5 days left

4 days left

3 days left

2 days left

For the past few days the girls had been receiving this message from the anonymous number. They didn't know whether the countdown was for New Year's Eve or for something much more threatening.

But, as much as they wanted to, they couldn't worry about that now, their parents had yet another event for them to go to.

This time, instead of going to a funeral, the four girls were going to the town centre, to celebrate new years eve.

So, at 11:00 pm on a Sunday evening, the last Sunday of this year, Oliwia, Alice, Mahnoor and Abir got into their cars along with their families and headed towards the clock tower in town.

As they arrived, the party was just beginning.

Oliwia, as usual ran straight towards the food area and began filling her plate. Mahnoor wandered around, taking selfies with her family and friends. Alice began dancing in the middle of the illuminated dance floor to the shock of onlookers. And finally, Abir was stood in the corner, listening to her own music.

After nearly half an hour of socializing with distant relatives, Mahnoor was finally free to find her friends.

She easily found Oliwia, still eating from her heaped plate, and pulled her away from the table.

"Come on! You've eaten enough, we need to find Abir and Alice!"

"Why? Can't I just stay with the food?" Oliwia moaned as she was dragged towards the dance floor.

"Because I'm sick of talking to my family, we need to get this party started! And, most importantly, we need to take some beautiful selfies!" Mahnoor explained, spotting Alice dancing in the middle.

"Alice! Stop dancing! We need to take selfies!"  Mahnoor called out to her.

Alice groaned, "Selfies? What do we need selfies for?" She asked as she stopped dancing and walked towards her friends her friends.

"Duh, to show the world how much fun we're having! And you can't have fun without friends." Oliwia spoke up as she finally finished eating the slice of cake on her plate.

"Speaking of friends, where's Abir?" Alice asked as she looked around.

"Exactly Alice, you're being clever for once! We need to go find her!" Mahnoor exclaimed whilst dragging the two girls behind her.

The girls pushed through a group of  their teachers and a crowd full of dancing adults as they looked for their friend.

"Where is she?!" Alice moans, annoyed as the rest stops for a short break.

"There She is!" Mahnoor pointed towards a figure in the distance.

"She's in the corner, being as antisocial as usual..." Oliwia added with a sigh.

"Hey guys , what's up?" Abir punches Oliwia playfully and stands in front of her friends waiting for their response.

Mahnoor ran over and nearly assaulted Abir, "Abir, You're here! Come on, we're going to take selfies."

"Selfies? Huh... well I guess the best place to go for that would be the clock tower." Abir mumbled absentmindedly.

"The clock tower? How do we get to it?" Oliwia asked.

"It's just over there, you can go in through the back entrance and you get an amazing view of the city."

Abir pointed upwards to the right, towards a looming tower illuminated by a dozen spotlights. Right at the top, in the centre of the tallest spire, was the main attraction: a white and black clock, silently ticking away the minutes until midnight.

The girls hurried toward it, Abir leading them towards the hidden back entrance and towards a huge flight of stairs.

"This'll be perfect for selfies, we can go right up to the clock-face from here! And we'll get a great view of the fireworks." Abir explained as she and her friends climbed the spiralling steps upwards.

"Hey Abir, how did you know about that secret entrance and these stairs that go to the top?" Alice asked as she panted from the exhaustion of climbing so many stairs.

"Oh, I was reading a book about important landmarks in our city, and the clock tower was one of them." Abir explained as they finally reached the top.

Mahnoor rushed towards the floor length windows on either side of the clock-face and promptly took out her phone.

"Okay, let's take one here, you get a great view of the party downstairs."

But before the girls could make a move towards the window, Abir suddenly froze and glanced at the door to the stairs they had just climbed.

"Do you guys hear that? Someone's climbing the stair! We need to hide, we're not allowed to be up here!"

"Hide where? There's nothing in this room except us and that clock!" Oliwia whispered back to Abir.

"I can't get in trouble with the police... again! My parents are going to kill me!" Alice moaned quietly as the four girls searched for a place to hide.

The door slammed open, they had run out of time. The girls turned slowly to face their punishment and then stood still, shocked by the person they now stood in front of.

"Well, well, well,  what do we have here? Mahnoor, Oliwia, Alice and Abir in a restricted area?" The condescending, sickly-sweet voice of Maddie Cooper filled the silent room.

"Err.. hi Maddie?" They all awkwardly said.

"SHUT UP!! You have talked enough!!" Her angry voice shook the girls "You never shut up, you are always talking! Especially with the heart warming speech you gave on her funeral" her angry gaze turned towards Mahnoor.

"But..."

"I swear if you don't shut up I'll cut your tongue off" maybe it was the way her eyes darkened, but somehow the girls she knew wasn't joking.

After a second Maddie calmed down and smiled "was that so hard? I am just here to compliment you, the stunt you pulled the other day. Now the whole town loves you and you are not suspects of murder anymore. Well done!"

"Thanks I guess?"

"What did I tell you about keeping your mouth shut" Maddie asked as she took a knife out of her pocket.

The girls froze as Maddie began to play around with her knife.

"Well we have to go! Bye!" Oliwia said quickly as she moved forward grabbing her friends.

"Don't move" Maddie hissed and pointed at them with the knife.

The girls immediately stopped and slowly stepped backwards trying to move away from that crazy girl.

Maddie stared at her enemies for a while before she started speaking.

"Look at you four:" she stepped forward pointing the knife to each of their faces as she said

"so scared"
"so vulnerable"
"so helpless"
"so powerless"

The four girls were frozen as the icy knife gently caressed each of their faces.

"Don't look so scared! I promise you won't feel much pain, I'll just put you out of your misery" she laughed sardonically.

The moment of shock for the girls was over and they began shouting all at once.

"Are you bloody serious?!"
"Are you out of your freaking mind"
"What kind of sick joke is this?!"
"Please put me out of my misery"

Maddie's icy voice snapped them out "Well I should probably cut off your tongues for disobeying me but I will show you some mercy. I want to hear your screams when the knife slices your skin"

"Well that's reassuring" Oliwia muttered under her breath.

"Did you say something?" Maddie challenged.

Alice responded "Yeah she just asked if you would oh-so-kindly inform us as to why we are all gathered together on this pleasant day?"

"Or in simple English... Why the f do you want to kill us?!" Mahnoor retorted.

"Thought you would never ask" she grinned maliciously "! The greatest part of playing the villain is, of course, the fabulous monologue!" Maddie giggled delightedly.

"Let's start from the beginning...
it all began on Wednesday 17th October"

"That's national pasta day!"

"Do. Not. Interrupt. Me." She warned "So as I was saying
before I got rudely interrupted it all began on National Pasta Day... wait what? Ugh! That is the day when my dear Fiona died. She didn't deserve that, she had a bright future ahead with those who loved her..." her voice began to crack as she spoke "My poor Fiona... I wasn't there for her when I should have been. Fiona hated me when all I felt for her was.." she began to ramble on when she got interrupted by Oliwia.

"Enough with the sob story!"

Maddie wiped her tears and then any sign of emotion was gone from her face "From that day, I promised myself I would avenge her death! I will put her soul to peace by killing those who dared to harm her" she spoke with pure determination.

"I made it my life mission to end yours" One step forward "If it is the last thing I'll do" another step forward.

"I began spying on you. Always checking where were you" More steps forward.

"What better day to kill you than New Years Eve?" Final step forward.

"So I can start the new year fresh and without holding any grudges" as she leaned even more forward, holding the edge of her knife in front of her, the sudden ping of a text message stopped her.

Tick tock your time's up
xoxo
~FF

The countdown to midnight began as Maddie, seizing her chance as the girls were distracted, launched herself onto Alice.

12 seconds

Alice stepped back in a b effort to shake off Maddie while the crazed woman slashed her knife in the air.

11 seconds

The other three girls desperately tried to pull Maddie off Alice, causing her to spin round and face the main window.

10 seconds

Maddie's knife left a small scratch on Mahnoor's face as she tried to fight back.

9 seconds

Mahnoor yelled furiously and pushed Maddie away from her friends.

8 seconds

Maddie stumbled fell just a few centimetres away from the edge of the tower, directly in front of the window.

7 seconds

Before she could get up Oliwia and Abir ran at her and held her down.

6 seconds

But they forgot she had a knife. Abir gasped and abruptly stood up as the knife slid over her hand.

5 seconds

The girls were now resting on the edge of the tower, the giant clock hand moved only inches above them.

4 seconds

Maddie aimed for Oliwia's heart as she remained holding onto Maddie's thrashing body

3 seconds

Alice rushed forward and held Maddie's arm, preventing her from stabbing her friend.

2 seconds

Masked pushed away the three girls holding her down and locked eyes with Mahnoor, grinning maliciously.

1 second

Mahnoor, with no other option, locked eyes with Maddie and ran towards her, her arms raised as she pushed her backwards and time seemed to freeze.

The glass shattered and Maddie's lifeless body seemed to hang in the air, an expression of cold surprise etched into her face.

The girls heard nothing, only the best of their own hearts, as the clock hand finally reached the top and the sound of bells and fireworks filled the room.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Could be heard from the people down below as they continued celebrating, not knowing that Maddie's lifeless body now lay underneath the clock tower, smashed on the ground like a lifeless puppet.

~~~~~~~~

Away from the noise of celebration and bliss, in a forest nearby, the very same forest where this story began, a man stumbled through bushes and thorns, muttering under his breath.

"I killed her.... I killed her... why would I kill her?" He whispered to himself in agony as he felt his way though the undergrowth.

He soon stepped out of the woods, a bright, artificial light shone on his rumpled clothes and bloodshot eyes.

He limped towards the main doors of a familiar, grey, brightly lit building and stood in front of a receptionist.

"I need to speak to Inspector Ikbal...." The man spoke quietly and he leaned against the counter, rubbing his gaunt face.

"Of course, he'll be here in just a moment. Who, may I ask is it that wishes to see him?" The receptionist smiles sweetly but with little emotion.

"Tell him it's Mr Milton. My name is Adam Milton. And I've done something terrible."

___________________________

A/N: Happy late new year everybody! 🎈 🎉

Sorry this chapter is late, we just had our half term break and one of us went to America! Which meant that the rest of us didn't do any work for a week.... 🇺🇸

But a lot happened this chapter, so it's worth the wait, right? Someone died, we learn more about Maddie's relationship with FF, and we may have found the murderer in the form of... Me Milton?

What are your thoughts guys? Do you think he's the murderer or is there another reason why he might confess?
He seemed so nice in the Christmas chapter, he even gave the girls cookies!🍪 😋
What happened to him?!

Anyway, thanks for your support and enjoy the chapter!

You know you love us,
xoxo
🐦🥔✨