Scream

Maren Desario

"I can't believe she just...didn't show," Adelina Saylor says for the billionth time.  

"Maybe she felt like she wouldn't be useful in this type of situation," Hanzo offers, always shedding a realistic light on the situation.

Della flashes him a look like she's been on her computer for 24-hours straight – a look I can personally attest to. "It's Reyna," Adelina reminds him. "She's always useful." 

"We're going to figure out who did this," I tell Adelina. I don't know when we started being nice to each other. I think we both share the idea of "safety in numbers." If there's a killer who just wants to kill people, there's a greater chance of me surviving if I have 30 friends rather than just three.

"How?" she challenges. 

 "We find Makai. Surely, the deaths are connected." 

 "You expect me to just...move on?" she asks as if I've grown three legs and is upset because I didn't tell her why.

"How?" she challenges. "We find Makai. Surely, the deaths are connected." "You expect me to just...move on?" she asks as if I've grown three legs and is upset because I didn't tell her why.

Adelina shakes her head and pushes back the renegade strands of hair that fell out of her bun that no one has told her looks terrible. "Whatever...they're making my aunt check up on me once a week."

"Have you met her before?" Allister inquires. 

 "Oh, yeah," Della confirms. "Parties every weekend, drinking herself to death, one night stands every night. She's in her thirties and she gets more action than all of us combined." 

Aero's phone rings and he looks panicked for the brief moment he lets us see emotion. 

"I've got to take this," he tells us as he gets up and leaves before any of us say anything.

I wonder if this is what it was normally like when, instead of Aero and I, it was Reynaand Makai...no, it wasn't. They were all happy. Now, we're losing people and were miserable. We shouldn't have pushed Reyna away like that. Destiny is dead. Makai is missing. Della's mom is dead. Why push someone away when everyone is already being taken away? 

 I go on my phone and look up recent Destiny news. 

"Guys," I grab everyone's attention. "Destiny's body was found in the lake behind her house. Authorities claim they checked it over the day she was filed as missing and they found nothing. Her body was drained of almost all of her blood, and she died due to sustained injuries days before her body was dumped."

There's silence over the table. This time, it isn't a mourning silence, but a contemplative one. "Now what?" Allister questions. Allister doesn't really ever seem to have any good suggestions or opinions, but she's a number. The greater the number, the greater the chance of survival. 

"Should we go to the address you gave us, Del?" Hanzo suggests.

Adelina sighs. She looks at her lap where she keeps her phone and clicks the home button to see her home screen, which has been changed to a picture of Makai. A tear falls onto it. She sniffs but nods her head. "Yeah. We can go after school." 

Hanzo interrupts the flow. "We should think it through. We can group at my house beforehand and then head over." 

"I'm free," I tell them. 

 "Me, too," Alli adds.

 "Me three," Hanzo says. 

We all look to Adelina, who looks us each in the eyes before grinning and nodding. 

"Yeah," she agrees. "I'm in. But on one condition..." We all look to her expectantly. "We don't just find Makai and get him out of there. After that, we get revenge on whoever did this."

"Deal," I instantaneously agree. I study killers in my free time because they interest me. If we get revenge on one...I could die happily. Any bucket list I could've ever imagine would be put to utter shame.

"I'm in," Allister adds, hair down and curly.

Hanzo thinks for a while. His MO is to stay safe, not harm people. But he surprises even me when he says, "You know what? I'm in. Let's make this bastard pay."

 Adelina smirks, getting her edge back. "Alright. We'll meet at Hanzo's after school. Allister, you can invite Aero...although I don't think I needed to even ask." 

"What about Reyna?" I ask, looking to Hanzo, because I know he's our best bet for getting her back in our little group. 

"No," Adelina barks. "I don't want her anywhere near me." 

The school bell rings and I find myself torn between giving my loyalty to Della and her gang, or Reyna. Logically, it should be to Reyna – I've known her for years. But I just want to know how it feels to be accepted by these people. What it's like to wake up every day and know you have a devoted group of friends waiting for you at the front of the school?

 I shove down my feelings and get my things to go to the next class