halloween soon and i'm feeling spooky. any chance of a ghost story? can be any season, any islander! would just love to see some cool takes from you guys
SCREAM
S3 + Bruno | 7000+ words | @i-boop-you
What's your favourite scary movie? I hope it's scream, because we're paying homage. Can you guess who Ghostface is?
Note: Not a ghost story, but a Ghostface story. Expect usual slasher gore, some violent deaths, and the murder of some of your favourite characters. Apologies in advance.
“This tragic case has led me here, to Amor High School, where the deceased -”
Lori couldn’t take her eyes off of Valentina Valentine, the look on her face one of confusion, like she was wondering what on earth Valentina was doing outside her school with a news crew in tow. They weren’t the only ones. Talia from Channel One was there, and just behind her Hope was reporting for Channel Two, and on and on it went.
Prim and pristine, every single one of them, but the severity of what they were reporting on was clear; each expression grim and serious as the next, heightened by the glamour of each of the reporters.
“Hey!”
Lori jumped, flinching away from the hand that had come down on her arm. Half a second later and she was facing her best friends, both of whom looked as troubled as the dead serious news reports. It looked odd against the backdrop of gaudy Halloween decorations; a sallow faced Eddie reporting for EITV with a green witch hanging from a tree behind him. Every time the wind blew, it made it look like his report was being invaded by a supernatural cartoon.
“Crazy what’s going on, right?” Iona said, her furrowed brow on the new mayhem. “I guess it is a full moon, though. They say all the crazy comes out on a full moon.”
Lori screwed her face up, looking between Iona and Elladine. “What’s happened? Why are so many people reporting on the school?”
“It’s not the school,” Elladine said, a scoff on her tongue and incredulity in her eyes. Concern coloured her face as she took Lori in.
“Shit, Lor, do you not know?” Iona replied, linking her arm into her friends. Elladine did the same on the other side, like the pair were shielding their friend from the horrors of whatever danger it was that lurked.
They took their first steps towards the front of the school, away from the hubbub of media activity that was ravishing the front lawn.
“What’s going on?” Lori asked, looking between them both again.
“Lori …” Elladine whispered, her voice weighing heavy. She looked about with guilt before she went on, “Lily Osorio and Rafi Sayed were murdered last night.”
Like that, Lori felt the colour draining from her face, and it didn’t stop there. It appeared as though the strength leaked from her body, stopping her in her tracks as she looked on at her friends in shock and despair.
“And not just like a little stabby-stab,” Iona said, running her hand through her short head of hair, “like they were butchered. Guts out, hanging from a tree, Billy Butcherson style.”
Lori gasped, half gagging, hand over her mouth. “Oh my God… Do they know who did it?”
“That’s the worst part,” Elladine replied, her voice wavering. “They have no fucking clue. Don’t tell anyone I said this because Bruno told me it in confidence, but like the police are grasping at straws. Expect to be pulled out of class today because the police aren’t ruling anyone out right now.”
“Shit, they think it could be someone here at school?” Iona said, voice hitching.
Elladine nodded. “Like I said, they don’t have any idea.”
For Lori, interview time came during English. She hadn’t been paying attention the whole lesson, her eyes burnt on the empty desk that sat in the middle of the room. It once sat the beautiful blonde Lily, but now it filled the pit of her stomach.
The school counsellor, “Call me Genevieve,” came to collect Lori for the interview and accompanied her all the way to Principal Sterling’s office. There, Police Chief Graham Morgan and Officer Kaminski were already waiting.
“Lori, thanks for joining us,” Principal Sterling said. He sat up off of his desk to lead her into the room, sensing her shyness. “Lori, this is Chief Morgan,” he said, “and Chief, this is Lori Herring.”
“Lori,” Zabinski held his muscled arm out to shake her hand. “You’re good friends with Officer Bruno’s younger sister, Elladine, right?”
Lori’s gaze flickered to Bruno who gave her an encouraging nod. It was surely meant to calm her, but under his gaze her heart beat twice as fast. Lori followed with several nods in quick succession to OChief Morgan, “Yeah. We’ve been friends since nursery.”
“She’s a good kid, and Bruno thinks the world of her, so I can tell you must be a good kid too. Bruno’s sure talked you both up enough, but I’m not here to talk about your friendship with Elladine. Lori, can you tell me how well you knew Lily Osorio or Rafi Sayed?”
The shrug that ensued from Lori led to her holding herself tight, showing her discomfort. “Not well. I had some classes with Lily, but we were never friends. We just ran in different crowds. Same with Rafi. He’s in the year above, so I never had much to do with him.”
“Yeah, he’s in your boyfriend's year, isn’t he? A William Green, is that correct?”
Lori nodded again. “Yeah, but I don’t think Bill’s friends with him either. I’ve never heard him talk about Rafi.”
The Chief nodded and Bruno jotted down everything she was saying in his little notepad. The interview didn’t last much longer, and counsellor Genevieve remained throughout, as did Principal Sterling, but Lori was soothed enough with Bruno’s presence in the room.
When she got out, it was time to break for lunch. Despite not eating since breakfast, the thought of food made Lori’s stomach churn. She went on the hunt for her friends, and when she found them, the six of them crowded outside at the school fountain. The media circus could be seen from there, the crowd converging around a podium where Police Chief Morgan was making his statement.
Elladine was the last to join them, coming out from the school with Bruno at her side. He waved to the kids before heading over to join his colleagues just in time for the media to launch on them with their array of intrusive questions.
“What’s old Bruno got to say?” Seb asked as Elladine nestled on the stone, leaning up against her boyfriend Nicky.
“Nothing that’s of any interest to you, I’d imagine,” she replied, rolling her eyes haughtily. She propped her feet on the stone, lounging to her heart's content. With one little prod of her big toe, she had Lori’s attention. “Hey.”
Lori looked over from where she was similarly lounging in Bill’s arms while he used his mouth as an extra hand to unwrap his favourite sandwich. She gave Elladine a smile, the first she’d cracked all day.
“Bruno talked to my mum. She wants to know if you wanna stay over while your dad is out of town. She says you can stay for as long as you want.”
Bill seemingly hadn’t been paying attention, but she felt him shift; the attention drawing from filling his stomach to what his girlfriend was up to.
Before Lori could answer, Nicky chimed in, grinning at Elladine and asking, “Did your mum say I could stay over?”
Elladine smacked him as Seb and Bill snickered.
“That’d be great, Elladine,” Lori said. “I’ll text my dad and let him know what’s going on.”
“How long is he out of town for?” Nicky asked, brushing his fingertips down Elladine’s arm. It brought a smile over her face, making her flinch like it was tickly.
“He’ll be back after the weekend,” Lori answered him. “He left a bunch of sweets for Halloween tonight, in case any kids come round, but by the looks of it, nobody's going out trick or treating tonight.”
“Take them to Elladine’s and that’s your movie night snacks sorted,” Iona suggested.
“Or,” Bill said, wrapping both his arms around Lori’s neck. He held her tight, close to his chest, rocking her from side to side as he faced the others over her shoulder, his eyes lighting up on his girlfriend, “Instead of you going to Elladine’s, I could come over. Could be a movie night for us.”
“Somehow I think zero movies are gonna be getting watched,” Seb smirked.
Rolling her eyes, Lori smacked Bill’s arms away. “You came over last night,” she said.
“That was before your dad went out of town.”
“Oh, sounds like someone has an alibi,” Seb said, reaching over to slap Bill on the thigh.
Bill went to kick Seb, but Seb moved out of reach just in time. “What do I need an alibi for?” Bill asked, his tone heavy, heightened with suspicion.
“I’m saying nothing,” Seb said.
“Besides,” Iona said, a brow quirked at Nicky, “wasn’t it you who used to d¹ate Lily?”
Nicky’s mouth hung open, a hollow ‘tsk’ falling from within as an incredulous smirk played on his face. His hold of Elladine got tighter. Before he could answer, Seb was there again. He threw a raspberry at Nicky and said, “Yeah, and then she dumped you for Rafi.”
Again, before Nicky could answer, another voice chimed in. This time, it was Elladine, who sat up, looking crossly at Nicky, and said, “I thought you dumped her for me?”
“Of course I did,” Nicky answered, ushering her back into his arms. “She’s got nothing on you.”
Muttering, Seb said, “Well, yeah, hard to compete when one is dead.”
Bill kicked at Seb again. This time, it hit, and as Seb reeled from the impact, nursing his side with an, “Ah,” Bill told him, “Get some fucking tact, man. I get being one of the undead is your thing, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us want to hear it.”
“I’m not one of the undead,” Seb said. “I’m just emo. You’re seriously misrepresenting the culture.”
Bill rolled his eyes. Over the speaker system, Principal Sterling’s voice broke over the whole school, announcing, “Students, I’ve been informed that a town-wide curfew is going into effect tonight. Until your safety can be guaranteed, you aren’t to go out after eight pm. Any parties or trick or treating you have planned will have to be moved to another night. We hope you understand that this is for your safety.”
“What bullshit,” Seb said, shaking his head. “Halloween is the best night of the year.”
“I can’t believe they’re cancelling it because of a little murder,” Iona concurred.
“And if it had been you who was strung up on a tree for your parents to find your dead body?” Elladine asked.
“Even more reason to party.”
“Do you know what?” Nicky said, looking about at all of them. “I think Seb and Iona are right. I don’t think we should let this stop us living our lives. If anything, this just goes to show that we shouldn’t take any minute for granted. I say we say ‘fuck it’, and throw the biggest Halloween party that we can.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Elladine said. “That’s like putting up a glaring neon sign to the killer saying ‘We’re here! Come kill us!’”
“Who says the killer is going to strike again?” Nicky shrugged. “For all we know, he had beef with Lily and Rafi for whatever reason, and that’s it settled now. We should toast to them, not let it scare us into never leaving our homes.”
“Here, here,” Seb said, tipping his bottle of water.
Elladine and Lori looked at each other as Bill and Iona chanted their agreements, too. “It’ll probably be safer if we’re in numbers,” Lori said.
“... I suppose you’re right. I’ll have to give Bruno a heads up, though. He’ll be pissed if he finds out I’ve snuck out with a murderer on the loose.”
“Invite him,” Nicky said. “Tell him that he can be our lookout. If the killer does come to strike, they’ll have to get through Officer Kaminski first.”
“No one’s gonna dare with him around,” Bill grinned.
“Don’t be mean, Bruno’s lovely,” Lori said, nudging him gently.
“Careful, Lor, your childhood crush is showing,” Seb teased, earning him a flash of daggers from both Lori and Bill.
“Don’t look now,” Iona said, voice high, eyes wide staring straight ahead.
All heads turned to where she was gazing, landing on Bruno taking a leisurely stroll back towards the school with Valentina Valentine at his side, both with playful smiles on their faces.
“Of course,” Elladine hissed. “He could never resist a pretty face.”
“Who’s betting that she’s sniffing for information?” Bill asked.
“He looks happy enough,” Nicky said.
“Yeah, until she snakes something confidential and a shitshow lands at his feet,” muttered Elladine, who looked away tsking under her breath.
In the end, it didn’t take much for the girls to convince Bruno. A little whine in their voices paired with doe in their eyes and all they had to say was, “But you’ll be there to protect us.”
“There’s safety in numbers.”
“At least you’ll know where we all are.”
“You’ll be the coolest ever.”
With a heavy sigh, Bruno shut his eyes and let his shoulders sag. “Fine.” He wagged his finger in Elladine’s face, “but you’re explaining it to mum.”
“We’ll just say we’re watching movies at Iona’s,” Elladine said, waving his concerns off. “You need to be there for when we want a lift home.”
“All my police training and I’m basically a glorified taxi driver.”
“Don’t say that, Bruno,” Elladine said, hugging him. “We aren’t going to pay you.”
“Figures.”
When they arrived at Lori’s house it was already cloaked in the setting sky; the thin orange glow of the setting sun was being drowned in the ever-pressing dark, the colours of Halloween making a mockery of them. The moon shone brightly in the sky, full and foreboding.
Lori lived just out of the town in a large modern build. Every year on Halloween they got kids coming to the door with their best jokes prepared and the best costume that the supermarkets had to offer, but there was no danger of trick or treaters on this Halloween night.
While Elladine unlocked the empty house, Lori set about turning on the lights of the decorations outside, basking them in the garish orange of the holiday. Elladine pushed into the house, traipsing in like it was her own home, Bruno lingered on the doorstop, looking between Lori and the surrounding darkness with unease.
“You sure about this, Lori?” He asked.
“No,” she said, not letting herself look at him. He was off duty, but dressed up in an American Sheriff’s outfit, the khaki colour and the cowboy-like hat making him look goofier than usual. “But I don’t want to let what happened stop us from having fun.”
“And I don’t want you guys having fun to stop you from living the rest of your lives.”
They both paused, a look passing between them. “Then it’s a good thing you’re here to protect us, Officer Kaminski.”
Bruno closed the space between them, taking a small device out of his pocket. He held it out to her when he was barely a step away. Lori would never admit to how that made her heart pitter patter having him to close. She could smell the shower gel he used, the fragrance so familiar to her, more familiar than he’d ever guess.
“Here,” he said. “I’ve got one for Ella as well. If you get in any sort of trouble, any at all, press this button and it’ll send an alert to my phone and tell me where you are. Don’t hesitate.”
Lori took it. The plastic was warm from his touch. “I’ll be careful,” she promised.
“Please.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.”
“I always will.”
Headlights interrupted the moment. The honk of a horn and a holler of “Woo!” only furthering them. The car parked next to Bruno’s cruiser and out spilled Iona, Seb, and Nicky. The three of them were dressed up in their Halloween costumes already, with Nicky as a vampire, Seb as a zombie, and Iona changing up the cheerleader suit with come zombified additions. That was just so Iona, Lori thought.
“Where’s Bill?” Lori asked, removing herself from such close proximity to Bruno to greet them.
As she and Iona hugged tight despite the crate of Carling she’d no doubt nicked from her dad, Seb said, “Oh, he’s getting more beers.” With a paling glance over at a carefully watching Bruno, Seb saluted him, “Evening, Officer.”
“Get in the house, Seb,” Bruno said.
Seb made a dash for the boot. Together he and Nicky loaded in several crates of beer and a bag that clinked suspiciously. Iona and Lori followed, but before Lori could get inside, Bruno stopped her, laying a hand carefully on her arm.
“Have you heard from your dad?” He asked.
“Yeah, he asked if I wanted him to cut the trip short, but I told him it wasn’t necessary,” Lori replied, saddened that Bruno didn’t let his touch linger. “He said to thank your parents for letting me stay.”
“Well, we’ll see how tonight pans out before we go saying any thanks, right?”
The corners of her mouth twitched.
“So, I know your house is pretty much a maze,” Bruno went on, eyes brushing over the outside of the house and the three floors visible, “but who would you say knows the ins and out well enough besides Ella and myself?”
“Well, apart from my own dad, probably only Bill,” Lori said.
“Hmm. Did you know that Bill and Rafi were on the football team together?”
Lori snapped her head up at him. “Nicky’s on the team, too.”
The frown over Bruno’s face narrowed, but he did not take his eyes off of the house. “I’m going to do a sweep of the perimeter if you guys are good?” He waited for Lori to nod, and gently nudged her inside. “Lock the door until I come back around.”
Bruno watched Lori heading inside. He could hear the kids within, already having a great time just themselves, and wasn’t sure if he regretted not insisting harder just to keep it the six of them.
He listened for a minute longer, the hooting of a nearby owl almost drowning them out until another vehicle came to a stop at the top of the drive. He couldn’t help the excitable smile on his face as he jogged over.
As her long legs stepped out the passenger side of the news van, Bruno waved, knowing he might regret the goofy enthusiasm of it for the rest of his life.
“Valentina, I’m glad you came,” he said once he’d halted in front of her. “The kids are inside getting ready, but I thought you might want to join me as we check out the perimeter.”
Valentina smiled, but Bruno didn’t note the strain in it. “Sure, that sounds great. It’s pretty cold out, so let me just grab my coat.” As she turned to grab the red coat, she shared a long, knowing look with her cameraman, Dylan, who was biting back his sly smile.
“So,” Valentina went on, in a pointedly casual manner, “you were telling me about how you informed the victim’s families that they were deceased? It must have been so rough considering Lily’s older sister Lexi is your ex-girlfriend.”
Music blared. Scrunched up beer cans were strewn across every surface, the smell of smoke rolling in from those smoking outside on the back patio filling the house, the party had been going for longer than Lori had a clue. She and Elladine had changed into cheerleader outfits to match Iona’s as was the plan. They hadn’t planned on letting Iona zombify them, but in the end Lori left with fake bruising on her neck and Elladine with a fake abdominal injury that left most of her top red with fake blood like she’d been stabbed.
They had an old nineties slasher fic on the TV. The sound could only just be heard over the thumping music, but they knew all the words anyway.
“It’s always the boyfriend,” Seb, now dressed as a skeleton, said, shaking his head at the predictability.
“Are you saying that Rafi butchered Lily and then gutted himself?” Iona asked, a small chuckle falling from her lips as she looked between Seb and Lori.
Lori half-smiled, looking at them out the corner of her eye as Seb launched himself over the other side of the sofa. He hovered over Iona, positioning himself pretty provocatively while Iona could only grin up at him.
“It’s just a fact,” Seb said, grinning down at her. “We all know how predictable these movies are.”
“Not so much anymore,” Iona said. “It’s so much harder to predict who the killer is. Everything is about shock factor these days.”
“Pfft,” Seb said, shaking his head again. He shot up off the sofa, and headed to the front of the TV, pausing it as Jamie Kennedy had his back to the killer. He turned to the girls and declared, “Listen, I know more than anyone that these days with movie and TV, it’s all about subverting expectations, but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t rules.”
“Boo! Turn the movie back on!” Iona chuckled, throwing a cushion at his head.
“Listen, we could be in a horror movie as we speak, so expect this to save one of your lives,” he went on, pointing between the two grinning girls. “Rule number one: Always have a Final Girl. It’s who the audience get to root for, you have to give them someone.” He looked at Iona, adding, “And I’m sorry, Iona, but she’s got to be at least half sensible, so it’s looking like it’s going to be Lori.”
“BOO!” Iona shouted once more, this time throwing popcorn as Lori laughed into her hand.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay, I’m the comedy relief for sure,” he said, heading back to her on the sofa. He took her hand in his, locking his fingers between hers and practically fell over her again, saying, “Stick by my side and I can protect you with my plot armour.”
“Hey, guys,” Nicky said, coming in from the main room of the party with a beer in hand. He paused, scanning them with increasing alarm. “Where’s Elladine?” He spoke to them as a whole, but his eyes were on Lori.
At once Lori sat up. “She went to go find Bruno. She hadn’t heard from him in a while.”
“What? She just went out on her own?” Fear laced his tone as he strode across the room to the windows overlooking the back of the property and into the surrounding woods. He threw Lori a curt look, adding, “And you let her?”
“Relax,” Lori said, “she was on the phone to me the whole time until she found him. They’re together.”
Nicky visibly relaxed, but he still twitched back the curtains, his gaze fixed on the dark shadows of the trees.
“Holy shit!”
They turned as Camilo entered the room, phone in hand, and singled for the music to be cut.
“Everyone, hey, everyone! Listen up!” He called out until he had the attention of everyone. “Principal Sterling is dead. Someone killed him after school and hung him off the roof terrace.”
Shock panned through the students as the severity of the situation trickled around them, but the sympathy didn’t last long before one of the boys on the football team shouted out, “If we leave now we might see them taking his body down!”
This grim proclamation was met with more gusto than Lori could have imagined, and she and her friends were all that remained after the boisterous party-goers fled the house. A look of disgust was plain on several faces.
“I’m calling Elladine,” Nicky said, reaching for his phone.
Lori’s own hand hovered over the device Bruno gave her.
“Shit, Lor,” Iona said, sitting up and pushing Seb away, “when was the last time anyone heard from Bill?”
An uneasy look passed over all their faces. Lori double checked her messages from him, but she already knew the last string of messages off by heart.
“Elladine’s not picking up,” Nicky said. He remained looking calm, but his voice hitched, and he stood too still, like he was just trying to convey control. The fear on his face was subtle, however much he was trying to make it so it wasn’t obvious.
“...Should we go looking for her?” Seb asked, sounding almost too wary to suggest it.
“She’s with Bruno, right?” Iona said, voice shaking.
THUMP.
All four of them flinched, stepping back from the noise in the other room. The actress in the movie screamed behind them, the sounds of her fleeing in terror following the fearful cries.
“Who’s there?” Nicky called out. He was the first to step towards it.
“Nicky, don’t fucking go,” Iona said, her voice fluctuating with the rapid beating of her lashes.
With a look, the determination steeled on his face. “I’m going to look for Elladine.”
There was no hesitation as he strode through on his way to the kitchen. Lori couldn’t leave him to go alone, so she held her hand out for Iona, and the pair followed, hands entwined, with Seb twitchily taking up the rear.
In the kitchen, there was not a soul besides them. The mess amplified the sudden silence, the remnants of the party making everything feel more isolating. Nicky pulled a large kitchen knife from the stainless steel rack and edged himself backwards towards the sliding glass door that led to the back garden.
“Come on,” he said, sliding it open and checking first before he let any of the others leave. Lori followed his lead and picked out a knife, too.
One foot of Lori’s was poised to step onto the patio, she could feel Seb behind her, the cold air of late Autumn swirling around her like little tendrils determined to fleece her outside. And Seb screamed.
Lori ran. Seb had a hold of her costume, his fingers hooked into the cheap material, halting her as she tried to escape. Something tore. She was free. She was running. Nicky pushed past her, back into the house, and she found Iona.
“Run!” Lori said, as Iona stood still as a statue, frozen in place. Lori tugged her, ready to drag her off if she had to, but Iona came. Her feet hit the ground in a disjointed manner at first, her eyes welling with tears, but Iona moved with Lori.
They tore away from the house, into the outskirts of the woods.
“Did you see it?” Lori asked, breathing steadily as Iona sounded like she was on the verge of a panic attack.
“It was - someone in a costume -” Iona stuttered, frantically looking around, eyes unfocused, “he was cloaked - in a white mask and -”
A knife lodged into the side of her face from the darkness surrounding them, twisting up under her cheek and into her brain. Lori gasped, letting out a scream, and was running before Iona’s twitching body could hit the ground.
There was nowhere to go but the house. She ran and she ran and she ran, sprinting around the corner to her front door. The moment she turned, she went careering into something solid, and flew back, ending up rolling into the flower beds.
“Shit, Lori!” Nicky said, reaching to pick her up.
Already half way up, Lori’s wide eyes were set on where she’d just come running from, but … there was nothing following her.
“You’re covered in blood,” Seb said, sounding sick. “Why are you covered in blood?”
Nicky sounded regretful as he asked, “Where’s Iona?”
No words came. Lori’s lips trembled, her eyes fluttering like she was trying to hold back tears.
“Come on, let’s go,” Nicky said, keeping his hands on Lori like he thought his grip was all that kept her steady. “We chased that fucker out here. Wasn’t so brave coming after the two of us, was he?”
Seb keeled over, hands on his thighs. “Oh God, I feel sick…”
“Come on, man,” Nicky said, guiding a now sobbing Lori into the house. They were nearly at the open front door, the pair of them looking back at Seb -
He stood suddenly. Had just enough time to turn back -
Flying out from around the corner, a cloaked figure descended on him, slashing across his neck with a steel blade.
Lori screamed blue murder, Nicky went slack, and Seb, eyes wide, clawed at his throat before toppling face first into the dirt, a bloody gurgle escaping him.
The cloaked figure held up their bloodied knife. That pale masked face turned sharply, its black hooded eyes staring directly at them. Nicky shoved at Lori, pushing her into the house, slamming the door behind them.
“Oh, fuck,” he said, realising he couldn’t lock it. “Fuck - Lori, Lori, come on, we have to hide, call the police - wait, Bruno! Fuck, call Bruno!”
Lori fumbled with the little device Bruno had given her earlier. Her hands trembled and were so sweaty she could barely keep a hold of it, and before she could press that little button -
CRASH.
Both Nicky and Lori flattened themselves against the front door as someone who didn’t care about how loud they were came flying through the house from the kitchen. Nicky cocooned himself over Lori as Bruno appeared under the arch way, gun in hand.
“We heard screaming. Are you two okay?” He asked, sounding out of breath. Sweat glistened on his forehead as he made his way towards them, a bedraggled Valentina appearing at his heels. “Where’s Elladine?”
“She was meant to be with you -” Nicky said, sounding aghast.
“I haven’t seen her all night -”
“She was with you - !
Everyone jumped. The door rattled. Someone was on the other side.
“Move!” Bruno ordered, ushering the teens behind him towards Valentina. Lori sobbed harder, clinging to Nicky as Bruno stepped purposefully towards the front door. His fingers grazed the handle, and he told them, “If I say it’s clear, I want you three to head to Valentina’s news van. Drive to the station and don’t stop for anything, you got it?”
Nicky and Valentina nodded.
And Bruno opened up the door … Except there was no one there. Like a ghost had come and gone, the front step was empty. Bruno took a step out, gun poised, raising it left and right before he relaxed again, ushering them forwards.
“Bruno!”
Elladine’s strained and terrified shriek came from the back of the house.
Bruno paled, his face falling. “Elladine!” Bruno raced past all of them before he’d even finished calling out to her, Elladine’s name filled with deep worry.
Nicky didn’t hesitate a moment longer. He grabbed Lori by her face and stared hard, telling her, “Get to the van. We’ll come as soon as we can.”
He pressed her hand into Valentina’s before he charged after Bruno, leaving Lori to stumble and stutter in his wake. “Come on, kid,” Valentina said, ushering Lori on as she grabbed the shoulder of her outfit.
They padded down the drive, Valentina looking every which way while Lori just looked distraught. Seb’s body lay still out the corner of her eye as she left the house.
“Oh fuck,” Valentina muttered, picking up her pace. It only made her breathing all the more stilted and staggered.
They got to the van, Valentina banging on the passenger window, continuing all the way around the vehicle as they made their way to the back doors. “Dylan! Start the fucking van!”
It was unlocked. Dylan was slouched over the steering wheel like he’d fallen asleep waiting. As Lori climbed in, her back to the open doors, Valentina crawled up to the front seats, knocking his shoulder to shake him awake.
“Dylan! You useless cockroach, wake the fuck up!”
He slumped at her touch, falling to the side, revealing a huge red stain down the front of his shirt, seeping across his entire chest. Valentina shrieked, screaming as she fell back, scrambling across the spill of wires in the back of the van.
The scream turned cold, strangled to a choke, as a gloved hand wrapped thin wire around her neck, closing her throat tightly, dragging her further and further back until she fell out of the van at the mercy of the killer.
Lori fought to the front of the van, crawling her way into the front seats, immediately fighting again to get away from Dylan’s deceased body. Her hand hooked on the passenger door handle, and she went rolling backwards out onto the gravel. The night was filled with her screams as she ran once again back to the only safety for miles around.
Covered in more blood than she ever dreamed, tear-streaked and sweaty, she only stopped at the sight of Bruno.
“Lo-Lori?” He cried out, hobbling to the front door from her hallway.
“Bruno.” She wept, caught up in everything going on, and that only exacerbated as Bruno sank to his knees, falling forwards like Seb had done, a knife protruding from his back. The same stainless steel that Nicky had taken earlier. “BRUNO!”
She was on her knees at his side before she knew what she was doing. Her trembling hands found him, her tears falling across his skin. Lori didn’t hesitate trying to help him get back to his feet. With one final glance about, she headed inside with a groaning Bruno.
“LORI! LORI!”
Nicky’s frantic screams came careering around the corner of the house at the same time he did. He saw them instantly, like he knew where they were.
“It’s him…” Bruno said, with barely the energy to mumble it out. He raised a shaky hand towards Nicky, gun pointed at his chest.
Halting in his tracks, Nicky threw his hands up. “I swear, Lori - I haven’t -”
Lori couldn’t remember when her heart had ever beat faster. She wasn’t about to let Bruno shoot her friend right in front of her, so without any more delay, she dashed within the house. It didn’t take much to wrangle the gun from a quickly paling Bruno’s grasp as she kicked the door shut so hard that it shook.
Muttering words of encouragement, Lori made to the kitchen, wanting to make sure they wouldn’t be caught out or snuck upon.
“LORI!” Elladine was there, on the ground, holding her shoulder as she tried to crawl across the tiled floor, blood spilling thick and fast from the shoulder wound she was failing to cover. “BRUNO!”
Overwhelmed, Lori got Bruno down as quickly as she could, placing the gun on the counter by the door. “What happened?” She asked Elladine, voice frantic.
“Fucking - it was Bill. He stabbed me. The bastard,” Elladine spat out, eyes narrowing before they fixed on her brother and concern washed through her. He was perspiring, pale, and breathing shallow as he sat there with his eyes shut. “Is he going to be okay?”
Lori was quick with the cleanest cloth she could find, removing the knife from his back and pressing the cloth in its place. “He’ll live,” she said, firing Elladine a rueful look. “How’s your shoulder?”
“I’ll live,” Elladine replied back, just as coldly. “Have you seen Nicky?”
“Out front. How’s Bill doing?”
“Out cold.” She nodded to the kitchen cupboard. “Ready when you are.”
Lori got up, the knife from Bruno’s back in her hand, dangling dangerously at her side. She was covered in more real blood than fake at this point, and none of it was her own.
She made her way across the room with purpose, all the fear gone from her face, the tears drying on her cheeks. At the bottom of her kitchen cupboard, there was a lump of a person huddled in the corner, cloaked in the silly Halloween get up, mask over their face. Lori grabbed his booted foot and dragged him out into the middle of the kitchen.
Hands, knees, and ankles all tied, Bill could barely move. Lori sank down again, straddling him as she slowly removed the mask from over his head. Bill’s terrified face was beneath, eyes wide, sweat trickling from his forehead, words muffled by the roll of duct tape over his mouth.
All feeble attempts at a struggle stopped as Lori put the knife to his throat, his muffles drowned out by her condescending shushes. She bent over him, her lips a hair's breadth from his ear, and she whispered, “It’s always the boyfriends.”
Her tongue danced across his skin until it reached the edge of the tape, and she bit down, using her mouth to uncover his.
Bill let out a deep, shuddering breath, but only looked at her even more lost. “What the fuck is going on, Lori? Why the fuck did Elladine tie me up?”
Grinning, Lori gazed down on him. “We’re giving you a starring role, baby. Hottest action of the year, and everyone’s going to remember your name. Not for anything good, of course, but let’s face it, there’s only ever one true star.”
Elladine coughed.
“But I can only share the spotlight with one other person,” Lori went on, all emotion wiped from her face like she was a blank slate ready for the next personality to shift in, “and I’m sorry, baby, but you just didn’t make the cut. You don’t have what it takes to take me that last step, but you can do this one last thing for me.”
His eyes were filled with tears, head shaking nearly imperceptibly. “Lori…”
It was the last thing he said before the knife plunged beneath his Adam's apple, blood spilling out in waves over his neck before it croaked out his mouth, dribbling down the side of his face. Lori didn’t look away until he completely slumped, the lights in his baby blue eyes out. She covered his face again with the mask, leaving the knife lodged low in his throat.
Click.
They froze. Eyes wide, Lori and Elladine turned, seeing a severely shaken up Valentina standing just in the doorway with the gun pointed at them.
“You said you fucking killed her,” Elladine spat out, glaring hard at Lori.
Lori stared at Elladine who was still attending to the unconscious Bruno, incredulous. “She was fucking dead. Looked it anyway.” Face darkening, she added. “Still does.”
“Unlucky for you bitches, I’m stronger than I look,” Valentina said, her voice close to shaking. Lori suspected that she was running on pure adrenaline, she looked such a state. “Now, if we’re talking about who’s a star, unfortunately for the pair of you -”
“Where -?”
BANG.
It was Nicky. Walking in from the back garden, unsuspecting, and innocent. Valentina looked shocked, the gun trembling in her grasp, like she couldn’t believe she’d actually just fired it. Elladine’s shriek wasn’t enough to break her from her sudden daze, so while Elladine dashed across to Nicky who was laying groaning on the kitchen tiles, Lori went for Valentina.
It was just as easy as it had been prying the gun out of Bruno’s hand. One swift yank and Lori clonked Valentina in the face with the butt of the gun, Valentina’s nose spurting with blood as she reeled back, falling to the ground.
“She killed Nicky!” Elladine cried out, sobbing over a suddenly still Nicky. “Shoot her, Lori!”
Lori pointed the gun at Valentina. “Any last words?”
“Why?” Valentina said, her words coming out thick as the blood gushed down her face. “Why kill your friends? Your boyfriend?” To Elladine, she pointedly threw out, “Your own brother?”
“Bruno’s safe,” Elladine said, casting Valentina with the most heated of glares. “He gets to be the hero who saved the day.”
“And you’re just the desperate tag-along whose nosiness got her caught up in the crossfire,” Lori added.
Valentina shook her head fervently. “You’re not going to get away with this. Someone’s going to know.”
With a cruel laugh, Lori said, “If that day ever comes, you’ll never be around to see it. Bruno’s going to forget about you faster than you let him into your skirt out in the woods tonight.”
Valentina sneered right back, pressing herself further and further against the wall, slowly inching towards the door. “What, were you watching? Were you jealous, and that’s why you decided to kill me? He’d never look twice at you, kid. No matter how desperately hard you try to make him.”
All else was drowned out by Valentina’s scream after Lori shot her in the leg. Her cold expression showed not a shred of remorse … that changed in an instance, as Lori had her legs swiped out from under her.
She went crashing to the ground; her head splitting against the hard tile, making the room spin. Everything was in slow-motion, doubled up as it swam before her eyes. Then there was Bruno.
His weight was heavy on her, but soon the multitude of his disbelieving expressions condensed into one. Just in time as his arm pressed to her throat, cutting off her air supply. She tried sucking in a breath, but could barely grasp for any at all.
Hitting her head, and having Bruno holding her down kept her senses from fully returning, but she was aware enough, so when Elladine screamed, “Let her go!” Lori had enough of a bearing to catch Elladine, on her knees, wielding the gun in Bruno’s direction.
His voice shook as he called out her name, staring at her in disbelief. “Elladine.” Almost imperceptibly, he shook his head. “Don’t.”
Her arms shook, trembling like the gun weighed ten times its actual size. Her tear filled eyes flashed between her brother and her best friend; her partner in crime. Filled with bitter sorrow, she said, “She killed Nicky. Valentina. She killed him.”
“It was an accident,” Valentia pleaded, sobbing as she crawled back, using her elbows, to escape what was going on. “Bruno, believe me please … your sister killed everyone tonight … she and that little bitch, they’re in on it together…”
His gaze flashed to Elladine again, then back down on Lori. Her mouth gaped, struggling for air, her hands weakly on his arms, feebly trying to push him off. Lori’s voice was like a ghost as she struggled to get out, “Bruno … it’s me … please…”
A tear fell from his face, splashing onto her cheek. “Did you really do all of this?”
“Bruno.” Elladine’s voice hardened. She stood slowly, the gun poised on her brother all the while. “Let. Her. Go.”
He did. He couldn’t stop staring, but he let her go, raising his hands to his head. Lori took a deep breath, her hands firing to her neck where she rubbed at the pain.
The gun fired. Valentina slumped to the side. Chest heaving, Elladine said, “No one needs to know. It was Bill. It was all Bill.”
Bruno narrowed his eyes on them. “Why?”
Reaching up at him with one hand, Lori was just shy of touching him before he leant away. It didn’t stop her, and she told him, “It was for you. It was all for you.”
“You’re the hero, Bruno,” Elladine said, voice shaking. Bruno realised she was crying and didn’t know where she found the audacity.
“Give me the gun, El,” he said. He reached over, but kept his head down, like he could no longer stand the sight of either of them.
Hesitation passed between the girls, and Elladine held the gun to her chest.
“Give me the gun,” he fired at her again, voice strained, like he was barely holding it together.
“I can’t do that, Bruno,” she said, sounding regretful.
“What? Because you can’t trust me?” He threw back at her. His voice raised as he did, too. “And what happens when my boss arrives with the rest of the police force, Elladine? Do you trust me then? If not, then you have to shoot me now.”
“He’s right, Elladine,” Lori said, shifting back to hunch up against the wall. “Give him the gun.”
“But -” Elladine began, but quickly cut herself off from the look Lori shot her.
“He’s not going to shoot us, Elladine.” Lori stood, too, not shifting her gaze from Bruno.
Elladine was cautious, but did as they told her. Reluctantly, she passed the gun to Bruno. The moment it was in his hands, he had it raised again, this time pointed at his little sister's head.
“Move,” he said, sounding more tired than anything. “Go stand with Lori.”
“Bruno,” Elladine pleaded, raising her hands. The tears began again, tearing down her cheeks, as she went and stood next to Lori, who remained stony faced.
He shook his head. “No, no! You don’t get to beg me to see reason, you don’t get to cry over this, Elladine! This is all on you! I’m calling for backup, and you two are going to stand there with your hands up until they arrive.”
Lori opened her mouth, poised to take a step forwards, but Bruno turned the gun sharply on her.
“Don’t you dare take another fucking step.”
“Bruno,” Lori said, “there’s something else you need to know…”
“What?”
The word barely left his lips before Lori charged. She jumped on him. He shot. But there was nothing. No shot, no kick, and before he knew it, Lori was on him. She was as strong as ever, whereas he’d been bleeding out for some time.
Lori knocked him back, and he tripped over Bill’s body, and went flying back, landing in a slump against Valentina.
“There’s no bullets left,” Lori answered.
Elladine came up behind her. “I can’t kill him, Lori. That was never part of the plan.”
“We won’t have to,” Lori replied. She knelt down in front of him, raised the gun, and knocked him hard over the head. “He won’t remember a thing. It’s you, me, and him. We’re the only survivors. Just like we planned. Come tomorrow, no one beside you or me is going to know what happened.”
The blood seeped down out from Bruno’s hairline, trailing over his cheek in a thick, dark line. Lori lifted his head, brushing her thumb over his plump lip.
“It’ll be us until the end. Just like it was always meant to be.”
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