CHAPTER I – A New Opportunity

Elsa Phillis was considered a brilliant student at Rosevalley. Almost perfect grades, a member of the science club, and participant in many science fairs and competitions. The 17 years old high-schooler was not that popular among her colleagues, even though she was fairly beautiful.  Blonde hair, green eyes, a good 5’2 figure. Usually with a dark shirt and blue jeans.

But boys preferred the cheerleaders, the dumb idiots who jumped and screamed like baboons.

And the girls. The girls did not want to hang out with here, she was considered a nerd, a loser, not worthy of their time.

As a single child, she always tried to impress her mother Janet with her scientific interests, although she never really understood nor cared about all that 'sciency stuff'.

"Why don’t you just study for marketing, or accounting, or medicine? You’re so smart honey, you could use some of that intelligence to make some good money in the future… Who knows, maybe even marry a rich guy or something… All that science stuff isn’t going to bring the money, you know?" she used to say.

Idiots, all of them. But it didn’t matter. They did not deserve her. All that mattered to her was being recognized as the genius she was. She wanted the whole world to bow to her, to admire her.

You see, behind her cute looks and her smart intellect, there was something dark hidden inside her. Something that her colleagues and her parents couldn’t see. A narcistic, egocentric bitch, someone who cared only about herself, someone who was willing to do anything and walk over anyone to achieve her goals. Elsa was a psychopath.

And there was no one she hated more than Adam Norman. That bastard.  That little shit. Always stealing her spotlight. Always the teacher’s pet. “Oh Adam, you’re SO smart! You’re such a genius!”. While he amassed Awards, she was condemned as the eternal 2nd Place. She hated it. HATED IT! More than anything else. If he could just… disappear.

And disappear he did.

…

That fateful Friday morning, early Summer, Adam Norman, along with Mike Lenard, his brother Riley, Sam Garret and Jerry Harper mysteriously vanished without a trace. The school noticed their disappearance when Prof. Samantha Yen saw that Adam did not show up on her office that afternoon. He wanted to show her something amazing. Something he would not shut up about. So, she found it strange that no sign of him was heard from the rest of the day. But it was when he missed her afternoon class, as well as the other classes, that she realized something was not right. Adam would never miss a class, especially one of hers.

Two days later, searches were made. The local police opened a missing person investigation. The school and the town participated in search parties. The only clue was a strange device found in lab 106B, the last place he and his friends were seen. The gun-like machine was thought to be brought by Adam. His parents confirmed this, mentioned that he was working on “something” in his basement, and asked his father to bring it to school. However, the device seemed like nothing more than a pile of junk. The LCD display didn’t work, the buttons did nothing and a smell of burning emanated from within, probably a short-circuit. No-one seemed to understand what it was, let alone repair it. If it could even be repaired.

The device was kept has evidence for a few weeks, until experts concluded that it was, indeed, 'a piece of junk'. It was returned to the parents, who kept it on the basement, as a memento of their lost son. Three weeks later, the case of the five missing teens was closed. Everyone in town mourned their disappearance.

Well, everyone except Elsa. She was ecstatic, she couldn’t believe it. His arch-nemesis, gone, disappeared out of thin air. But while everyone wondered what could happen to those poor boys, she knew. She knew something happened. Something that none of those idiots could understand. And it was something to do with that 'strange device'.

As much as she hated to admit it, Elsa knew Adam was a genius. And she knew that he would not waste so much time working on something useless.

…

"Are you sure about this, Elsa?" asked Anne-Marie.

Anne-Marie Regan was Elsa’s only friend. She was kind of idiot, the kind of person Annie could not stand. But ‘Annie’, as she called her, was also a little bit like her. The petite brunette was also narcissistic. Elsa knew that she was only her friend because Annie saw her as someone she could take advantage, especially when asking for help when it came to homework and exams. But she was also incredible gullible and easily manipulated. The kind of people you do not want near a psychopath.

"Yes Annie, for the last time, I’m sure about it. Now, shut up and help me carry this."

 The two girls were carrying a shopping cart, with a big gun-like device in it. Stealing from the Normans house was easy. Their security system was old, nothing a good screwdriver and a usb cable connected to her rooted smartphone could solve.

"I mean, what are we going to do with this junk?"

"Annie, for the last, this is NOT junk! And we are carrying it to my attic. I want to study this. It may be the most important thing you’ve ever carried in your entire life, so don’t fuck it up!" Elsa didn’t restrain her words when talking to Annie, she was the only person with which she did not try to keep a facade. It was refreshing for Elsa to be able to be herself around Annie. Maybe that’s why she tolerated her.

It was 3:00 AM and the streets were empty. Rosevalley was a relatively calm and safe town. The disappearance of the five teenagers last month was the only impactful event that happened here for almost two decades.

Bringing the device in Elsa’s attic was a pain. As much as she liked to make Annie do the hard work, two persons were needed to carry it up the stairs. After almost making it fall off the attic's trapdoor (and waking her parents in the process), they managed to successfully put it in place.

"Sooo, what now?" inquired Annie.

"Now you go home. I need to work on this during the weekend. I’ll call you Sunday afternoon."

"Really? It’s Saturday! We were supposed to go the shopping today, and tomorrow we were going to…"

"I said. Go. Home." Elsa wanted to raise her voice, but couldn’t risk waking her parents. "Our plans are canceled for this weekend. I’ll call you. Now go."

"Uhh, fine…" Annie knew insisting was useless. When Elsa set her mind on something, there was nothing that could stop her.

As Annie climbed down the attic, Elsa turned to the machine and rub her hands.

"So, let’s see… This is going to be a long weekend."