"Oh," I sheepishly replied.

"There were two more bodies found close to Helen's home, and now the cops are doing random calls to some of the students who attended the party."

She was giving me a heads up in case I got contacted by the authorities, but she sounded a little worried.

I couldn't recall the guy nor anything to do with him, but no human deserved such kind of brutality. I wouldn't even recommend my worst enemy to get killed in such a manner. A severely, animalistic butcher.

°*°

Breaking up with Wade was not in the cards and never would have been if not for my insecurities. I half blamed myself for my own depression.

What hurt the most was the fact that he seemed to be carrying on well without me. He'd never called, nor sent a single text to check on me, or even show efforts to reach out on me.

Despite all that, his departure left an vast abyss in my life. The feelings that I never knew existed in me out of the blues were nowhere to be found. Smiling and laughing, like a crazy girl, was no longer my thing. Going to the theater and taking an extra large can of popcorns to devour during the movie no longer felt the same, not even with my clique.

Memories we made with him flashed across my mind one after the other like a rivulet running down a gentle hill.

Almost forgetting that I was in a public bus, I caught some tears running down my cheeks and was quick to wipe them out with the back of my right hand scanning surreptitiously if there was anyone who had seen me cry.

Seated next to me was an old lady, maybe in her late sixties or something. She had some freckles and wrinkles scattered all around her face more so around her cheeks and forehead, grey hair tied into an elegant bun, dark brown eyes, pink and a little crooked lips, and an oval shaped head.

"Anything wrong miss?" She enquired in genuine concern. She had been watching me for a while, but I was too deep in thoughts to notice.

"No," I answered swiveling my head back to the direction of the cold window, and layed my head against it.

One of the things that I loved about the journey to school was the paranormal, good view of the rising sun from the Eastern horizon. The crimson-yellow glow swarmed over the lush lawn topography that stood between the bus and it creating a consoling view of green.

I also loved the fact that I got free vitamin D from it daily. It was one of the few remaining things I enjoyed ever since the brake up.

No sooner had I gotten a satisfactory amount of vitamin D, than the Mistyhills bamboo forest clogged the sun rays. It always happened most of the times so I was used to it.

The green bamboo trees formed a beautiful archway which was kind of dark, but seemed like a good architectural piece of artwork that formed itself for free. The school would spend millions in making such an archway but generous Mr or Mrs Nature made it for free.

Mistyhills was not called misty for nothing. After the vintage, blue, smoking, bus which was made I don't know... When earth was born, cruised for a while, it was hit by a cloud of whitish mist, forcing the driver to turn on the front lights and slow down.

Usually it wasn't as thick but since we were closing to a cold season, it was so thick that you could barely see your hands in front of your own face. That would be the last place on earth one would want his or her car to breakdown. It would take forever to fix it or know the direction back.

The mist came with tingling cold. Instinctively, I took my green hoodie from my bag and swiftly put it on. It would be the worst time to catch a cold, plus my stress it would be a quagmire almost inevitable.

In school each and every corner was fitted with air conditioners and copper floors, which provide warmth even during winter. They also had well ventilated class rooms to ensure free air circulation. I only wore my hoodie when we got to the misty part of the journey, where cold got in through every pore of my body.

I could hardly see anything through the window. I bet the driver was using GPS coz if not then we would easily get completely lost.

Finally, the bus came to a gentle halt after hours of travel. The driver didn't have to shout Mistyhills highschool. Even if we couldn't tell where we were, we knew that our school was the first stop so that was cue for us to alight.

Our school uniform was distinct, so one could differentiate a student from Mistyhills highschool with one from another schools. A green sweater with a while badge with the wordings, Mistyhills high, cold but worth it, in the heart side of the chest and a green and white crossing skirt.

I dismounted the bus together with some other students.

It revved off drastically leaving a cloud of dark, disel-smelling cloud of smoke. I chocked at the mia smell of the burned up diesel ordure.

Other students were also arriving during the same time. Some with personal cars, others with the school bus, and others with public cars or buses. Most were dropped off at the front of the school gate, while others were driven in.

"Hey T," it was Isabella.

She was my best friend. One of the most high spirited girls I knew. She had the confidence to sing wrong music lyrics in front of the whole school. Yeah, that was one of the punishments she got for not completing a History assignment the previous week. Mrs Hannah did that. She told her to sing her favourite song in front of the whole school. Well, the punishment turned out to be more like a comedy show or a mia glass rampage than a serous punishment.

She made the whole school guffaw and almost broke all windows in school at the high pitched part of the song.

Lumps of embarrassment almost killed me that day for being her friend. I always wondered how I came to knowing her.

Chocolate complexion, huge black eyes, pink full well curved lips, a sharp symmetric nose and a strong bone cheek that complemented perfectly with her heart shaped head. Her long blonde hair was tied into an elegant ponytail. Attractive like usual. She was the type of girl that would smile and the world would stop just to get a mia glimpse of it.

Usually we boarded the same bus but most of the time we didn't see each other until we got to the school gate.

"Hey," I answered back giving her a lopsided smile.

In front of us stood the vast metallic school gate sculptured with a huge book and a pen besides it. At the top of it, it had a bold 'Mistyhills highschool' writing on it. At both sides of the gate there were climbing flowers which somehow complemented with the gates beautiful design. The green tendrils formed some sort of a beautiful art galley.

That was the car entrance gate at the center and a residents entrance gate at the far right. It also had a sculpture but it was of the schools badge.

"Have you done your maths assignment?" She quizzed comically. By the sound of it she hadn't done it, but neither had I.

"Was there any?" I replied in an equally goofy tone.

She said that I was her favourite partner in crime.

Mr Edward ,our maths teacher, wasn't one of giving punishments. He was the type who would walk in class and he is like 'I know you students don't want to be here... Neither do I. ' One of the few lackadaisical teachers we had taking us through our senior year. He didn't even check his assignments, so very few people did it you know the hardworking type and some showoffs.

She hugged me with her left hand and pushed me towards the direction of the residents gate.

I was a little reluctant because of what happened, I mean I couldn't afford looking at Wade.

Recently he had been ignoring me or giving me a cold glare that literary gave me chills. I was scared of him and felt vulnerable in his presence.

I clearly knew that I would meet him either in one of the hallways or during Maths lesson.

"C'mon let's go" She uttered.

She was my confidants and clearly she knew my perspective towards the school at the moment.

"Wuss," she mocked.

I was not going to start that argument, where I would try to prove to her that I was everything but a wuss and got myself into her trap.

Isabella and I looked physically much alike but we couldn't be more polar opposite. Her personality and mine were worlds apart. She was a high class, cute, lackadaisical, bad girl cheerleader while I was just a cheerleader who was recently heart wrecked and was trying to fix the wound.

I groaned in agreement while she smiled in mockery.

Swiveling my head abruptly, I noticed something eerie. I hadn't gotten a good glance at it so I reversed the direction of my head.

An indistinct figure's dark silhouette lurked somewhere in the mist opposite the road. It had two glowing eyes but the rest of the body was muffled with mist. The more I squinted to make a better view of it, the less I made it.