My heart races as the sand slings behind me with each running step. The air is cold, and the wind wraps around my face leaving my lips chapped as I inhale the oxygen that doesn't seem to fill my lungs no matter how much I plead. 

My foot catches in the sand and I tumble down on the soft surface. I fall face-first into the sand and roll my body to continue moving as the hooded figure chases after me. They're moving Slowly, but steadily and making their way toward me. 

"Stay away from me!" I scream at them as I rush back to my feet and continue to pump my legs as hard as I can. 

My foot crashes along the dock. I run until I reach the very edge and shriek as my toes dangle over the edge of the worn-down wood. I turn around and look at the hooded figure. It lurches menacingly toward me. Their face remains hidden, and a sharp rock dangles in their hand as it swings from side to side. 

"Please get away!" 

I feel someone behind me and I scream. As I do, a pale hand reaches from below the dock. The skin is missing flakes, and it's pulling on my leg as they climb up. The ugly hand lets go of my ankle and I watch in horror as jet-black hair emerges from the swampy water. Her face is just as pale as her hand was, and her head has a gash in it and it's oozing dark red blood. 

Victoria Caldwell floats in front of me on the dock. Her eyes, the only thing that looks alive on her, look at me pleading as she stares at me with fear. "Help me," her voice chokes out. "Find who killed me." 

As soon as she disappears,  a strong hand grips my shoulder from behind and spins me around. I hold out my hands to protect my face and -

I wake up covered in sweat.  Gala is sitting on the side of my bed shaking me. I haven't been able to sleep well since the killer, the person who killed Victoria Caldwell, broke into my dorm and tampered with the diary. Every night has been filled with night terrors and scary dreams of a dead Victoria calling out to me. Poor Gala has been sleeping just as poorly as me, but that's mainly because I've been waking her up with my screams. 

"You're okay," she whispers. She grabs my hand supportively as my body takes its time realizing that I'm not actually in any danger. 

The vandalism that was in my room was chalked up to people hazing the new girl. The cameras didn't catch anyone coming in and out of the room, so it was declared to be a dead end and the school promised to replace anything that was broken. 

This wasn't just a run-of-the-mill prank. 

I wish it was as simple as a prank on me. Finding that note in my drawer and seeing the threat the killer wrote out to me has left me a nervous wreck. Every time I leave the room I'm constantly watching my back. I don't even have it in me to pretend to be okay anymore. I'm in real danger, and if something happens to me no one will even know why. 

I wonder if the news outlet would be interested in the story of a poor girl from a small town who came to Riveroak on scholarship. Would I get as much attention as Victoria did for disappearing? Would people other than my mom even look for me and care that I was missing?

"I'm so sorry," I whisper as tears begin to well up in my eyes. "I know you didn't sign up to be my babysitter. I don't know what's wrong with me." 

Gala sighs and squeezes my hand. "Elena, you found a dead body. Anyone that finds something like that would be messed up. You're dealing with a lot and classes are starting tomorrow." 

I let out a groan that makes Gala begin to chuckle as she gets up from her spot on my bed and goes to her own. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news." 

I haven't even thought of what classes would be like since the party down by The Bay. I came to Riveroak to better my life, but from the second I got here, everything has been overwhelming and distracting me. 

This world is intoxicating. It's full of fancy cars and expensive clothing and kids that spend more money on one shopping trip than I spent all last year. I'm scared I'm going to lose myself in this world if I keep falling deeper into it.

I don't want this place to change me. I want to still be the same Elena that came here with the dreams of getting out of Kilgore and overcoming the small-town curse. 

But that Elena saw a dead body. 

And that Elena also got threatened by the killer of the highest profile case in over a decade. 

I want to throw my arms up in the sky and scream. That Elena can't be me anymore. That version of me was never in fear for my life or wondering if I was being watched. I was ambitious and strong and not the kind of girl who woke up screaming in the middle of the night. 

I just need to find someone that I can talk to. Someone that I can tell everything, well, almost everything to and not feel so alone. So I won't feel like I'm drowning in this world that I've fallen headfirst into. 

I can't tell Gala. She's dealing with too much since Victoria's body was found and Anne-Marie's power struggle within the group fills her plate up. Stassi and Pria are out of the question because anything I tell them will report directly back to Anne-Marie. 

And I can't tell Anne-Marie for obvious reasons. 

That leaves Chip. 

We're just getting to know each other, but he seems genuine in getting to know me and being there for me. He saved my reputation during the game the first night we met, and even after my awkward encounters with him, he's continued to reach out.

I look over at the clock on my nightstand. It's 7:30 in the morning on a Sunday. Is now too early to reach out to someone? 

I pull out my phone and open up the messages. 

Any chance you can meet today? I really need to get something off my chest. 

I roll over in my bed and put my pillow over my face as my phone buzzes. 

Sure. Meet me outside the dorm in fifteen minutes. We can walk to the bay? 

I look at my phone exasperated as I jump up from the bed and run to the closet. What kind of person gives a girl fifteen minutes to get ready to see someone they'll potentially date? I grab a sweatsuit from the closet and then run to the bathroom to brush my teeth and do something with my hair. 

After ten minutes I look at the ponytail in my hair and sigh as I realize this is as good as it is getting. I grab the note from my drawer, and I creep out of the room as Gala's even breathing fills the room. When I get to the front door of the dorm, Chip is standing there at the door. He smiles when he sees me, and his scruffy hair is extra scruffy today. 

"I was surprised you were up this early," I tell him.

"Early bird gets the worm," he says. "Or something like that." 

The grounds are peaceful when everyone is asleep. It's deceptive even. People driving by would have never been able to guess that this campus holds the mystery of a dead girl and her killer who's threatening me. 

"So you said you needed to talk about something?" Chip asks.

"Yes," I say biting my lower lip. "Listen, what I need to say is going to be very...intense? I need you to know that I'm trying to figure it out, but I need someone to talk with. Right now, I feel like my mind is feeling like it's going to explode and I need to get some of these thoughts out before I burst-" 

He gently grabs my arms and turns me to face him. His eyes are filled with worry as he pulls me into a hug, and for a brief second my world seems to stop collapsing around me under the weight of his embrace. Like someone is helping me hold the weight of the world up for the first time. I cling to him as what feels like forever is passing us by while we hug until he finally let's go and looks at me with kind eyes. 

"Elena, you're going to be okay," he smiles softly. "I'm going to do whatever I can to help you." 

I smile back at him, missing the embrace of his arms around me, but I take a deep breath. "Someone broke into my room the other day, and it wasn't just a prank." 

"How do you know?" he asks me. 

I reach into my pocket and pull the note out. He looks at me confused as he takes it from me and scans over the words written down. His eyes slide across the page several times as he reads the words again and again. He finally brings the note away from his face and looks at me. 

"We need to tell someone."

"Chip, we can't." 

"Bullshit, Elena!" he says forcefully. "They're threatening to kill you! To kill you, Elena! This isn't a joke. They're claiming to have already killed Victoria, and now they're threatening your life. And what did they mean by there's things you don't need to know yet?" 

I can't tell Chip about the journal yet. Not if he's responding to the note this way. The journal is the link to this, or at least the pages that were ripped from it are. Something in those pages that were ripped out were so intense, so rage inducing, that it led someone to kill a seventeen-year-old girl. 

It doesn't matter how many times he tries to make sense of the fact they're threatening me. He can say it over and over again, but the bottom line is this: we have no idea who this person is. Giving this note and evidence to the authority opens me up for a world of possibilities to making this person angry, or worse, driving me to the same fate that Victoria had. 

"Chip," I whisper. "I understand your thoughts. They're nothing that I haven't thought of myself. If we decide to turn this over to the authorities that puts me in danger. I don't know who this is, and they've already proven they can break into my dorm. What if next time I'm in it? I think for right now I need to play their game and see where it leads."

He doesn't like what I said. I can see it on his face that everything in him is screaming for him to protest. To tell me that I'm wrong and this is crazy, and maybe a part of me wishes he would tell me. Maybe I need him to tell me that I'm crazy and to march me over to the deans office and explain everything. 

But then I would have to leave here. My mom wouldn't let me have the opportunity to stay at Riveroak if she knew I was actively getting threatened. She wouldn't even drive up here to get me. She would have her lights turned off in the house to get two plane tickets to come and get me and drag me home by my ear. 

No, I have to stay. I have to see this through. I did not come all the way here for someone to chase me off. Riveroak was my lifeline. My light in the darkness getting me out of the Kilgore curse. 

A curse I was determined to break. 

"This is crazy," he says finally after a long silence. "All of this is absolutely mad." 

"I know this isn't far to ask you, Chip," I tell him. "I know this is extremely over the top and a huge burden, but-"

"I'm in," he says cutting me off. "I understand that you need someone, and Elena, I'm determined to be that person." 

My heart fills at his words. He just met me, and yet, I feel like we're closer than anyone I know from back home. Chip feels safe, and while this isn't my idea first date, or any date for that matter, it has shown me the kind of guy that Chip is. 

One that has my back.

"Promise me one thing?" he asks me. 

"Sure," I say as the sandy shores of the Bay come into view. A slight shiver runs down my spine remembering what I found there just days prior. 

"Promise me that there will be no secrets. Everything has to be out on the table if we're doing this together." 

My heart starts to sink as I listen to his words. Chip has been one hundred percent honest with me, and I've done the opposite. Not sharing the diary is a huge secret, but I'm not ready to share that with anyone yet. 

It's my one connection to everything happening and I feel its important that I see where it leads before sharing it with the others. So even though every fiber of me is screaming to tell him, I nod my head and put on my most sincere look. "Absolutely. No secrets."