"I have not failed. I've just found 10 000 ways that won't work." -- Thomas A. Edison.

- - - - -

Liv and Cam snuck out of their shared tent and Gabs came out from the tent next to them. They smiled at each other and made sure they were alone before heading off to the place that they've been going to every night. The fire was still burning and provided enough light for them as they walked away from the camp. They had their flashlights in their hands; they would need it once they were further away.

When they were sure they were far enough, they switched their flashlights on and glanced around. It was darker tonight than it was last night.

"Did you get out without Sally noticing?" Cam whispered to Gabs.

Gabs nodded and whispered back, "She stirred a lil, but I got out easily enough."

Gabs was closer to Liv than anyone else from their group. She enjoyed her company. When Cam moved from the city to live here in Transville, Liv started changing and becoming more like Cam each day. Gabriella didn't like it; Liv was doing things she'd never do; swearing, smoking, and to put it in simpler words, becoming worse than Cam.

Gabriella knew that it started to influence her, too, and she wanted it to stop, but she couldn't find the will to stop being friends with Liv. She felt that maybe, just maybe, the old Olivia will come back.

Gabs was snapped out of her thoughts when she saw a flash of yellow out of the corner of her eye.

They had reached the place they always came to; it was a little broken shed. The roof was caving in and its windows were broken. The door was hanging off its hinges. Gabs realised that Cam and Liv were all ready gone inside. Before she could take a step, a hand landed on her right shoulder and she let out a surprised yelp. She turned around, fear running through her veins, and held the flashlight in front of her for protection and shone it in the person's face.

"What is your problem, Gabs?" she recognised the voice of Sally. She let out a relieved sigh and lowered her flashlight.

"Sorry, I . . . ," she trailed off and it only registered now that Sally had most probably being following them from the camp.

"What are you doing here?" she asked harshly.

"No, no. I think the proper question is what are you doing here," she arched her eyebrows and looked down at Gabriella. Sally was taller than her and Gabriella didn't like that.

"Look here, okay. Just stay out of my stuff and mind your own business," she snapped.

Sally huffed. "You can't just leave like that. What if something happens and we can't find you?"

Gabs rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. This forest is the safest here. What exactly do you think could happen?"

Sally looked at her straight in the eye. "Gabs, I don't know what happend to you. You were never like this."

"Oh, thanks for noticing," she said sarcastically, but deep down, she wondered if she had really changed that much.

Something flashed through Sally's eyes, but it was gone before Gabs could decipher what it was.

"Okay, fine. If you want to be left alone here in the dark so badly, I'll leave. Just save the rest of the group the trouble of knowing you guys are sneaking out at night. They'll be really worried for you and the fact that you don't care would just hurt them and cause trouble. That's all I'm asking," with that said, Sally walked off and Gabs was frozen to her spot.

Only after a few long minutes did Gabriella realise that Sally had stalked off in the wrong direction. She looked around, panicked, and just then, Liv and Cam appeared from the broken doorway.

"What took you so long? It's fine now 'cause we're leaving anyway," they walked off to the camp with Gabs following closely behind, still looking around and hoping that Sally made it back to the camp.

When she entered the tent, however, she found Sally's side empty and guilt and worry consumed her body.

- - -

Sally wandered through the forest with her flashlight held out in front of her. She looked around worriedly, not recognizing any of her surroundings. She heard twigs crack and leaves rustle and she looked around, beyond worried now. It couldn't have been her footsteps; she was in a clearing with only mud around her.

Sally saw a flash of yellow and fear consumed her body. She noticed that is was getting closer and was now beyond scared. She let out a strangled breath and slowly walked backwards. She couldn't help it and turned around and started running, hoping that she was going in the right direction and would come to the camp. Sally, however, had carried herself to the opposite border of the forest. She desperately looked around for something to use as a weapon; a rock.

The calming sounds of the forest was soon disturbed by an ear piercing scream and shouts for help, but no one was around to save the helpless girl who now lay on the forest floor.

She heard a cold laugh behind her and had no more strength left in her to hold the rock and flashlight in her hands. She felt a sharp, burning pain in her stomach and her breath hitched. She felt an unbearable pain spread over her body like a raging fire. Her body felt heavy and light at same time.

Her breathing slowed down and her sight became blurred. She saw a blurry black figure walk away from her and she took shallow gasps, every breath was painful as if a heavy rock was pressed against her lungs. She glanced down at her stomach and saw blood, too much blood.

- - -

Sam heard someone desperately calling her name through her sleepy haze.

She forced her heavy eyelids open and sat up, reaching for her glasses. The Sun could be seen peaking from the horizon and Sam knew that it was still early; her tent was still quite dark. She rubbed the sleepiness away and yawned. She looked at Gabs' tear streaked, panicked face and immediately stood up and walked out of her tent, sensing that something was terribly wrong.

The first thing she did was envelope Gabriella into a warm hug that she needed and softly asked her, "What's wrong, Gabs? What happened?"

Gabriella let out a dry, strangled sob. "I-I can't find h-her, Sam," Sam could barely hear her but made out her words.

"Who can't you find?"

"S-Sally," Gabriella's voice was thick with emotion.

Sam slowly pulled away, shocked at what she said. She looked down at Gabs and noticed the dark bags under her eyes and the conflict in them.

"Do you know what happened?" Sam tried her best to stay calm and positive and sealed her shock behind a mask.

Gabs nodded. "She came looking for me in the forest after everyone went to sleep. We h-had a little f-fight and she got an-angry and walked off in the wro-wrong direction. I couldn't stop . . . her and, and I didn't see h-her after . . . that."

Sam tried to think of something but her mind was jammed with too many thoughts. She asked the first thing that came to mind.

"What were you doing out there?"

She shook her head just as Gabs was about to answer and said, "Never mind, what's important now is that we search for Sally now. First thing's first," Sam hugged Gabriella again and gave her some tissues.

"Get some sleep, we need everyone awake before we go. Do you know which direction she went in?"

Gabs nodded and described the clearing, telling Sam where it was. Sam nodded and steered Gabs back into her tent.

"I'll get everyone up first, okay. Don't worry, I'll wake you up, too, but you need some rest first. I'm gonna check something quickly."

After much more persuasion, Sam got Gabs to go back into her tent and Sam returned to hers.

Sam had a feeling that today was not going to to according to plan. She dressed and got done, made breakfast for herself and everyone else, and went to each tent to wake everyone up.

Unlike the previous day, she did it quietly and informed them that there was an emergency and that they should hurry. They could see that Samantha was serious and got ready without argument. It was exactly 6:00 am when everyone, besides Gabriella, was sitting around her and eating breakfast. They all gave her curious, worried looks, wondering what was going on.

Once everyone finished their breakfast, Sam took a deep breath and looked at them all. She let out the deep breath she took in.

"Okay, I'm going to stop myself from babbling by cutting to the chase. Have any of you noticed that we're one short?"

Sam looked at everyone as they looked around, noticing that they were, indeed, one short.

Sam carried on. "On our first day here, when we all went to our tents, I noticed that Cam, Liv and Gabs were missing . . . ," Samantha took a deep breath before carrying on, "And then last night, it turns out that Sally had noticed it, too. According to what Gabs told me, they were out in a clearing that they had went to that previous night as well and Sally followed the three of them. Gabs and Sally had a little argument.

"Gabs said that Sally walked off in the wrong direction and just then, Cam and Liv came out of the shed-like thing there in the clearing and they returned to the camp. They didn't know that Sally was following them.

"Gabs said that she thought Sally had made it back to the camp but was not there when she came back; she stayed awake all night and informed me of it this morning. What we have to do is go as a group and look for Sally; we can't split up because we'll get lost just like Sally did, the forest is huge and she could be anywhere. If we can't find her at noon, we calling her parents and the chief," Sam finished and took in their shocked expressions.

"Nothing . . . could have happened to her, right? The forest is safe, isn't it?" Mari asked.

Sam shook her head. She didn't know what to say and didn't trust herself to speak.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Drake asked angrily.

Sam sighed, she knew this would happen.

"Drake, stop. Just concentrate on the important things," Jay-Jay said.

"Gabs didn't tell us anything about Sally," Cam said and Liv agreed.

"So what are we waiting for, guys? Let's go look for Sally now," Hazel said quickly.

"Wouldn't we have seen their flashlights or heard them if they left?" Carter asked.

"Yeah, we're right next to them," Chris agreed.

"We were all fast asleep, y'know," George said.

"Okay, guys, that is not the point," Den got up and dusted herself off.

"Yeah, we need to go look for Sally. Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere," Natt stood up after Den.

Everyone agreed and got ready in two minutes. Sam woke Gabs up and they all started walking to the clearing with Cam and Liv giving directions.

"How far do you think she went?" Mishka asked Raj softly.

He sighed. "Let's hope it's not that far."

The group walked in a silence, all worried and some still shocked.

"What happens if . . . you know," Steph asked Sam.

"Let's just think positive, okay?"

Steph nodded and didn't say anything after that.

"How far is the clearing?" Brand asked.

"How did you guys walk this far in the dark?" Marianna added.

"No idea," Liv replied.

Max and Paige dropped back since they were just behind Liv and Cam and stood on Sam's left.

"I know we should think positive right now, but what if something happened to Sally?" Paige asked worriedly.

"We always think the forest is safe since we've been camping here for ages, but what if it isn't?" Max added softly.

Next to Sam, Mari sighed and whispered something to Brand.

"I honestly don't know. I guess I never thought about it," Sam replied to Max and Paige's questions.

"What do we do if Sally isn't okay?" Sameer asked.

Before anyone could answer, Cam stopped and said, "We're here, guys."

Sam looked around at the clearing and took in the broken shed and muddy ground. She noticed multiple footprints on the ground and frowned as she thought about it.

"Gabs, which way did she go?" Natt asked her.

Gabs, who was silent throughout the whole morning, pointed in the direction. "There."

"Let's follow the footprints. There's a few here," Jake said, looking down at the footsteps and following the direction they lead to. Everyone followed after in silence, examining the footprints.

They walked for a long time, passing through an unfamiliar surrounding -- the footprints weren't so clear here -- until they came to another clearing.

Jake, Hazel, George and Natt -- who were in front now -- came to an abrupt stop and Brand, Drake, Mishka and Chris bumped into them, not realising that they had stopped walking.

"Why'd you stop, man?" Chris asked, peering around them.

Sam glanced at their faces which had paled and took timid steps forward to see what they were looking at. The sight she saw made her heart stop and her breathing became shallow. She shook her head, not believing what she saw, and covered her mouth. Tears pricked her eyes and a few flowed out.

The others, realising that they had all stopped and weren't walking any more, pushed to the front to see and just like the others, came to an abrupt stop. Sam saw Gabs fall to her knees and put her head in her hands. They all heard the strangled sob she let out which seemed to cut through the atmosphere.

Gabriella felt as if this was all her fault. She felt that if she hadn't left the tent, none of this would have happened. Sally wouldn't had followed her and this wouldn't have happened. She couldn't believe the last words she said to her were harsh and were meant to hurt Sally. Tears fell out of her eyes uncontrollably. She felt someone's hands on her shoulders and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

They all heard Steph whisper the words they didn't have the courage to ask in a broken voice, "Is this . . . true?"

The sight they were all looking at was the limp figure of Sally Anderson, laying on the forest floor and surrounded by dried blood. Her face was pale and lifeless, her eyes closed and her mouth parted with trickles of dried blood down her chin.

Sam tore her eyes away, not being able to look at it anymore. She reached for her bag with numb fingers and fiddled with the zip. She pulled out a blanket and after a few minutes, she got the courage to step forward and cover her body with the blanket.

Sam was terrified. Scared. She knew that whoever did this would most probably still be here.

She kneeled in front of Sally's body, not knowing what to do. Millions of thoughts swirled through her head. How would they explain this to her parents? The police? Are they safe here anymore? What are they going to do?

Sam slowly got up and turned around to her friends still frozen figures. Her throat was parched and her mouth was dry. Her eyes burned and a few tears dropped out. She licked her lips to moisten them and in a hoarse, broken voice, said, "Guys . . . ," she couldn't complete her sentence and looked at them all helplessly. Their faces all held similar emotion: fear, worry and grief for their good friend.

Finally finding some courage to speak, she said, "Whoever did this is still here. We need to leave," she tried to keep her voice as strong as possible but failed.

No one moved. She did get some acknowledgment, though.

Not knowing what else to do, Sam reached into her bag and pulled her phone out. She searched her contacts for Sally's house number and gathered herself before pressing 'call'. She had to be strong for her friends and Sally's family.

"Hello?" the cheerful voice of Sally's mother, Scarlett Anderson, greeted her.

"Hi, Scar," she always found it weird how adults made them call them by name. "Sam here," Sam kept her voice steady.

"Oh, Sam. How are you?"

Sam let out a forced laugh.

Should she give a truthful answer or delay a little longer? Deciding to get it out sooner, she said, "Horrible."

"What's wrong, Sam?" she could hear the worry in her voice and took a deep breath.

"Please don't yell at me," Sam took another breath and felt tears flow down her checks as she remembered Sally's limp figure.

She faintly heard her say, "Okay" and she carried on. "Sally's the matter, not me."

"Sam, I don't understand you. Please just tell me what happened to Sally. Is she okay?" concern was evident in her voice now and Sam felt bad to be the one to tell her like this.

"She's not okay, she's far from it," Sam said. "She's, she's . . . ," Sam couldn't get the word out of her mouth.

Scar let out a nervous laugh. "If I'm guessing right then I'm telling you now not to joke about something like this."

"The thing is . . . I'm not joking," Sam said quietly.

The line went dead silent and Sam didn't know what to do.

"I'm going to hang up now to call the police and you can call me when you're okay," Sam said and ended the call.

Sam took a shaky breath and looked at her friends. They seem to have composed themselves a little.

She looked down at her phone and dialed the station's number. On the first ring, it was picked up.

"Transville police station, Chief Cross talking," she heard the unfamiliar voice of the so-called chief.

She said the first thing that came to mind, "This isn't the chief," she paused. "It's Samantha Woods here."

She heard a laugh on the other end. "You're right. It's me, Lucas, chief's son. How you, Sam?"

She recognized his voice and gave a small smile although he couldn't see her.

"Look, can you put the chief on? It's an emergency, I need to talk to him," she said in a serious voice.

"He's busy now, I'll send a message," Lucas' voice turned professional.

"Please don't forget, I need the chief here as soon as possible."

"Okay. What is it?" she heard the sound of paper and wheels.

"I'm at Forest Hills, camping with my friends. We woke up this morning and our friend, Sally Anderson, was missing," she took a deep breath. "We found her now when we were searching. She was laying on the floor and there was too much blood. She's . . . she's," Sam paused, gathering herself and softly, brokenly said, "she's . . . gone. It looks like there is a knife wound in her stomach," Sam took a deep breath and more tears rolled down her cheeks.

The line was silent for a while until she heard Lucas talk again, "I'll get the chief as soon as possible and we'll, I mean, he'll be there soon. Please don't move the body or touch it. Please pack your stuff and leave as soon as you can. If you see anything suspicious, make sure you stay as far away from it as possible."

"Okay, thank you. Could you please phone Sally's parents? I called but I didn't say much," Sam said.

"No problem. Oh, and . . . I'm sorry for your loss," he said softly, carefully.

Sam nodded. "Please be here as soon as you can."

She cut the call and repeated the same orders to her friends.

They reluctantly left the clearing and walked towards the camp in a mournful silence. They cleaned up and packed their things, grief etched into their features and walked down to the van.

They didn't take notice of the fact that their camp was ruined, their minds were only on Sally.

A few minutes after they packed their bags into the van, they heard the wailing sirens of the police cars and saw the blinding blue and red lights flashing.

The chief and his team stepped out of their cars and immediately got to work. Sam knew the chief and vice versa.

He walked up to them. "Good morning, children."

He got replies that could barely be heard and he smiled sadly at them. He looked down at Sam and pulled her aside.

"Did any of you see what happend?"

"No."

"Okay. I'm going to need you all to return home. We can't risk any more lives and put you children in danger," he said.

Sam nodded. "Okay."

"Dad!" the chief turned around and Sam saw Lucas walk up to his father.

The chief sighed. "What did I tell you?"

Lucas smiled sheepishly. "Couldn't help it."

The chief shook his head, "You need to go back home. Who did you come with?"

"I jumped in one of the cars," he said.

He sighed. "Go back there and stay inside. I don't want to see you out again. You know you not s'pose to come, especially if it's a murder scene."

Sam walked away, thinking she heard enough of the chief scolding his son and went back to her friends. "Let's go, guys."

They all agreed, some hesitant, and piled into the van. Unlike the previous ride, this time it was quiet and time seemed to drag on.

Nobody made noise or argued like they usually do and not even the radio was on. Sam's thoughts strayed back to Sally and she close her eyes, trying to forget the disturbing, heart breaking image. She felt a throb form in her temple and she repeatedly blinked away tears.

- - - - -

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