Fourteen-year-old Madison Waller swam laps in her neighborhood's community pool. Madison was preparing to try out for her school dive team. Her family knew she would make it without a doubt, but Madison did not want to be arrogant.

After all, practice makes perfect. For the past three hours, she had pushed her body to the brink of exhaustion by swimming laps and cleaning up all her dive flips. She wanted her tryouts to go perfectly, and she could only do that by practicing so much that there was no chance for failure.

If Madison wanted to make it to the Olympics, this was where it would start. After her fifth lap, Madison emerged from the water with a deep breath, her eyes reflecting the clearness of the pool.

As soon as the young teenager stepped onto the hard concrete surrounding the pool, she allowed her gaze to follow the just rising sun. She had been out here since four A.M., it was now seven o'clock in the morning. In Madison's opinion, when she swam in the morning, she was much quicker and her flips were more solid.

Glancing at the red towel she had brought with her, Madison debated calling it a day and walking home. However, she decided that doing one more back full off of the high dive would not hurt. In fact, if she could manage to do it perfectly even while being this tired, Madison would go into her tryouts tomorrow with complete confidence.

Taking another deep breath, Madison rang out her hair, her legs taking her closer to the high dive. Anyone who saw Madison up close could easily tell by her body that she was a swimmer. For being just fourteen, she was tall, yet very skinny. No fat was visible whatsoever, only skin, bone, and muscle, a feature she had gained from hours in the pool every day.

As Madison climbed to the top of the high dive, she could not stop herself from thinking about her future full of so many options. Madison's grades were nothing less than perfect, her family had a good amount of money, and she was on the road to becoming a professional swimmer. Yes, many girls her age would die to be Madison Waller, many wished to have a future full of as many opportunities as she had.

Standing on the board, Madison turned backward lightly bouncing, her thoughts focused on the gleaming water below. With a deep breath, Madison leaped from the diving board, her body soaring through the air gracefully, spinning as she performed a full twisting layout while falling toward the pool. The sound of the board cracking from the force reverberated around.

The minute Madison's body finished the flip, she hit the water, sinking toward the bottom. Oh, how Madison loved being underwater, it was so peaceful in her opinion. No noise, no worries, simply the water and herself.

As Madison hit the bottom, she allowed herself to float for just a second before beginning to paddle her way to air. From the fifteen-foot depth, she was halfway to the top when catastrophe struck. She recognized the feeling as a charlie horse in her calf, an occurrence which usually happened after an intense workout.

Madison should not have gotten back in the pool. The girl found herself unable to move her right leg, a serious problem when trying to swim to the top of a fifteen-foot pool. Even though she had been swimming all her life, she had never been the best with holding her breath.

Now, after almost forty seconds under the water, her lungs screamed at her to breathe. Scarlett grunted bubbles leaving her mouth as she desperately clawed her way to the top. The water, unfortunately, seemed to fight back, only pushing her deeper under the pool. Her leg still refused to move, Madison becoming desperate to breathe.

In all her years, Madison never imagined this was how she would die, doing the one thing she truly loved to do. And never had she thought she would die so young. In one last desperate attempt, Madison used the last of her energy to propel herself toward the top, her lungs burning.

For a split second, Madison's heart soared, her fingertips just brushing the edge of oxygen... but she was once again pulled under. Giving in, Madison opened her mouth, her brain forcing her to take a deep breath. Chlorine filled water entered her lungs causing them to burn even more, Madison crying out, a sound which no one heard.

The young teenager thrashed about the water, her mind filled with thoughts and memories of her short life. Her parents would be heartbroken, she was their only daughter, she was their miracle!

With a fading image of herself chatting happily to her mother and father, she easily gave in to the peaceful slumber of death. Death is as easy breathing, living is much harder.

   Slowly, her body stopped fidgeting, her blue eyes that reminded so many of the ocean left wide open, chlorine infiltrating them.

It was still early, no one would find her body for a few hours. Overhead, the pool water lapped, the waves from Scarlett's previous thrashing fading into a distant nothing. And at the bottom of the pool, floating delicately still was the corpse of none other than Madison Waller, a young teenager whose future was wiped away in moments.

✸✸✸

Torryn Wilde's eyes snapped open and in a nearly neck-breaking motion, her body flew upright from her soft satin sheets. The huge house which Torryn resided in rattled, pictures and other trinkets shaking and falling. Torryn's mouth was wide, her mind comprehending the impossibly loud scream which tore its way through her throat.

The shriek was a noise that any person other than Torryn herself would find unbearable to listen to. It would cause anyone to clutch their ears and fall to the ground, it may even burst some people's eardrums.

As Torryn wailed for Madison Waller, a girl which she did not know other than from her vision, she prayed no one could hear her. The sound of her scream stretched for miles, and though it did not quite reach Jasper, it did reach a small base just miles away from where Torryn lived. Not that she knew this base existed, of course.

Inside the Autobot base, despite it being just before seven o'clock on a Saturday morning, every single Autobot was awake and they had already got their human charges for the day. Raf sat on the couch with Bumblebee crouched behind it, both of them playing a friendly round of Raf's racing game.

Jack leaned on the railing across from the couch talking to Arcee about anything and everything on his mind, while Miko stood playing her heavy metal guitar on what she called her 'stage', but in reality was only a small ledge leading off the main staircase. Bulkhead stood in front of her, nodding along to her heavy metal music, Miko smiling at the attention she was receiving from her guardian.

Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, stood focused on decoding an old Cybertronian relic location while Ratchet, the medic of team Prime, searched for any stray energon signals.

It was Smokescreen, the newest recruit as well as the youngest, that stood off to the side watching Bee and Raf play the game with curiosity. The young soldier was still very much curious about Earth and the creatures which inhabited it. He also had energy which seemed to never fade, so seeing him simply watching something silently was a rare sight and one that Ratchet did not intend to waste.

   Any other day, it seemed the new soldier was bouncing off the walls.

However, the scene of the Autobot base was soon ruined by a slight tremor in the ground along with the sound of what they could only describe as a wailing screech. A scream louder than any of them had ever heard before.

Because the scream was coming from far away, the sound was slightly muffled, and yet, it was still very much there. Raf dropped his remote, hands going to his ears in pain, while everyone else cringed at the horrible scream.

The sound easily drowned out Miko's heavy metal and the sounds of the video game put together. It lasted no more than five seconds, but everyone was affected by it in some way or another.

Once the shaking stopped and the sound ceased, everyone at the base looked to each other with confusion and alarm.

"What was that?" Smokescreen questioned, looking to Optimus and Ratchet, the two bots looking to each other with an equal amount of confusion.

Finally, it was Optimus who answered, shaking his helm. "I have not the slightest clue."

Back at Torryn's house, Torryn herself breathed in deep, the previous screech causing her to become particularly thirsty. "Geez," She groaned, cracking her limbs while hopping out of bed. "That was a loud one."

At the sound of her voice and sensing her movement, the lights in her room automatically turned on, her automated window curtains slowly lifting to reveal the sun-filled lavish backyard. Alike to most teenage rooms, Torryn's was messy, with random clothes and other trash sprawled along the floor.

Checking the time on her phone, Torryn sighed seeing it was exactly 6:58 in the morning. She hated being awake so early on a weekend but knew she would not be able to fall back asleep.

She had a total of five hours before cheer practice was meant to begin. Running her fingers through her red locks, Torryn let out another yawn, walking out of her room, through the long hallway, down the stairs and to the kitchen.

The cold tile greeted her in an antagonizing manner, Torryn hissing at the temperature change. She had to start wearing slippers, even if she had been living Nevada for a few weeks now, it was still difficult to get used the desert-themed houses.

Unlike her old home in Washington, the floors were not made of smooth wood but sleek tile, tile that was also much colder than the wood ever was. Unfortunately, it was how all houses in the desert were built for some off reason.

Humming to herself, Torryn was quick to begin making bacon and eggs, knowing that eating a good breakfast would help her at practice later.

"Alexa," Torryn moved the pan as the bacon sizzled, her voice calling out to her home's virtual assistant. "Call dad."

There was a pause, the silence deafening before the familiar ringing noise of calling played around the large manor. Torryn hummed, crying out in pain when grease from the bacon popped at her, the teen girl quickly licking her arm in an attempt to make the burning go away.

"Motherfuck-" Torryn's cursing was cut off by the sound of her father's voice drifting throughout the home.

"Torryn," Her father sounded the same as always, but this time with a tinge of scolding in his tone. "Is there any good reason for you to be cursing like that." Torryn's eyes were wide, the girl sighing.

"Damn it," She muttered under her breath before perking up. "No, daddy," She said louder so her father could hear her, the call weaving throughout the home. "I was just calling 'cause we haven't spoken since Monday." She made sure to make her voice sound dejected and depressed so she wouldn't get in any more trouble for cursing.

Scott Wilde let out an apologetic sigh. "Sorry, darling, I know, it's been a few days, I've just been extremely busy. They have me in Berlin right now, on official business." He ended the sentence in a playful manner, Torryn laughing in response while turning off the stove and placing the four pieces of bacon with her eggs on a plate.

"That's okay, I've been busy too, I had a few tests this week," Torryn explained, taking the dirty pan and placing in the sink full of other dishes.

Torryn cringed at the sight of the many dirty dishes, the smell causing her to crinkle her nose. She would need to clean those soon. But who liked doing the dishes? Certainly not Torryn.

"Oh?" This, of course, piqued her father's interest, just as it would any other parent. "What did you score on them."

Torryn shrugged even though she knew her father could not see her, picking up her plate and taking it from the counter to the large mahogany table. Sitting at the end, Torryn could not stop the pang she felt seeing the table empty other than her, just like every time she had a meal.

"Uhh," Torryn pretended to think, taking a bite of the warm bacon, nearly moaning at the taste. "I can't seem to remember." She feigned, her father immediately picking on the lie. She was never able to lie to him.

"Torryn..." He trailed off in a reprimanding tone, making the teenager roll her eyes and mouth the word 'Torryn' mockingly with an annoyed look.

"Okay fine, a twenty-one percent!" She said it as if it were something to be proud of, Scott groaning in annoyance.

"When I said don't draw attention to yourself, I did not mean bomb every single test you take. You know the only reason I don't want people to see how truly smart you are is that-" Torryn cut her father off, chewing through her eggs.

"Because no one can figure out about me being a banshee. Yes, I know, and before you ask, don't worry, I haven't brought anyone over or told anyone about it." Scott sighed in relief at his daughter's words.

"Good," There was a pause. "How is... everything?" He asked.

Torryn knew that by 'everything' her father truly meant how were the visions as of late. What the girl wanted to say was 'complete crap', but she knew better than to make her father worry.

"Fine," She chirped, getting up from the table and walking to the cabinet pulling out a glass. The shorts adorning her fell low on her hips, the size obviously being far too big for her. Same with the t-shirt she wore which was far too loose for her and yet, it made it all the more comfortable. "I mean, I just had a vision and screamed. Oh, sorry about the broken pictures when you get back, it was a rather loud scream," Torryn absentmindedly rambled while pouring herself orange juice, talking about how she watched a girl named Madison Waller drown in her vision.

Torryn had lived with visions of people dying all her life, after a while, she simply got used to it. Now she was able to act as if watching strangers die in visions did not affect her. Torryn was the master of pushing her emotions away when it came to things like that.

After her mother died when she was eight, Torryn tiptoed around death in a sort of haze. She pushed back her feelings whenever she watched someone die in a vision and replaced it with happy emotions.

After all, in Torryn's mind, no vision she had would come close to the vision she had of her mother all those years ago.

Elena Wilde died in a plane crash eight years ago, and Torryn watched the entire thing through a vision. Sometimes, her vision was not of a future event, but instead of what was currently happening in the present.

The day Elena Wilde died, Torryn did not have a premonition of it, no, the young girl got a front row seat to the entire thing as it was happening, the vision of her mother came too late. And the wail that followed was possibly the loudest one she had ever released, she was simply lucky her father was not home at the time, otherwise, chances were he would have gone deaf alike to the neighbors. Those people still don't realize the reason they went deaf that day was because of their banshee neighbor, all they recall was a horrible screeching sound before their eardrums burst.

Scott listened to his daughter with worry. He knew she pushed her emotions down and he was only waiting for the day that they finally crawled back up and his daughter broke from the pressure. He prayed it would not happen, and yet he knew it would. He only hoped he would be home to hold her and soothe her weeps of sorrow.

"No one heard you, right?" Scott questioned with worry, he had just moved them to Jasper a few months prior, he did not want to already have to move them again.

"Mmm," Torryn took a large gulp of her orange juice, placing the container back in the fridge, grabbing her glass and closing the door with her hip. "I don't think so, but even if someone did, they would never know what they heard. They would probably think it's a plane or something." Torry reasoned, sitting back in her spot, beginning to scarf down the rest of her breakfast. "Oh, yeah, I have practice in a few hours, on my way home I was planning on stopping at Starbucks, can I use the black card?"

Scott sighed but gave in. Torryn had an odd way of getting what she wanted. "Yeah, sure, go ahead." Call him out on spoiling his daughter, but in his opinion, Torryn more than anyone in the world deserved to be spoiled.

She was the one who had to live by herself most of the time and with the visions and voices in her head whispering the next person who was to fall victim to death. Torryn silently cheered, folding her legs while taking another bite of her bacon.

"I'm sorry, darling, but I need to go. I'm about to go to dinner with some co-workers," Torryn waved it off, forgetting her father couldn't see her.

"It's okay, but when are you going to be home?" Torryn was curious, swinging her leg back and forth while finishing her breakfast.

Scott hummed, trying to remember when it was that he had a few days off. "Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I think. It's only for a weekend though," Scott once again sounded apologetic, but Torryn only shrugged.

Someone had to pay the bills, besides, a few days was more than enough for Torryn. "Okay, well I'll talk to you, later." Both of them knew later meant another few days.

The phone calls between Scott and Torryn had never been on a consistent schedule.

"Okay, bye darling, I love you."

"Love you too," Torryn chirped as the call ended, placing her newly empty plate in the sink, glancing at all the dishes before deciding to put them off. "Eh, I'll do them later." She said to herself, leaving the kitchen and heading for the living room.

Torryn hoped she could at least get through the first Twilight movie before she was forced to get ready and leave for cheer practice. Torryn loved the movie Twilight despite most people hating it, she was a sucker for supernatural romances. Plopping down on the large couch, Torryn grabbed the remote flicking to Netflix.

"Alexa turn family room lights off," Torryn said to the virtual assistant, the lights quickly shutting themselves off.

With an eager grin, she quickly pressed play, mouthing along with the words she had so earnestly memorized.

"I had never given much thought to how I would die..." Torryn patted her heart, nodding along with Bella Swan's narrating.

"You go, Bella, you go!" Torryn yelled to no one, before cringing at her own cheering. "Dang, I really need to get a life... and now I'm talking to myself." She sighed before Kristen Stewart acting as Bella Swan broke through with her narrating, causing Torryn to talk along with her.

"But dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go."

"Oh, but can I please have my own vampire boyfriend? Or a boyfriend who's not human?" Torryn was not speaking literally, but she had no clue how true her words would become within the next few months.

✸✸✸

"Come on, ladies! Let's hit this last run-through!" Sierra, the Memorial High cheer captain shouted from her spot at the opening of the cheer routine.

Torryn along with the rest of the girls on the team sighed in exhaustion, this was to be their fourth full out, and luckily, their last one. The thing about Memorial High was despite its small size and the fact that it was located in the middle of nowhere, it was an extremely competitive school sports-wise.

The football team was a two-time state champion along with the baseball, softball, basketball, and even the golf team. The cheer team, however, was a four-time state champion, and Memorial High did not intend on losing that title anytime soon.

It was because of this that the cheer coaches pushed the girls so hard. Memorial High's cheer team was not like most, it was intense and if you were on that team, you were there to work hard and earn your spot. In the mind of most, Memorial High cheerleaders were the real-life 'Bring It On' team.

"We got this!" Another girl yelled, Sierra bending her head as she placed her right foot in the grasp for the basket-toss she was to be thrown in.

Torryn took deep breaths, preparing herself for the extreme workout about to come. Even with the routine being only two-and-a-half minutes, in Torryn's opinion, it was two-and-a-half minutes of complete hell.

Tumbling, stunting, jumping, and yelling really took it out of a girl.

"NEW LEVEL MUSIC!" The autotuned voice of a cheerleading eight-count track blasted from the stereo, hitting not only the cheer team's ears but also the football players ears.

From the next field over, the football team was also having their own practice. The football boys loved when their practices lined up with the cheer squad because in their teenage horny minds, watching the cheerleaders' flip around and shake their ass was enough to get more than half of them hard.

The entirety of the football team stopped in their tracks, all eager to see the girls begin the same performance for the fourth time. Most figured they were lucky that the cheer coaches decided to work the girls harder today, as watching the teen girls sweat and dance was a treat for them.

Torryn looked up on the same count as the rest of the team from her own spot in the opening, the loud counting flowing through the air loudly. It was still early in the cheer season, and so, the team had not yet got their own music created. It was still in the makings.

From the side of her eye, Torryn could clearly see Sierra thrown in the basket, her body soaring high in the air, Sierra kicking her legs out in a toe-touch before arching and falling back down into her teammates awaiting arms. Other members on the team did their own assigned choreography, dancing and doing motions across the cheer mat.

The cheer mat was exactly ten panels long, just enough room for them to practice their routine. Torry stood in the corner, her figure slightly hidden as the team performed dancy motions around her.

Her being hidden was, of course, on purpose, as the coaches wanted Torryn's form to be unseen at the very beginning. With Torryn's background as a gymnast, she was an extremely powerful tumbler, her tumbling easily taking the number one spot on the team. That along with her natural flexibility and ability to jump high gave her the best jumps as well.

"New Level, let's count em' off! Five, six, seven, eight!" The team ran through the assigned motions fluidly, Torryn patiently waiting for her opening.

In a matter of seconds, the girls had moved together, very much alike to a machine, all of them sweeping toward the right side of the mat. Half of the girls dropped to their knees, performing catty motions on the ground while the other did sassy dance moves standing up.

The idea was for the entire team, minus Torryn to be on the right side of the mat doing motions, and during this, this was where Torryn was finally to revealed as the star tumbler. Catching her opening, Torryn immediately hurdled, her body going into a clean roundoff, bouncing into a whip before seemingly floating up twisting in an Arabian.

The skills were so clean and precise, it caused for the football guys watching to gape every single time. It was as if her body simply flew through the air.

But Torryn was not finished yet. From the Arabian, she went into another roundoff, before jumping into a swift back-hand-spring and finally ending the pass with a high double full twisting layout.

"If you ain't got the drive then you better pump the brakes, cause we're taking off in, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!"

The sixteen-year-old stuck the pass, turning her body toward the front of the mat, doing a series of sassy motions, winking to where the crowd would be located but instead was just her coaches watching approvingly. It was no secret that Torryn was among the coaches top favorites because of her seamless tumbling and magnificent jumps.

Whipping her head around, Torryn along with the rest of the team walked to the first elite, the opening of their routine now over and done with it. Just another two minutes left.

"Hit all your stunts and we'll let you out early!" Despite the loud music, every girl could hear their coach's voice, and the promise she had just made inspired all of them to hit these upcoming stunts.

Bending down, Torryn smiled at Sierra, the two girls basing with each other. There were four stunts in total, Torryn and Sierra had the luck of basing the left middle one.

"C'mon, let's hit this!" Sierra shouted over the music despite her lungs being on fire.

"You got it!"

Torryn and Sierra easily based the stunt, their grips near perfect with all the spins and catches.

"Ha, ha, ha! Let's take it to a new level! One, two, three four, five, six, seven, eight!"

Soon, the elite was over and Torryn was rushing toward the front to grab the school sign. The counting music cut out, all the girls suddenly screaming the chant to Memorial Highschool. However, among all the voices, Torryn's was easily the most notable as she was the loudest.

"LET'S HEAR YOU YELL!" Torryn waved the sign, hopping back and forth over the front.

Torryn could not help but be entertained, as while most of the girls on the team were struggling to yell, Torryn herself was actually holding back. She wasn't deemed a banshee for nothing.

"M-E-M-O-R-I-A-L, what does that spell, Memorial! Memorial Highschool!" Torryn placed the sign back down at the front, taking pompoms instead, standing center of the mat. "LET'S GO SCORPIONS!" She screeched before doing a standing back tuck and waving her hands happily.

With the cheer out of the way, the counting music started back up, and Torryn was dropping the pompoms racing to the left corner of the mat, preparing herself mentally for the huge tumbling pass she was about to do. The coaches assigned Torryn to go last, knowing her pass was the cleanest and longest.

Sierra winked at Torryn from across the mat before running across the floor doing a simple front walkover roundoff back-hand-spring layout. After a few other girls went, it was finally Torryn's turn.

"I throw my hands up, I'm going to sing it loud! Cause I got the new level's winning sound! One... three... five... seven! One, two, three, four!"

Taking a deep breath, Torryn allowed the oxygen to fill her lungs as she hurdled doing a roundoff into a whip, and from the whip going to an Arabian where she then did another roundoff into a back-hand-spring double full twisting layout. As Torryn landed the full twisting layout, she bounced back into a punch front going into a roundoff whip back-hand-spring double full twisting layout kick.

The football team was at a loss for how Torryn Wilde could possibly do that, it was amazing in their eyes.

Once Torryn landed her pass, she quickly walked forward with the rest of the team, all of them taking a jump formation with Torryn in the center and Sierra next to her. Clapping their hands, the team, as a whole, jumped up into a right hurdler leading into a toe-touch, going into a left hurdler before ending with a final toe touch and backtuck.

'Jesus Christ, why am I doing this again?' Torryn asked herself like she did every practice. 'Oh yeah, because Jack, Miko, and Raf ditch me.'

Throughout all this, Torryn easily had the highest jumps, something the coaches admired. Landing their jumps, the team quickly maneuvered themselves backward, beginning the pyramid. The pyramid had just changed, and Torryn's part, in particular, was affected.

Previously, before the change, Torryn had been basing with Sierra, but now she flew a toss that went up in the back once the pyramid hit its final structure. Torryn along with the three girls basing her basket all watched from the back, praying the pyramid hit so they could go home.

"All the queens are in here tonight! Let's count them out! One, three, five, seven!"

Once the pyramid hit, Torryn silently cheered, placing her foot in the basket as the final pyramid structure went up. The bases bounced Torryn before tossing her high in the air, Torryn soaring up and twisting through the air as if it was nothing.

Torryn's heart pounded from both fatigue and slight fear as she was tossed into a full twisting layout. Performing a skill such as this was much more dangerous in the air than it was on the ground, as if her bases did not catch her, Torryn would no doubt break a limb and get a concussion.

"Have you upgraded yet? Omarvilous! One, two, three, four!"

Thankfully, Torryn was caught gently, all the girls happy that their stunts had hit. The team quickly began their last element of the routine; dance. Dancing around in sassy clean motions, the part lasted for no more than twenty seconds.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!"

Torryn ended the routine on her knees, her breath coming out in heaving gasps. The sun seemed even brighter and the air dryer, Torryn along with the rest of the team sweating profusely, everyone beyond exhausted.

"I am definitely watching New Moon when I get home," Torryn whispered to herself, falling onto her back, her eyes looking straight into the blazing sun.

The team ignored the football boys hollering whoops, only taking the time to breathe. It was almost as if it got harder every time. The sweat stuck to all their bodies, all of them feeling as though they were about to die. At least they burned a hell of a lot of calories.

"Great practice, girls!" Coach Haynes, the head cheer coach yelled. "You're free to go! See you all bright and early first hour on Monday!"

A series of groans rang out as the team was reminded of their first-hour being practice. At least cheer got them out of P.E., but then again P.E. was nowhere nearly as hard as this was.

"Oh god, I think I'm going into cardiac arrest." Torryn dramatically groaned, Sierra giggling through her own gasps for breath.

"Me too," She agreed with Torryn, both girls lying flat on their backs, pure exhaustion etched onto their form.

Cracking her neck as she stood up, Torryn decided that she would for sure stop for Starbucks on her way home. There was nothing like a nice iced coffee while binge-watching the Twilight Saga for the fifteenth time in a three-month span.

Holding out her hand, Torryn helped Sierra up. Both girls were aware of the football team's eyes on their figures, Torryn cursing the coaches for making them all where nothing but a sports bra and Nike pros during practice.

Fixing her ponytail, Sierra and Torryn walked with each other toward the parking lot, Sierra chatting ideally about how Torryn should really try making it to the party tonight.

Apparently, it was supposed to be 'bomb'.

Smiling, trying to stay polite, Torryn once again declined before the two parted ways, Torryn looking forward to her iced coffee and Twilight Saga bound future.