Later that day, Carston and Dominic were at the dining hall on campus talking about Anna’s escape. ‘I mean, how could she have gotten out? It’s extremely locked down on that particular ward,’ said Dominic. Carston then said, ‘It’s possible that our new Z could’ve done something. I would know given that I worked with the bitch for God knows how long.’ Dominic agreed, but then said, ‘It doesn’t feel real that Anna’s escaped the psych hospital. But now, with both Zs working together, we’re in deep shit if we don’t do something quickly.’

            After some time thinking, Carston said, ‘I think tonight, we should all meet at the barn. It’s some place where we can all regroup and discuss our next move.’ Dominic replied, ‘I agree, but don’t we need to do something about our new Z stalking us in public with a knife?’ Carston then said, ‘I can’t do anything other than keep my distance, and so can you. Besides, the worst that could happen is a repeat of what happened with Hector yesterday.’

            Dominic and Carston then left to go home, but not before being confronted by a friendly sight in the form of Dominic’s ex-boyfriend Calvin. ‘Hey Dom, how’s it hanging?’ asked Calvin. Dominic replied, ‘Could be better given everything going on.’ Carston was silent the whole time the exes talked. ‘I heard that your friend escaped the psych hospital last night. It’s insane that she figured out how to blow up the building,’ said Calvin. The exes finished talking, and then Dominic and Carston went back home to finish studying for their upcoming exams.

            While her friends were out, Willa was inside also studying. She suddenly received a text message from Noemi asking, ‘Wanna hang at the barn tonight? Carston and Dom wanna have a group meeting. Felix and Katherine included.’ Willa texted back, ‘I don’t see why not. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?’ Willa then went back to studying for a half hour before joining Noemi down in the barn decorating.

            As the afternoon kept passing by, Jonah was still inside Dominic’s bedroom, still distraught from Hector’s death the day before. Dominic arrived home, and joined his boyfriend in bed to cuddle before the group meeting later that night.

            While the boyfriends cuddled inside, Noemi and Willa were in the barn decorating when Felix showed up. ‘Hey Noemi, hey Wilzy,’ said Felix. ‘You made it! Wanna help decorate despite your arm still being bandaged and stuff?’ asked Willa. Felix replied, ‘Sure, why not. Plus it gets me moving a bit more than I have the past two days.’ The three friends continued to decorate the inside of the barn, which was a good distance behind Noemi’s house, bordering the woods. Outside the barn, Anna secretly planted a device to light the barn on fire when the time came that night.

            Meanwhile, Jennifer and Veronica were busy at the coffee shop talking about their encounter with Z the day before. ‘I’m still freaked out at being confronted at knifepoint like that, Jen,’ said Veronica. Jennifer, finishing washing a mug at the sink then said, ‘My inner Melisa came out yesterday. She would’ve beat the shit outta the perp.’ Veronica giggled, and then agreed that Melisa would’ve done exactly that.

            Jennifer then finished washing the mugs and then clocked out of her shift. She then said, ‘We should get a move on back to the barn. The others should be there in an hour or two.’ Veronica said, ‘I think we should head back to your place before we do. Just to give some breathing room between work and the meeting with the others. Plus, we need to help Carston pick Katherine up.’ Jennifer agreed, and the two then went back to Jennifer’s house before meeting up with Carston to pick up Katherine.

            As the afternoon light turned to the winter darkness of night, Carston, Jennifer, and Veronica picked up Katherine from the hospital and drove off to the barn. In the meantime, Noemi and Willa finished fixing up the decorations, and Felix had ordered the pizza for the group to eat. The first person to arrive to the barn was Max, who brought soda pop and sparkling water for the group to drink. After a few minutes, Dominic and Jonah showed up, both in their finest club-going outfits. Jonah then said, ‘Let’s get the music going, shall we?’, and he then turned the stereo on and plugged his phone in.

            Finally, Carston, Jennifer, Katherine, and Veronica showed up, with Katherine already carrying a whiteboard to communicate with the others due to her injuries. As soon as the group was all gathered, Jonah proposed a toast. He finished the toast, and the group all began to drink their drinks. Katherine wrote down a question to Felix asking, ‘How’s your arm doing?’ He then replied, “My arm is still sore, but its better than it was the other day.’

            ‘What a jagged little pill this is,’ said Carston, talking with Noemi. She replied, ‘And why do you say that?’ He then said, ‘It’s funny how we’re all here and nothing bad has happened. I feel like we need to start the meeting soon.’ Noemi agreed, and then went back to the sofa and sat down next to Veronica.

            Dominic then said, ‘Finish eating and then come sit around on the sofas. We need to talk about everything that’s gone on the past few days.’ As soon as the others heard the announcement from Dominic, they all finished eating and gathered around the sofas. ‘First off, thank you to Felix, Noemi, and Willa for helping prepare and decorate for our meeting tonight. It all looks marvelous. But now, we need to get to business; and that’s everything that’s gone on.’

            Veronica then started by saying, ‘We need to figure out who this new stalker is as well, because they’re very dangerous, especially now that Anna’s escaped.’ Katherine wrote down on her whiteboard, ‘We can’t jump to conclusions so quickly, Veronica.’ Felix then said, ‘She has a point, Vee.’

            The group continued to talk for hours about the state of the group as it stood that night, followed by the attacks on Katherine, Felix, Jennifer, and Veronica. ‘Four of us have been attacked in a three day period by this new asshole, and they pushed my friend off the student union roof. We need to figure things out once and for all,’ said Jonah. Felix then said, ‘We’re all still on edge about everything, but he’s right.’ The group’s conversation continued, with Willa then saying, ‘Jen, didn’t you say that your friend Wesley had a red hoodie in his briefcase when he walked into the coffee shop?’ Jennifer replied, ‘Why yes he did, and Vee can attest to that.’ Veronica nodded, and then Jennifer continued, ‘I think we should put him at the top of the list of people who could be the new Z. His hoodie looks awfully suspicious to me.’

            Suddenly, the lights cut out, and the group was plunged into darkness. Noemi then sniffed the air, and said, ‘Do you guys smell something? It smells like something’s burning.’ The others were confused about her question before Katherine squeaked out, ‘The ceiling’s on fire!’

            The blaze was moving quickly, and the group was quick to try and extinguish it. The fire grew bigger and suddenly engulfed the whole ceiling and roof of the barn. The smoke was thickening, and everyone was now down on the ground, crawling around to escape the blaze. Suddenly, the one barn door opened, and Anna and the red-hooded figure were standing in the doorway. No one made even a squirt of a noise, as the two perpetrators of evil were watching. Then, Noemi’s brother Troy fired his airsoft gun at the two, shooing them off into the woods behind the barn.

            Troy called 911 and then he helped the others get to safety, but suddenly, Carston cried out, ‘Where’s Katherine?!?” Jonah then shouted, ‘Oh shit, she’s still in the barn!’ As soon as the group started to run back to the barn, the whole structure collapsed in on itself, still burning red hot. The group now had to watch in horror as one of their friends burned to death.

            The fire department showed up and shooed everyone inside the house, as they began to fight the flames caused by Anna’s lighter that was planted hours earlier. It took hours for the firefighters to battle the flames. Inside, Carston was shaking uncontrollably, and fighting back tears. He and Katherine had known each other since they were three. The group comforted him over the next few hours.

            As soon as the fire was put out, a charred body was found. It was unrecognizable, and it would take weeks for the results of the DNA tests to come back. But the group all knew, Katherine had died in the blaze, and someone was responsible.

            Over the coming days, the winter break at the university had come, and Carston, Dominic, Jonah, and Willa had nothing to do except help Noemi pick up the burnt pieces of the barn that remained. It was briskly cold, and Christmas was coming. ‘What a fucked up Christmas this will turn out to be,’ remarked Noemi.

            On the news on Christmas Eve night, it was announced that a body discovered at the scene of the fire was indeed that of Katherine. But what followed in the news as the group sat around their respective televisions and computers came as a shock. The news anchor said, ‘It has been discovered that the body of a missing teenager from Fairlake months ago was misidentified. The identity of the body was that of Shelby Corcoran, who was the same age as Em Wyckstrom. The parents of Ms. Wyckstrom have once again called for a search for their daughter due to this breaking news.’

            ‘Shelby? How’d she go missing around the same time Em did?’ asked Dominic. He then texted Jennifer about what he had heard on the news, and she replied, ‘I heard through the grapevine that we had two missing teenagers in Fairlake, but I can’t believe my ears and eyes that its Em and Shelby.’

            The following morning on Christmas Day, the group gathered together at the Raskin-Kerby household and had celebrated together. Outside the house, Anna giggled to herself and had Em tied up in the back of the van she stole. She closed the van door and got in the driver’s seat. She sped back to the cabin in the woods beyond town to do the unthinkable to Em.

            But suddenly, Em opened the back door of the van and jumped out. She ran all the way back to town over the next hour, until she collapsed outside Dominic’s old house. Sally and George, Dominic’s aunt and uncle found Em shivering and cold, and brought her inside. They warmed her up over the next few hours and asked her what she had been doing all this time. She told them that she had been shacked up in a cabin outside town for the past few months thanks to a strange captor, and only recently escaped that night.

            The following morning, on the 26th of December, Sally and George reported to the police that they had found Em on their front porch and had taken her in for the night. Em’s parents were breathing a sigh of relief that their daughter, who they previously thought was dead, was indeed alive. They rushed over to the police station to retrieve their daughter and take her home.

            That evening, Dominic, Noemi, and Willa rushed over to the Wyckstrom house to welcome Em home. They were greeted by her parents, who welcomed them inside and had them go up to Em’s room. The four friends reunited and hugged each other tightly. ‘Em, we couldn’t have thought that you’d still be alive after all this time. How’d you escape your captor?’ asked Willa. Em replied, ‘My captor, this whole time, was Anna Hoboken. She kidnapped me the night I went missing, and locked me in a cabin in the woods for months, some weeks without food. I am so happy to be home.’

            ‘Em, you could be a bitch while we were in high school, but we’re so glad you’re safe,’ said Noemi. Em flipped Noemi the middle finger, but with a smile on her face. The foursome laughed and talked for hours, but Em was hiding a massive secret thanks to Anna’s new accomplice. She couldn’t bear to say a word just yet, due to fear of being kidnapped again.