death inspires me (like a dog inspires a rabbit)

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/50780164.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Category: F/F
Fandoms: Yellowjackets (TV), Scream (Movies)
Relationship: Lottie Matthews/Natalie Scatorccio
Characters: Lottie Matthews, Natalie Scatorccio, Jackie Taylor (Yellowjackets),
Shauna Shipman, Taissa Turner, Van Palmer, Tara Carpenter, Amber
Freeman (Scream), Mindy Meeks-Martin, Chad Meeks-Martin, Anika
Kayoko, Ethan Landry (Scream), Misty Quigley
Additional Tags: Background JackieShauna, background taivan, Background Tamber,
Background Minika, scream x yellowjackets, lots of ships but its mostly
lottienat so be warned, Blood and Gore, Violence, Mental Health Issues,
Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, a world where gay is a norm and
straight a minority, Everyone Is Gay, malcolm matthews jail era,
Everyone is a bit OOC, i suggest you don't get attached to any of these
people
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-10-12 Completed: 2023-10-31 Words: 32,932 Chapters:
5/5
 death inspires me (like a dog inspires a rabbit)
by alecsnekoda

Summary

[Scream x Yellowjackets]

Someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far.

Notes

happy halloween!

this fic is a gift for my friend (i really hope he likes it) and its just a silly random idea so don't
take this fic too seriously ;-; its just for fun and a little something something for halloween.
originally, i wanted to post the last chapter on the 31st but i had a bunch of things i had to
deal with so i couldn't get to it :[[ hopefully though I can get another chapter out by
halloween

again, this fic is just for fun so don't look too hard okay? ;-; english isn't my first language so
if the grammar is wonky then im sorry
where we're from there's no sun, our hometown's in the dark

The news station was empty after the evening news broadcast. Gale Weathers was the only
person left on the twenty-secondth floor. Her heels tapped against the flooring as she walked
away from the broadcasting room and into her dressing room, a few doors down.

It was an eventful night. The trial about the corrupt CEO that she documented and wrote a
book about finally concluded, and she was able to read the news for it that very same night.
She was proud of herself for the exposé that she had written against the CEO. In her mind,
the bastard deserved it for all of his crimes. Now, he will rot in jail for the rest of his life. She
wanted to smirk to herself. She did well.

She pushed the dressing room door open. There, sitting on her vanity table was her designer
bag. She rummaged through the bag, looking for her phone and her headset, eagerly awaiting
her husband Dewey's call. He had told her earlier before she left for work that he would pick
her up and they would get dinner at a restaurant she wanted to try. Gale and Dewey haven't
had a lot of time to spend with each other lately, so she welcomed the spontaneous dinner
date with her husband.

Just as she hooked her headset on her ear, it rings, and she taps it once to receive the call,
knowing it was Dewey.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey, I'm at the parking lot. Are you heading down?" She heard Dewey's voice through the
phone.

Gale smiled. "Yeah, I'll be done in a second."

"You better hurry because this restaurant is pretty uptight. If we're not there fifteen minutes
past 9, they'll cancel our reservation."

"Did you tell them it's for Gale Weathers?" Gale asked, not meaning to sound too smug. It
doesn't always work.

She heard Dewey sigh. "Yes, I told them it's for Gale Weathers."

"Then they'll hold the reservation." She picked up her bag and dragged the zipper shut. "I'm
heading down."

"Good, I'll see you." Dewey said. "It's so empty in here. It's kinda scary."

"An empty parking lot scares you?"

"It takes little for me to get worried, since...well, everything."

Gale chuckled. "Don't worry, Dewey. It's never going to happen again. Not since Sidney left."
She heard Dewey gasp. "I think I just saw someone—"

Gale's headset beeps in her ears with a different call. "Hold on, I have another call." She taps
her headset again, and pressed the button to the elevator. "Hello?"

"Hello Ms. Weathers, this is Wendy from The Woodsboro News. Do you mind if I ask you a
few questions? This won't take long."

Gale rolled her eyes. Of course she would get caught in an interview not even an hour after
the broadcast. Everyone wanted a piece of her.

The voice on the other line was polite and sweet. She sounded like she was tired, and wanted
to get home, same as Gale. She wanted to reject the interview and just look for Dewey, but
she felt bad for the young woman.

"If it's quick then hit it." The elevator doors opened and she stepped in.

"No problem. Can you tell us more about the recent exposé you wrote about Malcolm
Matthews? What made you want to write about it in the first place? Did you see shady deals,
or did someone give you a tip?"

"I did my own digging." Gale lied. "I noticed a few inconsistencies, so I subpoenaed records,
documents, whatever we could get our hands on, until it all fit together like a giant puzzle,
anything to bring that son of a bitch Matthews down."

"Our sources tell us that there's multiple companies involved in the laundering scheme. Care
to tell us more about that?"

Gale's eyebrows furrowed. "Where did you get that info?"

"We have our sources. So is it true that the CEO of Freeman Construction and Kayoko
Industries are involved?"

The elevator doors opened. But it was on the wrong floor. Gale paused, taking in what the
reporter just said, before she pushed the correct button. "How did you get this tip?"

"Matthews Corp. isn't the only company involved in the scheme correct? Why was Malcolm
Matthews targeted in your exposé?"

Gale rolled her eyes. "Your sources are wrong." She lied. "Matthews Corp. is the only
company involved in the laundering scheme. Read the exposé for yourself, it's obvious you
haven't, or else you wouldn't be asking these stupid questions." She laughed. "Honey, next
time do your job correctly. It's embarrassing to have to do it for you." She said, disarmingly
saccharine.

She heard the reporter, Wendy, hum. "My apologies, Ms. Weathers, I'm just going off on what
was relayed to us. But if you don't mind, I have another question for you."

Gale sighed. "What?"

"What's your favorite scary movie?"

A chill ran down Gale's spine. The voice she heard on her headset went from the polite young
woman's voice to a raspy, deeper, and more masculine voice that she was afraid to ever be on
the receiving end of. But she couldn't let her fear show, even as her heart began to pound on
her chest; her breathing faster than she could ever imagine.

Ghostface is back.

She rummaged through her bag and found her Glock. She hoped she never had to use it, but
she was always glad to have it. She cocked the gun, and held it up. Her hands were shaking,
but she steeled herself. She needed to get to Dewey before this motherfucker could get their
hands on him.

"I don't like scary movies, you dipshit. Now tell me where you are, so I can shoot you in the
fucking head."

The elevator doors opened, and Gale stepped out onto the thirteenth floor where the parking
lot was.

"Oh, Gale. Is that how you treat an old friend?"

"Tell me where you are, and maybe I'll be nice." Gale said, carefully making her way around
the parking lot.

There were still a few cars parked at this time of night. It was harder to see where Dewey
parked his truck. With each step that Gale took, the heavier her heart became.

"Be nice or I'll gut your beloved husband like a fish." Ghostface sneered. "Speaking of,
would you like to speak to him?"

"What are you—"

"Argh!" She heard Dewey's voice ring out through the parking lot before it echoed through
her headset.

"Dewey!" She shouted, before running off into the direction of his voice. She throws her
handbag on the parking lot floor, keeping only the gun in her hands.

Her heels almost break with the force of her steps. She rounded a post, just to see Dewey
trying to fight off the hooded figure in black. Gale fired a shot but Ghostface dodged it like it
was nothing. They turned to look at her before shoving Dewey off the ledge. Ghostface ran
away, giving Gale the opportunity to try and save Dewey, but it was no use. His fingers
slipped from his hold on the ledge and he freefell. Gale saw the terrified look on his face just
before he landed on the concrete below with a sickening splat she could hear even from
thirteen floors above. His skull bursted open, sending his brains and blood flying across
where he landed. His limbs angled and contorted like a puppet's, only puppets didn't have
bones that stuck out from what was left of their limbs.

"Dewey!" Gale sobbed.

"So, Gale, tell me more about yourself. Did you have fun destroying a family for another hit
book?" She heard from her headset.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" She shouted in frustration as she forced herself away
from the ledge and into Dewey's truck. She sighed in relief after seeing his keys were still in
the ignition.

"That information you had on Malcolm Matthews came from his business partners, isn't that
right?" Ghostface's voice was calm but it had an edge to it that terrified Gale. "You never dug
them up yourself. Freeman and Kayoko sold him out in exchange for your silence. You had
information, they got a free get-out-of-jail card. Win-win."

"What the fuck do you want from me?" Gale revved the engine of the truck.

"I want you to die." Ghostface said, standing in front of Gale and wiping the blood away
from their hunting knife using their other hand. Gale saw red. It was Dewey's blood.

Ghostface reached for something in their pocket so Gale took advantage of the moment by
putting the truck on drive, attempting to run Ghostface over. It quickly backfired on her,
because Ghostface pulled out their own Glock and fired a shot, breaking the windshield and
sending glass flying everywhere. In a rush of adrenaline and lapse of judgment, she shielded
her face from the glass, and let go of the steering wheel. The truck drove straight towards a
foundation post. The truck was totalled, and Gale goes flying out through the windshield and
landed face first onto the concrete floor.

She panted, and tried to stand up, but her head was swimming. She felt something come
pouring out off the top of her head; it was blood.

Before she could do anything to help herself, something — someone — flipped her over to
her back. She came face to face with the mask she had thought she would never see again.
That fucking ghost mask.

She hissed in agony when they stabbed her. Repeatedly. In her stomach. She wailed when one
stab twisted inside her.

With all the strength that she had left, she lifted her arms up to rip away that fucking mask so
she could see the psychopath behind it; the coward who couldn't look her in the eye as she
killed her.

She let Ghostface stab her in the stomach, again and again. She wanted to fight back, but she
was already weak and helpless. She knew that even if she fought back, she would eventually
bleed to death before she could find help. But she was Gale Weathers, and she would not let
herself go down without even trying to do something. Her hands found the bottom of the
mask and she pulled it off, finally showing her the face of her murderer.

It was a woman — no — it was a girl, no older than eighteen years of age. She was tanned,
and her eyes were deceiving. They appeared doe-like and innocent, yet she could only see the
need for blood behind them. She knew her. Her face was plastered in the book she wrote.
She had dedicated her life to journalism, and deep down she knew that it was dangerous for
her to go down the path that she took. But never had she expected that she would face her
demise at the hands of a revenge-seeking, crazed daughter of a man she brought to justice.

Gale drew a final, shaky gasp. The last thing she ever saw was the face of her killer.

The face of Lottie Matthews.

***

In death, there is grief and tragedy, but in death, there is also hope and opportunity. The
Greeks say that when someone dies, they are guided into the afterlife by a psychopomp. They
manifest themselves as anthropomorphized creatures such as dogs, horses, a variety of birds,
and deer.

Since meeting one in the forest while she was at summer camp, Lottie Matthews became
fascinated with deer. Their antlers, which were strong and mighty in the summer when Lottie
saw them, shed every winter, and are grown again in the spring.

She was drawn to them, their eyes wide and innocent, until they are provoked. Their speed
surprises everyone that may encounter them, and one can not react until they are impaled by
their strong, unyielding antlers.

Lottie washed her face in the bathroom sink of their school. News had already hit about Gale
Weathers' and Dewey Riley's murders as soon as she got home from the news station. There
was a call for a half day in school, both to pay their respects to Gale and Dewey, but also to
allow the families in Woodsboro prepare themselves for the return of the infamous masked
killer, Ghostface.

Her hands gripped the sink. They were still slightly trembling from what she had done the
night before. Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see Gale's face, frozen in horror and
mind-numbing pain as she stabbed her stomach until Lottie had almost severed her top half
from her lower half; her guts spilled out onto the concrete. She could still see Gale's eyes,
glazed over and empty.

She wanted to feel pity. She really did.

But that bitch deserved it.

Lottie is filled with searing rage every time she remembered what Gale did to her family. She
had her father arrested, had their assets frozen by the government, and now Lottie was in fear
that the manor that she lived in; the manor that her family had inherited from her great
grandparents, would be seized. Since her dad was arrested, Lottie was left to fend for herself,
in a world that spit her out because she had always been different.

The bathroom door was ajar, so Lottie could see Natalie Scatorccio's reflection in the mirror
as she passed by the bathroom, walking down the hallway. Lottie hurriedly grabbed her
backpack and hiked it over her shoulder, before she ran after Natalie, her ex-girlfriend.
"Nat!" She shouted. "Hey, Nat!" She sped through the hallway, weaving through Woodsboro
High students milling around and talking nonsense about Dewey and Gale.

From behind, she could see that Nat was wearing her headphones, a gift from Lottie last
Christmas when everything was normal; when she and Nat were still together, when she
could still afford to buy her girlfriend nice things, before everything went to shit.

Lottie finally got to Nat, and she put her hand on her shoulder to get her attention. Nat turned
to look at her and pulled her headphones down.

"Lot..."

"Hi," Lottie breathed, before giving Nat a smile. "How've you been?"

Natalie shrugged. "Fine." She pulled her headphones back up her head, and attempted to walk
away but Lottie blocked her path.

"Can we talk?"

Natalie sighed, and pulled her headphones back down, so it hung lamely on her neck.
"What?"

"In private?" Lottie asked, looking nervously around the people in the hallway.

Nat huffed before she nodded, and Lottie took her hand to lead her inside an empty
classroom. When they got there, Nat pulled her hand away. Lottie winced at the roughness of
her actions.

"What?" Nat said, crossing her arms.

She didn't want Natalie to hate her, but she knew she should at least try and talk to her; to
save whatever was left of what they had. Lottie knew in her heart that Natalie still felt
something for her. It was in the way her hazel eyes still looked at her, shining with emotions
she tried to suppress. Was it still love? Was it pity? Was it annoyance? She didn't really know.
She carefully watched Nat as she ran her hand through her hair.

Lottie fiddled with her fingers. How could she have the nerves of steel doing what she did
last night, but still be so nervous around the girl she loved?

"I just...do you think you could give me another chance?"

Natalie shook her head in disbelief.

"Jesus, Lottie—"

"We've talked about this before, I know. But I just—" Lottie tried to take Nat's hand. Nat
pulled away from her.

"And you still didn't do what I asked you to! I told you, Lot, you need help! Talk to a doctor
then talk to me."
"I'm better now! I don't need a doctor...I just need you...I can't stop thinking about you."
Lottie pleaded.

Natalie scoffed. "That's exactly the problem, Lottie." She drawled. "You're being obsessive.
You've been like this since your dad got arrested!"

"I'm normal, Nat. I'm just scared—"

"Lottie, sneaking around my house at 3 in the morning and scaring the living shit out of my
mom is not normal." Nat clapped her hands to emphasize her words. "You. Need. Help.
You're lucky my dad didn't call the cops on you."

Lottie sighed deeply, wounded and helpless.

"Nat...I just—you know how hard everything is for me right now. I just need you with me. I
love you, and I'm just so—angry and confused and scared..." Lottie said, begging Nat to hear
her out. Her eyes dangerously close to tearing up.

Nat sighed. "Lottie...go get help." Natalie pushed past her to get to the door.

The rage that Lottie kept inside her, bubbled up to the surface. How could Nat push her away
like this? Shit. It was because of their stupid friends.

She grabbed Nat's shoulder and pulled her closer to her, making her turn around until they're
face to face once more.

"Is it Anika? Is that why can't be with me anymore? Don't you think I don't notice the two of
you always hanging out at lunch?" She hissed in frustration.

She was mad. She was depressed. She was anxious. She was...she was so...

She couldn't explain what she felt. She was just so full of emotions that Lottie wanted to
pound her chest to see if it will help her let go of all the bullshit she was holding in. She
needed Nat to understand her. She needed to explain what she felt, but how could she if she
herself couldn't even grasp why she was feeling this way?

How did they get here? Not three months ago, Natalie and her were planning on getting an
apartment together for when she went to college. Now, Natalie can't even look her in the eye
without looking like she wanted nothing to do with her.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Lottie? What does Anika have to do with this?"

"She's always draped around you!"

"She's been draped around me since sophomore year! You know about that! You guys are
friends! Besides, she's been with Mindy since forever." Nat rubbed her face in frustration.
"This is getting out of hand!"

"We're not friends anymore. Not since her dad sold my dad out! And I just—" Lottie sighed
and crossed her arms. "I don't wanna see you with anyone else."
Nat shrugged, her voice was calmer when she spoke again. "Yeah, well. That's not something
you can control. We're not together anymore."

Tears pricked Lottie's eyes. She sniffed.

Nat started to walk away, but as soon as she reached the door, she turned around to look at
Lottie. "Jackie's calling for all of us. Come on, I'll walk with you."

Lottie nodded somberly. She walked towards Nat and walked out the classroom with her.
Side by side, they trudged along the hallways of Woodsboro High. Nat's hand swung with
every step that she took. Lottie wanted to take it in hers and hold on to her like she used to.
She couldn't. Not anymore. Not since her dad got arrested. Not since she spiralled. Not since
Nat broke up with her. And especially not after what she did last night.

Huddled by the fountain was everyone in their friend group. Lottie knew all of them since
middle school, some she knew for longer. She wasn't all that close with a lot of them, she
only really liked four people in their so-called friend group.

Lottie was childhood friends with Jackie Taylor, the unofficial leader of their group. Jackie
came across as intimidating to anyone outside their bubble, but it was because she got to be
popular and well-known in the whole school that the consensus of her personality became
muddled. Lottie always considered Jackie to be her best friend.

Then there was Shauna Shipman, Jackie's more reserved girlfriend. Back in sophomore and
junior year, they would always double date with Lottie and Nat. Lottie liked Shauna a lot, and
always felt like she related to her the most out of anyone in the group. Shauna is quiet most
of the time, and would only speak when spoken to, that is until anyone messed with her and
her friends.

There was also Taissa Meeks-Martin, who was always somehow Lottie's classmate in most of
her classes. Lottie liked Tai. She was no-nonsense and hardworking. Perhaps at times, a little
too stubborn for Lottie, but her positive traits outweigh the negative.

And of course, Lottie liked Natalie. It would be no surprise to anyone if they found out that
Lottie only really tolerated everyone because of their connection to Nat. Natalie is a little
rebellious, a result of being around her absentee parents, and she was headstrong. But
everyone got along with her because she was fun to be around. Lottie knew firsthand just
how much Nat really cared for her friends too. She always wondered if Nat was out of her
league.

"Where were you guys? We've been waiting for ages." Jackie complained as soon as Lottie
and Nat walked through the huge main doors. Jackie crossed her arms in annoyance.

"They're back together and they were making out." Lottie heard Mindy Meeks-Martin
chuckle at the both of them. She had to force herself not to roll her eyes at Taissa's twin sister.

"Mindy." Anika Kayoko whispered to her girlfriend, Mindy. She lightly slapped her arm. She
waved at Nat, patting the side of the fountain near her. "Beside us, Nat."
Nat snuck a look at Lottie. She saw it in her periphery. She almost smiled when Nat shook
her head at Anika.

"It's okay, I'll just hang here." She said, shifting her weight between her feet.

Jackie sighed. "Where's Tara?"

Amber Freeman spoke up. "She's on her way."

Lottie tried to stop herself from glaring at Amber. She really did. But she just couldn't help it.
Lucky for her, no one seemed to notice.

At this time of day, Woodsboro High was beautiful. The trees were a shade of dark green.
The sunshine was bright and golden, and it hit the water in the fountain, making it sparkle
before their eyes. It was a shame that Woodsboro was infamous for the murders of Ghostface,
but the legend was something that Lottie took advantage of.

"Oh my God, there she is." Tai said, with her hands on her hips, watching Tara Carpenter
walk out from the building and out onto the school yard.

"What's all this?" Tara asked, walking towards Amber. Lottie rolled her eyes when they
kissed.

"A meeting." Jackie shrugged like it was obvious.

"For what?" Van Palmer whined. They were Tai's significant other. "I have to get home
soon." Van was sitting cross legged on the grass, looking up at all of them.

Lottie hated how large their "friend group" became over the years. She never really realized it
as it was happening, but they all just sort of converged into one giant group after one
introduction snowballed into more introductions. Now, her friends were intermixed with
Mindy's friends and their partners. She hated it. She hated every person in the group aside
from her true friends. She never wanted to socialize with these randoms. The only reason she
tolerated them was because of Natalie.

For someone who tried to keep themselves aloof and mysterious to maintain their rebellious
image, Nat sure had a lot of friends. She was civil with everyone in the group, at least, she
tries to be. She doesn't get along with all of them, Lottie knew, but she also knew that Nat
was close with Jackie and Jackie would keep her friends all together by her side at all times,
so Nat did her best to give her peace whenever they "hung out" with each other.

"No one's going home tonight. Everyone's sleeping over at my house." Jackie announced,
only to be met with a roar of complaints.

"I have to catch up on homework!" Chad Meeks-Martin said. He was the younger brother of
Tai and Mindy. Lottie didn't like him. He was responsible for the addition of Amber and Tara
to their group.

"Bring your homework to my house. Done." Jackie shrugged. Chad groaned.

Shauna took Jackie's hand to get her attention. "You know I have lacrosse early in the
morning."

"I know that, baby but—" Jackie tried to say over the noise.

Lottie huffed. She already hated what Jackie was planning, but she was still her best friend.
She shouted. "Everybody shut the fuck up!"

Every person in their little friend group turned to face her, even some students just walking
by snuck a look.

Jackie walked over to Lottie and gave her a side hug. "Thank you." She raised her voice. "As
I was saying, we don't know what this Ghostface might do if we're all separated. We should
stick together in my house."

Mindy raised her hand and Jackie gave her a nod. "Here's a better idea, what about our
house? If we're really dealing with Ghostface then we should review the enemy. We have all
the Stab movies in our home theater."

Amber rolled her eyes with a small laugh. "You just want to watch Stab again, Mindy."

"It's a good franchise, what can I say?" Mindy shrugged.

Van nodded their head. "I say we go for it."

Taissa groaned. "Oh, of course you'd say yes to that idea. Also, Mindy, you can't offer our
house just like that. I have an interview with Stanford soon, I need to study and I need to
focus."

Mindy scoffed. "The last time you needed to study you had Van with you. You didn't 'focus'
at all."

"Ooohhh, she got you good sis..." Chad laughed.

"Okay, before we stray too far away from the topic, let me remind you guys that we're not
sleeping over just for the fuck of it, alright? We have to stay safe and maybe find out who
Ghostface is." Jackie said.

"Wait a second, what's that have to do with us?" Natalie asked. "I'm not going to play
detective just because some random people died."

"These aren't random people, Nat." Anika spoke up. "It's Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley.
They were involved in the first Woodsboro massacre."

Mindy wrapped her arm around Anika's waist. "Yeah, and some of us are related to the first
massacre. You know about my Uncle Randy."

Lottie turned to look at Tara. Shauna and Taissa turned to her too.
"What?" Tara asked, annoyed. "You want me to chime in about my sister? Fine. Sam is Billy
Loomis' daughter. Happy?"

Tara turned to Amber for comfort. Amber held her hand, before she spoke to the group.
"Billy Loomis is one of the original Ghostfaces."

"Nat's point stands though." Shauna crossed her arms. "We don't have to bunk together and
cower underneath the bed. We don't know if it has anything to do with us."

Jackie put her hands on her hips. "I don't wanna sit around and find out! We're staying
together until this Ghostface is caught, got it?"

"It still doesn't concern us. Ghostface only became a thing because of Sidney Prescott. She
hasn't been to Woodsboro since 2011." Lottie mumbled.

"Oh yeah, she was. Didn't the Ghostface turn out to be her niece or something?" Van asked.

"No, it was her cousin. Jill Roberts." Amber said.

"Could she be the Ghostface again?" Chad asked.

Mindy scoffed. "She's dead, Chad. You live in Woodsboro, how do you not know this?"

"Well, unless she's suddenly Michael Myers, there's no reason to believe it could be her. Or
any of the other Ghostfaces for that matter." Amber said.

Shauna looked at Amber. "You live in Stu Macher's house, right? What if it's Amber?"

"Oh my God, Shauna, I breathe and you think I'm a psychopath." Amber snapped.

Lottie furrowed her eyebrows. "Well maybe if you didn't act like a psychopath, people
wouldn't assume you're one."

Amber rolled her eyes and smiled. "Wow, Matthews got bite. Did your dad teach you all this
snark all the way from jail?"

Lottie took a menacing step towards Amber, but Natalie stopped her by holding out her arm.

"Enough." Natalie said, her voice low. "I'll go." She announced to the group.

With the exception of Mindy, Jackie, and Van, everyone looked at her like she grew two
heads.

Nat shrugged. "It's better than having to deal with my parents."

There was a collective groan. Amidst all the wordless complaints, Jackie gave Nat a smile
and a mouthed thanks.

"I'm going too." Lottie said. Now that Natalie was coming, she had no reason not to join.
Jackie walked over to her and gave her a hug.
"Well, it's my house, so I guess I have no choice." Tai shrugged.

Amber turned to look at Mindy. "If there's popcorn and beer, I'm coming too."

Mindy raised both her hands up in the air to announce: "Popcorn and beer on us!"

There was murmuring, followed by nodding. Jackie's smile widened. "So everyone's going?
Are we all in agreement?"

Shrugs and nods answered her. "Okay, everybody go home and meet up at the Meeks-
Martin's in two hours."

Lottie started to walk away. A hand grabbed hers. "Hey," It was Nat. "Do you need
company?"

"You said—"

"Yeah, and I still mean it, but...Jackie's right. There's strength in numbers, and I don't want to
take my chances."

Lottie smiled. "Is this your way of saying you're still going to protect me?"

Nat looked away, rolling her eyes. Lottie noticed the way her lips curved into a smile. "Sure."

They walked from the school yard and to the parking lot, side by side. It wasn't what Lottie
wanted exactly, but it was still better than what she had before, so she'll take it.

Lottie could say that she had become desensitized to violence. She saw violence on TV ever
since she was young. She heard stories of violence along the streets of the town she called her
home. She had known violence ever since she was a little girl, talking to herself in the mirror,
telling herself she wasn't pretty and that she would never be able to amount to anything. Was
it supposed to horrify her? Maybe. But she wasn't. She was numb to it all. She should stop.
She should want to stop; to quit while she was ahead. But even if she wanted to, she didn't
know how.

***

The Meeks-Martin house is located a few blocks away from the Matthews home. After
spending about an hour with Natalie in her house, looking for stuff to pack for the night in,
they headed on over to Mindy's place.

Most of their friends were well-off, and it was obvious that the Meeks-Martin's were too.
Their house was a testament to that. It was a large colonial brick home painted white with
updated everything. The siblings' mom, Martha, was a homemaker and she kept everything in
the house pristine and looking brand new.

Lottie walked into their house after Tai opened the door for them.

"Make yourselves at home." Tai said as she and Nat shrugged off their bags and brought it
over to the living room, where Amber, Tara, Mindy, Anika, and Van were already waiting.
The first Stab movie was already playing on the TV.

"Oh great, it's you guys." Amber snickered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lottie asked, crossing her arms.

Amber shrugged. "Figure it out."

"Jesus, can we all be civil here? We can't watch a movie if you're all biting at each other's
necks like a couple of hyenas." Mindy said, her eyes not really leaving the TV.

Anika looked up at Nat. "Hey, Nat, what's up?"

Nat nodded at Anika. She sat down beside her on the couch, leaving Lottie standing alone.
She huffed, before she walked to the kitchen to look for something to drink. Tai was leaning
against the counter, drinking a beer.

"Hey," Tai nodded at Lottie. "Need a drink already?" She chuckled.

Lottie groaned, pulling open the fridge door and getting herself a can of cheap beer. She
leaned against the counter as well, sidling close to Tai. "Since when did Nat prefer hanging
out with Mindy's friends than us?"

"Is that rhetorical?" Tai raised her eyebrow at her. Lottie sipped her beer, shaking her head
while drinking. "Since you guys broke up, Nat's been distant. To us, anyway. Closer to Anika
and some girl named Misty in school. I wouldn't worry about them though, Anika's head over
heels in love with Mindy."

That seemed to soothe Lottie a little bit. Just a little bit. Jealousy still raged within her. She
was starting to hate Anika more than she should. She hated her stupid crop tops and her
stupid green clogs. She hated her stupid blonde streaked hair.

The doorbell rang outside and before Tai could react, she could already hear her younger
brother tell them he got it.

"Why aren't you with Van, anyway?" Lottie asked Tai.

Tai sighed. "We're having problems."

"You wanna elaborate?"

"I'll elaborate when they're not literally a few feet away from us and could walk in anytime."
Tai lowered her voice. Both of them were hearing footsteps approaching.

They heard Jackie's voice. "You guys, sorry we're late. Got caught up at the grocery store. We
were looking for pudding cups."

"Uh-huh, is that code for 'Shauna and I were making out and lost track of time'?" Tai
chuckled.
Jackie smiled sarcastically. "You know you're more alike Mindy than I originally thought."

Tai shrugged.

"What's with the pudding cups?" Lottie asked, genuinely confused.

"Amber asked for them." Shauna said, walking in to the kitchen with a grocery bag.

"And you bought it for her?" Lottie asked. Her tone dripping with venom and laced with
disbelief.

"Oh come on, don't be like that, we're all friends." Jackie said.

"Sure, whatever." Lottie mumbled.

Jackie walked over to her and held her hand. "What's going on, Lot. Are you still upset about
your dad?"

There was a pang in her chest as soon as Jackie mentioned her dad. She shook her head.

"No. Never mind."

Jackie sighed. "You know you can talk to us about anything. We'll never judge you, Lot."

They would never say that if they knew what she did. If they knew how much she loved
hearing Dewey scream, how much she enjoyed stabbing Gale in the gut while her eyes began
to glaze over, they wouldn't even be here talking to her. She would already be on her way to
be with her father, rotting in jail for all eternity.

No one can ever find out. At least, not until she got her revenge on the people that sold out
her dad.

She shook her head again. "Let's just...watch the stupid movie I guess."

Jackie nodded. "Okay, yeah." She gave Lottie a kiss on the cheek. "Love you, Lottie."

Lottie smiled at her best friend. "Love you too, Jax."

"Are you guys done?" Tai asked. Jackie and Lottie both rolled their eyes.

"Get used to it, Tai. Jackie's one true love is Lottie." Shauna said sarcastically.

"Sorry, babe, Lottie is number 1 in my heart." Jackie said, grabbing more beer from the fridge
and waving all of them to leave the kitchen.

Everyone tried to find spots where they could sit comfortably, but it was difficult with so
many people in such a small space with so little room for seating. Lottie was lucky Jackie
asked Mindy and Tai to move their coffee table so she could lay down a blanket and sit cross
legged on the floor with Shauna and Lottie. They only caught about half of the first Stab
movie.
Lottie kept glancing at Natalie throughout the night. The bleach blonde was mostly on her
phone, barely paying attention to the movie. Lottie guessed it was better than to see her yuck
it up with Anika and Mindy.

Before they could even get through the opening kill of the Stab 2, the doorbell rings again.
Chad sighed. "I got it."

Lottie paid it no mind, so did the rest of the group. It wasn't until Chad announced that there
was pizza that they all turned around to see Ethan Kirsch.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Tara asked.

"Tara, manners." Chad said. "I invited him." He said, smiling while patting his back.

Lottie knew Ethan. He was the weirdo sitting behind her in Chemistry, always tapping her
shoulder to ask for a pen. For someone who fit the stereotype, he wasn't much of an
academic. He kept his head down while the group silently observed him, judging if they
should trust the pizza he brought over.

"Sorry to intrude..." He laughed nervously.

"Mhm, put the pizza down, Kirsch." Mindy said, narrowing their eyes at him.

He did as he was told, and he raised his arms up jokingly while the group stared at him. Save
for the sounds of the opening kill on screen, there wasn't another sound to be heard in the
room.

"Why'd you invite him?" Tai asked Chad, shifting from her position beside Van.

Chad shrugged. "What? He's cool. You guys just don't give him a chance."

Silence.

"Oh, come on. I have one guest. That's all." Chad said.

Tai sighed. "Fine. He's not sleeping here though."

"Yes!" Chad and Ethan cheered. They high fived. "Thanks, sis."

Lottie huffed. It was bad enough that she had to deal with Amber and Anika, Chad had to
bring another total random into the mix. Fuck. If it weren't for Nat, she would already be
going home. She had nothing to fear after all.

Ethan and Chad found spots for themselves. Lottie reached for a beer, but she quickly
realized that Amber's hand was already on the lone can.

"Oops." Amber said, pulling her hand back while still holding the can. "There's some more in
the fridge."
Lottie rolled her eyes. She stood up and stomped across the living room to get to the kitchen.
She tried to steady her breathing before she grabbed a Bud Light from the fridge and walked
back to the living room. Before she could settle down on her space again, the doorbell rings.

Mindy looked at her. "Oh. Hey, Lottie, could you get that?"

She groaned. "Fine." She walked over to the front door and absentmindedly swung the door
open. The smiling, cherub face of Misty Quigley greeted her. Lottie closed the door before
Misty could open her mouth.

Misty was their schoolmate. She was short, awkward, and was weirdly passionate about
volunteer work, posting all about joining programs and classes on her social media. From
what Lottie heard from her friends, Misty was always trying to get into their little group.

She walked to the living room. "Misty Quigley is at the door." She announced.

"Huh? Why would she be here?" Tai asked, pushing past Lottie to get to the door. Lottie ran
after Tai, and she could hear a bunch of people from their group follow them.

Tai opened the door, and Lottie confirmed to herself that she wasn't seeing things. Misty
really was standing there with a tub of ice cream and packets of cookies.

"Hi!" She said. Her braces glittered under the dark blue hue of the night sky. "I brought
everyone dessert."

"I'm sorry, why are you here?" Tai asked.

Shauna stepped forward, sidestepping Lottie. "How did she even know we have a thing
here?"

Everyone narrowed their eyes at Misty.

Misty stammered. "Oh well, you see, I—"

"I invited her." Ethan said from the hallway. "Is that bad?'

Mindy shook her head at him. "Your invitation here is already flimsy at best."

"Sorry." Misty sighed. "I really just wanted to—"

Natalie pushed past everyone standing by the front door. "We should let her in."

Tai hissed at Natalie. "Are you insane? You want to let a stranger into our house when there's
freaking murderer on the loose?"

"Guys, it's okay. If you don't want me here...then..." Misty said, her voice cracking like she
was going to cry. She dropped the ice cream and the cookies on the ground before she started
running away.

Lottie looked at her as she ran, dumbfounded.

Nat sneered at Tai. "Great, look at what you did." She said, grabbing her coat from the coat
rack.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Tai asked her.

"To make sure she gets home safe." Nat was already out the door.

"I'm going too." Ethan pushed past everyone, following after her.

"You're gonna get yourself murdered too, Nat!" Tai called after them. "And when you do, let's
see if I care."

Nat turned to the front door. She gave them the finger, before she started running after Misty.

"Oh my God, she's so stupid." Lottie mumbled.

"Yeah, 'stupid' was your girlfriend, you're letting her walk away in the middle of the night
with Ghostface probably around the corner?" Anika asked her in disbelief.

"She's gonna be fine. And I don't remember asking for your opinion, Anika." Lottie was sure
she would be fine. She would never hurt Nat.

Anika's eyebrows were furrowed and she looked like she was about to say something when
the lights flickered.

"What was that?" Mindy asked.

Suddenly, the lights all went out, and they were all bathing in darkness. They tried to weave
through everyone still standing around the foyer but it was no use. Lottie heard Tara gasp
while she fished for her phone in her pocket. She quickly turned her flashlight on.

"Mindy just spilled beer all over me." Tara sighed. Lottie flashed her light on them, just in
time to see Amber taking Tara's hand.

Amber was holding up her own phone to see where they were going. "Come on, I'll get you
changed." Amber said, walking away with Tara.

Jackie looked at Tai, her own phone in her hand. "We should look for some candles."

Tai turned to her. "There's some in the storage room upstairs. You need to go with someone."

"I'll take Shauna." Jackie said. "Someone needs to check the fuse box."

Mindy raised her phone. "I got it. I'm taking Anika. You guys stay here and wait for Nat and
Ethan."

They all started walking away, leaving Lottie, Tai, Van, and Chad alone in the foyer. The
silence was deafening as they all awkwardly leaned against walls and sat down on stairs.

"Should we do something?" Van asked them.

"No, we should just wait here for the others. We might have to move this sleepover
somewhere else if Mindy can't fix it." Tai said.

"Oh, shit." Chad said, slapping his forehead. "We have to unplug the fridge, Tai."

"You're right." She groaned. "You guys wanna come with us?"

Lottie and Van looked at each other, shrugged, and nodded. The four of them headed down
the hallway and into the kitchen just to watch Chad pull away their giant refrigerator from the
wall. They shone their lights on him as he unplugged the fridge from the socket.

"That should do it." He said, dusting off his hands.

Tai stood up from her perch on the kitchen counter "Wait, do you guys...hear that?"

There was silence. But then Lottie could hear the faint sound of a lawnmower.

"Is someone...mowing?" She asked, bewildered at the idea that a person would want to mow
at night.

The four of them share a look.

"AHHHHHH!"

Chad's eyes widened. "That's Misty!"

They all run from the kitchen and past the hallway and out through the door where they saw
someone starting a lawnmower at the Meeks-Martin's front yard. Except it wasn't just
someone.

It was a hooded figure in a black cloak. They wore a mask. The white ghostly mask that
Lottie wore the night before.

It was Ghostface.

But...Lottie was here. She was Ghostface. This...this shouldn't be possible.

They could only stand there in shock as Ghostface waved at them like it was a regular sunny
day, and began walking to the direction of a woman tied up in the yard. It was Misty.

"Help me, please!" She begged. Her eyes shining with tears of horror.

Chad and Lottie began running; they tried to grab whatever they could get their hands on to
use as a weapon. Lottie wasn't sure why she was trying to help. Perhaps it was the rush of
adrenaline, or perhaps it was her inane instinct to do something — anything.

She grabbed a rake off their garden shed, but it was too late for Misty. Her screams cut
through the night, as — ironically — the blades of the lawnmower cut through her face. Her
pleas became garbled as she choked on her own blood. Her face was mangled and peeled off
by the time Ghostface pulled back their lawnmower.
Lottie ran after Ghostface with the rake, while Chad tried to hit them with a baseball bat. She
swiped Ghostface with the rake, but Ghostface was faster than her. They sidestepped all of
her attempts. They tripped Lottie over with their boot, and she lands face first on the grass
with a thud. Ghostface grabs the baseball bat from Chad and hits him over the head with it,
knocking him out.

Before Lottie could get her bearings back, Ghostface was already running away. She saw
Van's boots running after Ghostface but Tai shouted at them to let it go.

"Van, the cops are coming, let it go." She panted.

Lottie sat up, rubbing her head. She thought she was pathetic, not even lasting a minute
against a copycat. She looked at what remained of Misty. Her eyes stared back at her, red and
bloodshot. Her mouth was ripped up in pieces, the rest of her head mangled and torn. Lottie
wanted to puke. The irony that she had done the same thing to her own victims not even 24
hours ago was not lost on her.

The lights inside the Meeks-Martin home turned on once again.

"Oh my God." She heard Amber's voice from the front door.

"What the fuck happened?" Tara shrieked.

Jackie and Shauna pushed past the both of them. Jackie was speechless. She had her hands
over her mouth, looking like she was dangerously close to crying. Shauna wrapped her in her
arms.

Mindy and Anika emerged from the house too, staring at Misty's corpse.

Nat and Ethan were running down the street, panting and sweaty.

"We couldn't find—Oh, fuck!" Nat shouted, finally noticing Misty in the yard.

They all looked at each other. Lottie could see the suspicion in their eyes, as they all carefully
observed every person in their so-called friend group. She could hear the police sirens in the
distance.

Lottie herself couldn't believe what just happened. Who the fuck would be insane enough do
this? Who the fuck thought to don the mask other than herself? What was their motive? And
most of all, who the fuck were they?

She eyed her friends' expressions. She knew it was one of them.

And she needed to kill them.

 one invades today, while the other spies tomorrow

Lottie hated the police station.

She hated all the bright white lights that reminded her of a hospital. Unlike the lights at a
hospital, however, these ones didn't look clean; sterile. They looked dirty and dinged. When
she looked up at one of them, she saw that a few of them were already broken. She hated that
the police station smelled of paper, day-old stale coffee, Axe body spray, and a strange
pastry-like scent; a weird combination.

She was already developing a headache, partially from being knocked down on her face,
partially from hearing all the annoying fax machine noises in the station and hearing her
friends bicker.

They were all holed up in the bullpen, waiting for the sheriff to get to the station and let them
inside her office. Some of them were standing or leaning against the wall, and some of them
were sitting on foldable plastic chairs.

Lottie was thankful that Jackie asked for ice packs from the cops for her and Chad. She
cradled the ice pack over her forehead while looking up at the ceiling. She could still feel
shreds of grass stuck on her wavy hair. She couldn't be bothered to get them out yet.

Her mind was still reeling. She couldn't believe it. There was another Ghostface. She thought
that since no one had the idea to don the mask in over a decade, she would be the only one
insane enough to do it again. But apparently not.

She didn't want to think too much about it, but she was scared. Not for herself. Never for
herself. She was scared because she was sure no one would hurt Natalie if she had been the
only doing the killing. Now, her ex-girlfriend was as vulnerable as anyone in the group; flesh
ready to be ripped apart like she hadn't been human at all.

Her only goal was to get her revenge on the people that wronged her dad; the people that
ruined her family. On the top of her list were Amber and Anika to send a message to their
dads about messing with the Matthews. But now she had another goal: she had to kill this
copycat Ghostface before they could get to her; before they could hurt a hair on Nat's head.

She groaned. Her friends' voices were becoming louder and louder.

"Hey," She heard a voice a few feet away from her. "How are you?"

Lottie squinted from underneath the ice pack. She already knew it was Nat.

"Headache." She simply said. "How are you?"

Nat shook her head with a sigh. Lottie could see the concern in her hazel eyes. It made her
want to smile despite everything. Nat still truly cared about her.
Her ex-girlfriend looked exhausted. There were darkened bags on the underside of her eyes
already. Her lips were chapped. Her bleach blonde hair still damp with sweat. Lottie could
still remember the last time she helped Nat bleach them. It felt like yesterday, but the dark
roots on Nat's head proved otherwise.

"Don't worry about me." Nat softly said. "You went face-to-face with the bastard. I'm
so...worried about you."

"I'm okay." Lottie tried to smile. "Just a little bump in the head."

"That's good." Nat nodded and looked at their friends. "I should go check on Anika."

Lottie sighed. Nat turned to her.

"I know you don't like that I'm with her a lot. I'm sorry if I am. But you have Tai, Jackie, and
Shauna, and I feel like I can't talk to them anymore, so, I..." It was Nat's turn to sigh. She
shook her head at no one, before patting Lottie's thigh and standing up from the folding chair
she was sitting on to go talk to Anika.

Lottie felt guilty, a new addition to the millions of emotions that were running through her
every day. She never realized that Nat became distant because she felt like their friends —
their real friends — took Lottie's side. It didn't make her less angry at Anika, though.

Before Lottie could stare up at the ceiling again, Sheriff Judy Hicks walked in the station
with a short haired blonde in a leather jacket. They walked with purpose past their group.

"Come on, kids. Inside." Judy said, not sparing them a glance as she walked into her office
with the blonde in tow.

She hated the sheriff. When her dad was arrested, she had been the one to handcuff him in
front of her. She cried, she begged, she pleaded for them not to take her dad; the only parent
she had left, but Judy acted like she wasn't even there, like she never even existed and that
her words were nothing but sounds of the wind. She couldn't help but glare at her when she
passed by. She hoped she still remembered her.

Lottie's friends all looked at each other before following the sheriff into her office. They
squeezed themselves inside the small space. The office smelled cleaner — fresher — than the
rest of the station, with a faint hint of something citrus-y and baked; like lemon squares.
There was an office desk right in the middle of the room, with an office chair behind it and
two folding chairs in front. On the desk were stacks of paper, a plaque with the sheriff's
name, and a framed photo of a teenage boy with blonde hair. Lottie knew the photo was of
Wes, their schoolmate. There were two bulletin boards; one smaller than the other. The bigger
one was on the left side of the room, the smaller one right behind the desk over filing
cabinets and a mini-fridge. There was a standing fan by the right side, and a plastic wrapped
leather couch by the door.

Lottie and Chad were given the folding chairs by the desk, some of her friends stood behind
them, some sat on the uncomfortable couch.
Sheriff Hicks sat down behind the rolling office desk. The blonde stood behind her, crossing
her arms and staring their group down. Lottie thought she looked familiar.

The sheriff rolled herself to the mini-fridge and pulled out an aluminum tray covered in Saran
wrap.

"Have a lemon square." Judy said, placing the tray on her desk for everyone.

The blonde behind her wasted no time unwrapping the tray and getting one for herself. She
nodded to herself approvingly. Lottie and her friends declined.

"This is Agent Reed from the FBI." Judy gestured at the blonde.

Agent Reed smiled and gave them a half-hearted wave, still chewing on her food. Lottie
knew then who she was. Kirby Reed. She had heard about her when she was looking into
previous Ghostfaces. She was involved in the Woodsboro incident back in '11. Lottie was
surprised to see that she was with the FBI.

Lottie took away the ice pack on her forehead to look up at her. Their eyes met. She wasn't
going to lie, Kirby's stare made her nervous. Lottie knew that the cops in Woodsboro were
good for nothing, but an FBI agent made it more difficult to hide the fact that she was one of
the Ghostfaces that were running around Woodsboro. Lottie looked away, fiddling with the
ice pack in her hands.

Kirby dusted her hands off of crumbs. "I take a special interest in Ghostface attacks. Let's get
down to it, shall we? Tell me everything." She said, leaning on the desk with her hands
planted on top of it.

Chad was the first to speak up. "Misty...she—"

"Ghostface attacked Misty Quigley in our front yard." Tai said from behind Lottie. "They
killed her with our lawn mower. It was just the four of us there. Me, Van, Chad, and Lottie."
She said, pointing to everyone she mentioned. "The others were all busy doing
something...but..."

"But what, Tai?" Amber challenged.

"But we can't confirm their alibi." Tai said, straightening herself.

Kirby tsked. "So you think it's friends killing friends? What a classic."

"Just because we weren't there doesn't automatically mean we did anything." Tara
complained. "You're all so quick to point fingers at people you consider your 'friends'. It still
could be someone we don't know."

"Then why us? Of all the houses to hit, why did they look for us? How did they even find
us?" Shauna asked. "It's an inside job."

There was a burst of noise as everyone started bickering again, pointing fingers at each other.
Lottie didn't want to listen to their conspiracies. Of course the perpetrator was going to lie.
She was going to take a different approach than her friends. She was going to use her head.
The noise just made if more difficult for her to concentrate and lay down the facts that she
had for herself.

Judy banged on the table with her name plaque, shutting everyone up. "Okay, that's enough.
Your theories are interesting but we don't need you guys to play detective for us. That's our
job. We just need you to tell us what happened and you can all get the hell home."

Lottie looked at each person in the office as they relayed their alibi. She took note of Kirby's
expression, watching the little twitch on her forehead whenever she stopped herself from
raising her eyebrow. She didn't flinch when she told Kirby her side of the story. She had the
strongest alibi, being around the most credible witnesses. She didn't know who among the
group were telling the truth, but she knew one of them was lying.

She just wasn't sure which.

When they were done, they all stood outside the police station. Lottie was exhausted. It was
around 2AM, and the sheriff made them all call their parents to drive them home and make
sure they were safe.

She wasn't going to lie. She was jealous that her friends still had parents to call and pick them
up at times like these. There was an ache in her chest. Even with all of her friends around,
Lottie never felt so alone, watching them boot up their phones and dial their parents'
numbers.

"I'm about to pass out." She heard Tai groan.

Mindy whispered to Tai. "Don't. You're gonna sleepwalk again, sis."

She sat on the steps of the police station, almost hugging her knees to herself. She saw a pair
of combat boots stand still in front of her. She knew it was Nat. She hid her face in her lap.

"Lot..." Nat said. "I can take you home if you need a ride."

Lottie shook her head against her lap. "I'm fine, I'll just take the bus."

"I'm not gonna let you do that." Nat insisted. She felt Natalie sit beside her. "Lottie—"

"Okay, guys." Jackie said, talking to the group. Lottie looked up at her. "I know we're all
shaken up but we can't let this psycho get the best of us. I say we all should stick together as
much as possible. Meet up tomorrow night at the bowling alley?"

Chad turned to her, genuinely confused. "Why?"

"Because we shouldn't cower in fear. Are we really going to let this ruin our lives?" Jackie
said.

Anika scoffed. "Spoken like a true Ghostface, luring us out somewhere you can kill us."
"Well, then you're uninvited, Anika." Jackie said, surprising everyone in the group with the
attitude. "What? I'm sorry okay, but I'm the only one who's trying to keep this group alive and
together."

Mindy sighed. "Maybe Jackie's right. If we all stay together then Ghostface wouldn't have the
chance to get one of us. It's the most logical thing to do if we want to get to the bottom of
this. But just so you all know, I'm watching every single one of you."

"Mindy knows a lot about horror movies." Shauna said. "Anyone else think it could be her?"

"Oh my God, Shauna." Mindy groaned. "Isn't your finger tired from pointing at everyone?
What about Van, huh? What about Amber?"

Amber spoke up. "You're all overthinking this. We're all lanky high school students, how the
fuck are we going to be serial killers?"

"Well," Van shrugged. "Billy and Stu were in high school. Jill Roberts and that one guy too.
It could be one of us."

"What if it's Lottie?"

Silence settled among the group after Ethan asked the question. Lottie felt her heart drop
when she heard her name. She schooled her expression. She definitely shouldn't look too
guilty of anything.

"She's awfully quiet whenever we talk about who Ghostface is and—"

Before Lottie could open her mouth and lash out at Ethan, Natalie was already standing up
and walking over to him.

"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe she's scared?" Natalie standing up to a six foot
something tall guy like Ethan looked comical. "She got attacked by fucking Ghostface. Don't
you fucking dare imply that my girlfriend had anything to do with this. She wouldn't hurt a
fucking fly. Besides, your opinion doesn't fucking matter! We're not even friends."

Natalie was shouting; loud and angry, but Lottie couldn't help but feel a flutter in her heart
when she heard her call Lottie her girlfriend again.

"I'm just saying! Fuck, after I helped you with Misty—"

Natalie shoved Ethan. "Did I fucking ask for you to help? If anyone is Ghostface then it's
you, you fucking—!"

"Alright, that's enough!" Jackie yelled. "My dad is probably here in a minute, so let's just
agree to meet at the bowling alley tomorrow. No but's!" She was right, Jackie's dad pulled up
to the station before anyone could even argue again.

Their parents all arrived within minutes from each other. Ethan was picked up by his older
brother, Richie. Lottie swore that she saw Ethan narrow his eyes at her. She tried to stare him
down but he was already inside the car, smirking to himself.
Lottie knew Ethan was never a guy she would willingly hang out with, but the way he acted
made her feel uneasy. She wasn't expecting it from the lame nerdy guy that mildly annoyed
her. That fucking bastard knew something. Or at least, suspected something. Lottie felt the
rage she tried to keep at bay roll in like a crashing tide inside her. She was a mess of
confusing emotions, and they were all piling up like the Jenga pieces she used to play with.
She was worried about what she could be capable of if the pieces all came crashing down.

She was angry. She was depressed. She was scared. She was worried. She was anxious.
Lottie didn't know how to explain what she felt, or if what she was feeling was even normal
still. She was starting to treasure the moments when she could feel numb. It felt like there
was a heavy weight on her chest at all times that she couldn't try to remove even if she
wanted to.

The only thing that could buy her some sort of sanity was the idea of revenge and getting her
dad's enemies their comeuppance.

Lottie wished she had the option to turn off her mind. She wished that there was a switch she
could flick on and off whenever she wanted to. She wasn't scared of the copycat Ghostface in
a way that her friends were. They feared for their lives; Lottie had wanted hers to end a long
time ago, so the idea of losing her life to a masked killer — while not comforting — was
something she was fine with. But she was scared for Nat. Natalie had so much left to live for.
When they were together, she would tell her about wanting to open a small record store in
town, and buying that little house that they would always pass by whenever they carpooled to
school.

Everything Lottie did, she did for someone else.

She didn't realize she had began crying. She shoved her head back in her lap once Shauna
was picked up by her mom, leaving her and Natalie all alone by the front entrance of the
station.

"Come on, let's get you home." Nat said.

She was wrong though. About the only thing she could hold onto for sanity was the idea of
revenge. She had Natalie. She kept her sane.

***

The Matthews' manor used to always be lit up, even at night because the housekeepers would
be doing their never-ending list of chores. The garden used to beautiful, with neatly trimmed
bushes and pretty flowers in a variety of colors. The grass used to be a vibrant shade of green.

Now though, even after just a few months, there no longer were lights on; Lottie had to let go
of all of their housekeepers and kept all of her lights off to save electricity. Their garden was
overgrown, the flowers were dying, and the grass was untrimmed in a sickly shade of brown.

The sight of it always made Lottie sigh. Even when she came home here with Nat earlier that
day. This time — after Nat parked her scooter by the gate — was no exception.
"You okay?" Nat asked her, pulling off her old and flimsy helmet from Lottie's head and
hooking it to the handlebars.

Lottie nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine." She turned to her ex. "Would you like to come inside?"

"I don't think that's a good idea." Nat whispered.

"Please?" Lottie said, biting her lip nervously. She didn't want to push Nat's boundaries all
the way to the extreme, but she didn't want to be without her just yet.

Nat sighed. For a second, Lottie thought she was going to reject her, but she nodded before
the disappointment could settle in. Lottie smiled.

The ex-girlfriends walked into the manor, what was once grand and lively, now cold and
empty. It was made all the more obvious at around three in the morning that the house felt
lonely.

Up the stairs and down the hall was Lottie's room. Lottie knew that Nat must have had
memorized the four corners of her small sanctuary by now. Lottie turned the lights on. It
wasn't as pristine as it had been months ago. Some of her clothes were haphazardly thrown
over chairs and over the foot of her bed. Her sneakers were chucked to the corner of the room
by her desk. Her hamper was close to overflowing. She hadn't had time to do her laundry just
yet. Sometimes she missed when she didn't have to think about household chores.

She wasn't worried about Nat finding her Ghostface robe, mask, voice changer, and hunting
knife. They were kept neatly in a makeshift trapdoor inside her huge wardrobe, never to be
seen underneath the piles of her clothing.

Nat welcomed herself in, sitting right beside Lottie as she sat down on the edge of her bed.
Lottie unlaced her shoes and kicked them off. For a while, neither of them said a word. It was
Nat who broke the silence.

"I'm worried about you, baby." Nat whispered. The use of the pet name hadn't gone unnoticed
by Lottie. "You haven't been the same since your dad was arrested."

"I'm fine—"

"You keep saying that but you know you aren't." Nat said sternly, finally turning around to
look at her. "You're not fine, Lottie." She drawled.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Go get help. See a specialist. They can help you."

"They're gonna put me on meds. I don't like it." Lottie whispered, she felt like she was going
to cry.

"Maybe it's what you need. It's not a bad thing, Lot."

Lottie sighed and softly shook her head.

"Please? At least talk to a doctor." Nat took her hand and kissed her fingers. "For me?"

"Even if I wanted to, I can't afford it. You know how expensive it can be." Lottie's bottom lip
trembled. She looked away.

"I'll help you." Nat said. She caressed Lottie's face and pushed it gently upwards so their eyes
could meet again. "I'll try and ask for some more hours at work."

"Nat..."

"Jesus, after what happened tonight, I'm so scared for you. I don't want anything to happen to
you. Please promise me you'll get some help. I miss you so much, Lottie." Natalie said,
tearing up.

Lottie wiped Nat's tears away. "Okay." She said; an empty promise.

She wanted to do what Nat wanted. But she couldn't. Not until her goal was achieved
anyway. No doctor would listen to her ramble about what she did to Gale and Dewey; about
what she wanted to do to Anika and Amber, and tell her she just needed some therapy or
maybe an antidepressant. She was insane. She knew. But she needed to hold on to the
insanity before guilt and remorse caught up to her.

Natalie was making it difficult to hold onto it though.

Her ex-girlfriend started leaning in towards her. Lottie had prayed for a time like this before.
When their lips met again, Lottie could feel some of her anger being stripped away. Was it
enough to stop her from getting her father (what she thought) the justice he deserved? Maybe
not. But it was enough to make her forget about it all for one moment.

All her life, Lottie had counted on her dad for everything. It was very difficult to accept that
he would be locked away some place for the rest of his life. Lottie had no one else besides
her dad, or so she thought until she met Natalie. She always thought that her fears and her
insecurities were something she had to keep to herself; something she should let drown her
until it became too much; until it suffocated her. But that wasn't true at all.

Natalie was here with her. She volunteered to share her pain, her fears, her anxiety. She
wasn't alone.

If her life was ever a contract, Lottie knew that Natalie would co-sign it with her.

Natalie's lips were soft and supple around hers. She never wanted to part from them again.
Her ex's hands found her waist and gripped it tight, making her moan into her mouth.
Something clicked inside her mind. As primal as the instinct that ran through her when she
killed Gale. The need for something carnal. The need for flesh. The need for blood.

Lottie growled softly before biting into Nat's bottom lip. Hard. Nat hissed from the pain, and
at the far back of Lottie's mind she thought that she had hurt her enough to make her pull
away. But she didn't. Instead, Natalie pushed her down onto her bed and kissed her even
deeper. The stale metallic taste of Nat's blood touched her tongue. Lottie had never tasted
anything more delicious in her life.

They had been in the same position hundreds of times before: Lottie (though she was
embarrassed to admit it) would always end up underneath Natalie. But this time she had the
searing urge to flip the switch; Lottie shoved Nat away, surprising her, before she sat up and
kissed her again, roughly pinning Nat down on her bed. Lottie's hand found Nat's hair and
she pulled, making her ex-girlfriend whimper; a noise she had never heard before. Nat arched
into her and she took the chance to kiss — no, bite — her neck.

Lottie couldn't hear Natalie when she groaned. Her hands were on Lottie's shoulder, pushing
her away. "Lot—shit! Lottie, slow down." Natalie panted.

She finally pulled away once she heard the desperation in Nat's plea. Once she did, she felt
like she was sobering up, like the past few minutes she had just spent with Natalie was
something she had done while she was drunk. She was panting. Natalie looked ethereal,
looking up at her with her hazel eyes and her bleeding lip.

Her ex-girlfriend sat up. "Jesus Lottie, when did you get so aggressive?" Natalie gave her a
half-hearted chuckle.

"I'm sorry...does it hurt? I think I have ice in the fridge—"

"It's fine." Nat said. "Can we just sleep?"

"Of course." She nodded. She shifted over so that she was no longer straddling Natalie.

She watched as Nat shed her shoes and her jacket, followed by her jeans. Before coming to
her bed, Nat flipped the light switch, submerging the room in darkness. Lottie could hear her
feeling her way back to bed, before landing right beside her.

Gingerly, Lottie wrapped her arms around Nat. She felt her ex-girlfriend sigh when she did.
Her nose found comfort in the scent of Natalie's hair; a vague mixture of something floral and
minty.

"What does this mean for us?" Lottie mumbled.

"What do you want it to be?" Nat's voice was soft but low.

"I want you back, Nat." Lottie sniffed, her eyes beginning to prick with unshed tears. "I love
you."

Natalie shifted on the bed, facing her. She held Lottie's face in her hand, wiping her tears
away with her thumb. Lottie truly believed that Natalie was a work of art; in the hazy
moonlight shining through the window, all she could see was the love in her hazel eyes. She
knew what she was going to say before it left her lips.

"I love you too." Natalie whispered.

Lottie couldn't stop herself from smiling widely; so wide that it felt like her cheeks were sore.
Natalie kissed her, over and over, until exhaustion caught up to her and she fell asleep in
Lottie's arms.

Lottie closed her eyes and held Natalie closer to her. There wasn't a force in the world that
could take Natalie away from her. She would do everything for her. She would keep her safe.
Or she would die trying.

***

"Ugh, where are they?" Taissa Meeks-Martin groaned as she watched Van lace up their
bowling shoes. She patted the pepper spray in her pocket, worried about losing it especially
at this time.

It was around seven in the evening and she and Van have been waiting for their friends to
arrive for about half an hour now. They knew a lot of them were late most of the time, but she
didn't expect that none of them would show up, especially Jackie since it was her brilliant
idea anyway.

She had a lot to get done, and as much as she loved her friends, she really wasn't in the mood
to be hanging out with them. College applications were kicking her ass. Sometimes she
wished she was more like Mindy who — after she got accepted to study Film at Blackmore
University in New York — decided to settle on the first school that took her. Taissa always
wanted more; much more than what could possibly be offered to her. She wanted acceptance
letters from Stanford, Yale, Brown, and — to be perfectly honest — every possible university
that existed in North America. She wanted to have her pick of whatever school she could
desire. She wanted options. And by God, she was going to get those options.

Her friends aren't thinking about college right now, aside from Jackie and Shauna. Jackie
always said she was going to Rutgers, which was a good school that she was sure would love
to take Jackie. Shauna was aiming for a lacrosse scholarship. Tai was told Shauna didn't have
a particular school in mind, but she knew she wanted to stay close to her girlfriend.

Nat had said before that she wasn't college material; she wanted to open up her own record
store. When Nat told her about it, Tai nodded at her. She wasn't about to argue what she
thought would work best for her close friend's future.

Lottie, however, worried Tai. Before Mr. Matthews was arrested, Lottie had applied for a
bunch of universities, and at the time, Tai was sure they were going to accept her. Now
though, with everything on her plate, she hadn't even had the time to talk to Lottie about her
plans. She wasn't even sure if her friend still wanted to go to college.

But most importantly, she was thinking about Van, her significant other's plans for the future.
Tai was disappointed in them. Recently, Van had been pulling away from her and their
friends. The cold-shoulder wasn't really something she was expecting from Van, who usually
tried to be upbeat and carefree about most things. They were also always truthful and honest
with her, or at least, they used to be.
She wanted to talk to them about it, especially now with the looming threat of death over
them, but every time she tried to bring it up, Van would clam up and push her further away.

The bowling alley was nearly empty, save from her, Van, and the half-asleep employee
supposedly manning the desk. It was already late, so the place was mostly lit up by neon
lights with the overhead lighting dimmed. The screen on their lane was the only one turned
on; others displayed static images of the alley's logo. The whole place smelled subtly of
cleaning supplies and shoe disinfectant. The faint sound of some generic pop song was heard
throughout every corner of the bowling alley.

Van looked up at Tai. "Did you tell them we're already here?"

"I texted them already." Tai huffed.

Taissa sat down on the bench next to them, folding her arms across her chest. Van finished
tying up their bowling shoes. "So are we gonna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"About you...why are you acting so weird?" Tai asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Van tried to laugh it off.

Tai stared at her partner, unblinking. She was serious.

Van sighed. "Damn, there's no getting away with it huh?"

They adjusted themselves, leaning their hips ever so slightly so that it sat at the edge of the
bench and their back was on the wall. They blew on a strand of ginger hair that fell over their
face, their eyes refusing to meet Tai's.

"I can't go to college." Van shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "I don't want to get your hopes
up after high school—"

Tai's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Wait. What? Why? Is it a money thing or—or
a...grades thing?"

"Well, cancer got in the way so—"

"What?" Tai nearly yelled. "You—what?"

"Will you let me finish? Jeez." Van chuckled half-heartedly. "They found a tumor in my
boob." They sounded like a kindergartener with how they said the word 'boob.'

Taissa rubbed her hands on her face in frustration. "Are you fucking—? Why didn't you tell
me?"

"I don't want to worry you. Especially since you're off chasing the college of your dreams and
you're so stressed that you sleepwalk and I—"
Tai cut Van off again, but this time, she cut them off with a kiss. She had her hands placed on
either side of their face, holding them close; closer and closer until there was no longer any
space between them. She felt Van's hands on her waist. Their kiss deepened, but Van had to
pull away.

"I'm going to be okay, Tai." They said, smiling softly at Taissa. "I will be. I have you."

"You better." Tai said. "Screw college. I don't care about what school I get into. It doesn't
matter if you're sick. It doesn't matter if you're not with me."

Van smiled. "I think this may actually work out to our advantage. You know movies are
always subverting expectations now, and if Ghostface is a fan of Stab then maybe they won't
kill the sick patient and the nerd. Maybe we get to be the final girls."

"Am I supposed to be the nerd?" Tai asked, her face scrunched up in disgust.

"Well it's either you or that Ethan guy."

Taissa groaned. "Ew. But I enjoy the idea of being a final girl with you."

"Yeah, it's pretty fun to think about except for the fact that if we do end up being the final
girls, all of our friends would be dead."

"True." Tai sighed. "Do you really think this Ghostface is after us? It could just be a fluke. I
mean, Misty might've been the target and we just happened to be where she was."

"It's rare that Ghostface would go after their main target straight away." Van shrugged.
"Usually they have to get through the friends first or like, random people."

Tai rolled her eyes. "Wow, thanks for giving me peace of mind. You know I think you're on
par with Mindy, having watched all of these ridiculous Stab movies. Watching some actor
play my uncle's death once was enough for me."

"Can I tell you a secret? I actually hate the Stab movies."

"Don't ever let Mindy or Amber hear you. They love that shit."

Van laughed. "I know. I can't ever share with them my Letterboxd because I know they'll hate
me for rating Stab 3 with a half star."

"They're gonna crucify you for it." Tai said. "It sometimes feels like they have a Stab cult or
something."

"I love horror movies but count me out." Van stood up. "Let's play without them."

"We can't." Tai complained. She stood up as well, and walked over to the screen. "I already
set it up for...wait, what the fuck it glitched."

The screen showed nothing but black. Van looked up at it. "Oh yeah that's fucked. I'm gonna
go ask the guy to fix it." They said, turning around and walking away.
Tai's phone rings. She picked it up without checking the caller ID. "Yeah?"

"Bored, Taissa?"

It was the voice of a man, similar to the voice that Stab would use for Ghostface. Deep and
raspy. She swallowed.

"Who is this?"

"Oh, I think you know."

Tai saw movement from the corner of her left eye. She turned to look at it, only to be met by
a figure in all black, a few feet away from her, standing with a phone by their masked face,
right where their mouth should be. In their other hand was a hunting knife; a Buck 120.

She was never prone to panic attacks, but Tai couldn't help the anxiety creep in and hold her
body hostage. She started panting.

She was not going to die.

"I'd like to propose a round between you and Van versus me—"

A gloved hand covered her mouth. She screamed and struggled against their hold. An arm
wrapped around her neck in a chokehold.

"—and my friend."

Tai quickly felt for the pepper spray she had in her pocket. She pushed on the button,
spraying the Ghostface that held her right on the face. But it doesn't do anything. She dropped
the damned thing on the ground and headbutted her assailant. It seemed to do the trick
because she heard a groan not a moment after and the arm around her neck loosened. She
coughed when oxygen flooded her lungs again.

Her vision was blurry but she blinked it away, desperate to get to Van. She found that the
Ghostface that was in front of her was gone. She ran to the counter, as fast as she could while
wearing the stupidest pair of bowling shoes.

She saw Van looking around the bowling alley, confused and scared. She gasped when a
Ghostface appeared behind them, skidding to a stop. "Van, look out!"

Van turned around and dodged Ghostface's swipe in the nick of time. They grabbed their
forearm and pushed it away with as much force as they could muster. Ghostface stumbled,
but it didn't take long for them to regain their footing.

Van shouted at Tai. "Run, Tai! Get to the door! Get to the door!" They said before running
after their girlfriend.

Tai and Van both stopped suddenly when the second Ghostface blocked the door.

"Oh fuck, we are so not the final girls." Van shook their head.
Tai walked backwards then stumbled when she was once again choked, this time by
something that resembled a rope. She could feel it digging into her throat; a shoelace from a
bowling shoe. She watched as the other Ghostface swiped at Van, cutting through her cheek
and creating a flap by her lip. Van sobbed in pain.

Taissa was struggling against the Ghostface that held her. She scratched at whatever she
could grab a hold of, but she was losing energy and adrenaline fast. She loses what little
oxygen she had and dropped down onto the floor, just in time to see Van lose the struggle
against Ghostface. Van got stabbed in the gut, and they wailed in agony.

The Ghostface attacking Tai must have left because there was no one that stopped her when
she used the last of her energy to crawl to Van after they fell on the ground.

"Please..." Van begged. Ghostface stood with their legs on either side of them.

"I'm sorry, Van." Ghostface sneered. "But I take pity on no one. Not even sickly—"

Van's blood streaked Tai's face as Ghostface slashed their neck once.

"—dying—"

Another slash to the neck.

"—gingers—"

A stab right in the middle of their neck; right on their throat.

"—with a Letterboxd!"

Tai's vision was blurry. Whether it was from struggling to breathe or from crying over Van
she didn't know. She just wanted to die after seeing Van's eyes glaze over, their neck violently
hacked that it separated from the rest of their body. Van's injuries were so brutal that they
were decapitated. Tai managed to sob as her hands reached Van's fingertips. They had so
much to do, so much to see together. They can't die. They can't end like this. They can't.

They just can't.

Her mouth was full of spit, the feeling of the shoelaces around her neck becoming too much.
She was sure she was a shade of purple.

The Ghostface that attacked Van didn't spare her a glance. They just stepped away from the
scene and sat on the front desk chair; Tai finally saw that they had already killed the bowling
alley employee. Ghostface grabbed a magazine from underneath the table and flipped through
it, crossing their legs like nothing had happened.

A boot kicked her, flipping her over to her back. She wanted to protest; she didn't want to let
go of Van. She gasped for breath—tried to, at least. She saw the second Ghostface looking
down at her, carrying a bowling ball.

"Say good night, Tai. But don't worry. I'll make sure you never sleepwalk again."
***

The flashing police lights shone across the dark blue night sky in red and blue, bathing Lottie
and Nat in the colors as they ran to the front of the bowling alley. Everyone was already
there, except for Ethan, Jackie, and Shauna.

"Where the fuck were you two?" Mindy growled. Her voice was shaky, her bottom lip was
trembling. Tears stained her face. Lottie couldn't look at her.

"My scooter broke down, we had to catch a bus." Natalie explained.

Mindy shook her head, nearly sobbing. "I don't fucking believe you." Anika and Chad held
her back when she tried to grab Nat by the collar.

Lottie's voice broke. "I'm sorry—" She hiccupped. "Tai—"

"Fucking save it, Lottie." Chad grit his teeth.

The group watched as three body bags were wheeled out from the building. She knew two of
those bags contained the bodies of Van and Tai. Lottie wanted to sob. Someone had killed her
friends. She was going to make them pay.

Jackie and Shauna came running down right after them.

"What happened? Jesus Christ!" Jackie cried. "What the fuck?"

Shauna grabbed Chad's shoulder. "What happened?"

"Isn't it fucking obvious? Ghostface killed Tai and Van. This motherfucker is after us, that's
for sure."

Amber shook her head in pity. "Jesus, it was brutal. Someone was really angry."

"Angry about what? What could Van and Tai possibly have done to get anyone so mad? They
fucking decapitated Van! They crushed my sister's skull! Who the fuck could have done
that?" Mindy seethed.

"Someone strong." Natalie said.

As if on cue, Ethan ran to their group. He was damp with sweat. His hair disheveled, and his
jacket askew. Lottie didn't even realize that Chad was already walking behind her until he
punched Ethan straight in the face.

"Ow!" Ethan groaned. "What the fuck?"

"You're fucking Ghostface aren't you?" Chad shook Ethan. "Aren't you?" He yelled, his spit
landing on Ethan's face.

"No!" He protested. "I was with Quinn! The whole time!"

Tara stepped forward. "Quinn is with Sam you fucking liar! I just saw their Instagram story."

"I—I was with Richie—"

"Shut him up!" Mindy yelled. "We'll interrogate the fuck out of this bastard. We can't trust the
cops. Detective Kirsch will just let him go. Never let him leave your sight."

"We can take him back to ours." Tara said. "No one's home there."

"Good." Mindy said. "We're all going to Tara's. We're gonna figure out who it is tonight or I'll
fucking die trying."

Chad manhandled Ethan as they all started to walk away. "Fuck, wait!" He said, pushing
Chad's hands away. The second Chad let him go, the bastard bolted.

"Fuck." Chad said, running after him.

Lottie was about to run after them before Nat held her back by grabbing her coat. "Don't you
dare." She whispered.

"Shit!" Mindy shouted.

"Someone run after them, Ethan might kill Chad!" Anika cried.

Amber hugged Tara and chased after them, off to God knows where. "We'll meet up with you
guys later!"

"Fuck, Amber be safe please!" Tara yelled after her. "Shouldn't we all go after them?"

"No, we have to stick together. As horrible as it sounds, the more people around us, the better
chance we have of surviving this godawful night." Jackie said.

"Come on, we're all going to Tara's." Mindy said, determined. "I know Chad. He's not going
to let the fucker live through this night if he's Ghostface."

"Jesus fuck, why is everyone making the most terrible decisions?!" Nat yelled. "One of you
has to be manipulating everyone. What the fuck even is going on?"

Mindy crossed her arms.

"This is a horror movie. And it's time we talk about the rules to surviving one."
 and if i seem dangerous, would you be scared?
Chapter Notes

bit short ;-;

Carpe noctem.

It was a phrase that stuck to Lottie. Aside from Jackie, she's always been the closest with Tai.
She never judged Lottie for being who she was, in fact, it was Taissa that told her to become
unabashedly proud of herself, despite being different. She told her to seize the night — carpe
noctem. Let everyone chase after what they wanted during the day, so they can let loose and
claim what is theirs at night with no one to see or judge them.

She was ashamed; ashamed for not being there to protect Tai and Van. She didn't do anything
to help them (it doesn't occur to her that she couldn't do anything), and she blamed herself for
igniting the fire that might have caused this copycat Ghostface to kill them.

It hurt. It hurt her chest and it hurt her head to think about what her friends might have gone
through under the hands of this cruel Ghostface.

She was sure it was Ethan. Innocent people don't run away like that, and they certainly
wouldn't lie about their alibi. Innocent people didn't dart their eyes from point to point and
keep fiddling with the hem of their jackets. Ethan was guilty, she knew.

She thought about herself, and if she looked suspicious anytime anyone mentioned
Ghostface. She hoped she doesn't lie as badly as Ethan does.

Lottie balled her fist, vividly remembering the handle of her own hunting knife as she
wrapped her fingers around it for the first time. It felt amazing. It felt right. She finally found
the extension that was long lost from her right arm.

She can't wait to plunge it deep inside Ethan as she stabbed him to death. She wanted to see
the life drain out from his eyes, the silent plea in his mouth, forever muted by his final gasp.
She wanted to slash across his face and bloody up his curly locks. She wanted to be the one
to witness as his body became limp, and feel for his heartbeat to make sure it had stopped.
She wanted to see his eyes roll back and his eyelids flutter shut. She wanted to grin at his
broken body; dead and useless, as useless as he is when he lived.

She was going to kill him. She couldn't wait any longer.

She was going to kill him tonight.

But she needed to get away from everyone first.

"We should go." Shauna said. "We told them we'll wait for them at Tara's."

"Yeah..." Tara said, slowly nodding her head. She's breathing quickly, almost panting. Jackie
felt for her back.

"Oh my God, Tara your asthma." Jackie gasped. "Did you bring your inhaler?"

She nodded again, patting her pocket before pulling her inhaler out and shaking it. Tara
inhaled for a few seconds. Lottie looked away to roll her eyes.

Tara was never really someone she took seriously. She was just...there. The only thing that
she had going for her was the rumor circulating about Sam Carpenter's true father, and even
that wasn't something she could adapt as a personality trait. She had nothing against Tara, but
she had nothing to like about her at all either.

"Let's go." Tara said afterwards. "I don't want to keep Amber waiting."

Bummer. Lottie was kind of hoping Amber was already dead, but then again maybe not, she
wanted to be the one to kill her after all.

Nat took Lottie's hand as the group began walking to their cars.

"Lottie..." Nat whispered. "Are you okay?"

Lottie nodded. She faced Nat. "Are you?"

"Yeah...Van..." Nat looked away. Lottie swore she was tearing up. While she had always been
close with Tai, she knew Natalie was closer to Van.

"I'm sorry." Lottie whispered. "But I'll get revenge, I swear." She said determinedly, almost
quietly growling.

"Lottie, stop it. I don't want you getting near this fucker okay? I don't know what I'd do
without you." Nat said, looking up at her with those beautiful hazel eyes.

Since meeting Nat, she developed a fondness for her hazel eyes. She loved the way that it
looked different depending on how the light shines on her. She loved the way it sparkled
whenever she looked up at her; like Lottie was the only thing that mattered. But if she was
being honest, she loved everything about Natalie. She loved her little dimples and the way
they showed up every time she said something remotely funny, her little nose and the way it
scrunched up whenever she showed her something she didn't like, and she loved her cheeks
and the way they became bright red every time they kissed. She vividly remembered their
first kiss and how Natalie looked like a newly ripened cherry plucked straight from the tree.

It was the moment she fell in love with her. It was the moment she felt like she had a tether to
the world; someone that grounded her. It was so easy to lose her sanity, but it was just as easy
to look into Natalie's eyes, reminisce about the time they fell in love, and remember that she
wasn't all alone.
"Nat...nothing is going to happen to me." Lottie said, holding Nat's hand. "I'm going to be
okay."

"You can't say that for sure." Natalie shook her head.

Lottie knows that she shouldn't ask what was running through her head, but her insecurities
and the weight of her emotions ran rampant through her mind, and her tongue became loose.
She needed to know if Natalie was going to stay...if she were to find out she was the one that
killed Gale Weathers. The moment the words left her lips, she wanted desperately to take
them all back.

"What if...what if I had gone crazy? What if I...continue being the insane person that—that
snuck into your house? What if I'm not the same Lottie that you fell in love with? What
then?"

Nat dropped her hand. Lottie felt a tightness on her chest when she did. Her face contorted
into one of suspicion. "What are you talking about?"

"I just—" Lottie mumbled. "It's nothing, I'm just...going crazy I guess."

Nat grabbed her hand. "Are you trying to tell me something?" Nat hissed.

"No." Lottie swallowed.

"You sound exactly like Ethan right now." Natalie whispered. "Did you do something?
Lottie."

"No." Lottie said forcefully; confidently. She pulled her arm away from Natalie. "Just answer
my question."

She was getting angry. She knew where it came from. She just doesn't know where she keeps
it whenever she felt numb or any semblance of normalcy. But it feels like she's keeping it
inside her like a caged animal, but when the day fades, like Tai had told her, it seizes the
night.

She had never been particularly violent before she decided to take revenge on her father's
enemies, but she can recall a handful of times when she had done something that wasn't at all
like her.

She remembered pouring bleach into her goldfish tank when she was five years old, just to
see what will happen (deep down she knew her fishes were going to die but she just wanted
to see). She remembered having a classmate that annoyed her in elementary school so much
that when he was seated next to her, she stabbed him on his arm with her ballpoint pen. She
remembered that the deer she saw during summer camp when she was ten years old was
injured, eerily, she remembered smiling.

Somewhere inside, Lottie was hoping that this wasn't her. That the person controlling her
body right now had held her hostage. Carpe noctem. It seized the night, while Lottie was on
the inside, looking out.
She wanted it to feel like an out-of-body experience when she gripped Nat's arm back in
retaliation. But for a moment, she didn't care what Nat felt, even as she winced in pain and
tried to pull away from her.

"Lottie, I don't know. But right now you're scaring me. And I'm starting to doubt if giving
you a second chance was the right choice." Nat gritted her teeth.

Lottie's grip loosened and she let go of Natalie. Like coming up for air after almost drowning,
she gasped. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"Save it. I don't know what's wrong with you, Lot." Nat shook her head, her lips were bent in
a frown. She could see the disappointment in her hazel eyes. Nat walked away, but Lottie
chased after her.

"Wait," She said. "You love me right? You...you'll protect me?" Lottie didn't realize how
pitiful she sounded.

Natalie's eyes softened. "I do...and I will but—"

"Hey!" They heard Mindy shout from beside her car. "What's taking so long?"

"I don't know who you are anymore." Nat whispered, sounding completely heartbroken. "I
feel like I'm talking to someone who took my girlfriend's skin. If you even are still my Lottie,
then you already know how much I love you. It's obvious that you aren't. Because my Lottie
wouldn't ask these stupid questions."

Nat walked away with purpose. Her hands were swinging violently, her feet going as fast as
they could take her. Lottie wiped away the single tear that fell from her eye. Nat was right.
She wasn't sure who she was. She wasn't sure if she was one or the other.

She was hellbent on getting revenge that she didn't realize that the insanity she thought she
had control over had already swallowed her whole. She was starting to forget bits and pieces
of past nights, only remembering the blood and the violence.

But she was her friend's only hope of catching this copycat Ghostface, and her dad's only
hope of getting justice. The side of her that she was trying to hide had deemed her a hero. A
savior. Lottie didn't really want that. But it was like an urge, an undying itch that she couldn't
seem to scratch.

Lottie walked towards her friends. They were deciding whose car who should take. Mindy
flipped a coin and got heads, meaning she carpooled with Shauna and Jackie. Tara groaned
and called Natalie and Lottie over.

She followed Natalie as she hopped on Tara's car. Mindy's car with Jackie, Shauna, and
Anika had already began pulling out onto the highway. Nat and Lottie both chose to forgo
sitting on the passenger seat, leaving them sitting side by side. Tara cleared her throat.

"You guys better not start making out back there, Jesus."
Lottie rolled her eyes. Tara was just saying shit. She couldn't even see that the tension
between Natalie and her wasn't at all romantic.

She sat there, and she thought about what she was doing. She closed her eyes and thought
about Gale. Then Ethan. Then Amber. Then Anika. Her hands shook, just like they had the
morning after she killed Gale. She wanted it. Not the other side of her. No. It was just her.

She was Lottie, the person that Nat fell in love with. The person that helped Jackie with her
school projects. The person that studied with Tai all night for exams. The person that gave
Shauna her jacket when she was cold. The sweet, kind, thoughtful, and loving Lottie that
people would always praise.

She was the same Lottie. The Lottie whose enemies had hated. The Lottie with snark and
attitude. The Lottie that would bite back. The Lottie that killed her goldfishes. The Lottie that
stabbed her elementary school classmate with a pen. The Lottie that smiled at the face of a
poor injured deer. The Lottie that loved killing Gale Weathers.

There was never another side to her. She realized that she was just guilty because she didn't
want Natalie to see who she really was. Now, she saw herself as honest. She was no longer
fooling herself by believing she was doing this for anyone else other than her own enjoyment.
She loved Nat, she did; but she loved the power that killing gave her too. She loved her
friends, she did; but she wasn't doing this to get them justice nor to protect them. She was
doing it because she always wanted it.

Carpe noctem.

She was going to seize the night.

And she wanted to drown the night in blood.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize Tara was having a panic attack and was
struggling to breathe while driving. Nat shouted. "Pull the fucking brakes!"

It was the last thing that went though Lottie's mind before they crashed onto a tree in the
middle of fucking nowhere. The car started smoking, and Tara seemed to be unconscious
with her head on the steering wheel, her blood slowly dripping down her forehead. Lottie
rushed to get out of the car, before helping Nat pull out a limp Tara from the disaster.

They gently placed Tara on the ground, on top of — Lottie hoped to be — uncomfortable
grass. Nat was already on her phone dialling 911 before Lottie could even pull out her own.

"Shit I can't get a signal." Natalie said, raising her phone up in the air.

"I'll get some help." She said.

It was the chance she was waiting for; the chance to chase after Ethan. She knew Nat would
let her leave if she said she would try and get help for them, and she knew Nat would have to
stay with Tara.

"Lottie, it's dangerous to go alone." Nat said.

"It's going to be okay. I'm going to be okay." She said confidently.

"You just asked me to protect you! I'm not letting you leave my sight."

"Well, what are we supposed to fucking do?" Lottie yelled.

"I—I don't know! Wait?" Natalie said, her arms moving in all directions as she tried to
express herself.

"I'm not gonna sit here and do that, Nat." Lottie said, walking away.

"Lottie, why are you so fucking stubborn?"

"Jesus, just let me do something to help!" Lottie lied, her eyes pleading.

The girlfriends stood there and stared each other down. Lottie wanted to smirk when she saw
that the determination in Nat's eyes began to waver. Natalie sighed.

"Fine. Go. But hurry back."

Lottie wasted no time getting out of Nat's line of view before running. She had to get home
and go after Ethan.

***

Getting chased by Woodsboro High's quarterback wasn't on top of Ethan's list of things he
wanted to do in his life. Hell, it didn't even make the list. But here he was, running like a poor
gazelle away from a hungry cheetah as Chad's hurried steps thundered down the pavement all
the way from the bowling alley to the Kirsch's home.

He jumped over the fence; he felt like he should be proud that he managed to do something
so athletic but he had no time to stop and celebrate. He ran to the front door and banged on
the painted wood desperately, trying to get the attention of Richie, the only guy in there that
he was sure was home.

"Richie!" Ethan pleaded. "Richie!" He banged his closed fist even harder.

Ethan tried to wrangle with the doorknob, luckily for him, it worked instantly and he was
able to step inside; unluckily for him, Chad was already a foot away from him and he was
tackled to the ground as soon as he got to the threshold of the house. He landed with a thud
and an "oof" and Chad wasted no time grabbing both his wrists and pulling him up to stand.

"I'm innocent! I'm innocent I swear, I'm not Ghostface!" He panted, pleading for Chad to let
go of him. "You believe me, Chad, right?" His curly hair felt damp, he was sure it was matted
to his forehead.

"I don't fucking believe a word you say, Ethan." Chad replied gruffly, manhandling him as he
struggled against his grip. The door bursted open wider, and Amber came inside, panting as
much as the two of them.
"I'm innocent, you have to believe me!"

"Then why did you fucking run?" Amber asked him, shoving him in the chest.

"I...I was—I was playing Roblox okay?" He cried. "I was embarrassed, I didn't want to say
anything. I didn't expect you to run after me."

"You really think we're gonna fall for that?" Chad asked, twisting his wrists tighter.

"You can pull up my Discord! I was playing with my friends." He wailed.

Amber scoffed. She pulled his phone from his pocket and booted it up. "Password."

"I—I don't—" He said, sweating nervously.

"Password." Amber said forcefully.

"Tara's birthday." He said, hanging his head in front of his crush's girlfriend.

Amber's lip curled up in disgust. "You are so fucking lucky that I have other things to worry
about right now."

He watched as Amber pulled up his Discord app on his phone and verified that he was
playing with his online friends. "Disgusting. Lots of Skibidi Toilet jokes, but he's good."

Ethan sighed when Chad let go of his wrists. "Why did you fucking lie about your alibi
then?" He said, shoving Ethan. The curly haired boy winced at how Chad was treating him;
he thought they were friends.

"I was embarrassed, okay? This group isn't really the most welcoming and I just—" Ethan
huffed. "I think it's—"

His phone rings in Amber's hand. Amber showed him the caller ID. It was Richie's friend,
Jason Carvey. He looked to Chad for approval before taking the phone from Amber and
answering the call.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Ethan." Jason said on the line. "Is Richie there?"

"Uh...I'm not sure."

"He texted me earlier saying he was home, can you go check his room?" Jason asked him.

Ethan nodded despite Jason not being there to see him. "Yeah, yeah, okay."

He pointed his head towards the staircase, gesturing for Amber and Chad to follow him. The
two looked at each other for a moment before they shrugged and walked up the stairs after
Ethan.
The Kirsch's house was situated in the middle-class part of town, a few ways away from
where most of Chad's friends were living in, but Ethan was glad he was in a better
neighborhood compared to Natalie, the person in the friend group who lived the furthest
away from them, in a more neglected area of town. Unlike his friend's colonial brick homes,
his family had a classically suburban house, a few blocks away from the Hicks and the
Carpenters.

Ever since he was young, he always had a crush on Tara Carpenter. He would go to church in
his little suit and tie and see Tara, a chubby five year old with little pigtails sitting next to her
mother and older sister, Sam. He wanted to ask her out during middle school but that was
when Amber Freeman moved into Woodsboro with her family money and effortless
charisma. He realized then that maybe it was for the best, he would never be good enough for
Tara, just like he would never be good enough for his dad.

Detective Kirsch favored his son Richie and his daughter Quinn over Ethan. It wasn't hard to
see why. Richie was a film student who had always been talented in the arts when he was in
high school. Quinn was a cheerleader with amazing grades and was popular. The eldest of his
children had garnered countless shiny medals and heavy golden trophies that he had an oak
shelf custom made so that he could display their accomplishments proudly.

The shelf was in their living room, boasting everything that Richie and Quinn had ever done
in their lives. Ethan was haunted by the shelf. It made him feel like he would never amount to
anything, so he just stopped trying.

He passed by the shelf as he walked to the stairs. Normally, whenever he was alone, he would
look at all the awards inside and imagine that they were all his. Too bad. He was just a
seventeen year old loser still playing Roblox with his nine to twelve year old friends online.

"So is he there?" He heard Jason ask him again on the other line.

Ethan shook his head. "I'm checking."

He could hear Chad and Amber walking behind him. He found the door to Richie's bedroom,
closed but unlocked. He turned the knob and pushed the door open, finding Richie sitting in
front of his PC, his back facing him, watching a movie.

"Yeah, Richie's here." Ethan said, walking inside. "Do you want to talk to him?"

"Nah, it's cool. What's he doing?" Jason asked.

He turned to look at Amber and Chad for a moment before he walked closer to Richie. "He's
watching a movie."

"A horror movie?"

Ethan walked ever closer to his brother, finding it a bit strange that his legs were looking limp
as they laid on the carpeted floor. He heard the screams from his PC, and the faint sound
effect of a knife stab. "Yeah, I think so..."
He put his hand on his brother's gaming chair and turned it around. There was a crackle on
the other end of the line before the voice went from Jason's to someone else's.

"Can you see if he's watching his favorite scary movie?"

Ethan let go of his gaming chair with a gasp. Richie's throat had been slit, blood was pouring
out of his wound and down to his flannel, staining his white undershirt dark red. His eyes and
mouth were frozen in horror. Ethan stumbled back and fell on the floor, gasping and
whimpering, still, he held his phone to his ear.

"Oh, fuck!" Amber screamed. "We have to get out of here."

"Someone tell the bitch that no one's about to leave this house alive." Ghostface said on the
other line.

They all heard the faint sound of the house doors automatically locking. The beep is quiet,
but it rings loudly in his ears as Ethan realized that he's gonna fucking die. The three all run
downstairs only to find Ghostface standing beside the front door, twirling their hunting knife
and throwing it in the air before catching it like it was nothing. They looked like they were
waiting for them. Ethan dropped his phone.

"Shit!" Chad groaned loudly before darting towards an ugly vase by the fireplace mantel and
throwing it at Ghostface. They easily dodge the vase and sidestep Chad as he tried to tackle
them. Ghostface hits him with the blunt end of their knife.

"What a fucking ass football player." They said before taking the opportunity to stab Chad in
the back while he was reeling from the bump on his head.

The quarterback groaned. "Goddammit!" He seethed. Chad fell to his knees.

Amber came behind Ghostface with an electrical extension cord and attempted to choke them
with it, but Ghostface quickly turned around and slashed her in the stomach, making Amber
wail in pain and fall to the floor, cradling her wound.

"Fuck you, Ethan! Do something!" Amber shouted at him.

Ghostface wiped their knife and stood to stare Ethan down. Ethan was paralyzed in fear. He
was never expecting to be targeted by Ghostface. He was just stupid. He didn't really know
anything. They just didn't get him. He was just joking around...joking around with Lottie.
Fuck. He was joking around with Lottie. What if this really was Lottie?

Ghostface tilted their head. All thoughts left Ethan as they stalked closer to him. He bumped
against a living chair and fell to his ass. From the corner of his eye, he saw Chad walking
sneakily behind Ghostface to get to the back door, still holding his stab wound and bleeding
slightly from his mouth. As Ethan crawled backwards like a pitiful crab, he rammed his back
against the heavy shelf that held his siblings' awards. He looked up in shock, thinking that it
was going to fall on him, but it only slightly wobbled. He sighed in relief before looking back
in front of him. Ghostface wasn't standing before him, instead they were already pulling the
gigantic shelf down to fall on top of Ethan.
Ethan could only let out a mangled gasp. The shelf fell on him and crushed the lower part of
his body even if he tried to push himself away before it landed. From his abdomen to his toes,
all that was left was pulp and flesh.

"Crushed underneath your siblings' achievements. Pathetic from beginning to end."

Ghostface taunted him. Ethan looked down at his body, before his vision went black.

***

Chad was breathing heavily, trying to pry open the back door. He felt blood gushing out from
his back, and his vision was already getting blurry from the blood loss, but he persevered. He
pushed and pulled and pried but it was no use. He dragged himself away from the door to
think about what he was doing. He knew Mindy would want him to do the same thing.

He walked over to the kitchen counter and pulled out a chef's knife. He inserted it just within
the gap of the door and found the latch, just as he heard a loud thud and Ethan's cries. He dug
the tip of the knife in the cavity and pushed it back towards the door knob, unlocking the
door.

Chad tried to staunch the bleeding of his wound but quickly realized how difficult it was to
reach his back. He could hear Ghostface's boots thud across the wooden floor just as he
reached the back porch. He should run but with his injury, he was sure he would only get so
far.

Amber was probably already dead, and he clearly heard Ethan die. He knew there was
nothing else for him to save if he decided to come back and help.

He panted as he weaved through the Kirsch's garden, but just as he sidestepped the hot tub, a
garden pitchfork poked through his body. He looked down to see all the prongs sticking out
just below his chest. His mouth gushed blood and he sputtered.

He fell face first into the hot tub. The last thing Chad ever felt was the lukewarm water
surrounding him, filling up his ears, mouth, and nose.

"All those muscles for nothing." Ghostface sneered.

***

Lottie Matthews pulled away the Ghostface mask. She can finally breathe. She couldn't help
but smile as Chad's body bobbed on the water of the hot tub. She was doused in her own
sweat, her bangs were sticking to her forehead, and the robe she had on top of her clothes was
getting hot, but she never felt relief like this ever before.

She looked up at the stars. Slowly, she was getting her revenge. She sighed happily. Only one
more person was left on her list.

"Lottie..."

Hearing her name said in a whisper made her turn on her heel to face the back gate of the
garden. The shocked and disappointed face of Natalie Scatorccio met hers as sirens sounded
in the distance.
 behind my eyelids are islands of violence
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

Time was strange. To Lottie, it had mostly flowed past like a rushing waterfall stream. But as
she stood there in the Kirsch's backyard, with her Buck 120 knife still tucked into the utility
belt she kept underneath her black robe, standing in front of what remained of Chad Meeks-
Martin, time began to feel as still as a pond that housed no wildlife.

Natalie's lips were slightly parted. Her chest moved up and down quickly, like she was
struggling to breathe. Lottie could relate to what she assumed Nat was feeling. With each
millisecond that passed, the heavier the weight of her insecurity and anxiety over what Nat
might say next became.

Lottie took a careful step forward. Nat took a tentative step back.

She wanted to reach out and plead with her, to tell her she shouldn't be scared; that the fear
etched deeply into her face wasn't necessary. She was still Lottie. Her bottom lip trembled.
She didn't want Natalie to see her like this. The adrenaline and the bloodlust from killing
began to wane. Lottie had never been so vulnerable under Natalie's gaze; vulnerable while
wearing the clothes of a serial murderer. The irony was not lost on her.

The sirens became louder and louder, and soon, the red and blue lights reflected off of
Natalie's hazel eyes, making them appear green, then golden brown.

"Run."

She barely heard Natalie whisper. It was a demand.

"What?" She whispered in reply; in disbelief.

"I said fucking run, Lottie! Run!"

Natalie hissed the words before she ran towards Lottie and grabbed her arm, pulling her away
from the scene as cops began rushing in towards the house. They left the backyard and ran
past the row of suburban homes, jumping through fences and weaving past bushes. Lottie's
lungs burned, each breath she took made her feel like she was going to cough and retch, but
she kept running, as fast as she possibly could. She didn't know where they were going, but
she trusted her girlfriend.

Nat's grip on her forearm got tighter and tighter. It all became a blur, until finally, the two
found the back garden of the manor where Lottie grew up. Nat rushed to the back door and
pulled Lottie in. They both paused to catch their breath. She couldn't hear anything but the
sounds of their panting.
They didn't switch the lights on. Lottie could only barely see Natalie's silhouette with the
help of the silver moonlight shining through the windows. Nat caught her breath before
Lottie could regain her composure.

Nat straightened herself. She didn't say a word. Lottie believed that she couldn't.

There was anger in her face, there was sadness, and there was disgust. But above all, the
disappointment became the most prominent. Natalie looked at her in a way that
simultaneously made her feel like she had known her for a million years and in a way that
made her feel like she was a stranger Nat had never seen once in her life.

For every back, there is a knife. Lottie realized that Natalie felt like she had betrayed her;
betrayed her friends.

"Nat..." She whispered.

Natalie slowly shook her head, her eyes not leaving hers. Lottie thought that she wasn't even
blinking.

The bleach blonde opened her mouth, but all she could do was sputter for a moment before
she collected herself enough to say: "How could you?"

Lottie preferred Natalie to shout. To scream at her. To be angry. But she wasn't. She spoke
calmly; quietly. Her voice was barely above a whisper. All that remained in her face was
disappointment, and it haunted Lottie even more.

"I did what I had to." Lottie whispered in reply. She was tearing up and she wiped the tears
away from her face with her leather-gloved hand. "I have to get revenge for my dad. They
ruined our lives..."

"So you decided to play God and kill them?" Natalie was crying; her nose running. She
hiccupped softly as she continued whispering. "They're our friends. Tai and Van and—"

"I didn't kill Tai and Van...you know I didn't. We were together." Lottie took a step forward to
hold Nat's face but Nat backed away.

"Then its your sidekick. How do you expect me to believe anything you say when all that's
come out of your mouth has been nothing but lies?" Nat inhaled but it was obvious she was
struggling to breathe. "How could you, Lottie?" Her bottom lip trembled.

"I'm sorry, Natalie..." She begged. "Please..."

"You're beyond help. This isn't—" She hiccupped. "This isn't something we can fix with
therapy." She chuckled ironically. "Lottie, you...you're a murderer. You're Ghostface."

"Nat, please, I did this for my family." She said quietly.

"Family? Isn't that what we decided we would be too?" Natalie asked. "What
about our family? What about me? Did you think about me? How do I even know you're not
gonna kill me?"
Lottie took the hunting knife from her utility belt and dropped it to the floor, kicking it away
from her and towards Natalie when it fell with a clattering noise.

"I'm not going to hurt you." She cried, raising her hands up.

Nat's voice was shaking. It broke Lottie's heart. "You already did."

"Nat, I'm sorry. But I need to do this."

"You don't need to do anything, Lottie." Nat whispered harshly. "No one asked you to do
this...how could you? I thought you loved me."

"This has nothing to do with that. I still love you."

"Then why are you killing people that I love?"

Lottie growled. "You don't love them, Nat. They're just—"

"What? They're just what?" Natalie's eyes widened, daring her to say anything. "A means to
your end? Lottie this isn't how I knew you. This isn't what I thought you were."

"What do you want me to say, Nat? Maybe I am fucked up. Maybe I am beyond help. But
this is still me. I still love you. And I'm still the same girl you danced with at homecoming.
I'm still the girl that promised you that we would buy the little house by Woodsboro High. I'm
still the girl you asked to marry when you got drunk with Van. I'm still Lottie. I never
changed. There's just—there's just this side of me that you've never seen. Believe me,
please." She all but sobbed.

"What are you hoping to gain from this? Do—do you think your dad will send you a letter
saying 'thanks for murdering your friends, I feel so much better now'?" Natalie drawled.

"No—"

"A—and wha—what about when everyone is dead, huh? What if—what if I'm the only one
left? Did you plan on killing me too?"

"No! Just let me—"

"Just fucking kill me, Lottie." Natalie bent over to reach for the knife, forcing it in Lottie's
hand. "Do it! Do it! I said, kill me!"

Lottie pulled away and the knife fell to the floor again. She had to look away from the bleach
blonde because she couldn't handle seeing Natalie as she fell to her knees and broke down in
tears, sobbing violently.

"Just kill me. It will fucking hurt less."

Natalie looked up at her. Her eyes were pleading but they were also challenging her; daring
her.
She felt something twist inside her. It was remorse. Her hands were shaking but unlike
earlier, they were no longer shaking from the bloodlust. They were shaking because she felt
ashamed.

Lottie knelt in front of Natalie. She wiped away her tears.

"Lottie...how could you?"

"I'm sorry..."

"You're so fucking stupid. You know they could've killed you too?"

"I'm sorry..."

"What if you got caught?"

"I'm sorry..."

"What if they found you out?"

"I'm sorry..."

"This is the stupidest fucking thing you've ever done..."

"I'm sorry..."

"I love you."

Lottie felt for the tiny dimple on Nat's cheek. "I love you too."

Natalie grabbed the back of her head and pulled her to her lips, enveloping them in a kiss.
Her hands found Nat's waist and she pulled her closer, her denim covered knees sliding
across the hardwood floor. Natalie's hand took a handful of her brown hair into her fist. Lottie
adjusted herself so her girlfriend could kiss her deeper.

Lottie pulled away to catch her breath. The two of them stared at each other for a few
moments before Lottie reached for the phone under her black robe. She handed it to Nat.

"Call the police." She whispered. "Tell them it was me."

With a shaky hand, Natalie reached for the phone she offered. Lottie's heart ached as Nat
tapped the buttons on her phone. She watched her hold the phone to her ear.

She bit back her sob. She was hoping that Natalie wouldn't turn her in. But she knew that her
girlfriend had a strong moral compass, she shouldn't have hoped that she would spare her.
Tears freely fell from her eyes down to her face, landing on the hardwood floor just beside
her knees. Lottie's hands were resting on her thighs, and she balled them into fists as she
fought with the urge to beg Natalie not to call the cops.
The phone rang, and Lottie could hear the soft click as the call was picked up. Lottie hung
her head.

"Shauna? How's Tara?"

She looked up slowly; hopefully, when she heard Nat say Shauna's name. She didn't call the
cops. She didn't turn her in. Just like she didn't let Lottie stay in the Kirsch's to be found by
the police.

She could faintly hear Shauna's reply.

"Nat? She's fine. She's sleeping right now...I'm assuming you found Lottie?"

Nat looked at her. "Yeah...yeah she's with me."

"Thank God, Jackie's a mess. She thought—...did you hear about Chad and Ethan?"

"No," Nat's eyes never left hers. "What happened?"

"Ghostface got them. But Amber...she's alive. Mindy and Anika are outside waiting for her
ambulance."

Lottie couldn't believe her ears. Amber survived. She knew she should have double tapped
the bitch.

"That's good to know. Do you want us to come over?"

Shauna sighed. "No, it's fine. Stay put. We're all about to go home anyway—" There were
multiple voices speaking on the line, all partially muffled. "...Mindy said we should all meet
up here tomorrow."

"Okay, yeah, we'll see you." Nat said.

She dropped the call before handing the phone back to Lottie.

"You didn't call the cops..."

Natalie frowned and shook her head. "I can't."

"Natalie—"

"Was it all you?" Nat asked her. "Did you kill everyone? Even the news lady?"

Lottie shook her head. "No. I didn't kill everyone. But...I killed Gale. I didn't kill Misty...and I
didn't kill Tai and Van. You know this. We were together the whole time."

"An accomplice then?"

"No one else knows but you. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I'm not the only Ghostface.
There's...someone else."
"Who?"

"I don't know." Lottie mumbled. "Will you help me find out?"

Natalie looked at her in disbelief; like she had just asked her to commit a horrific atrocity
(she was, but that was besides the point). "What makes you think I want anything to do with
this?"

Lottie couldn't find an answer. Why was she asking Nat to help her? She didn't really know.
But she knew she wanted Nat beside her at all times, especially since she could be the
copycat's next target.

"Lottie..." Nat shook her head and put it between her legs. "Why is this really so important to
you?"

"Follow me."

Lottie took a deep shaky breath. She stood and took Nat's hand. They went from the back
hallway to walk inside what used to be her dad's office. Her boots made the floorboards creak
with her every step. She hadn't touched the office since the night her dad was arrested and
since the cops searched their home. The room used to smell like cigar smoke and expensive
whisky, but now all it smelled like was dust and the faint scent of old paper. Her dad's desk
still sat mighty in the middle of the room. The back wall was lined with bookshelves with
stacks upon stacks of books but now most of them lay on the floor after the cops gutted the
place.

She looked at Natalie worriedly before she pushed the desk a few feet over to reveal a loose
floorboard. She knelt on the floor and Nat tentatively followed. She pulled the piece of wood
out from the floor and reached inside. She produced a pile of papers and photos from a Ziploc
bag.

She handed Nat two of the photos. One was of Lottie when she was a little girl, piggybacked
on her dad. Her ear-to-ear grin showed just how happy she was; how happy she used to be in
her dad's arms. The other photo was of six people, three middle aged men and three young
women. Amber, Anika, and Lottie, sitting down with rigid poses, all looking at the camera
and smiling politely. Their dads were behind them, but their smiles looked less forced than
those of their daughters. They looked happy. They were friends.

"My dad loved me." Lottie said. "But you know that already. Do you know what it feels like
to...wonder every day if someone you love is doing okay, but you know they're not? Look at
this. Anika, Amber and I were never really the closest. God, especially not me and Amber.
But our dads...they were friends. My dad felt so betrayed. We don't have any evidence to give
to the cops to prove that they're guilty too. Mr. Freeman destroyed or tampered with all of it.
Every tax report, every record. Gone. Mr. Kayoko just let it all happen.

"They ruined my family. They took my dad away from me. They have to pay.

"You don't have to do anything. I'm not forcing you to. But I have to avenge my dad. I have
to make them pay for what they did. I'm doing this whether you like it or not. I might die or I
might get sent to prison, but I have to do this. You can still have your little family. Buy the
house we wanted and open up that record store. You're just gonna be with another girl."

"Lottie you're not gonna fucking die, okay?"

"We don't know that for sure."

Lottie pulled out a spare Buck 120 knife from underneath the floorboard and handed it to
Nat. She watched as Nat's eyes followed the hilt all the way to the tip. Her gaze flitted back
to Lottie.

"It's up to you."

***

Hospitals give Anika the heebie-jeebies. She didn't hate them per se, they just creeped her
out. But honestly, who cares at this point anymore? At least she's not dead.

Her hand was wrapped tightly in Mindy's. Her girlfriend refused to let her go. She couldn't
blame her. Mindy had just lost both of her siblings with no time to even mourn them. She was
keeping the both of them safe so she never had the chance to sit down and really think about
what she was feeling. Anika felt nothing but pity for her girlfriend.

Mindy's eyes were going everywhere. She was teetering on the edge of being hypervigilant.
One fallen leaf might set her off, Anika thought.

She knew Mindy was in desperate need of catharsis after her siblings' deaths, but Anika
wasn't sure if she had anything to offer that might help her. All she could do was let Mindy
hold her hand and pray they won't end up like their friends.

Mindy's grip tightened and Anika winced. She couldn't take it anymore. "Wait, baby we
should sit down."

Mindy shook her head. "They're all waiting for us."

"They can wait a few more minutes." Anika said. "Come on, let's sit here for a second." She
pulled her towards a hospital bench.

Her girlfriend sighed. Anika rubbed her back.

"You okay?" She asked Mindy.

"As okay as I can be, I guess." Mindy shrugged.

"You know it's not your fault right?" Anika tried to reassure her.

"I know. I just...I wish I could have done something. I feel so stupid, letting them all leave my
sight when I know what happens if I do. I thought they'll be safe. I'm so fucking stupid."
Mindy buried their face in her hands. "I should have warned them. Fuck! I should have
warned myself! Like, I know this shit! Slashers are my thing and now—fuck! I'm alone." She
shook her head. "I'm alone."

Anika couldn't help but tear up when her girlfriend started crying. "Mindy, hey, hey. Look at
me. You're not alone. Okay? I'm here. I'm right here. I love you."

Mindy chuckled and smiled despite having tears in her eyes. "How did I get so lucky?"

"It's not luck. It's just film nerd charisma that got me." Anika smiled. She pecked Mindy's lips
before she stood. She offered a hand to Mindy. "Come on, let's chat more later. Right now we
have to talk to our friends."

Mindy snickered before taking her hand. "If they even are still our friends."

"You really think they're Ghostface material?" Anika asked curiously.

"Yes." Mindy said confidently. "I'm sure at least one of them is. Right now I'm seriously
suspecting Amber. She's the only one that survived an attack."

"What about the others?"

"I think they're all suspicious if I'm being honest." Mindy rolled their eyes.

"So...Nat?" Anika bit her lip.

Mindy hummed thoughtfully. "I'm not sure, but we can't trust anyone right now. We're all
suspects."

"Even me?" Anika asked her, pausing too look Mindy in the eye.

Mindy stared at her for a few moments, her eyes unwavering. "Even you."

Anika nodded. "Okay, fair. Let's face facts. We're all suspects."

"Good." Mindy gave her a side hug as they started walking again. "I taught you well." She
kissed Anika's temple.

Anika giggled. The two walked past the long hallway and to the door guarded by a beat cop.
They already knew Tara and Amber were there, having been with them last night. When
Mindy pushed open the door, Shauna, Jackie, Lottie, Natalie, Amber, and Tara looked up at
them. Anika couldn't believe how much smaller their group had gotten after one night.

Tara and Amber were on separate hospital beds. Tara had bandage on her temple, and
Amber's midsection was wrapped in gauze; her hospital gown pushed up above her waist and
her bottom half covered by grey sweatpants. Lottie and Nat stood beside Tara's bed, while
Shauna and Jackie were beside Amber's.

"Okay, cut to the bullshit, why are we all here?" Natalie asked them, arms crossed and
standing next to her tall ass girlfriend.
Anika glanced at Lottie, but the brunette was already looking down at her. She couldn't help
but feel even shorter than she already was. Ugh. She sidled closer to Jackie but she wasn't
that much shorter than her. She wished Tara was standing up.

"Let's talk horror movies. If this Ghostface is anything like the OGs then they're bound to do
something that shows the meta." Mindy leaned on the foot of Amber's hospital bed. "As far
as I know there's barely any which is weird considering Stab is known for its meta-slasher-
whodunnit elements."

"Oh my God, are we still on about that?" Shauna groaned. "This isn't a horror movie, Mindy.
We're not going to find out who this fucker is by singing Kumbaya and binge watching Stab."

Mindy looked at the floor for a few moments, ignoring Shauna. "We know that the first attack
was on Dewey and Gale. They're from the original Woodsboro massacre. But then there was
Misty. Tai and Van together. Then Chad and Ethan..." Mindy looked up at all of them. "What
do they all have in common?" She asked the group.

"Gale and Dewey were a couple? I don't know. Tai and Van too...but Chad, Ethan, and Misty
don't add up." Jackie said.

Mindy shrugged. "Well, I mean, Chad had a...thing for Ethan."

"What?" Lottie gasped, her face twisted in something close to disgust. Anika couldn't blame
her. It weirded her out too.

"It was a fleeting crush. Why do you guys think he invited him to the sleepover? He was the
only one without a date." Mindy rolled her eyes.

Jackie crossed her arms in thought. "Oh God, then couples are going down the drain fast.
Gale and Dewey, Tai and Van, Chad and Ethan...I don't think Misty counts..."

"Wait, what kind of horror movie has so many couples? Killing couples at the same time
too." Tara asked.

"Holy shit. This isn't a horror movie. This is fanfiction." Mindy said.

"Huh?" Anika couldn't stop her mouth.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Mindy?" Natalie said.

"Think about it! There's so many couples because that's what gets people to read about
fanfiction in the first place. You're not getting much hits if you just write about a horror
movie! There has to be romantic elements. And our group is a ship goldmine."

"So wait, I thought you said this thing we're dealing with will have rules, then what are the
rules?" Shauna asked, baffled and confused as much as everyone. Anika loved Mindy but
even she couldn't believe what was coming out of her girlfriend's mouth. Jesus, maybe Mindy
needed more catharsis than she thought.
"That's the thing with fanfiction! There are no rules! As long as it has a ship and the couple is
'endgame' then fans would eat it up.

"Lots of writers are always trying to 'subvert the expectations' because most of these things
rely on tropes. And that's what makes this even more terrifying than Stab. Because AO3
writers are fucking ruthless. If this person is trying to make fanfiction, then horror movie
rules are out the window. Go have sex. Go drink and do drugs. Go say 'I'll be right back', fuck
it. It doesn't matter.

"And I feel like this is all going to be tied together by some revenge plot, one of the most
overused tropes in any type of media, especially fanfiction! Call me crazy okay? Call me
anything you want but my theory has credibility. I swear to god in a couple of days, we're
going to see fanfiction of whatever is happening to us on fucking AO3 probably with some
random ass song lyric as a title!"

The room was silent. Anika met Nat's eyes. She knew her friend was thinking the same thing.
Mindy lost her marbles.

Jackie raised her hand. "Wait why us, specifically? Hypothetically, if this killer really is
making fanfiction then why would it be about a bunch of nobodies like us?"

"We're not really gonna be nobodies once news hit that we were all killed by Ghostface.
News reports and documentaries are gonna have our names in it. People are going to start
looking into us, maybe even ship us. We're gonna be all over the internet. And what would
people flock to if they want more but can't get it? Fanfiction. Then it's going to have
fanfiction upon fanfiction then the next thing you know Lottie has fanfiction about herself
predicting 9/11." Mindy exasperated.

Anika could see Lottie's face. She looked like she had just bit into a lemon.

"Do you really think people would do that?" Tara asked.

"People write smut about Ghostface, Tara. Of course, people would do that." Mindy said like
it was obvious.

Anika looked up at Mindy. "So what do we do? Do we hole up and wait?"

Mindy sighed. "We do what we always tried to. Stick together, hope we don't die horrible
deaths, and figure out who has a secret AO3 account."

The group all exchanged looks. No one said a word. Anika didn't want to burst out into
laughter in fear of offending her girlfriend so she bit her lip. Nat saw her and turned away to
hide her growing smile.

Lottie said: "Maybe we're just all hungry. Do you guys want to get something to eat?"

"Oh, okay, ignore everything I just said. We're all doomed by the narrative anyway." Mindy
shrugged. "Sure, what do you guys want?"
"Get me pudding cups." Amber said, dead serious. "Chocolate." She turned to Tara. "You
want anything, babe?"

"We need hand sanitizer." Tara said in a small voice. "Water too."

"Okay so we'll just hit up a grocery store." Jackie said, hiking her bag up higher on her
shoulder.

"Wait, someone has to stay here with them." Mindy said. "We can't leave them alone in case
Ghostface decides to pay them a visit."

"I can't stay here or go with you guys." Shauna said. "I have lacrosse."

"Mhm, class is suspended, Shipman. Ever think about incorporating that detail into your
alibi?" Amber asked her with snark.

Shauna rolled her eyes. "Class is suspended but regionals aren't. I have training. Look, I'll
send you guys videos of the session, but I have to go." She kissed Jackie's cheek. Anika
found it kind of sweet that Jackie blushed. "I'll see you soon, Jax. Call me."

"Okay, I will." Jackie smiled up at her girlfriend. The group watched as Shauna walked out of
the room.

"Shauna just got moved all the way up to the top of my suspect list." Mindy said quietly; not
loud enough to draw anyone's attention but Anika's.

"I'll stay here then." Jackie said, pulling up a chair closer to Amber's bed and sitting down.
"There's cops right outside, so I think we're safe."

"For now." Mindy said. "Okay, Lottienat, you guys come with me."

"What the fuck is a Lottienat?" Nat asked, cringing.

"Your ship name. You guys don't like it?"

Nat and Lottie exchanged a look. "Not even one bit." Lottie said.

"Okay, I have one more. What about—" Mindy raised her hands up with a flourish. "—
Charlie?"

Sometimes Anika wonders how much she loved Mindy to put up with this.

"Fuck no." Natalie said.

"Wait, what about me and Shauna? What's ours?" Jackie asked excitedly.

"Jackieshauna." Mindy grinned.

Jackie looked disappointed. "Is there anything else?"

"Let's just go." Lottie walked over to Jackie to give her a hug. Lottie and Nat started to walk
away, Mindy too. She held the door for Anika.

"Take care you guys." Jackie called after them.

Anika followed after them and held Mindy's hand. She looked back at Amber, Tara, and
Jackie. "We'll be right back. You guys too, okay?"

Jackie smiled at her. "We will."

The four of them started trudging along the hospital hallway.

She saw Lottie's back as she walked behind the taller brunette. Lottie had always intimidated
her, whether it be in school or whenever their dads brought them to dinner. She was mostly
quiet but Anika knew that she could bite back whenever she needed to and Anika knew
Lottie bit back hard. It didn't help that Lottie towered over her whenever they stood side by
side. In her head, Lottie and Nat were perfect for each other, because they were different
sides of the same coin. Nat appeared to be cold and scary, but Anika knew Nat was really
caring and charming. The perfect contrast to Lottie.

She never really knew Lottie all that well. Not like how Jackie and Lottie knew each other, or
how she knew Natalie, but she felt bad for the brunette, especially considering that her own
dad had something to do with Mr. Matthews' arrest.

Anika resented her dad for being a snivelling coward, but she knew that if she "did the right
thing" and blabbed about it to the police, then she would be ruining her own family, robbing
her mother of a husband and robbing her little brother of a dad. So what else could she do?
She just had to sit there and not say anything. It was fucked up, she knew, and she felt
horrible that Lottie had to basically fend for herself for the rest of her life, but she wasn't
about to sell out her own family to make it right with one girl she barely knew.

Still, Anika felt like shit whenever she looked at Lottie. The guilt was practically drowning
her at this point.

Anika let go of Mindy's hand, ran after the couple in front of them, and took Lottie's wrist.

"Hey," She said softly. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Anika watched as Lottie and Nat exchange looks. Nat nodded at her girlfriend and patted
Anika's shoulder before leaving with Mindy, giving them some privacy.

"What?" Lottie crossed her arms.

"I know we don't really talk anymore but...I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

Lottie scoffed. "What difference does it make whether you apologize or not? It won't get my
dad out of jail and your dad will still be walking away scot-free like he's fucking innocent."

Anika rubbed her hands together, nervous. "I just—I feel bad."
"I don't need your pity, Anika."

"I'm sorry, Lottie." Anika said earnestly. "I really am."

Anika saw Lottie's eyes soften for a moment before Lottie stood straighter and stared her
down.

"Are we done?"

Anika sighed, disappointed. "Yeah..." She tried. At least she could say that.

***

The sun was still high up in the sky when they got to the grocery store. Mindy found the
perfect place to park just near the entrance of the building. When they walked inside, there
were lots of people just going on about their day and getting groceries. On one side of the
building there were stalls for fast food take out. The four walked inside. Mindy took a basket
from the stand.

They first went through the fresh produce aisle. Mindy went through her mental grocery list.
"So we need pudding cups for Amber, hand sanitizer, and water. We should go pick up some
extra snacks."

Anika lingered near the fruits and asked the group: "Does anyone want bananas?"

Natalie snickered. "No one in our group wants a banana, Nika."

Anika smirked. "Well, we're not sure what everyone's into."

"Please stop. I don't want the mental image." Mindy groaned as she passed by the salad bar.

Anika skipped over to Mindy and took her arm, before giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Sorry,
babe."

"Whoa, hey." Natalie said, drawing Mindy and Anika's attention to her and Lottie. The latter
almost bumped into a stand. Still, she kept typing on her phone as Natalie pulled her away.

Finally, Lottie looked up and announced: "Hey, guys. Jackie just texted me. She said they
want Chinese. Nat and I are going to pick some up. Will you guys be okay alone?"

Anika looked around the grocery store. She didn't think Ghostface would be lurking behind
the snacks aisle, and they definitely wouldn't try anything in front of like, hundreds of people
in broad daylight. Right? She nodded.

"You guys go ahead, we'll be fine." She said.

"Meet up outside in twenty minutes?" Nat asked them.

"Sure." Mindy curtly nodded. As soon as Lottie and Nat were out of earshot, Mindy told
Anika: "Keep an eye on those two."
Anika dropped her voice to a whisper. "Come on, Natalie would never be Ghostface." She
didn't want to add that while she thought Nat would never do anything like that, she thought
that Lottie definitely seems to be the type to.

"It's best if we're vigilant, okay?" Mindy said. "Don't trust anyone."

Anika nodded. "Got it, ma'am."

The two walked through aisles and aisles of stuff they didn't need. Past fruits, vegetables,
fresh meat, and dairy. Finally, they found the snack pudding that Amber seemed to love. They
took four packs.

"So about earlier...do you still want to talk about Tai and Chad?" Anika asked her girlfriend.

Mindy sighed. They left the aisle in search of hand sanitizer. "I don't know. Part of me
is begging to talk about it but a bigger part of me is wanting to put it aside for now."

Anika paused in the middle of the empty aisle and hugged Mindy. "Hey...you'll be okay. We
just have to take it one day at a time. Right?"

Mindy returned her hug as best as she could with the plastic basket in her hand. "Yeah."
Mindy rubbed her back.

She kissed the tip of Mindy's nose and smiled. "We got this."

"We got this." Mindy smiled.

The two went on with their search. Anika sighed when she saw a woman with a copy of Gale
Weathers' exposé pass by them. Mindy caught her stare.

"You wanna talk about it?" Mindy asked her.

Anika shook her head. "No...I don't know. Sometimes I just get scared that karma will get my
dad you know? He did a lot of bullshit. I feel so bad whenever I talk to Lottie, still."

"It wasn't your fault. We're barely eighteen. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Yeah," She sighed. "I know. It doesn't help the way I feel though. I wish my dad was a better
person sometimes. Then I don't have to feel bad about what he does."

"Lottie hates you because of it, huh?"

"It's pretty obvious. She has every right to be mad about it. I can't even imagine being alone
and having everything taken away from you."

Mindy and Anika rounded a corner. Her blood ran cold once she saw the figure waiting for
them at the end of the aisle.

"Oh shit." Mindy whispered. She dropped the plastic basket. They walked backwards, unsure
whether to run or fight.
It was Ghostface, standing still and pulling out a hunting knife from their person. Anika
couldn't do anything. She couldn't even scream. Good thing Mindy was fast, because as soon
as Ghostface ran towards them and raised their knife, Mindy was already throwing a pudding
cup at their face.

"Eat shit, fucker."

Mindy grabbed Anika's wrist and bolted. Anika swiped a few bags of Cheetos as they ran and
used it as ammo to keep throwing at Ghostface to slow them down. Mindy abruptly stopped.
Anika followed her gaze.

It was another, shorter Ghostface. With a fucking shotgun.

"Holy fuck." Anika whispered.

The taller Ghostface came up behind them and smothered Anika with an empty bag of Lays.
She struggled to rip the foil packaging away from her face as it blocked her nose and mouth.

"Thanks for the snack, but I prefer potato chips."

Anika elbowed the Ghostface right where she hoped their lungs would be. The Ghostface
gasped and groaned and let her go, just as Mindy kicked the shorter Ghostface in the shin.
Mindy grabbed a bottle of vinegar from the shelf and hit Ghostface in the head with it.

Mindy shouted to get the attention of other grocers. "Someone fucking help!"

Finally, people took notice of the scene. Unluckily for them, instead of helping, people began
to run outside, panicking. It created a pandemonium as people shouted and screamed. Anika
took the opportunity to grab Mindy and run, again putting some distance between them and
the two Ghostfaces.

"Since when did Ghostface have a fucking shotgun?" Mindy yelled. The two stumbled onto
the home improvement section where they find a security guard patrolling the perimeter.

"Oh my God, sir, you have to help us!" Anika begged.

"Miss, please you have to go outside and—"

Bang.

Anika let out a bloodcurdling scream. The bullet from Ghostface's shotgun made a gigantic
crater on the side of the security guard's head. He falls to the floor in a heap, chunks of his
brain matter scattered on the floor. Anika wanted to puke.

"Run!" Mindy told her. "Go, Anika, Run!"

"Are you fucking insane? I'm not leaving you behind!"

"Just go!" Mindy said, pushing Anika away from her as she took a curtain rod from the
display and bonked the Ghostface's head.
"Ow!" Ghostface yelled, rubbing the top of their hooded head. They dodged Mindy's second
attempt and took an industrial lightbulb from the shelves, letting their shotgun hang over their
shoulder by a leather strap.

Mindy parried with the Ghostface as they used the cylindrical lightbulb as a makeshift sword.
Mindy once again tried to hit the Ghostface over the head with her rod but they were faster.

"Batter up!" Ghostface said before batting the lightbulb over Mindy's face, shattering the
glass. Shards poked Mindy's eyeballs.

"Fuck!" Mindy screamed in pain. She blindly tried to fight back, but Anika knew it was no
use. She returned to grab Mindy's hand and pull her away before Ghostface could do any
more damage.

Alarms were blaring all over the grocery store. She could hear the store's doors shut
automatically. There was no way outside. Anika didn't realize she was crying. She felt so
hopeless. She draped Mindy's shoulder over her and assisted her now blind girlfriend as they
weaved through aisles of products, before eventually finding an exit that she assumed led to
another parking lot.

"Mindy, come on, you gotta keep up with me." She sobbed as Mindy's footsteps began to
slow down.

"Leave me..." Mindy said. "You have a chance of—hnggg...surviving if I die..."

Anika pushed the door open and found that it only led to a set of stairs to the basement of the
grocery store. Fuck. She turned around only to find the taller Ghostface wiping their knife
clean and walking calmly — slowly — after them. She had no other choice but to take this
path. She pulled Mindy inside and let go of her for a second to try and lock the door. Big
mistake.

Mindy stumbled over the stair railing. Anika nearly hit her head over the metal bars when she
grabbed her hand to stop her from plummeting to her death. Her girlfriend was heavier than
her. She felt a muscle rip in her shoulder.

"Fuck!" She yelled in agony as the pain in her shoulder became more and more unbearable.
"Mindy, hold on!" She sobbed.

"Anika, let go!" Mindy begged her.

The weight was tearing her shoulder up. But Anika didn't let go. "No! Please, hold on!"

She felt the coldness of a hunting knife bite her jugular. Anika didn't need to look up to know
that it was Ghostface. The knife cut through the first layer of her skin. Mindy's weight was
pulling her over the ledge, making Anika lean more into the knife.

She wanted to let go. Every ounce of her common sense was telling her not to hold on any
longer. But she couldn't. She loved Mindy. She had to try and save her.
The knife dug deeper and blood started pouring out of Anika's neck wound. Ghostface was
enjoying this, she knew. She sobbed. "Please."

"How I wish I felt pity for you." Ghostface sneered.

"Fuck! You!" Anika shouted.

Mindy grew heavier and heavier, and so the knife on her neck dug deeper and deeper. Anika's
eyes rolled back just as she finally let go of Mindy's hand.

***

Lottie held Anika's limp and useless body. Her throat was now gaping with a huge slit. She
threw her to the side so she could check out how Mindy looked. Her body landed all the way
down to the bottom of the basement. Blood pooled around her head like some fucked up halo.

She wiped her knife clean of any blood. Her accomplice walked in, pulling their mask off.
Her bleach blonde hair was soaked in sweat. Was it weird that Lottie found Natalie even
hotter?

She pulled her mask off as well. "You okay?"

Nat swallowed a lump in her throat. "Fine." She refused to look at Anika.

Lottie sighed. "It's gonna feel less shitty."

She felt bad that Natalie was abandoning her morals to help her, but she gave her girlfriend
the option to turn her in. She chose to be with Lottie.

"Sure." Nat mumbled. "Let's just go."

Lottie nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

The pair scrubbed themselves of any trace of blood and sweat before finding the fire exit that
they had mapped out for themselves last night. They stashed their stuff in a duffel bag shoved
inside the backseat of Lottie's rarely used car. Natalie was already dialling Jackie's number
the moment they stepped outside and blended in with the crowd.

"Amber? Where's Jackie? Well...there's an incident." Natalie panted through the phone. The
two watched as the paramedics pulled three bodies from the building. Nat's bottom lip
trembled. "Anika and Mindy...they—" She took in a deep breath. "—Ghostface got them."

Lottie should give her an Oscar.

She couldn't hear what Amber was saying but there was a bunch of nodding coming from
Nat.

"Yeah, okay we're coming." Nat said before the call dropped. "We're heading over to Amber's
to meet up with Jackie."
"Amber's? Aren't they in the hospital?"

"Apparently she asked to be sent home and rest there. She just had to sign a waiver or
something. Come on."

"Wait, how did they get home so fast? Doesn't this seem fishy to you?" Lottie bit her lip.

"What do you have to be afraid of? You're...you know. Besides, we don't even know if you
already got the copycat. They haven't attacked since Tai and Van."

"What if it's a trap?"

"I have a shotgun." Natalie whispered. "If push comes to shove then we do something about
it. Too late to back down now."

"Nat," Lottie said taking her girlfriend's hand. "I love you."

Natalie sighed. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Nat was overcome with remorse.
Lottie wonders if her girlfriend resented her.

"I love you too, Lottie. If...if this is a trap, then..."

"What if it's Jackie?" Lottie asked suddenly, cutting Nat off. The thought of possibly having
to face off with her best friend felt like hell.

"Then we deal with it." Nat said.

Lottie thought it was ironic that she was scared. She felt like a predator becoming prey. Yet
she still follows Nat to her barely used beat up car and the two head on over to Amber's.

The Freeman's lived in what used to be Stu Macher's house. A legend within the Woodsboro
community. It was a beautiful renovated Victorian home, one that showcased the Freeman's
wealth and status. There was a stained glass window at the middle of the second floor, the
walls were painted a shade of beige, and the roof was a shade of dark green. The lights inside
were tinged with yellow. It didn't help Lottie's weird anxiety.

Natalie parked Lottie's car by the curb. Shauna's truck chugged down the street just as they
stepped out of the vehicle.

"What's going on? I had to leave training early." Shauna said, slamming her truck door shut.
The three walked from the curb all the way to the front porch. Nat rang the doorbell.

"We don't know." Lottie shrugged. "But Mindy and Anika..."

"What?" Shauna asked, incredulous. "What the fuck happened? I thought you were all going
together."

"We split up and..." Lottie said. She was never really the best at lying.

Shauna eyed them with suspicion. "Where's Jackie..?"

 "We don't know." Natalie said.

Before Shauna could say anything, Tara opened the door and ushered them inside. Amber
was standing up, drinking from a soda can, her back to the TV.

"We know who Ghostface is." Amber said. Her face gaunt and serious.

The three of them stood around the coffee table, facing Amber and Tara.

Shauna turned her back to Tara. "I know who it is too..." She glared at Lottie and Nat. "What
did you do to Anika and Mindy? And where the fuck is Jackie, huh? Where is she, Lottie?"

"Oh my God, I didn't do anything!" Lottie yelled.

"Are you sure about that?" Amber asked with attitude. Tara walked closer to Shauna.

"We're innocent." Natalie lied with a poker face.

To both their surprise, Amber started laughing. "We're not."

It all happened so fast, and before they knew it, there was a Buck 120 buried all the way to
the hilt in Shauna's back. Shauna groaned, and turned her head to see Tara smiling at her,
holding the knife.

"Congratulations, Shauna. You made it to the final chapter."

Chapter End Notes

as alecsNEKODA u dont know how much this hurt to write

 only one of us gon' make it out alive and it's not you
Chapter Notes

HAPPY HALLOWEENNNNN

(also the ending for my shautie/lottienat fic had people asking me to warn them of my
endings next time so um if you've read any of my other fics then you know this is gonna
be...similar)

BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY

also here's the playlist if you're interested

Writing is difficult. In fact, it's so difficult that it makes Amber cry sometimes.

Sometimes it was because it's hard to write down what she was thinking. Sometimes it was
difficult because she couldn't even think of anything, let alone write it. Sometimes it was
difficult to make something that wouldn't get people mad at her for mischaracterizing their
favorite characters. Sometimes...it was just difficult.

There was a fine line that she couldn't cross in fanfiction. And it straddled the part that
pleased her audience, and the part that gave her enjoyment. In the beginning, Amber really
wrote for herself, and she keeps telling herself that, but she wasn't going to lie, sometimes she
lets the comments get to her.

They were not all bad. There were a lot more people who praise her writing than there were
people who say she sucks, but the comments that don't offer her constructive criticism and
only shit on her for saying this or that are the ones that stick out to her, and it makes her want
to pull her hair out from the roots.

Don't get her wrong, she loved writing. It's just sometimes she wished that writing loved her
too.

Today was one of those days when she wished that writing just came naturally to her. Amber
spent all day in front of her laptop, just staring at the blank page, hoping something will
come to her. She wished it worked that way. But it really doesn't.

Amber began crying over her laptop, drenching the keyboard in her tears. She tried to wipe
them away but they flow like rushing rivers. She sniffled, frustrated and upset.
She pulled both of her knees up onto her desk chair. Amber hugged them to her body. She just
wanted to write, goddammit. She loved Stab so much that she just wanted more.

The door to her bedroom opened up and in came Tara. She swiveled her chair to look at her
girlfriend. The Tiffany necklace that she got her still hung proudly from her neck.

"Hey," Tara said, kissing Amber's cheek. She took notice of her expression, and the tears that
stained her face. She wiped them away, looking at her with a deepening frown. "What's
wrong?"

"This stupid—...fuck! I'm trying to write but there's just nothing, I—" Amber groaned in
frustration. "This is Rian Johnson's fucking fault! Stab 8 sucked so fucking horribly! I can't
just live like this, Tara!"

She couldn't explain how she felt. She was sure no one would understand her anyway. But she
loved Stab so much that she was willing to go through hell and come back just to give it some
justice. There were days that she would think about nothing but Stab. Whenever anyone
opened their mouth, all she wanted to do is mention Stab. It was messing with her brain. It
was messing with her life. But she loved this franchise more than anything in her life. Okay,
maybe not more than Tara, but the point stands.

Amber felt pathetic that Tara had to deal with her bullshit. But she couldn't stop her mouth
from always talking about the movies that made their mark on her. There was no one else in
the planet that loved Stab more than Amber.

"You know I love Stab." Amber pouted. "But I can't write anything. I need more, but what can
I write about? I read these fics and I—I don't know if I can do something as good let alone
something better. Tara..."

Tara cradled her head in her arms and kissed the top of it. For a moment, Amber felt sane.

"Maybe, you know...you watch something other than Stab? I know a lot of great horror
movies—"

"I can't! I tried..." Amber said.

"Well, there's you know, Hereditary, Midsommar, Get Out, and The Babadook. We can find
you something you like. Maybe you'll like it better than Stab."

Amber scoffed. "Better than Stab? Are you joking? There's nothing better than Stab!"

"I just thought that maybe—I mean, Ari Aster is a great director and—"

"Baby, listen to me. It's not the same. It's like comparing Star Wars to fucking Parasite or
something!" Amber was disgusted. "We have a dedicated fandom. It's a franchise. And I don't
want to just write a boring horror story. I want it to capture the attention of the fans. I'm
pouring everything I have into this. I want to write something good. Something thought-
provoking. Not like Stab 8."

"Yeah, I know but if you can't get anything from Stab then—"
"I'm not giving up on Stab, okay? I have hope. I just need to write a fic to tide me over until
we can finally get another movie that's not fucked up by someone who doesn't know the lore!"

Tara sighed. Amber knew she should feel bad for putting her girlfriend through whatever she
was doing, but she couldn't help herself. She was slowly starting to lose her mind just
thinking about Stab. It consumed her mind. It consumed every fiber of her being.

It comforted her the same way that chocolate pudding did. She couldn't quite explain it. She
just knew that she had to grasp on to the things that gave her comfort as tightly as she could.
Stab, pudding, and Tara.

"What if...what if you write something completely new?"

"Tara, it won't work—"

"No, listen to me. Write something that respects Stab but adds something new into the mix.
What gets readers to check out a fic?"

Amber shrugged. "I don't know. Some love story I guess."

"Then write about that. "

She sighed. Tara didn't understand. "It has to be original." She mumbled sadly. "And I don't
know how to write some love story without inspiration. Let's be honest babe, our love story is
boring. How am I even going to fit in a slasher into ours?"

Tara shrugged. "I'm not really sure, baby."

"Wait." Amber gasped. "What if we...what if we make our own story with the little parts that
we already have?"

"Huh?" Tara furrowed her eyebrows.

"I mean...people love some good angst. We don't have any. You know who does?" Amber
smiled eerily.

"Matthews and Scatorccio?"

"Exactly. How about...we play a little game with them?"

"Amber—"

"Shhh...baby, I know what you're going to say." Amber said. "Just...let me have this please?"
She pouted like a little kid.

"You're talking about making our own slasher movie! I don't—I...I'm not really sure I can get
behind that...I was thinking something like...renting a movie and finding inspiration! Not like
—"
Amber sniffled. She wiped her tears away with her forearm, looking up at Tara with her
widened chestnut brown eyes. Amber knew her girlfriend will never be able to resist her, not
even when she's proposing that they murder all their friends.

"Please." She begged her girlfriend.

Tara crossed her arms and looked away for a moment, thinking. She sighed before turning to
Amber again to peck her lips.

"Fine...what's the plan?"

***

How fucking dare they?

Amber threw her mom's ugly vase at the wall, and it shattered into tiny little pieces on the
floor. She kicked her dad's stupid recliner, taking a chef's knife from the kitchen and stabbing
the leather repeatedly until it was torn and in tatters. She wanted to rip her hair out; fuck, she
was so angry she wanted to use the chef's knife to stab herself. She punched the TV by the
mantel, screaming, yelling, and sobbing. She didn't care that the TV cracked and some of the
glass pieces embedded themselves into her knuckles. She didn't care. She was gonna fucking
erupt into flames. Or possibly get a heart attack.

That motherfucker Van Palmer is not going to live for much longer. It was a promise.

She found Van's Letterboxd. She understood now why they never showed it to anyone and
kept their account a secret. They rated Stab 3 with a fucking half star.

Stab 3 was a fucking revelation. How the fuck could they say "it was trying way too hard that
it became too goofy"? No! They were wrong! They were wrong, they were wrong, they were
wrong!

Amber was jumping up and down in rage. She didn't care if anyone saw her throwing a
tantrum at the ripe age of 18. Her voice was hoarse from all the screaming and sobbing. Her
face was bright red and damp from tears and sweat. Her hair looked like a rat's nest. She was
a fucking mess.

No one will ever understand Stab the way she did. She was the only person whose opinion
about the franchise was valid. She was the only Stab fan ever.

Amber was getting exhausted. She propped herself against the wall and she slowly slid to the
floor.

They don't understand. They don't understand how much she loved Stab. They don't
understand the way Stab loved her when her own parents couldn't even look at her and be
proud of her. They don't understand how many dinners she spent in front of the TV watching
Stab, blocking out all the noise that her mom and dad made while they fought. They don't
understand how many times she did her homework on the couch, asking Tori Spelling as
Sidney Prescott if she knew the value of pi.
No one will ever understand how much she loved Stab.

Amber knew that her love for the franchise wasn't at all healthy anymore, but like an addict
recognizing addiction but being unable to stop themselves from using their vices, Amber
couldn't do anything to stop herself from getting mad whenever someone talked shit about her
favorite franchise.

She hugged her knees to herself and let herself cry out all her frustrations away, until she was
exhausted enough to fall asleep on the floor, curled up into a ball.

***

She hated this huge "friend" group.

As usual, Mindy just had to invite Tai to their table, and Tai had to invite her friends in
return, so they had to suffer through listening to seniors worry about their college
applications when they had to worry about their SATs. Lottie just zoned out the whole time
which was pretty funny to Amber, especially considering the way she was almost like Taissa
when it came to academics a year ago. Poor former rich girl had to deal with the reality of
life now.

Amber never liked Lottie and she knew Lottie never really liked her. But they never really had
a reason to dislike each other. Maybe it was just the vibes that they hated, maybe it was
something else.

She finished her salad while Mindy and Van talked on and on about some podcast they both
listen to. Anika and Natalie were playing rock paper scissors to see which one of them will
drink the milk Natalie added some Doritos to. Taissa and Jackie were talking about college.
Shauna was talking to Chad about who made it into the Woodsboro varsity.

No one seemed to question why they all just started hanging out together. Amber can still
vividly remember that it used to be just Mindy, Anika, Tara, and Chad at their lunch table.
She wanted to groan. It was all Mindy's fault for practically fusing herself with Taissa's
friend group because she got lonely that she was the only senior among them. Chad of
course, couldn't resist and just had to keep inviting Amber and Tara over when Tai's friends
were around. It just went on until Amber couldn't decipher where their own friend group
began and where Tai's friend group ended.

To be fair she never minded the other people within the group. It was just Lottie in particular
that irked her so much, and now she guessed Van made her want to stab their eyeballs out
too. Unlike Van though, she never really understood why she didn't like Lottie. Maybe it was
because she was an easy target whenever the urge to piss someone off surged inside her, or
maybe it was because pissing her off was just plain fun.

Amber was staring, she realized, when Lottie looked up and found her wandering eyes. The
tall brunette glared at her, before rolling her eyes and looking away. Amber rolled her eyes in
return. Stupid bitch.

She couldn't wait to kill her.

***

Amber wanted to kill herself.

Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley's murders hit the news a few hours ago. Now, she finds out it
was because of fucking Ghostface.

What the fuck?

She was fuming. She was eerily quiet. She couldn't say a word. With the way Tara was
calming her down, she knew her girlfriend preferred her tantrums over whatever this was.
Her hands were trembling. She felt like she hadn't blinked in a few minutes. Tears were
slipping down her cheeks. She was so angry she couldn't even comprehend the raw unfiltered
emotion that ran through her like a lightning strike hitting a satellite dish. She could feel
Tara's thumbs wiping her tears away.

This was her idea. This was her legacy. This was supposed to be what put her fanfiction from
good to amazing. Someone stole it from her. Someone stole what was hers.

And no one steals anything that was Amber's.

Amber knew she was good at lying and acting nonchalant at a lot of things, so she was sure
that no one caught wind of her plans to don the mask and go on a killing spree to save her
fanfiction, right? Right? Tara promised her that she wouldn't talk about anything to anyone
and she trusted her. She trusted her. She trusted her.

Yeah. She trusted her.

She loved Tara, so when she finally snapped out of it, she kissed her.

It was gentle. It was soft. It was unlike every kiss they shared before whenever Amber was a
little irked.

"We have to—"

"To move, I know." Tara nodded.

"This fucker is going to be the talk of the town if we don't move fast."

"Then let's start." Tara said.

"We'll drown Woodsboro in blood. A massacre never seen before. I can already imagine the
hits, people will be talking about this fic for years." Amber smirked. She giggled.

***

Death comes for everyone.

Lottie always believed that a psychopomp will assist anyone who meets death into the
afterlife. She realized now that if she were to see a psychopomp, surely it would shake its
head at her for bringing death onto people who had lives left to live. But it was too late to feel
remorse.

She knew that not everyone will leave this house alive. She knew that only two or possibly
even one of them would survive. She was determined that Nat would be the one to leave.
Never mind her. She didn't care about herself.

Her hands were empty. Lottie knew that Amber and Tara had the upper hand against her and
Natalie.

She watched as Shauna's eyes rolled back into her head as she cried in pain. Her eyes still
bore the confusion and the doubt against Lottie, but they held a desperate plea to help her.
Lottie wanted to, but Amber was holding up a knife at her and Nat, daring one of them to
move.

"Why the fuck did you do this?" Lottie asked Amber and Tara.

"Simple. Mindy was right. We wanted to write a fic. A fic that will blow everyone's mind,
figuratively...and literally." Amber smiled.

"You did all of this for...fanfiction?" Natalie asked incredulously.

"Well, yes...and you see, who better than to play our riveting star-crossed lovers than
Charlotte and Natalie? Friends to lovers...then to exes...then to lovers again. Oh, people
would eat it up."

"You're fucking psychotic." Lottie snarled.

"Aw, the pot is talking to the pan?" Amber smiled sarcastically. "How rich."

"Let go of Shauna, you fucking bitch." Lottie said. She was subtly feeling for her pockets to
see if she had anything on her person to use as a weapon.

"Gladly." Amber said. "Tara, baby, you know what to do."

Tara then pulled the knife out of Shauna's back and stabbed her in the neck. Shauna let out a
sputtering groan before she fell to her knees and to the floor. Lottie didn't dare take her eyes
off Amber's. One wrong move and she was sure Amber would take advantage of it.

"Are you happy?" Amber smirked. "Oh well, doesn't matter. I have a gift for you. Take
Natalie, baby."

Amber walked over to Lottie and grabbed her wrists from behind. She pulled them back and
gripped them tightly. She held a knife against Lottie's throat. "Don't move a muscle,
sweetheart."

Lottie let Amber hold her captive without any resistance, unlike Natalie who spat on Tara,
which earned her a punch in the face. "You bitch..." Tara said. Lottie winced at the impact.
Amber pushed her forward, into the kitchen, stepping over Shauna's twitching legs. They
stopped right in front of the refrigerator.

She knew when to strike and to wait. Right now, Amber had the upper hand. Her only way of
getting out of this was if she had the element of surprise, so Lottie waits.

Amber held both of Lottie's wrists with one hand and used the other to open the freezer door,
where the decapitated head of Jackie Taylor stared back at the both of them in horror.

Lottie gasped shakily. She pitied what had become of her best friend. That was the girl who
braided her hair for their first middle school dance. That was the girl who comforted her
under the bleachers when she and Nat fought about something so stupid back when they were
freshmen. That was the girl she shared her first sip of alcohol with. That was the girl she
studied all night with for their SATs. That was her best friend, now dead, frozen, and pitiful,
like a carcass from a hunting trip.

She couldn't help the tears from forming. She sniffled. She gave Jackie an apology in her
head. She hoped that she forgave her.

"Do you like it?" Amber asked her, pressing her lips to her ear. She could feel every
movement of her lips as she whispered: "Homemade."

Lottie was angry. She growled before she hit Amber's face with the back of her head. Amber
reared back in pain, Lottie wasted no time punching her jaw and kicking her shin before she
fell against the counter.

Tara ran to Amber, leaving Natalie alone. "Amber!"

Nat and Lottie bolted out the back porch door, practically tearing the door out of its hinges,
and ran around the whole house to get to Lottie's car.

"Shit." Nat hissed, struggling to pop open the trunk. Her hands shook. Lottie wasn't sure if it
was because of adrenaline or if it was because of fear. Finally, she unlocks it, and she straps
her shotgun to her shoulder before throwing Lottie a knife.

Tara was already running out of the house from the front porch to chase after them with a
revolver. Lottie turned to look at Natalie. "I'll take Amber. You take Tara."

Nat nodded, her eyes full of determination. Lottie returned to the back porch, bolder and
more confident now that she was armed with her hunting knife.

***

Natalie leveled the shotgun to aim at Tara, but the girl was so tiny and fast that she couldn't
get a proper shot. It frustrated Nat to no end. All of her useless gun shooting skills felt even
more useless. She was armed to the fucking teeth; a hunting knife in her one of her back
pockets, a Glock in the other, unlike Lottie who came rushing inside to get to Amber with
just a knife. Natalie always had been the more rational one of the two.
She aimed once more and finally fucking hit Tara's shoulder when she stood up from behind
the porch fencing to shoot Nat. Natalie saw her wince in pain, before sucking it up and
attempting to shoot Nat again. Tara's pink sweater was splattered in blood, and one of her
shoulders hung limp beside her.

Nat was too busy getting a better aim at Tara that she didn't realize Tara was already shooting
her again with her revolver. The bullet implants itself on her thigh, and she almost crumpled
in pain.

"Shit! Fuck you, Tara!" She yelled before circling the car and ducking right behind the hood.

She assessed her wound; there was a dark red stain in her jeans coming from a flesh wound
from the bullet. It was painful, but she can stand. She dug her fingers inside her thigh and
pulled out the bullet, grinding her teeth in pain and sweating so much that she was beginning
to look like she just had a shower. She tossed the bullet to the side before she put all her
weight into her other uninjured leg to stand up.

When she emerged from her ducked position, she found Tara nowhere to be seen. She panted,
her hands shook around the shotgun forearm and trigger.

A blunt force smashed against her head. Natalie fell to her side on the pavement. She quickly
realized that Tara was already behind her and had hit her with her butt end of her revolver.
Before Tara could aim the gun at her again, Natalie hurriedly crawled away from her as fast
as possible and pushed herself off the ground to steady her shotgun and level it right at Tara's
stupid face.

"Fucking shoot that gun, I'll blow your fucking head off." She whispered, her bottom lip
quivering. "Amber's fucking nuts, Tara!"

"Like Lottie isn't?" Tara shrieked.

"That's fucking different." Natalie said, waiting for Tara to let her guard down.

"Lottie's a sociopath! She stalked you!" Tara was lowering her revolver.

"Oh my God, Tara, Amber's killing for fanfiction!" Natalie drawled.

Tara stupidly throws the revolver at her. Natalie dodged it. Thank God it didn't go off.
"She's sensitive!"

Now unarmed, Nat took the opportunity to shoot at Tara, only to realize she hadn't loaded the
shotgun again. Tara realized what happened and threw herself at Natalie with a shout. The
two tussle on the pavement, pushing and pulling and biting (Tara did all the biting) wherever
they could. Finally, Natalie managed to push Tara away from her and run inside to get to
Lottie. Tara still hot on her heels.

***

Amber looked batshit out of her mind.

Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were wild. Her lips permanently screwed into an eerie smile.

They circled each other like two lions fiercely protecting their pack, armed with identical
hunting knives. Lottie could now see that she had an advantage over Amber as blood soaked
through the gauze and the shirt that covered her stomach wound. She was almost impressed
that Amber didn't even seem to notice the ache.

"You know I loved seeing news coverage of your dad's trial." Amber taunted. "Especially
whenever they panned the camera to you and I saw that you were a pathetic sobbing mess."

Lottie knew that she shouldn't let her anger kick in, but her protectiveness and loyalty
towards her dad was something she couldn't just let go of. She gripped the handle of her
hunting knife tighter.

"It was so much fun watching your dad suffer! Maybe I should have told daddy to get him a
life sentence."

Lottie had enough. She tackled Amber, straddling her when she fell to the floor, and punched
her with her free hand. It earned her a stab to the gut, and she yelled in pain. Amber pulled
the knife out as quickly as she stabbed her. She rolled over, clutching her wound, and
dropping her knife to the ground. It was then Amber's turn to straddle her. Amber raised her
knife up in the air.

"You must be the weakest Ghostface ever to grace this planet." She said, grinning. "But what
do I expect from a pathetic rich girl who can't even wash her own fucking laundry?"

Bang! Amber's hand suddenly had a hole right in the middle of her palm, her hunting knife
fell to the floor with a clatter. She screeched in horror, her face contorting into one like an
exaggerated clown's. Lottie pushed Amber off as soon as she realized that Natalie had fired
the shot, standing from the kitchen entryway with Tara's revolver. She grabbed her own knife
and shoved it into her pocket before she stood up, desperately trying to staunch her wound.

Her fingertips caught a bottle of olive oil just as Amber stood after her and grabbed her
shoulder to strike her again. Lottie smashed the bottle on Amber's head.

Amber ducked in pain. "Fuck you! I smell like a fucking salad!" She screamed before
attempting to tackle Lottie. She sidestepped her and caught her hair, slamming her head into
the kitchen counter, once then twice for good measure, before she tossed her aside to get to
Nat.

She pulled Tara off Natalie's back. She slammed Tara's head against the doorjamb. She
grabbed her knife from her pocket to finish her off. That was when she turned to look at
Natalie again, but Amber's knife was against her girlfriend's neck. Amber looked worse for
wear, but she didn't so much show even an ounce of fear or uncertainty.

"Time for the big fucking finale! Friends to lovers to exes to lovers again! My readers will eat
it up. I can just imagine the hits. Oh, the fucking death trope!" Amber said as she showed off
Natalie to Lottie like cheese in a mousetrap.
Lottie held Tara's hair roughly, and she angled her knife right at Tara's temple. "Let go of
Natalie..." Lottie said. "And I'll let Tara go..."

"I'm not falling for that, Lottie. You must really think I'm stupid." Amber laughed.

"Yeah, I actually do." Lottie mumbled.

Natalie was struggling against Amber's hold. Lottie met her eyes. She wanted to let go of
Tara. She needed Nat to get out of there alive. But Natalie shook her head ever so slightly,
warning her not to do it.

"I'll let Tara walk away, and you'll let go of Nat. We'll settle this one on one." She offered.

"Don't trust—" Tara said before Lottie let go of her hair to wrap her hand around her mouth.

Amber was fuming, her sardonic smile vanished. "Don't you fucking touch Tara!"

"Then let go of Natalie!"

Amber raised both her hands up, letting Natalie go. "Fine."

Natalie began to run to Lottie. Bang! A gun went off and Nat fell to the floor.

Lottie wished that the scene happened like a movie. Where everything turns into slow
motion; where she could miraculously cry over Natalie and she would rouse and wake up like
nothing had happened. But it wasn't a movie. And Natalie dropped dead as fast as she blinked
her eye.

The smoking gun was still held by Amber, staring Lottie down defiantly. Lottie cries in
anguish before she retaliated by stabbing Tara right in the temple; she pulled the knife out
and blood gushed out of her wound like a fountain. Amber screamed. She tossed Tara to the
side and knelt next to Nat.

There was already a pool of blood underneath her, the bullet had hit her right by her heart.
Lottie was crying. She carefully pushed aside Natalie's bleached hair away from her face so
she could look at her. Her hazel eyes were glazed over.

"Nat...look at me..." She begged, even though she knew in her heart that she was never going
to look at her again.

She sobbed, tracing Natalie's cheeks right where her dimples would show up whenever she
smiled. She would never smile again.

This was all her fault. She dragged her into this. She killed Nat. This was all her fault.
She...she killed Natalie...she...Natalie was dead.

All of her anger was gone in an instant. So did all her thirst for vengeance and her need to
find her dad some justice. It didn't matter anymore. Nothing else mattered anymore. She had
not only lost the love of her life, but she had also lost the family — the future — that they
once dreamed about having.
Lottie could hear Amber getting up and coming up behind her, the sounds of her sobs as
obscene as Lottie's. But the fight in her was gone. She didn't want to hold the knife in her
hands to protect herself; to protect Natalie. There wasn't even a Natalie to protect anymore.

When Amber grabbed her head and made her lean back so she could slice her throat, she let
her, and she fell right next to Natalie. She sputtered and twitched on the ground as her body
fought for her to live. With the last of her strength, Lottie held Nat's hand, and pictured a life
where she and Natalie had the future they wanted together.

She stared at those hazel eyes and slept.

***

Lottie parked her car on the driveway. It was a slow day at work but she got through it. Her
desk job was a nightmare, but it paid her share of the bills and afforded their family a little
vacation and little treats from time to time.

Their house was quaint — truth be told, it was a struggle to fit in four people within its walls
— but it was comfortable and it felt like home, just like Lottie had always wanted. It was
situated a couple of blocks away from the town proper, a little ways away from Woodsboro
High. It was close enough that they could reap all the benefits of being so close to the
schools, grocery stores, and restaurants, but far away enough that the hustle and bustle of the
more industrial part of town didn't keep them awake at night.

The house was painted a light shade of purple; "heliotrope" the guy they hired had said.
Lottie and her wife had always managed to keep dirt and grime from sticking to the paint, so
while it doesn't look new, it still looked clean.

She pulled the take out bag that was beside her on the passenger seat, opened the car door,
and hopped out. She walked into the house, not even surprised that a pair of tiny arms
grabbed her legs with a soft squeal. It was a little boy that bore resemblance to Natalie, her
wife.

The boy was her son.

She laughed softly at him when he giggled. She placed the take out bag on the chair beside
the front door so she could take him in her arms to lift him up. His giggles got louder. Lottie
propped him up on her hip and blew a raspberry on his cheek.

"Hey there, Mac." She said. "Where's your sister?"

He looked up at her with a blank expression, like he didn't understand.

"There you are." A girl sighed as she walked into the foyer, finding her little brother. She
couldn't have been older than six years old. With her hazel eyes and her dark brown hair, she
too looked like a copy of Natalie.

The girl was her daughter.

"Sorry mom, he ran away from me." She said, greeting Lottie with a hug.
"It's okay, Em." She kissed her daughter's cheek. Lottie finally put Mac down and let him run
back to the kitchen. She took the take out bag and held her free hand out for her daughter.
"Come on, I brought dinner."

Emilia walked Lottie to the kitchen where her wife, Natalie was. Her back faced her,
hunkered over the sink, washing dishes.

"You're home early." Lottie smiled as Em took her place at the dining table. Lottie took
Malcolm and set him down on his high chair.

"Eh, it was a slow day so I closed the store early." Nat said, turning to her and smiling. "How
was work?"

"The usual." She shrugged. "Can you grab some plates?" She asked Nat as she unpacked her
takeout bag. She set down Emilia's plate in front of her. She kissed the top of her daughter's
head.

She watched her daughter take the first few bites of her food. It never ceased to amaze her
how her daughter could look exactly like Natalie but act so much like herself.

Lottie set down a bowl of mashed potatoes for her youngest. She kissed his cheek before he
started grabbing the mashed potato with his chubby little fingers.

Natalie sat down next to Lottie and the small family began to take part in their nightly dinner
conversations. Lottie held Natalie's hand, scared to wake up and find that this was all a
dream. She tucked Emilia in her bed later that night while Natalie told Mac a story before he
fell asleep in her arms. Lottie watched as Nat placed Mac in his crib.

Nat took her hand and kissed her knuckles. "Is it bedtime for us now too?"

Lottie nodded. "Yeah..."

Natalie took Lottie to their bedroom and laid on her side, facing her. She scooted ever closer
to her wife. She could stare at her hazel eyes for the rest of eternity. She sighed. Lottie
couldn't believe that this was her reality. Nat reached over to caress her cheek.

"Stay here..." Natalie whispered.

Lottie was a little confused but she smiled. "What do you mean?"

"Stay right here with me. With us..."

Natalie's eyes shone green under the lamp, then golden brown, it reminded her of the night
she was at the Kirsch's. The night Nat found out she was...Ghostface.

Lottie couldn't gasp when Nat's face slowly started to shrivel. Her eyes no longer held the
warmth that it used to; they became milky white and unseeing. She looked down at Nat's
chest to find the exit wound from Amber's bullet. It was gaping, blood still ran fresh from the
wound like it had just happened.
"Stay with me, Lottie." Nat said, her lips chapped. "You don't have to go back...but if you
do...then there's the door."

The door that led out into the hallway was bathed with a white light. Lottie took a quick
glance at it, before staring at Natalie again.

This was her dream.

"I'm staying." She said. She kissed Natalie.

"I'm staying with you forever."

***

In all the years she's been with the FBI, Kirby had never seen anything as horrific as the sight
that she beheld when they got to the Freeman's. Bodies of teenage girls littered the floor,
bloodied and severely injured. On the floor were three girls, she knew them all; met them all
at the station. Shauna Shipman with two stab wounds; one at the abdomen, and one at the
throat. Natalie Scatorccio with two bullet wounds; one at the thigh, and one at the chest.
Charlotte Matthews with two stab wounds as well; one at the abdomen, and a slit to the
throat.

The Matthews girl and the Scatorccio girl were holding hands. Kirby felt bad that she had to
step over them to see the kitchen where they found pieces — chunks — of Jackie Taylor
inside the refrigerator.

The most harrowing sight she found though, was of Amber Freeman, cradling the still corpse
of Tara Carpenter. The smaller girl had a bullet wound at the shoulder and a stab wound at the
temple. The cops that first arrived thought that Freeman was dead, until they attempted to
pull her off the Carpenter girl, who began mumbling to herself about fanfiction and about
Tara. They hauled Amber to a cop car.

Forensics took pictures of the scene and marked all the details with their yellow evidence
markers. Cops were already knocking on the doors of the Freeman's closest neighbors. Kirby
was riding with the sheriff to get Freeman into a holding cell.

When she got in the car, she looked at Freeman from the rearview mirror. She was staring out
into the distance, mumbling softly to herself. Kirby sighed and looked at Sheriff Hicks.

"I've never seen a Ghostface break down like this." Kirby said.

Sheriff Hicks shook her head. "That girl has gone mad."

Kirby knew she shouldn't feel bad about the girl. But she reminded her too much of Jill, a girl
she loved who had betrayed for the sake of fame. Amber looked at her through the rearview
mirror. The madness that filled her chestnut brown eyes slowly faded. She knew that the girl
was beginning to realize what just happened, that the insanity of the past few days sunk in.
She had killed her friends. She destroyed her own life.

Kirby felt pity. But it all dissipated, when Amber smirked.

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