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thriller sneak peak

Hello all! Here's a sneak peak of the intro to my thriller I just started working on! I still haven't thought of a title or much else about it, but I really enjoyed writing the little that I did. It's pretty short but I just wanted to share it nonetheless. Hope you enjoy! Lmk what you think!

Madeline Stone did what all students at Wilson's School for Girls wanted to do: she vanished. She slipped beneath the cracks of the old, haunted walls and ceased to exist. I hate to admit that I envied her, but we all did. When they told us she was missing I smiled because I knew she was finally happy. My smile quickly disappeared when they told us her bloody, mangled body was found in an empty classroom around three in the morning. If she had just escaped or stayed missing it all would have been fine. But no, the choice to vanish wasn't hers.

Stabbed six times in the chest. I'm not sure why they told us every little detail. Our headteacher was a woman who lacked tact if I ever met one. No one was worse at reading a room. She couldn't grasp the concept that Tabitha Bly, Madeline's best friend, didn't need to hear about the girl's gruesome murder in front of a hundred other students.

Once the initial shock wore off, I began to understand why she was telling us this. Someone killed Madeline and they hadn't been caught. Someone was a killer, lurking among us. Someone had intentionally taken the life of a seventeen-year-old girl for seemingly no reason. I could be next.

The envy had worn off. If I was going to vanish it was going to be my choice.

After the assembly, we were all escorted back to our dorms. We walked single file like pre-schoolers, unable to make a sound. The police hadn't even shown up yet. Wilson's is about an hour from civilization. It's probably because we're all so troubled. See, Wilson's is a place for bad girls. It was either here or some wilderness camp. That's not to say people weren't sent here for being crazy smart either. Actually, most of the girls here are because they snapped under pressure one day and started taking Adderall or some other drug to ensure success.

A lot of girls come here from silver-spoon cotillion ball backgrounds. One mistake and you get sent to Wilson's. It happened to me. I got into the wrong crowd and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are a few teen moms who gave their babies up for adoption, a couple of kleptomaniacs, and a good amount of attempted runaways.

My roommate fell under the runaway category. Her name was Kate and after her parent's divorce, she thought she'd be better off living with her boyfriend. Her little sister snitched on her and she didn't make it past Sixth Street. She was new to Wilson's. She still had bright eyes like some Disney Princess. She still thought she'd end up happily ever after with her drop-out boyfriend. He's probably screwing some other naive brunette behind her back right now.

Kate insisted we sleep with the lights on.

"I don't get it, Lorelai," Kate sighed just as I shut my eyes. "Everyone loved Madeline."

I wanted to crack a joke. Chuckle and say "Clearly not everyone." Knowing Kate though, she wouldn't like that. I had more of a crass sense of humor than a lot of the girls at Wilson's.