It was always the four of them.
Gorgeous Anastasia - the social butterfly who pulled the group together.
Alya - the logical one, the girl who could crack a code faster than you could say "Go!"
Arthur, the quiet, artistic boy with a troubled past.
And their ringleader - Nicolette, the happy go lucky girl who became the enigma amongst all enigmas.
Nicolette had always been into mystery, especially the mysteries surrounding serial killings. One day, during an investigation of a local killing, she goes missing - and after sending out several search parties, the police have no choice but to assume the worst.
The remaining four friends (plus mysteriously tattooed bad boy Caelo, who's in it for his own mysterious reasons) group together in order to avenge the death of Nicolette and find her killer.
As the group of friends continue to follow in Nicolette's investigative footsteps so that they may find who might have taken her, multiple bodies begin to turn up in their neighbourhood. The friends know that now, this isn't just about finding Nicolette's killer - it's about preventing more deaths from happening.
As they are pulled deeper still into the mysteries surrounding the killings, the group of friends will learn shocking secrets not only about the identities of the people they thought they knew, but of themselves as well. In the end, how far would you go to find justice, even if it means uncovering secrets that were never meant to be discovered in the first place?
Even if it means questioning the motives of the people you thought you knew so well?
Ella is falling apart trying to live a "perfect" high school life. Then she meets Ren, who can see past her scars. Suddenly perfection isn't her only option.
*****
Ella Volkov is a gifted music student, but she's depressed and starting to crack under the pressure of high school. Her overbearing father won't even let her choose what instrument she plays. Then she finds herself alone at a party with Ren, her best friend's crush. She'd always thought he was rude, but after that night he's all Ella can think about. Now she's trapped. If Ella dates Ren, it will ruin her friendship with Jenny. But if she stays true to Jenny, she's losing the one person who can see past her scars. It's up to Ella to decide if she will forge her own path, or stay in the "perfect" box designed for her...
Content and/or Trigger Warning: depression, anxiety, self-harm, violence, sexual assault.
[[word count: 50,000-100,000 words]]