I was staring at the mansion. I remember seeing it before in a picture. Seeing it in person wasn't bringing back good memories. The photo belonged to a pretty tan-skinned girl with purple eyes and short brown hair with streaks of black mixed in and purple, courtesy of hair dye. Behind her waving at the camera was a muscular but skinny albino girl with rough but silky white hair that reached her back and red eyes with some hint of purple in them.

      Their names were Selicia Tuko and Ellie Windogo. I haven't seen Ellie much but I knew the two were close friends, probably closer than me to Selicia, which is off since I'm Selicia's cousin.

      About five months ago they went missing. About a month ago the famous wilderness explorer, Jerald Baston, went missing. Of course, the park didn't get shut down or even put up for investigation. Only a warning sign was placed warning that Amy's Woods are dangerous and exploration is ill-advised.

      Now here I am with my friends, Tom, Vincen, Monika, Kate, Della, Bruce, and Jessie. We weren't the only one as five more people, Dale, Jason, and Kuromi had also booked the mansion and two people who were definitely working for Selicia's mom, Todd and Brenda, had also booked the mansion as well. The result? A lot of people are staying at a large mansion with two of the groups interested in finding Selicia and her friend, Ellie.

"Hey, Victoria! Come over here!"

      I let out an irritated sigh at Tom calling my full name. He knows it annoys me.

      I walked over to Tom and Jessie and saw them crouching down examining something on a tree stump at the tree line. Tom was a muscular guy with smooth brown hair and green eyes. He always wore jeans and brown shoes when he is out casually. Today he is wearing a white shirt and a light red jacket. Crouched down beside him was Jessie. She had purple eyes though they were darker than Selicia and long black hair and white skin close to snow. Today she was wearing a grey tank top and grey sweatpants. She also brought over a grey fur jacket for warmth.

      Standing next to the two was Kate, who I didn't see before. Kate was an albino like Ellie and like Ellie has snow-like white skin and white hair that is smooth and shining like silk. Unlike Ellie, her hair was well kept and had twintails that ended at her shoulders and ended with a black tip. The other difference besides their muscles was Kate's eyes which were just red and no hint of purple and she had black bags underneath them. She wasn't crouching but standing beside Tom and Nessie so I had no idea how I didn't see her. Probably because she blends in so well with the snow.

"What is it?" I asked, looking over Tom's shoulder.

"Ellie's phone."

      I barely heard Kate's voice. Her voice was soft and like a whisper.

"Yeah it's Ellie's phone alright but does anyone know how to get in it?"

      Sitting on the tree stump was a dark blue and purple phone. It was cracked on the screen as a bullet went through it but the culprit was not a bullet. A sharp piece of metal was lying next to the phone. Looking up I saw it was a part of an old rusted sign which had yet to fall down. It was too cold to try and operate on it and the park didn't want to spend too much money so they didn't bother hiring a team of experts to take it down. It must have been pretty rotten luck for a metal piece to fall off and hit Ellie's phone.

"Well, we knew they were here," Tom stated, getting up.

"Heya! Watch ya guys lookin at?"

      The girl who looked to be fourteen wearing a red and black shirt walked forward. Her name was Kuromi, pronounced Kur-ro-me. She was Japanese but looked extremely American or European. The only things that told me that she was Japanese were her pitch-black hair and her name. She had both twintails and a ponytail, her hair ending just below her shoulders. She had red eyes like blood and somewhat sharp teeth and she had a really weird accent. She talks like she is southern but only by words alone. It sounds too smooth and she does it constantly so it can't be a joke. Like Kate, she had bags under her eyes and while she seemed fit I could only assume she wasn't getting enough sleep. She also wore dark gray spiked boots and had red ribbons holding her hair.

"We told you we were looking for our friend. They went missing. This is our friend's friend's phone."

"You ain't lookin for both of them?" Kuromi asked, crouching down beside me.

"We are. What makes you thi-"

      Kuromi put her hand up, cutting off Tom.

"You said friend, singular. If you had said friends, plural, it would mean you care about both. But yee didn't, which means you guys clearly couldn't care less about this girl who is friends with your friend. Well except for you of course." Kuromi said standing up, looking directly at Kate.

"I got a question for ya guys. Didja even try being friends with her? I'm talking about you three, not little Kate over 'er. She knows what she did."

      I saw Kuromi in an entirely different light just then. She may be relaxed and have a friendly tone but her eyes were hard and searching, judging. She wasn't to be messed with.

"Well I am a pretty good tracker if I say so myself and right now those two went into the woods before the phone got damaged. I'll be takin my leave now so see ya."

        And just like that Kuromi walked away, leaving us stunned, and I don't know about the others but, she left me wondering about what she said.