The Message

Chapter One

'Beep! Beep!'

I reached for my phone to see who the message was from.

'Who is it?' asked my best friend Lottie. I've known her since my first day at primary school. We've always stuck by each other. Well, nearly always. We've had the odd argument or two. But then we always make up afterwards.

'I don't know,' I said. 'The number's blocked.'

'Don't open it then,' Lottie replied. 'It could contain a virus, or - or a hateful message, or...'

I laugh. This is really typical of Lottie. She's always worrying about something. Like whether she remembered to do the laundry, or whether it's going to rain, or if she did her homework. But I'm used to it.

I quickly open the message before Lottie protests further. It says,

'What would you do if your mum died?'

I blink. Did I read that right? I check again. Yes, I did.

Who would send that?

Why would they send it?

I show the text to Lottie before she wrenches the phone out of my hand and breaks my fingers. She takes a while to read it - which is strange, because she's a quick reader and is in the top set for English at school. Her eyes have gone all weird too.

What's the big deal over a text like that?

'Hey, Lottie, you okay?' I ask, cautiously. She takes a while to reply, but eventually she speaks.

'Oh no,' she says, her shoulders shaking. 'This is bad. This is very, very bad.'

I look at Lottie anxiously, my heart pounding. What on Earth does she mean?

'This is the exact same text I received a few years ago,' Lottie explains. 'I wasn't sure what to do, so I ignored it. A few moments later, I-'

She stops speaking and looks down at her feet.

'Lottie, what happened?' I ask, anxious as to know what happened next. Lottie gulps.

'Well,' she begins. 'I heard screams from downstairs. I thought my mum had seen a spider or something. But when I went down to check, she had a huge knife in her back and was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood,' Lottie whispers, not looking me in the eye.

I'm confused.

'Wait a minute,' I say. 'I thought your mum died in a car crash?'

'Thats just a cover story,' Lottie says. 'I don't want anyone to find out the truth.'

I look at the text, struggling to take it all in. Did that mean m mum was going to die too?

There was a sudden blood-curdling scream that sent shivers up my back. Lottie and I jumped to our feet and ran down the stairs.

I knew that scream.

It was my mum.

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Hi guys! This is my first ever chapter for my first ever book. I really hope I can do some more chapters when I have a free moment. In the meantime, it would help a lot if you voted and commented what you thought?

I know it's not that long, but I'm not very experienced and I'm starting from a young age (13, don't know if that counts as 'young' or not)

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this!

Best wishes to you all,

Abbie x