Why Mo?

Scott and Charlie were both once in "weird" relationships with Mo.

Charlie had a crush on her, and Scott was her on and off boyfriend.

"She kills for revenge," Jay said, breaking the silence, "But most of the names in her book were probably witnesses or knew what she was up to, in my opinion."

"But, how would she know Mo?" Charlie asked.

Jay thought for a while, and then asked, "Where was this Mo from?"

"Orlando," Scott answered, "She moved to Mesa when she was 13."

"I don't know much about where Amanda comes from. In fact, I don't even know her last name," Jay informed, "But I noticed she's good with woodwork, and she's kinda interested in insects, so I think she kills people using scaphism."

"What's scaphism?" Charlie asked.

"When the murderer usually strips the victim, and somehow pins them into something, usually a hollowed out tree trunk. He, or she, feeds the victim honey with milk, causing the victim to have diarrhoea, and then smothers honey all over the victim."

Charlie and Scott exchanged looks of disgust as Jay explained the peculiar form of murder to them.

"The honey and faeces attract insects, so they start to feed on the victim's flesh. The person can survive days, or even weeks, of excruciating pain before he or she dies. Eventually, all that's left are the victim's decaying bones, so the body ends up being left unidentified."

"We don't know if it's true," Mia interrupted, "Just rumours, as far as I'm concerned."

Jay ignored her and continued, "She looks lifeless. Straight, long, greasy, black hair and pale, like sickly pale, skin. She's very antisocial, but she's mean and cold, and she doesn't have feelings. And she's temperamental and throws huge tantrums. It's pretty freaky, to be alone with her, I mean."

"Everybody has feelings," Mia argued, "I will ask her myself, and I will prove that these rumours aren't true."

"Don't!" Jay begged, "If she finds out what we know, she'll kill us too. She's already freaked out after seeing the torn page in her book."

"Yeah," Scott agreed, "It could be rumours, but it's still possible."

Mia rolled her eyes and muttered, "Fine, whatever."

"Apparently she was molested as a child by both her parents and was sent to and orphanage," Jay brought up, "Did you know most sexual predators were sexually abused growing up? I think Amanda uses scaphism because you get to see the victim naked, and it's hard to identify them afterwards. My dad's a CSI."

"Your dad's an actor?" Charlie asked, causing Jay to almost chuckle, but didn't want them to think he's making jokes at a time like this.

"No, a crime scene investigator," Jay corrected, "I've learnt a lot from him. Criminals are affected by their genetics and their surroundings, their minds work differently to ours. I've heard that Amanda's mom was a prostitute and her father was a rapist, and by day a writer. She's an orphan now, and she kept moving to orphanages all over the country because of all the accidents that's happened around her."

"So, what if this is all true?" Scott imagined, saying his thoughts out loud, "How do we stop her, doctor?"

Jay looked flattered by being called a "doctor", and answered, "We need proof. We need to catch her red-handed, so we need to know the plan. We need to find out the "why" first, we know who, I'm not so sure how, and I have no clue when, but obviously during winter break. We all know where, though….."

Here. At the lodge, at Beaver Mountain in Utah.

Nobody needed to say anything.

"What makes you think that she's psychologically unstable?" Scott asked, starting to sound more and more like an interviewer on a talk show.

"Antisocial behaviour, shows strong hatred, cunning, temperamental, cold, secretive, she can remember things perfectly, in such great detail, which show's her mind goes beyond that of an average human, but shows signs of memory loss, eccentric behaviour, speech problems, mood swings, attempted suicide, never smiles, no impulse control, extreme paranoia, doesn't eat in front of others…."

His voice trailed off, and then he added, "I'm guessing bipolar, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, somewhere along those lines."

"Wow," Mia muttered, under her breath.

"How do you know so much about her?" Charlie asked.

"I've known her for five years, and these rumours have been going on since way before that," Jay answered, "Even at her old schools. It's why she doesn't have friends or a roommate. Nobody talks to her because we heard that once, in kindergarten, a boy had taken her lollipop, so she started screaming and crying and pulling her hair out. That recess, the teacher found the boy dead on the playground."

"Wow," Mia whispered again.

"Just for stealing a lollipop?" Charlie complained, now never wanting to meet the girl.

Jay nodded and shrugged, and then said, "We need to help your friend. I mean, this is the first time we actually now who she's going after. We can stop her."

"You said so yourself, that it's too dangerous," Mia said.

"Thought you didn't believe the rumours," Jay mumbled.

"I…don't," Mia denied, dragging out the "I", and lowering her voice to say "don't".

"How about I sneak into her room, and go through all her stuff?" Jay asked, obviously wanting to help, "I know she keeps this small brown sack-like thing and once when someone touched by accident, she started screaming and pulled a bunch of that guy's hair out. And I know how to pick a lock and crack codes. And hotwire a car."

For the son of a CSI, he knew a lot about criminology. But then again, he spent a lot of time around crime scenes, growing up.

Scott and Charlie looked at him like he was crazy.

Mia calmly said, "You're not allowed on the girl's side. I'll do it."

Jay looked disappointed and muttered, "Oh, yeah. Bridget says we can't mingle. She's our dance instructor and the adult responsible for us while we're on this trip."

Scott nodded and Charlie was shocked after Mia had offered to go through Amanda's stuff, and was starting to worry.

"But what if she catches us?" Charlie asked, "She'll feed us to her bug friends."

He shuddered at the thought.

"If she feeds anyone it can be me," Jay said, "As long as my hypothesis is proved correct. But, she won't catch me. It's you three that I'm worried about. I've gotten used to being in the presence of criminals and mental people."

Charlie looked at Mia and said, "You're the same as before. Don't get killed now."

Mia wrinkled her nose and said, "What?"

Charlie just shook his head and shrugged.

"You can't pick a lock," Jay told Mia.

"I can try," Mia said, "I once lost the key to my bedroom and used a knife to unlock the door. It actually works."

"Where are you gonna find such a tiny knife from?" Jay asked, still eager to go get his evidence himself.

"I don't need a knife," Mia mumble, her sweet voice getting higher, "I have this."

She raised her hand to her head and pulled a hair pin out of her hair.

"Good job, Avakian," Jay said, sounding impressed, "I've seen crimes where people have picked locks and started vehicles using those hair thingys."

"I will prove to you guys that these rumours are false," Mia stated.

"Then how would you explain the paper with Mo's name on it?" Scott asked.

Mia opened her mouth to argue back, but Jay interrupted by asking, "What about all those names from the kids who have disappeared?"

This time, the "non-believer" remained silent and just sighed impatiently.

After a long pause after that sigh, she said, "Don't tell your friend, Mo, though. I mean, it's just a piece of paper. That could mean anything."

Charlie saw Mo walk towards them and warned, "Mo's coming. What should we talk about?"

"Rabbits," Jay said, that being the first random word that popped into his head.

"Okay…." Scott mumbled.

Mo walked up to them and greeted, "Hey."

She sat down beside Charlie.

"So," Scott said, "Did you know that rabbits can apparently have babies on their own?"

Jay nodded and muttered, "Mm-hm."

"Why are you guys talking about rabbits?" Mo asked, confused by the weird topic of the conversation.

"Because….." Charlie started, trying to think up an excuse.

"I'm getting a rabbit for my birthday," Mia lied.

Mo had believed her, shockingly, because the lie was unconvincing.

Charlie smiled at Mia, happy that at least there is one person on the planet that he's a better liar than.

"So, I know a girl who you might've known a while back," Jay told Mo, causing the other three to exchange glances and look at him surprised, "Her name's Amanda. An orphan, always moving schools….."

Mo looked up to her left, and asked, "Amanda Vazov?"

"That's the one," Jay said and smiled, "So, were you guys friends or something?"

Mo shook her head no, "I met her when I lived in Orlando, first day of fifth grade. She was a year younger and went to school a year early, or something, and she was new. You see, after meeting my dad, all my friends abandoned me, so I thought that I should befriend the new girl. So I tried to talk to her, but she never said anything, so I put my hand on her shoulder and the second I touched her she started to kick and scream and cry. And then she pulled some of my hair out, so I got mad and yelled, 'You're so abnormal, Amanda!", and then all the other kids started to chant, 'Abnormal Amanda." I didn't mean for the name to stick. So she had a fit, after all that humiliation, and was rushed to the school's infirmary, and she had to move again. I never forgot her."

"Hmmm," Jay mumbled, "Bet you never will."

"Yeah," Mo agreed, "How do you know her, anyway?"

"She's in my crew and we go to school together," Jay answered, "We're also neighbours."

"Cool," Mo muttered, looking a little bored.

"So, where are the others?" Charlie asked.

"Still waiting there to collect the food," she rolled her eyes.

"Great. It's almost lunch," Scott complained, "I'm starving!"

Charlie nodded and mumbled, "I lost my appetite."

"So, we've decided to collect our food and have our lunch at the cabin," Mo explained, "And then we can go sledging."

"Hello."

The 5 teens looked up to see Brandon. Not that Mo, Charlie and Scott had to, since the boy had a thick British accent.

"We're going to leave in a few minutes," he informed, "So, what were you guys talking about?"

Jay, obviously being quite the conversationalist, smiled and answered, "Rabbits."

Stella looked down at the bar that she held in her hands.

Positive. Fantastic.

Olivia knocked on the bathroom door, and asked, "Stella, you alright? The others are gonna be here in a few minutes and-"

"I know you know," Stella interrupted, "I heard you and Wen talking."

"Stella, I'm sorry," Olivia said, not sure what she was apologising for.

Stella breathed heavily and replied, "Me too."

Olivia opened the door and stepped inside.

"It's positive," Stella told the taller girl.

"Oh, Stella," Olivia pulled Stella into a hug, "It'll be fine."

Stella closed her eyes and mumbled, "I wish it were that easy, that everything would just be fine."

After sledging, the group of nine had visited the lodge's library, because Olivia insisted as she had finished her book earlier that day.

The library was slightly smaller than that of a real library.

They all split up and looked around, everyone but Olivia wanting to go back to the cabin for dinner and sleep.

Charlie and Scott had headed straight to the sections on psychology and murder.

Brandon had found himself an old music magazine and sat down to start flipping through it.

Becca had approached him with a thick, dusty, big hardcover book, and asked, "Do you believe in reincarnation?"

"I haven't given it any thought actually," Brandon whispered, not wanting to disturb the other people in the library, "Why do you ask?"

"I was just checking out this book," Becca answered, "It's about Beaver Mountain long before the lodge was built. It says there was this girl, and she had fallen in love with a boy, but he had been fooling her and was going to marry someone else. So she found out, but the guy didn't want his fiancé to find out as well, so he killed her. Now apparently her ghost is still here on Beaver Mountain waiting for the guy to return, so she can get revenge."

Brandon rolled his eyes, but Becca sighed and said, "I'm totally taking this one out."

"What does this have to do with rebirth, anyway?" Brandon asked.

Becca opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it and smirked.

"See for yourself," she whispered, handing the heavy book to Brandon.

Brandon took the book, which had already been opened.

Becca pointed to a black and white photograph of a young man, who Ray said was the boy from the story.

The picture was a little blurry, so Brandon squinted his eyes to get a better look.

Brandon gasped at what he saw.

The man in the photo was the spitting image of himself.