Scream 4

Chapter 24

No. No. No.

If the room was quiet before, it was dead silent now. You stared up at Jed with a white-knuckled grip on the sheets and tried to look for any signs that he was bluffing. But no. His strong gaze held the brutal truth.

Throughout the minutes of nothing being said, fleeting images of moving houses time and time again, Billy and Stu both refusing to tell why or where they went. Then, an offhand comment made by Jed joined those images, and you finally understood.

You would be amazed at what lengths people go to to get you right where they want you.

Silence didn't mean peacefulness.

Silence was just the potential for noise. The noise that fractured it came from you—the most indescribable, heartbroken sob you had ever heard yourself make.

It took another blink or two before Stu, whose face had reddened like a tomato, hesitantly hurried out of the room to find a nurse. Billy slammed his hands against the doorframe, undoubtedly struggling with his emotions knowing he got beaten at his own game. Frustrated, because more than anything, he wanted to follow Stu's example and punch the man in the fucking face.

But that paled in comparison to what you were going through. You felt a roller coaster of emotions. Hurt, disappointment, anger, just to name a few, exploding in your chest and clouding your vision. Another strangled cry escaped you, the monitor behind you beeping faster as you vaguely heard Billy pound his fist onto the wall over and over again in a fit of rage, and if your head had been functioning normally, if might have scared you.

You sunk into the pillows, letting your heartbreak show as Jed tucked your blanket further over your body, up until under your chin, trying to get you to calm down in any way he could. One hand on your head, he pulled you closer, and allowed you to cry on him, telling you that to let it all out.

Memories were a funny thing, weren't they?

We could choose to savor the good moments and regret the bad ones, all the while each tiny fragment fabricated our lives, blurred together in time and making us who we were. Each bit and piece, no more important than the rest, and, if you took one instance away... Who was to say you were the sane person as before?

The moment you got diagnosed with amnesia, your world fell apart. Everything that happened between Woodsboro and waking up in the hospital that fateful day had been permanently erased from your brain.

Or so you thought.

As it turned out, all it took to trigger them was bringing up bits and pieces related to your past, as well as reading a passage from a book written by Gale fucking Weathers. It all came trickling back to you now without pause and without mercy, the cogs in your head turning until you processed it all.

Woodsboro. Billy and Stu's grand master plan. Them confessing to you and Sidney that they were the ones responsible for Maureen Prescott's death, who happened to be the sister of your mother. Roman Bridger, who very much lived after his profession of being a director and directing the entire thing.

It was when you pictured Roman's anger-riddled expression before you that you realized there was still a tiny detail missing. Apperently it was something so horrible and painful that your defense mechanism kicked in and switched it like an off button, as if what ever happened right after that moment never happened.

But whatever happened then, did happen. You just couldn't recall it, but it was there, lingering in the back of your mind. It had to be something heinous because you could feel your hands itch, and the sudden urge to scrub them washed over you even though your skin was clean.

You willed the image of Roman away, only to have a much more gruesome take its place; the sight of your mother's body laying motionless in your childhood home. Her blood soaking the hardwood floor, seeping between its cracks and staining it red. Yes, even your own screaming pierced your ears.

It was the day you were forced to come to terns with that she was never going to wish you goodnight ever again, or hold you in the safe protection of her arms.

Tears burned behind your eyelids, that were feeling heavier and heavier by the minute. You refused to close them, though, glaring daggers at the person that took your parents away from you.

Unforgivable. What Billy and Stu had done was unforgivable. You felt like your emotions were physically crushing you. Just a few months ago, had everything not been relatively normal? What was normal anymore?

You swallowed the bile in your throat when it dawned on you just how ignorant you had been, pushing aside the signs that had been flashing in neon lights around all the things they said and did, purely out of fondness and stubbornness.

Ghostface wasn't wrong to call you a stupid girl. You really had been.

"You k-knew..." The hiccups breaking your sentence made it hard for you to make coherent sentences. "All th-th-this time..."

You lost track of how long you had been weeping and sniffling nonsensically. Every breath you took was filled with pain, and you tried so hard to find words that might surface out of your grief with your heart pounding, drumming a rhythm of uncertainty and heartbreak.

You didn't even want to acknowledge Billy's presence any more, uncaring that he was forced to see you cry on another man. Jed leaned on the bed, he was behind you, allowing your head to rest against the soft fabric covering his torso that became see-through, soaked with tears. The heart monitor bleeped from the jump in your heart rate.

You couldn't think, could only focus on your heartbreak. Numb exhaustion began to set in just when the nurse rushed inside, followed by Stu who in no way could hide his pain upon seeing you so close with the journalist. It wasn't the glassy look to his blues that wrecked another sob out of you. It was the resignation in them that did.

Alex ushered everyone out, even though you begged her to let Jed stay. She was having none of it, and a sense of loss panged in your chest when watched him walk out of the room.

You just barely felt a cold needle being poked into your arm, and minutes later, could no longer keep your eyes open, feeling yourself drift off into dreamland where hopefully, your memories wouldn't haunt you.