Got A Secret?: Chapter 1: Into the Funhouse

"Carnival Mirror Vanity,

What I don't understand,

Is why you must kill girls like me,

Is this what you find grand?"

~Dayana

Shards of glass littered the ground. It's odd how quickly objects of fun can become instruments of pain.

"It's my fault. I put the mirrors up. Did you know that? I killed Emily."

Spencer's words were punctured with a sharp sob and by the crunch of glass beneath her heels.

"Hey!" Hanna took her friend by the shoulders and shook her roughly. "Stop it! Emily's not dead. What happened, it's not your fault. None us could have done anything."

I watched the exchange between my best friends from where I stood at the entrance to the hall. Emily had been carried out by paramedics only moments before. We'd found her, unconscious and bleeding, sprawled on the ground just moments after we heard her final cry for help. Of course, Toby was nowhere to be found. And, I glanced around, neither was Jenna.

"Guys?" My voice sounded odd even to me. "Don't you think we should go to the hospital?" I surveyed the mess around me. "There's not much we can do here."

Hanna braved a smile. "Aria's right. We need to be there for Emily when she wakes up."

"If she wakes up." Spencer kicked a piece of glass with the toe of her shoe.

"Stop it Spence." This time it was I who admonished my friend. "Negativity won't get us anywhere." Still, I couldn't be too harsh on Spencer. It was her way of dealing with it all. She needed someone to lash out at; we all did.

"Ready?"

Hanna nodded and Spencer sighed.

"Let's go."

Hand in hand we strolled out of the hallway, through the plastic cup strewn cafeteria, and out into the night.