Don't Scream (Complete)

Chapter 14

Cassidy Hoskins 

It was two days after the incident at the Fortuna Estate. Cassidy was worried she'd completely blown things with Sylvia, maybe even ended their friendship, but her friend had been surprisingly okay with it. 

"I heard that after Jack found out about me being kicked off the cheerleading team and out of the party too, he and the rest of his friends promptly packed up and left in prostest. After that, a significant amount of people left the party as well, so you could say I got a little taste of revenge," Sylvia whispered conspiratorially during a gossip session in homeroom. "Isn't Jack sweet?" 

It did seem that Jack and Sylvia were getting closer and closer. Sometimes, when Cassidy and Sylvia were eating their lunch, Jack would sidle over to join Sylvia, usually at the lips, and a few other jocks would join the pair of them too so they wouldn't feel lonely. It was a nice change, to be popular when you're with friends rather than to be with friends only when you're popular. 

But seeing Jack and Sylvia unconsciously work their way to becoming the next Homecoming couple, Cassidy longed for someone to spend her time with too. With Sylvia becoming more and more occupied with her new boyfriend, Cassidy found herself longing to share the same relationship with Scott. There was no doubt in Cassidy's mind that right now, she had a crush on Scott and she couldn't deny it. The trouble was, he'd barely paid her any attention since the first day of school. 

"I could get Jack to hint about it to Scott if you want. Boys tend to be more open-minded when talking to each other about this kind of stuff so it could work," Sylvia suggested to Cassidy when the latter poured out her worries about Scott. 

"That's nice of you, Sylvia, but it's okay. I don't want to look desperate." 

"But you are desperate." 

"Well, I don't want to look that way, do I?" 

Cassidy found that she was thinking about Scott every day now, trying to formulate new ideas and plans to get together with him. It seemed to her that the more unreachable Scott put himself, the more desirable he became until the point where it became almost unbearable for Cassidy to even have to go one day seeing him in class, so alone, single and available, and yet still untouchable. How cruel. 

* 

Jonah Whitley 

Jonah sat in his house. For the first time in his life, he'd stayed home from school. It was a Monday, typically Jonah's favorite day of the week because he'd have a whole week of studying and photography to look forward to. Today, however, he stayed at home, seated on his couch, staring blankly at the wall. He'd told his uncle that he hadn't been feeling well. In a way, it wasn't really much of a lie. 

His first time playing truant. All for a girl. 

Jonah hadn't heard from Ponnie since that day when he'd failed to help her and she'd had to face the loss of her mother's last gift alone and humiliated. He hadn't known what to do to try and contact Ponnie. Jonah was at a loss. 

He looked down on the seat next to him. There it was - a black rectangular object with three dozen tiny buttons on it, labelled with different colors and functions. A TV remote. How long had it been since Jonah had actually watched TV? 

Jonah reached down and picked up the remote control, switching the TV on for the first time in almost a year. 

For a brief moment, he was astounded by the moving pictures on the high resolution screen and the sound reverberating around the room through the large speakers. 

He stared at the TV, not really processing whatever movie or TV show was going on right now. He just watched the characters move about, let their pointless dialogue wash over him and cloud his mind in a mix of confusion and befuddlement. But the longer time stretched on, the more Jonah felt his mind opening up. The dialogue began to make sense now. He saw the characters in clearer focus, began to understand the story, and for once, a spark of excitement grew in Jonah, an excitement he hadn't experienced in any external activity aside from photography and his studies. 

He laid back into the couch, set the TV remote down and just cleared his mind of everything else except the show. 

* 

Eli Bensworth 

With the help of Lt Powers, they got the news of the Homewrecker's identity out on the evening news that day. Now, the citizens of San Francisco would help them keep a lookout for Greg Chaplain as well. Eli had faith that it wouldn't be long until someone presented Greg over to the SFPD, then it was only a matter of time before they got the confession they needed to put Greg either behind bars or into the electric chair for the consecutive murders of Kevin and Linda Crowle. 

"But there's just one thing I don't understand though," Rhonda said to Eli as the two of them sat at a Starbucks not far from the station. 

Lt Powers had given them both a coffee break to relax from the events of that morning. 

"What don't you understand?" Eli inquired. 

"The bruises we found on Bryan," Rhonda replied. 

After interrogating Bryan at the Crowle's house yesterday, they'd found an assortment of bruises all over his body, mostly on his shoulders and feeble arms. Someone had hit him, not hard enough to inflict any lasting injury but enough to make him feel the pain. 

"It couldn't have been Kevin Crowle who inflicted those injuries. Kevin's left-handed, but according to Alberto, the positioning of the bruises suggest that whoever hit Bryan had a 97% chance of being right-handed," Rhonda said, her brow creased in thought. 

"Maybe it was Linda who hit Bryan then?" Eli suggested. 

"Can't be, Linda's left-handed too. That's how she and Kevin first met, at a all-lefty convention down in Chicago. It's where they first fell in love. Lisa told me about it casually the other day," Rhonda said. 

Even as the words left Rhonda's mouth, the brainwave hit both of them at the same coincidental time. "Lisa!" 

"Lisa's right-handed, isn't she?" Rhonda said. 

"She is, why? You don't think - " 

"That she was the one hitting Bryan? Yes, I do. Remember what Bryan told us about his father?" Rhonda asked Eli. "He said that his father didn't believe him. What if - stick with me on this - what if Bryan tried to tell his father about Lisa hitting him, but Kevin didn't believe his son?" 

"Even so, what does this mean?" Eli asked. 

"Greg Chaplain was abused by his parents, but according to the case files, it was both mental and physical abuse," Rhonda said. "Mental, meaning that his parents ignored him most of the time. And physical, meaning..." 

"Physical abuse." 

The realization struck Eli and Rhonda as they sat there at their little table in Starbucks. "She's his next victim." 

"Eli, are you certain about this? If we're wrong - " 

"I'm absolutely certain about it," Eli said, getting off his chair hurriedly and beckoning to Rhonda to do the same. "Gregory Chaplain is the Homewrecker. He killed Kevin two nights ago for not believing his son, then Linda last night for ignoring her son and tonight, Lisa Crowle's his next victim."