Apex Rising

No Escape

Nova had just made it out the door of Echo's place when she got a text from an unknown number. It said: "You really think that I wouldn't find out?" She had no idea who this person was, but she started to get worried because she had a clue in the back of her when on who it might be. "Who are you? How did you get my number?" She responded. A few minutes later, she got a response. "Dont act like you don't know who this is Nova." Now she was really starting to get sacred. "I really don't know who this is." She replied, knowing that this might be pushing it a little bit too far. Instead of answering her question, the person responded with, "Did you like what I did to Echo? Next time though, it might be something much more valuable." When Nova thought about it, she did notice that she had only seen Echo's left arm. But before she responded to this mystery person, she called Echo, just to make sure that she wasn't crazy. "Hey Nova, what's up?" Said Echo. "Nothing" Nova responded. "I just have to ask you something real quick." "Ok, shoot." He replied. "Ok, so when I was just at your house, when I was only seeing your left arm, was that because you were hiding it, or is it because of something else?" She asked. There was a long pause. "Um, Echo?" She said. "Are you still there?" "Yeah, I'm still here." He said, but in a lower voice than before. "So the arm thing." Nova said. "The reason why you didn't see my other arm...is because I don't have that arm anymore. Something happened, and I don't really want to talk about it." He said. "Ok, that's fine." Responded Nova. "That's all I needed, thanks." "No problem." He said. "You can come over any time if you want, its not a problem." He added. "Thanks, ill think about it." She said. Then she hung up. She went back to the texts with the mysterious person and saw that she had a new message. "If you don't answer, what happened last time will happen again." This made her stop walking. She realized who she was talking to almost instantly. James. The psychopathic kid who traumatized her most of her childhood. She then remembered what happened when he had found out that she had told Nikki about what he had done to Austin. 

——Flashback——

Nova POV

I had just gotten home from the last day of 8th grade and was feeling pretty excited. Me and my sister Meghan were going to an all girls summer camp that "just happened" to be next to an all boys summer camp with the person who she actually liked. As I walked up to my front door, I saw a letter posted on it. I said to myself, "Ill open it when I get inside." When I walked inside, I shouted, "Meghan, I'm home!!!" Since I knew that she got home before me, because her school was closer to the house. There was no response. "I guess she's in the bathroom." I thought. I threw my bag on the floor of my room and opened the letter. The first thing that I could tell was that someone had written it in red ink. "That's pretty strange" I thought. "Who writes a letter in red ink?" But this didn't  bother me, since I was too interested in reading the letter and going out with some friends in a few minutes. I had accidentally brushed my hand over a section of the letter and my hand came away smeared with the ink. I looked at it and could tell that there was a strange smell coming off from it. I smelled it again. It smelled like copper. I started to get concerned, since the only thing that was red and smelled copper was blood. The letter said: "I know what you did Nova. You thought that you could hide it from me. That you could trick me. I know that you told Nikki about what you saw in the shed that day. Because you took something from me, I took something from you. You might have noticed that you didnt hear your sister in your house. That's because I have her. You aren't going to get her back unless you do something for me. I want you to go to Nikki and tell her that what you saw in the shed was just a dream, and it wasn't real. If you don't, there will be consequences. If you try to trick me again, you will never see your sister again. Don't test my patience. You have an hour. I am watching you." I stared at the letter in horror. "How did James find out!?!?" I thought. "He might be bluffing" I thought. I ran to Meghan's room and saw it in complete disarray. There were streaks of blood all over her bed. "Not enough to make me think that she was killed, because I wouldn't have gotten the letter then" I said. Then I noticed something else on the bed. There was this fluid all over the sheets. Some places it was just a little. Others, a lot. "Oh no!!" I said. "It can't be possible!!" "There was no way that James had done that to her" I thought. "And there is no way that Meghan would just let him do this to her either." "But at least she's alive and that's what's important." I thought. I grabbed my keys and my phone and ran to Nikki's house, only to find her parents saying that she wasn't home yet, and that she was still at school. "That's like 7 blocks from here!!" I said in my head. But at least I was used to running, so I might be able to make it and not be too tired. When I finally got to the school, I saw Nikki, on a bus, leaving to go to some place, and my heart sank. Now I was never going to be able to tell her and save Meghan. "Mabye I could tell James that Nikki left before I could tell her." I thought. But then another thought came to mind. "But he will never believe that, and if I tried to call her, he would think that I am trying to call the police." With tears in my eyes, I returned to my house to find my parents sitting on the front steps crying. "What's wrong?" I asked. "They looked up at me and a look of reassurance washed over their faces. "Oh thank God you are safe Nova!!" They said as they rushed over to me and embraced me. "What happened?" I asked again, wanting for an answer. "Nova, don't overreact, but the police found Meghan..." They started. But before they finished, I cut in saying "Thank goodness!!" "Let us finish." They said. "They found her....dead in her room." They said. I could feel my mouth drop open in shock. "She had been stabbed multiple times and violated. 

——End Flashback——

Me POV (thats what we are calling this now, bc idk what its called :3)

Nova didn't hear the rest of what they said, because she had blacked out due to pure shock. That's all she remembered. The first thing that came to her mind was "I have to warn Echo and the others!!!" But then she stopped herself. "Last time i tried to tell someone, someone I cared about was killed." She said. "I don't want that to happen again." "Don't want what to happen again?" Said someone behind her. Scared, Nova spun around, bringing her leg up in a roundhouse kick, just like they taught her in her karate lessons when she was younger, at the person behind her. She didn't know if she hit the person or not, because she didn't feel her foot connect with anything. So she looked for whoever it was who was behind her. "WHAT THE HECK!!" Shouted Echo. "YOU ALMOST TOOK MY HEAD OFF!!" "Oh my gosh I'm soo sorry Echo!!!" Nova said, running to where Echo had jumped back to avoid being decapitated by her death feet. "And I thought you said we were friends." Said Echo, as he stood up from his crouched position. "We are, but you startled me." Said Nova. (Sounds like someone I know. COUGH COUGH. they know who they are, and I know that they read this. YOU CANT HIDE FOREVER!!!) "Well, you dropped your bag," started Echo, as he reached for it with his right arm, not remembering that it wasn't there. As Nova stood up to get the bag from him, she stopped dead in her tracks. "What?" Asked Echo. "You act like I'm breaking the laws of logic." He said with a smile. "Well, you kinda are." She said, pointing at where Echo's arm used to be. When Echo looked at where she was pointing, he froze. He saw her bag floating where his hand would have been, and when he acted like he was moving his arm, the bag moved where it would be. "Ummm....Nova...you aren't doing this, right?" Echo asked. "No....thats not me..."she replied, as shocked as he was. "What the-" Echo didn't get to finish his statement, because he collapsed limp on the sidewalk, unconscious, while Nova stood there in complete shock.

Authors note: OOF!!! What a cliffhanger!!! I wonder what will happen next!!! I'm just messin around with u mates, I already know what's gonna happen. But no spoilers tho!!! You guys are gonna have to wait and see!!! Catch you guys in the next chapter!!! XD XD