Premiere Weekend recording and photo shoot.

"I already agreed to it, and besides that, I see no reason to be scared away by that." Portlyn pulled her sunglasses off, figuring it was safe at this point in the airport to take them off for now.

"But… you have to admit, the connection is pretty obvious. They both used to work with us at Condor Studios. Someone else could die," Jamie stated nervously.

"I'm not worried," Portlyn said pointblank. "Besides, these days, you have to be more careful and not leave your friends alone at crazy concerts or in big empty studios. Do you know how Grady died?" She scooted onto the edge of her seat and crossed her legs.

"I didn't hear, no," Jamie responded.

"He was going to make a guest appearance on a new comedy show Condor came up with, was the last to leave the big confusing set full of all those crazy fun house mirrors, turned around, and got stabbed to death. And this time, they found this sick looking clown mask. It looked like a rainbow threw up on it."

"What kind of sick killer would wear a creepy mask like that?" Jamie asked rhetorically. "Sicko," she muttered absentmindedly, reapplying lipstick in front of a mirror.

Portlyn heard a toilet flushing on the other end of the phone and crinkled her eyebrows. "Where are you?"

"Olive Garden bathroom in Lancaster. I'm on a date with Riley Newman. We just finished with dinner and I'm freshening up my makeup."

Portlyn made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat. "Ugh, you're still dating him? I thought you dumped that idiot from The Seasons already."

Jamie rolled her eyes lightly. "It was called The Scene, Portlyn, and you know it. Riley's not an idiot, either. He's sweet."

"Well, just look out for any psycho killers there, 'kay?" Portlyn said, half-joking.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'll be sure to run if I see anyone in a demented mask with rainbow puke on it. Bye."

"See you."

Jamie hung up her cell phone but before she could put it away, movement in her peripheral vision got her attention and she looked up to see a medium-sized woman wearing black jeans and a baggy purple jacket. Covering the back of her head and the sides of her face was a colorful purple and blue headscarf that tied under her chin. She was facing the mirror as she took out a regular everyday makeup compact and then reached to take off her black gloves. Jamie exhaled slowly and shook her head. The last two murders had her paranoid.

"Excuse me?" the woman asked suddenly.

Jamie paused, her hand with the cell phone in it halfway to her purse. "Yes?"

"Do you know when this restaurant closes?" she inquired, setting her black gloves down on the edge of the white bathroom sink.

"I'm sorry, I don't," Jamie responded.

"That's alright. I'll ask at the front."

Jamie's cell phone suddenly slipped loose from her fingers and she sighed before she bent down to pick it up.

"Oh, but I do have one more thing to ask you," the woman said sweetly.

Footsteps echoed in the empty public bathroom and black tennis shoes came to a stop right in front of Jamie.

"Yes?"

"Jamie, is it…?"

Jamie's pulse started thudding instinctively in her veins as she picked up her cell phone and slowly began to stand up.

"I was just wondering-" A hand reached down and grabbed Jamie by the collar of her shirt, forcing her up to her eye level. "-if you still thought my mask was creepy and demented?"

Jamie gasped as she came face to face with the killer and it's truly horrifying mask that was well hidden under the headscarf from any side but the front. She suddenly noticed something on the killer's bare hand still gripping her collar and her eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, you're-"

Jamie's words were choked off as the killer drove a knife into her stomach. Her body went lifeless after a few seconds and her cell phone clattered to the tile floor, Jamie sagging to the ground in a heap next to it.

He/she pulled off their mask and stuffed it in their purse before making sure the headscarf was still on tight. Their hand went into the purse, pulled out a pair of large sunglasses and put them on.

The murderer then reached down and grabbed Jamie's abandoned cell phone off the ground. Their fingers looked through Jamie's address book, found Riley Newman's number and sent off a text message to him.

"Meet me behind the restaurant in two minutes."--------

Sigh. Yes, I named the band "Candlesticks." I don't know how early or how late it was when I gave the band a name, but whenever it was, it was the first thing that came to mind, and after a while it just sort of stuck.
Anyway, keep reading on to the second chapter. :-)