Fuck.

I should stay in my room and wait for her to text me she's no longer with Aris, but I can't stand it.

Can't stand just waiting in my house while she's around a serial killer who can kill her any second.

So I'm rushing down the stairs, so fast that I trip over my own ankles and fall down a few steps before I continue sprinting.

"Thomas!" Dad's yell. "You alright?!"

"Fine! Bye!" I slam the front door open— why is there resistance?

A few groans come from behind the door. Slowly, I peek around it.

Gally, on the floor, propped up on his elbows, rubbing his nose. "Ow, man. I was just about to ring the bell."

"What the fuck are you doing at my house?"

He holds out a hand. A bloody hand. "You mind first?"

I stare at it. "Why are you covered in blood?"

"There was a spear inside my stomach not even five minutes ago, and your house was the closest. Vi told me to go here instead of to hers."

"Ohh." Realization hit me; Sage sent him. "Come on in." I help him up.

"Seriously?"

My eyebrows furrow. "What?"

"Would you have even let me in if I didn't mention Vi?"

"Probably not." I pull him inside. "Don't you dare bleed onto my precious floor."

"I hate you."

"I hate you, too. Now let's go. My parents can't see you," I mutter. "And you're saying a spear hit you in the stomach?"

"Yeah. I was just walking on the beach when it happened. Good thing their aim wasn't that good."

I lift my shirt u—

"Hey, hey, you don't have to strip in front of me," he warns.

I roll my eyes. "Just look at this."

"At what? Your happy trail?"

"No— why are you even looking at that? Look at my side."

"There's nothing on your side."

I look down.

Oh, it's the wrong side.

I turn. "This clear enough for you?"

"Ah." He nods, taking a step back. "You got kebabed, too?"

"Yes, but with an arrow. By the way, how are you not dying of pain right now?"

He shrugs. "I've felt worse. When you broke my nose, for example."

"That was you breaking mine!" I whisper-scream.

"No, it wasn't!" Gally whisper-screams back.

"Mom!" I peek around the corner of the hallway, into the kitchen. I can see her back turned to me as she reads some kind of paper. "Did Gally break my nose in first grade?"

"No, honey, you broke his," she replies. "Even had his mom on our roof asking why her son came home crying like that."

My mouth falls open. "You're lying. It was him."

"No, it wasn't," Gally defends.

"No, it wasn't, indeed," Mom says.

I cross my arms. Lean against the wall. I'm not leaving this room until the truth is out, and this is certainly not the truth. "Why would I, as a seven-year-old, punch a classmate in the face? I bet I wasn't capable of that."

"Except you were," she points out.

"Why?"

"Sit down and let me explain instead of this yelling through the house."

"I'm standing just fine here." I turn to Gally. "Can you keep standing for a while?"

He shrugs, then gives some kind of nod, so I look at Mom again.

"Why did I punch him?"

"When his mom came over and asked me what happened, I called you over. Gally was with her and the nasty glare you gave him said enough. We all gathered around the kitchen table, both of you so tiny that only your eyes came above the table."

When a she squeals a bit, I want to slam my head against this wall.

"We asked Gally to explain what happened. He said that he complimented Viviette's new hair clips, which were colorful. He really liked them. You were standing next to Viviette, reached out, and smacked him right on his nose. He fell down, you jumped on top of him, was about to hit again, until the teacher arrived."

"That is not how it happened. He punched me because—"

Mom chuckles. "No, Thomas. After Gally's explanation, it was your turn to explain. You said 'Sage is my best friend, and he was asking for it'."

"That's all?"

"Yeah, until we asked for more words. You said 'I am not sorry."

While Mom is explaining, the memories slowly come back to me. But I refuse to believe it. "Let me grab a letter. That will be the proof. Who knows you're just messing with me?"

"I'm a pregnant forty-eight year old woman, why would I be lying?"

Gally perks up. "You're pregnant?"

"Mhm. Four months already."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks, honey."

"I'll make sure to tell them not to compliment Vi."

I glare at Gally. "As I get my letter, go bandage yourself up in the bathroom. Don't take longer than five minutes, thanks."

Five minutes later, he has actually managed to do it, and I'm holding the letter with the right date. "Okay, I'm going to read it out loud. Let's see if I was really the one who punched Gally."

Hello,
My name is Thomas and I am seven years old.

Today Mommy got very angrie at me because I broke Gally's noze.

Okay, bad idea. I should've read a fake letter or something.

But I continue, even with their laughs in the background.

We were at skool and we were standing in the clasroom, waiting for Mrs. Levine. I was holding Sage's hand because she was nervus. We would learn the letter 'k'. I already know all the letters, so I wasn't nervous and I'm not sure why she was so nervous.

Then Gally walked over to us. He pointed at Sage's hair clips and he said he liked them. Sage smiled and said 'thank you' and I felt her get less nervus.

I jumped forward and punched Gally away from Sage. He was on the ground so I took my chance and wanted to do it again, cuz I felt really cool, but then the teacher pulled me away from Gally and started yelling at me.

I shed a few tears when she did that, cuz I don't like it when people yell at me. Sage was very confusd but I saw that she wanted to hug me but then I got taken to the hallwaay by Mrs. Levine and I got told to sit on the bench until I could explain normaly why I smacked Gally.

Then we went home and Gally was there and his mommy was there and my mommy was there. We sat around the table and we had to explain what happened.

Gally lied, because he did not compliment Sage's hair clips. He violated them, but Mommy says I can't use hard words like that because I don't even know what they mean while I do know what they mean!

So all I said was 'Sage is my best friend and he was asking for it.' And then I said 'I am not sorry'.

Why am I not sorry, you wonder? Here is my list:

- One of the clips was bleu and that is my color and only Sage can find it butiful but not Gally.

- I have wanted to smack Gally for a long time because he told me cactuses speak and then it hurt when I put my ear against one!

- Sage is my best friend and not his. He should get his own friends!

- I was suposed to calm Sage down and not him. No one told him it was his job so he stole my job and I will never forgive him for doing that cuz what if she now likes Gally better than me??

- Littel Minho says Gally is a word-I-cannot-write-down-because-it's-rude.

Okay, fine. I'll say it; Littel Minho called Gally a moron.

I am not sure where he learned that word and I am also not sure what it means but he said Big Finn always says it. Finn is ten years old! I can't wait until I am ten and I can use those words, too.

Anyways, here are my other reasons why I'm not sorry:

- I had the right to do that cuz Daddy says I need to hit peopel who hit me and Gally did not exakly hit me but he did hurt me with his words so it is a desent reason.

That was it, I hope you are on my side, Sage.

Bye Sage,
Steph

"Ehm." When I finish reading, my face is bright red. Why did I think reading my seven-year-old thoughts out loud to Gally was a good idea? "Okay, I need to go save Sage, bye!" I hurry.

"Save her?" Mom repeats.

Yesterday, she showed me the website my grandma sent her when my grandpa was missing. It was full of missing posters. Then, on my own laptop, I looked through the website, and I came across the Jonah thing.

"Yes." I hesitate. Do I explain it all? I probably should, but it would take too long. But okay. "Aris is the killer. Call the police before Sage gets killed," is all I say.