"It's like I'm running away from me,
it's like I've taken the puzzle in me
and left it scrambled for all to see."
__________________________________
When Arden Danvers' parents split when she was eight years old, she moved away with her dad from her...
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"If life is pain then I buried mine, a long time ago but it's still alive. And it's taking over me where am I? I wanna feel something, I'm numb inside."
Paralyzed - NF
_______________________________ trigger warning - mentions of suicide
IX. \\ YOUR TURN //
The next day, walking in the halls of the school, Arden felt so out of it. Everyone around her were living their mundane lives, worrying about trivial things...things that she would have probably worried about if this whole MonkeyMan thing hadn't completely crashed down in her life.
All she could think about was Rowan's text she had gotten last night saying Hailey had found her Mom, unconscious on the living room floor, appearing to have overdosed on medication. Soon after, MonkeyMan had sent Hailey a message threatening her to figure out who he was or he would do much worse.
He'd also paid a visit to Rowan's house last night, leaving a jump drive which she had taken to Brie's before school to retrieve the corrupted file. Also, he covered her room in roses and violets.
It felt like he was closing in on them, with the timer still counting down and the four of them only having until tomorrow night to figure out who he was. And with Elisia, Rowan, and Arden going to the party tomorrow, she feared the worst.
Arden's mind swarmed as she opened her locker, going to put her backpack inside, but before she could, something fell out of it as soon as she opened it. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked down at the floor to see a red envelope and she slowly bent down to pick it up.
She put her backpack into her locker and then flipped the envelope over to see her name scribbled on the front.
Frowning, Rowan ran her finger over the sealed part of the envelope and opened it, to reveal what appeared to be a card inside.
She pulled the card out of the envelope and frowned when she saw that it was a Valentine's Day card, with "Happy Valentines Day!" printed on the front with a picture of a bouquet of roses.
Arden opened the card and her stomach lurched forward when she read the huge red handwriting inside.
Don't think I forgot about you. Your turn. -MonkeyMan
Her heart practically leaped into her throat as the words sunk in, and she looked around the hallway, feeling like she was being watched...but everyone around her continued to move around her, carrying on with life.
