My math book lay splayed open, pages downward at my feet. There had to be an explanation for that muddy handprint on the page. The wet, child-sized handprint. Nothing logical sprang to my mind, however.

The teacher started coming from around her desk. The boy behind me snorted and choked on his laughter. Well, since I was the center of unwanted attention anyway....I smiled and waved princess-style at the class. "Spit Fire has a new drummer!" I pointed at myself. "Hope y'all come out to see our next performance, this coming um, Friday night!"

"Ms. Hadder, do you need to visit Principal Zhou?" Mrs. Carter asked.

Wonderful. Now I could be in trouble with the principal (and my mom soon afterwards) plus my new bandmates for inventing gigs.

"No, I don't," I said. "I'm sorry. I'll sit down." I palmed Aaron's phone to return in to him. As I reached for my book on the tiled floor, Mrs. Carter marched up to my desk.

"I'll take that phone, young lady. This school has a strict no-phone policy that I'm sure you are aware of."

"But it's not mine. I asked Aaron if I could see it for sec. It just wouldn't be right for you to take it, seeing how he's an innocent victim in this," I said.

In the seat in front of me, Aaron hunched his shoulders higher, not wanting to attract any attention to himself. His face was positively buried in algebra.

"And what about your phone? Couldn't you have looked at it for a sec?"

"Oh, I didn't bring my phone into the class. The school has a strict no-phone policy, so, no, No phone for me." I shook my head at her. I nodded at her. She did not seem convinced by either action.

My phone chose that exact moment to buzz in my handbag - a sound that usually would have gone unnoticed, but in the baited hush of my smart-aleck response rumbled about as loud as a jack-hammer.

Mrs. Carter twisted her mouth with displeasure. "I'll take them both now, and don't expect to see them again any time soon."

I grabbed my phone from the depths of my enormous bag. The screen announced a new message. "It's from my mom. Can I read it first?"

* * *

I stared unseeing at the small piece of paper, twirling my pencil around my fingers.

Meet me at Cuppa Joe, 8:00, parking lot. Have my favorite ready for me!

Seconds later, I crumpled my handwritten note. I took another square of paper. Just because I never saw him didn't mean he was no longer my friend or that I had stopped writing him notes. We were best friends. No broken halves of necklaces, no blood brother scars, no oaths taken. Between us, there had been an understanding. At ten years old when I announced that he was my best friend, he had accepted it with a single 'Yeah. You too.' And that was all we needed to seal our pact - the absolute conviction of unjaded hearts. Me and Levi. Levi and me. Alicia was so flighty with her rhymes and weird games, Sean such a pain always trying to boss the rest of us around just because he was a year older. That left Levi and me understanding one another.

I drew jagged lines on the paper for a few minutes. Lines that turned into tree branches.

Waiting to be called to talk to the principal was killing me with boredom. Mrs. Carter had sent me so fast to the principal's office, I didn't even have time to grab my bag. I had borrowed a square of note paper off the reception counter and was passing the time as best I could.

Weird stuff happening: cryptic messages in my closet and muddy hand smears in my Algebra 2 book right over the double root problems. Need to talk to you, ASAP.

I held onto this note for a minute before crumpling it and stuffing it in my pocket with the first one. I did need to talk, but if I saw him, that's not what I would talk about.

Or was it?

Where are you, Levi? I want you and Sean to be alive so bad it tears up little pieces of my heart and stomach when I think about you until I'm nothing but a mess of blood and holes. What happened to you guys that night? Were you killed? What kind of monster kills kids for kicks?

Another note went in my pocket. I had lived in a daze for months after my mom came in my room to tell me that something terrible had happened. But she didn't say what it was right away, just those words 'something terrible.' For a couple of minutes, she had acted as though nothing was wrong. She took my temperature, fixed the blanket, switched my books around and stood at the end of my bed smiling at me until she started crying.

If I hadn't gone home sick from school the day before, I would have been in the forest with my friends when they were attacked. I would have known what had happened, but that didn't mean I would be around to tell anyone.

The police stopped searching after a couple of weeks. The volunteers who showed up hundreds strong when Sean and Levi were reported missing thinned and trickled to nothing after only a few days. They didn't find anything right away, so there wasn't much hope of finding anything at all. I remember the pictures of the first days in the paper; all the people combing every inch of the woods where they were last seen and where Alicia had been found. I remember when the photos stopped showing up on the front page. The articles grew shorter and then disappeared. Missing persons. Missing friends. Missing interest.

Are you still alive somewhere?

I ripped this note to shreds and ate it. Hope didn't go in my pocket, it went in my gut to keep me fighting. One day, I would know what happened. No matter how I did it or what I had to pay, I would know where they were taken - dead or alive - five years ago tonight.

COMING FOR YOU

The words in my closet had to be a message.

I could write messages, too. Good. Come for me. I'll be waiting for you.

"Brooklyn?" the receptionist called. "Principal Zhou will see you in his office now."

******** Chapter is dedicated to krazydiamond Check out her fabulous Zombies Vs. Aliens! I hope you enjoyed this chapter even if it was more backstory than weird stuff! Let me know your thoughts!!! ***********