After Carmine's talk with Anna and Mia in the library, she headed over to her locker to change out her books before getting back to the rest of her school day. She threw her chemistry and Precalc books in the bottom of her locker and rooted around for the one she'd need for English. She found her history book under a pile of old papers, and she just stared at it for a second. She thought she'd lost that at home sometime last week. Maybe she really should clean this thing out.

She rifled through the first three inches of garbage. Most of it was old homework papers that she'd gotten back. A couple tests, a homework assignment or two that had gotten lost before she turned it in. And an envelope. Carmine stared at it, a feeling of dread forming in the pit of her stomach. She was getting really tired of notes in lockers – they really never should have done that to Freddy and Jackie freshman year. Who knew it'd start an epidemic?

She slowly turned the envelope over and tore open the flap. After carefully unfolding the paper tucked inside, she began to read. Of course, it was bad news, written by an anonymous friend – did anyone at this school ever send notes that weren't ominous?

Carmine glanced around, but of course no one was looking suspicious. Not that she really expected to find anyone; the whole point of dropping a note off was that you didn't have to stick around afterwards.

She stood up slowly, setting the note on the top of her history and English books. She dumped the papers she'd collected from her locker into the trash and headed for class. And here she'd been thinking that today couldn't get worse than it had been in the library! Well, that would teach her not to try looking on the bright side of things around here.

She stalked towards English, still thinking about that stupid note. She was halfway down the hall when she ran into Mia and Zev. Looked like Mia really didn't waste time in finding him, Carmine thought idly.

"Are you ok?" Mia asked.

"Uh, yeah..." Carmine said, shoving the note into the middle of her book.

"You sure? 'Cause you don't look ok." Mia told her.

"What'd you hide in your book?" Zev asked.

"What?" Carmine tried for surprise. He saw that?

"Carmine, come on. What is it?" he asked. "Haven't we been over this before?"

"Fine." Carmine grumbled, but she knew he was right. She took the note out of her book and handed it to him.

"Come to the woods outside of Eastside Mill Wednesday at five if you want to help your friend." he read out loud. He looked back up at her. "What's that mean?"

"I have no idea." Carmine told him.

"Where's the Eastside Mill?" Mia asked.

"It's a place on the other side of the freeway." Carmine told her.

They used to have field trips out there in elementary school, but the place had been abandoned for years. To be honest, Carmine had almost forgotten about it. She hadn't even been out there since like sixth grade.

"Are you going to go?" Mia asked.

"I think I have to." Carmine told her. How could she ignore something like this?

"We'll come too." Zev said instantly.

Mia nodded.

"I don't know..." Carmine said. She wasn't really sure she wanted to put her friends in danger like that.

"No arguments." Zev told her firmly. "There's no way I'm letting you go alone to something like this."

"...Ok." Carmine nodded. And to be honest, she didn't really want to go alone anyway. "Should we tell everyone else?"

"Conner has to help Luke with something tonight." Zev told her.

"But not you?"

"Uh, no. Not this." Zev replied. But he didn't say anything else. Carmine wondered what they could be up to that wouldn't include Zev, but Mia spoke up before Carmine had a chance to ask.

"I don't think we should worry Anna about it yet – she's got a lot on her mind anyway."

"Yeah..." Carmine thought that was the understatement of the year. But she knew Zev wasn't exactly fond of Anna at the moment, so it probably wasn't a good idea to have both of them together anyway.

"So I guess I'll see you guys before five." Carmine said.

"You will." Zev promised.

▼△▼△▼△▼

Carmine left straight after school to meet up with her friends. She would have liked to go home first, maybe relax a little. But she had to be meeting up with whoever left that note too close to when track let out. Besides, she knew she probably wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to be productive at home anyway. At least this way, she wouldn't have much time to sit there and worry about whatever was going on.

She met up with Mia and Zev about ten minutes to five at the edge of the field on the far side of town. They were only about a hundred yards from the woods, but Carmine chose to ignore that little fact.

"You guys seen anyone yet?" Carmine asked as she approached.

Both Mia and Zev shook their heads.

"It's been strangely quiet." Zev told her. He looked worried.

"I hate these letters." Mia mumbled.

"Yeah, me too." Carmine told her.

She heard a noise behind her and whipped around. Two people were walking towards them – Rudi and Rollin. Oh, well, that was just great. What were they doing here? And how was Rudi of all people supposed to help anyone? As soon as Mia saw Rudi, she got kind of pale and her eyes went wide.

"What are you doing here? Can't you just leave me alone?" Mia yelled. "I thought you said you were done following me." She'd tried for angry, but Carmine didn't miss the note of panic there.

Before Rudi even had time to respond, Mia had turned accusingly to Zev.

"You told me you'd take care of it." She sounded livid. She looked like she was ready to yell at him some more, but he was already glaring at Rudi.

"Why are you here? I thought I made it perfectly clear to you–"

"I'm here because I followed your stupid note." Rudi interrupted, narrowing her eyes at Mia.

"I thought it'd be best if she didn't come alone." Rollin added. Carmine couldn't tell if he thought it'd be better for Rudi or Mia. Mia didn't notice – she just looked indignant.

"I would never send you any–" she started haughtily.

"What note?" Carmine cut in.

"This one." Rudi held out a piece of paper that looked suspiciously similar to the one Carmine had found in her own locker.

She snatched it out of Rudi's hand and read: Come to the woods outside of the Eastside Mill tonight at five if you want to prove you were right.

"What's this mean?" Carmine asked Rudi.

"I don't know. I was hoping you would tell me." Rudi said.

Out of the corner of her eye, Carmine saw Mia stiffen.

"I didn't write this." Mia said, peering over Carmine's arm.

"Yeah, her handwriting's not that good." Zev said automatically.

Mia just glared at him.

"Sorry." He gave a half-hearted shrug.

"So who did?" Rollin asked.

"No clue. Not us." Carmine told him. "I got one just like it."

"Let me see." Rollin said. Carmine handed it over.

"Something's wrong." Zev said.

"Yeah." Carmine had figured that out too. She tried to fight the feeling that they'd all been led into a trap, but it was pretty hard to ignore. She just wished she was here with anyone other than Rollin and Rudi.

Suddenly, off in the distance, Carmine heard it: hoofbeats thundering on hard-packed dirt. She looked across the field to where the road lay. And there she saw him – a rider dressed all in black, holding his blotchy, half-rotten head out in his hand. Fire sprung from the horse's nostrils and sparks flew from its hooves. Carmine instantly recognized what it was from the nightmares she used to have. With eyes never leaving the rider, she backed up, bumping straight into Zev.

The impact of running into him was enough to shake her from her momentary shock. Now, all she had was pure panic.

"Run!" Carmine yelled. Without bothering to wait, she took off in a full sprint.