|2 Years Ago|
New students weren't introduced like they were in movies. The teacher didn't stop the class and declare, "Students, we have a new classmate! Please welcome John Smith!" Rather, you just kinda looked to your right and smiled to the strange, new person next to you and introduced yourself.

You don't realize that you're sitting next to your best friend in the whole world.

"Hi! I'm Avery," I greeted, slightly waving my hand. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as the girl beside me failed to reply to me. I gingerly tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey. I'm Avery."

"Yeah, I heard you," the girl murmured. She rummaged through her backpack and withdrew her English textbooks and a copy of the Greek play that we were reading (that one story where the guy ends up falling in love with his mom and killing his dad). The girl huffed as if she had just ran a marathon, pushing her blonde locks behind her ear to prevent her stray hairs from obscuring her view of the pages.

"What's your name?" I asked, eyeing Mrs. Samson to see if she was starting the lesson yet. (She wasn't. She was playing a game on her iPhone.) The new girl muttered something that I failed to understand. "Sorry, what?"

"Dakota. Roberts," she snapped. I recoiled in discomfort and shrunk back into my seat. Dakota sighed. "Sorry. I just didn't come here to make friends."

"Well, what'd you come here for?" I replied.

"To get on with my life, graduate high school, and get out of here forever."

"Why? I mean, it's kinda boring in Eldbourne, but we're right next to Philly. And I mean, come on, the guys here are pretty cute," I said with a giggle.

"Yeah, I guess. Not like I'm looking for a guy, though," she replied with a shrug.

"Well, there are also cute girls," I added. Dakota's eyes lit up, but then she shook her head and drew herself back into her own little world. "I can show you around the school, if you want."

"No, really," Dakota reaffirmed, "I'm fine. I'd much rather keep to myself."

"I...alright, if you want," I said.

"Miss Carter, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Mrs. Samson inquired. I shook my head and refrained from rolling my eyes. I jotted down a note on the desk with my pencil and tapped Dakota on the shoulder. mrs samson is kind of a bitch, I told. Dakota suppressed a giggle as she attempted to ignore my message. "Today, we'll be starting off with Sophocles's Oedipus Rex--which you all should have read over the summer. Now, can anyone tell me the significance with eyes within the play?" One could hear a pin drop in the silent classroom. "Come on, guys. You've all read it! Miss Roberts, what about you?"

"Um..."

"Um?" Mrs. Samson echoed, tapping her foot in agitation.

"Um, well...uh...eyes are significant because Oedipus can see but has been blind to the truth, and Tiresias is literally blind but knows everything."

"Very good, Dakota! See, if any of you could take a hint from our new student, then this class could actually go somewhere." Mrs. Samson gyrated on her heel and wrote "EYES" in giant letters on the chalkboard. She invited students to connect other phrases to the word--prophecy, blindness, knowledge, freedom, error, limit--and discuss the words' meanings. Dakota ended up filling up the whole board nearly by her lonesome. The bell finally saved us from Mrs. Samson's wrath and irritation.

"You really know your stuff," I remarked as I stuffed my backpack with my rarely-used textbooks.

"Yeah, I like Greek tragedies," Dakota replied.

"Why's that?"

"I dunno. I think it's just...they're just real, y'know?" she replied, her eyes drifting off as she thought of the wonders of Greek tragedies. I nodded, despite the fact that I could not relate to the statement at all.

"Well, um, it was nice to meet you, Dakota," I said, hiking my backpack up on my shoulder and pushing my seat into my desk. I heard tapping from a foot emanating behind me until Dakota's voice pierced through the silence.

"Avery?" I turned around and perked my head up to answer the new girl. "Could you...could you actually show me around?" I giddily nodded. Maybe this girl could fill the boring void that Landon had left. "Thanks, Avery."

"No problem. I can be like your Jedi, and you can be my Padawan."

Dakota's eyes flared with excitement. "How about I can be your Sith rival and you're trying to show me the way of the Force?"

"Okay, name the best movie on three: One, two, three."

"Empire Strikes Back," we both answered in unison.

"Hey, just because it's the most obvious choice doesn't mean that it's a bad one," Dakota remarked as she exited the classroom with me.

"Y'know, they announced that the newest movie is gonna come out soon," I said as a student suffering from Senioritis obnoxiously pushed past the both of us.

"Well, whenever it comes out, it sounds like a date."

"I thought you weren't here to make friends?" I coyly replied.

"Um...maybe I was wrong...maybe a friend could actually be a good thing," she replied with a shrug. "Sorry I was such a bitch before."

"It's all good," I said with a shrug. "Everyone's an asshole every now and then."

"That, Avery, is the smartest thing I have ever heard in my life."

"Motherfucker," I swore under my breath as I tripped over my own laces, my feet stumbling and my textbook flying from my hand. Dakota had departed to her math class, while I was enjoying my free period by wandering the halls until I reached Study Hall.

"Lemme help you," a voice said. I looked up to see some kid I didn't recognize reaching down to scoop up my book and hand it to me. He smiled warmly at me, shooting out my textbook to me.

"Thanks," I timidly replied. Looking into his eyes, I noticed that were absurdly kind, warm, and melancholy. My hand made contact with his. His hands are way too cold.

"No problem," he said, adjusting his hoodie and making his way down the hall in the opposite direction. I smiled and shrugged myself along. I supposed some people were just nice. Probably a good kid, I thought. Unless he's not. Maybe he's actually a dick, I dunno. Better assume the best in people or I'll just sound like a jerk.

"So...yes?" he asked as he bounced on the heels of his feet.

"This isn't a joke?" I replied, my heart beating a million times a minute. The wilted roses that Liam was holding sadly sagged in his hand.

"No! No, of course not! I mean, these roses are pretty crappy. I really, really wanted to make a good first impression," he replied with a dorky smile. He scratched the back of his neck as he thrust the roses in front of me. "So, whaddya say?"

"Um, yes...? Yes, I'll go on a date with you, Liam," I replied, every dream that I had had since third grade finally coming true. Liam beamed at me and clapped his hands together.

"Yes! Yes, let's go!" he exclaimed. "I was really nervous, y'know? So, tonight at eight? I'll pick you up and we can head to a movie or something?"

"Sounds great!" I replied. I merrily took the wilted roses from Liam's firm grasp.

"Are you sure you want those flowers? I mean, they kinda suck," Liam said with a nervous laugh.

"They're great, Liam," I replied, taking an exaggerated sniff from the damp bouquet. Wow...they are bad. "I love them."

"Great! Great, great, okay! See you!" He turned on his heel and made his way down the street. I shut the door behind me and jumped into jubilation.

Someone must've been looking out for me, because everything was coming up perfect.

|Present Day|
My head was clouded with vicious thoughts as I heard the everlasting click of a gun.

Xander was in front of me, reciting the Bible to me.

Landon was standing there, extravagantly waving a gun around in his insanity.

Pierce was there, resting a gun in my hands and telling me when to fire.

Dakota was--

Dakota...

Dakota...

Dakota Johanna Dakota Johanna Dakota Johanna

I heaved. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, exhale, inhale, inhale--no, no, it's inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, ohmyGod. I reached out to anything in front of me that could ground me to reality--a table, a chair, a hand, the air. Anything.

But all I was greeted with was blackness.

There was no way that she could be the killer. There were too many questions. There were too motives from other suspects. It had been an eternity since Carson had been murdered, and it couldn't have just all culminated into...this.

It couldn't possibly end with the new girl with an agitated sigh and loose, blonde locks of hair from my sophomore English class with a love of Leia Organa and obsession with Greek tragedies and my absolute best friend in the world--

holding a gun in front of me and revealing her true identify to me.

Everything was okay. I almost began to burst into fits of laughter, because of course none of it was real! Carson was home, and I didn't know him, and Katherine was some rich girl, and Landon was my eccentric friend, and Liam was my loyal boyfriend, and Pierce Prescott was some lawyer that I had never met, and my parents never lied, and Dakota was the new girl.

And Dakota was my friend.

And Dakota was Johanna Creonte.

And I began to sob.

"D-Dakota?" I stammered. Katherine's face was blank. Maybe she was thinking the same exact thing that I was: None of this was real.

"I'm sorry, Avery," Dakota whispered.

The monster was real. The monster was in front of me.

And I loved the monster.