Liar, Liar (Book 2 in the Hide and Secret Series)

(1) Serena's POV

I woke up in a cold sweat, and slowly my dream came flooding back to me.

Chuck's fat fingers, struggling to unbutton my pants. Me, struggling to get free.The feel of a cold metal barrel, clicking into place on the back of my head. A gun. And then Chuck grew. Chuck growing larger, larger, and larger still. He was a giant now, holding me in his grasp. I couldn't break free, I was struggling. And then, there was Kai, just as huge as Chuck was. She was cackling, laughing at my difficulties. And in a ghostly image was the Woman in Blue, complete with the ornate turquoise mask with gold stitching. I was trapped in Chuck's palm, and he brought me closer to him, as Kai and the unidentified woman looked on...

And then I woke up.

"Serena?" My mother called, rapping on my closed door. "Is everything all right in there?"

"Yeah!" I lied, doing my best to sound calm and in control, in hopes that it would actually make me feel calm and in control. It wasn't working. My chest was rapidly rising and falling, and sweat made my straw-colored hair stick to my back. I wanted to cry, but at the same time, I couldn't cry. I didn't have any tears left.

"Well, you need to get up for school, okay? It's the first day!" Mom was way too excited for my senior year of high school. I couldn't tell if it was relief that I was actually graduating (With my behavior before I had gotten reformed, it was a miracle that I hadn't gotten expelled), or nervousness about what would be next for me.

I was less excited about school, and more excited about graduation. Sure, Kai was dead now, and Chuck was gone, in jail. But just because a problem gets magically solved doesn't mean you could just forget about it. That problem would haunt you for ages, even though you didn't need to worry about it anymore.

Although I really thought that my nightmares should have gone away by now.

Slowly, I got dressed, pulling out the back-to-school outfit I'd created when Taylor, Jill, and I had gone shopping last week. I thought that the outfit was very me. I'd gotten the short, polka dotted, teal dress at a vintage store in the mall, deciding to pair it with white tights underneath and my teal flats. On anyone else, the outfit would have looked odd and out of place, but it looked fabulous on me.

At least, that was what Jill and Taylor said.

The three of us had little in common, but we got along well, surprisingly. Jill was the classy, intense genius girl. I was the fun-loving, opinionated actress (Well, I mean, I wanted to be one. I'd never done any plays or musicals in school, though. Just acting lessons outside of school starting from when I was a little kid). Taylor was the shy, slightly awkward goody-two-shoes.

On paper, we'd never work.

But in real life, we were the terrific trio.

"Serena!" my mother yelled from downstairs. I could hear Johnson puttering away in the kitchen, putting various pots and pans in the dishwasher. The smell of bacon slowly traveled up the stairs. Johnson always managed breakfast. Mom wasn't much of a breakfast maker. Before Johnson came along, I'd been living on Pop-Tarts and toaster waffles for breakfast.

"Coming!" I shouted back, hurriedly grabbing my small black bag and stuffing my phone inside of it. Or should I say my new phone. Even though Kai and Chuck were safely gone, Mom and Johnson weren't taking any chances. They got me a completely new phone, and offered to get Taylor a new one too. I convinced them not to, simply because I knew that Taylor was touchy about how she wasn't as rich as Jill and I were. She didn't need a reminder of that every time she got a text message.

I ran down the stairs, being extra careful so I didn't trip, fall, and hurt myself. Lately, clumsiness had become a natural habit of mine, especially when I was rushing.