5. Aurora

Clutching the strap of my backpack to my shoulder, I get the sense that someone is watching me. I just don't know who, from where, or why they're doing it. It doesn't matter. I'm used to people staring. This is a very conservative area and the simple fact that my hair is a different color than everyone else's is enough of a reason for everyone to gawk at me when I walk by. Add on my Day of The Dead makeup, it's impossible to miss me.

Spooky season is my favorite time of year, but mostly because I feel like less of a weirdo with everyone else dressing up like they truly want to be someone else. I don't want to be anyone other than me and this is the real me. The real Aurora Sullivan. Black to silver balayage, exotic skirts, puffy shirts, and combat boots. This is who I was always supposed to be and my parents support my creative expression.

"Out of the way, freakazoid!" a voice yells from behind me before I'm pushed into a car parked on the side of the road. I groan as my stomach impacts with it before looking up to see none other than Tiffany and her posse of Malibu Barbie look-alikes. The bitch smirks at me over her shoulder in victory as she keeps on walking, shaking her flat ass as she goes like she thinks it's something special.

"Fucking bitch," I groan as I rub my stomach, feeling the start of a bruise. This is what Tiffany always does. It's so strange because we used to be close friends when we were in elementary school. Then, middle school started and she became the popular girl and I became the girl I am. Now, everytime she sees me, she pushes me around, literally, and because my dad is who he is, it's up to me to set a good example and not knock her teeth in. Too bad. I'd really love to see her lose her front two teeth for being such a royal bitch.

I never should've been her friend, but kids make mistakes.

I reach down to retrieve my bag, but find it missing. What the ever loving fuck? I just had it before she pushed me. I look up and freeze for a moment when I see a hand extending out the strap of my bag, but behind that I see a man with the lightest pair of striking green eyes I have ever seen in my damn life, offering me a kind smile. He doesn't speak though, just holds out my bag.

"Oh. Thank you," I say nervously as I take the bag from his outstretched hand. He nods silently and when his eyes connect with mine again, it's like he pulls me into a dream from my childhood of a little boy with dark hair like his, wearing one of those light up Halloween masks walking into a room before pulling the mask off and stares down at me with love in his eyes.

"It's over now," the boy mutters.

My very soul screams in a way I never knew was possible. It was a dream I always had growing up and I've never known the meaning of it. I still don't, but for some reason, he reminds me of it.

My eyes fall to the strap and he starts to walk away, but my heart is frantic at the possibility. I don't know who this man is, but he's someone. I must know him from somewhere.

"Wait," I shout before hurrying behind him. He quickly turns around, his hands shoved in his pockets, raising an eyebrow at me as if to say what is it? "Do I…know you?" I ask. "You look so familiar." He opens his mouth as if to speak, but it quickly shuts, like he can't talk. I stand there, staring into those striking eyes of his, waiting for him to say or do something, but before I can…

"Sullivan!" someone yells from behind me and I snap my head around to see Lisa and Alexis jogging toward me from the soccer field. "Wait for us, loca!" I turn back in the direction I was facing to ask him again where I know him from, but when I face forward, he's gone, completely freakin' vanished like he never existed.

I didn't even get his name.

My gaze dashes around as I spin in a circle, looking for the mysterious man, but he's nowhere. Was he even really here? Maybe I'm really losing my mind and I just made him up. No, that's not possible. He was here and he…was someone special.

"Dude, if you waited outside the library for us next time, it would be greatly appreciated," Lisa mutters as she moves in front of me while Alexis sticks by my side.

"Did you see that guy?" I ask, looking between them frantically.

"What guy?" Alexis asks as she follows my gaze.

"He was right here."

"Did you get enough sleep last night? You must be hallucinating from lack of sleep. I didn't see anyone other than you."

Lisa butts in next. "I saw him. Smoking hot guy with emo vibes. Looked like you were giving him the fuck-me eyes. Something you wanna tell us, dead girl?" She practically pants in my ear as if to emanate sex sounds and I groan.

Lisa has an unhealthy obsession with my sex life or lack of one I should say. She's constantly trying to find a man that might tickle my fancy, but she's been unsuccessful so far. No man meets my standards, which is a good thing for Chippewa Falls. If one did, a lot of people would be running for their lives, like that bitch Tiffany.

"Stop it," I mumble as I tug the strap of my bag over my shoulder.

"I bet he fucks like a God," Lisa persists as we start walking while I keep looking around for that guy. I really wanted to hear what he had to say, ask why he reminded me of that dream.

"Nope. More like a demon," Alexis adds on.

"Stop talking about sex for five minutes." It gets really exhausting. Alexis and Lisa both have boyfriends in college and, since they aren't used to going so long without being diddled by them–except Alexis who has a side piece that screws her brains out nightly–I constantly have to hear about how horny they are. Hell, I have my own sexual desires but you don't hear me screaming about how I want to play dead and be fucked into the mud by a man covered in blood while holding a knife to my throat. They might run for the hills if they heard about that or how horror movies really get me going during the gore-filled kill scenes.

My fantasy only works with one kind of person and I have no idea where they are, but I can only hope they are out there somewhere.

"What else would we talk about?" Lisa blanches.

"How about Halloween or the fall festival tomorrow?" Alexis offers while she squeezes my arm reassuringly. At least she won't discuss it if I ask her not to.

"But that's so boring! Sex is so much more fun. What about Derek Fuller's party on Devil's Night? It's supposed to be off the hook! You've gotta convince your dad to let you come." Lisa pouts and I groan.

Devil's Night is a tradition where all of the miscreant youth pretty much wreck the town and I have no interest in attending any party thrown by Derek Fuller. It would be like flirting with danger. I have no interest in Derek, but he's been really pushy with his advances. I try to avoid him as much as I can. He's been giving me this weird feeling lately, like he legitimately wants to hurt me and not in the fun way.

"No, she's not going to that stupid party," Alexis refuses, looking absolutely furious. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Woah. This was not the reaction I was expecting.

"It's just a party. It's not a big deal," Lisa tries to brush it off, but Alexis isn't having it.

"Stupid party run by that piece of crap?"

"What is your problem, Karen?" Lisa gapes at her as we stop next to a park bench and my concerned eyes turn on Alexis. She's not usually one to jump down anyone's throat. She's normally docile.

Alexis looks between me and Lisa before she lets out a long breath. "During lunch period, Talon told me to pass it on to you not to go to Derek's party because Derek is a stereotypical frat boy wannabe. Derek has been bragging about how if you go to his party, he's going to force himself on you and that there's nothing you or your dad could do about it because no one would believe you over him."

I blink rapidly, staring at her in shock, because,

That is disturbing on so many levels. I've known Derek my whole life and I didn't know he was capable of something so gross.

"That fucking pig!" Lisa gasps and jumps to her feet. The anger on her face is completely out of the ordinary. "You know, I'm going to slash his tires and pour concrete into his gas tank. No one talks about Aurora like that. He should be so lucky for her to entertain the idea of screwing him." With that, she charges off like a woman on a mission. I'm not about to stop her. Fucking asshole deserves whatever is coming to him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask, keeping my voice level. I know Alexis wouldn't do that maliciously. She had to have a good reason not to run and tell me the second she found out.

"Because I knew you didn't want to go to his party and the last thing I wanted to do was cause you to panic. I know you have to be around him because your mom and his mom are friends. When she brought up the party, I just couldn't take the idea of him hurting you. You have to tell your dad. I'm sure, if you need him to, Talon will back you up. He hates Derek anyway. He only hangs around him because he's on the football team."

Talon is Alexis's stepbrother and, spoiler alert, the side piece I mentioned before. It's unconventional, but it's their business, not mine.

I'm so glad he's looking out for me. What if Lisa had managed to convince me to go and Talon hadn't spoken up? I shudder to think.

* * *

Henry Sullivan

I haven't beenface to face with true evil in fourteen years. I was hoping to delay that encounter, but Damien King had other plans. Maybe he planned this all along. Maybe it was that the right opportunity presented itself.

I've spent all day searching for him, checking security footage at different gas stations and truck stops, but really, how do you find someone when you have no clue what they look like? We know he has long dark hair and light green eyes and he's built like a pro-wrestler. Other than that general description, we have nothing but a hospitalized cop who moonlights as a security guard, a stolen car, and a crime scene. We would have more to work with if someone knew to check King's room after Luke Martin went in there and never came out.

King got out undetected except for the security footage that caught him leaving in Luke's clothes. He climbed into the Jeep and left, but nothing has popped up on the cameras anywhere for him. He didn't even get gas.

Climbing out of the cruiser, I walk straight into the psychiatric hospital and don't bother to stop at the security desk. I just flash my badge and keep heading toward the prison ward.

The woman sitting at the nurse's station buzzes me in and I head directly to the room with the door covered in caution tape.

There has to be something here to tell me where he is.

Every day he is out there is a day my teenage daughter is in danger. I am only praying he's not going looking for her. If he is searching for her, he'll be looking for a while. The Rothchild family will be just as invested as me in keeping Aurora away from Damien King.

Walking into the room, my eyes widen in horror. It's not the blood on the wall or the stagnant pool on the floor that makes me feel like I can't breathe. It's the literal writing on the walls, on every inch of free space.

Trixie, Trixie, Trixie, Trixie, Trixie…

On and on and on. Only that one name scrawled onto the faux brick. It's even on the floor and, from what I can tell, he even wrote it under the bed.

He's fucking obsessed.

Trixie. That's what they say he called her all those years ago. Bellatrix Rothchild. Now known as Aurora Sullivan, my daughter.

This solidifies everything I already knew in my gut. He's going after her and he will stop at nothing until he has her in his grasp.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dial the station, listening to it ring until someone picks up. "This is Lieutenant Henry Sullivan. I need a protective detail assigned to my daughter, Aurora Sullivan, and give them the specific orders that she is not to know they're there."