Her long blonde hair that sticks out the bottom of her hood is the first thing that catches my eye. Her normally polished face is a mix of anger and frustration as she stands with the gun pointed directly at me. I look at her, but when I look into her eyes this is not the girl I've known at Riveroak. 

The girl that I've shared a room with since the first day. 

"Gala," I whisper shocked.

"You couldn't just leave well enough alone, could you?" she asks me as she waves her gun around in the air. "I tried to be your friend. I tried to welcome you in with open arms and this is the thanks I get from you. You know most people would get scared getting messages from an admitted killer, but you? Not Elena Ramos Nancy Drew Detective! No, you kept going." 

She begins to pace back and forth and my heart is aching with betrayal. How could it be Gala? How could it be the only person besides Chip that I've actually gotten close to in this school? I thought I had finally found a real best friend. 

"Gala, you were attacked," I say out loud, not believing what is right in front of my eyes. My head is swimming in confusion as I watch her pace. 

"Oh please, Elena," she says with a condescending tone. "Do you know how easy it is to make yourself look attacked when you throw a wrench up in the air over and over again and let it hit you?"

My jaw drops as I stare at her in astonishment. The gun is still being pointed directly at me. 

The same gun that just shot Chip.

"Oh my god, Chip!" I say throwing my hands over the wound in his shoulder. He winces in pain, but at least I know he's still alive if he's wincing. He coughs and looks at me. "Run," he whispers. 

"I'm not leaving," I say.

 "Neither of you are," Gala says with an almost laugh. "The fact that you have any idea that either one of you is leaving this auditorium alive is ridiculous. In fact, step back Elena," she says pointing the gun at me. 

"No!" I say holding pressure on Chip's wound. "I won't!" 

"Get back or I swear I'll shoot you in the face right now." 

Chip grabs my hand and squeezes it. "Elena," he whispers. "Go." 

Reluctantly I let go of the pressure in his shoulder and take steps back until Gala nods and points the gun back at Chip. "He's going to bleed out," she says. "He's going to bleed out and then I'm going to kill you. A homicide turned suicide from the girl who just couldn't swing it in Riveroak." 

"Gala," Chip croaks from the ground. "Please let her go." 

Gala scoffs. "I have no time for this Romeo and Juliet bullshit," she says as she walks over to Chip and slams the bottom of her pistol into his temple. His head slumps to the side and I let out a scream in horror as she steps back and instantly points the gun back at me. "Do not move," she says. "This is inevitable. At least this way he doesn't have to see his precious little Elena die as well." 

Keep her talking, Elena. Give yourself time to figure something out. 

"Why?" I ask her. "Why did you do it?"

She points the gun at me and bites her lower lip and I brace myself, ready to throw my body into a row of chairs at a given moment. Gala lets out a loud groan. Her eyes are angry as the violet color from the stage shines onto her face. 

"Because, Elena, Victoria was a bitch. She's a stupid bitch who looked for people's secrets and would use them against them. Only this time, she dug too far and it bit her in the ass. I bit her in the ass." 

"What did she find out, Gala?" 

Gala chuckles. "She found out a secret that was supposed to go to my grave with me." 

"Was it about your parents?" I ask her. "Was it that you're paying for the bills with the sponsorship that your title gave?" 

Gala laughed out loud. But it wasn't a normal laugh like she just heard a joke. This one was full of frustration. Like she couldn't believe what just came out of my mouth. "Elena, I don't give a damn about the fact that I'm providing for my family. If anything, I'm proud of myself," she motions around the room. "Look at what I've accomplished. I've put myself in one of the best schools in the country, I'm Miss Teen Georgia, and basically a lock to win the real title when I'm eligible to compete. My life is made!" 

"Gala, I'm really trying to understand you," I say. "I know you're not a bad person. I just don't understand why you did all of this." 

"I slept with the judge who was the deciding vote, Elena," Gala says annoyed. "I knew the situation I was in and I did what I had to do to get out of it. I needed to win. I didn't have a choice." 

She lowers the gun and seems to stare right past me. "Victoria found out because I told her. He wouldn't leave me alone after I was crowned. He kept threatening me. Saying if I didn't do this or do that everything would disappear. An error would be found and I'd be stripped of my title. I reached out to my friend to help me in my time of desperation. She hired her family's PI and he found a lot of dirt on the judge. She blackmailed him to never contact me again, but she also had a new weapon to use against me. I couldn't leave her with that ammo." 

"So you just killed her?" 

"I didn't have a choice," Gala says pointing the gun back at me. "She was evil, Elena. Everything she did she did it because she saw some kind of gain she could get for herself. I never did anything but be there for her, but this secret was like she had a knife dangling over my head. Every time she got upset with me she threatened to expose me. So one night, we were drinking at our dorm. She was upset because that jackass Goldstone did something stupid again, and she wanted to take her anger out. I was the unfortunate one who was close by and she began to shout about my cheating scandal." 

Tears rolled down her face. "I didn't know what to do. We were in a dorm, so I just ran out of the room and down toward the art center. She followed behind me calling me names and screaming how I can't hide this forever. She was always a messy drunk," Gala wipes her face quickly and points the gun back at me. "I ran into this room, and she followed me, and we started to fight. She was hitting me and calling me a slut, and I just snapped. The next thing I knew I was bashing her head into the corner of the stage over and over again, and then she wasn't moving anymore. Then I saw she wasn't breathing. I had to hide her." 

"I called Stassi, Priyah was too smart to get involved in something like this, and when Stassi came  I threatened her, and she helped me move her body to the basement. I gave her this bullshit talk about how we're bonded for life now, and that if she ever told anyone I'd pin it all on her. And now," she says pointing the gun at me. "It's time for you to follow Victoria." 

A loud blast sounds in the auditorium and hits the wall next to me. I dive into the row of chairs and begin to crawl under them deeper into the auditorium. Gala follows behind me walking slowly, looking down each row to see where I'm at. 

"Elena, you're making this harder than it has to be," she says. 

When I get to the very first row I take a deep breath before I run toward the stage and dive onto it. I tuck and roll toward the wings of the stage and attempt to make my way backstage when a bullet grazes my ankle. 

A burning sensation fills my lower body, and I let out a scream. Another bullet fires and my body goes into auto-pilot as I run deeper into the wings. The side of the stage is small, and there's a small ramp that leads to a bigger area where more people can wait for their cue on stage. Four large shelves of props sit directly across about five feet away from the ramp. I run to the shelves and throw my body behind one of the large structures right as Gala steps off the stage.

"Elena," she calls out. "Elena, let's just get this over with." 

Her voice is dangerously close. 

I look around me, and I see a set of stairs that lead up to a door that says "Catwalk Lighting", I run up the stairs and throw the door open. A single iron ladder stands in the middle of the room surrounded by a booth filled with various buttons and monitors. I begin to climb up the ladder and get halfway up when the door slams open and Gala gasps. 

"Elena!" she says angrily. "Get down here!" 

She shot the gun, but she missed again and hit the wall behind the ladder. I begin to furiously climb the ladder until I make it to the top. A narrow metal walkway that extends about ten feet is the only place that this ladder led to. Various lights are hooked onto a small rail that only comes to about my mid-thigh. Gala begins to climb the ladder and I back up as far as the platform allows for me to. 

When she climbs up the ladder she sighs and points the gun at me. "Fine, if you want to have a big dramatic end, so be it. Goodbye, Elena-" 

I run at her, and our bodies slam against each other as I tackle her to the ground. We hit the metal platform hard, and I hear the gun clatter to the ground underneath us. "Bitch!" Gala screams as she tries to climb on top of me. She punches me in the face and I let out a loud groan as stars start to fly around my head. I feel her hands wrap around my neck and she begins to squeeze as I sink down onto my back against the cold metal platform. 

I try and claw her hands off my neck, but it only makes her grip harder. She's grunting angrily as the world around me begins to fade to black. Everything starts to get fuzzy, and it's getting harder and harder for me to see anything. 

At least you found out who killed her, Elena. 

I look to my left and see Kilgore, my mother, and the life I left behind. Things would have been so different had I just stayed there.

I wouldn't have found the diary. Wouldn't be being strangled on the ground right now. I wouldn't have met Chip. 

CHIP! 

This isn't your end, Elena. 

With the little strength I have left, I lift my legs up to my chest and kick Gala with all the force I can. She falls backward and I hear a loud scream as she topples over the railing and grabs onto the iron rods. 

I gasp for breath as I try to make my way over to where she toppled and grab onto her hand. She is trying to pull herself up, and when I reach down to try and help her she jerks her hand away from me. 

"Gala!" I croak out. "Please stop!" 

"I'm going to pull myself up!" Gala calls. 

I try and reach down again, and she rips her hand off. It dangles next to her as I watch her struggle to reach it back up to grab onto the bar. I reach one more time, "Gala! Please let me help you." 

She attempts to extend her hand back up to me, but I can't reach her. "Elena, I'm slipping!" she says as she tries to reach my hand again. 

Her hand lets go of the rail and I hear her scream as she falls the three stories to the unforgiving ground. A loud crunch fills the room, and I cover my mouth and scream in shock as I look at her body contorted in an unnatural position. A pool of blood pours out behind her head, and her eyes are wide open staring back at me.

I lean back onto the platform, still trying to catch my breath as I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial 9-1-1. The world around me is spinning, and I begin to feel like I'm going to pass out. 

"9-1-1 what is your emergency?"

"We need two ambulances to Riveroak Preparatory School. I'm on the catwalk in the auditorium. I'll probably be passed out."

My phone drops and I let the darkness take over me.