"Yeah so there was Fiona, just having texted her little sister with the hope of being reunited and finally being happy. But no! She couldn't get happiness that easily..." Fiona told the story happily with a lively smile. Ironic, considering she was supposed to be dead.

"Stop referring to yourself in third person. You ain't that special" Mahnoor muttered in annoyance.

"But Fiona is a beautiful name don't you think?" She raised her eyebrow "Or do you prefer F.F? Grew quite fond of that nickname to be honest"

"Shut up and continue with the story!" Oliwia shouted as she ate some popcorn.

"Where did you get the popcorn from?" Abir asked stealing some popcorn from her friend.

"Ikbal's house. Thanks by the way!" Oliwia waved at Ikbal to which he just shrugged.

"You should always carry popcorn with you! You never know when you might encounter a girl who you thought you were responsible for killing but she was actually alive all this time and now she's telling you the story of her death" Oliwia revealed as she ate more popcorn. "Sorry by the way! Those potatoes didn't mean any harm! I mean the main intention was to kill you but I see that failed... oh well at least I won't have to feel guilty for the rest of my life"

"What are you talking about?" Ikbal asked with a worried look on his face.

"Yeah so there she was: poor, innocent, vulnerable Fiona taking a stroll around the wood waiting for her little sister to join her but that's when she crashed into something - or rather someone. Nah It was a more of a 'something' but there was also a 'someone'..."

"And then what happened?" Alice asked, very intrigued with the story of Fiona's death.

"You know what happened Alice. Do you want that I tell your little friends what you did? What you are capable of doing" Fiona challenged to which Alice looked down in defeat. "Thought so, anyways..."

"This is getting ridiculous, we just need to tell them the truth!" Ikbal spoke up in frustration.

Fiona turned and slapped him in one fluid movement. "Quiet! You don't get to tell me how to tell my story! This. Is. My. Story. This. Is. Fiona's. Story"

"Is that how you talk to your father?" Ikbal scolded.

Fiona got something out of her pocket and hit it hard on Ikbal's head. "No, but this is how you kill your father!"

Ikbal's body collapsed and, in the darkness of the night, all that could be seen of him was a unrecognizable shape merged with the forest floor.

The four other girls stare at his crumpled body. "Oh god, you actually killed him!" Abir screamed, clinging onto Oliwia's arm for comfort.

"Look he's fine. I just needed to teach him a lesson." Fiona shrugged it off, as she reached over to check the back of his head.

A crimson liquid seeps out from behind Ikbal's head onto Fiona's hand and the girls continued to stare mutely.

"Oh well." Fiona giggled psychotically while wiping her stained hands on her shirt.

"Quick call 999!" Alice exclaimed, her eyes wide with fear.

"He's fine, I'm sure he's just having a little nap!" Fiona glared at Alice then shifts her poisonous gaze to Mahnoor. "Unlike some people here, I know the difference between a dead person and an unconscious one. When I kill, I make sure they stay dead."

"But let's get back on track, okay girls?" Fiona smiled sweetly. "Where was I up to with telling you my tale? Actually, forget that, I'm sick of telling you about the past. It's time to talk about the future."

Fiona paused, then tilted her head and smiled mischievously. "The future. And how you four won't have one."

"What do you want with us? Why did Ikbal ask you to come here only for you to... to kill him?" Abir screamed out.

"You act like I have a plan. Like I'm one of those cartoon villains who have had everything planned out from the start. I'm not like that, I'm kinda just going with the flow, y'know?" She shrugged, her sickly-sweet smile ever present. "I'm not like that because I'm not a villain. I'm the hero, the protagonist, the main character! This is my story and I get to choose how it's told."

"So why kill him? Why do you want to kill us?" Mahnoor asked, glaring at Fiona in the moonlight.

"Because one of you tried to kill me. You didn't succeed of course. But someone died that night and although it wasn't me, a debt still needs to be repaid. An eye for an eye, as they say."

"Someone died? But... you're still alive? Or are you?" Oliwia muttered suspiciously.

Fiona simply smiled mysteriously. "The fact of the matter is someone died that night. You saw the body, didn't you?"

"That doesn't mean we killed her! You don't have to kill us!" Abir pleaded.

"Ah, but you're forgetting something important. I do know it was one of you. How? Because I saw each and everyone of you in the woods that fateful night."

The four girls looked at each other, a flash of understanding passing between them.

"So you remember now, huh? I would tell you all the story, just to refresh your memory, but we're running out of time. Soon you'll have to die."

She paused, her hand resting on her gun. "But you're right... I don't know it was you for sure. Maybe I don't need to kill you..."

"Exactly! You've had your fun, killing Ikbal, now it's time for you to let us go!" The four girls begged the psychopath in front of them.

"However, you did kill Maddie so you're not entirely innocent." Fiona shrugged and lifts her gun.

"That was an accident!" Oliwia tried to explain but Fiona simply laughed and shifted her poisonous gaze to Mahnoor.

"An accident? Is that what you all believe? We know better than that, don't we Mahnoor?"

Mahnoor looked Fiona in the eye and replied calmly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Fiona giggled, her hand, the one holding the gun, lowers slightly. Alice spotted the opportunity and yelled out.

"Enough! No more games!" She ran at Fiona, the knife she'd stolen from Ikbal's house grasped firmly in her hand.

"Get away! Go now! Go!" Alice looked back to her friends for the briefest of moments, urging them to leave her with the maniac.

The others have no choice but to comply. They ran into the darkened forest, not caring which direction just as long as it's away from Fiona.

They tried to stick together, but in the dull light all they could sense was the sound of their own panicked breath.

Their desperate flight through the forest was short lived. A figure emerged from the inky nothingness and stopped the girls in their path.

The three of them fell to the ground, praying that the figure in front of them wasn't Fiona.

"I finally found you!" The figure, who they could now see was a teenage girl, spoke up.

"A-Alice? Is that you?" Abir asked shakily as she tried to stand up again.

"What? No! I sound nothing like her! It's me, Barbie!" The now unmistakable voice of Barbara Shake rant out. She sounded rushed and panicked and her head moved back and forth like a frightened bird, searching the forest.

"Barbara? What are you doing here! You need to get out! Fiona, she's gone mad!" Oliwia stood up and grabbed Barbara shoulders anxiously.

Barbara shrugged Oliwia's hands off, "I know what's happening. You don't need to worry about me." Barbara looked determinedly into the distance, her mind made up.

"I have something I need to do. I have my own journey to complete." She spoke solemnly.

"You girls need to go. Quickly, before she finds us!" Barbara ushers the three girls away.

The girls barely moved before they were frozen to the spot by the condescending tone of their worst nightmare.

Fiona stepped towards them with her gun held against the temple of a familiar figure.

"Look what we have here.Barbara Shake! Oh Barbie, do you really dare to go against me?" Fiona sighed dramatically, looking over Barbara with the gaze of a disappointed mother.

"And look who I've brought as a gift: Alice! What was she thinking? Trying to sacrifice herself for you three. Trying to be a hero for once. It was never going to work; I'm the only hero of this story, do you hear me?" Fiona's voice lost its singsong tone. She was done playing games now.

"Do you have any last words for your friends, my dear Alice?" Fiona turned to the figure held captive in her arms.

Alice scowled at her and began kicking Fiona's shins, who laughed without humour in response.

"Alice, Alice, Alice. Why are you so angry? You should be glad, you'll have the pleasure of watching your fiends die. You'll die last! And maybe, by the time I kill those three, I'll decide to be nice and let you free to spend your days in sad, lonely mourning."

Oliwia, Abir and Mahnoor could do nothing but stare helplessly as they watched their friend be tormented by Fiona. Barbara kept her gaze fixed on Fiona with cold determination.

"Now, Alice, would you do the honors of choosing who dies first?" Fiona whispered to the girl beside her.

"No one will die until you rot in hell." Alice spat back at her.

"Okay, then I pick... Mahnoor!" Fiona shrugged and, keeping her grip on Alice tight, she lifted the gun towards Mahnoor.

"Goodbye old friend. If you must know, at one point I actually liked you, if only for a brief second." She smiled and for a brief moment of vulnerability Fiona actually appeared sad.

And then she pulled the trigger.

Her body dropped to the ground with a hollow thud.

Then everything was silent, the girls had no more screams left to cry.

Mahnoor's body was still against the night sky and at her feet was the figure, the corpse, of Barbara Shake.

"Barbara...?" Mahnoor whispered, softly swaying backwards and forwards at the shock of coming so close to death. "She saved me."

"Oh. Another person trying to play hero. What a fool!" Fiona sighed, rolling her eyes angrily.

"The...only... fool... is...you...Fifi!" Ikbal cried out hoarsely from behind them all. He was on the ground, dragging himself along, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

"Hello father. God, how many surprises will there be tonight? I just want to kill these four girls, is that too much to ask?" Fiona raised her hands, in the moment forgetting about the hostage in her arms.

Alice stumbled away, collapsing beside her weary friends.

"Great. Look what you've done father! And what's that I spy in your hand? Is it a gun perhaps? Where on earth did you get that from?" Fiona mutters, looking backwards and forwards between the girls in front of her and the man behind her.

"I'm a police officer, of course I have a gun..." Ikbal coughs out, lifting his shaky hand from the ground and pointing it squarely at his daughter.

"I'm going to finish what I started. I won't make any mistakes this time."

Fiona grimaces, "Neither will I." She turns her back to her father and instead chooses the four girls as her target.

"If you shoot them, you'll die." Ikbal mutters, his words beginning to fail him.

"And you're dying anyway. Why not end it all here? No one will ever know the true story of Fiona Filipowski's death. Maddie, Barbara, you, me, Mahnoor, Oliwia, Alice and Abir. We'll all fade into myth. Let it all end here tonight."

The four girls, our four main characters, had no say in the matter. They were trapped at the end of Fiona's gun. Perhaps a part of them agreed with her. How could they go on after this? How could they live after everything that's happened?

The answer: they couldn't. Fiona was offering them all an escape. She was setting them all free.

Maybe I really was the hero.

And like all heroes, I had the last line.

"Here in the woods,
Dark and deep,
I can offer you eternal sleep."

I raise my gun towards the four girls, no longer the four main characters.

This tale started the same as it ended.

With the sound of an animalistic scream echoing through the forest.

___________________________

A/N

Looks like this was Fiona's story all along. She is both the hero, the villain and the narrator, can we really trust anything she's told us?

But it's not over yet, there's more to explain. Stay tuned for the final chapter coming this Sunday!

The song of this chapter is 'Game of Survival- Ruelle'

Are the four girls the hunters or the prey?

You know you love us,
Pigeon, Potato, Glitter
xoxo