THE THIRTEENTH DAY - BOOK 1

Prologue

"It has been three weeks since the body of twenty-year-old Ruby Brown was found at the scene of a college party. It is a suspected homicide, she left the party early, according to her friends after receiving an anonymous call. A burned rose was found entwined in her hair when her body was found. This town has been hit with similar murder cases for the past three months, thus spreading a wave of panic amongst the people of Freetown. The police are investigating and they promise to get to the bottom of this, the case of Ruby Brown is similar to--"

The news-lady dressed in an impeccable business suit suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a bunch of men kicking balls on a large, grassy field. Cassidy spun around in her seated position to see that it was her older brother, Caleb, who had changed the channel. His blond hair was combed back and he was standing casually behind her holding the black remote which he used to increase the volume.

Cassie rolled her hazel eyes at him and pushed herself off the couch. She stood akimbo in front of her brother who was towering over her at an impressive height of 6'4. "I was watching that you stupid fart!" Cassidy yelled at him while rolling her eyes, she moved the position of her hands and crossed them underneath her flat chest.  

"There's an important game tonight and I'm not missing it because you want to watch the freaking news," he replied bluntly. His eyes remained fixed on the screen.

"Caleb, we have four other TVs in this house, why don't you use one of them?" she raised her tone.

"This is my favorite," he retorted.

She narrowed her eyes at him, causing her long lashes to gracefully bow. "We have two other TVs exactly like this, one of which is in your room," she stated in a frustrated tone as she massaged her temples.

"Well, I like watching TV in the living room," he deadpanned.

"I freaking hate you," she spat out.

"Yeah, I'm sure you do kiddo," he said nonchalantly with his eyes still fixed on the screen. "Anyways, I'll only be here an hour. Later up I'm meeting up with some chick, I forget her name," he chuckled. 

Cassie scoffed in disgust. "I feel bad for whoever you're meeting," she said, rolling her eyes at him.

"Oh and please be a darling and get me some popcorn," he said as he plopped onto the couch and rested his hairy legs on the glass table.

"You have feet, get your own damn popcorn," she replied, slapping his legs off the table.

"Whatever Cassie, and don't forget to tell Tyler and the rest of your crew about my party at my brand new place this Saturday. It's gonna be epic," he said excitedly as he refocused his full attention back on the game. He placed his hands on the back of his head and rested it on the backrest.

"Yeah, whatever," she replied as she rolled her eyes at him once more. With an annoying brother like Caleb, eye-rolling had become second-nature to her. 

She stormed up to her room and banged the door shut so that he could hear how livid she was. Although she knew it was a futile attempt since he was too engrossed in the game to even notice. 

The murder case that she had been watching on the television before Caleb rudely interrupted had been the headline for a long time. Freetown was in a constant state of pandemonium ever since the first murder happened. No one in their right mind was out late at night.

Cassie sighed softly. She lay her head on her pillow and stared at her ceiling, it was white and boring, unlike the thought of fulfilling her life-long dream of becoming a detective or criminal psychologist. She closed her eyes and a smile formed on her thin lips as she imagined herself on the case. One time in the second grade, her best friend, Phoebe's lunch got stolen and somehow she managed to hold everyone back including the teachers and parents who had come to pick up their children.

She eventually found out who the guilty person was; it was a kid named Danny who said he hadn't eaten in two days because his step mom wasn't feeding him. They all felt bad for him of course, so every day someone packed an extra lunch just for him. The incident caused Danny to gain a friend in both Cassie and Phoebe, and little did they know back then that it would be a life-long friendship. 

Cassie got up from her bed and sauntered to her couch that was placed right beside her balcony window. She looked outside, Freetown naturally had a dark, gloomy and murky atmosphere that a lot of people found terrifying at night. The thought of a killer in such a place only made things even eerier.

She turned on her  laptop that she placed on the couch. She loved keeping up with the murder case ever since it started. She typed in 'Freetown Murders' in the search engine and was immediately bombarded with various stories. She read that Ruby Brown was the fourth victim and that three other girls who were about the same age had also been murdered in a similar way. They were all stabbed at parties thirteen times in their stomachs. She always flinched anytime she read that line. She could not understand how a human being could be so sick as to do that to a fellow human.

She closed the page she was on and decided to watch a crime show online. She stood up to shut her window and she noticed Caleb outside with a girl and scoffed at the sight. She always pitied all the girls her brother was with. She shut the window and went back to the chair to focus on watching the crime show. Like most people she stopped going out at night as often as she used to, anyone in Freetown could be the next victim and they all had to watch their backs because the killer could strike at any time . . . He had proven to be ruthless.