It was your first day back at school after a rather long Summer Break and someone was already dead. How unfortunate. When you and your classmates were told, you all went into a panicked frenzy, however, you were the calmest person in the school. Why?
Not knowing why you weren't as panicked as everyone else, your classmates grew suspicious due to your behavior, but you simply just didn't care about their suspicions. Someone was dead, so what? People die everyday, so as long as you weren't accused of committing homicide, you didn't really want to make a fuss.
As you and your classmates were dismissed from school, you realized how off things seemed to be. It felt as if someone was staring you down, so you glanced around just to make sure you weren't being looked at. No one was behind you, nor beside you, and staring at you.
You rush to your locker to pack up your things, however, you're hesitant to do so: The student who was murdered was supposed to be right next to you, you two used to talk while you gathered your things, so it wasn't the easiest thing to do when it came to grabbing your things and ignoring the odd feeling of guilt creeping up on you.
"I'm not guilty," you chant over and over again, however, you felt as if you were only lying to yourself.
You head for the dismissal hall, now utterly alone in the halls of your recently emptied school. "I'm not guilty," you mutter as you began to near the dismissal hall. You find it sad that you have to convince yourself, embarrassing even, but you had no other way to tell yourself.
Suddenly, someone grabbed from behind and pulled you into a nearby bathroom.
"But I am."
When Jane Madarang's neighbor Natalie kills herself and leaves behind cryptic instructions, it's up to Jane and her classmates to unearth deadly secrets.
*****
Natalie Driscoll is dead.
She threw herself out a window and left her neighbor Jane to unravel their town's darkest secrets. Following Natalie's instructions leads Jane to three other high school students who all have something to hide. The four of them must carry out Natalie's final errand while solving the mysteries written in her diary. But the secrets they unearth may be far more dangerous than what they ever imagined.
Content and/or trigger warning: This story contains scenes of suicide, violence and murder that may be triggering for some readers.
[[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]