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This article, Ada Sommers Story: Ain't no Rest for the Wicked, is property of Demon Redwood.

This is a continuous fanfic, people... 'S a good read.

Ada Sommers, the girl from the previous fanfic where she killed Mike, tossed herself and turns in her bed. She opened her bloodshot eyes only to clench them shut when the light of the moon jarred them mercilessly. She had a bit of an insomnia.

Blinking and cursing under her minty breath as she just washed her tit, she got out of bed and closed the crimson curtain. She looked around her room. Everything was perfectly in place; it was probably the cleanest since she’d remembered it. Perhaps she was even bordering on some sorta OCD? Since her insomnia had started, she’d tried everything to fight it, including become a neat freak as a hobby. Cleaning the room was one of the first things she did after she gave up all the hope that she’d ever sleep again. The sleeping and medical pills, provided by her shrink, didn't seem to help at all.

It didn’t end with that, though. She’d spent quite a few nights looking for the right way to put all of her stuff in place. She’d sorted all of her toys by size; then she’d put all of the books on the shelves in an alphabetical order. Well, what few of them she had anyway. Last night she’d rummaged through her closet, sorting all of the clothes in it by their age. Then she'd sort all of her pants in by her butt size. It was a boring and tiring task, but unfortunately it didn’t make her fall asleep.

Ada sighed and flicked one of the toy soldiers from her writing desk. Even though she was no tomboy, Ada preferred soldiers over barbies as they were better at fighting. Then she slowly trotted back to her bed. She lay back in it, staring at the white ceiling and the chandelier.

She knew how much her father was worried about her. Her parents couldn't find an answer for her sleeping problems and neither could her doctor. Her mom even took a second opinion, and that doc said pretty much the same. During the last month, she’d tried probably all the kinds of sleeping pills the pharmacies and asylums had in stock. Still, nothing changed. Even if she did fall asleep, she'd always wake up in an hour or a half. She always woke up with dark circles underneath her eyes.

Ada groaned, banging her hoof against the mattress. She wanted to sleep. She was exhausted; she could barely focus on anything at school. During the lessons, she was usually nodding off, yet still being painfully awake. Her marks deteriorated and she even got an F, even though her dad, James, had talked with the headmaster about her problems.

An image of Sarah Finkelstein appeared in Ada’s mind, her best friend. Apart from her parents, she was probably the only person in the world who cared about her. Every time they met, she was asking Ada if she’d managed to catch some z’s. After hearing Ada’s “no”, she was always making the same worried expression and saying some reassuring words. Sometimes she was hugging Ada, even in public places, making Ada rather uncomfortable.

Even though she was sometimes tired of her, Ada loved her. Finkelstein was the daughter of the local museum owner of Jewish descent. She’d do anything for her. Sommers knew that Sarah spent many hours looking for a remedy or solution for her insomnia. It wasn’t much use – even though Finkelstein was one of the brainiest people Ada knew, she could barely understand the scientific language of the books she’d found. Yet, she was trying anyway. Now that's a friend, right?

Ada trotted to the window again. This time she opened it, facing the cold moonlight. She took a few deep breaths; the chilling air woke her up even more, but she didn’t care about that anymore. She smelled the freshly mowed grass and a faint trace of smoke from a distant bonfire. Her ears were assaulted by chirping of the crickets. She shuddered when a moth brushed her hair. She looked around and saw it landing on the wall of her room.

For a while, Sommers was looking at this moth, but it didn’t move so Ada turned back to the window. Suddenly, she got an idea; Ada took her jacket, climbed out of the window and then jumped on the soft grass on the other side.

She shivered when her body met the cold breeze. She stretched her limbs and tried to warm up. Then she walked through the small garden surrounding her house.

For the first time since Ada’s insomnia started, she actually felt happy because of it. The garden was beautiful at night. The smell of evening stock and fresh tomatoes waiting to be ripped filled her nostrils, almost hypnotising her. The light breeze was moving the leaves gently. Ada trotted down the path and soon disappeared in the shadows of the bushes and trees.

She went to the fence of the garden and climbed over it. She remembers when Sarah Finkelstein once almost broke it when they were playing tag. She spent almost an hour trying to fix it. Ada's parents didn't approve of that and Ada and Sarah weren't seeing each other for a few days. Later, she invited her for a milkshake, but even then things were a bit bad between them for a couple of days.

Still, Sarah Fink could never hold a grudge against someone for too long. Quiet, nerdy and a bit self-conscious about her skinny appearance, Sarah was actually the last person one would expect Ada Sommers to befriend. Ada was into wrestling, into looking good, and into making others know of her presence and be aware of her leadership. Sarah had none of these traits, however.

Everything changed when Ada’s sister, Jenny, died, and Fink’s parents moved to Connecticut. Ada's parents were busy with work and still grieving over Ada's sister and had no time for visits, so they grew apart till two years ago, Fink came back to Youngstown with her mother and they met again in school. Ada shuddered. It wasn’t caused by the cold night but rather by the memory of Sarah crying, her fragile body shaking in the locker room. Cynthia, a little mean kid named Tony and a prissy girl named Tina were making Sarah quite miserable with their antics. Ada remembered how she stood up for Sarah and beat her bullies.

She chuckled. Who’d think back then that Sarah would become her friend? Ada never hung out with those being bullied. Hell, she'd sooner be on the bullies side to be frank, but with Finkelstein something was different. Ada had everything she wanted and yet a stupid lack of sleep was almost driving her insane. Her father said just a day before that he is still searching for doctors online and they still couldn’t determine the cause. He even contacted the Serbian doc, Dr. Fabinović in France and the famous Isaac Friedbucket, but none provided any answers. Even though Sommers didn’t believe in karma or horoscopes or any of that supernatural stuff, she even tried to be nice to all the local kids around. It didn’t help either.

The street lamps were casting eerie shadows on an empty alley. Ada saw the trippy lights, the neo-nazi graffiti made by the local hooligans and some posters of the upcoming mayor elections. None of this interested her much, so she trotted down the pavement. The houses were dark, only occasionally she could see a faint light in one of the windows, where people were still awake and on their computers. She tried to walk silently, but it felt like her every step could be heard in the whole town. As big as Youngstown was, her and Sarah's family lived in the smaller part of it and news spread fast there.

She walked into the empty park. Devoid of anyone, including the local hobos, the park was littered with empty coffee cups and garbage. It looked oddly unsettling, considering how lively the park was during the day. Ada felt a chill running down her spine as the cold wind made the seesaws move and make noises. "Spooky." She creept through the park, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Suddenly, she saw a silhouette of a person behind one of the picnic benches. She froze, her heart pounding, trying to make herself as small as possible. The person, however, didn’t move. Against common sense, Sommers approached the table curiously. A wave of alcoholic stench overwhelmed her. She backed away, coughing.

From the safe distance, she took a second glance and recognised the person was DJ Jay, the local hotshot in the bar and a DJ. DJ was reeking of alcohol, particularly vodka and that was something Ada definitely didn’t want to smell. The DJ, large, black sunglasses obscuring his eyes, was snoring, resting himself against the table. "Lucky you… being able to sleep." Ada thought. She started to wonder if getting drunk would help her fall asleep, but after taking another look at Jay, she instantly scratched that idea.

Ada shrugged and went outside the park. For a brief moment she thought that she should find someone to help Jay get to his house, but then she thought that she’d have a hard time explaining to her father what she was doing outside in the middle of the night.

Walking next to Hermann Bakery, she remembered the gossip she heard about DJ Jay. According to Finkelstein who’d overheard it from the local hobo, Randall Jones, DJ Jay was abducting and torturing kids to use their screams in the death, black and heavy metal songs that he sometimes played, when not DJ-ing. Ada thought that it was stupid: no kid ever disappeared in Youngstown, so it was either not true, or Jay really made sure only the unrecognisable kids were took. However, most of the stuff that hobo talked about was crazy anyway. Still, Ada didn’t want to be next to him when he awoke. But mostly because of the booze, really.

Finally, she left the town and began to wander through the outskirts. Cold breeze ruffled her hair. It smelled a bit of smoke. Ada faintly remembered Mike, Bray and Rico talking about going camping during the weekend. She trotted through the grass, scaring the grasshoppers away. The only source of light was now the moon and a couple of fireflies floating above Ada’s head. She looked up and saw beautiful stars on the sky. She sat on the ground, watching them carefully. Her breath, quickened after the walk, steadied a bit.

She was looking at the stars without blinking 'till her eyes watered and the white points on the sky changed into blurry smears. She was inhaling the cold air slowly, savouring its smell and taste. Her eyes slowly started to close…

“Ada Sommers? What are you doing here?” she heard a voice next to her. She looked around, blinking, and saw a small, brown-haired, but overweight boy in front of her. “Hi, Bray.” she replied, embarrassed. “I’m… umm… stargazing.” She gave him a stern look, suggesting “don’t even try to tell anyone about that or there'll be trouble.”

“Oh? Stargazing? Cool.” Bray replied. Suddenly, a strange feeling overwhelmed Ada Sommers. A sharp pain in the back of the head almost made her pass out. She leaned forward, feeling that her stomach started to twist and turn. Her vision blurred, her ears suddenly got assaulted with a loud, high-pitched noise.

“Are you okay?” Bray asked. “Ada?” “Yes…” Ada panted. “I’m… okay… I'm okay...” “You don’t look like… Okay.” Bray replied. Even in the dim light of the moon he could clearly see how pale Ada’s face suddenly became. In fact, he remembered that every time he saw her at school, she looked utterly exhausted. Not that he looked at her often. Being a guy in puberty, he preferred to look at her uh, body, instead. Ada shuddered. Only a whimper escaped her lips as she put her hands on Bray's shoulders for support. “I’ll walk you home…” Bray offered. He wrapped Ada’s arm around his neck and began to walk towards the town with her.

“You don’t have to…” Sommers groaned. She still could barely see anything. Suddenly, she remembered what one of the doctors had told her about brain tumours. The tomography didn’t reveal any, but she still felt that it could be it. She also remembered that one of her doctors mentioned having something of a "split personality". Whatever that meant... “Stay with your friends…” Ada suggested to Bray.

“Don’t worry, they’ll wait for me.” Bray smiled at her, reassuringly.

They walked together for some time – Ada couldn’t recall how long – when the headache died a bit. “I can walk on my own, you know?” Sommers said. She slipped from Bray’s grasp and took a couple of shaky steps. “Are you sure?” the guy asked. “I’d better walk you home and make sure you don’t collapse somewhere…” At first Ada wanted to refuse, but then she thought about DJ Jay sleeping at the park. She definitely didn’t want to join her.

They walked through the streets. Ada could see the Johnson house in the distance and a wall of the creepy forest not far away from them. The forest that no one dared to enter. She still felt the world spinning around her; the edges of her vision were a bit blurred. Bray was trotting by her side, occasionally giving her worried looks.

“You know…” he said. “I… If you ever…” He looked at the ground underneath his hands. “If I ever what?” Ada asked. She looked at Bray, but all she could see was a brown blur. She blinked several times, but it didn’t help.

“Well…” Bray said. “I was recently… thinking… And I think that… You know... you're... very beautiful and uh-wait, what are you doing, Ada?!” "What am I doing?" Ada asked. She looked around, but she couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t feel her own hands or legs. She heard ringing in her ears, along with some muffled screams and a demonic voice. "What do you mean what am I doing? Huh? Bray? Where are you?" She wanted to move or look for Bray, but her body didn’t listen to her. Some distorted pictures started to flash before her eyes, like frames from an old western movie. Was that Bray? One of his friends? Or maybe it was Finkelstein? Ada couldn’t tell. She was trying to sink in her own mind. Find some safe place where she would wait to regain control over her body.

A sudden jolt of sharp pain in her back jerked her awake. She still couldn’t see anything, but at least the sensation was back. She groaned and did the only thing that felt reasonable to her: she darted forward blindly, leaving the streets and Bray behind.

Her vision was slowly coming back, but despite that, she tripped several times. She didn’t waste time to look back, instead getting up and continuing to run blindly, gasping for air and running for her life to get back home. Blood was rushing through her veins; her muscles, not used to such exertion, were almost screaming in protest. She reached the town, stopped and leaned against the wall of a nearby building, panting and spitting on the pavement. "What is happening to me?" Ada asked herself.

Her vision and hearing were back and no voices were heard. Her muscles were spasming, her knees were aching in places where she’d grazed them. She looked around; Bray was nowhere to be seen. "Perhaps he got tired of chasing me…" Sommers. "He probably thinks I’m crazy… That ain't right. 'S not fair!"

She sighed and trotted down the street. The street lamps were now turned off, but it was now slightly lighter than before due to the moonlight. Finally, Ada got to her house and climbed over the fence, to the garden. She sighed with relief, seeing that the window of her room was still open, just like she’d left it. She climbed through the window and closed it, shutting off the moths that planned on going into her room once more.

Walking past the mirror, she noticed her reflection. Her hair were dishevelled; branches and blades of grass were tangled into it, probably from when she ran and hit some branches under some trees, unknowingly. Her jacket was also dirty, covered in patches of mud and blood from small cuts and grazes she’d acquired while running blindly through the town's outskirts. She had no idea where the blood came from or the cuts, but she just hopped it wasn't Bray's. Did she hurt him or do something bad to him when she was unconscious? Could she have a personality disorder, as Norman Bates from Psycho had? Her eyes were bloodshot, there was also a black and red smear on her face. Ada shook her head, seeing herself in such a state. She trotted to the door, sneaked out of her room and headed to the bathroom. Fortunately, both her father and mother were still asleep, so she was able to wash all of the blood off her face and threw her jacket into the washing machine.

Then she washed her black hair, paying attention to every single hair. She had to look perfect. It's just who she was. She just couldn’t let anyone see her dirty or exhausted and get the wrong idea. She was the queen bee of the school and the town, and no one must think otherwise. She stepped out of the shower and wiped herself with the fluffy white towels. When she was dry, she stood in front of the mirror and combed her hair, making sure that no loose hair escaped her brush. She wasn't like Gigi, her other friend, who had a rebellious attitude and let her hair be loose or walk around with mud-stained boots.

Sommers was about to leave the bathroom when she noticed the shower base, now full of mud and hair. She gasped upon that view. Of course, she could leave it to her mother to clean it, but even if it stayed that way for a few more minutes, it’d bug her for at least a couple of hours straight.

Reluctantly, she took the shower head and rinsed the base 'till there was not a single spot of dirt on the white surface. Then she took a mop and wiped the floor of the mud and the water that sprinkled around. Before leaving the bathroom, she also put all the shampoo bottles and packages on the shelves in order from the biggest to the smallest one. "I clean the dirt, just like Bonehilda." she smiled to herself. She then headed back to the room and tried to catch some sleep.

"Did it really happen?" she asked her self. "Maybe I just fell asleep and had a dream about meeting Bray? No, this was all too real. I was out there and I don't know what happened to Bray." She left the bedroom and almost immediately ran into her father. “Hello,” James said. “Did you sleep?” She looked at her father. He had bags under his eyes himself and his hair was in a mess. He was giving her a concerned look. “I’m not so sure.” Ada Sommers replied. “I think I fell asleep for a while in the morning… I even had a dream… In the mornin'.” Suddenly, something clicked in her head. If it was a dream, then where did the mud and grazes come from? And the blood? Hell, it weren't no dream.

“Good.” James Sommers smiled half-heartedly. Ada noticed that his hair started to slowly go grey and started to wonder if it was because of her. Her situation was stressing him out and causing him lack of sleep as well. This insomnia was like a spreading disease, as it affected her father now. “I’m going to talk to that doctor from Thief's Town today. He’ll probably be able to see you next weekend.” “Great…” Ada rolled her eyes. “Another shrink…”. “He’s a neurologist, not a psychiatrist. And he specialises in insomnia… Believe that.” “Okay…” Ada sighed. “I’m gonna eat something… I guess school starts soon…” “Ada...” Jimmy gave her a worried look. “It’s Sunday…” “Oh… I think I’ll visit Fink then…” she muttered and trotted to the kitchen. "That poor girl. What is happening?" Jimmy muttered to himself.

They ate breakfast in an awkward silence. Ada gave up any attempts to talk with her father long ago. Sooner or later, they’d start to talk about her condition. Then James would start to give her worried looks again, whispering to her as if she was dying. If she had to choose, she’d prefer to leave it as it was. After she was finished, she trotted out of the house and headed to Sarah’s house. Youngstown was slowly waking up; a couple of people greeted her as she was walking down the street. DJ Jay, visibly happy on his face, was sitting on a balcony of his house, smoking a cigar and feeling good about himself, as if he just won the lottery and not woke up from a vicious hangover. "How does he keep his confidence?" Ada asked herself.

When she reached the city centre, she saw a couple of her school friends. Something was strange about them. Instead of playing, they were gathered together in a small group, discussing something. She looked at them but Bray wasn’t among them. Instead, she spotted Rico. She couldn’t see his face, though – Miranda was hugging him, tears streaming down her face. “What the…” she muttered. She looked around and saw Finkelstein sitting alone on a bench, shocked in her face. She rushed to her. “Hi Sarah, what… what happened?!” Ada exclaimed, seeing that her friend’s eyes were red and swollen. Her hair were almost begging for a proper braiding. Tears were flowing down her face again. When Ada sat next to her, she only sobbed and embraced her, hugging her tightly.

“What’s going on?” Sommers asked. “Did they hurt you?” Ada asked sternly. She hated seeing her best friend sad and thought it had something to do with those kids again. “No…” Sarah replied, shivering. “It’s Bray… He's dead.” Ada was shocked.

(We now move to the next chapter, where Ada awaits her doc.)

Ada Sommers was standing next to the door of her father’s office. She’d just finished talking to the doctor – an old, fancy-dressed man with grey hair who spent almost an hour asking her lots of questions. The doctor seemed rather bored with her and he spent more time checking his watch than listening to Ada's answers. He was also yawning. Now the doctor was talking to James Sommers, her daddio.

Ada sighed. It was just like any other meeting with a doctor. Before they met, he looked through the results of her check-up to find out that her level of hormones was normal, as well as the results of ECG, EEG, CT and other stuff she couldn’t even remember. Sarah Fink would probably be able to decipher all those acronyms, but Ada hadn’t seen her since Bray Parris's funeral. Indeed, they found Bray's body, all bruised, battered and showing no sign of life. His parents were sick to their stomach and got deeply depressed when they saw him. They decided to cremate him and the funeral took about 45 minutes. The local priest, the arrogant Father Cobb, didn't seem most concerned about Bray or the funeral. He was just there for the money, probably why he took the job in the first place.

Then the doctor visited her in her room. He introduced himself as Millard Moon and immediately told her that she can call him “Dr. Moon". “I want to ask you a few questions, Ada” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to help you.” She noticed that he wasn’t taking any notes. He had it all in his head, didn't he? In fact,he was the only one of the doctors that she'd ever see do that. Even then, he spent ten minutes explaining to her why he had to do that, ask her all that stuff.

“What do you like to do in your free time?” Moon asked. “Well, I usually play alone or with my friend, Sarah Fineklstein.” Sommers replied. “I like to uh, wrestle sometimes with a couple of other friends, but we haven't spoken in a while. I sometimes like to clean my room.”

She talked about it for about ten minutes. She told Moon how she liked everything to be in perfect order. There was something about the symmetry of the clothes, dolls or books she was cleaning that was calming her down. Moon was listening, this time showing more interest, only occasionally asking her some questions.

“Is this Finkelstein girl your only friend?” he asked when she paused to catch a breath. “No, I have lots of friends. I have Gigi and uh, Mike, uh, but we don't talk a lot.” Ada replied. "Sarah is just my best friend and the only one that truly understands me. Gigi's more of a follower and Mike just likes to wrestle, I guess."

Dr. Moon nodded. “How often do you meet with Sarah?” “Almost every day…” Ada hesitated. Since Sunday they only talked at school. Bray’s death shook Fink. On Wednesday she had to leave class during the lesson, crying about it. Ada thought that she needed doctor’s help more than her. However, perhaps this was just because Sarah was more emotional than her. Not that Ada wasn't apathetic, she just dealt better with it than some other kids, like Sarah. However, she couldn't help but to think she was the cause of Bray Parris' death. Seeing no other alternative, she gulped and hoped for the best. But she revealed nothing of this to the doctor.

Surprisingly and scarily, Ada remembered. She kept it to herself, of course, but she remembered that she was the one who had taken a stone and smashed Bray’s skull with it. But why? What happened? What the hell happened? “When I came here, I heard about this boy who died recently…” Moon said. “Was he also your friend?” “Yes.” Ada replied quickly. She remembered the last time they talked and shuddered. “But I couldn’t sleep long time before he died…”

Dr. Moon nodded. “Mmmmm” he replied. "What about your um, sista'?" “She died not too long ago…” Sommers replied. “She had an accident… Dad often says that I’m similar to her. She liked to have everything organised.” “I see,” snorts Moon, looking around the room. “How about your mother?” “She worries about me…” Sommers replied. “She can sleep well, but my dad... It seems that he can't sleep anymore much as well.” She knew what was coming next. Sooner or later every doctor would ask her if she was beaten or molested. They were usually circling around that question for long. Ada couldn't tell why. Maybe abused kids had trouble sleeping? They were asking her about her biggest fear: about Jimmy's reaction if she did something wrong, if someone ever put their hands where they shouldn’t. But no, Ada never experienced any abuse. She answered all the doc Moon’s questions with a bored expression.

The good doctor was about to leave, when he asked her about something else; he turned his as around, “Do you have any problems with your vision or hearing?” That caught her off guard. She hesitated for a while, before finally replying: “No.” Chill out, Ada, she thought. You don’t have any problems… It was just once… Uhh... yeah. “Did you have any... thoughts that made you scared or angry?” Dr. Moon asked. “All the time…” she muttered. “I haven’t slept for a month; It’s normal that I’m angry…” “Yes, I suppose it is.” Moon replied. “Thank you, Ada. I’m going to talk with your father now.” When he left her room, she listened to his tip-toeing footsteps till she heard the door to James’s room closing. Quietly, she trotted downstairs and stood in the corridor next to her father’s office.

“...Physically, she’s okay.” she heard Moon’s voice. The doctor ate a cookie. “However, she seems to be obsessed with order and symmetry. Was she always like that?” “No, of course not,” Jimmy replied. “I mean, she always liked to put things in order, just like Jenny… But only recently she started to do that ALL the time. She says that she’s bored at night… She cannot sleep at all, doc.” “I see and know.” Moon replied. Ada could almost see him nodding with his professional expression. “Mr. Sommers, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about your uh, late child…” Ada turned away from the door. It seemed that they were going to talk for long, which was boring her. Suddenly, she started to miss Finkelstein, so she decided to go to the town and look for her.

Walking through the streets of Youngstown, she started to wonder, why she hadn’t been caught yet. When Mike and Rico had found Bray’s body, they immediately ran to the town, calling for help. The guards who arrived at the meadow in the early morning photographed and measured all the handprints and traces they could find. The body had been taken to the hospital, then to the Barrel morgue. Ada shuddered, imagining the kid lying on the metal table with a bloody hole where his brain used to be. She remembered how she’d showered after coming back from the walk in the middle of the night and how she’d assumed that blood on her jacket came from her own wounds. Was it Bray’s? She didn’t know. But now she did. However, she had rinsed all the evidence down the drain. Now the evidence is disappearing under acid rain! She started to wonder what’d happen if they found out that she was there with him. At first she thought about prison – cold, dirty walls, bars in the windows and deranged folks lurking in the same cell to hurt her – but then she shook it off. No one in town was gonna notice, right?

There was also another thing: in all the books she’d read, the criminal usually pleaded insanity to be locked in an asylum, where they could easily escape. Hell, even in documentaries, she heard so. She knew of the scariest asylum in the country: the Dixmor Asylum. It was probably scarier than any jail and hosted the worst scum imaginable. The hospital was a private institution so those Dixmor doctors could beat patients with nightsticks if they wished. The worst scum in her mind that were locked up there included Leo Kasper, Joker, Enrico Noriega, Frankie Gluskin and Piggsy.

Ada sighted and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she lost control over her body and killed Bray… or something in her did. She wasn’t sure anymore. Was it someone she offended in the past?

“Hey! Watch out!” She realised that she’d almost bumped into another person – a girl dressed in mostly pink that seemed like a nerd with her large glasses and freckled face. She knew her from school – her name was Ruby Devlin.

“It’s you…” Ruby muttered, frowning. She backpedalled, glaring at Ada angrily. "Does she know?" Sommers thought, panicked. “You came to laugh at me again?” Ruby shouted, her eyes watering. “Do you really think it’s funny? What would you do if… if your mother…” Suddenly, she turned back and ran away. "Ruby, wait!” Ada shouted. She wanted to chase her, but then she sat down, realising what it was about. After she’d noticed that Miranda, Nora and Jody didn’t care about her insults anymore, Ada started to look for a new victim. The Irish Ruby Devlin, with her smarty-pants attitude and weak demeanour was a far too easy a target.

Sommers hesitated. Normally, she’d shrug it off and go to the Fink, but recently she’d seen too many peeps crying because of her. She’d barely made it through Ruby’s funeral and Cobb's boring eulogy. The whole town had appeared there to bid farewell to the poor kid. Ada couldn’t look into their eyes. When Charlie started to cry during his speech, for a brief moment Ada thought that her teacher was going to accuse her. She’d imagined the townsfolk gathering around her, glaring at her angrily. She’d imagined herself running to James, only to be pushed away by her own father. A pair of strong hands would be wrapping around her throat, depriving her of air. Her face would be smashed to pieces. She’d imagined herself trying to fight, overpowered by the mob; people kicking her and tearing her limb... FROM LIIIIMMMMBB!!!

She'd imagined them dumping her, dirty, bleeding from numerous wounds, into an early grave for all the trouble she'd make them. On a second thought, she'd imagine herself standing on the road, only to be hit by a car. The car would be smoking and Sarah'd come and try to pull the teeth from Ada's throat.

Ada sighted, but erased those thoughts. It was not like her to be victimised or accused of anything, even if it was true. Sommers knew her past bullying ways would have a karmic reaction, but she didn't expect it to be this bad.

Ignoring Ruby's whining and running, Ada headed to Sarah's house. She didn’t even have to knock at the door – when she approached the suburban house, she saw Finkelstein over the fence, lying on a blanket under the tree in the garden and napping.

“Hello!” Ada called. Sarah yawned, woke up and looked around groggily. Seeing her slowly waking up, Sommers sighed – she’d give anything to be able to sleep like that. “Hi, Ada.” said Fink. Ada walked to the tree and sat on the blanket. “How are you?” asked Sarah. “Still can’t sleep,” Ada replied, looking at the book Sarah had lying under the tree, not too far from her. It was a large, black neurology handbook. “Do you even understand that?”

“Not really…” Sarah answered, embarrassed. “But I’m trying, Ada… I really am.” “You know, I talked to that doctor from Thief's Town today…” Ada replied. "How’s he like?” Fink asked. “Just like any other. He thinks there’s something wrong with my head. Maybe he thinks it's just my imagination and that I'm fuaked in the head.” Ada sighed. “You know, all that cleaning and stuff… As if it had something to do with my insomnia… Now he’s talking to my dad.”

Sarah nodded. For a while, they were just sitting next to each other in silence. "Hey, Sarah?" Ada started. "Is it really just paranoia or is somebody after me?" Ada asked. "Gee, Ada, I hope it's just the former. I don't want anyone going after you." She reassured her.

“Thanks. Y'know uh, I’ve met Ruby Devlin on my way here.” Ada said. “Who?” Sarah asked. “Wait, isn’t it that pathetic kid? The one whose mother would sell her if she didn't ace a test?” She laughed coldly. “What did she tell you? How fun it is to kiss the teacher's bum all day?” Ada was surprised by Sarah's attitude. Normally, she didn't display any bullying tendencies, but Sarah was outright vile this time. This was unlike her. Sommers paused and the two stared at each other in an awkward silence.

“Uhhhh... Sorry. Maybe I've been a little too harsh. But... you bullied her daily.” Sarah replied, feeling a bit ashamed for acting like such a jerk. Ada replied: “Yes, I was just thinking about that… I was too harsh on her. Maybe it's jealousy? I know I'll never be as smart as her and have the same perfect grades.” she muttered. “I mean, maybe it’s hard for her to live like that, actually… Maybe her mother is strict as hell and wants perfect grades or nothing at all?” "Hmmmm..." replied Sarah.

There was only one time when Sarah Finkelstein stood up against her. About a year ago, the nerdy guy known by the nickname of "Twist", had refused to let Ada copy his homework and, after a rather unpleasant talk with the teacher, Charlie, Sommers had decided to turn Twist’s life into pure Hell. But... Truth is, she hadn’t even started with that. When she’d told Sarah about her plans, she suddenly saw her face freezing in horror, before Fink blurted out “No!”, trying to hold back tears. Ada knew Sarah was a bit soft when it came to bullying. But as someone who was bullied herself once, Ada thought she had to be.

Finkelstein saw a lot of herself in Twist, so they never talked about him again. Ada Sommers never, ever tried to bully Twist again. “Don’t you think we should apologise to Ruby?” Sarah asked. “Apologise? Hell no, I don’t like her that much…” Sommers replied. “Yeah… you’re probably right…” said Finkelstein and looked around uncomfortably. She wasn't the bullying sort.

"Geez, grow a pair, girl..." Ada thought. As much as she loved Sarah and appreciated her as her best friend, she was weak in her eyes, deep down. "Oh Finkel, who made you so soft..." she thought to herself, then she looked at her, who was sitting silently, her eyes focused on some random tuft of grass in front of her.

“Sarah, are you okay?” she asked. “It’s Parris… I still can’t believe that… that he’s gone…” Sarah whispered. "Just what I needed…" Ada sighed and sat next to Finkelstein, wrapping her arm around her. She was so used to a happy Sarah Finkelstein that felt so safe and fulfilled under Ada's protection, that she’d almost forgotten how vulnerable and fragile she could be. Deep inside, she’d always known that her friend’s usual behaviour was merely a mask: she was hanging out with Ada, agreeing with every her word, to forget how she used to be bullied herself and depended on Ada for confidence boost and protection.

"Sarah, Gigi… Do I even have real friends or just followers?" Sommers thought. She was often pondering about that during the sleepless nights. What if Sarah was mentally and physically strong herself? Would she even need Ada? Would their friendship end? Ada sighted sadly at this thought.

They spent several hours sitting together, barely saying anything. Every time Ada tried to talk about something else, Fink was coming back to Bray or Ada’s insomnia. Finally, Ada had enough. “I gotta go.” she said, looking at the sun. “Take care, Sarah.” She walked out of Fink’s garden and walked down through the town. The afternoon was warm. The streets were still full of so many people, so many faces, talking cheerfully and enjoying themselves.

Suddenly, Sommers froze mid-step and blinked several times. She realised that she was in the town’s outskirts again. She couldn’t tell how she got there – was she barely paying attention where she was walking? Or was something in her brain that told her to go here, subconsciously? “What the…” she muttered, looking around. She was in the meadows. It wasn’t, however, the same part of it where she’d met Bray a week before. Behind her, there was a steep river bank, covered in bushes and small trees. Spooky... Should she enter the forest?

She decided to enter the forest, and she looked at the group of bushes and noticed something pink amongst them. “Ruby?” she asked, approaching the crying girl, who was sitting on the grass with her knees to her chest, looking at the river. Several scared moths flew past her. Ada genuinely felt sorry for the girl. “It’s you again, huh?” Ruby asked. “I told you to leave me alone!” Sommers shuddered. She noticed that the edges of her vision became blurry again. She wanted to run away instantly, but instead she walked to Ruby and sat next to her, as if some uncontrollable force was guiding her actions. Overcoming her fear, she looked down at the river. The stream there was rapid; they were maybe a mile from the hydroelectric dam, while another part of the river lead to the sewers. “Listen…” Sommers said. “It’s not like that… I…” “You what? After all those… things you and that pet of yours said about me, you think that ‘it’s not like that’ will help?” Ruby whimpered and screamed, getting up. “No…” Ada muttered. She extended her hand and wrapped it around Ruby. “No, Ruby, it’s…”

It all lasted maybe a half of a second. Ada’s vision suddenly disappeared in a flash, going all black. Ada couldn't feel a thing. She had another blackout and when it came back, Ruby wasn’t with her. “Ada!” she heard a panicked scream. She blinked, ran to the edge of the bank that lead to the sewage system. “No!” she shouted, seeing Ruby desperately waving her hands, trying to keep her head above the water in the sewage system. “Hold on, Ruby…” Sommers muttered. She tried to pull her up, but suddenly, her hands became weak, unable to support her weight; she could only sit there and watch Ruby struggling to climb up. Ruby disappeared, but quickly emerged, coughing and hitting her hands against the water erratically as she was deep in the manhole now. “Ada…” It wasn’t even a scream, it was shriek which ended with a sob. “Why…?” Ada Sommers meanwhile, was in a trance. Her face was emotionless. She heard voices in her heard, controlling her and telling her that she needs to not help Ruby, but let her die. Ada Sommers stood still like a statue, showing no emotions and apathetically watched Ruby struggling. “Why…” Ruby cried. Muscles in her legs grew weaker by the second. She exhaled the last bit of air and disappeared underwater. The bottom of the sewer was so serene… Its cold calmness so welcoming despite the smell. Ruby gave up and let fate do her thing. She closed her eyes and accepted death as she drowned deeper underwater. Ada meanwhile, only stood there and watched. Her eyes started shining and a sly smile crossed her face. But was it really Ada, or something controlling her? It was either something supernatural or a split personality.

Ruby Devlin was probably dead by now. Ada came out of her trance, looking around in panic about what happened to Ruby. She then realised she probably drowned in the sewers and Ada didn't do a thing to help her. She broke down and cried her heart out. "Somebody wake me from this nightmare! I can't escape this hell!" Ada yelled in vain.

Abigail Peppercon's chapter[]

The night was slowly getting cold. Youngstown was preparing to hit the bed. Abigail Peppercorn sat on the balcony of her complex building. She lived in a large apartment with her servant, Barnaby Tolbert. She was preparing herself a tea and added a lot of sugar in it.

Barnaby butted into the balcony. “If I may ask so boldly mistress, how will you get a good shut eye with consuming so much sugar before bed?” “Not your problem, Tolbert.” Abigail replied. She grabbed the cup and sipped it. “Sugar always helps me relax.” “You can come here and sit if you wish." she said. Tolbert nodded and sat next to her. The two were looking the night sky and the town below from the balcony. Not a single star was visible in the sky. “Look at these pests below, Tolbert. Give me ten years and I'll be ruling them all.” Peppercorn smiled. "It's a heavy burden you carry, mistress." “I don’t know why, but the entire world is against me. This town treats me like I'm the worst thing to ever exist! And you know it, AND YOU KNOW IT! Too much noise? Peppercorn’s fault. Vomit on your doormat? Abby was there. You can’t find your kids? The Peppercorn woman came and ate 'em… Why kids, though? I don’t like them. They taste like crap! I prefer some... adult meat, heheh.”

“Hah, heh...” Tolbert nervously laughed. “Well, it could be worse. They could accuse you of blowing up the library…” “Dumbases! These fools actually think that I suddenly care about their precious books? What they read? Hell, can they even read? These peasants never read a book in their lives! Plus I'm writing my own, so why would I blow up the library, thus crapped in my own pocket?! Huh?! FOOLS!” Abigail raged and she threw the tea cup off the balcony. The tea dropped below on the parking lot, but it luckily didn't hit any cars or people. “BARNABY!” "Yes, ma'am?" Tolbert gulped. “Get me a new cup of tea! Get me a chamomile tea and put four spoons of sugar in it!" Abigail raged and kicked her chair over. "Yes, ma'am." Tolbert replied and ran into the kitchen with the speed of light.

Peppercorn then kicked his chair over as well. "Ohhhhh, this crap is scaring me! The burden of being alive for so long makes me wanna end myself! But no! If I do, the Horrible One will win and I can't never allow for that to happen! All I needs is to destroy, DESTROY, STROY, STROY!"

"Here is your tea, mistress." Said Tolbert, shaking as he brought the cup to Abby. “Danken.” Abby nodded, pointing for Tolbert to put the tea on the table near her chair. He then stood the chair up for his mistress, so Abby could sittenzie. “Do you think we could, uh, open up a sex dungeon? Or at least use a dungeon to lock up permanently intoxicated losers in it?” Peppercorn sighted and waited for the tea to cool down, while Barnaby did his best to stay quiet and didn't wish to remind Abigail what happened the last time she tried something like that. “Ummmm, have you heard the news, miss?” Barnaby asked. “A kid died recently. Apparently he got killed and uh, another one is... missing.”

“Yeah, so what?” Abigail replied and drank her tea, slowly, without doing as much as moving her heard to look at Barnaby. “The kid that went missing, uh, I did some spying and apparently she went by the surname of Devlin. Some Irish thingy. Heard her dad got so drunk and tried to beat the crap out everyone at the local nightclub, that place DJ Jay owns. Man, who knows that dude hasn't got any sort of restraining orders against him. Who knows how messed he is… Today he beats people, tomorrow he’ll try to burn some houses down…” Peppercorn didn't seem slightly interested and complained instead that he tea didn't have enough sugar in it. "Yeah, yeah... Hey, my tea isn't sweet enough. Get me three more spoons of sugar and put 'em in." "Yes, madam." replied Barnaby and ran on all fours into the kitchen.

“Hmmmm… What is that noise?” Abigail muttered as she saw police cars driving past the apartment. She saw them heading towards the sewage system at the end of the river on the other side of the town. "The hell's going on there?" she asked herself and rubbed her chin, waiting for Barnaby to return with the handful of sugar.

(New now switch to the POV of Detective S. Cornwall)

Cornwall stepped out of his police cruiser and met up with the two civilians who called the cops. Both were looking through the open manhole next to the water. Cornwall and other cops walked on the scene. “Keep moving people.” he said, pushing the two civilians out of the way.

Cornwall asked his comrade for a light and he gave him a flashlight. Cornwall turned the sucker on, looking down the manhole. A nearby cop looked down as well with a flashlight at the bottom of the sewer and put his hand on her stomach, seeing a small silhouette laying down below. The cop was overcome with nausea and looked at it closer. Then Cornwall broke the silence. "Hey... Isn't that the missing kid?” he asked in a shaky voice, perfectly knowing what the answer would be. The answer would be... yes.

(Next chapter We switch to the fuaking morgue or a hospital or some crap.)

“Patient’s name: Ruby Conner Devlin. Nationality: American with Irish descent. Age: 14. Race: white. Parents: Brian and Maggie Devlin…” The doctor put the dictaphone down and grabbed a scalpel with his white gloves on his dorito-laced fingers. “Okay, Ruby...” he said, looking at the girl lying on the table in front of him. The pale, unnatural light was making her look even smaller. “Let’s see what happened to you, dearie…” The doc burped out before he sat near the corpse of the girl and started poking it in the feet with the scalpel.

Meanwhile, back at home, Ada examined the kutchen knife carefully, looking for any irregularities of the blade. For a while, she was staring at her reflection in the stainless steel, before she took a cloth and began wiping it. It felt so... good, just holding the thing in her hands and admiring it. She put the knife back into the drawer and took another one – a small paring knife. She turned it in her hands and admired it, fascinated by how well-balanced it was. Easy to conceal, yet sharp and, in the wrong hands, deadly. Oh yes, anything could be deadly in the wrong hands.

Her mom was an excellent cook and she definitely knew her knives. Every knife in the kitchen drawer was perfect. Sommers thought about Sarah Fink; her friend was always interested in cutlery. Whenever someone shown even the slightest hint of being interested in the topic, she was getting crazy over it. She could talk for hours about her collection of rare spoons, forks and even knives, meanwhile boring the hapless listener to death. Unfortunately, Ada happened to be the hapless and helpless listener most of those times. Why does she need Sarah as a friend so badly, again?

"Well...", Ada thought, running her hand down the handle of the knife, looking for any dents or doubts about it. "Her rambling is still less deadly than I am…" She stood up, put the knife back and stretched her arms. She knew she killed Bray and felt like she was responsible for Ruby's death, but she didn't really care anymore. At least not at that moment. Then she left the kitchen, whistling the Kill Bill theme while we're at it. “Ada?” She heard her father’s tired voice behind her. “What were you doing in the kitchen? Breakfast isn't ready yet.” “Just taking a walk, daddio.” she replied, sighing, but then smiling. “I’m so bored…” “Don’t worry, Ada.” James approached her and patted her head. “I got some wonderful news! Doctor Moon said that there’s a hospital in West Virginia that would suit you pretty well! It's for all sorts of people with uh… problems. Once the school year is over, you’ll go there and–” “I don’t want to go.” Ada said glumly. “I’m not crazy…” “I know that you aren’t, sweetie.” James replied and hugged her softly. “You’re my beloved little daughter… I don’t want to lose you. Not like Jenny.” “But I don’t want to go there! I am not crazy and I'll be… alone…” Sommers sobbed.

“I’ll visit you as often as I can. And I think Sarah won’t leave you either…” “Yeah… probably…” Ada wiped her tears. "Where am I going anyway?" "The good doctor said it's a place called the Dixmor Asylum." replied James. Ada was shocked and frightened, but she tried to gulp her fear down. "Just great..." she mumured and walked to her room. She lay on her bed, knowing far too well that it wouldn’t help her. Worse yet, she knew what type of psychopaths end up there. Killers, rapists, terrorists, anyone that seemed too ill for jail, but too dangerous for anything else. Hell, some of them switched from jail to the asylum or vice versa. Well, good thing is she'll probably be in some less-frightening section with people who share similar problems and nothing too dangerous. She just hopes her murder of Bray doesn't go out.

It was even worse since Ruby died. Every time Sommers tried to close her eyes, she was seeing the betrayed look on her face and a frightening smile on her own. She could almost hear her “why?” just before the water closed above her head. Sommers turned in her bed. Her vision started to blur, but even when she closed her eyes, her mind still wasn’t able to drift away. She laid on her back, thinking of the horrors that may await her at the Dixmor asylum. Her eyes were shot open, though, staring at the white ceiling. Her blank expression, however, slowly turned into a mischievous grin when she thought of Ruby's death, clenched her hands together and rubbed them, before letting out a maniacal laughter that caught even her dad off-guard. Perhaps she was destined for the Dixmor institution after all.

(Next fuaking chapter.)

Ruby's dad, uh, what's his name again? Anywho, he banged his handen against the wall, smearing blood on the wallpaper. Oh right, his name is Brian. His whole body was trembling uncontrollably. His wife, Ruby's momma, collapsed on the floor, panting heavily. Her heart was pounding against her chest, almost cracking her ribs. She tried to fall asleep, meanwhile Brian was not caring about the shards of glass from broken bottles scattered around the floor. He instead started to scratch his arm vigorously, trying to get rid of the feeling that something was crawling through his skin.

“Oh, our poor Ruby…” the mother's whisper was barely audible due to her dry throat. Brian inhaled deeply, filling his nostrils with the smell of spilled vodka and stale whiskey. It was a few hours since they were told that their daughter was dead. Since then, everything was a one, continuous blur of pain, tremors and smashed glass. How can Miss Peppercorn even help?

Someone knocked on the door. As Maggie laid, the hubby tried to walk only to fall, face first, on the floor, his head drowning in some spilled beer as he let out a nervous fart. Brian heard voices. The drunk wasn’t sure whether they belonged to peeps behind the door, or were rather a creation of his own drunken and tainted mind. The lock clicked. Brian looked at it and saw the door open up on its own. It opened violently and two people he despised the most stepped in.

“Well, well, well, what have we here? Brian Devlin, do we? Ooooohhhh! I'm really scared! So you're the town drunk everyone's been talkin' about? Ahahahaha!” Abigail laughed as she stepped into the hausen, looking around the room. Barnaby hesitated, hit by the stench. However, Barnaby still managed to advise Maggie to get out of the house, this is gonna get ugly he said. It's between Peppercorn and Brian.

“Your wife should leave, bro.” Tolbert’s voice was muffled as he couldn't stand the stench. However, it was enough to make Maggie move to a different room while Peppercorn breathed the vile stench of alcohol in. "Pathetic. Smells like crap." Peppercorn complained.

Brian blinked and saw her face close above her. “You're joking. You're joking! I can't believe my eyes. How am I supposed to take your drunk self seriously? I may break a fuaking rib now, if I don't die laughing first.” Peppercorn taunted.

Brian coughed a few times, but Barnaby lift him up to his knees, so he could face Peppercorn. Brian thrashed, screaming and kicking, but Barnaby used all of his willpower to hold him down. He knew his hide was on the line.

"The police said your daughter's been found, but dead. You better pay attention now, cause I'm the CEO of the Temperance Movement. And if you haven't realised it yet, there's something very wrong. Hell, this may be the last time you're ever drunk in your life. You can call me your saviour in a way, really. Yeah, I'm miss Abigail April Peppercorn and I don't ponder about." Peppercorn spoke.

“What Mistress means, Brian, is that we’re going to help you…” Barnaby said, holding him up. “It won’t hurt a bit… Here, let us help you, ok?” Tolbert tried. "Never!" yelled Brian, only to get knocked out by Abigail when she hit him on the head with a beer bottle. "Drunken fool. He'll be saved and HE WILL JOIN MY MOVEMENT! Drag him, Barnaby!"

Barnaby was scared of Abigail, but he nodded, trying to contain the shaking of his quivering legs. He grabbed Brian by the shoulders and dragged him out of the house, following Abigail who strutted out of the house like an SS officer, her nose high up in the air and feeling very superior and good about herself. She was about to save another lost, drunken soul after all.

Barnaby dragged Brian out and Abigail motioned him to put him in the backseat of the car. “Now, let’s get him to the hospital, shall we?” Abby asked. "Yes, ma'am'." replied Barnaby as he put Brian into the backseat of Abigail's Ford, barely putting his heavy legs in.

(A day later, Finkelstein was hiding in another part of the town.)

She poked her head from behind the corner, making sure that no one was in sight. Then she tip-toed quickly on the other side of the street and hid in the shadow of the roof below a house. She crept as close to the wall as possible and disappeared in the nook.

She sighed with relief. No one was going to see her there. Sarah was never a sociable gal. She preferred to be alone or with Ada Sommers. She could only stand other people because Ada liked to shine.

In fact, Sarah Finkelstein was actually quite introverted and was afraid of crowds, even if they consisted of people as friendly as your plus teddy bear.

Sarah sighted, thinking of Ruby and how harsh she and Ada were to her the entire time. She kinda wished she did more to stand up for Ruby, but the time for regrets and could've-beens is over. Sarah ran through the street, almost getting hit by a car. Not hearing a person yelling at her, she tripped over a flower stand, yet she continued to run blindly, panting heavily, as if her life depended on her. She bumped into someone and fell down, losing her balance and stood on all four limbs.

“What the–Who dares?” “Please, don’t hurt me!” Sarah screamed, addressing the older woman in front of her front of her. “Who on Earth dares to bump into me?” The old woman slowly turned around and gave a glance of death to her. "Please... I'm sorry." Sarah couldn't help but to sob. “Oh dear… Am I that threatening, kid?” The old woman asked. Finkelstein wiped her eyes. "I am Abigail Peppercorn, kid." “I am sorry, miss Peppercorn.” she said, getting up quickly and picking herself up. “I… I am so sorry. I tripped and fell…” “On my leg nonetheless, kid, what do you have to say about that?” Peppercorn muttered and asked. “I am so sorry, Miss Peppercorn. I didn't realise.” Sarah said quickly. “I… I think I’ll go home… Sorry.” "Nah, hold up! Hold up, hold up, HOOOLLL' UP! You're talking to a person whose sweet sixteen ended in the emergency department, but then... then I saw the light. I saw the light beyond the bottle!” Peppercorn pointed her wrinkly, index finger directly onto Sarah’s brow ridge. “Are you aware of the evils, the pure fuaking evils of alcohol and uh, drugs and those prescription thingies?” “N-no, thanks… For uh, telling me about it. I gotta go.” Sarah muttered.

“Nonsense! Ya'll will learn the truth because nothing hurts a drunkard more than the truth!” Abigail yelled and wrapped her arm around Fink. “I am here to save you. You're still so young, so sweet, so innocent and you must say that way. I will crush all of the vices of this world, especially those that include hops or any other sort of materials used to create 'cohol.” Abigail spat into her ear. “I... I... I don't know what to say, uh...” “Yeah, but I do know what you need. Allow me, me personally, to be your mentor.” Abigail deadpanned. “Anyway, I’m just going to the hospital to visit… a... ummm... let's say a friend of mine. You like it or not, you’re going there with me! With me!” Finkelstein froze. On one Satanic hand, she started to feel dizzy from the impact and those warm hospital walls could help her, but on the other, last thing she wanted was to talk with someone about Ruby or meet her parents. And on the last one, who even was this woman? What did she even want?

“Don’t worry, girl.” Abigail said, leaning to her and stroking her hair, before patting her on her shoulders. “Everything will be all right. Listen, dam it, we WILL win! The straight edge society needs members and you'd make a perfect member! Hell, since I'm so old already, perhaps if you're good or loyal 'enuff you could even be the poster child! The motherfuaking spokesperson for sober America! You could represent the common man's kid!” Sarah gulped and didn't know what to think, but she didn't want to get on this insane old woman's bad side, so she walked her dizzy walk behind Peppercorn, who yapped non-stop about her movement and alleged superiority while they walked to the local hospital.

The local Youngstown police at the station was hard at work, trying to figure out who was killing them kids around the town and why. On the surface, the station looked like any other such building in Youngstown, Ohio. Cheap furniture, the mayor candidates smiling from the posters, each promising stuff they can never fulfil, photos of the cops' wives, friends and kids on the walls, and a stale smell of old papers, coffee, donuts, cigs and some big fuaking guns! Detective Dick Cornwall entered the room and sat in his chair.

When he was a young buck, he often dreamed about working as the security guard of the President himself and would be able to get glimpse into the White House, or even walked around it like a boss. Now all he dreamed of was another cop to help them. Usually, two cops were enough for one case, but recently, after a 14-year-old kid was murdered, his classmate apparently committed suicide by throwing her butt into the sewers, and then the drunk father of said classmate ended up in a hospital, they suddenly had a lot of work to do.

Luckily the other copper, his partner, named Fred Degmuzan, still was young and ambitious enough to work hard as three cops combined to solve those cases. A minute after Cornwall entered the office, smoking a Redwood cig, Fred was there too, holding up a file. He threw it on the desk. Cornwall looked at it and shook his head when and he saw a photo of a kid with a large cut in her chest, making the internal organs visible. He winced and swallowed the smoke of the cig. It wasn’t for the photo – after many years of service, he was used to such views, however, when he saw it, he immediately imagined if his daughter was lying on the autopsy table. "Never, I hope." he quipped.

He looked at the framed photo he kept on his desk, depicting a small, brunette girl wearing a scout uniform and smiling at the camera. This was his daughter which he loved with all his heart. God help the fool that says any unkind word to her. Cornwall doesn't screw around. “I talked to that odd doctor.” said Degmuzan. “Guess what was the cause of death, boss...” “Drowning?” Cornwall asked as he took another puff. “Yeah… Not surprising at all.” Fred said, almost enthusiastically. He was enjoying this career way more than he should. “However, I took a walk up the river. Not too far from the dam, there’s a steep bank. Someone walked through those bushes recently…” “So? Probably lots of kids play there…” Cornwall replied and threw the dead cigarette butt into the ashtray. Fred was surely enthusiastic all right, clearly too much, but he still lacked experience. Sometimes his enthusiasm was so off-putting that Cornwall thought that maybe he has some secrets himself that he doesn't reveal. What if Degmuzan himself isn't as innocent as he appears?

“That’s not everything,” Fred said. “Our victim has a large abrasion on the side, as if she slid off the slippery slope before falling into the manhole and hanging on to it. Then she fell down and drown. Doctor Dead, the coroner, even found some sand in the wound… Probably there was more in her body but water and toilet poo.” “Get to the point, kid…” Cornwall interrupted him. He thought that he was too old for these fancy ways of talking that the younger cops do nowadays. He just wants it straight to the chase - all grit and no bullsith.

“Well, after I found that place and examined it, thoroughly, I examined the bushes nearby the bank and the sewers and found... this…” Fred opened the file and showed a photo of something carefully packed into a ziploc bag. “It’s a hair.” Cornwall took his glasses and looked at the photo more carefully. “It could be hers…” “It’s not, sir.” Degmuzan spat out. “It’s black! It's clearly black, not orange or ginger. Hell, do you remember where we last found black hair, boss?” Cornwall froze. He looked at the photo of his daughter again and imagined her lying in the morgue. Then he was off-put again by Fred's enthusiastic smile. As if he won the latest Family Feud episode and not a suicide or possibly murder case. “So, it means that…” “I believe those cases or dots are connected, sir.” Fred said, scratching his face. “Someone in Youngstown is murdering these kids, sir.” “But... but... but who?” Cornwall asked. "Who would do such a thing?" he asked again. “Many people have black hair… We need to be careful. We can’t let that bastardo escape...” replied Degmuzan. “Exactly.” Richard said as he looked at the photo lying on the top of the small pile of papers – the one showing Ruby Devlin’s exposed organs. “We’d better keep this a secret. We don’t want people to panic, hear?” Richard Cornwall explained to Freddy.

Sarah woke up the next morning, luckily at home and not with Abby and thanked Yahweh for the sun, as it was the supreme being in her religion. Sarah decided to go for a walk. She put on her best clothes, best shoes and a necklace, and was walking through the town quickly, almost bouncing happily like Smurfette. High temperature meant that most of the citizens hid in their houses, cursing the heat, or rather the sun that shot its beams down onto the town like a divine judgement. For some people, the view of the empty streets was uncanny; they were so used to the sight of the crowds that the sudden disappearance of them was tugging some primitive string or fear in their hearts. Maybe everyone is just such an extrovert? Hell, could be.

Finkelstein had no such fear. Her closest ones and her peers had abandoned her many times before. Sometimes she was just ignored, sometimes outright rejected. Sometimes, it ended with bruises and punches, as she may have been bullied or sometimes it just ended in tears, as she ran from her oppressors. Luckily, she found Ada, and she was there for her ever since. “Hey, Fink!” She shuddered and closed her eyes, waiting silently for what fate had in store for her. She was afraid someone is gonna pick on her again.

“Be sure to come back home before evening. I heard folks sayin' that there’ll be a storm tonight.” said someone standing and breathing next to her. Sarah opened her eyes and saw Ziggy, or better known as "Twist". She scolded herself for not recognising him at first, but when she started to think about it, it was understandable. Twist had recently made lots of progress in dealing with his lisp and stutter and it was now almost unhearable. Sarah still couldn’t get used to his "normal" voice. The fact that they didn’t talk very often wasn’t helping. “Thanks, Twist.” Fink replied. “I’m going to Sommer’s house. We haven’t had a sleepover for ages.” “Cool.” Twist replied. Sarah looked at him, unsure if he really meant it. However, one look at Twist’s eyes convinced her that he was honest. Actually, Twist was always honest. It was the kind of oblivious, sometimes brutal honesty, which was probably the cause why he wasn’t liked among the kids of Youngstown. However, this made him a shining gem amongst his peers in a way, as at least he was honest and truthful, everyone else just lied to each other. They lied to each other's faces. "We’re exactly the same.", Sarah thought. "Except that I have Ada… and Twist... well, Twist has no one." Sarah frowned. “Is everything okay?” Twist asked, looking at the Fink unsure. “Of course it is.” Finkelstein replied, avoiding his gaze. “You don’t look like, sis.” Twist stated. “Are you depressed?” “Me? Depressed? Ha!” Sarah replied. "Don't kid yourself, Twist." Sarah replied, trying to desperately hide her frown with a fake smile.

“If you say so, Sarah.” Twist said, clearly not believing her. Twist then turned around and walked away. Fink sighted and frowned. Why did people give her so much attention? First that old woman, Abigail Peppercorn, who had dragged her to the hospital, now Twist… She felt she didn’t deserve that. But you know who did? Ada. Ada was the queen. The best of the best in Sarah's words and thoughts. Now, Sarah felt as if Ruby’s blood was on her hands and everyone could see it… Why such a low self-esteem? She really needed to go to Ada's to help herself back up.

As she walked the empty streets, suddenly Gigi came to her from the local market and greet her, waving her chubby little hand. Gigi was one lean, mean, tomboyish type of girl. "Hey Sarah." she said. "Why the long face?" Sarah sighted. She knew Gigi as one of Ada's friends, but neither of them really hung out much with her. Should she trust her with her dilemma anyway? Finkelstein didn't even care anymore. She decided to go ahead with it and took a deep breath. "It's Ruby... She... she'd dead because of me." "Say what now?" Gigi said, shockingly. “I mean… Ada and I… She killed herself because of us… We bullied her...” Sarah muttered. To her surprise, Gigi wrapped her arm around her. “You couldn’t do anything about that. It was her own choice in the end.” Gigi said, trying to understand the situation and making it look like she was better off dead. “It were her parents, actually. Those two drunks never gave her much attention, yet they expected her to have perfect marks! A++ only!” "Do you even believe what you’re saying?" Fink thought. “I… I could’ve stopped that…” She sighed and sobbed. “I did nothing when Sommers teased her… Heck, I teased her too! It’s like I pushed her to the smelly sewers to her death… I… I could’ve said ‘no’... But... I'm scared. I was scared of what Ada would think. I'm nothing without her. I need her.”

Gigi said nothing. Instead, she pulled the crying Sarah into a hug. Finkelstein immediately backed away, startled. “Oh, sorry…” Gigi muttered. “It… it’s not your fault. I really mean it.” Finkelstein stood before her in silence. She finally broke it. “Seriously, what would I do without her? The school would eat me up. They'd torment me days and nights. No one would do a thing to help me! Not the teachers, not my peers, not anyone! Probably also not my parents! She's so... good to me. She'd do anything for me. I may not approve everything she’s doing, but… Well, you know. I need her to protect me.” Gigi nodded. “I need to go see her, Giggs.” said Sarah. “If I ever need your help, I’ll ask for it.” She sighted. "K." replied Gigi and walked down a different path. "You sure aren't making it easy, Ada." Sarah said to herself.

As she walked a few streets down to get closer to Ada's house, she froze in fear. She looked and saw Miranda, Rico and Simon walking towards her. She gulped and began to slowly walk forward, trying to make herself as small as possible. Rico saw her anyway. “What’s up, murderer?” she asked. “Still plotting on killing more kids!?” “Rico!” Simon hissed. “Stop it!” Sarah stared in disbelief. Simon defending her? That was something new. However, her confusion didn’t last long. “You’ll be the same as her!” Simon added and laughed. Finkelstein didn’t want to listen to them anymore or their laughs. She ran away from them as fast she could. She was running all the way to Sommers’ house. She stood in front of the door, panting. She straightened her glasses and hair, and waited for her breath to steady. Then she rang the bell. The gate opened and Fink saw Matilda, Ada’s mom, open the door. “Oh hello Sarah.” she said. “You here to visit Ada? Well, she's in her room.” "Thank you, miss Sommers." Sarah replied, as she followed her mother into the house, walking through the hallway of her friend's hausen. The creaking floor was always giving her chills. It was reminding her of a very old house. Sarah knocked on Ada's room's door while Matilda went into the kitchen to clean some dishes. "Come in!" yelled Ada. "I's me." replied Sarah as she opened the door.

“Great!” Ada replied. “I've been waiting for you, my friend.” Finkelstein couldn’t exactly put her skinny hand on it, but it seemed to her that Ada looked a bit better since they’d last met. Sure, she was still pale and had bags of sorrows under her eyes, but there was some kind of spark in them eyes that Sarah hadn’t seen before. Her moves were also more energetic; her voice was louder and clearer than earlier. Or maybe it was just her ego speaking? Hell, if she knew. “What took you so long, sis?” Sommers asked. “Twist.” Sarah replied. “And Gigi. Giggs thinks something’s wrong with me.” Ada gave her a long, meaningful look before raising up just one eyebrow. Sarah felt Ada's suspense and tried her best to look confident in front of her best and probably only, friend. “I wonder what gave her that idea…” Sommers smirked. “You look better than ever…” “Give me a break,” the Fink sighed and sat on Ada’s bed. “You seem down, sis? What happened?” Ada asked, noticing how sad and weary Sarah sounded and she realised that she looked a bit... off. This was not the happy and energetic Sarah she usually knew. Finkelstein hesitated. She didn’t want to share this with anyone, but on the other hand, Ada was her only friend. Hell, in a way she was more than that - she was her protector. They never had any secrets. "I... I met Rico and his friends today." she replied. "Oh?" Ada asked and raised her eyebrow.

“I think Rico thinks uh, he thinks... that it’s our fault. That Ruby is dead.” Something strange happened to Ada just then. her eyelid twitched and she gritted her teeth. “Are you okay?” Finkelstein asked. “Maybe you have magnesium deficiency?” “I’ll ask Doctor Moon about that.” Sommers said. “That loser… How did he dare? We need to do something about that…” “I… I think we…” Sarah shifted her legs, blushing. “We what?” Ada asked. “Since when are you so quiet, Sarah? What's happening to you, girl?” “No, just… I think we shouldn’t…” Fink was avoiding eye contact with her friend, instead focusing on some small brown spot on the wall. It looked like a sith stain. “So she can make you her punching bag?” Ada snapped. “Do you want this… again?” Sarah said nothing, still watching the wall, a frown expression on her face.

“I can do this alone if you don’t want…” Ada said and was now close to Finkelstein. She practically hissed the last words into her ear. She then gently stroke Finkelstein's hair, showing that she indeed still cared about her fragile friend.

"Then do it alone!" Sarah wanted to shout. Something, however, stopped her. She looked at Ada Sommers – the only person she could call her friend and imagined her life without her. She was her protector all right. Yet again, she thought about crawling into some cold and dark place to stay there forever. “Just what I thought…” There was disappointment in Ada’s voice. “Nevermind that, Sarah. We’re having a sleepover – we don’t talk about business on such occasions.” she said, smiling and patting Sarah's hair.

“Yeah...” the Fink replied absent-minded. “You’re right…” “Cheer up, Sarah.” Ada said, wrapping her hand around Sarah. “I have a feeling that tonight I’ll be able to finally sleep…” “Good for you.” Sarah replied. Only when she relaxed a bit, she felt how tense her muscles were before. “How about you?” Ada asked. “You know, every time we meet, we only talk about me…” She looked at Fink’s forehead. “You seem stressed…” “Well, last two weeks were rough…” Sarah replied. “Mom helps me a lot, but…” “Yeah, I’m sorry for leaving you like that…” Sommers sighed. “I simply can’t focus. Doctor Moon said that I have something called microsleep – I pass out for a few seconds during the day, then I wake up again…” “Still better than no sleep…” Sarah smiled and dragged Ada's hand off her.

“Nah, it sucks…” Ada replied. “It only makes me feel more tired.” Her mom knocked on the door; she brought them cookies, sweets and some cake. "Now don't eat it all at once, haha!" she laughed. Matilda left the room and Sarah took the box of peppermint candies. For a while, they were munching the treats in silence. “How’s school?” Ada finally asked. “I’m happy it’s almost over…” Sarah replied. “I really could use a break…” “Rico and those losers?” Ada asked with concern while stuffing a cookie into her mouth like a glutton.

“Everyone…” Sarah sighed. “Not to mention that the sun is killing me…” “Yeah…” Ada Tiara muttered, looking at the window. The sun was setting, obscured by clouds that were slowly gathered by who knows whom? “Good thing there’s a storm tonight…” "Yeah, I heard there's a big storm coming our way tonight. Hot dam." Sarah replied.

“I heard Rico saying that Matilda will join the cheerleading squad the next year. Great... *Sighs* But I know you can handle her well.” Sarah said. “Really? Hmm, that kunt. I hope she rots in Hell. If she tries anything funny I'm sending her there myself.” Sommers smirked. “Oh no… I...” Sarah complained. “Oh, come on… COME ON!” Ada shook her head and lightly punched Fink in the shoulder. “She hates you!” “Yeah, but she doesn’t deserve to die…” Finkelstein replied. “No one deserves to, yet they do.” Ada said philosophically. "Death is something we can't avoid and I can't wait to see Matilda and Rico rot in their graves, feasted upon by worms." Ada laughed.

"Hot dam... You're becoming scary, Ada. But I love you." Fink hugged her again. Ada hugged her back and patted her back. Finkelstein looked through the window, watching the first drops of rain falling to the ground. “Are you okay, Sarah?” she asked. “Yes.” Finkelstein replied. “You know… I’m afraid how it’ll be… when you’ll leave.” "Oh... you heard about me going to the Dixmor Asylum, eh? Oh well. Don’t worry about me." Ada replied. “They’ll fix me and I’ll be back before vacation ends, ha!” Sommers laughed. “I hope so…” Sarah yawned. The first lightning tore the sky apart. For a moment they could see the garden illuminated by the eerie blue light.

“Really, there’s nothing wrong with me.” Ada said. “Nothing… Nothing at all, I promise.” She looked at Sarah and saw that her friend was breathing calmly with her eyes closing in. She seemed about sceptical, but took Ada's word for it. Sommers shook her head, took off Sarah’s glasses and put them on the nightstand. Then she wrapped her arms around Sarah and fell down on the bed with her. She let her lay on her chest and patted her, helping her sleep. Fink muttered something in her sleep, wrapping her hands around her as Ada stranded her hair and very gently patted her back. “You're gonna sleep with me, eh?” Ada asked. “Yeah…” Sarah muttered in a tone suggesting that she was in fact asleep and didn't even knew what she was asked. Ada sighed and then helped her lie down next to her on the bed and wrapped her in a blanket. Ada laid next her. “Oh, Sarah... Y'know I love you.” Ada muttered, rolling around and pulling in the sleeping Fink for a hug. She held her up to her like a plush toy and the delicate beating of her friend’s heart against her chest was something she wanted to feel forever. Ada’s expression softened; she relaxed and tried falling asleep.

“Goodnight, Fink…” she whispered. “Sleep well and don’t worry about anything. I’ll always be here for you…” Ada said as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Then, in the middle of the night, Sommers opened her eyes and looked around after waking up. Her room was dark; only occasionally a lightning was tearing the sky apart, making every detail of Ada’s surroundings perfectly visible. Ada could feel the warmth of Sarah’s body. Her friend was breathing calmly in her sleep. When Ada had first met her, she was surprised to find out that she wasn’t afraid of storms – she simply adored the nights like this one. From what Ada knew, it was one of the many things Sarah had inherited from her mother, who was always a big fan of storms herself.

Ada smirked and stranded some of Sarah's hair from her face. She loved her best friend. Once again, Ada sighted due to the fact that she'll need to leave for the Dixmor's asylum and won't be seeing her for a while. "Why is it always Dixmor's?" Ada asked herself. Ada got off her bed and reached under her bed. The paring knife was in the same place where she’d left it. She looked at the blade – it still looked as perfect as earlier. It was sharp as hell, like it was recently sharpened. Sommers admired the knife before thinking how well it would fit into Sarah's neck. She quickly got rid of those thoughts. She put the knife back and stretched her arms. Silver Spoon muttered something in her sleep and hugged Ada’s pillow, but didn’t wake up. Sommers sighed with relief. She took her carrying bag and put the knife in it as well. She then put on her warmest jacket and jumped out of the window. She didn’t want to use the door, as she didn't wish to wake up Finkelstein. Ada thought about Sarah for one last time and sighted, but now she was on the wet grass outside. Lightning struck somewhere above what the residents called Creepy forest, but she didn’t even flinch.

Walking through the garden, she thought about yet another reason why she’d wanted to avoid using the door – her parents were often working at night, so her dad would probably be interested in where his daughter was going in the middle of the night with a knife in her bags. Before she made it over the fence, her jacket, jeans and hair were soaked. She didn’t care about that. Sarah was more important to her than any other person in the world, including herself. Whoever dared to insult her had to be punished. Ada thought about killing Rico or his pals. Sommers got out of the garden and walked through the town, sliding on the muddy roads. Just like she’d expected, the streets were completely devoid of anyone, including the hobos. Cold rain was pouring on her, she felt awake like she’d never felt before. She felt like she was unstoppable.

Something in her head was telling her that the whole trip wasn’t making any sense, though. Where the hell was Rico now, anyway? Ada wasn't even sure he was at home, nor where his home was. There were many places she had to take into account, but it seemed that her mind was already calculating them. Ada walked through Youngstown's outskirts. For a brief moment she stopped in the place where she’d met Bray Parris. His blood had been washed off of the ground by the rain, but when Sommers inhaled, she found out that she could still sense it. Her heart started to beat faster. She lowered her head and ran forward, to the silent wall of trees – the first outpost of the Creepy forest.

Another lightning struck a tree not far away from her. The roar was deafening. She fell on the ground from the spook, covering her ears. Then she blinked, trying to get her hearing back. Large raindrops were pounding against her head, making it almost impossible to focus. "I should go back… she thought. What am I even doing? Rico did a terrible thing, but…" "Go back? Go back!? Back now?" another voice in her head scolded, demonic in nature and very low pitched. "Do you want Fink to think that you’re too weak to help her?!" "No! Wait, who even are you?" "No one interesting, but I'm inside you - let me guide you." "Fudge! Am I going cratse?" "What you are right now doesn't matter, now's no time for your whining! Look!" Even though there was no one to show her where to look, she knew the direction exactly, as if the voice in her head somehow knew. Through the pouring torrents of rain she saw... Rico. Rico was apparently taking a trip to the forest to investigate what really happened to Bray, as Ada found no other explanation for it. She saw him fighting against the strong wind. It was hopeless – the teenager was too weak to resist the forces of nature. The thrashing Rico hit the tops of the trees not far away from the place where Ada was standing and disappeared into the forest. "Now it’s your chance… Kill him!" the demonic voice in her head said. "I don't really think I should-" "DO IT! Kill him!" yelled the voice back at Ada's doubts. Ada nodded her head and went into Rico's direction. While she was walking, a lightning stroke not too far from her and as he silhouette was seen on a tree, it had horns and a pointed tail. It was clear that Sommers was possessed.

Ada approached Rico and looked at him. The kid was unconscious. He had a black eye and one of his legs was bent at a weird angle. Only his shallow breath was indicating that he was still alive. He probably fell or hit a tree branch or a stump or something.

Sommers sighed. Stabbing Rico to death like that would be a merciful. If he died quickly right there, he’d never feel what Finkelstein had felt: The fear deeply rooted in her mind, the fear Rico had unknowingly awoken. Ada couldn’t allow that. She walked slow walks to Rico's head, grabbed a handful of water from the nearby puddle and poured it onto his sleeping face.

Rico blinked and coughed. He hissed when he accidentally moved his injured leg and looked around groggily. “Hello there, Rico.” Ada said. Rico’s eyes focused on her, entirely, not on his injured leg. “Sommers?! What are you doing here?” “Oh, I was just passing by…” Ada smiled innocently, playing with the straps of her backpack. “Passing by?” Rico exclaimed. “Oh fuak....” He groaned, holding his head. “Never mind that… Go back to Youngstown and get someone to help me! My leg is broke!” “Don’t worry, there’s no need to hurry, my boy.” Ada replied calmly. She sat next to Rico, searching through her bags. “No need to hurry? Listen, this is no time for your games! I can die here!” Rico hissed and rubbed his now-bleeding leg.

“Funny you mentioned that…” Ada looked directly into his eyes as she grabbed him by his collar. “Is that some kind of a sick joke?!” Rico yelled at her as loud as his injuries let him. Sommers saw a spark in his eyes and realised that he wasn’t going to give up easily. “Chill out, Rico.” she said. “I’ll help you…” In one swift motion, Ada took a knife from her schoolbag. Rico froze. He was scared to death, tried to dodge her, but he was too slow! The knife found its way to the base of his injured leg.

A scream tore the silence apart, like how a black hole rips the fabrics of our universe apart, just as Stephen Hawking. The blade, as Ada noted with disappointment, was too small to sever the leg completely. However, piercing through the hub of nerve endings and arteries was surely painful. Painful for Rico, that is. But for Ada? Nothing but pleasure. “Don’t pull it out.” Ada said to Rico, who was thrashing in the mud, crying and choking. “You don’t want to bleed out, do ya'? Do ya'!? Look at me, son, when I'm talkin' to ya'!” Ada taunted as she grabbed Rico's collar again, so he was facing her.

“Fawk you!” Rico yelled and spat into Ada's hair. "Aww, look what you did, you kunt. Now my hair's a mess." Ada complained. “And mind your dam language, boy…” Sommers shook her head. She stood up and kicked his broken leg, causing him to scream again. “Are you scared now?” she asked, sitting down on Rico's broken leg, crushing it, which was now twitching erratically. “I bet you are…” “Shut up, you sick biatch!” Rico hissed through his gritted and muddied teeth. Instead of a reply, Sommers stood back up stomped on his leg, feeling delicate bones snap under her sporty legs. She continued to do that 'till she was sure that every single one of them was crushed in her leg. More blood poured from Rico's wound, but the knife was preventing him from bleeding out. "Fuak... you're... insane." was all he was able to mutter.

“Try to walk now…” Ada smirked. One look into Rico’s eyes revealed that the spark disappeared from them. He was whimpering and shivering, trying to make himself as small as possible, even cowering with his arms above his hands. “Now I can see that you’re scared…” Sommers smiled triumphantly. “Now you know what Sarah felt…” “So, it’s about her?” Rico’s voice was barely audible as he gulped down a bit of his fear. “If you didn’t tease Ruby… She'd still be breathin'.” Rico said.

“So, it’s about her?” Ada asked this time. "About Ruby, eh? I’m gonna surprise you, though. Sarah had nothing to do with Ruby… Hell, Ruby didn’t even want to kill herself in the first place… Especially not in some rotten sewer system, I assure ya'.” She grinned widely seeing Rico’s expression when he understood what Ada meant. Rico’s lips moved, but he couldn’t utter even a single word, out of shock.

“Oh… you still feel for her, right?” Ada asked. “Compassion is such a strange thing… I can see Fink’s fear and even feel it and that’s why we’re here… That's my compassion. But you… Do you want to feel what Ruby felt?” With these words Ada grabbed Rico’s brown hair and dragged him, him screaming and thrashing to the swamp with his broken leg. She had to admit that Rico was strong. He almost managed to free himself, but a quick kick to his mangled leg almost rendered him unconscious. He was barely able to resist when Sommers grabbed his head and pushed it down under the muddy waters that were streaming right besides the forest's entrance. His body started to thrash violently, fighting for breath.

Even though he trashed like he never trashed before, slowly, the teenage victim was losing his strength. His moves became weaker and less coordinated.

“Ada? What are you doing?” Ada froze. She released Rico, who emerged from the swamp and lay on his back, panting, spitting out, puking and retching, turning to his side. Sommers didn’t care about him. She slowly turned around to face her bestest friend. Sarah Fink was soaked to the bone. Her hair was hanging freely and the lenses of her glasses were covered in drops of water. Her face was pale, and her necklace was dripping with water. “I’m... I'm... Avenging you…” Sommers said calmly. “Avenging me? Are you crazy?” Sarah exclaimed, her eyes widening in horror when she spotted Rico who was still lying in the mud, his body shaking from cold and coughing.

“Maybe…” Ada replied. She staggered slightly when her vision blurred for a while. “How did you get here?” “I… I woke up and saw an open window and traces…” The Fink muttered. “Ada… I thought I told you I don’t want you to hurt her…” “And do you remember what I told you?” Ada asked. She approached Rico and pulled the knife out of her wound. Pain woke Rico up. He screamed and pushed his hand to the gaping hole at the base of his leg, trying to stop the bleeding with his dire hand. “No! No more!” Sarah exclaimed. “Ada, stop it!” “I… I can’t…” Ada replied. Her vision blurred. She could barely see her hand with the knife. She started to shake and hear voices in her head. Ada yelled out: “You will appreciate what I'm doing for you or die with him!” Ada, either knowingly or not, jumped at Sarah and jabbed the knife into her throat, making her fall to the ground, choking, spitting and gushing out blood. "Look what you'd made me do, you stupid biatch!" Sommers yelled at Sarah. Then she heard someone’s laughter. She opened her eyes and found that she was lying on the ground now. The knife in front of her was lying in a red puddle. She still heard weak chuckling behind her. “Why are you laughing, you jerk?!” she yelled. “Avenging…” Rico’s voice was barely recognisable, as he stood back up, patting his leg as best he could to hold him up. Ada turned to see him. He was bleeding profusely from his leg and was all covered in mud. He collapsed to the floor, but despite that, he was laughing. “Avenging, protecting… And when she sees you… you just slit her throat?” Rico's laughter ended in a fit of coughing. “Best friends forever, huh?” Sommers froze. She didn’t have to turn back – she could easily imagine Finkelstein’s body lying in the mud; Rico was laughing while Sarah was dying, trying to pull the knife from her throat, but it was in vain. Sarah succumbed to her death, while Rico fell unconscious, drawing the last laugh.

Nevertheless, his laughter was still echoing through the forest when Ada ran away, into the unknown. Rico succumbed to death as well, probably bleed to death from his leg or died from pneumonia. If there was any doubt whether Ada Sommers really belonged to the Dixmor Asylum, this event removed all of it.

Or did it? Ada’s eyes shot open in the middle of the night. She rolled out of bed, shuddering, and landed on the floor, curled in a fetal position. She tried to stand up, but the world around her began to spin. She tried to inhale, but she couldn’t catch her breath. Her stomach was aching. She started to retch and threw up on the floor. "I killed Sarah Finkelstein… Sweet god, I killed her…" “Ada?” She heard a sleepy voice above her. “Oh god, Ada! Are you okay?” "I killed Sarah…" Suddenly, Sommers blinked and looked around. The voice asking her if she was okay was familiar. She rolled on her back, carefully avoiding the blue puddle of vomit on the floor and saw Sarah staring at her from the bed with a very worried expression. “I… I’m okay… It must be something you dreamed…” Finkelstein crawled down and put her hand on her forehead. “You’re cold… and wet.” she said, hugging Ada tightly and sitting her up. “Did you take a shower?” “A shower?” Ada looked at her hands. They were covered in scratches. Her head was indeed wet, which explained why she felt so cold. “Y-yes… maybe... I don't know.”

“Strange, I didn’t hear the lock.” Fink said. She helped Ada get up and lie down in bed. “You’d better stay here. I’ll tell your parents that you’re sick…” She looked at the floor. “And I’ll call someone to clean this. Maybe your mom, hehe.” For a moment their eyes met and Ada felt as if her head exploded. An image of forest appeared in her mind. She heard the sound of snapping bones and the sound of Sarah’s glasses cracking when she’d stomped on them after jabbing her knife into her throat. “Sommers?” Fink asked. "You apparently had a very bad nightmare." Sommers blinked and saw her room again and finally realised she weren't in no forest and that uh, Rico was absent. “I’m okay. I'm okay... I okay.” she said. “I… I think I had a nightmare or something…”

To her surprise, Finkelstein smiled and hugged her again. “But, you finally managed to fall asleep tonight! Haha!” she exclaimed. “I’d rather not sleep at all than have dreams like that…” Ada muttered. Suddenly, she started to cough. “You really should stay in bed…” Sarah said, helping her wrap herself in the blanket and went outside the bedroom to get her parents. Ada was still shaking in her bed, shocked over her nightmare.

“I told you… I told you people!” a policeman with a scraggly beard yelled at the couple, who we can only guess, are Rico's parents. “We told you so many times: DON'T allow your kid camping out in such a bad weather! It sure as hell was a nasty weather yesterday! One eye's taken for an eye.”

“That’s not the point here, sir! We need to find him… He's our only son!” yelled the man, Rico's father. Just then, detective Cornwall entered the po-po station. His crew enter behind him. “We didn’t find him.” said Freddy. “We have another patrol searching the northern part of the forest.” “Crap…” Rico's father, Antonio, muttered. “Do you think it's our fault?" asked Antonio's wife. "Nonsense! Our kid is old enough to know what he's getting himself into... right?” Antonio replied, with very low confidence.

“You're the worst parents ever.” said the bearded officer Burch. Cornwall slapped his forehead before sighing. "These arguments aren't getting us nowhere. They're not helping us, nor Rico." "Sorry boss." replied Burch, while the parents nodded.

Just then, if the problems weren't bad enough, a lady with a red scarf came into the station. "May I speak, please?" "Who are you, ma'am?" asked detective Freddy. “No one interesting, but... my little cousin is missing.” the woman said. “Her name is Lola.” Cornwall was shocked, barely composing himself. Now they had two missing people. He didn't knew what to do and was clueless as to who may be kidnapping or killing kids and teenagers in the neighbourhood. "Oh god..." detective Burch muttered.

“Lola? Lola Buscetti? She's one of Rico's schoolmates.” Antonio's wife replied. “I haven't seen her since yesterday. It's not like her to just go off like that without telling anyone. I assume something bad has happened.” replied the woman. The cops all looked at each other, worryingly. They didn't know what to do. None of the missing kids were ever found alive so far. Cornwall feared for the worse; that Rico and Lola were already dead. However, he didn't have the stones to tell that to their relatives. Not now at least.

Detective Freddy broke the silence: “So… when did you see your cousin last time, miss?” “About midnight, I think.” The woman replied. “I... I think... I think she was talking about going to that creepy forest we have, a day before... I didn't thought nothing of it at first, but now... Ugh, it's creepy to think about it. They say that sorcerer lives there...” She shuddered and sink her face in out of fear. “That's the same place Rico went off to. We wanted to look for him instantly, but it was too dangerous.” said Antonio. "Rico kept insisting that he'll be fine and that he's going with some friends." Antonio's wife added. "Foolish." complained detective Burch.

Cornwall wanted to ask a question, but before he managed to open his mouth, the door busted open again. "Oh god..." Another group of people came in. Abigail Peppercorn, her servant Barnaby, and a converted Maggie and Brian Devlin came in. “What's going on?” Freddy asked, Abigail simply replied: "Heard you had two cases of missing kids lately. I have some bad news. A third one has gone missing as well. That nerdy kid, who was pretty close with Ruby, Brian told me: the kid known as Twist."

“'S true! Twist's parents are saying he hasn't been heard of since yesterday.” Barnaby stammered. Meanwhile, Burch was more amazed at Brian's soberness. He knew the drunk well – numerous times he had been driving him home or locking him in the cell, drugged or drunk – but he’d never seen him so... normal? It was almost like Abigail's cause was actually working in reforming people. What if it was? Perhaps at the end of the year, the town will owe her an apology.

“Twist… Eh? What's the boy's real name?” asked a copper. "Ziggy, of course." replied Maggie Devlin, sober as ever. “Her parents are way too distraught to even come here. Maybe they'll be available tomorrow.” She added. "Precisely." said Abigail. Detective Freddy also couldn't believe how normal Maggie spoke. He doesn't think he's even ever seen her be sober before.

“You coppers should make haste.” Antonio whined out. "I don't want my son or any other kid to end up like how that Parris kid did. He ended up with a hole in his head from a rock, if you remember it." Murmurs spread through the crowd. “Not only him! He wasn't the only one!” Brian shouted. Peppercorn patted her newest "convert" on the back to calm him down. “Our daughter was murdered and no one did anything about that!”

Cornwall just held his head again as more murmurs and complains spread throughout the crowd, everyone talking over each other. “We can assure you, we’re working on these cases...” he said, sighing. He got out of the office to get himself another coffee. It's gonna be a long night. 'Nother one.

Ada comes to Dixmor's[]

Ada Sommers looked around curiously, so brightly. She found herself in the confines of a joint cell in the Dixmor asylum. The bright pastel walls were probably supposed to make the visitors happy, but for her it didn’t work. She was so scared. Every nurse or orderly she’d met since she’d arrived there in the morning was treating her with a disdain look on their faces and a distinctive kind of affability that is taught in the medical schools; recognise the true crazies from those who are acting.

The weather outside was sunny – it did not fit well the walls and hallways of Dixmor's asylum, with its gothic infrastructure and dim lights. She sensed that people outside were enjoying the weather when she looked out of the window, they were walking around the old parts of town, chatting happily, buying stuff. Ada then walked onto the hallway, where she was alone for the moment. Everyone else seemed to still be sleeping in their cells. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d done. When she’d realised that she hadn’t killed Sarah Fink she’d cheered up a bit, but then she’d been lying in her bed, struck by flu, probably due to the stress all of this crap took on her.

Ziggy and Lola were missing. Worse, Lola had gone missing somewhere over the spooky town forest. In that forest it creeps, it beeps and it's just... spooky. Neither Ziggy nor Lola's bodies were found yet, but after over a week of searching, almost every person in town considered them dead. Sommers tried to remember Lola’s face, but she got nothing. NUFFIN! She knew Twist well, it was hard to forget someone so… original. But when she tried to recall how Lola looked like, she had nothing. Nada. The only thing she remembered was her school yearbook photo, lying forgotten somewhere in her room, on which Lola was also present.

What was constantly bugging Ada during the sleepless nights when she was recovering from the flu, back at home, was how pointless were the deaths of Lola and Twist. Lola was just a random girl lost in the forest; her only fault was that instead of someone who’d help her, she’d encountered Ada Sommers who, by some figment of a diseased imagination, mistook her as Sarah Finkelstein, causing her to think she killed Sarah. Ada was growing madder by the day, so it was only a matter of time before she'd be send here.

Now to mention Twist. Oh, Twist. Such a nerdy character. Twist, who, as Ada knew, was always so kind to Sarah. In fact, Ziggy was one of the kindest people in Youngstown and that was probably what killed her – she’d seen Ada going somewhere during the storm and followed her, only to be killed and dumped in the swamp, right after Ada finished with Rico and uh, Lola, I reckon. Oh that Ada... What mess she made.

Sometimes, when the doc gave her some pills to calm her nerves and get back in touch with reality, Sommers could see the glimpses of what had happened on that night in the forest. Sometimes they were parts of the hallucination she’d had, sometimes they were blurry fragments of what had really happened. Ada couldn’t tell what was worse. She'd cry herself to sleep every night as well.

Dr. Moon suggested to her father to get Ada into Dixmor's, and he personally knew the current CEO of it: Henri Dixmor.

As soon as o' Jimmy said goodbye to her and left the scary hospital, she laid down on her crampy bed in the cell and started to think. She didn’t remember what she’d exactly done with the bodies, but she knew that sooner or later someone would find them. Would they connect her with her crimes? She remembered throwing the knife away, but there was always a chance that it’d be found too. Her DNA would be on it, the black hair she probably left at the crime scenes... Ada was cooked. She cried again, thinking of how she might spend the rest of her life in this stinking hole of a hospital. If she is found guilty, she'll spend the rest of her life behind bars, which is no better.

She looked around the room. She had two fellow patients in her cell, but they were rarely there. They spend most of their times in the interview rooms and in doc's office, probably being tested and asked all sorts of unpleasant questions. The cell also had a wooden table and a chair. There was only one small lamp on the table and no pens or pencils. The staff knew the inmates would try to stab themselves with them. There was a large window with a view to the park and the town, covered by bars, like in a prison. Ada knew that it was impossible to break the bars. She was no superhuman.

After waking up from her nap, she heard her roommate coming into the hallway from the dinning room. Ada didn't knew him well, but he seemed to know her. She sat up and looked at the opposite wall, yawning. She then looked at the wall again, rubbed her eyes, and saw that her roommate had hung a picture above his bed. It was a photo of a couple of... coffins stacked together. "How... creepy", Ada thought. But perhaps she was no different and she knew she wasn't.

"I guess we’ll get on well with each other…" Sommers thought. She got out of cell and walked into the corridors and halls of the hospital, which were very tight and seem to not have been re-painted in years, if not decades. Ada then saw her roommate walking towards her. The first thing she noticed about the person in front of her were his big, chocolate eyes and slicked back hair, reminiscent of a 1920's mobster. He had almost pale skin and wore a blue pullover with some uh, Nordic metal band on it, she assumed. Probably Mayhem or something. He had his hands in his pockets and looked at her. “Hello there...” He said cheerfully. “Pleased to meet you. Viktor Horrible is what they call me. Are you new here?” “Yes...” Ada replied. "Victor Horrible? Why does it sound so... familiar." “My name's Ada Sommers. I was just looking around, havin' a walk…” “Yeah…” Viktor murmured out and looked at a nearby wall. “Some of these weirdos want to go home as soon as they feel better, but I really like it. I love it here, in fact! 'S like a second home.”

“You, actually like it here? Kudos to you, friend. I’d rather be back in Youngstown.” Sommers muttered. She started to wonder why the Horrible One didn’t ask her why she was there. Did he knew her? Something about her from the past? “Oh, you’re from Youngstown?” Viktor laughed, showing his perfectly white teeth. He brushed those fukers well. “I’ve been there once with my parents. I really liked the forest... It gave me the creeps, but I loved it!” Viktor let out a maniacal laugh.

“Yeah, we love it too…” Ada deadpanned. Viktor was creeping her out. Is that why he was called horrible? He seemed to like creepy and spooky stuff, like he was from the Addams' family or some crap. “You know, here at Dixmor's, they allow us theatre plays. It is one of the new doc, Henri Dixmor's genius inventions. We're playing Odysseus” Viktor said, proudly. “I’ll be Telemachus! We’re still looking for someone to play Circe… If you could…” Ada gulped. Why did he mean her specifically?

TBA... Ofc.

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