Jude's Diary - A thriller with a supernatural twist!

Chapter 1

My father had to stop mid-toast, halfway through congratulating me on my fantastically successful academic career, when a violent scream cut through the banquet room like a knife through soft flesh. The people seated at tables below us looked around the dim room with confusion. It took me a second to realize the voice had called my name.

"ALISSA! ALISSA PIKE!"

My parents flanked me on either side at the long, rectangular dining table. They glared at me, and then scanned the crowd. The source stood in the shadows by the door: Haley Richter, Cheer Captain and, I now regretted, former one-night stand.

"Alissa," she said, more of a growl this time. "There you are, you BITCH!"

I'd had a few high school hookups go wrong before – girls who acted all butthurt even though I had been honest with them; I don't do relationships – but I had never once experienced an aftermath quite like this. This wasn't an angry string of text messages. Haley was losing her shit at my graduation party.

My father lowered his glass and slowly turned to look at me, his eyes indirectly demanding that I take care of her, and quickly. But I just stared at her silently like an idiot.

It must have been pouring outside because Haley was soaking wet, and her red curly hair hung limp like a mop over her face and shoulders. Her pink v-neck t-shirt hugged her breasts in a lurid display of burgeoning womanhood. Large droplets of water fell from the hem of her white denim shorts and ran down her athletic legs. Her feet were scratched and muddy inside thin plastic flip-flops, a sign she'd crawled over the fence, snuck through the Lost Key Golf Resort grounds, and entered through the back patio where security was laxer.

She took a couple of steps forward into the room and continued to rant. "How dare you! How dare you leave me on read after we hooked up on your father's boat!"

Her green eyes danced with rage and... something else – confusion, perhaps, as though even she couldn't believe what she was doing.

When I didn't respond, she kept going. "What? Am I not good enough for you? Why don't you say something, you coward!"

I opened my mouth to protest, but nothing came out.

My father set down his glass.

The worst part wasn't that Haley was upset. The worst part was that I hadn't seen this coming.

Anticipation, my father liked to say, is less expensive than confrontation.

I didn't have a plan, and I couldn't seem to think of one on the fly. And because I didn't respond in time, my father had to come to my rescue.

He'd had his left hand perched on the table when she arrived; now he slid it towards the edge of the table and used his index finger to press a hidden trigger underneath. This wasn't my father's first time dealing with an unwelcome guest. In mere minutes, maybe seconds, his private security would drag her away. I was both ashamed and relieved.

I began to count the seconds and hoped Haley's tantrum was losing steam.

"You fooled them," she spat at me, nodding towards the banner over my head. Congratulations, Alissa! it said, my name flanked by the Princeton logo, the school I'd be heading off to in the fall.

Then she looked out across the crowd of middle-aged patrons in their Sunday best.

"Alissa Pike, little miss perfect. Our soon-to-be class valedictorian. Musical Theater Captain, state archery champ, food bank volunteer, what else? You think she's so smart, so pretty – so nice?" Haley pointed at me. "She's a dirty slut!"