That same night Soleil had to pick up her fairy wings at the Carpenter apartment. Two days ago, the day of the supermarket attack, she'd taken her bandana with her, but accidentally left the fairy wings.

She knocked on the door. A surprised Anika opened the door. "Oh, hi," She said. "What're you doing here?" She asked.

"I just came to pick up my transportation," Soleil said. Anika's face grew confused. "I was joking. Sorry. I came to pick up the wings of my Halloween costume."

Something clicked in Anika's face as the smile found her face again. "Right! Yeah, they're in the kitchen, I think."

Soleil made her way to the kitchen, closing the door behind her. Coming closer to the closed off kitchen, Soleil heard Chad shouting. "Core Four, up top!" She stood in the doorway as she watched all three other members of the so–called Core Four decline his hand. He turned his head. His eyes widened as he noticed Soleil standing there. "Oh, sorry, hey."

"Hey," There was a sadness in her voice. She knew they were suspecting of her, but Soleil felt uncomfortable whenever she was left out on something. All of a sudden she couldn't meet anyone's eyes anymore, and her voice went all quiet. "Sorry, my wings were still here." She pointed at the wings on the countertop behind Mindy.

Mindy moved out of the way so Soleil could take her wings back. She walked away again, hanging around to talk to Anika for a bit. Mindy knew the two had been friends for a few years longer than they'd known either of them.

"Maybe you were a bit hard on her," Tara told Mindy, staring at Soleil's back. "She seems to have taken it quite hard. I mean— I have never seen her in sweatpants."

"She's a grown woman, she can take it," Mindy shrugged. "I'm sure there were worse things at home for her when she was little. Imagine living with a serial killer," Her eyes found Sam's, just before they were casted downwards. "Sorry."

Sam gave a nonverbal response. Before any of them could say anything, Anika called all of them into the living room. They gathered in front of the TV. The news was on, with the headline PRIME SUSPECT SAMANTHA CARPENTER. Last night's outburst was filmed by numerous of Aaliyah's friends, and apparently it had made its way to the national news. The video popped up on the TV, afterwards the news reporter continued to go through the case. Sam snatched the remote from Anika's hands and turned the TV off before the reporter could speak further.

            She sat down at the dining table in silence, followed by Tara, and then later followed by Mindy and Chad. Soleil felt it wasn't her place to join them, so she instead sat down on the couch next to Anika.

            "How long have you and Ethan been dating?" Anika tried to distract her. She hadn't suspected Soleil one second.

            Soleil turned her head, a look in her eyes. "Our six month anniversary was last week." A smile krept on her face as she thought of the man she had the privilege of calling her boyfriend.

"You bastard," Anika laughed. "You could've told me, y'know. I wouldn't have judged you. He is waaaay better than Creepy Carl."

"Oh, my God, not Creepy Carl," Soleil laughed, too. A silence allowed the girls (as well as the four at the table) to hear the moaning on the other side of Quinn's bedroom door. She had a man in there, yes, but she was moaning awfully loud. "Is it just me or is that unhealthy?" She asked Anika with a weirded out smile.

The setting changed as the four at the table simultaneously received a photo via text. Quinn's moaning turned into cries for help. Soleil wanted to kick the door open, but Chad said to wait. So she did. And suddenly, it went quiet. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

That was answered pretty soon when the door was roughly opened and Quinn ran out. Only she didn't run, was Soleil's response when Quinn's body fell on her. She was covered in Quinn's blood. Soleil let out a deafening scream of terror, trying to push the bloody corpse off of her. Her once white long sleeved shirt was no longer white, and her once grey sweatpants were no longer grey.

Chad and Tara managed to run away, but the rest of them weren't so lucky. The girls were crouched beside Quinn's corpse and a heavily breathing Soleil. Ghostface stood in the doorway, and soon charged forward. His knife grazed Mindy's arm.

"Stay the fuck back!" Anika defended her girlfriend. She grabbed ahold of Ghostface's ankle, attempting to pull him to the ground. It didn't work, Ghostface was too strong — too steady. He sat on top of her, choking Anika with his free hand. Anika's hands wrapped around his hand, without effect. It was as if the person behind the mask didn't even feel her attempts. He seemed invincible.

In the meantime, Sam had run into the kitchen. Soleil presumed she wanted to better her chances by holding a knife also. Ghostface picked Anika up as if she was weightless, pushing her against a wall. As he did, he penetrated the knife into her stomach. Anika screamed, but it was not enough yet. Ghostface pulled it upwards, until Anika had a wound the size of the knife itself.

Sam creeped behind him. "Hey!" Ghostface looked around. Sam hit him with the knife block. Soleil guessed the knifes themselves weren't ready to be used.

            As the girls supported Anika, Ghostface shut the door for Tara and Chad. The five girls locked themselves in the bathroom. Anika and Mindy sat down on the bed. Sam pulled on the door so Ghostface couldn't open it. Mindy and Anika groaned in pain. Soleil scanned the room for something to help them.

            Quinn had a toilet roll on her bedside table. Soleil didn't question it. She ran towards it, rolling it a bit to give to Mindy. Anika's stomach was bleeding too much for her to do all alone, so she helped her.

            "Mindy. Bathroom door." Sam told Mindy. Mindy ran to the bathroom.

            A little later, Mindy's voice carried to the bedroom. "Oh, fuck! That guy is dead!" Sam ran away when she realised Ghostface had gotten the same idea, and thus wasn't behind her door anymore.

            Soleil kept on attending to Anika. "It's bad, isn't it?" Anika croaked.

            "No, you're fine," Soleil panicked. "You're okay. You'll be fine. Just . . . Just keep breathing, okay? You're losing a lot of blood, yes, but we just need to get you to a hospital." Anika nodded.

            Sam and Mindy came back into the room. They hastily closed the door, Ghostface trying to kick through it. Together, the two of them managed to push a drawer in front of the door. Sam quickly ran to the other side of the room, opening a window. Soleil soon saw her boyfriend was on the other side.

            He pulled a ladder out of the window. Sam and Danny (Soleil was just guessing at this point. She wasn't sure that was his name) worked together to connect the two windows. She turned around. "You three go first! Mindy!" She shouted.

            "What? No," Mindy replied. "Someone needs to hold the door. I'll send Anika and Soleil next. Go!"

            Sam was doubtful about leaving her friends like that, but she did realise that if she didn't leave now, that would only cost them time.

            "She's losing a lot of blood!" Mindy yelled. And it was true, the toilet paper wasn't doing much for Anika. The blood was spilling through Soleil's fingers. She was too stubborn to admit that Anika had little to zero chance of making it so see the next day.

            "Say something more positive!" Anika cried out in pain.

            "Uh—" Soleil thought. "Well,  considering you're built of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, and considering that those combined have 22 protons, you're basically filled with positivity!" She panicked. It was the first thing she could think of. They'd covered this today in class.

"Shut up!" Mindy groaned in pain.

Sam made it to Danny's apartment. The two of them started yelling for the three left in the other room. "Go!" Soleil yelled at Mindy.

            Mindy doubted, but eventually climbed through the window. Not before having given Anika a kiss like it'd be their last. Soleil felt the banging on the door now more than ever. She crouched down in front of Anika again. "You're gonna cross that ladder the second Mindy makes it to Danny's apartment, okay?" Soleil almost demanded her.

Anika shook her head. A tear rolled down her cheek. She'd accepted her fate. "I'm as good as dead already. You need to leave. You need to live, Leila."

Soleil's eyes filled up with tears. "You were my first friend ever. You want me to simply let you die?"

"Yes!" The word came out in a groan as a sting of pain flowed through Anika's body.

"Come on, Soleil!" Mindy's voice carried into the bedroom. Soleil hadn't realised so much time had passed already. It was time for her to leave Anika in the bedroom with a serial killer pounding on the door. The Grim Reaper himself was asking for her body and Soleil simply gave him her.

She stepped out of the window, onto the ladder. It was so unstable, she doubted it would hold her. But it had held Sam and Mindy before her, so it had to be able to. She knew not to look down to the ground. Soleil had never been a fan of heights. One time she had gotten stuck in a ferris wheel, and had a full–on panic attack. That happened to be her first date with Ethan, too.

As long as she kept her eyes on the people in front of her, it'd be okay. They were reaching for her, and screaming all sorts of encouragements. But with every step Soleil took, it felt as though she got further from them.

When she finally made it to the window on the other side, her breathing was even heavier. It felt like an eternity that she'd been on that precarious ladder. "Anika, now!" She shouted back, leaning through the window.

            Anika hung out of the window, her feet still on the floor. She cried. "Oh, God! I can't do it, I can't do it."

Despite her nerves Anika climbed on the ladder. And just in time, too. The door shattered under Ghostface's kicks, the drawer in the front being pushed aside.

"You can do it! You're doing so good!" Mindy encouraged Anika as she slowly made her way over the ladder. Realisation kicked in with Anika when she saw the faces of the people in front of her change drastically. She was already sobbing, but now her whole face was morphed with fear.

"What?" She asked.

"Anika, you have to move right now!" Mindy yelled as soon as she could.

Anika looked back to Ghostface who'd by now had moved in front of the window. She screamed at the top of her lungs. He stabbed his knife into the windowsill so that he could grab the ladder on both sides. Before Anika could make 2 steps, Ghostface started shaking the ladder. Anika was forced to stay in her place, holding on for dear life.

"Baby, I don't wanna die!" Anika yelled at Mindy. Soleil hung out of the window, reaching as far as she could. She could almost reach her if she held out her hand.

"Just a little further!" She yelled back. Ghostface seemingly heard so too, and shook the ladder even worse. Soleil tried to hold it steady on her side, but it was no use.

Anika reached her hand and Soleil couldn't believe it when she actually held her hand. It wasn't steady enough yet, but it was a start. Ghostface found a new tactic. By only lifting one side of the ladder. This way Anika would fall easier.

She held on twice, and in those two times Soleil had tried to pull her closer to the window. The third time was fatal. Soleil felt Anika's hand slip out of her own as she watched her fall down the alley. She couldn't take her eyes off of her. Not even when her head collided with the garbage and later with the pavement.

Anika died instantly. "NO!" Soleil screamed, her voice becoming raspy from screaming so hard. She could only hope for her friend that she died quickly in the end. If anyone didn't deserve a slow death, it was Anika.

She didn't deserve to die at all, really. But the universe works in strange ways.

well that was that. i know it wasn't really obvious in the previous chapters but anika and soleil had known each other for quite some time. ill probably have soleil talk about that in the next chapter or whatever