Dead Girls Walking: A Novel

Chapter One

SIX MONTHS LATER

Viola

Viola Segreto woke up cold and sweaty. She has just woken up from her fifth dream about Olivia Keller in the last month. It had been six months, and they still hadn't found her. And no one knew that Viola herself and three others saw her before she was gone.

Viola regretted that each and every single day. If Olivia was indeed dead or something even worse, they could've saved her.

But all that dumb high school bullshit got the best of her.

Viola rubbed her eyes and then checked the clock. 6:05. She had to get up soon if she wanted to be ready by 7:42, which is when school started. She looked out the window, it had snowed a lot the night before, so the ground was completely enveloped in white. It was Friday, so she was extra happy today.

She got up and stepped over the pile of clothes that began forming on the floor into her attached bathroom. She stared at herself in the mirror.

Viola thought of herself to be quite pretty, despite her puffy eyes and messy ebony hair. She had definitely changed a lot since that summer. Her acne-prone skin cleared up, she got taller, and had lost a ton of weight from constantly going to the gym. She surprisingly wanted to make herself look extra nice today, even though she didn't care about people's perceptions of her. It was more like if she looked good, she felt good.

She got in the shower and washed her body and hair quickly, then blew it out into its usually voluminous style. She applied her makeup routine of filling in her brows, concealer, bronzer, highlight, and mascara. Next were her hoop earrings and gold necklace her mom got her for Christmas.

She looked in her closet, indecisive about what to wear. After much thinking, she settled on her favorite ripped black jeans, a tight cropped tank top, and a long yellow flannel to top it off. Good enough, she thought.

Viola bounced down the stairs, through her living room and into the kitchen. Her mother, Lorena, was at the stove making her some breakfast. She was pretty young, only in her late thirties. She came to New York from Puerto Rico when she was eighteen. There she met Viola's father, Daniel, who was in college at the time. They got married after he graduated and decided to settle down in Chaceton, a wealthy Long Island town by the coast. They had her brother, Aaron, and then Viola came along a year later. They eventually opened up Valentina's, which became one of the most popular restaurants in town, that was inspired by her abuela's cooking.

"Hola, mija. ¿Comó estas?" her mother asked her.

"Bastante bien. Yo estoy cansada. Estudié para mi examen de historia." she lied. She needed a better excuse than staying up on the phone the majority of the night.

"Come el desayuno. You need your brain food." her mother set down a plate of her famous quiche.

Her father entered the kitchen and kissed his wife on the cheek. He wore a suit and had his black hair slicked back with gel, which was his usual uniform when he worked in human resources during the day. He then helped Lorena run the restaurant at night. "Good morning."

"Hey, Dad." Viola said right as she noticed the newspaper in his hand. "Whoa, you read the paper now?"

"Occasionally. There's a new lead in Olivia's case." Daniel remarked, dropping the paper down on the table. On the front page, the words NEW LEAD stuck out at Viola like a shark out of water. Olivia's sophomore class photo was next to them. She scanned over the article. Witness statements say that someone had been following her in the days leading up to her disappearance, and she most likely had been kidnapped. It made sense. It was either that or she was dead in a ditch somewhere.