The New Girl

The New Tickler

Tallahassee
9:56 PM; Home of Kenzie Krueger

Kenzie sank into the plush cushions of her couch, her laptop perched on her lap like a loyal companion in the quest for truth. A delicate swirl of crimson danced in her wine glass, a silent observer to the gravity of her mission. With her feet delicately propped up on the coffee table, she couldn't help but admire the gentle glimmer of her freshly painted pink toe nails, a brief moment of tranquility amidst the storm raging within her mind.

After her unsettling rendezvous with Jerry, the weight of his blackmail hung heavy in the air, urging her to plunge deeper into the labyrinth of Hannah Tingle's disappearance. With every click of the keyboard, Kenzie was determined to unearth the hidden threads of the mystery, her resolve steeled against the sinister forces threatening to silence the truth.

Kenzie, clad in the soft embrace of her silky black pajamas, stumbled upon a crucial article from the Panama City News Herald. With bated breath, she absorbed the details that illuminated the murky shadows surrounding Hannah Tingle's disappearance. As the words danced across her screen, Kenzie's heart raced with a mixture of dread and determination.

Hannah Tingle, resident of the small community of Wewahitchka, went missing Sunday evening at the Panama City Mall. She was reported missing by her acquaintance, Brooke Merriweather, who were hanging out at the mall.

Brooke reported her friend missing at 9:08 PM when she did not come out of the bathroom by the food court. If you have any information, we encourage you to contact the Panama City Police.

Kenzie's fingers danced across the keyboard with a sense of urgency, her determination fueling each keystroke as she delved deeper into the digital labyrinth of information. With a heavy heart, she realized the gravity of her mission: to unearth every detail about the missing girl while delicately skirting the edges of Jerry's ominous demands.

Each article, each snippet of information, became a lifeline in her quest to protect Hannah's anonymity from the prying eyes of the media. With every click, Kenzie wove a web of secrecy, shielding Hannah's name from the relentless glare of public scrutiny. Despite the looming threat of Jerry's blackmail hanging over her like a shadow, Kenzie remained steadfast in her resolve to honor the silent plea for privacy echoing from the depths of Hannah's disappearance.

As Kenzie savored another sip of her wine, its rich warmth sent a tingling sensation cascading from her head down to her dainty toes, momentarily whisking her away from the weight of her dilemma. Lost in thought, she couldn't help but reminisce about the series of events that had led her down this precarious path.

The memory of her college days, juggling the demands of academia and a job at a burgeoning chain of pizza joints in Milwaukee, flooded her mind. Desperate to make ends meet, she had succumbed to temptation, yielding to the allure of easy money. With a pang of guilt, Kenzie admitted to herself that she shouldn't have crossed that line, yet the allure of financial security had clouded her judgment.

For nine months, she had danced on the edge of deceit, pocketing thousands of dollars under the guise of necessity, until the day she finally walked across the stage to receive her diploma. Little did she know then that her past misdeeds would come back to haunt her in the form of Jerry King, the elusive owner of the very pizza empire she had once exploited.

Now, as she sat in her cozy apartment in Tallahassee, her mind grappling with the repercussions of her actions, Kenzie couldn't help but wonder if fate had led her here, to this pivotal moment of reckoning.

The realization hit Kenzie like a freight train: Jerry, the same man who had visited her just hours earlier, was entangled in the sinister web surrounding Hannah Tingle's disappearance. A shiver of dread snaked down her spine as she grappled with the gravity of the situation. Images of Hannah, a poor girl caught in the clutches of unknown peril, haunted Kenzie's thoughts, stirring a tumult of emotions within her.