Click, Clack, Click, Click

Nicki plowed through the door of Selena’s house, slamming it behind her.

"Thanks for holding the door," Selena shouted sarcastically through the door as she pushed it back open. Sliding the key out she shut the door and locked it.

~ 4:00 AM ~

" So that’s enough of that, " Nicki said trying to peel her eyes off of the tv.

Selena and Nicki stumbled up the stairs to go to bed.

Selena was on the pull-out that was under her bed, and Nicki got the bed.

~ 10:00 AM ~

Selena woke up to someone poking her face. When she opened her eyes to yell at whoever the condemned pokey was.

"Nicki!", Selena bellowed.

"Well, how else was I supposed to get you all up? It was one of the nicest ways I could think of."

“I would wake up if you just said my name too you know?”, Selena pulled herself to her feet, “let's microwave some mini pizzas and we can watch tv while we wake up.”

~ 1:00 PM ~

After they began their tv marathon the girls decided to take a walk as an intermission of sorts.

They were out of sight from the house when they ran out of things to say about the tv show marathon.

Nicki is one of the types of people that cannot handle silence, "Oh I know! Mary sent me this hilarious photo”, she reached into her pocket, but did not pull out her phone. Patting down her other pockets she sighed.

"What?"

"Forgot my phone at your place, Gemme a sec."

"I'll come back with you."

They started to head back past the brick houses. They made it to the stop sign of her street when Nicki put out her arm to stop Selena.

"I'll quickly run and get it", Nicki said then took off.

She was fast, Selena still could have outrun her. Looking around at the neighboring houses and their yards, she thought about how her front yard must look ignored in comparison. Selena started walking back to her place, Nicki was way too long to grab her phone.

Nicki rounded the corner on the edge of Selena’s driveway shouting to her.

"Selena come quick!"

Confusion seeped in as she picked up her pace to see what was going on.

"What’s wrong?", I asked once in close enough not to have to yell.

"Come see for yourself."

Selena walked up to be greeted by a crudely painted sign, attached to her garage door by a thin piece of metal. The spray-painted letters made up one word.

RUN!

Selena opened her front door in shock and found that there had been a letter pushed through the slot.

"Nic check this out", Selena quietly said as she bent down to pick it up.

Nicki was glaring at the sign and was taking it off the door. She said, " What kind of person did this? Like what the hell this isn't funny."

She came into the house and locked the door then herded Selena up the stairs to her bedroom and locked that door too.

"Nicki, what’s going on with you?", Selena asked

Nicki ignored her and locked the windows, closed the blinds, and tried to push Selena’s dresser in front of the door.

"Help me, will you?", She huffed.

"Tell me what’s going on, you’re overreacting, it’s a stupid sign."

"Help me and I'll explain."

After the overkill of pushing the dresser in front of the door. Nicki settled down on the floor of the room.

"Sit", Nicki ordered.

Selena had never seen Nicki so serious. It was how she knew something was wrong.

"Look it’s just some crazy story and I didn't think of it at first. What I have heard isn't good Sel. Open the envelope.", Nicki trailed off.

Selena nodded and opened it upside down, a letter dropped out with a Swiss army knife and a chain necklace with a thumbnail-sized fox pendant.

Nicki's face paled and Selena picked up the letter with her eyes narrowed.

The letter read

“SELENA IVORY,

You have a month to prepare, hide, and run.

This is your notice and will be your only one. You are the fox. You are to be killed, if you don't believe the letter wait over two weeks, they will come.

At the end of the sixth month (if you get there) the seven will join in.

The seven are the elite, no one has lasted a full year.

And you probably won't either.”

She handed the letter to Nicki, who read it quickly with the same grim expression.

"So, what is this joke, like some sort of game?"

Nicki looked over at Selena and said," Selena. It’s no joke and it’s not quite a game I think... It’s not ‘Oh OOPS game over let’s go home. There’s no actual proof of this stuff going on. People just don't come back."

Selena sat frozen then found her voice, “Maybe it’s just a cruel joke, someone makes the stories, then does this."

"It could be Sel, but you have to be ready just in case."

"You are still overreacting, but I don't mind shopping."

Nicki smiled a little, " Guess we shouldn't have pushed the dresser in front of the door."

"Yeah... I knew that was a bad idea from the start."

" Ya Ya," She rolled her eyes," Let’s go get some gear."

Selena shook her head and laughed, but she felt it may be the last time for a while to come.