• Chapter 1.

    Cara held her grey cotton sweater to her face, leaning her head on the table and tugging some of her black hair behind her ear. Her friend, Naomi, was chatting away but Cara just "ummed" and "ahhed" in response, listening but not really hearing a word. She was tired, not getting much sleep because of the weird dreams she'd been having for several days.

    "Cara? Did you hear what I said?" said Naomi, nudging her with her elbow. She was always talking about ghosts or UFOs. Nothing peaked Naomi's interest like a good mystery.
    .
    "Yeah, you were saying something about missing people somewhere," Cara mumbled, having caught bits and pieces of Naomi's babbling.

    "Well it's weird since all the missing people are young girls, good students and..."
    Naomi stopped suddenly when the magazine she'd been holding was snatched out of her hand.

    "And have sexy looking bodies," said Zachary, looking at the pictures in the magazine he'd just taken from Naomi. "What a waste...I wanna lay down with any of the for sure. This girl's hot...wow a cheerleader. No wonder."

    "God Zach, get your own copy and for heaven's sake, give that back. Ewww..you have your drool all over it all ready," Noami said as she tugged it from Zach's hand and rubbed it against his bag.

    "So what's your theory, Naomi? Abduction by aliens again?" he mocked.
    A day couldn't pass without the two of them trying to make each other mad, fighting like a married couple. Naomi hit Zach's head with the magazine.

    "A serial killer?" Cara added when Naomi passed her the magazine.
    She held it by the edges, a bit grossed out by the thought of Zach's saliva all over it but she couldn't see any traces and figured Noami was just joking back at Zach.

    "No, I don't think so...There is something odd though--all the missing girls have a weird symbol on their palm, a round circle with a star in it. There it is," she replied, pointing to a rough drawn picture on the page.

    When Cara looked at the symbol, she felt a nasty, negative feeling and suddenly had a headache, letting the magazine go. Naomi asked if she was okay but she waved her away saying she was okay. She gazed at the magazine, wondering what had brought that on.