Hey, here's the new chapter! This episode is split into two parts, sorry 'bout it.

I was in the library working on my paper when Noah sat down beside me. He waggled his eyebrows dorkily, taking out his own homework to work on. The two of us worked in silence until I felt eyes on me, when I looked up I caught him staring. Instead of looking away like usual, he kept staring with his lips tilted up into a smile.

"Hiya," he whispered, brushing some of my hair behind my ear. "I like your hair like this."

I placed my bottom lip between my teeth scrunched my nose up. "Hush, I didn't even do anything to it this morning. I just dried it and left."

He twisted a lock of it around his finger, smiling at me shyly. "I'm really glad you sat with me and Audrey the first day you were here."

"I always feel like I'm interrupting something when I find you guys," Emma said, sitting at the other end of our table. "I'm sorry."

Noah dropped his hand from my hair, but I noticed he looked annoyed instead of embarrassed this time. I pushed that away and asked, "It's cool, what's up?"

"Do either of you have any idea where Audrey is?" she asked, leaning forward to get closer to us. "She's not answering her phone."

"She's taking the midterm she missed while she was audition to be the new Alex Vause," Noah replied. "Her phone's probably off. Are you okay?"

"No, not really," she sighed, which wasn't a big surprise –she only talked to us when she needed something. "Look, Will needs help."

"With what? Finding his moral compass?" I asked, looking at her incredulously.

"No, finding his phone," she replied, either missing or ignoring my tone. "Do you know how to find it, Noah?"

"Yeah, it's an app called 'Find my Phone'…" he replied, looking at her with the same expression I had earlier.

"Okay, let's say he doesn't have that app," she said, still trying to allude us from the actual reason she needed us.

"Well, I may be familiar with some GPS guidance software," he told her, smirking happily.

"There you go with that black hat talk…" I winked, figuring all best were off when it came to whatever we were now.

He returned my wink before he continued talking to Emma. "The question is, why would I do tech support for him? Why would you?"

She swallowed thickly and it was clear she was still in love with him, despite his mistakes. "So he doesn't die."

I'm sure my jaw dropped, but I don't know why. That wasn't even the strangest thing I've heard since I've been in Lakewood. I mean, Noah and I heard Riley get murdered via FaceTime a few weeks ago.

"Okay, that's a pretty good reason," he said, gathering his things and putting them in his bag before grabbing his phone. "All I need is his number and I can track it through DRADIS."

Emma looked at me and I just shrugged. It didn't matter how much time I spent with Noah, his techy jargon was still a complete mystery to me. She rattled off the digits from memory and he got to work, focusing on the screen in front of him and blocking out everything else.

A little while passed before he made an excited noise. "I've got an address, lead the way to your car, Emma."

We hauled ourselves out into her car and I slipped into the backseat. Noah gave directions as Emma drove recklessly, she must still be really in love with Will. I hope Noah or Audrey would rush to find me in a situation like this.

She parked in front of a big abandoned building that made my skin crawl. This had to be the right place, I'd become accustomed to creepy buildings and following my gut instinct. Noah seemed to agree because his eyes met mine in the rearview mirror and he shook his head. He also didn't feel very comfortable here.

"I'm going in," Emma said with a note of finality in her voice.

I heard her door open and close, leaving Noah and I sitting on the side of the road. Then I saw Brooke and Jake rushing up to her, I hadn't even realized they were following us. I guess Emma called them while Noah did some possibly illegal tracking. I seriously needed to work on my observation skills, they sucked.

"You know we have to go with them, right?" Noah asked, letting out a breath and opening his door.

"No, I wasn't aware of that. I don't even know those people, I seriously don't want to rush into the obvious trap this psychopath has waiting," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "No way, I'm not doing it."

"The thing is, I don't trust Jake or Brooke to be alone with Emma. I'm actually working on this theory of Jake being the killer," he explained, closing his door and turning around to face me. "I can't knowingly spin this theory without actual proof, I have to go and need you to go with me for moral support."

The entire walk to the abandoned building with the others I was grumbling under my breath. I felt Noah sling his arm around my shoulders, trying his best to comfort me. I wasn't lying when I said I didn't want to rush into a trap, I was afraid. I didn't want to die yet, I wanted to at least graduate from high school before that happened and possibly kiss Noah without the ruse of a diversion. I was a big fan of small goals, it made life a little easier to accomplish.

"Okay, it's time to weapon up," Noah said, eyeing the ominous building with a raised brow. "It's a creepy building with spotty cell signal and a psycho killer. The perfect setup of a mass murder."

"I got a skinner and a gut hook," Jake said, holding up a huge ass knife that made my skin crawl uncomfortably.

"Wait, why do you need that?" I asked, choosing to use my curiosity instead of my terror. "That's the biggest knife I've ever seen."

Jake looked at me with raised brows and said, "To skin and gut things? Duh, blondie!"

I don't know what I expected, but that definitely wasn't it. I slid impossibly closer to Noah and saw Brooke raise her brow in surprise. I guess the two of us weren't as obviously in love as Emma and Audrey made us out to be. Just as I was thinking that, Emma's phone rang and she excused herself to answer it.

"We have to find a way inside," I said, trying to not shiver every time Jake looked at me for too long.

"Right, let's split up and search for clues, gang," Brooke said sassily.

"I call blondie!" Jake said, loping over to me and wrapping his arm possessively around my shoulders. "If we have team names, we call 'totally gonna bang later.'"

I was disgusted but going with Jake would help me search for clues about his involvement. "Fine, but I'd rather tear my eyeballs out and wear them as earrings than bang you. Understood, Neanderthal?"

"I love it when you take charge," he winked.

"I'm coming with you!" Noah said, rushing over to the two of us.

"Uh, I'm not a big fan of threesomes with other dudes," Jake said, eyeing Noah suspiciously. "I get that you want her and everything, but she's on the Jake train right now. You can have my sloppy seconds if you want."

"Seriously? This is what you think we should be doing right now? Your best friend is missing and you're claiming Gwen like some lost luggage at an airport?" Emma shouted, making Jake look almost sheepish. "You three go that way, Brooke and I will go this way. If you find a way in, shout for us and we'll do the same."

"This sounds like the first of many bad decisions," Noah said ominously. "Write your blood type on your boots and leave your letters to your loved ones."

"Let's Shake n' Jake!"

Wow, this was the team I was exploring an old abandoned building with a possible psycho inside. I had a very, very bad feeling about the outcome of today. I seriously needed to start making better decisions.

Emma and I were leading the groups, we made eye contact one final time and nodded before breaking up. Birds were squawking and some sort of animal was chittering in the bushes, making my nerves even more frazzled. It wasn't helpful that Jake kept jabbing at the air with his knife every couple seconds. Now that Noah mentioned him being a suspect, I kind of saw it…

"Be careful up here, there's a lot of broken glass," I said over my shoulder, crunching carefully in my high tops. "Wouldn't want either of you to fall and cut yourself. We're way past the point of medical aid."

"Seriously, as much as I love a good indie horror flick, this is really terrifying," Noah confided, tucking his hands in his jacket pockets as he looked for an entrance. "This whole thing, leading us here, it's like he wants Emma to think she has some sort of power. Then he can just take it all away in a millisecond."

"It sounds almost like you've got a hard-on for the guy or something," Jake said, elbowing Noah's ribs playfully like the entire situation was a joke.

"What? No! He's like this crazy, psycho loser, killer guy!" he exclaimed.

I just rolled my eyes, I had the WORST crime fighting duo on my hands. I seriously missed Bi-Curious right now, the Virgins could definitely use her help instead of the Neanderthal… Neanderthal and the Virgins didn't have quite as nice of a ring to it.

"If this dick wanted Emma to find Will so bad, why didn't he leave a door open or something?" Jake asked, raising a very good question. "I mean, a trap's a trap, right?"

"This is the one and only time I'm ever going to be impressed with you, Jake Fitzgerald," I said, nodding my head in his direction. "Noah, you're our resident horror movie expert. Why is there not an obvious entrance marked with flashing lights and a sign?"

"He's playing cat and mouse," he replied, looking at us with raised brows. "He likes to play with his food before he eats it."

We'd almost came full circle when Emma shouted for us. She and Brooke found the entrance and it didn't seem too complicated to get into. Oh my God, this was most definitely a trap. I liked Will well enough, but I wasn't sure I was ready to die for him.

Noah slipped his hand into mine, intertwining our fingers. I guess he was having the same thought as me, maybe this wasn't a good idea. I looked over at him and we shared a look of fear, then we followed Jake around to where Emma and Brooke were waiting.

Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but the entrance was way too easy and this was a total trap. "Guys, am I the only one that thinks the entrance is way too simple? This looks like the most cliché trap I've ever seen in my life."

"You don't have to come!" Emma shouted in frustration. "I told you all you didn't have to come, it's my fault Will's in there and I have to go get him."

I flinched and took a step back, almost standing behind Noah. She didn't apologize, she just used a crowbar conveniently on the ground and pried the boards off the door. We all followed her inside, me bringing up the rear with Noah's hand still held tightly in mine.

"Hello? Will?" Emma shouted, but nothing responded.

"It's a bowling alley," Brooke said, eyeing the abandoned lanes across from us.

"Whoa! That's the most mack daddy jaguar-and-space-shuttle mural I've ever seen!" Noah exclaimed, gesturing to the wall.

"Oh my god, I bet it even glows in the dark!" I said, grinning at Noah goofily.

"Something tells me it's not the only thing that glows in the dark in here," Brooke gagged, eyeing something that looked suspiciously like a used condom on the floor. "This place is capital D disgusting."

I was tense the entire time we walked through the front of the bowling alley. I didn't want to be here, but I couldn't let Will die because I was scared. I'd dropped Noah's hand a while ago, but I made sure to stay close to him with Jake in sight. I still didn't trust him very much.

"I understand why he took me to the hospital, but why would he bring Will here?" Emma asked a little while later as we explored the creep building together.

"Maybe we should split up and look for Will. This place is big," Jake suggested, making all kinds of red flags pop up in my mind.

"Said no one who survived a horror movie, ever," Noah exclaimed in exasperation.

"Fine, I call searching with blondie again, sans the nerd this time," Jake said, using his biggest smile and winking at me for emphasis. "It'll be fun, I'll protect you from the scary psycho killer."

"This is so stupid!" I huffed, grabbing Jake's arm and stomping off to the right with Brooke close behind us. "If I die, I'm going to be so pissed at you, Fitzgerald."

"This is a threesome I can definitely get behind!" Brooke slapped Jake's arm so I didn't have to.

We searched silently together for a while until she said, 'So quiet…"

"Yeah, until all the running and screaming starts," Jake replied.

I slapped his chest with the back of my hand and heard Brooke snicker under her breath. "She's right, Neanderthal. It's way too quiet, it feels like something's about to happen."

"I'm not leaving here without Will," Brooke said, a tone finality in her voice. "This bastard already took Riley from me, he can't have them both…even if he was kinda asking for it."

"Why are you looking, blondie? I didn't think you really liked Will too much," Jake asked a little while later after we'd checked a couple rooms.

"I don't know Will, I just know he's important to Emma. I'd hate if someone took my boyfriend to get back at me." I was looking under a counter when I spoke, not really paying much attention to what I was saying. "Even if I don't necessarily have one right now."

"So are you taking applications, blondie?" Jake asked, coming up behind me and leaning next to where my hand was resting. "Because the Jake man is perfect for the job."

"Oh my god, are you seriously trying to get into my pants right now?" This kid was insatiable! "We're looking for your missing best friend in a sketchy, abandoned bowling alley!"

"I'll take that as a maybe, babe," he told me, waggling his brows. "Nature calls, ladies."

My eyes seemed to be on a permanent lazy Susan whenever Jake Fitzgerald was involved: always rolling. Brooke reacted similarly, leaning back against the wall with a sigh. I wanted to see what her feel on Jake was, even if he was one of her best friends, she could still think he was the killer.

"Okay, I'm just going to say this to you and be done with it. I have a theory that Jake might be the killer," I whispered, putting all my cards on the proverbial table. "I mean, he thought Will was going to meet your dad last night. If he thought it was dangerous, wouldn't he have stopped him? I definitely would've stopped Noah or Audrey."

"Why would it have been dangerous? My dad's not a dangerous man!" She was defensive and my inner sleuth wanted to know why, but I squelched the urge for now and stuck to the topic at hand.

"Yet Will and Piper got attacked and kidnapped when they went to meet him. That kind of sounds dangerous to me," I insisted.

"Whatever, I don't have to listen to his. When Jake comes back, tell him he can either stay with you or come find me." And with that she huffed and stomped off, leaving me alone in the creepy bowling alley.

I don't care if there's a psychopathic killer loose in your town or not, when you're left alone in the dark you always feel eyes on you. I guess it didn't help that I hated bowling and everything about this place. The pathetic desire I had for Noah to be here with me made my inner feminist rage, I was as good at defending myself as Noah would've been if not better.

The feeling of eyes on me grew more intense and I heard something fall in the distance. I whirled around, but I seemed to be alone in the weird concession area. I didn't have a semblance of a weapon on me, a mistake on my part. Then I saw Jake's bag sitting next to the counter, I reached in and grabbed his "gutter" to use as protection if need be.

"Jake, can you hurry? This place gives me the creeps!" I cried, trying to get someone out here that could be some kind of protection or a distraction, also I could probably run faster than him if I had to.

The unmistakable sound of footsteps echoed against the tiled floor and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I wasn't alone anymore and something told me it wasn't Noah, Emma, or Brooke. I counted to ten silently in my head before whirling around. I instantly wished I hadn't, the murderer was standing behind me with the clichéd machete in his hands and the creepy surgical mask on his face.

This girl wasn't going to be another horror movie cliché, I turned on my heels and started running. I zigzagged through things to slow him down, but it wasn't working. The killer had a knowledge of the bowling alley I didn't, he kept coming out right behind me from hidden places.

I rushed back behind the lanes and hid behind one of the pin loaders with my hand covering my mouth. I was breathing way too loud, he was going to hear me. Fear had turned my blood to ice and made sweat pour down my face. I tightened my grip on the knife and tried to convince myself to make an escape.

The surgical mask appeared on the other side of the loader and I made a break through one of the lanes with a racing heart. I was running as fast as I could, but he was faster than me. I felt the blade go through my back, but my adrenaline kept pumping and I didn't feel the actual pain. I had to get away from him before he could hurt me even worse, right now I could still stand and I knew from a semester of anatomy he'd missed any major organs.

I don't know what exactly came over me when I lashed out with Jake's knife, but I did. The knife embedded itself in the psycho's shoulder and, as soon as he fell backward, I made a run for it. I found a janitor's closet and tried to open the door, but my hands were shaking so badly I couldn't get a grip on the handle.

Suddenly the door opened on its own and a mop handle slapped me in the face. I groaned and heard Noah's familiar voice swear before pulling me inside and locking the door again.

"Gwen, you're bleeding! Are you okay?" His voice was surprised and scared at the same time, something I didn't realize could happen. He lifted my shirt and found the source of the blood. "Oh my god, that's a big wound."

"Here, take some of this duct tape and tape up her wound," Emma said, tossing it to Noah after she was finished.

"What happened? Where's Jake?" Brooke's anxious voice asked.

"Seriously, Brooke? That's your question right now?" Will asked in a tired, wheezing voice.

"Hey, good to know you're not dead, hombre," I said in a wheezing voice of my own. "I mean, you've looked better, but beggars can't be choosers, right?"

"Yeah, you've looked better, too," he said, smiling tiredly at me.

"Oh god, Noah, move out of the way," Brooke said, bending over beside us and taking the roll of tape from Noah's shaking hands. "You have to wipe off the blood or it's not going to stick."

"Sorry about earlier. It wasn't fair," I whispered to her, my head starting to ache from where I'd gotten beamed in the head with the mop handle. "Also, who hit me in the face with a mop? That wasn't cool."

"We thought you were the murderer. You're just lucky Brooke didn't tape the rusty knife to it like she wanted before Noah launched it," Emma said, helping Will sit down beside me on the floor.

"Okay, you're taped up. It's not going to hold very long so we've got to get out of here and find Jake," Brooke announced, ripping off the final piece of tape and sticking it to my back. "He's out there alone, he could be really hurt or worse…"

"He was still in the bathroom when I got attacked earlier," I tried to calm her down through the intense pain wracking through my entire body.

"Wait, how do we know he's not the one that attacked Gwen? Maybe he's partnered up with the killer? They're in cahoots or something?" Noah asked from his place beside me with my hand in both of his.

"I'm seriously contemplating throwing the next person who suggests stupid things out to the killer." Brooke's voice was beyond aggravated at this point.

"Uh, guys, not to be an attention seeker or anything, but my back is seriously burning," Will hissed, pulling away pitifully from the cabinet we were leaning against.

Emma pulled up his shirt to check it out and gasped. "B4 is carved into your back. What does that mean?"

They threw around ideas while I tried to manage the pain shooting through my side. I thought period cramps were bad, but this was even worse. Black dots were appearing around my vision and I knew it was because I lost a lot of blood. The duct tape was a good idea, but Brooke was right about it not holding for very long so we had to make out choices fast.