𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑦 || kate schmidt (fear street 1994)

8. silence

Jessica pulled at a loose thread on the seam of her jacket sleeve. The tension between the teenagers as they stood there waiting for their friend to gather the supplies he needed was extremely high.

I mean, why wouldn't it be. The supplies they were waiting on him to gather were to kill Sam.

A droplet of sweat formed on Jessica's forehead, which she quickly wiped away before it began to fall. The grocery store was surprisingly hot considering it was October. The shop was pretty clean, and smelled strongly of clorox wipes. The only sounds that could be heard were the refrigerators running, water splashing around, plastic bottle clanking together, and the heavy breathing of her friends around her.

The thread snapped with a small pop. Kate was the only one who heard it, and she grabbed Jessica's hand that had previously been pulling on the string.

Simon finally finished collecting what they needed, and he dropped the items down on the counter in front of the group.

"A few months ago, my brother Timothy had an unfortunate experience in which he ingested too much of a... certain substance. He was dead for two minutes. But..." He drummed his hands on the counter. "We got him back!"

"Kate." Deena began, causing Kate's grip to loosen on Jessica's hand. "It's time for your close-up."

Kate nodded, and got to work opening the pill bottles. She dumped out the contents and sorted them into their corresponding piles with ease as Simon explained everything to Sam.

"You need to take these in order. Pile one takes the edge off. You're gonna feel like you're being... fucked by a unicorn! Pile two is gonna bring your core temp wayyy down." He emphasized the way. "You may feel slightly sick."

Sam nodded as Kate continued moving the tiny pills around.

"You need to take a five minute interval between pile two," he pointed, "and pile three. That's really important ok, pile three is what brings you down and out so you've gotta take that 'take five' or this is all gonna go to shit!"

Kate finished, and picked up the pile of boxes Simon had placed down.

"How many of these do we have?"

He took them from her.

"Tons, like a thousand."

"Wait - epipens?" Deena interjected.

"Epinephrine also known as adrenaline! This is what brings her back. This is Jesus!!"

Sam sighed, and nodded her head once more.

"Ok. Let's go." Jessica said.

• • •

One by one, the group dipped their hands into the bucket of blood mixture Deena had mixed up when they arrived.

Jessica wiped it on her t-shirt, creating a big red X. Like a target. She wiped the remaining blood onto her leg, and moved next to Kate by the snack aisle with Sam and Simon.

"Remember half an hour ago when you guys wanted to murder me?" Sam joked, attempting to make light of the serious danger they were in.
"You don't have to do this. You can leave."

"Remember when you decided to sacrifice yourself for us?" Kate countered with a small smile. "We're ending this together."

"Yeah. We're not leaving anyone behind." Jessica added.

"Die well, my friend." Simon patted Sam's shoulder.

He and Kate walked off, but Jessica stayed for a moment. She wrapped Sam into a hug, which Sam happily returned.