"Hey, did you hear on the news?"

"No, what happened?"

"Oh, I heard, I heard! You're talking about the missing people reports, right?"

"Missing people? Here?"

"Interesting right? I bet it has something to do with Lizzy May."

A lone figure, with hair as inky black as the starless night sky during a new moon, stops dead in her tracks in the middle of the busy hallway full of hormonal teenagers.

"Lizzy May?"

"Oh yeah, Lizzy May! Years ago, there was this incident at the old, abandoned amusement park on the other side of town. This girl, Lizzy May, died on the Ferris Wheel along with her kid."

The figure stealthy inched closer to the three gossiping girls, as she quietly rummaged through her purple backpack.

"How on earth did she die on a Ferris Wheel of all things?"

"Who knows, but it's said that she haunts Hemmingston in search of her child and that she spirited away anyone who wanders the abandoned amusement park."

"It's also said that if you say 'Lizzy May, I have your child!', she will appear and eat your soul!"

"Y-You're kidding right? Y-Y-You just said it! Is she going to eat our souls!?" The frightened girl practically screamed. The other two girls started to laugh.

"Calm down, calm down. You have to yell it three times while holding a teddy bear, so it's fine."

"You should've saw your face!"

"You guys are awful…huh?"

"What is it?"

The group of girls finally noticed the figure with black hair who was now standing just a few inches away from them. She had a puppy printed notebook in her pale hands and was currently scribbling furiously inside of it with a multicolored pen. She noticed that she could no longer hear the girls gossiping and looked up with stormy grey eyes, but then immediately flinched. The gossiping trio were now staring at her like a pack of cackling hyenas who were up to no good. The black-haired girl immediately put her head down and ran off.

"What a freak."

"I know, right!"

"Yeah..."

This so called 'freak' is named Ada Winston. Just your typical highschooler with a bit of a…quirk. Ada made it to a large cafeteria that had round tables lined neatly throughout the room. Even from the entrance you can see the different cliques that's been formed and bound by social expectancy.

The popular kids claimed the in the middle of the room so that they can be revered by their fellow mates (Bunch of hyenas…). The geek squad was pushed towards the corner of the room where the lights constantly flickered. The sport kids laid claim to the table in front of one of the windows and next to one of the exits to the cafeteria (Good luck to those who tries to leave out of that door…). Then finally, the outcasts. They were shunned to the table next to the popular kids, where they are made fun of and harassed every single day (Poor bastards…).

Ada herself would have been one of them, but she was luckily friends with someone who wasn't considered socially challenged. There, eating at a table in a peaceful corner of the room with a pencil in hand and a notebook open was Ada's best and only friend. She quickly rushed over to him and slammed her puppy covered notebook onto the table, startling him.

"Hail, Hail, Hail!"

"Yes, praise your omnipotent god, for I hold the answers to your wandering minds." The boy with wavy brown hair replied with false bravado. Ada giggles and holds up her notebook like and offering, while bowing her head.

"O' Hail, God of Sarcasm and Tunafish Sandwiches, I ask for your divine attention to be placed upon me and my wholesome story." The boy called Hail starts to stroke his nonexistent beard while humming thoughtfully.

"Go on, my dear."

Ada immediately sits across from her best friend and begins to tell the story of Lizzy May. "Your Holiness, this story is about a woesome girl named Lizzy May."

"Ah yes, the poor woman who died on a Ferris Wheel along with her innocent child and thirty other people. Yes, a tale heard by all and not really a wholesome story in my opinion." Hail replies with the act ongoing.

"Yes, but what most haven't heard of, my lord. Is that some say that it was an accident, while others say that it was on purpose. Either way, rumour has it that Lizzy May still haunts the town, and that her main haunting place is the old amusement park!" Ada said excitedly as she flipped through her notebook. Hail scoffed and rolled his eyes. Those beautiful aquamarine eyes that always seemed to take Ada's breath away each time she meets them.

"They also say that if you yell 'Lizzy May, I have your child!' three times, then she will appear. How did that work out for ya?"

'Terribly!'

Ada mentally shouted furiously. She still remembered the disappointment and acute embarrassment of standing in the middle of the playground full of kids, on the highest point there was, holding a brown teddy bear with a red bow high into the sky while screaming on the top of her lungs "LIZZY MAY, I HAVE YOUR CHILD!!!!".

'To make a long story short, cops were called, parents were concerned, kids now call me Rafiki, and Hail has a new video to laugh at.'

"Actually, you have to be holding a teddy bear, and if you do yell it with a child with you, then she takes the child back with her and kills them." Ada corrected meekly.

"That still doesn't change the fact that it didn't work, my dear." Hail said smugly. Ada deflated a bit as she felt like her wound from a few weeks back was reopened, and then was jabbed by a toothpick.

"But...it also doesn't disprove of the fact that she could still be haunting the amusement park!" Ada replied, snapping out of her disappointing (and very embarrassing) memory.

"Ada…you're not planning on investigating there…are you?" The cautious question was dripping with concern.

"Well of course!" Ada exclaimed without a second thought. There was absolutely no way that she was going to miss the opportunity to visit a live haunting ground. Finding or witnessing the unexplainable and trying to figure them out is what Ada lives for. That is her passion and her life goal, and no one will ever keep her from them.

"Absolutely not."

Ada flinched at the flat out rejection. 'Okay, maybe there are a few exceptions...'

"But what if I find a real live ghost!?" Ada exclaimed as she leaned forwards. "Just think of the doors that would open!"

Hail leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms and legs. "First of all, they won't exactly be alive seeing how they're already dead. Secondly, people are disappearing off the streets one after another, and you want to go to an abandoned amusement park at…"

Ada dipped her head and started picking at her notebook, while Hail waited for an answer. "At night…" She murmured.

"At night." Hail stated. Ada hunched into her chair, trying to avoid the solemn gaze that her best friend was sending her. "And thirdly, your mother…you know, the crazy but respectable woman who always carries around a 9mm on her waist, and sleeps with a loaded double-barreled shotgun next to her bed…also forbade you from going to spooky places. Especially alone and at the dead of night."

"It wouldn't had been exactly at the dead of night…" Ada muttered to herself, but Hail heard her.

"Yeah, no, just dark enough where the people in the white van can yank ya off the sidewalk without being noticed." Hail sarcastically replied. Ada knew that he was probably right. He usually was…but she didn't want to give up on this! Out of all the ghost stories and monster sightings that she researched, this sounded the most legit!

'But there's no way he's going to let me go…' Ada started to chew on her thumb nail, a nasty habit that she unconsciously does when she's in deep thought. 'If I can just convince him, then maybe he'll let me go. He's worried about my safety right? Then I'll just show him how safe I'll be.'

"I'll be fine! I'll carry my taser and my S.O.S device so that if I do get attacked, I can taze them and then call for help while I run. It's a full proof strategy!" Ada proudly reasoned.

"Yeah, so full proof that there's no way that the kidnappers would be strong enough, and/or fast enough to stop you. Noticed how I said 'Kidnappers'? As in plural?"

"Then I'll go with one of my friends! If I go with someone else, then we can work together to escape if anything were to go wrong!"

"I have a project to finish. You see, it would've been done if my partner wasn't always ditching me so that she can frolic around town."

"It's not frolicing, it's investigating!!" Ada yelled while jumping out of her seat, drawing attention to their quiet corner of the room. Ada turned slightly red as she noticed the stares, and quickly sat back down. "A-And besides, I have other friends besides you!" She said in a more tamed volume.

"Your notebook doesn't count and imaginary friends aren't real. Just face it, you have no other friends." Hail stated.

"You could've at least said that a little nicer..." Ada muttered.

"Oh, I'm sorry. People find you as an easy target for bullying, so they much rather make your life miserable than call you a friend." Hail sweetly said in a tone that sounded as if he was addressing a child.

"Asshole."

"Ichbay."

Ada huffed in aggravation. "Why are you so worried? Hemmingston's called 'The World's Safest Town' for a reason you know!" Ada pointed out desperately.

"Tell that to the missing people when you find them." Hail calmly retorted. "You're not going, and that's final." He said like a mother ending an argument with her child.

Ada huffed and puffed, but Hail just went back to his lunch and notebook. Ada started to pout as she noticed that she was being ignored. "Fine!" She finally yelled. She grabbed her notebook and stormed out of the cafeteria.

Hail watched his best friend and sister storm out of the cafeteria and sighed. "I'd better start making up excuses. Maybe if I break my ankle and blame everything on that, I can avoid getting shot…"