The night wind howled as the teenage girl stood shivering under the lamppost.

Dressed in a plain
grey sweatshirt and faded blue jeans, she had the hood pulled up over her head, sleeves pulled all
the way down to her fingers. Her straight blonde hair whirled around her face as she wrapped her
arms around her chest in an attempt to keep warm. She was the only sign of life on the otherwise
deserted street, in some unknown neighborhood she had never entered before. Though her face
did not show it, her mind was racing. Suddenly she felt a small vibrating in her thigh. Hands
shaking, she slowly pulled the cell phone from her pocket, pulled the screen open, and put it up
to her ear.

The clear, female voice filled the girl’s ear with the monotone directions. “Hello, Jessica.
You’ve made it this far, so I take it you got the letter. You’ve told no one, correct?”

“Yes.” Jessica said, speaking in what she hoped was a calm voice.

“Good. Such an obedient girl. The receiver will now enter the drop-off point. We have
verified that you have reached it successfully, with the package in hand.” Jessica’s eyes darted
around the empty street. How could they have known…? The voice continued. “The receiver will
walk beneath the streetlamp, and at that point you are to take the package and give it to the
receiver, in complete silence. After she leaves, you are to walk down the opposite end of the
street, enter your car, and sit there until 1:17, 30 minutes later. Then you are to leave. If any of
the instructions are violated, the agent will be required to handle it. Understand?” The voice
showed no sign of emotion, simply stating the facts.

“Who are you?” she whispered, her voice wavering. Jessica heard a slight laugh, and then
the empty noise of a dead line. She shut the phone and shoved it in her pocket, the other already
occupied, and leaned nervously against the post. Why her? Why was it her? Why? And then she
saw it. A person emerged swiftly from the side of one of the houses. Jessica felt herself start to
shake. She knew it was a woman, based on her figure and from the woman on the phone, but
something told her she was younger. Maybe it was her clothes, maybe it was the way she
walked. But even under the light post, the dark midnight sky of February prevented her from
seeing the woman’s face. Jessica felt like she was going to collapse on the ground. Her stomach
ached, and her head had only one thought, Who is it? And entering the dim light of the lamp,
Jessica saw the face she thought she’d never see again.
 Standing several yards away, the person Jessica was gaping at, with wide eyes and a
petrified expression, she barely recognized. Her mahogany hair was shorter, layered differently
and straighter, falling down inches below her shoulders. He face was masked with a layer of dark
makeup that Jessica would have called unnatural last September. She wore tight-fitting black
jeans, a pair of leather-heeled boots, and a large, suede jacket the color of coal. Her unusually
dark eyes stared into Jessica’s, like a snake staring at a mouse. Jessica forgot entirely about her
objective.

“Erin?” She gasped, tears starting to well in her eyes. “Oh God, it’s you, it’s really you.”
She felt the tears streaming down her checks, and started to run forward.

In one swift moment, the tall, unrecognizable girl did something that made Jessica’s
world into a spiraling downfall. In that one step Erin’s hand shot to her thigh and returned with
astonishing speed. In a blink of an eye, aiming directing into Jessica’s chest, she held a black
handgun in both hands. Jessica face froze, paralyzed, and she felt herself stop. She couldn’t tell if
she was breathing or not, all she felt was the steady pounding of her heart, and the hot tears
flooding her face.

She searched Erin’s face, looking for any sign of her old self, hoping for this all to be
some kind of horribly sick joke. She looked into Erin’s eyes, peering into the dark irises, hoping
for anything, anything that could reveal the true Erin. But she found nothing, only the reflection
of a girl, permanently scarred by the loss of her true friend, and the empty skin of what was left.

“Don’t move.”