Hi friends! Here's the new story I promised so I hope you guys will enjoy this!

In the tiny, rundown apartment, the only sound that was heard was soft music playing that was coming from the radio. The song finished playing on its last delicate note when the radio DJ came on. "That was 'Hazy' by Rosi Golan. You're listening to SONG radio with Elliot. I have to interrupt your singer/songwriter music for a moment to broadcast some important news. Mal Manifold has escaped the Toronto Correction Center and was last spotted on Steeles Ave. He is male, dark brown hair, brown eyes, 6'1, teal short sleeves shirt, blue jeans, and an old pair of brown and white sneakers. Mal is very dangerous and advised to stay alert of your surroundings and to not approach him. Notify the police immediately. Now back to 'No Matter Where You Are' by Us!"

Zoey leaned over the small, old table and turned off the radio. She wasn't in the mood to listen to the radio anymore. Zoey's head hung down as she read the newspaper, the news of Mal seemed everywhere. She tucked in a loose segment of her red hair behind her ear as she read on. Zoey didn't mind reading the newspaper, she'd rather watch the news of all things, but she liked to support good ol' paper printing. But then she would contradict herself by saying watching the news on television would save trees. It was always a battle in her head which to do.

Zoey just graduated college and was able to get her own apartment after all the money she collected in college. It wasn't a nice apartment, but it was quant. She was able to get a job working with the local theater as a costume designer. Hopefully one day she'll be able to grow from the local theater. Today was her day off, and thank god for that. The director wanted the lead actor's costumes within a few weeks and Zoey has been working her butt off. Measuring and remeasuring, and then getting the fabric to put it all together was time consuming. Zoey folded the newspaper and stood up to grab herself some breakfast. The usual English muffin and a latte.

This is what her usual morning routine. Grab the newspaper, skim through it, breakfast, put on clothes for the day, and then go to work. But today was different because she could take her time in the morning since it was her day off. Zoey would also be singing and dancing along with the radio… but she didn't want to hear anymore about Mal.

Mal or Mike, she didn't know anymore. The incident still haunted her after four years, right when they were about to graduate high school. She was with Mike, Cam, Sam, Gwen, and Duncan when they decided to have some fun at the park that was just down the block from her house. They had nothing else to do, so why not? When they arrived, Zoey went to the swings with Mike, Duncan and Gwen went to carve something in a tree, Sam only went down the slide once before pulling out his Game Guy, and Cameron didn't want to touch anything from the park because of the germs. After a few minutes of swinging and talking, Duncan called over to Mike.

"Hey, Mike! You can still do gymnastic stuff right?"

"Yeah." Mike called back.

"Does that mean you can do a handstand on top of the swings?" Duncan asked.

"Probably, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it." Mike said.

"See, me and Gwen have a tiny bet." Duncan explained. "She says you can do it, but I say that you can't. Gwen says she's seen you do it, but I have to see it with my own eyes."

"I'm not going to do it, Duncan." Mike declined.

"I think it was all wires and smoke. The show hooked you and that's how you were able to fool everyone." Duncan challenged.

"Duncan, you know he can do it easily." Zoey remarked. "Don't push him like that."

"If he can do it easily, why doesn't he do it now?" Duncan inquired.

Before anyone else was about to object, Mike stood up and started to stretch. "Alright, Duncan. I'll do it no problem, I'll make you eat you're own Mohawk."

Duncan couldn't help but laugh. "The day you make me shove it is the day I ask Gwen to marry me." Gwen couldn't help but give a small laugh as everyone knew Duncan and Gwen weren't exactly the family type.

Zoey looked nervously at Mike and stood up to put a small hand on his shoulder. "Mike, please be careful."

He turned to her with a smile on his face. A smile that was so confident that he just felt like nothing could go wrong. "I've done this so many times, Zoey. It'll be fun to see Duncan go down on one knee." Mike gave a laugh along with one more stretch before jumping up and flipping himself on the top of the swings. He stood on the pole with ease and then brought both hands down to do a handstand. Everyone cheered as Mike still held that confident smile.

Mike's adrenaline pumped through him as he then decided to show off and then use only one hand to balance him. The cheers went to awe as then Zoey felt a bit nervous now. Duncan cupped his hands around his mouth to call out to Mike. "Alright, I get it. Stop showing off before I knock you off!"

Mike knew he was joking around, so he couldn't help but retort. "I want to see how you ask Gwen to marry-"

Zoey didn't know what happened to Mike at that moment. Mike suddenly stopped talking as his body wavered on the pole and was definitely going to fall. "Mike!" Zoey screamed for his safety, hoping that a magical net would come out and save him.

Mike fell quickly as everyone ran to him in worry. Duncan was first there and muttered. "Oh, shit."

"Mike, Mike!" Cameron asked concerned for Mike. "Are you okay?"

"Of course he's not okay," Gwen said quickly. "He's out cold!"

"Someone hurry and call the ambulance!" Zoey demanded.

Zoey snapped out of the memory as she noticed her English muffin seemed to be done toasting for awhile now. She quickly popped it into the microwave to reheat it. Zoey remembered visiting him in the hospital and how he was mute the whole time. He woke up but he wouldn't respond. His eyes would look at you when you first walked into a room but he wouldn't acknowledge you after that. At first, it made Zoey's heart break. How could he ignore her like that? But the more she visited, it bothered her less and less. It wasn't until Mike's parents were concerned for his mental state since he wouldn't talk to anyone for no reason and brought back his psychiatrist. After the first session, his psychiatrist came to a pretty shocking conclusion- Mal was back.

The session must have taken a turn for the worst for his psychiatrist to decide that. According to him, Mal somehow permanently took over and Mike wasn't going to come back. Zoey didn't know what happened with Mal at that point because she knew better than to reach out to him. She didn't know if his parents kicked Mal out or if he ran away. Either way, Mal was sent to jail and he just escaped.

That all was a distant memory though. She moved on from all of that and found herself in the process. After going to art school to try sculpting, she changed to costume design. It was quite a change from going to stone to fabric but it was something she had fun with, especially since she loved to make clothes from the Victorian area- so big and puffy.

Zoey didn't want to work on any of her costumes today, or even see them. She grabbed her muffin from the microwave and then buttered it before it became cold again. She then made herself a latte and did a fun little design before sitting back down again with her breakfast. Zoey just sat there with her own thoughts. She saw no point of turning anything on since she would only be there for a few moments.

When she finished her English muffin, she put the plate in the sink before grabbing her mug and moving to her bedroom to change. She put on her red, sleeveless, crop top and khaki shorts before doing her hair. No rubber bands for her since she outgrew the pig-tail style. Her hair fell down to the middle of her neck as all she did was brush it to get the knots out. Zoey never liked to style it unless she needed to, so it was naturally straight. To keep the hair from falling into her face, which was a common occurrence while designing, she used a flower pin to bring back the side of hair that is usually too stubborn to stay tucked behind her ear. After her hair, she quickly did her makeup with her special red lipstick, mascara, and a very thin line of eyeliner to make her dark brown eyes stand out some more. In a way, she never really changed appearance but she definitely matured.

She looked behind her at the clock by her bedside to look at the time- Almost 10:30am. Cameron was supposed to pick them up so they can check out the street fair down the block. Zoey offered to pick him up on her Moped but Cameron didn't feel safe. He'd rather drive to Zoey's and walk to the fair. After the fair they were going to get lunch, as friends of course, as a celebration. Cameron should've picked a job by now. He can either be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon since he doubled major in rocket Scientology and Neurosurgery. She knew he wasn't going to bring it up at the fair, or even at lunch, since he was too humble to do such a thing. Zoey knew lunch would be the best time to discuss.

Zoey then went to her bathroom to brush her teeth of any leftover breakfast or morning breath. She smiled before she went to fix her lipstick. Brushing after she applied her lipstick was a common mistake.

Creak. Zoey heard as she set down her lipstick. She turned to the open door way to see if something was there.

Thump. Zoey rolled her eyes. Duncan usually liked to just walk into her apartment anytime. He became a good friend but even after switching the locks on him, he still was able to get in. Zoey stomped out the door.

"Duncan, stop breaking into my house! What you are doing is illegal, and I don't want to call Gwen again to-" Zoey said exasperated before something grabbed her and pulled her back roughly.

"Intruder!" Her mind shouted.

Her eyes widened as her mouth was covered with a rough hand, and a blade was brought to the side of her face. "If you so much as scream, I will kill you." The voice said in a deep tone in her ear.

She wasn't just going to be robbed blind, she could barely pay rent! She also wasn't going to wait for Cameron, he wouldn't exactly help in the situation either. Zoey noticed the intruder relax the blade a bit before she swiftly kicked him in the groan.

She moved out of the way as he went to grab his crotch in pain. Zoey grabbed a pot that was hanging above her sink and whacked him in the head.

He fell down hard as the blade fell out of his hand. Zoey, as fast as she could, grabbed it and held out the pot in front of her in defense.

The man groaned as with one hand he held his crotch and the other with his head. Zoey wasn't about to feel bad as she ran for her land line phone and dial the emergency number. Her thumb was on top of the dial button before she asked. "How'd you even get into my house?"

"You still are an air head from when I last saw you." The man grunted out as he was able to look at Zoey.

Zoey gasped and almost dropped everything in shock. "Mal?"

Wow big shocker, it's Mal! -_- I feel like everyone saw that coming haha. Oh well, please update and let me know what you think!