Hunter: "Up until we met Velden, I'd always thought Earnestine was the bad guy. But after that Thursday, I didn't know what to think."

Azalea: "Earnestine may have been in the clear, but not Ashley. I didn't care how many envelopes she dropped off—I wasn't about to trust her, especially after finding that note in my guest room."

Alex: "Me either, Azalea. I didn't trust anyone anymore, especially after Velden's second package."

Hannah Ivory Mun:

It was Friday at last! And even though the day before had been creepy on so many levels, I was determined to make this one fun and free of trouble. Hunter had agreed to take the package to the police after school, but he couldn't decide whether or not to open it first.

"I feel like it's tampering with evidence," he had said, "and I really don't want to get in the middle of this case. Ashley says we're the only ones who can solve it, but I'd feel a lot safer if we just let the cops do their job."

But despite his obvious aversion to this "case," I could tell that Hunter was conflicted, convinced there was something more to all of this.

Just keep your head down and go to class, I told myself. You've got enough on your plate already with Alex and Stefan.

I strode through the hallway with the slightest of springs in my step, working overtime to think of any and everything to get my mind of off Ashley, Earnestine, and all of the craziness of the past few weeks.

The clatter of high-heeled and hard-bottom shoes clicked all around me as I passed fellow students on their treks to homeroom, textbooks secured against bodies moving in leisurely stride. When I arrived at my locker and began twisting in the combination, I registered the subtle patter of footsteps, their muted tone prattling louder until they stopped directly behind me.

I hesitated before twisting around, spotting a girl with olive skin and a thin frame holding a scarlet, spirally bound notebook.

"Hi," she began. "You must be Hannah."

"Last time I checked," I said, smiling.

"You're Alex's girlfriend?"

I blushed. "Um, Alex and I are just friends actually...I don't know who told you..." I paused. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Oh, I'm Sara," she answered. "Sara Reyes-Jiménez."

I placed a hand on my hip. "How do you know Alex?"

"I work at the hospital where his dad's recovering. He came by last night to visit."

"Visit his dad?" I lifted an eyebrow as acid crept into my words. "Or visit you?"

It was her turn to blush. "His dad—he came to visit his dad."

"And what, he just casually told the whole staff that I'm his bed buddy?"

"It wasn't like that," Sara said quickly. "He was talking to his dad in the hospital room, and I overheard him say that he'd patched things up with Hannah. I knew he didn't have any sisters or cousins who lived nearby, so I assumed Hannah was his girlfriend's name. And when he held up his phone and showed his dad a picture of you two together, I couldn't help but see it through the glass window."

"And you decided to come to our school and size me up for yourself? Is that it?"

"No, I just—"

"Don't lie to me, Sara. Honestly, this is pathetic. Alex and I aren't even in a relationship. You needn't feel threatened."

"Hannah, will you please just listen to me?"

"Sorry, sweetie, I have a very low tolerance for bullcrap, and you've exceeded your limit. Toodles." I turned around and sauntered off in a rage. Alex and Sara are perfect for each other, I thought to myself. Two fake and stupid liars.

I stomped down the hall past the chemistry lab, scowling at the wafting scent of formaldehyde before marching angrily through an overhanging archway adjacent to Principal Hollendale's office. I stormed past the office just as—

"No, this is not acceptable. It's been an entire week since I hired you!" The hushed rasp of Principal Hollendale's voice scratched from behind the barely ajar office door. "For all I know, he could waltz in this building at any moment with a gun. How am I supposed to feel safe with that lunatic still out there!?"

I froze. What the heck is he—?

"Hannah, please!" came a shriek from behind me.

I whirled around as a hand gripped my arm. "Sara, leave me alone!" I screamed back.

"Hannah, just listen, okay!? The only reason I'm here is because Alex left this at the hospital." She lifted the same spiral notebook I'd seen earlier. "He'd gotten started on his homework while he was talking to his dad, and I just wanted to bring it by. When I saw you walking down the hall, I figured I could give it to you and you'd give it to him. I promise you nothing happened between the two of us." Her eyes were shaking, pleading as she stood there meekly holding that bright red collection of bound loose-leaf pages.

"Oh," I said slowly. "Th—thank you." Hesitating, I finally reached out to take the notebook from her quivering hands.

She nodded, her eyes retreating from my gaze.

"...I'm sorry for getting so upset," I added. "I know you were just trying to help. Thank you, Sara. I'll make sure Alex gets this."

She smiled and backed away slowly before turning to go, leaving me standing in the hallway feeling like an awful person.

Great job, Hannah, I scolded myself as I sighed and started walking to my first class, noting the absence of Principal Hollendale's raspy whispers as I again strode past his office, this time in the opposite direction.

I rounded a corner mere feet from where I'd screamed at Sara, then plodded into the adjoining hallway, hanging my head just as more footsteps pounded the tiled floor behind me and jolted my brain back to attention.

"Hannah!" Hunter's voice piped up in the distance. "Hannah, wait up!"

"Hey, Hunter," I said lowly, turning around to face him as finished jogging to where I stood.

He paused. "Everything okay? You sound kinda bummed."

"Yeah, everything's fine," I trilled. "I'm just a terrible person is all. No biggie."

"Huh?" He lifted a single eyebrow. "Hannah, what're you talking about?"

"It's a long story...but I basically chewed out this nurse who works at Alma's hospital when she was just trying to be nice. Pretty sure I'm in the running for the Meanest-Person-Ever award."

He looked me in the eyes. "I don't think you're mean, Hannah."

My gaze fell to the floor. "Thanks, but I'm pretty sure Sara thinks I'm a monster."

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and I sighed.

"But anyway," I carried on, "enough about me. How have you been since yesterday?" I paused. "Did you open the package yet?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head.

"It really doesn't seem right," I offered. "I mean, you said it yourself—we should be letting the police handle this."

"But what if what Ashley said is true?" Hunter stuffed his free hand in his pocket. "What if we really can't trust the police? What if it does need to be us who solve this case?"

"I don't know. I just...I don't know, Hunter."

He was about to respond when, out of nowhere, his phone began buzzing.

"Whoa," he breathed. "Hannah, it's Velden!"

"Answer him!" I practically yelled.

Hunter clicked Answer and turned on speaker phone.

"Velden?" he asked. "Velden, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me, Hunter...and I'm scared. I think I'm being watched." He gulped hard. "I was out checking the mail, and I saw this dude in a white robe staring at me from across the street."

Hunter turned to me. "Didn't Alex say he saw some guy in a white robe at the hospital?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Velden," Hunter asked, "have you called the cops already?"

"I called three times, but they still haven't sent anyone. Hunter, I don't know what's going on, but I...please just get here as soon as possible." He gulped again. "Ashley dropped off another package for you guys, and I get the feeling that whoever's been spying on me doesn't want you to get it."

"We can't just ditch school, Velden," I spoke up from beside Hunter. "First period hasn't even started yet."

"You guys, please," Velden begged. "I don't feel safe here. I keep hearing these...noises. I don't know what to do, and I just...." His voice trailed off.

"Velden, listen to me," Hunter said after a moment's deliberation. "You're gonna be okay. I'm on my way right now."

My eyes popped wide. "What? What do you mean, you're on your way? Hunter, we can't just skip—"

"We can't," he affirmed, "but I can."

"Um, what? No way am I staying here while you go to Velden's house alone, Hunter."

"Hannah, this is seriously dangerous. We don't know who we're dealing with or what he's capable of."

"I don't care. I want to help too, and I'm just as much a part of this as you are."

Hunter sighed, stared back at me with uncertain eyes.

"The longer we wait here, the longer it's gonna take for us to get to Velden's house. We need to go, now." I placed a single hand on my hip. "Are we taking my car or yours?"

****

Hunter pounded on Velden's door the moment we made it to his house. After a few moments of eerie silence, Velden appeared and cracked the door open slowly. "...Thanks for coming," he said timidly. "Sorry about the short notice. I just...I didn't know who else to call."

"It's okay," Hunter said, smiling back at him. "We're here to help."

"Do you have the package?" I asked.

Velden ushered us toward the kitchen, where he opened the leftmost cupboard above the stove. He pushed back some clear Tupperware and retrieved a manila folder identical in color and size to the one he'd given us the day before.

"Ashley said that's all you should need. I'm not really sure what she's talking about, but she said that whoever's behind all this has a really long history with the people mentioned in this file."

"Long history? How on Earth would she know that?" I asked.

"I don't know." Velden shivered. "She almost makes it sound like...like she knows the person who's doing all of this." He looked off into space. "Almost like they're...friends or something."

"I don't get it," Hunter said. "How could she be 'friends' with someone who's trying to kill her?"

"And are we even sure it's a he we're dealing with?" I interjected. "I mean, so far, everything that's happened seems to only involve women. Hunter's mom, Ashley, Earnestine...do we know for a fact that the person behind all this isn't a she?"

Velden sighed. "I don't think we know anything for a fact anymore."

"Well, I know one thing," Hunter said, lifting up the package Velden had given him the day before. "I think it's time I opened this. This is getting out of hand. I can show the police the file, but I need to know for myself."

Just as his hand moved to the top of the envelope and he prepared to break the seal, I glanced up and screamed, felt every muscle inside my body throb with terror.

Velden and Hunter turned immediately to me, then to the doorway, underneath whose arch stood a thin figure draped in a long white robe—and brandishing a pearl-handle pistol pointed directly at the three of us.

"Get down!" Hunter yelled, tackling me behind a couch just as two bullets fired like thunderclaps of death. Hunter grabbed a nearby book and hurled it toward the doorway at the attacker, just as two more shots cut through the air. A bullet ricocheted inches from my head, and another imbedded itself in the wall next to my arm.

My heart slammed against the inside of my chest as the unforgiving thud of hard-bottom soles echoed all around, banging against strips of wooden flooring edged with ruffled carpet. Beads of sweat ruptured and gushed in streaks, waterfalling down my face and hands.

Another bullet tore through the air right before Hunter flung a lamp, the metal base clanging as it struck the robed intruder in the face. Eyes peeking past the couch's velveted fringe, I saw him reel backward in pain just as Hunter charged forward and rammed into him.

The figure in the white flew backwards, plummeting from the home's front door and crashing onto the sidewalk.

"Who are you?" Hunter demanded.

White cloth streaked through the grass as draped arms fidgeted frantically beneath the figure's robed frame.

"I SAID WHO ARE YOU!?" Hunter angled his body, readying himself to charge forward once more.

But the figure retrieved his gun, fallen surreptitiously between the sprouting weeds, and lifted it to fire again. The shot blew narrowly past Hunter's skull, embedding itself mere inches away in the outcropped doorjamb.

I shut my eyes, braced for a second shot just as Hunter lunged back behind the door to Velden's house and slammed it with a booming, desperate thud.

I was still breathing heavily as Hunter locked the door, as I flinched at the sound of the deadbolt snapping into place. "W-w-what just happened?" I asked, physically quaking. "WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED!?"

"I think he's gone," Hunter whispered after a moment of silence, "Are you okay, Hannah?"

"Is that even a real question right now!?" I shrieked. "Hunter, we have got to get out of here."

"Hannah, slow down. We can't just leave."

"Why the heck not!? We can't just sit here and—"

"Hannah, please—just listen, okay?" He extended a single hand to me; and for the first time, I saw fear in those shining blue eyes of his. "The type of gun he was using...it holds at least six bullets. Maybe more. Which means he's still got a few shots left, and he might've brought more to reload just in case." He sighed. "We can't just go charging outside and hope for the best."

I quivered in place. "So what are we supposed to do? Just wait around until—" I froze, sheer panic exploding inside my mind. "Oh my gosh! Hunter, where's Velden!?"

Weakly, shuddering on the fractured indoor air, a low and hoarse moan petered out from behind me.

"Velden!" I sprang to my feet and bolted to the stretch of carpet opposite the sofa—and there he lay, a bloody, bullet-sized hole pulsing crimson streams from the base of his throat, soaking his shirt and hair with a fountain of red. I was so paralyzed with fear that my next terrified words felt both screamed and whispered all at once: "Hunter, Velden's been shot!"

Hunter darted to where I was, his own eyes fearfully wide. "Hannah," he said to me. "Call 9-1-1. Now."

****

Velden Veldenlock was pronounced dead on arrival at Cade Senderson Medical Hospital. While Hunter and I sat in the waiting area, we gave the police our statements regarding the incident. And with every question they asked us, they seemed to grow more skeptical.

To be fair, it was a pretty unbelievable story—a robed killer sneaked into our friend's house, shot him, and then mysteriously vanished without leaving any hair or fingerprints behind. But what I really wanted to know was why no officer investigated the three calls Velden had made earlier.

One cop said the dispatcher never sent the call out, that my asking was the first time he'd heard of it. And besides the bullets inside the house, they found no evidence that anyone had even tried to intrude—no traffic cams spotting suspicious vehicles, no tips from neighbors, nothing.

Hunter and I were both pretty shaken up, but I could tell that this was bothering him even more than it bothered me.

"It wasn't your fault," I told him when we were finally alone. "Hunter, you really did do all you could."

He shook his head. "The whole reason that robe guy was there was to kill Velden—it must've been." He was almost in tears. "Velden died because he gave us those packages, and...I promised we'd protect him...I promised I'd protect him." Hunter sniffled, swiped at his eyes. "I told him we could solve this case, that we could figure all this out."

I hugged him tightly, just as another tear slid down his left cheek and splashed onto the carpet, forming a tiny circle.

"It's okay, Hunter," I whispered. "Don't blame yourself."

He sniffled again, then used his shirt to wipe more water from his eyes.

The sounds of beeping monitors and rushing footsteps mulled through the air in a fierce monotony all their own, seeming to play on repeat as doctors barked out frantic updates from behind clipboards while carried on swift, clattering strides.

Beneath the merciless and unyielding din of it all, Hunter turned to face me with sullen eyes. "We...we should probably head back to school, huh?"

I nodded slowly, holding back my own torrent of tears. "I guess I'll see you in sixth period."