Amie shivered as she stepped off the train and onto the platform at Tiana Street Village. Her mother was going to be picking her up and taking her to Belle Street, taking her home.
'I can't believe it,' She thought nervously. 'Ten years I've been away. Ten years since I saw my friends and my brother. Everyone must think I'm nuts, and I suppose I did go crazy for a while there.
A devil acrobat eating kids and torturing me and my friends! Me and my friends beating the acrobat to within an inch of her life in the basement of the Haunted House of Belle Street. Being kidnapped and stabbed in the leg by the acrobat. Being tied to a tightrope high up in the air till I passed out. I must have lost it completely. But I do have scar on my leg, and there are marks that look as if they were made by struggling while being tied up...'
Amie shook her head determinedly.
No! I'm not going to think of that. That's all in the past. And those marks must have just been during the accidents while I was hallucinating. Today isn't first day back home, and I'm going to make the most of it!
—
On the car ride to Belle Street, Amie grinned as she thought about the last time she'd seen her friends.
'They all told me to remember that I'm not crazy.' She suddenly realised. 'So, either we were all crazy, or...'
She let out a small scream as an image of 6-year-old her standing next to a tall, skinny woman with long, curly dark red hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing an acrobat costume with the words 'BellaStar' written across it and a Texan-style hat came into her head. Her mother pulled over and Amie stumbled out of the car, ignoring her mothers yelling and walking in a straight line. She soon recognised where she was and ran to her and her friends' old hideout at the tree.
She let out a sob and collapsed at the bottom.
"It was real." She yelled. "Everything I thought was hallucinations, it was all REAL! Every horror I thought I'd dreamed, it was all YOU! You killed Amanda! I'd forgotten about her, the Asylum's spell was starting to work. But I'm back now, and when you return I'm gonna kill you!"
"Woah, woah, calm down." A voice whispered. Amie looked up and a grin immediately spread across her face.
"Oh my god. . . KITTIE!"
She threw herself at the 15-year-old girl, tears sliding down her cheeks. She heard a small laugh and realised there were three more people standing behind Kittie.
"EMI! SOPHI! CLARI!"
The three of them ran over and joined the hug, Kittie started sobbing and Emilie was blushing.
"Oh, my god, I can't believe it. Amie Rowan Pensive! You're actually standing right in front of me, I don't believe it!" A voice came from behind her and Amie spun around. She grinned and folded her arms in a sassy way.
"Well, Richard Peter Pensive, believe it, because I'm back."
She ran forwards and threw her arms around his neck as he lifted her up and spun her around. He looked at her in concern as he noticed how thin she was and she smiled shyly.
"Oh, my god, you're tiny. You've always been shorter than me, but you're so small!"
"Yeah, we had to do a lot of...exercise at the Sisters Asylum, and we didn't get much food."
"Oh god, you poor thing." Claire muttered and Sophi nodded. Amie looked around eagerly.
"Where's everyone else? Cora? And Kayden? They'd be about 15 and a half now right? What about Ann? She'd be 15, right? Ooh, and Betty, wouldn't she be around 25 now? Omg and what about Lucie and Edmund? Eddie would be 16 now and Lu around 14, right? And Ryan? Omg wouldn't he be almost 17 now? Where are they all? Omg, what about Pandie-bear?!"
There was an awkward silence and Amie stared at them in surprise. Emilie then smiled and took her hand, causing Amie to blush slightly. Emilie led her to the ladder behind the tree and started to climb it, pulling Amie up behind her. When they got to the top, they sat at the balcony with their legs dangling off the edge and Emilie grinned.
"They should be here in the next few minutes, we've met up here every Saturday afternoon at 2pm for the last few years, since we became friends again. They wouldn't miss it, especially after what happened yesterday."
"What happened yesterday?" Amie asked curiously, causing the four girls and one boy to look at each other nervously. "What? What is it? What happened?"
"Um," Kittie let out a sigh and sat next to her. "I don't really want to talk about it, so can we wait till everyone is here?"
"Of course," Amie nodded understandingly. She heard two more voices and slid down the side of the tree, forgetting about the ladder. Her brother laughed.
"I see you're still great at climbing then."
"Well, it helps to be small." Was her response. Richard narrowed his eyes and Amie smiled.
"Relax, Chard, I'm fine. There's no need to worry."
Richard opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a shriek as Cora, Ann and Lucie leapt at Amie, knocking her to the floor. They all giggled and Amie was lifted up by Ryan, who was the tallest, and Edmund, who was as short as her.
"Oh my god, Ry, you've really grown! And Eddie! We're the same height! Are you really 16?! That's so awesome! Aww, I missed you guys!"
"We missed you too cuz!!" Edmund muttered. Ryan threw his arms around her and let out a squeak, causing Amie to grin.
"Well, I see you haven't changed much aside from your height Ry."
"I'm just excited to see you Ami!" Was Ryan's response, causing Amie to smile again. She was suddenly wrapped in a hug again by Ann and Lucie, Cora joining in a second later.
"A, I missed you so much! I've literally thought about you every day, wondering what you look like and whether you've grown or not! Clearly you haven't. Ah, I'm so excited to see you! We have to go to the mall soon, all of us girls!"
"Cora!" Lucie yelled, grinning from ear to ear. "Let us all say something as well!" She hugged Amie again and sighed happily. "I've missed you cuz."
"I've missed you too cuz." Amie responded quietly, tears slipping down her face. She had only found out a few days before being sent away that she and Richard were cousins with Lucie and Edmund, so she hadn't had a chance to live with them as her cousins.
I mean, they were like my family already, it probably wouldn't have been much different. She thought happily.
Everyone yelled, they ended up collapsing on the floor in a heap, and they heard a loud chuckle from behind the tree as Betty emerged.
"Bets!" Amie yelled as Betty hugged her.
"Aww, little Amie! You've grown so much!"'
"I really haven't." Amie laughed, causing everyone else to smile. They all climbed up to the treehouse and sat on the balcony, looking up at Kittie and Emilie. The two of them sighed and Kittie looked at Amie.
"Okay, listen Amie. Five years ago, when I was 11 and Pandie was 9, we found out that Pandie had a twin sister called Katerina. We tracked her down and she lived with us until last night."
"Oh wow, Pandie-Bear has a twin sister!" Amie said in surprise. Kittie looked down and sighed again.
"Well, had."
Amie realised what Kittie had said and gasped.
"Oh shit."
Emilie started talking, explaining everything with Kittie filling in at points. They told the other eleven all about the blood on the street, how they'd raced back to Kittie's and found Pandie covered in blood, how she'd then told them about an acrobat dark fairy, then they'd realised that Katerina was gone, and Pandie had collapsed. They finished by talking about how Pandie had been taken to hospital and was facing possibly being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life, and about how the body had been identified as Katerina, and finally; the message on the wall written above Katerina's head.
Everyone got paler as the story went on, and as each person heard their name mentioned in the message, they let out a small squeak or scream. When Kittie and Emilie had finished speaking, everyone stared at each other fearfully. Finally, 14-year-old Lucie spoke up.
"So what does it mean?"
Everyone was silent and Amie gasped as she realised what Kittie and Emilie had been talking about.
"It means that BellaStar is back, and desperate for revenge..."