SUNNYVALE

(14) THE WORST SERIAL KILLER NAME IN HISTORY

Tierna frowns.

"Why is Christen Press tied up to my bed?" she asks, quite critical.

Tobin and Megan, who hadn't heard her come inside the house, let alone go to her own room, jump a little when they hear her voice. Quite immediately, Megan has a sigh of relief, as Tobin gets up from the couch and tries to find the right words.

Carefully analysis her sister's facial expressions, she calmly says:

"Listen, it's too hard to explain, but we found Christen in a rather... unexpected position, and we didn't quite know how to help her..."

(Talk about a way to describe a girl floating in the air with no iris...)

Tierna frowns. Does it somehow have something to do with the voice we heard in the locker rooms? the girl asks herself, as her archives researches with Abby wasn't doing too great - especially since the blonde stopped responding to her latest texts.

Setting her jaw, Tierna asks:

"Where did you find her exactly?"

Tobin and Megan exchange a look, before the second answers honestly:

"In an abandoned warehouse near the Black Forest"

"In the East?"

"Yup, why?"

Tierna frowns.

"My question will seem odd to you but... Did it seem... supernatural, somehow? Like, unbelievable?" the brunette carefully asks, praying that she wasn't going to be judged as crazy.

There is a long silence, during which each of the three girls were holding their breaths back.

Tobin logically is the one who ends up confirming:

"She was literally... floating, Baby T."

"Holy shit, so we're not crazy..." Tierna lets out, relieved and scared at the same time.

"What do you mean?" her older sister immediately asks, confused.

It is now that Tierna undergoes a brief yet juicy throwback story about what she and Abby experienced in the locker rooms, and how it seemed to be connected to so many things they don't know about just yet. Remaining silent the whole time, Tobin and Megan had even forgotten that their friend was tied up in the bed upstairs: they in turn explained to the younger girl what truly happened in the warehouse, which was quite terrifying.

After a good hour, the three girls were just staring in emptiness. Tierna takes advantage of this moment to text Abby's number, hopeful of a response this time:

To: A. Dahlkempbitch

S.O.S. Something weird is going on in our town, we need to meet ASAP to discuss.

Frowning - mostly because Tierna knows that it was very unlike Abby to not respond at all to her phone, given to the fact that she spends a ridiculous amount of time on TikTok or Instagram every day - the brunette takes a deep breath.

After a long moment, the three girls go upstairs, opening Tierna's room's door, only seeing a very frightened Christen Press seated on the bed, her wrists tied up. Her eyes were back to their normal green colour, which makes the other three girls sigh in relief. 

Christen's voice is shaky when she asks:

"W-what am I doing here? W-w-what happened...? I have a huge blank, I c-can't remember anything from yesterday after I left school..."

Megan immediately sits down next to her friend, softly caressing her shoulder, saying in a reassuring voice:

"We're gonna figure out what happened to you, Pressy, we promise."

And just like that, they embarked themselves in a journey that was never meant to be theirs - only Christen's.

***

Crystal frowns.

This morning, things seemed off all around in the school: nobody was talking, and the atmosphere was so tensed and heavy that the girl immediately felt like something was wrong. It doesn't take long for her to understand why: other than the mayor's daughter going missing for 48 hours now, another tragedy had happened.

At least it had to be this, because otherwise Crystal couldn't find another explanation.

When she gets to class, and sits down next to her usual partner in crime, aka Kelley O'Hara, the dark-haired immediately turns to her friend and, one thing so many years of friendship had brought her, it is that she didn't need to speak for Kelley to understand her.

Therefore, the brunette states:

"They found another bathtub this morning"

"Oh, shit" Crystal comments, frowning. After a few seconds, as their classmates were sitting down slowly before the beginning of the class, she asks: "Do we know if it's one of us?"

Kelley shakes her head.

"They're scared it might be the mayor's daughter."

"Or maybe it's someone else, right?" Crystal asks, frowning. 

For a very curious reason, she was relieved when she sees Shelina Zadorsky enter the classroom, followed by her usual squad, minus one of the Australians. Alanna Kennedy and Leah Williamson seemed shattered, as Shelina was showing ice cold emotions, as always.

That is when it hits Crystal: the victim is one of them.

"I bet you're right" Kelley comments in a low voice, raising her eyebrows. As Crystal cannot look away from the Canadian, the brunette adds: "My bet's on that other Australian... What's her name...?"

But before Crystal can answer, Shelina Zadorsky, who had overheard the conversation, just turns toward the two girls and abruptly stops walking, instead of joining her usual spot at the bottom of the class. Her eyes were set on Crystal, and they were ice cold.

Before one of her friend can aggressively say something to either Crystal or Kelley - obviously, they overheard our conversation, the first girl thinks to herself, sighing - Shelina takes the lead and coldly says:

"You'll be happy to hear that one of the big, bad Eastsider died, right, you fucking cunts?" 

"Woah, Shelina, we didn't-" Crystal starts, but the brunette wouldn't hear her.

"Whatever"

With that said, she goes and sits down in the last row, followed by Leah Williamson, who is consoling Alanna, who just bursted into tears.

Before Crystal can say anything, the professor enters, accompanied by Bob Mewis, the town's sheriff, who had a very dark face on.

Once silence is king, he says:

"Sunnyvale's police wanted each of you to hear this first: the now serial killer - recently named 'The Bathtub Killer' - has targeted yet another high schooler, as the blood tests from the bathtub found during the night confirms that the victim's identity is Caitlin Foord."

Whispers of horror go through the room, as everyone - either West or East person - remain silent, in shock. 

The sheriff doesn't wait long to state:

"Like I said, the killer goes after high school students, visibly regardless of their... origins (he marks a small break, looking at some Westsiders more longly). Therefore, Sunnyvale P.D. will reinforce security in the streets and in this school, starting today: we will get to the bottom of this and find out who this bastard is... although he or she might be seated in the school's ranks already..."

His insistent look immediately finds Crystal, who just rolls her eyes - here we go again, openly racist White cop just calling out the only Black girl in the room. 

Once he is gone, Kelley leans forward and whispers:

"My bet's the killer is from the Eastside."

But Crystal wasn't so sure it was about East or West anymore... It seemed far bigger.