In the sixteen years of Winnie's life, she'd always loathed traveling.

She was never sure what exactly caused it, but it was tried and true, and no to mention drilled into her personality.

In theory, that was the exact reason she was livid as she packed a suitcase.

There were two hours until she'd have to leave, and she wasn't getting out of going to Beacon Hills.

So instead, she was mid rant in a call with Libby, the phone between Winnie's ear and shoulder as she packed angrily.

"Pete gets two weeks grounding and a hangover? That's nothing for him! He didn't even have the slightest one this morning anyway!" Winnie folded a pair of skinny jeans, slamming them down into her case. "Grounding does nothing to him! He still has lacrosse, his phone. It's bullshit, Libs."

"That's completely unfair, Win. I'm really sorry," Libby said. "It sucks he's sticking you in some nowhere town for a month."

"And then some. He's not even sure when we'll be getting out of there." Winnie retreated to her closet, putting the phone between her other ear and shoulder to avoid getting a crick in her neck. "And apparently, I have to stay through spring break, too."

"Shit, Win. Are you kidding?"

"No, I wish. But he said you and Jake could come so it's not all bad, I guess." Winnie tugged down a few tops she liked along with the skirt she loved that made her legs look killer. "I'm going to murder you and Jake if you two leave me stranded in that god forsaken town over spring break."

"We're there, Winnie. Consider it done," Libby quickly replied. "I was just staying here otherwise so I'm all yours."

"Oh, thank god." Winnie breathed out in relief, taking a small pile of clothes to her bed and folding them to put in her suitcase. "It's not even in the good part of California. If I absolutely have to go I'd rather be forced to live in LA or Huntington Beach or something."

"What's the place called again?" Libby asked, on her laptop.

"Beacon Hills."

Libby hesitated, "Isn't that the name of your painting the other day? The one with the lizard dude?"

"Yet Dad doesn't see the harm in going," Winnie said in reply. "He ignored me when I said the town gave me a bad feeling."

"You don't think that this is there, do you?"

"I don't even know if it exists, Libs." Winnie sighed, pulling shoes from the rack and sticking them with her other belongings. "I know there'll be bizarre things in the world, hell I'm one of them, but that one was a little out there."

"Hey, I found the link for the town site."

"Fill me in." Winnie went to her vanity, changing the sides she kept her phone on. She pulled her makeup bag from underneath basket and rifled through her cosmetics.

"So, they've recently had a serial killer who murdered a family via arson a few years ago. That's fun. They've got mountains lions and ooo two joggers found a body in the woods." Libby was having too much fun, "Just kidding."

"Oh, thank g-"

"It was only half of one."

Winnie stuck her urban decay eye palette into the floral makeup bag. "Please tell me you're lying."

"Sorry, Pooh. The killer is dead now if that helps at all."

"Not really, Libs." She frowned, dropping in her eyeliner and mascara. "Hey, um, did they have a name of who the girl they found in half?"

"Win, how did you know it was a girl?"

She closed her eyes, "Well, shit." She stopped her task and went to her bookshelf. "It happened in the beginning of January, didn't it?" She flipped through a filled sketch pad, coming across one of the drawings from the month before.

"Winnie is everything okay?"

Detailed in charcoal was half a body in a dug up grave, a girl with brown hair and her eyes wide open.

Winnie flipped the page, finding the exact layout but only with the top half of a wolf replacing it.

"Winnie?"

"I'm in for it, Libby. I am so in for it."

¥ ¥ ¥

With half an hour left to the San Francisco airport, Winnie had finished reading You Are Here in totality, had never lifted the window shade and couldn't stop her foot from shaking. To add to that, she'd had in her earbuds the whole time and hadn't said a word to her father.

She was reading Emma by Jane Austen, one leg crossed over the other and her foot bouncing violently. Flicking over the page, her right ear bud was tugged out and she nearly threw a punch. "What the-"

"Winnie, don't over react." Mr. Jones, in the business class seat next to her, folded up his newspaper. "We need to talk."

"Plans got cancelled and we're turning around?" she asked all too hopefully. She back down and scowled. "About what, Dad?"

"Everything, Win. School, transport, home. You haven't given me a chance the whole day to talk about it," Aaron said, in business attire with an empty coffee cup on his foldable tray.

"Well, unless I can find a parachute I've got no way off this thing so," Winnie stopped her playlist and took out her other headphone. "You might as well."

"Do you have to be like this?"

"Did you have to make me move to a town plagued with murders for a month?"

Aaron ignored her, only keeping a stone cold look. "The school you're going to be going to is Beacon Hills High School, not too far from the house we'll be renting. It's a nice place, not too different from ours, really. There's even an indoor pool so you're all primed for water polo when you go back to Mallory."

Winnie sat with her head back on the rest, "Alright, continue father dear."

"Car wise, the company is sending two cars that we'll have the whole time. You start school tomorrow but you have a meeting with the counselor first." Mr. Jones checked his watch, returning back to his daughter a moment later.

"Are they nice cars?"

"I'll let you choose between the two, Winowna," he replied. "I'll make sure you know your way around town and tomorrow we'll have dinner with the head of my side company. They've got a child your age, too."

"Which side company is this?" Winnie braced her dad's arm as a patch of turbulance hit. She let go when it settled. "Are they the ones who move around the U.S. every year?"

"Yes, Argent Arms. Good people, we've just had a bit of trouble."

"Trouble like their family member Kate being a serial killer?"

"Lower your voice." Aaron glanced around, "No, Winnie. She doesn't have a part in the Argent's company. That's not the issue."

"Okay, fine. Can I got back to - pen, pen."

Aaron dug into his suit pocket, pulling out an ink pen without hesitation.

Winnie took the pen from her father, undoing the latch on her journal sized sketch book. She furrowed her eyebrows, clicking the pen and finding a new page.

Mr. Jones glanced over every so often, watching the image of a torn up car come into view, rain pouring down. A pair of glasses were snapped in half and at the edge of the image was the tip of a tail.

Winnie closed it immediately, not letting her father catch to completely finished product. She didn't look at him, but held out the pen as she stuffed away the sketchbook.

"Winnie?" Mr. Jones asked, lifting an eyebrow at her.

"I'm fine." She pushed the concern away, a flight attendant announcing there would be 20 minutes until touchdown and that the plane was beginning its initial decent. "I'm fine, Dad."

"I wouldn't be making you come here with me if I didn't think the experience would benefit you in some sort of way," Aaron told her. "You need to know that."

"I do, I just - Think this place is going to kill me." Winnie found herself opening up the plastic window shade, a set of clouds dispersing and revealing a patch of woods.

And somehow she knew that was it; Beacon Hills.

¥ ¥ ¥

"Is this how you live, Dad?" Winnie asked, in the back of a black vehicle with its own driver. "Isn't it a bit much?"

"I work for everything I get, Winnie," Mr. Jones told her, fixing the cuffs of his suit. He looked out the window, "See, there's the town sign."

Winnie's eyes found the same sign she drew before, almost expecting to see the shitty Jeep too. "Yay," she sarcastically said, night falling over the town. "Wait, why am I starting school tomorrow? Don't you need the house unpacked?"

"I've already had people in. Everything's live-in ready, all you need to do is put away your stuff from your suitcase."

"I don't know, I brought a lot of stuff. It could take me hours," Winnie tried, only to get shut down.

"Good, then you'll have something to do when you get home tomorrow." Aaron smiled at his scowling daughter. "Just unpack what you need for the day."

Winnie grumbled, resting her head back. She pulled at a string on her black and white flannel, not watching the town pass by. "I don't like the air down here."

"Winnie, please," Mr. Jones distastefully said, the car coming to a stop in front of a big house among rows of others. "You're here, okay? Try to enjoy it. It's only a month."

"Only a month? Dad, are you kidding?"

"Just come inside, Winowna." Aaron had lowered his voice, annoyance in tone but more annoyed that she was putting up a fight where the driver could hear them.

Winnie grabbed her bag from by her feet, going up to the front behind her father. He handed her one of the sets of house keys and she dropped them into her purse.

Aaron opened the door, letting Winnie go in first. "Ta-da."

Winnie went in without reacting to the large house, "Upstairs?"

"Yeah, it's on the left of the upstairs." He wasn't really expecting another reaction. "Here's your case."

"Thanks," Winnie lightly said, carrying her suitcase upstairs. She followed the instructions and found her room without much issue. She took a look around, not complaining.

It was amazing to say the least. Big and open, a large bed, walk in closer and a vanity across from a tv set.

"Trying too hard, Dad," Winnie said to herself, leaving her suitcase by the door. She poked the tv on, sitting on the edge of her bed to watch it. Sighing, she let the news play.

"This evening, the body of the swim coach at Beacon Hills High School here in town was found. The attacker has yet to be identified but this was what his car was left like."

"Oh, oh no."