Evans Residence

Gillian Evans did her best to avoid bumping into her mother. Addy was having breakfast in the kitchen, so Gillian tiptoed all the way to the door to meet with Giovanni.

“Hey!” Addy called out from the doorway of the kitchen. “And you’d be going…? Ah, to destroy my life.” Addy moved forward. “He’s outside, isn’t he?”

“I have to go!” Gillian quickly rushed out the door. Addy followed Gillian, but Gillian headed to the driveway. There was an alien car parked on the road, and Giovanni was sitting in it.

“I knew it!” Addy declared, breaking her walk to a jog.

Gillian turned around to find her mother in her face. “Woah. Back off, mother!”

“I guess the power of a slap wears off!” Addy announced, raising her hand. “What’s a mother got to do?”

“Gilly?” came Giovanni’s voice from the car.

“Oh, your little boyfriend is calling you,” Addy continued. “And me unable to slap you. Maybe something more effective needs to be used.”

“What…?” Gillian was confused.

“Maybe this…” Addy spoke as she reached into her coat. She pulled something out.

Gillian gasped. “What the hell are you doing?”

Addy had a gun raised in her hands. “Protecting what’s mine… and destroying what’s wrong. Got it?”

Gillian could hear the gun cock. Her eyes were frozen on her mother. “No… don’t do this…”

“ ‘Honor thy mother…’ Heard of it?” Addy smiled and her fingers clasped on the trigger.

A car door was slammed. “Addy. Stop!” Giovanni cried out, running up the lawn.

“Put it down…” Gillian quivered.

“Too late for anymore talk. I need action.” She aimed. “This is it…”

Gillian: “No!”

Addy’s angered fingers pulled the trigger. A loud shot rang out on that lawn, as smoke filled the gun’s barrel.

With that, Gillian’s eyes opened wide with fear. Shocked, and taken aback, she collapsed to the lawn. Clasping her chest.

Tom Residence

Darla Tom was eager to do some good. She was slaving over in the kitchen making a big breakfast. Patrick Donavon and Robert Carlyle were hovering nearby.

“We’re telling her today, right?” Patrick asked.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Robert said, not at all thrilled with the idea. “But tell me again why.”

“So she isn’t left out… and she would want to know sooner rather than later!”

Kassie Tom floated into the kitchen after a night’s sleep. “What are you guy all hush-hush about?” Kassie asked casually.

“What are you implying?” Robert blurted. Patrick elbowed him in the side

Patrick stepped forward. “We were talking about something very important. I was regarding the fact that Darla’s baby – ”

“Breakfast!” Robert announced. “This silly topic can wait!”

Patrick knew Robert was stalling, and it was only making matters worse.

As they sat down, Kassie looked up as Patrick. They both smiled and looked away. Then their eyes met once again, and they smiled once again.

“Why you two so happy?” Robert asked, changing the topic.

They both shrugged.

Robert struggled to come up with something to distract Patrick from ever revealing the truth. “I think I know why you two are so happy.”

“Why” Kassie asked.

“Because Jake left you. It is what you’ve always wanted.”

Kassie’s eyes bulged. “What!? That is ridiculous! What makes you say that?”

“Well, now you get to shack up with the next guy – Patrick!”

Patrick broke in. “Woah! Hold on there?”

“You two were sharing a room last night – the past several nights. What’s preventing you two from jumping each other in the night.”

“Robert!” Darla gasped.

“You!” Patrick barked, standing up and reaching over the table.

“Patrick!” Kassie said, pushing him down.

Patrick got back up. “Speaking of shaking up…”

“No!” Robert pleaded.

“What about Darla shaking up with Robert?”

Kassie looked at her mother. “Do you have any idea what he’s talking about?”

Darla nodded. “It’s time you knew. It’s time I let it all out.”

An Abandoned Building on Mystique Road

Iris Torres woke up stiff. This gave her some life experience: sleeping in a dark abandoned building doesn’t guarantee a good night’s sleep. But it goes guarantee a stiff neck.

“It looks like a nice day,” Iris moaned, rubbing her neck. “Oh, yes. There is a killer after me.” Sarcastically, she got up and stretched her arms.

There was no one around, as far as she could tell.

“I need to get out of here,” Iris said exasperatedly. “Out of this whole town.”

She felt her forehead and collected herself. She wiped leaves and dirt off her pants, and pulled her blonde hair back. She headed to the exit.

Stop.

As she was about to head out, she saw a man’s shadow through the cloudy windows.

Iris held her breath. “Please just be a man walking by. Don’t come in… don’t come in…” she uttered silently.

As the man turned to enter through the door, she immediately crept behind a large crate. She sat there a few moments. Iris could hear footsteps on the concrete floor approach and stop.

“Iris?” the obvious voice called out. “You here?”

Iris stopped breathing as the voice was too clear.

Wyle.

“Iris, I know you’re here,” he announced confidently.

He was bluffing, she thought. He was trying to scare her.

She could hear Wyle laugh. “Check your left pant pocket. You’ll be surprised.”

Iris reached quietly into her pocket. She felt around, and pulled out the only thing she had in there. She examined the item, and her heart dropped.

Quickly, the footsteps approached her direction.

Iris dropped on her hands and knees and crawled behind more boxes. The item was still clasped in her hands. Her heart pounding, she saw the exit not twenty meters in front of her.

She couldn’t hear the feet any longer, so she got up to run. As she raced forward, Wyle popped up in front of her.

“Oh!” she screamed, shocked. She fell to the floor and desperately scratched around to get away. “No… go away!”

Consuelos Residence

‘MAN DRIVEN MAD BY WOMAN!’

Mateo Consuelos and Skye Lore were in utter dismay.

“That bitch!” Skye sneered. “There she goes again. Slamming me on the front page! Who the hell does she think she is?”

Mateo looked at the paper cautiously. “The last article was bad, but this one is, well, interesting. ‘The woman drove Dean mad by making him believe she was possessed.’ I thought The Presence Chronicle was classier than this.”

“Obviously, they have better sources than you,” Skye added. “Read this: ‘Dean is now located in the San Francisco Mental Institution for the Mentally Insane.’ Brianna got that from somewhere.”

Mateo nodded. “We need to give her a talking to. She got to stop this – slander.”

“Let’s go… now!” The look in Skye’s eyes wasn’t calm, and it left Mateo worried about what she would do.

Evans Residence

“What did you do?” Giovanni cried out. “What the hell is wrong with you? You shot her!”

Addy laughed, without a single hint of remorse on her face.

“You’re laughing! Why do you laugh?”

Addy dropped the gun, but couldn’t stop her smiling. “This is too much,” she laughed.

Giovanni ran to Gillian’s body. “Gilly? You all right?”

Gillian moved, and opened her eyes. “I…”

“Don’t speak…” Giovanni soothed.

“For God’s sake, get off the lawn before you make a scene!” Addy came up to Gillian and pulled her up. “Quit this act.”

“Act?” Giovanni questioned. “What are you…?”

Gillian could stand. She shook her head, blinked, and felt over her chest. “Nothing… I wasn’t shot…”

“A miss?” Giovanni asked.

“A blank,” Addy finalized. “A cap, to be precise. I can’t believe either of you would think I would shoot my daughter!” She threw to weapon to Giovanni. “It isn’t even a real gun.”

Gillian nodded. “I… I was just really shocked. The sound also surprised me. I guess I fainted.”

“And if you continue with Giovanni, I swear it won’t be fake next time.” Addy walked up to the duo.

“Away!” Giovanni said, taking both women aback. “I can’t believe you did that! That is beyond what I could have expected!”

Addy looked at Giovanni and Gillian comforting each other. “Fine. But I swear, if I find anything to break you two up, I will use it!”

An Abandoned Building on Mystique Road

“Did you like my little gift?” Wyle cooed.

“How dare you give this to me like this?” she said, her eyes tearing up, fogging her vision. “This is my mother’s necklace that I gave her for Christmas! It… it…”

“Has her blood on it, doesn’t it?” Wyle stated bitterly. “Call it symbolism. It was you who killed her, not me.”

Iris, sobbing, rolled around on her behind. “How did you find me?” she asked.

Wyle rolled his eyes. “Come on. An abandoned building was the first place I’d look. You sleep pretty heavy… you always have.”

“You mean…”

“Yep. I found you a while ago. I gave you this little gift while you slept.”

Knowing that he had touched her made Iris sick to her stomach. “I guess there is the obvious question. Why did you do it? And are you going to kill me?”

“You don’t deserve to live.” Wyle approached her. “Torturing your family with your presence! Every waking day reminds me of Lily. And how you destroyed that. And for that, I will destroy you!”

“Why did you kill our mother?” Iris demanded.

Wyle shrugged. “I won’t tell you about that. But I’m sure your father will know.”

“I can’t believe how you got away with it!”

“Believe it. It was too easy. I did a bit of research, but it was easy to frame Adam King since you were working late with him. Plant evidence and blood. Bingo. I also framed your father since he would have been the perfect suspect to kill your mother. They fought. I only have one person left.”

Iris was wiping a tear from her eyes. “Me?”

Taking a knife out from his coat, he stepped up to her sister. “You got it!”

Iris screamed she saw him come down on her with the knife. She screeched as Wyle plunged the blade into her side…

Huber Residence

Both Mateo and Skye knocked on their neighbor’s door. They waited a moment, but a black man answered the door.

“I Brianna in?” Mateo asked, knowing Skye would say something she’s regret.

“You two would be…?”

“I’m your neighbor, Mateo,” Mateo stated. “And this is an… acquaintance of mine, Skye.”

“I’m Ian Huber, Brianna’s husband. She isn’t in right now, and I don’t quite know where she is.” Ian looked them both over. “This is about the paper, right?”

Mateo nodded.

“I hope that little urchin gets hit by a car,” Skye stated blankly. “And have a nice day, Ian.”

Ian ignored her and closed the door behind him.

Skye breathed deeply, and then turned to Mateo. “Ok. That was a bust.”

“Did you say yesterday that you wanted to go someplace to talk?” Mateo took her arm. “Where do you want to go?”

Skye smiled. “I know. Let’s go.”

The both walked down the road. To beknownst to them, Brianna was no far behind. She stepped out from a bush, ready to see what those two were going to talk about.

Evans Residence

As soon as Addy left, Giovanni turned to Gillian. “Gilly. As you know, I really want to be with you, but there is something in my past preventing it.”

“Is it your mother?”

“No. It’s something I don’t want to have blow up in my face.”

Inside, Addy was fuming. “God, those two are like glue. I need to take them apart!”

With that, the telephone rang. Addy walked slowly to the kitchen to answer the phone, but the answering machine picked it up.

Gillian’s recorded voice was chirpy as it asked to leave a message…

“Hey. It’s Brooke, from work. I have some important information regarding that guy who you were with last night. Meet me at the Beach Hut. It is important!”

Addy was all smiles. “Important, eh? Well, sound like something I need to check out – first!”