"God! I wish Elizabeth would hurry up and get here!" Nick whined. "I wanna watch the movie!"
"Well, you know Liz," Sarah sputtered, "Always late to everything."
"Do you think we should start without her?" Nick's girlfriend Katie asked, sitting down next to him on a hugely oversized stuffed chair that Danielle's house was famous for.
"No. She'll be here." Howie, Elizabeth's boyfriend, said.
"Ok, let's give her five more minutes." Brian said, from his place on the couch next to his girlfriend, Brittny.
"Yeah. Five minutes, then we start the movie." Kevin, Brian's cousin, agreed.
Nick Carter, Katie McGraw, Brian Littrell, Brittny Abrahamson, Kevin Richardson, Sarah Smith, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Danielle Fountaine, and hopefully sometime soon, Elizabeth Russell were all gathered at Danielle's house that Friday night to watch Scream, for what could have very well been the millionth time.
"Popcorn!" Danielle cried, as she and AJ emerged from the kitchen with two enormous tubs of popcorn.
"Yum-my." Brian said.
They each set a tub on oppostie sides of the room.
"Hey everyone!" Elizabeth's voice came from the foyer.
"Thanks for knocking!" Danielle called.
Elizabeth enetered the living room. "When have I ever knocked?"
Danielle shrugged. "I have to start locking that door." she muttered.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, and took her place on the couch next to Howie, giving him a short kiss.
"Hey, baby." he greeted.
She smiled contentedly.
"Can we start the movie now?" Kevin rumbled.
"No, wait!" Elizabeth cried.
Nick groaned. "What now?"
Elizabeth held up a white envelope. Danielle's name was written in twisty, swirly script. "This is for you."
She passed it to Danielle.
"What is it?"
She shrugged. "I found it on your doorstep on the way in."
Danielle carefully pulled it open, and pulled out a small piece of paper.
Prepare To Die! was written in large, bold letters.
"What the hell is this?" Danielle demanded.
"What does it say?" Sarah asked.
She held it up for everybody to see. "Prepare to die."
"Ugh!" Brittny cried. "Really, Liz, can't you do better then that? Do you really think that's scary?"
"What are you talking about?" Elizabeth asked. "I didn't write that!"
"Uh huh, whatever. It is so obvious you were trying to scare everyone cuz of the whole scary movie thing." Brian said.
"Do you think we're that gullible?" AJ asked.
"Well, you may be." Elizabeth said in a snotty tone. "But, I DID NOT write that. If I was gonna try and scare you, I would do a little better then that. Honestly."
"Think about it, why would someone wanna kill Dani?" Katie asked.
"I can think of a couple people." AJ joked.
Danielle glared at him.
"We all know you did it, Elizabeth." Brittny said.
"I did not!" she exclaimed.
"Whatever. . . " Danielle trailed off.
"Can we please just watch the movie?" Nick asked.
"All right." Kevin picked up the remote, and pressed play.
Everyone sat back to watch the movie.
Half way through, Danielle noticed her parrot, a Blue Fronted Amazon named Pele wasn't making a sound, and decided to go check on him.
She quietly got up, and slipped into the kitchen, where Pele's stand was.
The site that lay before her was enough to make her scream.
"Oh my God! Pele!" she screamed.
"What?" AJ asked, as everyone piled into the kitchen.
They stopped dead in they're tracks when they saw what Danielle was screaming about.
Pele was not on his stand anymore. Instead, his tiny body had been lynched, and he was hanging from his perch. Dead.
"Who would do this?" Danielle sobbed.
Everyone stood still, not sure what to do.
AJ made the first move. He walked over to Danielle, and pulled her into a comforting hug.
Kevin walked over to the perch, and carefully pulled the bird out of the lynch.
"I'm soooo sorry." Katie murmured, walking to where AJ was rocking Danielle back and forth in his arms.
"Who the hell would do that?" Nick asked.
"I don't know!" Danielle cried, her voice muffled because her face was buried in AJ's shoulder. "I've had him for three years! Pele was like family!"
Everyone moved closer, not knowing what to do to comfort her.
Sarah watched as Kevin untied the know. Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed something unusual on the stand, and made her way around everyone.
"Look." she said, picking up a folded piece of paper. "There's a note."
Danielle looked up.
"What does it say? " Howie asked.
Sarah unfolded it, and read the words aloud.
"This is only the beginning."