Countdown to ***

Mia just stood there, unable to move, she was till shocked and could not believe what she had done, her legs where shaking so badly she let herself fall to the floor.

Mia closed her eyes.

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“Why would someone want to do that?”

A young girl of fifteen was sitting down in a green field, either side of her was a boy with blond hair and an African girl, both her age, leaning against the tree nearby was a boy of sixteen with brown hair, when Mia looked at him he smiled, this caused Mia to get butterfly’s and she smiled shyly back.

“I know what you mean; I mean what can you get out of it that is good?” Brittany said.

“Yeah” Joel nodded in agreement.

The recent murder that had happened in the village had all got them talking, who did it, why did they do it, Mia, Leon, Brittany and Joel were determined to find out and to stop the murderer, even though they were all still in high school and their parents would not agree with what they were doing, they still tried to do everything they could.

Leon stepped forward “I’m sure they have an excuse for doing it”.

Brittany glared at him “So you think every murderer has got to have an excuse for killing someone!”

“Well not all of them, but this is such a small village and no one comes here a lot, so for someone to come here and murder someone, they must have had an excuse, right?”

“I agree” Mia said louder than she expected, Leon just turned and smiled at her again making Mia blush, Brittany noticed this and started talking to Leon, what she was saying Mia did not know for she had just seen something move out of the corner of her eye.

“What was that?” she said pointing.

“What's what?” Brittany asked.

“There look”.

“Mia no ones there” Joel said.

“No just look!” Mia said getting irritated.

“Mia” Leon said walking up to her “there’s nothing there”.

“But I… oh, maybe I am just seeing stuff”.

“Here” Joel said handing her a drink.

She took a sip, not realizing how thirsty she was she drank almost half the bottle before handing it back to Joel.

“There, you were just thirsty” Brittany said.

“Got to keep drinking, especially now in the summer” Leon said looking around.

Mia nodded and looked at the time “We better get going” the others nodded and started to walk across the field.

“Still, who would do that?” Brittany asked.

“A mad man” Joel replied.

Leon laughed “Joel out of all of us you’re the one who is most likely to kill someone”.

Joel looked at him and smiled “Oh you’re so hilarious Leon”.

They all started laughing loudly.

“But seriously” Mia said looking at the three of the “I am never ever going to kill someone”.

They all nodded in agreement.

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Mia opened her eyes, the same words echoing in her mind “I am never ever going to kill someone”.

“Well I just have” she said aloud to herself.

Suddenly there was a banging noise and she jumped up and looked frantically around to see who or what made the noise.

The banging noise happened again and Mia looked up and gasped, above her was dog, but she had never seen a dog like this one, its black fur was all sticking up, its eyes were red and it had yellow teeth and blood all around its mouth, on its four legs there were chunks of fur, skin and flesh missing.

Mia gasped looking around the room for an exit, the dog jumped down in front of Mia, she pulled out her gun but the dog jumped on her knocking the gun out of here hand.

She tried to reach out a hand to get the gun but it was too far away, the dog was growling and Mia looked at it, it was showing it teeth and its ears were back.

“I’m going to die” Mia thought to herself and closed her eyes, waiting for the dog to bite her, but then there was another bang and then a sickening crunching sound followed by a yelp and she felt the weight of the dog get heavier.

Mia opened her eyes, the dog was dead lying on her, its head was facing backwards, Mia pushed it off her and stood up quickly and looked around for the person who had saved her.

“Hello, please.... show yourself”.

A tall boy walked out, Mia recognized him at once, brown hair and brown eyes, it was Leon.

“Mia are you-“

But he never got to finish his sentence; Mia had flung herself at him.

“Thank you” Mia said.

She felt Leon’s arms go around her “You welcome”.