bloop.

  bloop. bloop. bloop.

  Kiera yawned and scratched her ear, her body firmly pnted on her bed. She looked over at the mess of broken chains and shackles bolted to her bedroom wall and groaned, before checking her phone. 99+ missed messages is never a great sign. Particurly not when she knew roughly what time she stopped checking.Her bed was a nest of rugs and pillows stacked into a circle, and as she pulled herself out of the face-palm position, she rolled onto the floor and cut herself on a shard of broken gss."Ahhhh crap," Kiera muttered, "Where'd that come from?"Her parents called her, and she ignored them as she slowly went upward through the messages.

  Update #115: Alicia's still asleep, we're gonna question her when she wakes up.

  Update #97: Doctors have been really nice about everything, srsly where tf are u girl? Turn your phone on! >:(

  Update #71: It's genuinely, like, it's been a few hours and it's still haunting me, how the fuck does an arm just snap in mid-air like that?

  Kiera's dad knocked on her door."Heya air bud," He said, smiling as he walked in, "Doing good after st night?"Kiera rolled her eyes without looking up from her phone, "I'm fine, dad, stop calling me that."Her father sagged, and gnced at the chains on her wall, and the notes and elixirs on her desk."You know... your old man might not look it, but I had an emo phase too.""Uh huh.""It's true! I grew my hair out, I wore all bck, I even painted my nails! Don't get me wrong, I support you if this is what you wanna do, I know you've been kind of, trying this out for a few years now, but it's never too te to change your mind-""Holy shit!"Kiera leapt up from her bed and threw her phone across the room. Her dad looked on in awe for a moment."Uh... I'm not buying you a new one. And surely the fact I was emo isn't that surprising. In my wolf form, I even kept the haircut-""Dad, I gotta go, all of my friends are in the hospital, something weird happened."

  ***

  Everything felt numb and covered in cloth. Like she'd been taken apart from the inside and stuffed like an animal, only it was impossible to separate that from the horrible stench of whatever that was. Her eyes felt puffy, she couldn't move her arm, but despite the numbness, Alicia could feel a significant amount of pain."Oh, ohhh."She blinked her eyes. Four figures stood around the bed. Kiera, Eliza, Heidi and Faith. Eliza's arms were crossed, and she had a serious scowl on her face. Heidi looked terrified."What the fuck, Alicia?" Eliza started.Alicia groaned, and opened her mouth to speak, but her throat was parched."Wa-water..."Kiera started to pass her a cup, but Eliza knocked it out of her hand."She threatened us with a knife, Kiera! We do not give water to her!"Kiera shrugged, "I'm sorry, Eliza, I wasn't there, I didn't see what happened. Surely it's just a misunderstanding.""No..." Alicia interrupted, "I did... I did that. I'm sorry. You should all just leave me alone. I'm not a stable person."Faith raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?"Eliza threw up her arms, "I'm done with this bitch, I'm out. Fuck you."Kiera grabbed her by the arm, "Wait, she's not serious, she can't be-""No," Alicia said, a little more sternly, "It was... I was... I meant to."Eliza brushed Kiera off, and Faith shook her head."Nope. I don't believe a word of that.""Why not?""Because you're lying."Eliza stopped and turned to face Faith, "You're not serious right now, Faith, come on."The four of them looked at Alicia, and she looked down and away."Oh, that is a guilty face," Heidi said, "I don't believe in the facial expression stuff but that is definitely a guilty face."Faith nodded, "I don't know what happened st night, but you were screaming no. You yelled stop before Eliza even tackled you. I saw you, Alicia. You were dangling in mid-air, by your arm, for a few moments before that thing came flying through the window."Alicia opened her mouth to speak, then gave a thousand yard stare. Eliza sighed angrily."Graaah- fine. Fuck it. Fine. You know what, weird shit happened st night. We'll sort out this bullshit ter, I'm going home... I need a lift. Kiera?"Kiera nodded, and looked at her group, covered in bandages and scars."Sounds like it was a crazy night." She said.

  "And then she was screaming at us all of a sudden! Like, with no warning, telling us to get out of the house, it was insane, Kiera, what the hell was going on." Eliza said with a mouth full of chips, as Kiera shut off the car, then turned it back on for the aircon."God it's hot today..." Kiera said, taking a sip from her drink, "So... what was in the grimoire?""Oh, it was just an entry about like, this invisible ghost stalker that hunts its killer's friends and family. Alicia straight-up pushed Faith out of the way just to read it."Kiera paused after taking a bite from her burger, "Huh... that's... curious.""And then yeah, she flipped out and threatened us with Faith's knife.""...what if she has that stalker ghost?"Eliza stopped eating and stared at Kiera for a minute."I'm- you think Alicia's being haunted?""Hey, I went to your funeral. Is it really that far-fetched?"Eliza bit her lip, and started to ugh."You remember that, huh? I didn't even know you came. I was so different back then.""We both were."Eliza sighed, then ended it with a chuckle."Fine. She can keep coming to horror club, as long as she apologises and promises not to freak out again. And I want to know what you're doing every month."Kiera nodded."We'll talk about it ter. Definitely."