"No way!!" I laughed, nudging my friend Grace at her comment. "There's no way Hudson did that!" She laughed. "Did, too! And he was at LEAST two knuckles deep!"

I groaned, wrinkling my nose in disgust but kept laughing, waving her off. "Gross!"

She chuckled at my reaction.

Finally, we arrived at my house we came to a stop. "Well, we're here." Grace said sadly. "See ya later, Sterling!"

I waved. "Bye, Grace."

When Grace had disappeared from my sight, I let out a sigh and turned to face the gate in front of my house. Just as I was about to go through, I heard a strange popping noise and incoherent shouts. "Hm...?" Confused, I turned and began to go towards the suspicious sounds. What could it be...? Clutching my school binder to my chest, I crept around a corner in time to see something that my stomach twist, my brain melt and my knees buckle. Just as I rounded the corner, a loud BANG rang out, and I saw with my own eyes, a man fall to his knees, blood streaming down his body and out the corner of his mouth, and in an instant, he collapsed to the pavement, dead. The world began to spin as my brain slowly processed what I'd just seen. My stomach twisted so tight I could hardly breath and my knees were shaking so hard I thought I'd lose balance any second. My hands felt clammy and I stood frozen stiff.

My heart pounded so hard I thought it would burst as a cold pair of green eyes pinned me down. "YOU!" I flinched heavily as a bloodcurdling voice called out to no one other than ME.

My whole body trembled as a tall, bulky man with a 5 o'clock shadow and a buzz cut stiffly approached me and grabbed hold of my shoulder with one hand and holding a pistol to my head with the other, instantly making my skin crawl. His face was inches from mine and he spat, "You didn't see anything! Do you hear me?!" I struggled to find my voice as I winced. "YOU DIDNT SEE NOTHING!" He shouted. Unable to answer, I nodded. He pierced my head with the end of the gun as he hissed, "if I find out you told a single soul, I will hunt you down and kill you and everyone or anyTHING you have ever loved."

I struggled to swallow the lump in my throat and nodded, almost bursting into tears from the fear of it all.

The murderer roughly let my body go and looked around for any other witnesses before darting quickly away, leaving the dead victim and I behind. The instant he was out of my sight, my knees buckled and I collapsed onto the ground, holding myself tightly, as if it were the only thing keeping me from falling apart. My whole body shook from the fear and I gulped.

What had I gotten myself into...?