Think Again >> mnz

4

It has been five days since Kalani's murder and no one has heard from Ava, she may not be the murderer, but that doesn't stop her from attempting it. I still wondered when we were going to hear from her, we told the police to look out for her, she tried to kill me, nobody is going to do that and get away with it.

"Does anyone know where Ava is?" Nia asks.

"Who cares? The Bitch tried to kill me, she is welcome to stay gone." I roll my eyes.

"But who knows what she's up to? If she was ready to stab you in the back, literally, I don't think she'll hesitate to do it to the rest of us." Mackenzie explains.

"I don't care if she's ok, I want to know if she's going to spill about Paige." Chloe states.

My phone vibrates from my pocket and everyone turns to look at me wondering if it's another text from our favourite unknown number.

The text reads "If you really want to know, come find me. The woods before 8."

"Why is Ava in the woods? She isn't a squirrel." Kendall asks.

"At least you figured something out." Mackenzie mutters.

"I hope she gets eaten by bears." I exclaim, I know I haven't let them forget but Ava was ready to murder me, obviously she didn't murder Kalani but I'll only be searching for her if I'm allowed to take her down to the station.

"Maddie have a little sympathy, she could be dead." Chloe rolls her eyes.

"Yes, she could be, but tomorrow I could be dead, the day after that you, after that maybe Nia will get the chop. I don't think there is any point dwelling on somebody who I don't even like," I state and my phone buzzes again, "Oh, I forgot, if any of you don't come, you will ALL be dead by next week."

"I don't want to go, Ava was only using us for 'popularity', her fake it 'til you make it attitude didn't get past me." Mackenzie says.

"We all need a little respect, three, probably four people have been murdered all in horrible ways and the only thing you can think about is how Ava was a little bitch that you never really liked. You have a chance to maybe save a life and you aren't going to take it? What would Paige say?" Chloe rants, angrily.

"Nothing, she's dead." I say, bitterly.

"Chloe's right, we all need to go. We're all going to end up dead eventually and if we can help Ava have a long life then we should." Nia smiles.

"Fine, we will help her, she's probably already dead anyway. Who stays in the woods for five days? This isn't The Hunger Games." I sigh.

"It's actually quite a bit like The Hunger Games, death and the woods, it's practically the same thing." Kendall mutters.

"I really hope that was sarcasm." I say.

***

"We're here. 8:00pm as asked. -Maddie." I type a text to the unknown number, we are stood in the middle of the woods and all we can see are tall trees with healthy green leaves and a single muddy path, I can't see where the path leads. My phone buzzes and the text reads"Follow the path and then I'll explain." 

"Why did we agree to this? It's like fifteen degrees below freezing." Kendall moans.

"Because if you didn't then we all die tragic deaths and I don't want to end up like Brynn, Jojo and Kalani." Chloe retorts.

"Let's just follow this path and get done with this." Mackenzie rolls her eyes. 

"I want her to explain, a little thing the police like to call attempted murder," I mutter as I continue walking down the path, "Well, come on, what are you waiting for? This story isn't going to explain itself."

"She's right." Nia sighs, following behind me.

"Of course I am, I'm Maddie Ziegler." I smirk, Chloe rolls her eyes at my arrogant statement but smiles anyway and Mackenzie frowns.

We follow the path through countless trees and finally we reach a clearing, a small circle of clear land connecting to the muddy path surrounded by colorful flowers and brightly leaved bushes. But amongst the beautiful scenery there lay something more sinister.

"Is that her?" Mackenzie wrinkles her nose at the sight of a muddy yellow straw poking out from beneath us. I step closer and examine it further, just above the straw is a message, as usual. "too late, Ha, should've hurried up." was written in cursive handwriting and I could only assume that I was standing above Ava's dead body.

"There's only one way to find out." I shrug.

"We can't dig her up!" Chloe exclaims.

"What happened to you? You used to be stone cold." I mutter.

"This happened. We are all dying left, right and centre, excuse me for being a little bit upset about it." Chloe rolls her eyes. She had a point.

"Anyway," Mackenzie sighs "If you two are finished there's a body that needs digging up."

"Don't you need a shovel to dig stuff?" Kendall asks.

"Go and find one then." I exclaim, ten minutes later Kendall and Nia come back with a long silver shovel and Mackenzie begins to dig through the mud until she finds Ava's blue vans. Eventually Mackenzie finds Ava's head in the dirt, her mouth is pulled into a twisted smile and her eyes are wide open but when we check her pulse we decide that she is truly dead.

"I think it's time we tell the cops that there's more to this then we have told them." Nia mutters.

"Why on earth would we do that?" I scream.

"So, we tell the police that we were walking in the woods at eight in the evening and we just stumbled upon this scenario because stuff like this happens all the time. But it just so happens that we know the girl buried here. Something tells me that they aren't going to believe us especially after Brynn, Jojo and Kalani." Nia shouts.

"The story sounds about right." I say through gritted teeth. 

"Stop it!" Chloe screams, "We are going to call the police and we are going to tell them why we are here, nothing else. The texts about Ava's whereabouts are the only messages we have from this blocked number and before you protest Maddie you have no say in this."

"Fine, I'll call them," I sigh getting my phone out of my pocket and dial 911, "Hello, My name is Maddie Ziegler and I'd like to report a murder, the murder of Ava Cota."